You Better Believe It!

I know that there are sacrifices involved when God calls one to come and follow Him. Well, going overseas for seven months involves the sacrifice of being away from your family. Just ask any missionary when the last time was that they saw their parents, sisters, brothers, and cousins. Some were blessed to go home at Christmas and spend time with their families and others have been blessed with family that can afford to visit them. But many have not seen some of their family members in months...maybe even years.


Back in November, when I left for Haiti, I had mentally prepared myself to be away from my family for seven months. Last year when I was away for college I saw my family once every month or two. I missed them but I knew that they were just a 2.5 hour car ride away. I could have had a ride home on almost any given weekend. Coming to Haiti, I knew that I wouldn't have the opportunity to hop in a car and go see my family and friends. But, God's ways are not our ways and he does immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine!


In FIVE days, Lord willing, my family will be arriving in Haiti...along with my best friend...and a team from my church back home. I was not expecting this...and I'm still amazed, every time I think about it, that they will actually be here. I am so happy that they are coming and that they will be able to get a taste of what I'm doing here.


When I decided to come to Haiti a few people from my church began looking into coming down with a group. I encouraged them to pursue the possibility of visiting while I was here. They began communicating with our organization and the plans fell into place. Usually teams are encouraged to plan their trips 6-9 months before they are hoping to come. However, my church began planning their trip only 4 months ago. Crazy- yes. Impossible- NO! Thank goodness God already had the plans prepared in advance for them. The plans came together quickly, along with the money.


The team consists of 16 people- a fairly decent size team. They had to raise a mere $30,000 for their trip. They started fundraising about 2 months ago. I talked to my mom on Sunday...they have raised approx. $33,000 thus far!! I think back to my own fundraising. God provided $6,000 in a month's time. I knew that God could provide the $30,000 for them if they just trusted in him. And to think He went above and beyond that amount! WOW.

"God actually delights in exalting our inability. He intentionally puts his people in situations where they come face to face with their need for him. In the process he powerfully demonstrates his ability to provide everything his people need in ways they could never have mustered up or imagined. And in the end, he makes much of his own name."

~passage taken from Radical: taking back your faith from the American dream by David Platt


We serve a BIG God. Don’t forget who God is!  Don’t LIMIT God. God has all resources, including money, at his finger tips. What are you not trusting God with? We are commanded to trust him with all our heart. Place your full trust in Him and then prepare to be amazed. Mark 10:38 “Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but not with God, all things are possible with God."

To Make Your Kingdom Come

A couple days ago I was hanging out with my friends and a team that they have visiting. One of the team members commented, "How come the Haitians don't seem very happy to see us?" This comment came as he was noticing the Haitians expressions and faces from perched a top of the truck we were riding in. The first thing I said in response to this was, "Well, they don't necessarily like Americans/Canadians helping them so that's why they aren't giving you the happiest look." Then I realized, they also don't like you because you are riding in a vehicle holding onto cameras and video cameras. Most of the Haitians walking on the streets are probably a bit turned off by those two things. They do not have either.

And, here you are peering down at them from above, like they are some sort of show. Imagine a whole bunch of foreigners coming to America, to help us, sitting inside luxury vehicles and carrying around their top of the line electronics. We wouldn't be very accepting of them would we?

Jesus reached out to the poor, the sick, and the demon possessed even though it was not what the people did in his day. By being present in their lives, walking with them and eating with them, he was able to love on them. In the same way, I need to step into the brokenness, the pain, the lives of children yearning for love. I can't love a world that I refuse to touch.


God is teaching me about this firsthand. I feel the most connected with the Haitians when I worship with them in a tent city, when I'm listening to the teenagers at Bible Study, when I'm walking the streets talking to the kids, and when I'm spending time at the school and the orphanage with the children. Yet, I have so much farther to go if I want to really connect with these people. 


I pray for a heart that is burning with God's love. I desire to be more and more compassionate as I reach out the poor and orphan. I cannot sit around waiting for them to come to me. They will live and die without Jesus if I don't get to them...if YOU don't get to them. Someone has to go touch them- love them. I am called to give my life as a sacrifice for them so that they can encounter God. John 15:13, "There is no greater love than this: that a person would lay down his life for the sake of his friends."

To fully understand the needs of others I must "walk in their shoes," instead of gaping at them from afar or from above. In order to connect with the Haitians, I need to get at their level. This goes both ways...I need to be accessible to them too. They won't come to trust me if I am always peering down at them. The people I am "helping" can't connect with me and get to know me if they can't get to me or even be around me.

This picture is of my two friends, Katie and Kez. They are Jesus' hands and feet to the people of Haiti. I'm so glad God placed them in my life to teach me what it really looks like to love on the poor and be there for them. Katie teaches at a Haitian school and Kez is a nurse, currently working on getting a clinic up and running.

"You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing.  What!  Is it nothing to be happy?  Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long?  Never in his life will he be so busy again."  ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, 1762

9 hours + 3 children (aged 1, 2 & 4)= 

ONE BUSY DAY!

(click on the pictures to enlarge them)

Over the past week, I made Valentine's Day cards with all the kids in my classes.

My friend, Ari, and I baked 103 cupcakes for the kids at the school. We decorated them early Tuesday morning and then passed them out at noon! 

Tuesday night I went over to Ari's house and watched a movie with some people. We ate lots of cookies and then stayed up way too late talking! It was a nice Valentine's Day, spent with wonderful new friends.

Life As I Know It

Today's post is about my life...as if you don't already know about my life! No, this post is going to be a detailed text about my average week. I was trying to come up with a creative way to present this topic, to make my life sound more interesting, but Taressa informed me that my life is interesting. Therefore, this post will not be anything too creative.


Let me being with Monday. On Mondays I have all morning to prepare for my classes. At 12pm I teach a 2nd grade class at a school. There are 11 kids in this class and they are always well behaved. This class lasts about an hour. Sometimes after class I head over to my friend Katie's house and hang out there. I read a book or I journal. Katie gets done teaching (she is a Kindergarten teacher) at 3pm and so we have an hour or so to talk. Then we walk to the chapel for Bible Study with the youth group kids. Bible study starts around 5 and lasts about an hour. I come home, eat dinner, and spend the night doing whatever I so desire.


Tuesday is my longest day of teaching. My first class is at 9:30 and I teach the 3rd graders for about an hour. There are 12 kids in this class; these students are very creative. This past week we made a paper heart chain to decorate their classroom. My next class is at 11:30. The kindergarten class consists of 7 kids. These kids are so happy to see me each day when I walk in the room. They greet me with bright, smiling faces. They are thrilled with whatever project I bring for them to do, which makes me happy in turn. 


My first class at the orphanage begins at 1pm. When I arrive at the orphanage some of the kids from the first class are already sitting at the tables waiting for me to begin. Once all the kids are seated and somewhat quiet, I pass out the supplies and they can start working on their projects. They have an hour to work. At 2pm the I have another class and they also get an hour to work. Up until this week, I had all 20+ of the little kids for the first hour and then all 20+ of the older kids for the next hour. Now though, I have the younger kids on Tuesdays and the older kids on Thursdays. This means the class sizes are smaller and much more manageable. Of this I am very thankful!! The younger kids are out of control and need a lot of assistance, but the older kids are calm, disciplined, and capable of doing most projects themselves. When those two classes are finished I go home and rest. I am usually exhausted.


Wednesdays are my favorite days! I have the morning to prepare for my classes and then I teach one class at 12pm. I have the 1st grade class of 12 kids then. They are very well behaved and are really interested in learning new things. If I bring an example of a project to this class they do theirs EXACTLY like mine. However, they are slowly becoming more creative.

The first graders, their teacher, and I.

After class on Wednesday, I walk over to the Lodder's house and babysit Maia, Levi and Chloe while their parents have a work meeting. These meetings are usually around 4 hours. The kids and I always play with play-dough and play outside. Sometimes we play with the play-dough outside...never a good idea! Yesterday Maia decided that the white play-dough blob was a "bar of soap" and she proceeded to wash off the very dirty dog! YUCK!
Wednesday nights I go home and stay up way too late working on whatever I need to get together for the next days class.


Thursday morning I wake up very early so that I can catch a ride back to the Lodder's. I babysit Maia and Levi again in the morning so that their mom can go to the school they work with and get a few things done. Take a guess as to what we do.... Play with play-dough and go outside! To mix it up, sometimes we walk over to the chapel and play on the playground! At 11:30 I have a class at the school. I teach 4 kids in a special class. These kids are about 8 or 9 years old and have never been in school before; that's why they are in a special class. This class is all boys so I change the projects a little bit in order to keep them interested.


Sometimes I have time for lunch on Thursdays; I don't mind though if I don't get a chance to eat. At 1pm I go the orphanage and teach my two classes there. Then, come Thursday at three o'clock my weekend starts! I breathe a sigh of relief after I'm finished with my classes for the week. I usually don't start thinking/planning for the next week until Monday morning. 


When I'm not relaxing on Fridays, I do an assortment of things. Some Fridays I spend the morning grocery shopping with Ruth. A couple weeks ago I watched a soccer game. The boys from the school I teach at had a game against another local school. Last week, I helped the Broersma's move. They used to live in the house right next door. It was nice because I could just stop over anytime and visit them. Thankfully they only moved 2 blocks away so it takes me 4-5 minutes to walk to their house...I still go and visit them all the time.


Friday afternoon I have Bible study with Andrea, our neighbor. She has lived here in Haiti since August with her husband and two children. They are awesome, kind hearted people. Since we are both new to Haiti, Andrea and I have lots of long talks about this country, the people, and how we see God working. I enjoy her company! Right now we are studying the book of Amos.


Friday and Saturday nights I hang out with the Van Dams, my friends, or the neighbors. Sometimes I have sleepovers. For fun, we play games (dice games, card games or Settlers), watch movies or the tv show Psych, bake food...


Saturday mornings are pretty chill. We eat a late breakfast then get a few things done around the house. I try to clean my apartment at least once every two weeks. Saturday's at 2:30pm we have youth group which is held at the church. There are around 40-60 kids at youth group each week. Youth group begins with a game or worship, then there is a message, and then afterwards everyone hangs out or plays basketball, soccer or volleyball until about 5:30.

Playing a game at the start of youth group.

Sunday is church day! I normally attend Quisqueya Chapel. But once in a while I go to Haitian churches. I think I've been to 4 or 5 different Haitian churches now. Normally, when I ride to church with the Van Dams, we leave around 8am. Sunday school is before church and church officially starts at 9:45...sometimes closer to 10. Services at Quisqueya last about an hour; at Haitian churches the services can be anywhere from 1.5-3 hours long. After church we come home, eat lunch, and relax the rest of the day.

Keep Smiling...

It makes people wonder what you've been up to!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

The Non-Superbowl Superbowl Party

Sunday night was Superbowl XLVI...or so I heard. I didn't watch the game this year.

A week or two before the big game the Van Dams, our next door neighbors, and myself asked around, trying to find friends that were going to watch the game and wanted our company. Well, we didn't have any luck. Apparently we failed at having the right connections this year. Neither of us has satellite tv; nor does anyone else in our neighborhood. And those friends of ours that did watch the game (you know who you are) didn't invite us to wherever they were going. It was a disappointment :(

In order to keep our spirits alive, we devised a plan so that we could still enjoy the night. Our kind neighbors invited us over to their house. At our Non-Superbowl Superbowl Party we watched The Help.  This movie is about African Americans who worked for white people during the Civil Rights era. It was a pretty good movie. (But not near as good as a football game.) If you haven't already watched The Help I would recommend it. First though, read the book because I've been told the book is better.

At our party we also made shakes. Thanks to HillbillyHousewife.com I found a recipe for milkshakes that didn't call for ice cream. Ice cream is very very expensive at the grocery stores in Haiti and therefore we rarely buy it. Milk is also hard to come by. You can either buy powdered milk or milk that is imported from France or some far off country like that. Not so nice if you love milk (which thankfully I don't). Anyways, this recipe calls for powdered milk. If you live in Haiti you need to try these shakes.

Magic Milk Shakes

• 1-1/2 to 2 cups ice water
• 1-1/2 cups nonfat dry milk powder
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 to 1-1/2 trays of ice cubes, as much as you can spare
• 2 tablespoons corn oil plus a 5-second squirt of non-stick spray for emulsification purposes

Place all of the ingredients into the blender, including the oil and the non-stick spray. Use less water for thicker milk shakes and more water for shakes that are easy on your blender motor. The blender should be about 3/4′s full. Place the lid on. Process for a full 2 minutes. Pour into cups and serve. Makes 4 – 12oz servings. 

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/magicmilkshakes.htm

I left out the oil and non-stick spray, but after further reading the advice about the recipe I realized we should have used those ingredients (sorry guys). The fat "acts as a flavor carrier and adds richness and depth to the texture and flavor of the finished shake." So our milkshakes weren't as think and creamy as they could have been...oh well! There's always next time.

Thanks neighbours for inviting us over for a great night! (They're one Canadian family of the many Canadians that I hang out with. They never fail to remind me that I'm an American. Canadians are better...?)

January Art Projects

I haven't learned these kids' names yet, I can't hold their attention for more than 20 minutes, and half of the time they aren't interested in doing the project I brought. I find myself getting frustrated during class time and caught up in the details of planning projects. But then I look through these pictures and I'm reminded that all my effort is not in vain!


The kids are so creative! I'll try to teach them a few things over the course of the next few months but as long as they are using their creativity, I really don't mind what they come up with. Let them create!!

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” -Maya Angelou

The animals, they came in, they came in by twosies, twosies...

Kindergarten Class

Step ONE- coloring a sheet of paper with animals on it: 

 There seemed to be a green chicken theme. I'm not sure why they think chickens are green. There are quite a few chickens in Haiti, so they should know what they look like!  

 Step TWO- cutting out the animals. They were supposed to cut on the dotted lines but most of them cut right around the animal:

Step THREE- cut out the ark. They actually followed the dotted line on this one:

Step FOUR- gluing the animals on the ark:

ALL FINISHED~ The kids were so proud of their ark! They kept asking if they could take it home with them. When I told them that they could take them to their houses, their smiles got even brighter!

You can have all this world, but give me Jesus!

Our neighbors were headed for the States; they were going to be spending a few days there. My gracious friend offered to get me anything I needed. She told me to think about what I wanted and make a list. 

I thought and thought... What did I want? I could not come up with anything.

What did I really want? There were lots of things I could think of that I really wanted. But she couldn't bring me any of the things I really want:

A girls night with my friends,

A sleepover with my cousins,

My car so that I can drive again

     deciding for myself where I want to go and when,

A nice dinner with my family,

Little Caesars pizza,

A gas station cappuccino,

The ability to call my family and friends from the U.S. on the phone

     whenever I have a great story for them,

To be able to communicate clearly without the language barrier...

...There are lots of things I really want! I could go back to the States and have all of these things and more. Then I thought- those things would be really nice but would I give up my experiences here?

Walking the dusty streets and finding myself with very dirty feet at the end of the day. I totally get why the disciples feet needed washing.

John 13: 3-5 “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.  After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.”

Seeing that 10 year old boy in the front row of church each Sunday, sitting by himself with his Bible and song book; he intently focuses on every scripture that is read, song that is sung, and sermon spoken from the pastor. 

Mark 10: 14-15 “When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’”

Spending an hour, on Monday nights, studying the Bible with teenagers who hunger for the word of God and want so badly to understand it.

Isaiah 29: 13-14, 18 “The Lord says: ‘These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught. Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.’ In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see. Once more the humble will rejoice in the LORD; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.”

Sitting in my apartment sometimes and thinking, "This sure doesn't feel like home. What can I do with this space to make it feel more inviting?" I often feel so homesick- I am reminded of my true home.

John 14:2-3 “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”

NO, I would not give up my experiences here for what I “really” want. I can get by for anther 5 months without those material things. In June I'll be reunited with my family and friends. Then we can have dinner together and sleepovers. What I really want, is to be here, living in the moment...experiencing God.