1985 (Part I)

"But I trust in Your unfailing love;

my heart rejoices in Your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord,

for He has been good to me."

Psalm 13:5-6, NIV

Prayer works.

I grew up in a family that valued prayer and used it numerous times on a daily basis. Naturally, I acquired a passion for prayer because I saw how genuine and faithful my parents were about praying. There were times when logic dictated that we should lose our home because my parents could not come up with the payment on time. We would call to God and, in time, the needed sum would be provided to us through a generous benefactor or through the blessing of one of my older siblings finding an odd job that would net enough funds for us to make the payment.

Prayer matters.

I remember vividly the day we sat down for breakfast and Manmie calmly announced that we had no sugar for our oatmeal and no prospect for lunch or dinner. I let that sink in. Then I looked at the somber faces of my older siblings and boldly said that I would pray for sugar and for food for the rest of the day. I prayed a short but direct prayer.

After the prayer was over, we began eating our oatmeal and, to my amazement, it tasted sweet.

I was truly excited!

At the end of the meal, a knock on the front door led Manmie to open the door to a friend of the family who brought to us two bags of rice, all kinds of vegetables, a jug of oil, and some chickens. God answered my prayer right then and there. I was hooked!

Prayer prepares.

On New Year's Eve (31 December 1984), I accompanied my family to the local church, Eglise Baptiste de Bolosse, in order to attend an annual service of gratitude and devotion to God -- bidding farewell to the previous year and dedicating the year 1985 to the Lord.

The service began at 9:00 pm and ended shortly past midnight. It was packed with testimonies, songs, prayers, and words of encouragement. However, what I remember most is the presentiment I had that 1985 was going to be a major faith-stretching season in my life.

The year 1985 was the year when I moved from primary school to secondary school in Haiti -- a transition that carried with it psychological, spiritual, financial, physical, and intellectual concerns that lodged a foreboding sense of dread to my troubled heart and mind.

I was concerned about so much -- both the known and the unknown. I was worried that my transition into secondary school would simply be a repetition of my starting kindergarten with all the rejection, ridicule, and bullying I endured in the process. I was also worried over facing new teachers, new peers, new subjects, new challenges, new failures, and the like.

So, that New Year's Eve night, I poured my heart out to the Lord in prayer.

I moaned.
I sighed.
I sang.
I wept.

As it turned out, there was nothing better to do as I welcomed 1985. That year came and did not disappoint me one bit. Its numerous challenges did more than stretch my faith; they directed me to trust more fiercely in God, the Leader of my life.

Father, I live in a world where fear is as readily available as the air I breathe. It is so easy for me to give in to a sense of dread and mental paralysis, so overwhelmed am I by fear-inspiring circumstances. Please remind me that You are near. Please teach me that You are in control and can always be trusted. Please open my mouth to join Job's voice in saying, "I know that You can do all things; no plan of Yours can be thwarted." Teach me to follow You with confidence and faith. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.