Thank You
Dear People,
Thank you for being you. Thank you for excellent service to the poor.
Thank you for outstanding attention to MMIers. Thank you for struggling with government.
Thank you for running a great food service.
Thank you driving in impossible traffic and on impassable roads. Thank you for kind words to your team.
Thank you for patience in frustration. Thank you for not using out-of-date medicines.
Thank you for timely reports to the office. Thank you for vision beyond the moment.
Thank you for praying for me. Thank you for excellent decisions.
Thank you for loving your family well. Thank you for gentleness with the hurting.
Thank you for not letting the sun go down on your anger. Thank you for going the extra mile.
Thank you for long days and short nights. Thank you for faithfully behaving and speaking the Gospel.
Janice and I are back from Hurricane Georges and seven weeks of travel during which we caught glimpses of Hurricane Mitch. We are thankful with you that all of our MMI Staff in Honduras, Jamaica and Dominican Republic are safe and unharmed. We were pleased to hear how God made it possible for groups of MMIers to fly in and assist in El Progreso and Santo Domingo. It was impressive to see our Lord overcome the possible cancellation of projects and move people into place to be of help. Having now been through two major hurricanes ourselves, we see how people pull together to achieve recovery. The dire predictions of decades for recovery were proven wrong in 1979 with Hurricane David here in the DR. In fact, many facets of life actually improved rapidly for everyone including the very poor. Even in the midst of these disasters we continue to be the people of Good News. We don't deny the reality of destruction but see through it to peace with our Lord and
strength in Him to build again. We may be knocked to our knees but we are not utterly cast down.
This eternal life we have fills us to overflowing even when we don't "feel like it". People see our works and love and praise our Father. It is in this "real" world (we know the secret that this is only a shadow of what is coming) that God is opening the way for us of MMI to follow Him daily. We are surrounded with opportunities to serve others (oh yes, they serve us too!) in their pain, suffering and hopelessness. As we stand with those in need our Lord will guide us in building 498 more centers of peace and life like those in El Progreso and Santo Domingo.
I just spoke with a Regional Director of Health from Armenia (he will visit here in December) who investigated a building we saw in the town of Kapan (two hours from Iran) and he tells me MMI can buy it (cheap) for a new center. Mexico, Ecuador and Azerbaijan are also ready to begin the roll out of new centers.
We are of the Kingdom of God and it is open to all we deal with. Good News flashes out of every crack in the darkness. The Canadians have already celebrated Thanksgiving and people from the USA will on Thursday. We of MMI practice it daily. So fry your turkey or roast it but always give thanks in everything.
Yours for healing and recovery,
Willie
