World Renewal International

Today is a day I ask for prayer for one who is serving our Lord Jesus. I am talking about WR-Haiti Representative Max Wright. { left, with me baptizing on an early trip in Haiti. Below and right with my brother Mark in a Haiti village} Max is near Atlanta, Georgia, tonight. He packed his SUV at the WRI office in zero degree weather, 9 crates of supplys you have given for delivery to Pastor Luc of Haiti. He will meet Pastor Luc and his wife Rosana in Miami. They will spend some of the dollars you have given to replenish their loses from the hurricanes of last summer and fall. Few people would ever know that my double-first cousin (our parents, 2 Wright brothers married 2 Milner sisters) Max has enough physical ailments to send a slow day pharmacist into jubilant celebration when he walks into the store.

He has serious digestive problems that would put anyone on the couch and desirous of staying near your home restroom, never mind 30+ trips to clean porcelain impoverished Haiti. He has worked hard learning about his body and medications so that he can travel in the most primitive parts of Haiti, almost the whole country by the way. Instead of not going to Haiti, he explained to me, he has learned to "manage" his problems and discomforts.

He has a bad back yet often sleeps on the floor or benches of churches in Haiti. He has traveled thousands of miles over horrible roads and bumpy air flights. I could tell you how I accompanied him on a trip over Haiti and I noticed the pilots guidance stick kept coming unattached and he kept putting a piece of cardboard over the hole in the side window of the 15 passenger plane that months later went down. On his last trip he visited some of our most impoverished churches. He had to sleep on the ground. He left the USA with severe back pain. He did ask all of us to pray for his condition. The only time his back did not hurt on that trip in Haiti, he said, was when he was out in the mountains sleeping in the worst conditions. I won't tell you about that other problem he has just setting down sometimes.

Today he loaded the crates alone because the President of World Renewal did not communicate to a helper to be there on time. Oh yeah, that was me, my fault. Don't you wish you could trust family?

Max loaded in the cold despite constant bouts with pneumonia. He is a man's man but has puny lungs. He can get pneumonia anytime of the year. Its a skill he has. I hear him cough a lot. He is one of the few men I know that always carries a handkerchief. Well, you know he is a 60 year old guy. He doesn't complain, just prays, takes his meds and "manages the discomforts."

Max and his sisters own a real estate company. These are not great times for such businesses. As usual, he refused traveling money from World Renewal. I think one of the sisters slipped him some cash. Shh! They are like that. He is trusting the Lord for his business, yet is serving the Lord in Florida. Some might question his business plan, not Max or his sisters.

Max is a tough guy, always was. He lost his first wife from a complication from childbirth of their second son Eric. Eric later died as a young teenager in an accident. Max married Lea who has joined him at times in Haiti and is such great support. He has experienced a broken heart.

His heart is soft, Haitians love him. He has not built a dependant group of Haitians leaders, they ask for prayer but do not ask ask us for money or things. He seems to know when to say "YES!" or "NO!" at the right times.

I am really proud of him and yes feeling quite guilty I let him down today. Max's response,"Hey Gary, do not come out here to load the crates. It's too cold, you should not be out here." He had them all loaded by the time I realized he was here and loading anyway.

After we had prayer together, he went out the door asking about Heather Moraes in Brazil who is suffering from an apparent spider bite. That brought up laughter about the spider bite he suffered in a Haitian outhouse. But that's another family story I better not detail.

The point is, pray for this wonderful man. I secretly know he really likes his recliner even though he only spends lots of time their when he is really, really sick.

Thanks for stopping by, Max deserves people praying for and I am sure you will. Thanks! Well, I feel a little better.

I am grateful for our staff. Jim Flood our Mexico Representative and Frank Penna my assistant traveled to Mexico City for the Birthday Party for Jesus events. I could not go as planned because of a ruptured disc and a couple of bulging discs in my neck. I am grateful for these men who go and I can trust to carry out the work. The pictures tell it all. Americans fill shopping bags full of toys, school supplies and personal items. Churches such as these in Mexico City invite the poor and unchurched children to this event. The Gospel is given, a party celebrates the birth of Christ. In Mexico City the people open their gifts January 6 celebrating the visit of the wise men to Christ. Go to the Mexico blog at the side of this site to get the whole story. Thanks to all who helped!