Hey everyone, sorry it has been so long since I last blogged..
To begin this blog post, I just want to emphasize that I am still in need of funds in order to be fully funded for my trip. It has been truly amazing seeing how God has provided the funds for my trip through each and every one of you reading this blog. I can’t thank you enough. I have raised about $15,800 out of $18,100 and am looking forward to seeing the awesome way that God raises the rest of it.
Towards the end of our time in Haiti, my teammate Chandler and I were invited by Nelson to go to a birthday party for his little sister, Shamon (Shah-moan). While at the party, Nelson and his family were so incredibly kind and generous. They offered us lots of food and drinks and were so hospitable. We met his little sister and all of her friends and I was able to sit with them for a long time while they messed with my hair and I asked them tons of words in Creole. Due to the nature of our ministry in Haiti of doing construction either in our compound that we were confined in or the school that they had created as part of Grace So Amazing, we didn’t have much interaction with the culture and people of Haiti. But during this time at Shamon’s birthday party, I finally felt like I was able to connect with the Haitians on a deeper but also more normal and natural level. It was easily one of my favorite experiences while in Haiti and will definitely be a great memory that I will think about when I think of Haiti. Below is a picture of Nelson and his family as well as the birthday girl, Shamon (in the white dress). And the other picture is of Chandler and I with the group of kids that were there.
Leaving Haiti was a lot more difficult and sad than I had initially thought it would be. As we were leaving we said goodbye to all of the people we had worked with and met at the ministry and it was very sad. I had made a special connection and friendship with Nelson and John Wesley and saying goodbye to them was hard and I hope they’re still doing well. We left Haiti to go to our debrief Boca Chica, Dominican Republic on February 14th. Debrief is essentially a period of time in between leaving one country and going to another where you recap the countries you had just been to and have an opportunity to talk to both your leadership and the squad coaches and mentor come to the debrief to talk to our squad as well. Debrief was very relaxing and gave us a short period of time to relax and to talk about any question or issues we may have as an individual or a team. This month in the Dominican is our ‘all-squad’ month where the entire squad is together at one ministry site instead of splitting up to different locations throughout the country. After debrief, we took a bus to head up to our ministry site which is just north of Santiago de los Caballeros. We are in a beautiful ministry site up in the mountains.
Much of our ministry for this month will revolve around pouring into our squad mates, our teams, and ourselves in our growth in the Lord. We have some small projects to do around our ministry site including pouring cement on a roof and floor, sorting some wood that will be used for future projects, and going on prayer walks around the site. But, due to the amount of people that are here, we have a lot of free time. This free time has been spent so far diving into the Word, reading new books, and pouring into my team and squad mates trying to develop deeper relationships with each and every one of them.
