“Matla” mattress in creole, has become our brand the past couple weeks. While I’m not sure that “matla” girls is the reputation I want to go down with, I suppose I don’t mind it for the time being. I understand that new mattresses won’t bring people out of poverty. In fact, I still struggle with the whole concept of “foreign aid” and the overall effectiveness of my work.
The only thing that stifles my ever rising thoughts of insufficiency is once again what God said in Isaiah 58. I have built my life on this and I boldly preached it to a group of impoverished Haitians, on a hot Sunday morning in a church with only tarps for walls. “If you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry, and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will shine in the darkness, your night will be like noonday. The Lord will make your bones strong, you will be like a well watered garden, whose springs never fail.” More than anything else, my job is to spend myself on behalf of these people. That is the best I can do.
We purchased 30 (!!!wow!!!) mattresses in Haiti and distributed them to needy families around the nearby communities. As we rolled out the old mattresses – some with only rags on cardboard covered in cloth – and laid down the new, we prayed blessings over the new beds and those who will now rest their heads on them.
Some families prayed blessings over us, that we would go home and be blessed so that we could come back and bless others. Some families exclaimed how good God is for bringing us two unlikely young girls right to their doorstep (amen!). And we prayed, most of all, that Jesus’ light would spread like wildfire and that these “matla” would be a token of his grace that these families cannot wait to tell their friends about. Thank you for supporting this life changing work in Haiti.
You can read more about Mia’s previous work in Haiti from our posts, “Thank you and Prayers” and she also blogs at The Feet of Jesus.
Sincerely,
Blake LaMunyon
blamunyon@hoperisinghaiti.org
303-887-1424
www.hoperisinghaiti.org
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