Intern Training

I cannot believe I have been in Haiti a week!  It feels like I have been here forever, but at the same time it feels like I got here yesterday.

Training has been going good.  We have been traveling to the different places we will take groups and learning some of the history. We went to Ansefelour the other day.  We hiked up to the voodoo monument and went into the voodoo temple.  I have been there twice before, but I still get goosebumps.  The spiritual warfare is so real there.  We have also visited a couple jails and brothels in different towns.  Each one breaks my heart.  Today we went to Port-de-Paix.  My favorite part was when we toured a school.  The kids were chanting "blan" which means white, but they were so excited.  At one point I had more kids than I could count attached to me.  I love just being able to interact with them.

Speaking of interacting, my Creole is getting a little better.  We have had a couple of lessons, and the kids in the area have been a huge help.  However, I still have a long way to go.

We had quiet time at the waterfall yesterday. We all looked for verses that had to do with grace, compassion, patience, and unconditional love.  My prayer is that I will be filled with these qualities as we prepare for the incoming teams.  I am so excited for them, but I am very nervous at the same time!

I am missing all of my friends and family like crazy, but I know I could not be in a better place.  This is definitely the summer of a lifetime.

Saint-Louis-du-Nord

Bonswa from Haiti! Wow, I really have no idea were to begin. Right now I am definitely feeling overwhelmed, but that is okay because I know I am where I am supposed to be. So far we have really just been getting to know the staff and getting acclimated with campus. It has been two years since I have been here, and so much of campus has changed! Haiti sill seems the same: beauty and poverty intertwined. Today we went to church. I have to admit, it definitely made me miss Daybreak. However, It was breathtaking to see the people I love worshipping the God I love. I sat down in the church and made eye contact with a little boy. Smiles immediately came to both of our faces. It was James. For those of you who do not know, James is the little boy I fell in love with my first year. The second year he impressed me again, and truly changed my perspective on life. After church, I was able to spend some time with him which was a huge blessing for me. I also spent a lot of time with Kenzie, my dad's little boy. Of course he remembered my dad, and he kept asking me where "Lex" was. He told me to tell Lex he wants to see him again, and he is very excited to meet Lex's wife in July. Some of the interns and I walked through the town for a little bit today. The Haitian people are beautiful. One boy took us to his house where we talked to him and his father. His father could not stop saying how happy he was, and the boy told us it was the best day of his life. The boy gave me a painting. Once again a people I came to serve, served me. How do I even describe that? Well that is all I have time for now. Tomorrow we start a more intense training as we will be traveling to different sites. I am so excited to see what God has in store for me! I love you all, and I miss you like crazy! Thank you for your sweet comments; they have been so encouraging!

Greater Things Have Yet To Come

Five days.  Five days until I embark on a journey.  Five days until I start a summer that will forever shape the rest of my life.  Five days until I leave for Haiti.  I could not be more excited.  I have been dreaming of this internship since I returned from my last trip to Haiti two years ago.  I was sitting in history class when I received the email saying I had been accepted.  My professor and classmates probably thought I was crazy because I could not stop crying.  What an amazing opportunity my God has given me.

God has really been both working on my heart and preparing me for this trip this year.  My previous two trips to Haiti have indescribably changed me, and I have felt that change continue specifically this year.  I have felt God’s call to one day work internationally; however, I do not know exactly what that entails.  My Philosophy final this semester was a research paper about what our future plans are.  In the course of writing this paper, I came across a verse in Proverbs that says, “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps” (Proverbs 16:9).  God has been establishing my steps, and I have no doubt that this trip is one of those steps.

God has been preparing me for this trip from little ways, like living in a dorm with no air conditioning, to big ways, like financially making it possible for me to go.  He also gave me the opportunity to go on a week long mission trip to Arlington, Texas during spring break.  Considering Texas is in the United States, I did not expect to receive assurance about my international call on my trip, but I was wrong.  At our second vacation bible school site, I became really close with four little boys.  I gave piggyback rides, colored pictures, made salvation bracelets, and played soccer all week with these boys.  I was blessed and challenged by these boys.  All four boys were from Africa.  In an area that consisted of children mainly from the United States, I connected with boys from Africa.  For me, this was God’s way of showing me He has a plan for my life, and it is in fact international.  There was another moment where God showed his almighty power to me.  I wrote about it in a reflective essay after my trip.

           

We were at worship one day, and we were singing the song “God of This City” by Chris Tomlin.  The song goes, “for greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city.”  The guy leading worship had us change this city to my city.  As we were singing this, Georgetown, Kentucky was not the city that I first thought of, nor was my hometown.  Saint-Louis-Du-Nord, Haiti was the city that was on my heart and became my prayer during this song.  God used this song to show me that He has greater plans for me than I could ever imagine.  This summer I will be spending eleven weeks in Saint-Louis-Du-Nord, and this short trip to Texas has prepared me in so many ways for this longer trip to Haiti.  I am ready and excited to see the great things that God will do in this city, in my city, this summer and in the future.  I am so thankful that I went to Texas, but I am even more thankful for God showing me a piece of His calling for my life during this spring break.

My trip to Texas was a blessing as it was a step God had laid out for me.  I know that this Haiti trip is the next step in His plan.  I ask for your prayers in the next five days as I prepare for my trip, and throughout the next eleven weeks as I seek God’s will for my life.