Praying and Living Psalm 140: "The LORD secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy."

Starting February 7 this year, just two weeks after Beverly and I returned to Haiti after an annual Feed My Starving Children conference in Florida, Haiti shut down with political protests, or “manifestations.” Barricades went up. Tires were burned. Rocks were thrown and even shots were fired at vehicles attempting to pass. Crowds swelling from tens to thousands of frustrated citizens marched throughout the country. Streets, businesses, and schools were closed; even some churches shut their doors when threatened. Our town of Ti Goave locked down, too, and the students and staff of Christian Academy of Petit Gôave were cut off from the indispensable resources of food, water, safe space, first aid, and love. 

We couldn’t open the school. We couldn’t drive. We couldn’t go near areas made too “hot” by protesters or police. But not everywhere in town was hot, particularly before 9 AM. (The traditional start time of manifestations is 10:00 in the morning.) So the second week of lock-down, with no end in sight, before breakfast Beverly, Jonas, and I shouldered backpacks filled with Manna Pack Rice and set off for our closest-dwelling school family members on foot. With my spacious hiking backpack gifted me by my brother and sister-in-law I could fit more Manna Packs than the other bags we left behind, and enjoyed a good workout toting that weight up and down the uneven streets. 

Three days in a row we ventured out to deliver food. 

We started small. The first day we brought food next-door, where one of our first-grade girls squats with her mother and uncle. Then we crossed the community garden and went up the lane to a compound shared with extended family of another first grader. The inhabitants here range from his middle-aged aunt to a newborn baby cousin, all of them skinny. We didn't linger but thanked God for safe passage, asked His blessing to stay on the household, and headed home. 

The next day we were bolder: we crossed the main road  immediate to our lane and dived into side-alleys to track down six students. We opened one gate to see second-grade brother and first-grade sister playing cards outside their shack-like home; how their faces lit up to see us! We crossed paths with one of our naughtier third graders in the alley and added his family to our delivery-route. From their gated yard we visited for a while before 9:30 ticked us home again. 

The third day we set out earlier to venture farther still, meeting our security guard and cook along with more students. At each home we passed along the Manna Packs and prayed with the receivers, reminding them God is the true Source. With some of our littler students, like four-year old C, we counted out the packs just for fun, stacking them like blocks upon a table. Sometimes we had escorts to our next stop, by a student or simply some interested neighborhood kids. Most obviously, we had an escort of angels. In all the time we spent outside our locked, dog-guarded gate, not once were we bothered or even questioned. 

We had been hoping for peace, praying Psalm 140 for the country, but when the protests continued and predictions were for the worse, Beverly and I knew we'd be more useful elsewhere. We'd long-finished the projects we could do at the house, sit-down business. We were both scheduled to spend time in the States in March anyway, including attendance at a big fundraiser in New Hampshire. 

So on the ninth day of lock-down, after three food-delivery trips, we left Haiti.

To the amusement of hundreds, Beverly and I joined seven other evacuees aboard a helicopter. The pilot picked us up before 9 AM, having already flown a group to the airport. He was booked all day. Due to the blocked roads air-travel was the only way anywhere. With our "ear protection" yellow plugs, we nine gawked out the windows at beautiful Haiti beneath us, lifting off from the town soccer field in a magnificent cloud of dust. At the fence the hundreds of local spectators watched, some recording the flight on cell phones. After all, it's not every day a helicopter lands on your neighborhood soccer field and takes off with a bunch of foreigners. 

After a mere 25 fascinating minutes, the helicopter touched down on the tarmac of the Port au Prince airport--a trip that usually takes 3 hours by car.  Even on the last road into the airport we had seen barricades and billowing black smoke through the chopper windows. Waving thanks to the pilot, who was off again, we crossed the tarmac following an airport employee who escorted us inside.   Beverly and I both had flights in the late afternoon, so we had plenty of time to spare; it was just 9:30 when we arrived at the check-in counter. 

We remembered that at this time the day before we were coming home from food-delivery visits, wondering where the marchers would go today. So we were out of the running--Stateside we couldn't fill backpacks and walk them to students. 

However, our faithful teenage custodian/translator/errand runner/jack of all trades, Jonas, continued the delivery. He could go places we couldn't have anyway. Jonas sent us pictures of our beloved children. In good news, some families who lived close by were then able to transfer Manna Packs to families farther out. How the ripples spread!

To our dismay, the lock-down in Haiti stretched from February 7 to February 25, 26, or 27, depending on the boldness of proprietors. CAP opened again on Monday the 25 with a handful of students. By the following day almost the entire student population was present. God’s continued grace to our school and His Spirit of fearlessness has accustomed us to open our doors whenever possible. Our school family knows that and parents faithfully brought their children even though the majority of schools were still closed. For many of the 162 children and fifteen staff of Christian Academy, plus the families sometimes brought leftover Manna Pack Rice from the day’s meal, the school is their best source of food, water, safe space, first aid, and love. Praise God that even when we couldn't get to school, we could get out to some of them in need. 

As always, we are grateful to God for His protection, for the angels covering us as we walked, and for Feed My Starving Children in their ceaseless fight against hunger of spirit and body around this broken world. Now, in June, there are rumors of protests again, potential for the country to be locked-down as it was in February. We pray against this, for everyone's benefit. Adults need to work, students need to attend school, and roads need to be open for the passage of citizens and visitors. Tourism and even mission teams have decreased this year as Haiti continues to be ranked unsafe by the U.S. Embassy. Although we do not encourage recklessness, ourselves always practicing prudence and heeding counsel, Beverly and I agree that there is no place safer than God's will. If God calls you to Haiti, He will keep you. He kept us in February, He kept me during Hurricane Matthew, He's continuing to keep Beverly now. 

Haiti may never be considered a "safe place" by the world's standards. Yet we feel no fear there. 

God is in control; He sets His angels around us. He imparts His Spirit of boldness, sound mind, and overwhelming love to us, before, behind, over, under, and all around. And whether we are there to deliver Manna Pack Rice or antibiotic and bandages, God takes care of His children in Haiti. 

Please join us in praying Psalm 140 for Haiti, and interceding on behalf of President Moise. 

[You may substitute the first person "I" and "me" for "Haiti" or "your children in Haiti," or the first person pluarl ""we" and "us," as we are all collectively the Body of Christ.]

Psalm 140[a]

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

1 Rescue me, Lord, from evildoers;
    protect me from the violent,
2 who devise evil plans in their hearts
    and stir up war every day.
3 They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s;
    the poison of vipers is on their lips.[b]

4 Keep me safe, Lord, from the hands of the wicked;
    protect me from the violent,
    who devise ways to trip my feet.
5 The arrogant have hidden a snare for me;
    they have spread out the cords of their net
    and have set traps for me along my path.

6 I say to the Lord, “You are my God.”
    Hear, Lord, my cry for mercy.
7 Sovereign Lord, my strong deliverer,
    you shield my head in the day of battle.
8 Do not grant the wicked their desires, Lord;
    do not let their plans succeed.

9 Those who surround me proudly rear their heads;
    may the mischief of their lips engulf them.
10 May burning coals fall on them;
    may they be thrown into the fire,
    into miry pits, never to rise.
11 May slanderers not be established in the land;
    may disaster hunt down the violent.

12 I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor
    and upholds the cause of the needy.
13 Surely the righteous will praise your name,
    and the upright will live in your presence.