So here's a thought a lot of us have been struggling with this past week: we have officially been away from home for 3 months. That means 3 months since I have been able to play games and hang out with my family. 3 months since I have had lunch or coffee with any of my friends. 3 months since I have been able to praise and worship with my wonderful church family. 3 months since I have been able to drive my car. 3 months since I have had constant cell service (that one I don't mind so much). 3 months since I have slept in a bed that was actually mine. 3 months since I have been able to look at a closet or go shopping. 3 months since I have had Chick-fil-a (if you knew how many dreams I have had about waffle fries and sweet tea, you would feel so bad you would try to send me some internationally). 3 months is a long time to be separated from everything that is familiar to you!
But it also has brought it's really awesome things too. It's been 3 months since I really cared or worried about how I looked or what I wore. 3 months since I sat on the couch and watched Grey's Anatomy all day. 3 months of intentionally reading my Bible and surrounding myself with God. 3 months of meeting new people and being challenged in new and excited ways. 3 months of having to eat new foods that I may not really like but I eat them because it makes my host moms so happy when I do. 3 months of choosing to think about other people before I think of myself. 3 months of worshipping God on Sundays with awesome people that are crazy about Him. 3 months of trying to be a servant. These 3 months have definitely not come without their fair share of challenges and struggles but I have learned that I have to be dependent on God first. I can't call my mom or my friends when something goes wrong or when I am having a bad day. God has shown that He really is the source of my strength and someone I can depend on in my time of need. And for those of you that wrote me notes or gave me letters of any kind leading up to this trip, just know I really do love having those. They have helped on many homesick days. And if I have learned so much these first 3 months, I can't wait for all of the amazing things these next 3 months have in store for me.
We are also finishing up our time in Jamaica! May 2nd we are leaving Jamaica, spending another night in Miami (Yay America!), and heading out to Belize on May 3rd. As much as I have loved my time here in Jamaica and have loved becoming a part of this community, I am super excited for Belize. This is their first time having an Immersion team and from what I have heard, they are almost as excited as we are about going there! It may or may not be obvious but I really love traveling. So getting to fly for 2 days and going to a new place is something I am really looking forward to. Belize's national language is officially English which hopefully means we will have the ability to get to know people on the same personal level that we have here in Jamaica which I really do appreciate. At this moment, that is all I know about what is ahead of us in Belize but I can't wait to share all of my awesome stories with you!
Recent highlights from Jamaica:
- There is an ice cream man that rides around on a motorcycle! A cone is about 50 cents
- My house I am at right now has a little porch with an incredible view of the mountain! Definitely have taken full advantage of that
- We got to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 2 the other night!
- We got help dig a hole this week for a project at the church. I'm glad we don't get that dirty every day but it was kind of fun
- It's the rainy season in Jamaica so it literally rains every day. I love it!
- My current host family has a boy that reminds me of my little sister Riza and if you know her, you can understand how entertaining our house is
- It's cool enough for me to wear my sweatpants at night! I don't really need to but it makes me happy that I can without melting so I wear them just because I can
- I am finally getting really good at washing my clothes by hand
- Our host mom gave us Jamaican chocolate bars the other day! Yum!
Recently I have been thinking a lot about Abraham. In case you need a refresher (you can check out Genesis 12 for the full story), God came to Abraham (formally Abram) and told him "Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father's house to the land that I will show you" -Genesis 12:1. Before this, all we know about Abraham is that his dad's name is Terah and he was married. That's it. We don't know anything about his childhood or really anything about who Abraham was. But apparently God thought he was a stand up guy. God looked down from heaven and decided Abraham would be a great person to begin His nation of Israel. That kind of seems like a crazy huge responsibility to me! And all the Bible says about his response is "So Abram went.." He just went! He didn't say "You know what God, I'm not really sure You know what You're talking about. See I have a family here. And a nice house. And a good job. I will follow You wherever You send me... as long as it's under my terms." No! He just went. And where God was taking him didn't have directions on a GPS he could follow so he knew he was heading the right way. I'm pretty sure there wasn't even a map. Abraham trusted God so much that he was willing to just get up and go. I'm trying to figure out where God is telling me I need to get up and go, but I hope to have faith like Abraham and just follow.
PS One of our team members had to leave last week because of some serious health issues her dad is experiencing. From what I have heard, her dad might have a possibility of a very successful recovery but I would ask you to please please keep her and her family in your prayers!
Monday, April 20, 2015
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Waiting On God
This past Saturday concluded our time with our first host families in Jamaica. It was actually kind of sad to leave Annette and her family. They have all been so sweet to us: cooking for us, making sure we have everything that we need, and treating us like family. Annette has five of her own children and a couple grandchildren so adopting two extra girls for a couple weeks was easy for her. She took care of me when I was sick by making me special tea and was constantly giving Tiff and I anything she could. She would have literally done anything for us! And that giving spirit didn't stop at us either.
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Week 2 Jamaica Update
So first of all, I would like to say thank you for every prayer prayed for me while I was healing from my unfortunate head injury. I do honestly feel 100% back to normal, minus the little patch of hair that is missing from where my stitches were. I had my stitches removed Wednesday and all of my soreness was pretty much gone by then as well. The biggest thing I ask is that the credit for my quick recovery not be given to me. While yes, I am a pretty stellar person, I did not just will myself to get better. God knew that I would not be patient enough if it took much longer than it did so He allowed for my body to heal itself so I could go back to my new life asap. He also has helped me see all of the blessings that came from this experience. I would also like to thank (and she's going to be really embarrassed I'm putting this in here) my roommate and friend Tiffany. She has been the best and sweetest nurse. She washed my hair for me when I couldn't because of my stitches. She has cleaned my cut for me to make sure it is healing as best as it can. She's also given me neck messages to help loosen up the tense muscles. There are not many people that would be continuously selfless like she is and I am so thankful for her. If you can't think of a friend that would clean out your head wound for you, you need to get yourself a Tiffany in your life!
This was our first week with host families in Jamaica. Tiff and I live with this lady Annette and her husband Manny. Annette sells like beach cover-ups and other vacation clothes to tourists staying in villas near Montego Bay. She said she just goes as often as there are people to sell to but since right now is the busy season for her, she has gone into the city almost every day. She also runs around Montego Bay picking up new material for her clothes and buying groceries and other necessities for us and her children and grandchildren that live nearby. Tiff and I have been able to go with her a couple days and even though she does most of it on her own, it's fun to get to travel around Montego Bay with her. She spoils us like crazy too, making sure we are always full with plenty of snacks on reserve. She just does so much to make sure her family has everything they could ever wish for.
We do have a church that we have become a part of here in Catadupa and I have loved getting to meet the pastor and all of the members. They are so sweet and greet us with such big smiles every time we come to church. Church services here run about 3 hours which does seem like a marathon compared to what I am used to. I am definitely ready for lunch when church is over but I really enjoy being there. Different members are invited to come up and share something God has shown them either with a story from the week, Bible verses, or a song. You can tell so much of the service is Spirit led. We do have a planned worship session but those few songs are just the beginning of all of the singing, praising, dancing, praying, and worshipping that go on for the rest of the service. I love seeing the joy on everyone's face while they worship. You can tell that they really get it!
Highlights from this week:
-We have become frequent visitors to this frozen yogurt place in Montego Bay. It conveniently has wifi and I would much rather pay for delicious yogurt with free wifi than just pay at an internet cafe.
-There is this plantation next to our house that we are allowed to go in and out of as we wish. It's kind of cool to see all of these exotic fruits growing on trees. It's an excursion destination for cruise ships so we see tourist buses pass through every once in a while. You can tell they are confused when they see us walking around like we live here.
-We get a fruit plate with breakfast every day! This really is a huge deal because we really didn't get a lot of fruits and vegetables in Haiti so fruit here feels like a luxury. Plus it's all so fresh and delicious!!
-Tiff brought her eno hammock with her so we've been able to put it up a couple times on our patio area. It's super relaxing to be out there when it's raining because there is a roof over our head so we don't get wet but we can listen to it.
-One of our team members had a birthday this week so we got cake and ice cream and danced all night long.
-Saturday we got to go to one of the beaches in Montego Bay. It was nice being at a beach with real sand and the water was so calm and pretty! It reminded me of Florida beaches
On Sunday, we sang this song and part of it said something along the lines of "the devil is under my feet and he doesn't like there". So naturally I had this visual of me standing on the devil which is kind of a weird thought. But if you think about it, if you were just standing on a person it would be easy for them to wiggle out from underneath you and knock you over. However, as Christians we are supposed to place our faith on the solid rock and foundation of Jesus Christ. So then I visualized me standing on this giant boulder that was on top of Satan. It is impossible to knock someone over when you are being crushed by a boulder. Even though those are maybe weird visuals it totally makes sense. If we decide we are strong enough on our own and walk away from Christ the solid rock, it's easy for the devil to knock us off our feet. But when we place our feet and our lives on Jesus, Satan does not have the power to knock us down. We can be victorious over evil if we constantly choose to place ourselves on the solid foundation of Jesus.
This was our first week with host families in Jamaica. Tiff and I live with this lady Annette and her husband Manny. Annette sells like beach cover-ups and other vacation clothes to tourists staying in villas near Montego Bay. She said she just goes as often as there are people to sell to but since right now is the busy season for her, she has gone into the city almost every day. She also runs around Montego Bay picking up new material for her clothes and buying groceries and other necessities for us and her children and grandchildren that live nearby. Tiff and I have been able to go with her a couple days and even though she does most of it on her own, it's fun to get to travel around Montego Bay with her. She spoils us like crazy too, making sure we are always full with plenty of snacks on reserve. She just does so much to make sure her family has everything they could ever wish for.
We do have a church that we have become a part of here in Catadupa and I have loved getting to meet the pastor and all of the members. They are so sweet and greet us with such big smiles every time we come to church. Church services here run about 3 hours which does seem like a marathon compared to what I am used to. I am definitely ready for lunch when church is over but I really enjoy being there. Different members are invited to come up and share something God has shown them either with a story from the week, Bible verses, or a song. You can tell so much of the service is Spirit led. We do have a planned worship session but those few songs are just the beginning of all of the singing, praising, dancing, praying, and worshipping that go on for the rest of the service. I love seeing the joy on everyone's face while they worship. You can tell that they really get it!
Highlights from this week:
-We have become frequent visitors to this frozen yogurt place in Montego Bay. It conveniently has wifi and I would much rather pay for delicious yogurt with free wifi than just pay at an internet cafe.
-There is this plantation next to our house that we are allowed to go in and out of as we wish. It's kind of cool to see all of these exotic fruits growing on trees. It's an excursion destination for cruise ships so we see tourist buses pass through every once in a while. You can tell they are confused when they see us walking around like we live here.
-We get a fruit plate with breakfast every day! This really is a huge deal because we really didn't get a lot of fruits and vegetables in Haiti so fruit here feels like a luxury. Plus it's all so fresh and delicious!!
-Tiff brought her eno hammock with her so we've been able to put it up a couple times on our patio area. It's super relaxing to be out there when it's raining because there is a roof over our head so we don't get wet but we can listen to it.
-One of our team members had a birthday this week so we got cake and ice cream and danced all night long.
-Saturday we got to go to one of the beaches in Montego Bay. It was nice being at a beach with real sand and the water was so calm and pretty! It reminded me of Florida beaches
On Sunday, we sang this song and part of it said something along the lines of "the devil is under my feet and he doesn't like there". So naturally I had this visual of me standing on the devil which is kind of a weird thought. But if you think about it, if you were just standing on a person it would be easy for them to wiggle out from underneath you and knock you over. However, as Christians we are supposed to place our faith on the solid rock and foundation of Jesus Christ. So then I visualized me standing on this giant boulder that was on top of Satan. It is impossible to knock someone over when you are being crushed by a boulder. Even though those are maybe weird visuals it totally makes sense. If we decide we are strong enough on our own and walk away from Christ the solid rock, it's easy for the devil to knock us off our feet. But when we place our feet and our lives on Jesus, Satan does not have the power to knock us down. We can be victorious over evil if we constantly choose to place ourselves on the solid foundation of Jesus.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Struck Down but Not Destroyed
Before reading this blog post there is something you need to understand: this is not a post intended to scare you or beg for your sympathy. It's just my life and what has happened to me and I want to share it with you because I think it's really cool. So here's my story:
Quick back story. I am in Jamaica in a city called Catadupa. It's about an hour drive up the mountain from Montego Bay. The church we are staying at is part of a group of churches all throughout the island. They have been having tent revivals recently so Thursday (3/12) they were having a ladies group in the tent. We were playing one of those cheesy cute ice breaker games to get introduced to everyone. Then I just remember seeing the faces of everyone across the group look up in slight terror and gasp. Then I saw this bright flash of light and had the sensation of being hit in the head by a giant frying pan. One of the posts of the tent had fallen and landed on my head.
The next few minutes are kind of a blur. I fell back onto the bench and was just grabbing my head crying, still trying to figure out what had happened. As quickly as I had the energy, I was taken to a car and driven to the hospital in Montego Bay. When I am hurt, I like to try to make people laugh because it just puts everyone, especially me, at ease that everything is going to be okay. So I started making jokes on the way down about how out of all people this would happen to me. When we got to the hospital, I was given medicine for the pain and was ushered to get x-rays. At that point, all I knew was that I had a cut on my head, my neck was sore which was to be expected, and I knew I had definitely suffered a concussion but other than that I felt pretty good. After I had gotten my x-rays done, I went to see one of the ER doctors to find out the results. Before looking at the x-rays, the doctor asked me what had happened, checked my reflexes, and checked for any signs of pain anywhere else in my body. Of course, I continued to make jokes the whole time because why not?! Plus, you could tell he needed someone to brighten his day so that's what I was going to do. So when he pulled out the x-rays, he held the first picture up to the light, flashed me a face of confusion, and put it back. Then he grabbed the next picture, looking at it and me with the same confusion. After he had studied all the them, he took two of them out again and said he had to look at something and that he would be right back and ran out of the door.
It was at this point I started to get concerned. I looked at Amy who was with me and couldn't help but laugh because we were so confused. When the doctor came back he said he wanted to show me something on my x-rays. He held the first one up to the light. It was a side view of my skull and at the top you could plainly see that there were 2 little cracks in my skull. Then he held up the second picture and showed me one of my vertebrae was slightly crooked. Then he just looked at me and all he could say was "How are you in such a good mood? You should be in so much pain. I don't understand!" It was then I realized that the joy and peace I was feeling was not just the drugs. It was God! I explained that I was thankful I was so lucky because it could be looking and feeling much worse than it was. I was laughing because the fact I had the ability to laugh was a blessing. He told me I needed to go see an orthopedic doctor and by the time we left, he was making jokes of his own. I think having someone look at such a bad situation in such a good way really confused him but he liked hearing Amy and I talk with such assurance and peace about what was going on.
I ended up having to say 2 nights in the hospital because of delays in finding out some test results. I couldn't have visitors most of the time so it gave me lots of time to think. I was asking God why had this happened to me. Not in a mad way. I just knew there had to be a reason, there always is. (Normally I put my Bible encouragement at the end of my blog but it really fits in best here.) I thought of the story of Job. In Job chapter one, it tells of a conversation between God and Satan where Satan asks God's permission to do all these awful things to Job in order to test him. I just pictured the same kind of conversation happening about me. I imagine Satan walking up to God and being like "look this Audrey girl has had no reason to doubt her reason for this trip she's on so I'd like to make this tent pole fall on her head and see how she reacts." And God in response saying "okay you can because I never give my children more than they can handle and she can handle this but I'm going to make the wind blow in such a way where it will keep most of her safe so she can return to doing My work as soon as possible." And honestly, when you think about the size of the pole and how hard it fell, I shouldn't be okay. I should have been knocked unconscious. I should have been in the hospital longer than 2 days because the damage could have been so bad but I wasn't. I should be terrified and sad and scared but I'm not. I know God protected me. And though I definitely do not wish to have this happen again, I am not angry that it did.
As far as the physical damage, I did have a concussion, I have 2 skull fractures, got 5 stitches, and have a very sore but not broken neck. I am wearing a soft collar for a couple weeks just to give my neck time to heal. But here's the cool part, if I were to tell you all the ways I saw and experienced God during my time in the hospital this would be the longest blog post ever. Yes there were times I didn't enjoy being there. Hospital food here is no better than hospital food anywhere else. I missed being able to talk to my teammates. I didn't have a phone so my family didn't even know it had happened until the day after. Plus I got super bored. But the amount of peace and love I felt from God was amazing!
Jamaica really is beautiful. The weather right now is perfectly sunny during the day and slightly chilly at night. The people here are so wonderful too! Especially coming from Haiti where we couldn't talk to anyone, it's so great to be able to walk around outside and talk to the people we meet on the street. We are also going to be here when 2 short term teams are coming to the church so I'm totally excited to get to meet all of them and welcome them. Obviously, prayers for a quick recovery would be greatly appreciated. But even more than that, prayers of thanks to God for His protection and power in your and my life. He really does have a plan for us!
Quick back story. I am in Jamaica in a city called Catadupa. It's about an hour drive up the mountain from Montego Bay. The church we are staying at is part of a group of churches all throughout the island. They have been having tent revivals recently so Thursday (3/12) they were having a ladies group in the tent. We were playing one of those cheesy cute ice breaker games to get introduced to everyone. Then I just remember seeing the faces of everyone across the group look up in slight terror and gasp. Then I saw this bright flash of light and had the sensation of being hit in the head by a giant frying pan. One of the posts of the tent had fallen and landed on my head.
The next few minutes are kind of a blur. I fell back onto the bench and was just grabbing my head crying, still trying to figure out what had happened. As quickly as I had the energy, I was taken to a car and driven to the hospital in Montego Bay. When I am hurt, I like to try to make people laugh because it just puts everyone, especially me, at ease that everything is going to be okay. So I started making jokes on the way down about how out of all people this would happen to me. When we got to the hospital, I was given medicine for the pain and was ushered to get x-rays. At that point, all I knew was that I had a cut on my head, my neck was sore which was to be expected, and I knew I had definitely suffered a concussion but other than that I felt pretty good. After I had gotten my x-rays done, I went to see one of the ER doctors to find out the results. Before looking at the x-rays, the doctor asked me what had happened, checked my reflexes, and checked for any signs of pain anywhere else in my body. Of course, I continued to make jokes the whole time because why not?! Plus, you could tell he needed someone to brighten his day so that's what I was going to do. So when he pulled out the x-rays, he held the first picture up to the light, flashed me a face of confusion, and put it back. Then he grabbed the next picture, looking at it and me with the same confusion. After he had studied all the them, he took two of them out again and said he had to look at something and that he would be right back and ran out of the door.
It was at this point I started to get concerned. I looked at Amy who was with me and couldn't help but laugh because we were so confused. When the doctor came back he said he wanted to show me something on my x-rays. He held the first one up to the light. It was a side view of my skull and at the top you could plainly see that there were 2 little cracks in my skull. Then he held up the second picture and showed me one of my vertebrae was slightly crooked. Then he just looked at me and all he could say was "How are you in such a good mood? You should be in so much pain. I don't understand!" It was then I realized that the joy and peace I was feeling was not just the drugs. It was God! I explained that I was thankful I was so lucky because it could be looking and feeling much worse than it was. I was laughing because the fact I had the ability to laugh was a blessing. He told me I needed to go see an orthopedic doctor and by the time we left, he was making jokes of his own. I think having someone look at such a bad situation in such a good way really confused him but he liked hearing Amy and I talk with such assurance and peace about what was going on.
I ended up having to say 2 nights in the hospital because of delays in finding out some test results. I couldn't have visitors most of the time so it gave me lots of time to think. I was asking God why had this happened to me. Not in a mad way. I just knew there had to be a reason, there always is. (Normally I put my Bible encouragement at the end of my blog but it really fits in best here.) I thought of the story of Job. In Job chapter one, it tells of a conversation between God and Satan where Satan asks God's permission to do all these awful things to Job in order to test him. I just pictured the same kind of conversation happening about me. I imagine Satan walking up to God and being like "look this Audrey girl has had no reason to doubt her reason for this trip she's on so I'd like to make this tent pole fall on her head and see how she reacts." And God in response saying "okay you can because I never give my children more than they can handle and she can handle this but I'm going to make the wind blow in such a way where it will keep most of her safe so she can return to doing My work as soon as possible." And honestly, when you think about the size of the pole and how hard it fell, I shouldn't be okay. I should have been knocked unconscious. I should have been in the hospital longer than 2 days because the damage could have been so bad but I wasn't. I should be terrified and sad and scared but I'm not. I know God protected me. And though I definitely do not wish to have this happen again, I am not angry that it did.
As far as the physical damage, I did have a concussion, I have 2 skull fractures, got 5 stitches, and have a very sore but not broken neck. I am wearing a soft collar for a couple weeks just to give my neck time to heal. But here's the cool part, if I were to tell you all the ways I saw and experienced God during my time in the hospital this would be the longest blog post ever. Yes there were times I didn't enjoy being there. Hospital food here is no better than hospital food anywhere else. I missed being able to talk to my teammates. I didn't have a phone so my family didn't even know it had happened until the day after. Plus I got super bored. But the amount of peace and love I felt from God was amazing!
Jamaica really is beautiful. The weather right now is perfectly sunny during the day and slightly chilly at night. The people here are so wonderful too! Especially coming from Haiti where we couldn't talk to anyone, it's so great to be able to walk around outside and talk to the people we meet on the street. We are also going to be here when 2 short term teams are coming to the church so I'm totally excited to get to meet all of them and welcome them. Obviously, prayers for a quick recovery would be greatly appreciated. But even more than that, prayers of thanks to God for His protection and power in your and my life. He really does have a plan for us!
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Halfway Done With Haiti!
Week three was more uneventful than the others have been which is not something I am complaining about. It meant nobody was getting sick (which almost all of us have had the stomach flu or some other fun illness), it meant no protests or riots were happening (that happens a lot too but our translators keep us away from those so we are very safe), and no new awkward experiences (like trying to go to the Haitian equivalent of Time Square on New Year's Eve. Everyone just stopped and stared at the white people). We did get one of our team members back though! She had left us before we came to Haiti due to the several illnesses she was trying to fight off. It was fun getting to welcome a team member back after we had been without her for a couple weeks. The end of week three does mean we are more than halfway done with our time in Haiti. It is crazy to think how fast everything seems to be going. We do spend the least amount of time in Haiti but it still feels like we've been here forever but then again, not long at all. That's kind of how everything is. Like part of me feels like I've known my team for years but really it's just been over a month.
For the most part, we have a very relaxed schedule in Haiti. It really is like we live here, we just do as we please. We do have some classes that we teach. Mondays and Thursdays we teach English to elementary age children so it's a lot of "head, shoulders, knees, and toes" lessons and songs. The kids do seem to have so much fun and a true love of learning from us. Fridays and Saturdays we teach English to young adults. Many of them know a pretty decent amount of English so we get to work on things like sentence structure and grammatical stuff. Saturday mornings we also help lead kids club at a local church which is just like a children's church. That is challenging because a lot of the songs and games that we usually play with little kids require English and we don't know enough Creole to translate those games over. They are a big fan of the Macarena so we fill up lots of time with that!
Haiti has been fun and full of new experiences but it has also brought some challenges. The one that has probably been the hardest for me is the inability to properly communicate with Mona and the other families that live in our area. We definitely saw this when we attempted to do laundry last week. Imagine someone giving you three different soaps and telling you that you use certain soaps with the lights and the others with the darks and you sometimes rinse in between switching soaps but other times you don't. Now imagine they can't use words. Gesturing is the only effective communication. That and the words "No, no!" Now imagine getting that from six different people who made do things slightly differently. That's laundry at our house. I do love all of the moms in our area but it's overwhelming when they all try acting like moms toward us. It was slightly humorous but it quickly became frustrating because we literally had no idea what was going on.
We have definitely still had some great experiences this past week:
-We found this bakery that has hot bread that kind of tastes like a thick pretzel. It's addicting! Plus it's only like 15 cents for a little individual loaf.
-We got to go to this really pretty area up in the mountains to go watch our translators and some locals play soccer. The ride there was long and terrifying bumping along on our tiny motos. But definitely worth the near death experience.
-One of our host sisters will bring us chocolate cheetos! Yes, it's a real thing.
-There is a place here that sells hamburgers! Definitely hit that up this week. Got me thinking about how excited I am for 4th of July hamburgers (family: that was a hint for you)
-Every morning, my roommates and I tell stories about all of the weird stuff we did in our sleep the night before. Apparently Tiffany and I have gotten so close we were having a conversation in our sleep.
-There was a rooster right next to our room that we named Dinner because he would wake us up every 15 minutes starting at 3am and we just wanted to eat him so we could sleep... and this week someone decided to have Dinner for dinner. We sleep much better now.
-Friday night we had gotten snuggled in bed were awaken by Wilson knocking on our door saying "Girls, did you brush your teeth?". He knows that we love rice and had been given some by one of the ladies in our area and wanted us to eat some. Then Monday morning we woke up and saw for breakfast Mona had bought us rolls and peanut butter. We had all been talking about how much we missed peanut butter and apparently Wilson told Mona we wanted some. Wilson would make a great American boyfriend because he understands that food is a girl's best friend. I think it really makes him happy to see us so happy when we get surprised with food we like. We got a good one, he loves us!
-My chaco tan is coming in nice. Still struggling with being in love with the chaco part but the fact there is a tan at all makes me feel pretty good.
-Also, if any of you gave me a letter with your donation or my last day at church or at any other time, I have those with me! And I read one a day just because I like being reminded people are praying for me.
My time with God everyday is definitely the biggest thing that has kept me going. I'm reading through 1 Corinthians and I found this really awesome verse in chapter 8 verse 6 "yet for us there is one God, the Father. All things are from Him and we exist for Him. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ. All things are through Him, and we exist through Him."
For the most part, we have a very relaxed schedule in Haiti. It really is like we live here, we just do as we please. We do have some classes that we teach. Mondays and Thursdays we teach English to elementary age children so it's a lot of "head, shoulders, knees, and toes" lessons and songs. The kids do seem to have so much fun and a true love of learning from us. Fridays and Saturdays we teach English to young adults. Many of them know a pretty decent amount of English so we get to work on things like sentence structure and grammatical stuff. Saturday mornings we also help lead kids club at a local church which is just like a children's church. That is challenging because a lot of the songs and games that we usually play with little kids require English and we don't know enough Creole to translate those games over. They are a big fan of the Macarena so we fill up lots of time with that!
Haiti has been fun and full of new experiences but it has also brought some challenges. The one that has probably been the hardest for me is the inability to properly communicate with Mona and the other families that live in our area. We definitely saw this when we attempted to do laundry last week. Imagine someone giving you three different soaps and telling you that you use certain soaps with the lights and the others with the darks and you sometimes rinse in between switching soaps but other times you don't. Now imagine they can't use words. Gesturing is the only effective communication. That and the words "No, no!" Now imagine getting that from six different people who made do things slightly differently. That's laundry at our house. I do love all of the moms in our area but it's overwhelming when they all try acting like moms toward us. It was slightly humorous but it quickly became frustrating because we literally had no idea what was going on.
We have definitely still had some great experiences this past week:
-We found this bakery that has hot bread that kind of tastes like a thick pretzel. It's addicting! Plus it's only like 15 cents for a little individual loaf.
-We got to go to this really pretty area up in the mountains to go watch our translators and some locals play soccer. The ride there was long and terrifying bumping along on our tiny motos. But definitely worth the near death experience.
-One of our host sisters will bring us chocolate cheetos! Yes, it's a real thing.
-There is a place here that sells hamburgers! Definitely hit that up this week. Got me thinking about how excited I am for 4th of July hamburgers (family: that was a hint for you)
-Every morning, my roommates and I tell stories about all of the weird stuff we did in our sleep the night before. Apparently Tiffany and I have gotten so close we were having a conversation in our sleep.
-There was a rooster right next to our room that we named Dinner because he would wake us up every 15 minutes starting at 3am and we just wanted to eat him so we could sleep... and this week someone decided to have Dinner for dinner. We sleep much better now.
-Friday night we had gotten snuggled in bed were awaken by Wilson knocking on our door saying "Girls, did you brush your teeth?". He knows that we love rice and had been given some by one of the ladies in our area and wanted us to eat some. Then Monday morning we woke up and saw for breakfast Mona had bought us rolls and peanut butter. We had all been talking about how much we missed peanut butter and apparently Wilson told Mona we wanted some. Wilson would make a great American boyfriend because he understands that food is a girl's best friend. I think it really makes him happy to see us so happy when we get surprised with food we like. We got a good one, he loves us!
-My chaco tan is coming in nice. Still struggling with being in love with the chaco part but the fact there is a tan at all makes me feel pretty good.
-Also, if any of you gave me a letter with your donation or my last day at church or at any other time, I have those with me! And I read one a day just because I like being reminded people are praying for me.
My time with God everyday is definitely the biggest thing that has kept me going. I'm reading through 1 Corinthians and I found this really awesome verse in chapter 8 verse 6 "yet for us there is one God, the Father. All things are from Him and we exist for Him. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ. All things are through Him, and we exist through Him."
Monday, February 16, 2015
Let's Go to the Beach, Beach!
From our house, it is about a 10-15 minute walk to the shore. It's the same ocean as back in Florida but it looks a lot different than the ocean view I'm used to. There's no sand. It's black rocks. And there's really not like a big open area to lay out blankets and beach chairs and play volleyball. But it's the ocean. It still has waves and the salty ocean breeze that I love. Well on Wednesday, we had a free day and our translators told us we were going to go to the nice beach. So basically I was pumped! We were going to go to a nice beach with water we could swim in: every Floridia girl's dream! The nice beach (it really doesn't have a name) is within walking distance also. So to get there we walked on one of the main roads for awhile and then Wilson took us down a dirt path that ran in between houses. Not really the kind of road you would expect to take to a nice beach.
Finally we made it to the shore and it was obvious there were a couple problems. 1) It didn't look like an area I would define as a "nice beach". The water was brown. The sand was brown. And there was trash everywhere which is something you would not find on any of the beaches back home. 2) We had gotten left behind because there was a little miscommunication about when we were supposed to leave as a group and our house had kind of slept in. So naturally we expected everyone else to already be there. And it's usually really easy to pick us out because we definitely stand out. But there wasn't anyone. So we started walking down the coast because we thought eventually we would find somebody. Then way off in the distance you could see a bunch of white heads floating in the water. We had found them! But there was a catch. To get to the nice beach you have to walk along the rocky terrain of coast. Like I felt like I was on Survivor climbing over and squeezing in between rocks. And then we walked on this really tiny path and came out on what was definitely the nice beach. Still no sand but white stones. Sky blue water. Green mountains behind us. It was all there. And it was beautiful.
So as I'm trying to treat everything that happens on the trip as a teaching moment from God, here's what I realized about our beach trip. The different beaches we have visited represent the different places we are in our journey to find what God has for us. The beach by our house is like the beginning. We can be content where we are. It's not terrible and maybe we can even learn to love it. But maybe we have seen other things that show us there are better things out there than our little beach. That's the point when God calls us on our journey. Then we reach the second beach. We think we have been following God along all the right roads and we end up at a spot that isn't as nice as we thought it would be. We reached the end of the road. Surely this has to be it. And then God takes us on the road (or coast) less traveled to the place He really wants us to be. That is the place where we see and feel God in a new and powerful way. This is where we can dance in the water because we have reached the place that exceeds all the expectations we had. Right now, I feel like I'm walking along the coast between the second and third beach. That's what this trip is. God brought me away from a place I would have been happy staying in and now He's leading me to the "nice beach", the place where I can truly feel like I belong.
Going to the beach was definitely the highlight this week. Week two was more of a physical struggle than week one. Our bodies are adjusting to the food we eat and the times of the day we eat them. That has brought some interesting side effects. Sleeping at our house is sometimes a challenge. We have a tin roof which is great when there is a nice gentle rain shower. But there are cats and chickens that like walking around up there during the night and when it wakes you up, the first thought you have is that the aliens are coming. But we have lots of great laughs about it in the morning. One super cute thing happened on Valentine's day. The boys on our team told us to go to the beach at 7. They gave us all M&Ms and whipped out a candle and got all cheesy saying how much they love all of us. It was beyond precious! And today Wilson bought us apples! Which is a big deal because I hadn't even seen an apple since we had been here. He looked so proud to surprise us and make us so happy!
The verse that has been on my mind this week is one that I kind of picked out as being my motto for this trip. I read it as if I am the river because I can't succeed on this trip without God's strength and power flowing inside of me. Psalm 46:4-5 "There is a river- its streams delight the city of God, the holy dwelling place of the Most High. God is within her; she will not be toppled. God will help her when the morning dawns."
Finally we made it to the shore and it was obvious there were a couple problems. 1) It didn't look like an area I would define as a "nice beach". The water was brown. The sand was brown. And there was trash everywhere which is something you would not find on any of the beaches back home. 2) We had gotten left behind because there was a little miscommunication about when we were supposed to leave as a group and our house had kind of slept in. So naturally we expected everyone else to already be there. And it's usually really easy to pick us out because we definitely stand out. But there wasn't anyone. So we started walking down the coast because we thought eventually we would find somebody. Then way off in the distance you could see a bunch of white heads floating in the water. We had found them! But there was a catch. To get to the nice beach you have to walk along the rocky terrain of coast. Like I felt like I was on Survivor climbing over and squeezing in between rocks. And then we walked on this really tiny path and came out on what was definitely the nice beach. Still no sand but white stones. Sky blue water. Green mountains behind us. It was all there. And it was beautiful.
So as I'm trying to treat everything that happens on the trip as a teaching moment from God, here's what I realized about our beach trip. The different beaches we have visited represent the different places we are in our journey to find what God has for us. The beach by our house is like the beginning. We can be content where we are. It's not terrible and maybe we can even learn to love it. But maybe we have seen other things that show us there are better things out there than our little beach. That's the point when God calls us on our journey. Then we reach the second beach. We think we have been following God along all the right roads and we end up at a spot that isn't as nice as we thought it would be. We reached the end of the road. Surely this has to be it. And then God takes us on the road (or coast) less traveled to the place He really wants us to be. That is the place where we see and feel God in a new and powerful way. This is where we can dance in the water because we have reached the place that exceeds all the expectations we had. Right now, I feel like I'm walking along the coast between the second and third beach. That's what this trip is. God brought me away from a place I would have been happy staying in and now He's leading me to the "nice beach", the place where I can truly feel like I belong.
Going to the beach was definitely the highlight this week. Week two was more of a physical struggle than week one. Our bodies are adjusting to the food we eat and the times of the day we eat them. That has brought some interesting side effects. Sleeping at our house is sometimes a challenge. We have a tin roof which is great when there is a nice gentle rain shower. But there are cats and chickens that like walking around up there during the night and when it wakes you up, the first thought you have is that the aliens are coming. But we have lots of great laughs about it in the morning. One super cute thing happened on Valentine's day. The boys on our team told us to go to the beach at 7. They gave us all M&Ms and whipped out a candle and got all cheesy saying how much they love all of us. It was beyond precious! And today Wilson bought us apples! Which is a big deal because I hadn't even seen an apple since we had been here. He looked so proud to surprise us and make us so happy!
The verse that has been on my mind this week is one that I kind of picked out as being my motto for this trip. I read it as if I am the river because I can't succeed on this trip without God's strength and power flowing inside of me. Psalm 46:4-5 "There is a river- its streams delight the city of God, the holy dwelling place of the Most High. God is within her; she will not be toppled. God will help her when the morning dawns."
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Let's Talk About Water
In my first week here in Haiti, I have realized one thing we definitely take for granted back home. And that would be our ability to access water. I mean think about how many places you have running water in your house... it's a lot! And even if you aren't about drinking the tap water because it tastes weird or whatever, you could drink it and you would be fine. It's not going to kill you. And this is the craziest thing, you can adjust how hot or cold the water is coming out of the faucet. Now let me tell you about the water situation in Haiti: As far as water that is safe for us to drink, there is none. Unless you go buy clean water that comes in these small plastic bags that you have to bite the corner off of and drink the water from the bag. Now for bathing water, some of the host homes have a well near the house where they go get water from everyday and bring it back to the house. At our house we are dependent on the government turning the city water on everyday. It does have it's benefits. Like when it does work we can flush the toilet (we're the only house that can do that!). There also is a water spout that is set up like a shower so we can actually shower and not take a bucket bath. But it does have it's problems too.
For example: last week, we had water on Monday and Tuesday. So we all had our first experience with the patience of waiting for the water to come on so we could take a proper shower. And even though looking back we probably should have, we didn't shower Tuesday because we didn't think we were that gross and we were trying to save water for other people. Well, Wednesday the water didn't come. All day. And it was hot on Wednesday. So Thursday, the three of us that live together woke up dying from the dirt in our hair and the layers of bug spray clogging our pores. We just laid in bed and prayed God would bring the water today because we needed to bathe. So normally the water comes around 10. 10 came and went. No water. 11. Still no water. 12. We started talking about just walking to the beach and sitting in the water because we were so hot. And then we heard it: the sound of rushing water. We all sat up and about cried because we were so happy God had given us water. You will never appreciate a cold shower until you have been so miserable waiting for one. I just stood under that freezing water thanking God for hearing our prayers and giving us water. And then it hit me, when is the last time I thanked God for that?
Learning to thank God for all that He has given us will definitely not be the only thing I will learn from this trip. Here are some of the other things I have learned this week:
- One of the ladies that lives near us makes homemade potato chips and coleslaw. Kettle cooked chips ain't got nothing on this girl!
- Being able to purchase something simple that reminds us of home like Gatorade really does make a difference
- Motos do not have the ability to make it up hills (Wilson literally saved my life!)
- Spaghetti can be made into soup! You just gotta stick it in the blender. Don't try this at home. Your American stomach will be so confused
- Newborn bunnies are not cute. They are naked and wrinkly
- Cake icing here is so much better than it is in the States
Something I would like to start doing is finishing my posts with a Bible verse or a quote from devotionals we are reading here that have really stood out to me. This week it was from a devotion in the book "Grace Immersion" about the story of Martha and Mary found in Luke 10:38-42: "Now before you jump to the conclusion that Jesus doesn't want people to cook and clean, let me ask you this: If He had asked Mary for a drink, do you think she would have sprung to her feet and helped Him out? Of course! But she started with- and stayed with -a restful focus on Christ."
For example: last week, we had water on Monday and Tuesday. So we all had our first experience with the patience of waiting for the water to come on so we could take a proper shower. And even though looking back we probably should have, we didn't shower Tuesday because we didn't think we were that gross and we were trying to save water for other people. Well, Wednesday the water didn't come. All day. And it was hot on Wednesday. So Thursday, the three of us that live together woke up dying from the dirt in our hair and the layers of bug spray clogging our pores. We just laid in bed and prayed God would bring the water today because we needed to bathe. So normally the water comes around 10. 10 came and went. No water. 11. Still no water. 12. We started talking about just walking to the beach and sitting in the water because we were so hot. And then we heard it: the sound of rushing water. We all sat up and about cried because we were so happy God had given us water. You will never appreciate a cold shower until you have been so miserable waiting for one. I just stood under that freezing water thanking God for hearing our prayers and giving us water. And then it hit me, when is the last time I thanked God for that?
Learning to thank God for all that He has given us will definitely not be the only thing I will learn from this trip. Here are some of the other things I have learned this week:
- One of the ladies that lives near us makes homemade potato chips and coleslaw. Kettle cooked chips ain't got nothing on this girl!
- Being able to purchase something simple that reminds us of home like Gatorade really does make a difference
- Motos do not have the ability to make it up hills (Wilson literally saved my life!)
- Spaghetti can be made into soup! You just gotta stick it in the blender. Don't try this at home. Your American stomach will be so confused
- Newborn bunnies are not cute. They are naked and wrinkly
- Cake icing here is so much better than it is in the States
Something I would like to start doing is finishing my posts with a Bible verse or a quote from devotionals we are reading here that have really stood out to me. This week it was from a devotion in the book "Grace Immersion" about the story of Martha and Mary found in Luke 10:38-42: "Now before you jump to the conclusion that Jesus doesn't want people to cook and clean, let me ask you this: If He had asked Mary for a drink, do you think she would have sprung to her feet and helped Him out? Of course! But she started with- and stayed with -a restful focus on Christ."
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