“Intervene, Lord. Intervene. Come like a rushing wind, a mighty wave. You have split seas, You have set creation in place by Your breath. You are able. You are faithful. Speak on behalf of Your suffering people, Lord. Intervene.” ~ Sami Rigelsky, Upstream International, over the current crisis in Haiti.
{Editor’s note: This prayer and the sharing below were written by Sami Rigelsky and copied from her Facebook page with permission. This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. ~ 1 John 3:23}
Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2019 ~
I can hardly form written sentences right now, and anyone that knows me knows that’s something I don’t usually struggle with.
To say our hearts are shattered about what is happening in Haiti is the understatement of a lifetime.
Joe & Upstream missionaries, the Bradshaws, will be leaving Haiti tomorrow. I arrived safely home with the rest of our team yesterday and today. Please pray for their safety as they navigate the streets of Port Au Prince. As the country deteriorates, safety is at risk, supplies are at a minimum and we have made the crushing decision to evacuate. I can’t begin to explain what it feels like to leave behind the people you love so much. It is overwhelming to a degree I have never known before. We’ve seen this before, but it’s to a level now that is hard to articulate and grasp.
Only God… rescue Your people.
They are starving, they are oppressed, they are fighting back.
Break every chain, Lord.
Tuesday, February 12 ~
As I sit next to Joe in a hotel near the Port Au Prince airport, waiting for an opportunity to get safely there amidst the turmoil across this tiny island we love so deeply ~ my heart is shattered.
Leaving behind my husband and our Haitian friends and family draws me to the deepest prayer and ache I’ve ever known. Their dollar continues to plummet in value, people are starving and unable to provide a way for survival. 30 pound 7 year olds, babies dying, mothers oppressed to the point of the inability to sustain their families, with the little they can bring in to try to scrape together sustenance. Fathers with no way out or up.
Haiti is enduring a fuel crisis at the hands of wildly greedy leaders. As the days of protesting carry on, the president remains cowardly silent. The lack of fuel isn’t the largest crisis that we see, it’s the human beings, worthy of the same provision of food, water, medical care & shelter as you and I, wasting away. They are dying and they are broken.
And yet, they remain full of joy. They remain faithful to the God that has provided enough for all. I used to hope for the day that people would open their eyes and miraculously stop hoarding wealth. I’ve come to the painful realization that, at large, that will never be reality. Surely there will be people that rise up. There will be those that say they’ve had enough. There will be forerunners and there will be those who make a difference by giving a damn and acting on that damn.
This week I have become acquainted with a new level of despair for the Haitian people. I’ve been overwhelmed by my own circumstances, and I have grown in my appreciation that nothing I endure in this life will come close to a day in the life of the people we have the extreme pleasure of loving and serving.
Many times this week I have begged God to answer me. Why does my family always get to leave? Why are we always provided a way out? And in light of those realities, what then is our posture? What is our walk? Over and over Isaiah 58 was the answer I heard and hear. So, Lord ~ enable us. Empower us. Give us grace to keep pressing in, to keep pushing past fear. Give us strength to do Your clearly spoken will. Give us steadfast spirits as we commit to fasting the way that You have chosen.
We kneel and we stand with our Haitian brothers and sisters. Intervene, Lord.
Isaiah 58
True Fasting
Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to My people their rebellion
and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
For day after day they seek Me out;
they seem eager to know My ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.
“Why have we fasted,” they say,
“and You have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and “You have not noticed?”
Yet on the day of your fasting,
you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.
Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter ~
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and He will say: Here am I.
If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
The Lord will guide you always;
He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
and from doing as you please on My holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
and the Lord’s holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
then you will find your joy in the Lord,
and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land
and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.