GOD STILL CHANGES THE HEARTS OF KINGS
“No, the answer is a for sure NO!! No, you cannot open the container on your property!! It MUST be opened at the port!! No, the answer is NO!!"
“Suplay – PLEEEEASE Parola – please!! It is a BIG problem for us to open it at the port and repack it at the port! Suplay – PLEEEEASE Parola – can you do anything?!?!”
“No, the Director says NO!!”
“Can we please speak to the Director?”
“Ok! Let’s go!”
We walked down her winding staircase saying under our breath, “Lord of the BREAKTHROUGH – please break through!!!” As we meandered through the crowded streets to our vehicle that we had to park blocks away due to the congestion, we continued to pray for favor. Our hearts envisioned favor and mercy chasing us and faithfulness and truth leading us!! We were expecting a miracle!! After a short drive, which included a wrong turn, that in Cap Haitien adds crazy on top of the already crazy, and danger on top of the already existing danger, we arrived at the Customs Office.
It was jammed with hot and sweaty people all talking in a high decimal level which makes it hard to decipher whether they’re angry or just excited. All we know for sure is that it’s LOUD and when you combine it with the honking of horns and din of traffic outside, it creates that flight hormone everyone talks about – except there is nowhere to flee to!!
We stood outside a door for a few moments until it opened and Parola motioned for us to follow her inside.
We found ourselves in another office, this one air conditioned, which always feels like Christmas morning, and were told to sit down on the two chairs facing one of the three desks in the room.
A man entered and basically repeated what Parola had already told us.
“No, the answer is a for sure NO!! No, you cannot open the container on your property!! It MUST be opened at the port!! No, the answer is NO.”
“Suplay – PLEEASE sir – is there anything you can do for us?”
“No, the political situation is too bad!! The Director says it must be opened at the port!!”
Director?! We thought he was the director!
“Where’s the director?! We need to talk to the director!!” we plead.
I stood up and took the hands of who we found out was the ASSISTANT Director’s and said, “Please sir, you must help us! It is impossible for us to repack this container at the port!” while all the time praying that our God famous for doing the impossible, would move on the heart of this man as He moved on the heart of King Darius.
“I will see what I can do. I will talk to him. One moment.”
Parola took us back out into the stuffy hall filled with angry or maybe excited, all sweaty people and told us to wait. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a tall Haitien man in a suit.
“Sue, this is the Director” whispered The Holy Spirit, so I reached out my hand towards him as he walked by me and prayed that God would give us favor and change the heart of this king that had the power to grant us our request.
Sure enough, he was the director and soon we were sitting in front of his desk while Parola and the Assistant Director presented our case pretty much at the same time.
Everything happens all at once in this country.
It is always a frenzy.
When we were in the Assistant Director’s office there were two more officials dealing with people at the same time we were being told ‘NO’. And as we were trying to reason with him, we were getting messages from our shipping company in Canada who was attempting to deal with a logistical problem that our shipping agency in Haiti had created.
It’s never just one problem. It’s a continuous tsunami of confusion, corruption and deception, yet in the midst of the insanity our breakthrough God, broke through.
The Director was texting his wife as our people were talking to him. He appeared totally disconnected and disinterested in what they were saying. We just kept praying, very aware that all of you were wielding your swords on our behalf – and believing with all of our hearts that nothing is ever IMPOSSIBLE with our God.
Suddenly, the distracted Director mutters in English, “Ok. Sure. It’s okay.”
And faster than you can blink – the absolute “NO!” turned into a “YES!” and we were being asked to leave the office. I grabbed the ‘kings’ hands while telling him that he was a good man. He smiled as he scribbled his signature authorizing our container to be trucked UNOPENED to our property!!
But it wasn’t over yet.
The Port was refusing to release our container because of the amendment to the consignee that Parola had made without our knowledge. It was consigned to her company with Maurice as a back-up, which she approved, but that morning, she took her name off, leaving only Maurice’s name on the Bill of Lading, which made it different from the one that was issued in Canada, which was the one the Port authority was given when our container arrived.
For the next four hours we went back and forth with the awesome peeps on the Canadian side that were trying to fix this problem, while trying to convince the Haitien Port authorities to release our container based on the fact that Maurice’s name was on the Bill of Lading – but this time the answer was an irreversible “NO!”
God writes real nail biters doesn't He?!?!
His stories are never, ever predictable!!!
Sometimes He changes the heart of a king, and sometimes He allows the king to inflict horrible suffering.
Sometimes He dispatches angels to break us out of our prisons, and sometimes He allows us to be sawed in half.
Sometimes He allows us to be thrown to the lions so that we can watch Him shut the mouths of the lions.
Sometimes He allows us to be thrown into a furnace seven times hotter than normal so that He can show us that He is with us in the fire.
Our Sovereign God does whatever He knows is going to make us like Jesus and whatever will ultimately bring Him the most glory, so we pray for a miracle, and trust Him when He does things HIS way to fulfill HIS purposes!!!
We left without our container, but with an assurance in our hearts, that our God would finish what He started. By that evening the amended Bill of Lading arrived, but by the next morning manifestations had erupted throughout Haiti, bringing the nation to a standstill and everyone with no gas and very little food. However, by the following evening, because of God’s grace and beautiful favor, our little area actually had gas, for one night, (there’s been no gas since!!), so we quick brought the vehicles and the gas tanks and filled up.
Just as we were leaving Maurice heard someone call his name.
At first, he didn’t recognize him because he’d shaved since we talked to him in his office at the Custom’s building!!! Yup, we were talking to the Assistant Director of Customs who happens to live very close to our property!!
He was all excited to see us and assured us that our container would be in our hands, unopened as soon as possible!! Within 48 hours our container was put on a truck and driven to us – despite the shortage of fuel that still paralyzes the country – AND the continued manifestations!!
A Customs agent accompanied it and at first demanded that it be emptied, but after some Holy Spirit saturated negotiations, and a ton of sword wielding in Canada, he agreed to just have us take the tractor off and leave it at that!! Three hours later, the tractor was off – because to take the tractor off, meant emptying a third of the container’s contents – but our Nan Rasin family lent their hands and we got the job done!!
The next day we returned, and although we so prayed for a crane to just lift the container off the flatbed and on to the property so we could empty it at our leisure, God did not send a crane, but instead sent a crew from the Port to lend us their muscles!! So, between them and our own boys – we had a team of ten, including us, and by the end of the day – all 43,800 pounds of provisions in the container was emptied and put away in two forty-foot containers!!!
There’s a LOT of organizing to do, but God’s strength never runs out!!!
Yesterday as I was lugging bins from one container to the other, our neighbor came up to me and expressed how sorry he was that we had to do so much hard work. He said, “Madame Sue, the container is so much trouble for you!” I smiled through the sweat, and pointed to the sky while panting, it was all for JESUS – to which he burst out in a grin and shouted ‘OUI! OUI!! ALL FOR JAZEE!!!!’
AND IT IS!!!!!
EVERYTHING we do is because of Jesus and for JESUS!!!!!
He gave His life so that we could LIVE and make Him famous - so how can we not live a life worthy of the calling we have received!?!?!
How can we not stand firm in the faith when the storms come when He is stood firm for us when everything inside of Him screamed for another way?!?!
This is HIS STORY – that we are blessed to have been written into!!! He will forever have our hearts whether we’re living in the realm of the miraculous or we find ourselves in a prison cell having to remind our souls of what is true!!!
He can still change the heart of Kings!!
He still makes the impossible happen!!
Having our container delivered to our property unopened would have been enough for us – but having it come in the middle of unrest and when there is no gas – well, that’s just flippin’ awesome!!!
But along with the awesome comes hells flurry!!
Any servant of GOD who has said ‘YES!’ to one of His assignments faces a continuous onslaught and knows the shade of the broom tree - but they also come to know that they are not alone under that broom tree – and that God always gives us just what’s needed to complete the task we’ve been given!!
Thank you so very much for praying and whatever you do, please, please, please don't stop!!!
The enemy HATES Jesus!!!
The enemy HATES Jesus in us!!!
The enemy HATES the stories GOD WRITES!!!
And He is relentless – totally RELENTLESS in trying to steal, kill and destroy!!!! We have a target on our backs – but GREATER is HE that is IN us then any arrows that are aimed at us – however there are moments in the heat of the war when our minds are deceived into forgetting what is true – so we beg you, don’t ever put down your swords!!!!
Whatever you are facing today – know that He still changes the hearts of kings and still moves anything that dares to stand in the way of what HE HAS DECLARED will be!!!!
Swords in hand,
M & S
