Hey everybody!
I’m finally updating my blog about my first full week in
Haiti! First of all it seems like I have been here for much longer than just
one week. We arrived last Saturday in Port Au Prince. We are staying just
outside of downtown Port Au Prince at our contacts house. Our tents are all set
up in front of his house, with a big gate protecting our stuff from the busy
road right outside. The name of this wonderful man that we are staying with is
Pastor Jon Claude. He has absolutely showered us with blessings and really
treated us too well while we have been here. But we are so thankful for this
man and his kind heart of gold! He is a man after God’s heart for sure. We are
staying at a great big house that is home to about 25-30 people who always reside
in Haiti. This is truly a house of community and honor. Pastor has opened this
home for people of the church, orphans, and people he has discipled; to live
in. They all play a vital role in this home and are up early in the morning to
make this house run smoothly. It’s been really awesome for my team to be a part
of this daily community and to really just watch and start to pour into this
week. We see how everyone has a role and they serve the Lord so willingly. It
reminds me of the church in Acts where they share what they have and they pour
into one another. I am excited to continue building relationships with the
people who live here as we live alongside them. A few of the ladies who are our
friends taught us how to “really” do laundry a few days ago…wooo that was tough
work!! I now know the right way to
scrub clothes by hand… or at least I’m learning J
Last week on Sunday was our first day of church. This month
is already teaching me about truly worshipping the Lord. We go to Pastor Jon
Claudes church in a tent city right down the road from where we are staying.
Church started with a lot of praising Jesus in Creole and a lot of people
saying “Merci Senor” and “Merci Jesus” and a lot of arms in the air– fully and
completely praising Jesus for his provisions and love for them. I loved being a
part of this, we then were introduced to the congregation and were called up
one by one to share a few Words that God gave us for the Church in Haiti. This
was a little nerve racking but fun to get started with sharing some
encouragement with our Haitian brothers and sisters. At the end of the 4 hour
church service, Pastor informed us that most of the time these services go 5 or
6 hours…but he knows how we like to go straight from church to a big feast of a
lunch. Haha this made me laugh!
The people here are seriously so beautiful inside and out.
They dance before the Lord with joy even after a tragedy in their land. They
thank God for their lives and live to the fullest with praise and thanks. What
an example to us Americans who have everything and often don’t even raise our
hands to worship our God who gives grace and loves us in spite of ourselves.
Most of the people here literally have nothing, and yet they
have EVERYTHING if they have Christ. We know this truth if we know Christ, but
its just way more REAL to me to SEE this kind of faith and relationship with
God firsthand. They have literally had all stripped away so that all they have
is God and through this they have realized that all they truly NEED is God.
We were taken around town last Monday by Pastor to show us
the city and the different ministry options for the month. He told us first
hand about all that was going on here and that was great to have him sharing
his knowledge about the needs here. What we are realizing is its hard for us to
really meet any physical needs here, which we want to do so badly because we
desperately want to help the people in a tangible way! But it’s really hard
with limited resources. We are really seeking what opportunities God has for us
to just LOVE the people here and meet spiritual needs of the community around
us. This has been a challenge for some reason that we are still trying to
figure out. I personally am still learning that we have the power from God to
do MORE than physically help the country of Haiti.
I feel like God is really using this month to teach me what
truly worshipping Him and living my life without distractions looks like. I
have found my joy in so many other things besides Christ while living in the
U.S. Whether it was relationships, the computer, friends, family, t.v., food
and the list goes on. I have been able to turn to those things and find
temporary joy from them that kept my attention for a short time and then I
could move on to something else to find joy. Here however, it’s a different
story….I have so much time for reflection that it’s been hard to sit with
myself and God and just hash out what He’s trying to teach me. I honestly am
still trying to find my joy from other things when I know God is saying: HELLO
LEAH….YOU CAN’T FIND YOUR JOY FROM THOSE THINGS ANYMORE. I’m not going to allow
it any longer. IT’S YOU AND ME!!!
(He’s not really yelling those thoughts, just gently nudging but it kind of
feels like yelling haha) That
kinda freaks me out but starts to ignite that joy at the same time. So I feel
like I haven’t been myself lately but I’m excited to see Him pull me out of
this place of realization and make it action.
On a lighter note, last week some other missionaries were also staying here at
the house and went around to three parts of Haiti to set up some medical
clinics for the day here. Kendra, Laura and myself went with this small group
and were able to be a good help to them. We provided some youth to the bunch
and we all just really enjoyed each others company. It was weird to me that I
chose to do this medical clinic work instead of working at the school where the
rest of my team was going for the week, but I really felt called to go with
them and I’m glad I did. Laura and I were able to help the nurses by taking
blood pressure and getting all of the people’s information before they saw the
nurse or doctor for medications. This was so fun to just try to communicate
with people and also pray over people silently while I was taking their blood
pressure. We also built some relationships with the local Haitian nurses, we
had a good time just laughing and trying to communicate.
There has been
a lot of craziness that has gone down this past week with another team on our
squad who was staying up in the mountains of Haiti. We had to do a recon.
mission to go get some racers that were really sick and needed to stay with us
for medical attention. So Rachel, Kendra, and I braved a scary journey up the
mountains at night to go get our friends Lia and Kameron. Our van blew a tire
on the treck down this mountain after some young men randomly jumped in the
back. The spare tire had a whole
in it and we had to drive the rest of the way on a not-so blown up tire. So
basically the song “Jesus Take the Wheel” was very necessary for that drive
down the mountain. Jesus really did carry us down that mountain because there
is no other explanation for us making it safely down that bumpy dirt road on
the side of a cliff the way we did. But that’s all part of the adventure here
on the World Race and it gave us a great story to share with you all.
A few other members of Team Crash got pretty sick a few days
later and they decided to move the whole team off the mountain and into the
place we are staying at. SO now we have 14 World Racers at our place. It was a
hard transition for Lia’s team as they really loved where they were before, so
please be praying for them the next few weeks!! I however, love having them
here! They are so full of energy and have really encouraged me the past few
days of ministering with them! Thanks Team Crash J
Sorry this was kind of a lot of information all at once, I
will do a better job of separating out my blog topics, but for this one-since I
got a little behind I just threw it all atcha!
AND Last but not least….The title of this blog is “BLACK
BOOGERS TOO (2)” BECAUSE 1.) Kendra, on my team already used this title and we
decided to refer you all to each other’s blogs to get a different perspective
and to meet some teammates. SO go check out Kendra Floyds Blog Titled “Black
Boogers” and be inspired : ) And 2.) Because here in Haiti where the air is so
thick and lusciously dirty that we breathe everyday, our boogers literally turn BLACK from the gross dirty air we are breathing. We like to talk about this
stuff on the World Race, hope I didn’t gross you out too much with that lovely
fact! haha
Thank you for your prayers and encouragement! Please
continue to pray for my team as we are trying to figure some things out and
live in unity with one another, while serving the Lord. It’s a learning and
growing process for sure but God is totally moving! Love you all!
