God certainly works in mysterious ways!

    

 This blog post is not so much as a devotion as it is just a testimony. Which I believe can be a blessing to the reader just as much as it has been for me experiencing it.

    You really never know how the things God does in your life will be used until you get a chance to look back and see the hand of God in it. 

    That certainly is the case for me as I look back on the past several months. It was about this time last year that my car which I had only had for 2 years decided to quit on me. This led me and my family having to break down and go and purchase a new car. This meant that we had to do something we had not had to do for nearly 20 years and that is get a loan. Until then we had always paid our cars out in cash. 

    Looking at the finances we quickly realized we need to make a little bit more to stay a float. My wife had just stated a job working as a bus monitor for the school. I knew that they were always hiring and that this would be the kind of job that would allow me to still do what I needed to do as the pastor of Ashmore Baptist Church and still be able to make a little extra cash to help pay for my new/used car.

    What I did not know and what I came to find out is that this was a blessing in disguise. This job allowed me to not only pay for my car payments along with a little extra added income. It also allowed me to connect to so many different people, both students and my fellow co-workers. This allowed me to share the gospel to several people I came in contact. It also was a catalyst for something that I could have never planned for, that is foreign missions. 

    It was around October when I was on a bus and there happened to be two new students that were going to get on the bus. The diffrence was that these two students did not speak any English. They had just arrived in America and had relocated to the small town of Charleston IL.  I did not know this at the time but God was going to use those two students to move me in a direction I really never thought I would be going down. 

    As a bus monitor I feel that part of my job is to connect with these kids. I want them to feel like they can come to me if they have a problem and know that when I correct them they know it is coming from a position of concern and compassion. So I try to make it a point to at the very least welcome them on the bus with a "Good Morning" or a "Good Evening".  I try to joke around with them when I can and wish them a good day at school.

    The problem is that I could not do that with those two new students. They were Hattian and they spoke French and Haitian Kreyol. So I turned to technology and began trying to learn a little bit of there language so I could treat them like I treat the rest of the kids on the bus. So I downloaded the Duolingo App and a Language translator app on my phone. It took a little bit of time, patience but I began learning a few words. 

    When the kids got on in the morning I would greet them with "BonJou" (Good Morning)  and as they got off to school I would tell them "Orevwa Na we pita" (Good bye, I will see you later)   or "Ou pase yon bon Joune" (You have a nice day).  I would ask them questions about there language, there culture and there life. It was not long before I was starting to build a relationships with the kids. 

    Surprisingly however, those two students were not the only students to come. In fact I started to see more and more new students who could not speak English, many of whom were Haitian. I started to see that this was becoming a problem for the teachers in the school. I started seeing more and more Hattian's in the groceries stores and walking around town.

    As I came into contact with both the students as well as the adults I was meeting. I would strike up conversations with them and talk with them as best as I could. Two things always seemed to come up when I would speak to them, especially with the adults. The first thing I would hear is "Kikote mwen aprann angle?" (where can I learn English?). The second thing I would hear is "Mwen vle ale leglize" (I want to go to Church)

    It quickly occurred to me that this was a need that no one was seeing and a need I felt God moving me to try to meet it in some small way. I reached out to several people for advice. I did a lot of praying. 

    Over time God began to move things in place. He put me in contact with someone who had started their own ESL  (English as a Second Language) class in there church. I took a small group to see how it all worked out. God placed a Hattian family in my path and I began building a connection with them. As time has went on I have have gotten better and better with learning the Kreyol language and I am continuing to make new and exciting connections with various Hattian immigrants that are coming into our community. 

    As I look back on this past year I see God's hand moving and shaping things in my life. Had you asked me two years ago if I thought I would be learning another language I would have laughed at you and said "I barely know English" (which is true) The Idea of a dyslexic learning let alone pick up another language is a miracle in and of itself. 

       God used my car to break down, for me to break down and take another job I was not looking to take. To meet people I probably would have never meet. To learn a language I know I would never of thought to learn. To see a need I would have never been able to see. To begin a ministry I never thought would have ever been possible. God certainly works in mysterious ways.