a time for everything and our God Reigns

Jonah, Son of Ammittai, I'm calling you to be a prophet!! Wow...Jonah said yes because he loved God and because he loved Israel...Jennifer, Jennifer, daughter of Daniel Little and granddaughter of Wilbert E. Little!! God called Jennifer to be a missionary said she said yes, because she loved God and she loved the Church of the Nazarene....!!! So, what went wrong?? What in the world is the matter with Nineveh? What in the world is the matter with Jennifer..., with being a missionary...??? God sure called Jonah and Jennifer into a boat...but as we will discover together, what happens when God calls us out of the boat..and into the deep water...??? In all these lessons and in all these things...God makes all things beautiful in His time...

A Time for Everything

3 There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

²     a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
³     a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
⁶     a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷     a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
⁸     a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

⁹ What do workers gain from their toil? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet^[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. ¹² I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.¹³ That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. ¹⁴ I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

¹⁵ Whatever is has already been,
    and what will be has been before;
    and God will call the past to account.^[b]

¹⁶ And I saw something else under the sun:

In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,
    in the place of justice—wickedness was there.

¹⁷ I said to myself,

“God will bring into judgment
    both the righteous and the wicked,
for there will be a time for every activity,
    a time to judge every deed.”

So I guess my question is..."Do you really want God's justice?? and do you find God just?  Do you really trust His timing??  Ha!! Sometimes we are so busy trying to figure out only one attribute of our infinite God and forget that the immutable God has more than one area of perfection...!!! We've talked about knowing that God is Good...but do you know that He is just?  Jonah struggled with this and so do you!! So do I!! Ever found yourself facing a situation with the call...the one that says...Go to Nineveh....and do what??? Oh you know...not just go there, but do what??? God Seriously??? Don't you dare rock the same boat you called me into and now I've just figured out how to row...!! Lord..no...way!! A wonderful pastor of a community church pointed out to me that we sometimes become captain of our own ship...the same ship the Lord told us to sail...and then one night..God comes out across the water and says..Come...!!!! Ok....Lord...since it's you..and you're good...and you're God...I'll come...and do what???? Lord God...that's not just....and then the waves..and then the rain and then the fire fell from heaven....!!! I knew that God was Good...sort of...I knew that God was love..for the most part...I definitely didn't know that God was Just...Neither did Jonah...LOL...We're about to embark on a journey in about 5 mini blogs to the country of Haiti..!! Come with me?? 

Knock, knock....Jennifer knocked on the door of Dr. Ralph Neil's office at NNU. "Come in Jennifer", Dr. Neil, my missions professor at NNU beckoned....!

"Dr. Neil?"...Jennifer inquired...."You wanted to see me??" "Yes," Dr. Neil replied.  "I wanted to talk to you about your Senior internship overseas" Dr. Neil continued...!! For all of you that are just joining this blog..., I'm telling you all about how I went to Haiti for the first time!! The setting?? NNU, that's Northwest Nazarene University, and the time is in April of my junior yr. as a Theology/ missions major in College. "You're quite good in French right?" Dr. Neil asked.  "Yes...Oui"...Jennifer giggled...."Where am I going??? France..?" "Well," Dr. Neil interjected "actually, we've had a request for some help over in Haiti...!!" Jennifer responded quickly, "Wow...Haiti...???" Jennifer's stomach dropped to the floor and the butterflies became like huge bats of fear..."Wow...Haiti it is"..., Jennifer answered quickly..."Well, I speak french and wow...what will the internship look like...???" "Well", Dr. Neil replied..."since I know you're willing to go...here is the missionary's e-mail...Go ahead and let him know you will need the details of the job and I'll sign you up here for on-call missionary status through the Church of the Nazarene....You'll need to be interviewed and then registered ect...!!" Dr. Neil explained "Great"...Jennifer replied...and then a complete fog of excitement, mixed with dread and astonishment at what she'd just heard fell over her being...!! Jennifer rushed back slowly to her dorm to call mom and dad...!! "Heah guys...???" Jennifer started in slowly. "I'm going to Haiti this summer...!! Wow..I just signed up for my internship and it's Haiti...!!"  Silence on the other end of the phone...!! Jennifer's dad suddenly burst out with, "Of all places Jennifer...!!!" my dad continued to question, "Are you sure??" Jennifer answered with total resolve and determination..hiding her own reservations....!! After all, she had never even been outside the U.S...unless you count Canada....!!  "Yes...I'm really excited to go..and they speak French there..so it's just perfect!!"  Jennifer offered as a mere consolation to her parent's fears and concerns!! The truth is, I wanted to go to a field that was less than comfortable...and truly, I wanted to use my french and just jump in with both feet...!!! I, Jennifer wanted to just get on that plane like yesterday and find out what it meant to spread my wings...fly and serve the Lord...!! Heaven knows I had skill and heaven knows I could speak the language...Yep..Yep...Yep...Jennifer could handle this mission and I was going...!! Too bad I started this venture based on what I could do for God...for He was about to teach me how much He was doing and how much I was going to have to rely..!!  And those He calls, He equips!!

HOW DID I GET THERE LOGISTICALLY?? MONEY AND PLANNING!!

Well, I knew I needed to buy my ticket and pay for the 25.00 per day

 fee for living on the Nazarene compound in Haiti, so I began to raise funds.  For instance, I wrote letters to all of my family and I cashed in my entire savings account in order to raise the money...!! Thankfully, I had been tutoring for 3 years and had just about saved every single penny!! I'll never forget how fast the months rolled by as the summer before my Senior yr. approached...!! Suddenly it was June and I was packing my bags...!! All I could think of was if I was ready, or if I was forgetting anything!!! I REMEMBER going on-line and looking up the disease...the spiders..the TARANTULAS..THE OTHER LANGUAGE!! That's right...they don't really speak French in Haiti...BTW Ha!! Sometimes, we just have to throw all the inhibitions about a journey away and move don't we?? Did I ever mention that I have serious arachnophobia?? JUst FYI...LOL!! Finally, the Sunday before my departure, the local Nazarene church, where I had attended when I was home from college, gave me a sending service...!! Truly, I find sending services very appropriate since missions means to send, to be sent...!! Well, that's one piece of information I learned in my classes, Ha!! I laugh because every bit that I needed to know to do foreign mission was going to be taught to me by God and it all starts with surrender. As the pastor prayed and my parents and others laid hands on me..it hit me ....I was going to Haiti!!! I was about to go and I needed God in all of this...!! Oh God...I cried at the altar...I need your help...Oh Lord...use me...mold me...and make me a servant for you...Lord Jesus...protect me?? Suddenly tears began to fall and I wasn't quite sure why...Was God sending me??? Was I going to come back from this mission? Was I ready for all of this...? Resolved to carry out my word to help and resolved to discover missions I wiped away my tears and told the Lord, yes! Yes, no matter the road...Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee...Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy Love...With that prayer...I walked back to my pew and then embarked on my final week with just enough courage to get on a plane...!! Yes, I was heading to the unknown...without a team and without a leader...but with Christ alone and the prayers of those that sent me to a little country named, Haiti...!! Please keep reading...for you will be able to hear how I met my first guardian angel....How my plane broke and how I arrived in Haiti at the wrong time...in the wrong place and no one was there to pick me up!! For now, let's worship with one of my favorite hymns, Take my life and Let it be...