It’s been nearly 4 months since the earthquake. We knew at the time of the disaster we wanted to be engaged long-term. We knew it would be a slow, deliberate process.

However, it’s so much easier to go in after a major event, distribute bags of food or toiletry kits, and walk away with your goals accomplished. It’s another thing entirely to take the long road of rebuilding - to become involved in people’s lives. You come to know their names, their faces, their stories. And at some point, their stories become your stories.

We have new friends in Les Cayes, and we’ve renewed relationships forged after Hurricane Matthew. And all of this . . . it’s soul-sanctifying work.

Seeing this photo from Les Cayes, the work that was accomplished this week, I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes from Steven Garber:

"The long obedience in the same direction. Keeping at it. Finding honest happiness in living within the contours of our choices. To wake up another morning, beautifully bright as a summer day spreads its warmth across the grass, or awfully cold as winter blows its way over the high prairie, and stepping into the world again, taking up the work that is ours, with gladness and singleness of heart."

"The long obedience in the same direction." Could any phrase better describe what it's like to hope for a better future in Haiti?

"Finding honest happiness in living within the contours of our choices." Could any phrase better describe the spirit of so many we have met?

"The work that is ours." Knowing what God has uniquely called us to.

"Taking up the work that is ours, with gladness and singleness of heart." Day by day, month by month, year by year.

We press on.

"That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever."

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.