![\"Hannah,](\"https:\/\/justmercy.org\/WordPress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/10928899_777599532315331_3744169982203859280_o.jpg\")
<\/a>Hannah, Rebekah, and Skip headed out with the medical backpacks<\/p><\/div>\n
It started as any other day.\u00a0 We had our plans\u2026 \u201cbut what does that have to do with it?\u201d as Bill would say.\u00a0 We were going to take a walk inland and find a woman whose knee had been injured in a fall. \u00a0We hoped to help, maybe with salve or ointment, and prayer.\u00a0 Then we hoped to see the man whose catheter was apparently needing attention.\u00a0 Since we aren’t trained in medicine we weren’t sure exactly what we would be able to do there, but it was the only help he had any hope of getting.\u00a0 We found the lady and discovered that she already had some very effective leaves that, when applied in a poultice overnight brought the swelling down, so that was that and we enjoyed the opportunity to pray with her and commit her care to God, who was already helping her.<\/p>\n
Then we walked over to the little concrete-block-wall shack where our next \u201cpatient\u201d lived.\u00a0 \u00a0Msr. Cleavant (\u201cMessuhr Clayvaw\u201d) was lying in his \u201cbed\u201d, a raised platform made from tree branches and twigs woven back and forth between perpendicular sticks, having a blanket on top for padding and a very soiled pillow.\u00a0 He was small in stature, probably not much over 5\u20196\u201d, and very skinny.\u00a0 It\u2019s not clear if he needed food, or if he was losing weight from the sickness.\u00a0 In Haiti, it\u2019s often hard to tell the difference.<\/p>\n
We introduced ourselves, Hannah, Rebekah, Markendy (our translator, a very kind young Haitian Christian man) and me, Alan.\u00a0 I began to ask Msr. Cleavant questions to survey the situation.\u00a0 We discovered that he was having trouble urinating and was brought to a doctor in Madame Bernard (a small town on the island of Ile A Vache where we were.\u00a0 The doctor inserted the catheter to give him relief.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure the doctor explained it, but folks don\u2019t always understand, that the bag needs to be lower than the body for it to work.\u00a0 So it was still mostly empty.\u00a0 Of course, there\u2019s not much to come out in the first place when you walk a mile for fresh water.\u00a0 But we explained the process to him again.<\/p>\n
Then he mentioned that the doctor had told him the reason for the problem in the first place was that there was a \u201cblockage\u201d.\u00a0 Something inside was restricting the flow and if he didn’t have \u201cthe surgery\u201d the doctor was only going to change the catheter one time. \u00a0 He didn’t have money, so he wasn’t going to get a surgery, and he is already old enough that his life has been full and death wouldn’t even be a surprise anyway.\u00a0 And as I was sitting there praying for words, it occurred to me that there was nothing we could do for him.\u00a0 We were literally helpless.\u00a0 That\u2019s never a fun situation, but I have been walking with Jesus long enough now to recognize that this is actually a VERY good place for Christians to be.<\/p>\n
So the conversation shifted.\u00a0 With a heavier heart, I asked Msr. Cleavant if he understood that after this life, we have another life\u2026 forever.\u00a0 He didn’t even hesitate.\u00a0 That man sat bolt upright, and waving his hands he said ,<\/p>\n
That man sat bolt upright, and waving his hands he said \u201cI used to be catholic all my life, but I don\u2019t want to do that any more.\u00a0 I want Jesus!\u201d<\/p>\n
Astonished.\u00a0 Stunned.\u00a0 Silent.\u00a0 I\/we had no words to say. \u00a0Without any help from us, he had repented, abandoned his dead works, and sought the living God, all in a few\u00a0words.\u00a0 We could only watch in awe as He and the Holy Spirit communed together, and he found peace in his predicament.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Msr. Cleavant was able to come down a few day later and visit us.<\/p><\/div>\n
We eventually were able to enjoy a very happy time with him and his Christian wife, who had been praying for him for years.\u00a0 We thanked God together for the blessing of our meeting, and left Msr. Cleavant with his new hope eternal.\u00a0 In my heart I was also praying that our new friend would not be distracted by medical intervention and potentially dragged back into the cares of this world where the devil skillfully plays with our minds and distracts us from our first love.\u00a0 Death for Christians is a beginning, not an end, so I\u2019m never inclined to ask God to keep me or anybody else from it if He is pleased to allow it.\u00a0 That seems to make a lot of folks mad or disappointed in me, but it\u2019s what I honestly see as a biblical truth.\u00a0 If it\u2019s precious to God for a saint to pass out of this life, then who am I to ask for something different?<\/p>\n
Well, regardless of all that, it\u2019s not clear where all this will eventually land.\u00a0 Though Msr. Cleavant is weak and sick right now, he\u2019s nowhere near dead.\u00a0 And he has new life in Jesus who can make him whole again if it pleases him.\u00a0 Perhaps a surgery would help him live a few more years, if folks wanted to share that burden by helping with funds.\u00a0 But my (our?) prayer for him is not more days on earth, but that he remain true to the one who met him in his time of desperation, regardless of what happens next, until the day he gets called home.\u00a0 And we thank our kind and gracious Father for letting us have a part in that scene in his epic saga.”<\/p>\n