5 Weeks Done….and 10 More to GO…Roll Out

We serve a beautiful Lord. Today in church I almost started to cry. Just got to thinking how much I love this place, in the midst of it being exhausting, I love it, I love the people, I love how God moves her, I love the eyes of the children, the joy of their hearts, I love the beauty of the mountains, I love the beauty of a smile through stories of hardship. Today the church was singing and for a moment I closed my eyes to take it in. I opened my eyes to see a woman with outstretched arms, lifted high, standing at the front of the church. Such a beautiful sight. In the midst of great poverty, hardship, her arms were stretched open to the sky. Such a neat testimony…had to just watch her. It humbled me. I love seeing that faith. It is total dependence on the Lord. As the offering plate gets past around you watch people that walk through poverty put money in the plate…it is humbling, it is challenging, it is a struggle in my heart. How quickly I become comfortable in America? How quickly to I adjust to America and depend more on my mother, a friend vs depending on God? As I watched that woman this morning I wanted to weep for a place that I will miss, for the beauty of their faith, for the lack of my faith. This place will either make or break you…. Sunday is supposed to be the day of rest, but today was far from that. We are getting ready to take off in a day and trying to get thigns wrapped up here and everyone wants to sit down and talk. My Creole is hurting because I am so tired, but been holding it together. Ryna’s Creole is amazing and has been a gift from God. When I miss something, which I always do, she gets it. Two are better than one, always. Today we had an exposition for the community to come see what the children did from camp. SO neat to watch the whole church file into the school to see what the children had created in camp. Made me smile to see the ownership they took over their work. Lunch with the pastors, they always have 20,000 more ideas for next year…I laughed. I told them I haven’t even closed this year. Had lunch together and recapped on the camp, nice to keep the connection and invest in the relationships with them. After we started to hike for the hills to meet a friend. I got asked to be a godmother…hahah, so I was hiking into the hills to meet the child that I will see maybe once a year. We got about ½ mile out and it started to rain, Ryna and I took off in a run up hills. Lord, I haven’t done that in months. About 5 minutes from home both my sandals break….barefoot I take off for the house and the whole time I am praying that I don’t get hook worm..hahaha, a worm that I think gets into your body through your feet. Dodging the cow dung, the horse dung…O lord…cover my body. O the moments in Haiti. We are well….off for an adventure tomorrow night. We have to get the bus at 3 in the morning, so we are taking motorcycles at 1 in the morning into Port-De-Paix to get the bus. Pack of three motos…1 in the morning…sounds like a crazy adventure that I need you all to be praying over. Ma, this blog is for you. I am posting it after we are safe and sound….what a night. Ma, I was waiting to post it because I didn’t wait to freak you out. Our night, motorcycles show up late. Middle of the night, a pack of three motorcycles driving down a dirt road in the middle of Haiti. Can’t say I trusted our driver, kept telling him to slow down, but Ryna and I had some good laughs. All the men seemed to be a.o.k with the drive, laughing and smiling, Ryna and I joked about becoming nuns because we were irritated with men at that moment in the morning..hahaha. They were late, driving like idiots, and well…guess that was enough to make me think that becoming a nun at that moment would be good. Got to the bus station at 230, and on the bus to sweat out my dinner from last night. It was so hot. So hot…by so hot, I mean people crammed in a school bus, with no circulation of wind, and sitting next to big Ricky. Those buses are not designed for people like Ricky, he was a trooper. Think I would have complained the whole time, but he kept saying he was ok. Then we were off…rollocoaster. Literally a rollcoaster. We were told that it is a bus, but on the frame of an 18 wheeler, with tired from an 18 wheeler, so that the bus can sustain the road. We are safe and laughing so much. Caitlin is here tonight, our two Haitian brothers are with us and we are just laughing, so good. Might be one of my favorite memories on this trip. Tonight we ate dinner together, felt like a big ole family. Made me smile. We are safe and thankful to have a bed and a room with AC. AC...yes! Some pictures of camp up North. The children were learning different skills in the community. We hired teachers to teach them.