Lessons From Haiti, Part 2

Have you ever found your self going through an experience and thinking that what you are learning is not spiritual enough? 

Maybe I am missing it, God. 

Maybe I didn't pay enough attention.

Or maybe someimtes it is the simple lessons that we need the most.

Haiti is an extremely poor country.  It is sad to see how people live and the terrible things they have to face on a regular basis.  Despite being beautiful, it is also a very dirty country with garbage everywhere.  There is nothing easy about the lives of the people there.  It is also a dark country spiritually.  People are lost and many are mixed up in evil practices and bound by fear.

However, none of this is what struck me while I was there.  It isn't that i didn't see it, feel sad about it, or care about it...I did.  It is heart wrenching to take it all in.  It is just that I wasn't walking around with this heaviness as a result of it and with a new found desire to help.  The thing is, I think God broke much of that in me long before I got there.  I knew I was visiting a place with many different needs and I had seen some similar needs in other places.  I just thought that was why I was going and something God would have me take away from my time there. 

God impressed something so different on my heart.  He is there.  Big, I know.  You are probably thinking, "Are you kidding me?!"  No, I'm not.  I felt like He kept showing me that He is there...and everywhere.  I mean I knew that.  I have been told that my whole life.  God is everywhere, I get it.  But I didn't, not in the right way.  I went to Haiti focusing on what many told me I would experience and feel.  I focused on the bad, the dark, the sad.  Growing up, this was my default mode.  It was easy for me to focus on the scary, the bad, the sad and I have spent years changing that pattern.  Here I was slipping back into it though.  So, God needed to show me that yes, there is spiritual darkness in Haiti but His light is there as well and even more powerful.  Yes, there is evil there but God is visibly at work as well.  Yes, there are sad things but the joy of the Lord is visibly present in people as well.  He is there, and His presence can be felt not just by me but the people that live there, and His joy is eveident in them.  Though darkness exists there, God's presence does as well and He is much bigger.  So I felt darkness, and saw hurt, and saw terrible living conditions, and heard of living in fear, but I also saw Him.  I saw believers filled with His joy and saw Him working in their lives and doing amazing things!

Some of the ladies arriving at the conference

The ladeis holding up their new Bibles

Our cargo arriving, PTL!

One of the breakout sessions

Playing a game the ladies taught us

 My friend Johanne

Another game the ladies taught us.  The sweet thing about this picture is you can see the joy written on their faces and they never do things like this where they just have fun together as women.

Lessons From Haiti, Part 1

God in all His sovereignty has better plans

...and truly aren't we glad He does.  Even when they don't seem as good as ours, even when we have spent much time planning, even when it hurts, His plans are always so much better.  This lesson was one our team was quickly confronted with on our trip.

Early morning wake-up to catch a shuttle to the airport on the 12th and...no shuttle.  What we didn't know at the time was that this was only the beginning of absolutely nothing going as planned for the rest of the trip.  Once we arrived in Haiti every detail of the conference began to unravel until the only thing that seemed for sure was that the people who were going to speak were still going to speak...though when, to who, and where were a little sketchy. :)  Not to mention, our cargo with all the conference supplies including blankets for the women to sleep on, goody bags we were going to hand out at the beginning, conference programs for them and much, much more did not show up until Monday afternoon.  Most of the ladies came in on Sunday and the conference started Monday morning.

When your best laid plans fall apart what do you do?  Pray.  Trust God in His sovereignty.  Wait on Him.  Roll with it!  20 women being flexible and rolling with whatever the day brought?  That's right!  I was blessed to be a part of the most amazing team of women who were so flexible and patient.  We really never knew how each day would look from one day to the next, but God knew and His plans were better right from the start.

Everything worked so much batter than we could have imagined.  We ended up having 167 ladies instead of 150 so we couldn't have handed out bags at the beginning anyway.  We didn't have enough so we needed to make a few and then rearrange what was in them to make sure everyone got some things.  We had breakout sessions and main sessions planned but circumstances forced us to only ever have two different sessions going.   God knew.  We were supposed to have 5 translators and ended up with 2 so we could only do two session at a time anyway.  When the speakers all got rearranged they ended being lumped together perfectly by topic...only God can do such amazing things!  We were humbled and grateful.

Can we trust God with our plans?  I think the better question is, can we let go of our plans and trust God with His?  Can we accept that whateve happens is in the sovereign hands of God and choose to have a good attitude anyway, choose to trust God anyway, choose joy anyway? 

I opened my backpack today looking for my glasses...they weren't there.  I am pretty sure they are somewhere in Haiti.  At the moment I discovered it I could feel the tug on my heart saying how are you going to respond?  How?  It wil cost hundreds of dollars to get a new pair.  It was totally a God thing the way I got the last pair.  There is such a temptation to be negative.  Good attitude anway, trust God anyway, joy anyway...  I am sure someone can use those glasses and I am sure God can provide new ones.  He is sovereign in the big and the little.

Team prayer the night before we left for Haiti

My college friend and me

The old well at the Open Door Church compound

where we stayed

The mission house on the right and church on left



The school within the compound

The clinic in the compound

View from the roof of the mission house

What have I experienced in Haiti?

warm sunsine

perfect temps (not the sweltering heat expected)

beautiful brown faces of women

adorable children who love to laugh and giggle at us

dirty streets with much garbage

lush vegitation

very dark nights

spicy, yummy, unique food

a cold, short on sleep night

a comfortable restfull night

 praising God with sisters in Christ from Haiti

much laughter, singing and dancing

times of sharing with tears of brokeness and joy

the need for MUCH flexibility

new Haitian and American friends

prayer and more prayer

poverty and great needs

poorly cared for animals

crisp clean clothes of Haitian people who know how to work hard

the presence of God

Haiti

I made it to Haiti and it is beautiful here, life is not easy but beautiful people and countryside!  We are staying in Open Door Church's compound.  It really is very nice and we have been so blessed by the people here.  We landed late morning and spent the day just getting to know the place and the people.  We got to take a walk outside the compound to see the orphanage they are building and along the way got to spend time with the sweetest kids ever!  Tomorrow we will have church and then begin prepping for the conference which starts Monday morning.  Our cargo with many things for the conference did not make it and may not till Monday well after the conference starts.  Please pray for a miracle here as part of that was blankets for the women who be staying here at the compound for the conference.  They will have nothing to sleep on but cement.  It is such an amazing opportunity to be a part of this conference as these women have never experienced anything like this where they are pampered, taught, given gifts and even get to make a trip to the beach which is unheard of.  Please pray that these women will experience the incredible love God has for them personally.

Randomness

Sadly, this blog a has been a little neglected.  I figured the best way to get back at it was some randomness to show you what we have been up to.  So what have we been doing?

Trying to get good picture of everyone.  Getting a good picture of all 5 has become quite the challenge!  We are making good memories though :)

Snuggling with bears better known as "puppies" to these two

Visiting with good friends



Accomplishing a decent picture of everyone

 Thinking we are hiding with the grapes we took :)

 Having fun in the snow with family

 Playing with cousins (I loved this one because unintentionally they both posed exactly the same way!)

 Turning new snow shoes into stunt skies on hardened drifts (Middle Man)

 Swimming with friends

 Yelling...just for the pure fun of it! (Don't you love that the word "noise" is in the background?!)

 Being pure sweetness

God with us

Christmas.  Even the word "Christmas" makes us think of cheer, of wonder, of festivities and fun.  Yet, for so many it will carry such sorrow, and heavy hearts will sit under lit up trees.  There are many reasons that hearts will be heavy each year, but this year I think of the two families I know that between Thanksgiving time and now have each lost a son.  One was 12, one just a baby.   I can feel the shattering of their hearts into so many little pieces.   And, my heart is broken...again. 

Sorrow, pain, death, imperfection: our world is so full of it. I sit at a funeral watching a mom look at her 12 year old son's casket, and I remember.  I watch the scene that should never be, dad and mom following their lifeless child out of the sanctuary and I know what it is like to go home.  It all seems so wrong.  The email that the baby won't make it through the night, and he doesn't.  And hopes, dreams, lives crumble.  These pictures of death happen all over the world, every day.  Because our world is fallen, imperfect, not as God intended it to be.

As I sat at that funeral, and watched mom and dad follow their son's casket out, reaching up high behind them were risers in the shape of a giant Christmas tree and it was all lit up.  This scene is etched clearly in my mind because as I watched this family and their shattered world, I was reminded.  That tree in all its shining wonder reminded me what this season represents.  Even as so many will wade through dark waters this Christmas, they do not have to do it without HOPE.  God did not turn His back on our imperfect world.  He left perfection and entered into our hurt with us.  He came to us and brought hope all wrapped up in the form of a tiny baby.  "Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel," which translated means, "God with us."  He came to us and offers a way to be with him forever, promising that one day he will dry all the tears and heal all the broken hearts.  We are not alone, and this life is not all there is.  God with us.  Hope.

Please pray for these two families and that they could experience the hope of Christ during these difficult times.

Last but not Least

We wrapped up our trip spending a few days with some wonderful friends and getting a glimpse into what their life is like.

The first day we were there the guys took the boys fishing.  This is the type of fishing where you constantly catch something.  Needless to say, the boys LOVED that!

We went to some big slides...they were pretty cool!

And we spent some time at a super sweet park...minus the nasty snake near our pcinic table where we were having supper!

Our friends' son and our boys were having  a GREAT time with this game which basically consisted of one of them at the top kicking the rest down and not letting them get to the top.  They seriously were having a blast as were several other boys who got in on the "fun" too.

We went to the Omaha zoo which was absolutely amazing! 

Here was the whole crew together.  Our whole family agreed this was one of the best stops on our trip.  We had a great time with this crew and appreciated their hospitality and all the fun they planned for us from the park, to the zoo, to swimming and lots and lots of catching up on life with each other :)

We got back home late on Labor Day.  It was  a fantastic trip that I am sure we will all still be talking about a long time down teh road!



Boston

The day after our Rhode Island adventures we spent a day in Boston (which was not nearly enough time to take it all in!).  We all loved Boston and hope to some day get back there and see the sights we missed.  I personally am a huge history fan, especially the Revolutionary War period so visiting Boston was a real treat.  One of my favorite parts of Boston was Boston Commons, the large park in the middle of the city.  It has a fascinating history to it and today is just a beautiful park with a large pond called Frog Pond where kids can splash and play (it is very shallow), a neat play structure and fountains, and many other interesting things going on.



This frog had water coming out of its mouth which the littlest ones loved!  The older boys were more into the bigger fountains that were spraying water right by this frog.

Park Street Church right across the street from Boston Commons

Right beside Park Street Church is Granery Burying Ground where many patriots are buried.  Here is a memorial for John Hancock

Paul Revere's tombstone

Statue of Ben Franklin in front of Boston's old City Hall

Old South Meeting House where many important meetings leading up to the war took place, including the decisions about the Tea Party.

The Old State House, right outside this building the Boston Massacre took place.

For those who have not been there, this is what much of Boston looks like

We took a ferry from Long Wharf to the Navy Yard where the U.S.S. Constitution is located.  This was a pier by the Navy Yard

Here is the U.S.S. Constitution, the oldest floating warship in the world and also know as "Old Ironsides" We took a free guided tour of the ship which was a highlight for all of us

We got to go on two decks below, this was the first, the gun deck

As you walk around Boston on the Freedom Trail, you follow a red line that is brick like this or painted red so it is generally easy to know where you are going and the boys had fun figuring out where the red line was all the time

This is harder to see due to the light but it is Old North Church where the lanterns were hung when Paul Revere and William Dawes made their ride 

It was well over 90 degrees and sunny the whole day we were in Boston.  Hot!  So by the end of the day we were all worn down and very hot.  We found these fountains on the way back to our vehicle after supper and the boys had a great tiem running through them and getting soaked!