Man on a Bike

We can know that God walks with us, and even in difficult situations, we can place our trust in Him.
Psalm 37 states:
39 But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; He is their strength in the time of trouble.
40 And the Lord shall help them and deliver them; He shall deliver them from the wicked, And save them, Because they trust in Him.

Another Psalm tells us that He is our ever-present help in time of trouble. When we face the challenges in life, we know we have a powerful deliverer who indwells us and who has given us powerful resources, including the angels of God, who are sent to accompany those who call upon His name.  We can have hope because we know that we are not alone in this world; and when we face those hopeless times we can look to Him.

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We know that the apostle Paul experienced his share of hardship - he was called into tough situations, and he writes that he was given a "thorn in the flesh" to remind Him of God's sufficiency in his own insufficiency. We see these verses in 2nd Corinthians 6:
4 But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses,
5 in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings;
6 by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love,
7 by the word of truth, by the power of God...

It's been a rough year around the nation of Haiti; the nation has experienced a fuel crisis, which has caused people to react by taking to the streets and participating in violence.  We continue to stand with our ministry partners at 4VEH in Cap-Haitien, where Faith Radio is heard on the Horizon station at 94.7 FM and with other ministries in Haiti who are doing incredible work in bringing hope to the people there.

There are a number of missions organizations that routinely go into Haiti to do the work of God.  One of them is called Living Waters Ministries.  Recently, according to Faithwire.com, a team went to the nation to bring computers and supplies for a community center.  The team came up on a group of protesters; the article said:

Fred Chalker, the founder of Living Waters Ministries was a part of the group. “About four hours or three and a half hours outside of Port-Au-Prince, we came upon a gang of people that were stopping traffic,” Chalker said. “We were the first ones to hit it because we were the only ones there.”

The team's truck was "swarmed with guns and weapons," according to the article, and the crowd was attempting to break its windows.

Another team member, Jeff Lee, is quoted as saying: “We came around the corner and all of a sudden the road’s blocked off, there’s burning tires there’s debris, it’s a mass crowd of a hundred, hundred twenty people there, well armed with guns and as we started approaching they started shooting these guns up in the air. And I’ll be perfectly truthful at that moment I thought we were going to die.”

Behind that truck was another Living Waters truck, driven by Drew Pasler; team doctor Doug Burbella was also on board.  Their truck was attacked, as well, and their vehicle was overrun by the attackers and it could go nowhere.

Pasler related, "I heard Doug yell, ‘I’m dying. I’ve been hit.'” Both vehicles had been emptied, and Doug had, as Drew said, "two visible wounds and possibly more just based on the amount of blood that I saw..." The story then states, "Then the gunman put his rifle up to Dr. Burbella’s head."

What came next is amazing; the Faithwire article says, quoting Pasler:

...a man on a motorcycle just kind of pulled out of nowhere in front of me. And he looked at me and said ‘it’s okay, it’s going to be okay.’ in perfect English.”

“Not even yelling,” Pasler continued. “Just kind of a regular talking voice. He said something in Creole, two to three words, and everybody around us that had the guns just kind of stopped.”

Team member Jackie Brandon said, "Everything changed,” adding, “The whole demeanor of the crowd just stood back. I don’t know what they saw, but they stepped back and the tension was gone.”

But Dr. Burbella was in a dire situation.  The article states that that he was taken to a local hospital, then, "Burbella was rushed from Haiti to Delray Medical Center, in Delray Beach, Florida. Surgeons removed bullets and bullet fragments from his neck and face. They said the fact he survived is nothing short of a miracle."  Burbella agrees - he says:

“I want people to know that if God can carry me through this with no loss of any function, really, whatever problems you have, they’re equally minuscule. It’s a miracle. It’s a shout-out to say your problem is equally small, and God can carry you through it.”

We acknowledge that God can bring help in unusual ways.  In this case, we can ask: Was it an angel?  a Good Samaritan?  a law enforcement officer?  Who knows?  What we do see if that those on the scene experienced a divine intervention.  The means of rescue may be different, but the source is the same, and we can attribute our experience of deliverance to Almighty God.

This story can also remind us of the tough neighborhoods in which many missionaries work.  We can pray for God's protection for those doing mission work.  God doesn't always call us where it's safe, but we can know that He goes with us wherever we go.  We can certainly trust Him with our very life.