Thursday, Feb 11

The house is quiet today. We loved having the Firefighters here, but it is also nice to have the Guest House return to a more subdued state. And to add to the quietness, we got a new generator today! A generator is our only source of electrical power, because city power has still not been restored. Generators are used to recharge batteries. We run off batteries until they are drained (about 4-6 hours), and then Markenson turns on the generator to recharge the batteries. Our generator has been laboring with all sorts of problems. At one point, we had the regular generator and two smaller ones out there, as the staff was trying to use whatever means possible to keep power flowing in the guest house. That corner of the grounds looked like a generator graveyard. Some of the smaller generators were very loud -- like having a Harley running constantly outside your bedroom window. So imagine our fascination when we saw a brand new generator being pushed up the walkway... and our gleeful pleasure when it was turned on, and we no longer had to raise our voices in the house!

Today started once again with devotions at the boys' house. As I talk with them, I notice that the Spirit returns continually to the theme of hope. Life is not over. Haiti is not over. God is working! We talked about how God brings new beginnings out of hopeless situations and life out of death. I pointed out that the disciples thought their lives were over when Jesus died. They had given up jobs, roots, and extended families to follow Jesus. They had allied themselves with a risky character. Now he was dead, and they were terrified that they were next. This was, by all appearances, a hopeless situation. But what was about to happen? God was about to raise his Son from the dead, showing that not even death is beyond defeat. And the God of the resurrection is present now in Port-au-Prince, here to being life out of death.

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