April 3, 2010

New Life



Trace Thurlby, in KC


Two weeks ago today, I held Renise’s daughter twenty minutes after she was born. What a beautiful child! Like all proud families, we wanted to shout the good news from the waiting room of the Haitian Hospital. We were so grateful for the miracle of new life. However, much work was left to ensure Renise and child would receive love and care post delivery. We needed to tend to that first.


The story deserves more than a blog entry. One day soon, we will share every Divinely-designed detail. When we do, we will celebrate with you a God whose ways are higher than our ways, whose thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and whose love is greater than our love.


Yet with Easter upon us, the celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection takes me back to that day in Haiti. Renise’s baby was transverse. Renise is petite. In pre-earthquake Haiti, Renise was living on the streets in the most desperate conditions. How would she have received even basic medical care, much less a C-Section? Ironically the earthquake, which killed so many, saved Renise’s life and her child.


An Italian OB/GYN team in Haiti for disaster relief performed Renise’s surgery. They brought new life into the world at almost exactly the same time Moise’s church was holding a memorial service for the eleven people from his congregation that went to Glory in the quake. Was this mere coincidence? Or, more likely, was this another blatant attempt by God to show us that He is always working in our lives? More specifically, was this more confirmation that life and death are in God’s loving Hands? That’s the message of Easter. God had the power to lay down His life for us. He had the power to take it up again.


He has the power to renew the life of a thirteen-year-old, homeless, orphaned, raped restavik. Through her story, He has the power to pierce the hearts of people all over America and Haiti. (By the way, Renise and her beautiful child are both doing very well.)


The Global Orphan Project does none of this. God does all of it. He is the Author of New Life. He brings it to pass in His time. Because He lives, we live. Because He lives, Renise lives; her daughter lives, and the eleven people from Moise’s church who went to glory LIVE! That’s the hope of the Gospel. Jesus is Risen! Praise be to God!