Haiti - Final Countdown!

The first half of our team leaves today, and Rachel and I leave in just seven short days! Time has just flown by yet we are truly feeling prepared and at peace to go :)

Thanks to the Lord for his incredible provision! At this time we are over half funded, and Rachel has a couple prepaid babysitting jobs to do when she is back. We were able to get our immunizations and anti-malaria prescriptions last weekend, thanks to a great local nurse who provides affordable missions travel vaccines at the Good News Clinic in Rockwood.

The team has a blog! I'm the blogger while we are in Jacmel, but there will be updates from the team heading to Carrefour as well, if you are curious: http://haitifall2014blog.wordpress.com

Ways to pray NOW:

Rachel is wrapping up drivers ed in the days to come. She has to take her finals early due to our trip, so please keep her in your prayers Wednesday and Thursday evening from 5-8pm. (her sister Emily will be doing the presentation portion of their final alone on Monday the 17th, and as long as that goes well, and Rachel passes her other finals, she will have passed drives ed!) Rachel also has classes to prepare to miss the week we are out, which  means the pressure really is on her!

I have found the Lord to be quite a teacher to me in these past weeks; learning much about dependence and trust in Him through car troubles and physical challenges. I am suffering from increased numbness in my right arm due to disc compression in my neck - it had been almost completely alleviated through massage/pt/chiro, but has returned with a vengeance. I saw a neurosurgeon and we are awaiting a new MRI to see what we are dealing with. I have confidence that this will not cause any issues in Haiti; it seems to be an issue primarily when sitting (at a desk or in my car) and in Haiti we will be doing everything but sit! You can pray that Providence (my insurance provider) will have mercy and grant me a second MRI this year! Other than that, I'm able to adjust myself as needed to keep the muscle spasms at bay, and I'm practicing the things I've learned through physical therapy. Work is going well and I believe everything will be just fine in my absence. At home, the rest of our family is prepared to take care of things (it does help to have three teenagers and a willing husband, along with a terrific extended family and friends!) My brother (Nick) is at peace about our trip (he is an inmate at CRCI) and we will be spending time with my mom Ellen this weekend (she turns 60 while we are gone!)

We have some last minute things to pickup and anti-malaria meds to take on Sunday, but otherwise, we are just readying our hearts and minds for the ways the Lord will use us specifically while we are in Haiti. May we be so available to His service home and away,

For 48 hours I was heading to haiti

deep and urgent the call was - unmistakable.
so I stepped into the water and I began to walk...
worthiness is not defined by the standards of the world...

and then the edge fell away, and we found the water too deep to continue.

What does a person do with this? I know many (most) see crazy. I see opportunity - pursuit - life.

I know, we prefer things neat and tidy. We prefer savings accounts and retirement funds, logical plans, time. Of all things we prefer time - time to plan, to prepare, to evaluate...

Our unsettled souls desire the speed to distract..

to hide, to escape. 

The Lord says - rest, peace and joy

are found in his purpose. 

One asked, are you at peace?
Absolutely ~ I went to the edge... What was that all about then? So many proper people want to know. Well. I've thought. Perhaps faith? Perhaps relationships? Perhaps deeper awareness? Perhaps simple obedience.

You cannot live without movement, without walking. You cannot stand without risking to fall. Such truth in simplicity.

Inescapable Joy

Joy -

As I have settled home and spent time processing our time in Haiti, beyond the lessons in thankfulness and humility... ...  I have found myself with a radically different perspective on joy.  The joy they share is a deep deep joy that springs out now matter the season, no matter the weather, no matter the moment.

My friend Adam said it well to the children in Lira (Africa) as he prepared to leave,

"You children have a joy that so many people in America wish they could have, yet they fail to see the way to experience the real joy that you experience. We always say that we are coming here to do all these things and give you children something that you need. We forget to say that when we come here, you give us something that we need. We are in debt to you, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as you. You are co-heirs with Jesus Christ, and your joy that comes from Him overflows into our cups." http://adamneil.blogspot.com/

Everywhere I go on the web, people are sharing the same thing... Ann Voskamp shared the same lesson during her very recent trip to Haiti,

Hope, it is exquisitely fragile and it is an exceptional force and it is essential to faith and you can’t afford to lose it. Lose your fears but never your hope. The whole church fills with this trumpeting worship and we raise our hands and sway and hope can create a quake that cracks all despair. Our smiles can be real epicenters. Christ-centered joy that brings down all the walls. There is hope here — a hope refrain that won’t end. Hope, it lives in us, in Christ Who is in us. And how can the horns not herald it, even here: Never despair of a situation more than you trust in your Savior. It isn’t the likelihood of your hope that sustains you, but the object of your hope that sustains you. http://www.aholyexperience.com

Joy - something so desperately necessary all the time... but especially in this time, in this place. As a backyard people in a fast paced world, we crash every night longing for something we can't always find, and hunger for a food that lasts... but in lands distant, where poverty and hunger and war and disease are battled EVERY DAY, there is joy, there is hope, there is peace.

I pray that we would be awakened from our slumber -
Bonde Bene Ou!

experiences

The girl and I have been home from Haiti for one week...


One week?


I woke this morning drawn to the passage I shared one evening in Haiti, as thoughts of heading home were beginning to solidify for our team... We were off to the beach in the morning, the work we were doing to be continued by others... heading home in just 36 hours, yet I think to most of us it felt like we had surely just arrived...

"Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail, and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will REJOICE in the Lord; I will take JOY in the God of my salvation.

God, the Lord, is my STRENGTH; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places."
Habakkuk 3:17-19

I'm still impressed by, and quite possibly overwhelmed by, the gift that God has given us to live thankfully. God doesn't want us to have mountaintop experiences that fade away as we wander a valley on our way to heaven, but longs for us to be drawn to him, to live at a higher level of faith in THIS life - placing our feet on the stones he has laid before us on the walls of a cliff... facing each sunrise confidently with the wind hard in our face... tucked into a cave trusting the maker of the storms... That's what Habakkuk says, and that is what our friends in Haiti would say - in the midst of life, rejoice as they acknowledge that things are fleeting but GOD is not. So here we are, thousands of miles from this lesson, and I'm still drawn to it. The sun is rising in the trees and I have an office to spend my day in... What would Habakkuk say to me?

"Though the fig tree blossom plentifully, and fruit is heavy on the vines... the produce of the olive is bountiful and the fields are full of food... the sheepfold grows by the day and the stalls are packed with herds... I will REJOICE in the Lord; I will take JOY in the God of my salvation.

God, the Lord, is my STRENGTH; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places."

God is still the same, yesterday, today, and forever.

Defining Prosperity

Marjorie proclaims "You are my Haitian daughter" and proceeds to fix my hair. Humbled, I sit patiently as she combs out dandruff I pay thirty dollars a bottle to keep under control. I can almost feel her thoughts - don't those Americans comb their hair? I have a lot to learn from the world around me...
 
My hair is short and soon it was styled beautifully, perfect for the American daughter who was pierced clean through by genuine thankfulness.

Thankfulness.. a term that we use rather flippantly at times, and humbly at others... but in Haiti, thankfulness was a lifestyle. Thankful for each other, for water, for sunlight, for rain, for tap-taps... for a toothbrush, tylenol, backpacks... jump-ropes and barrettes, hugs and kisses and tears... joy and sorrow, all mixed into a jumble of perpetual thankfulness.

We were able to install solar lighting during our trip; a gift of a little something from believers a continent away to six families in Jacmel. One family said that the lighting meant prosperity to them. Four lights equals prosperity? Merriam-Webster has this to say of prosperity- Prosperity is the condition of being successful or thriving; especially : economic well-being

I have a lot to learn about being prosperous...

Let's Talk About Haiti

One.
Haiti was, by far, the most eye opening experience I have had... and I have experienced many things. The people were the most humble and thankful that I have met anywhere... having nothing and less than nothing yet praising God in the midst of it all for the life that they do have. Thankful for the chance to get a solar light set for their house... for a pair of shoes... for water.
Two.
Live simply so that others may simply live. This is the common line from Pastor Lefleur and Restoration Ministries. This is a message that we have been sharing for years here in the states. This is a message that pierced my heart while in Haiti. Anna, a beautiful woman very similar to Annete in India, lived this message before us as a visitor from the states. I pray that I can see those areas in my life that are overflowing with excess and let go to live more simply.
Three.
The Caribbean Sea is so amazing ... Isn't God creative? Isn't God loving? wow.
Four.
Living missional. Here is where I will say that the challenge lies. Do we have to travel three thousand miles, spend two thousand dollars, and work in 99* heat to learn what it is to live this life that God has called us to? Probably not. I am incredibly thankful for the opportunities I have had to travel on short term missions, but on the flip side, I long to live that life right here.

Returning from Haiti, I feel very conflicted. On the one hand I know we worked and played hard. I know that we shared in the love and grace and freedom of Christ. I know that we brought new money to the neighborhood pot, and there are a little more needs being met today due to the blessings we were able to shower.

On the other hand, I know that when we worked there were people who were not able to. When teams aren't there local laborers are hired. I know that we received extra attention from the kitchen, from the children, and from the community at large. This isn't a bad thing, but we added a burden to the community while being there. I read it like this on another blog; could you imagine pulling up in a poverty stricken neighborhood in America, walking about taking pictures and saying hello to the poor people present? This would, in America, sow seeds of bitterness. I pray that we would always seek God as we go out - pursuing his leading and calling. That we would be willing to do whatever He calls us to do, wherever he calls us to do it.

I am so thankful for our brothers and sisters in Haiti, for teaching me so much and allowing me to encourage and share life with them. I long to return already - to worship with them, teach them English, wash dishes with them, and play games with the children...

Haiti

Here it is, the final week! This means that some of us have already packed and repacked our bags a few times…. double checking everything to make sure its all in order. I still need something... Oh, grapefruit seed extract? I've been fending off some kind of virus this week... a cold, I think.

We had a great time Sunday as we packed away all of the gifts going with us - about 50 pounds of childrens tylenol, 50 pounds of shoes, about 100 pairs of reading glasses, lots of clothing, and cases of jump ropes  - THANK YOU!

We had room for everything in the baggage limits we were give, as God would so design it :0)

The solar equipment is going with us in our carry on luggage, so that it will make it no matter what!

Please pray for us -

• we are excited and need to get a good night's rest the next few days.
• we long to be spiritually ready for Haiti and so some of us are fasting today or tomorrow.
• some of us still have financials to be worked out.
• six of our team mates are new to short term missions. these new travelers may be nervous, apprehensive, excited, overwhelmed, or all of the above.

After a red-eye flight across country, we will arrive in Port-Au-Prince at 1pm Saturday. The anticipated forecast for Haiti is 97* with 80-100% humidity!

Excited for the opportunity to be the hands, feet, and words of Christ in Haiti -
Lanelle & Rachel