And The Work Begins...

      Blessed
It has been an exhausting but awesome past two days. Yesterday we started the first day of work and worked in a warehouse from 8:30 to 12:00. I wasn’t really prepared for what it was going to be like so I think that’s why yesterday was a much harder morning than today. Yesterday morning, after breakfast, we worshiped and sang the song “enough.” Brooke and I always harmonize that song together and it made me think about her and miss her all day. As I still did the harmony of it, I prayed for you Brookie, and that you would trust God more and more every day this summer. He has wonderful plans for you. It has taken me a while to get used to the salty taste of the water so the challenge for me yesterday was staying hydrated. We also had a Creole lesson for a long time. It was so cool but very hard. The language here is beautiful. I loved learning how to sing, “Lord I lift your name on high” in Creole. Last night was great. After we had spaghetti for dinner and FRESH mangos (first fruit we have had) we got into our discipleship groups that we will meet with every Monday night and told our life stories. As I was listening to the amazing girls in my group and also telling my story it made me realize how beautiful it is to have a “God story.” It makes me excited to know that God has already written the rest of my story and that I get to walk hand in hand with Him as I continue to see what that is. I know this 5-week journey will be such a huge part of it. I know it will because I’ve only been here for 5 days and have learned so much about myself, about faith, and about God. 

Even though the heat today is absolutely scorching, it has been a much more peaceful day. I don’t know if that’s because I am getting used to everything here and getting closer with the team, or if its because I knew what to expect when we worked for 4 hours this morning. Each day I’m getting more used to the water so I was more hydrated today. I led a devotional for the team this morning about being still in Gods presence and letting Him control your thoughts so that we would receive His peace in the most effective way. It was a perfect devotional to study this morning as I had the hardest time falling asleep last night along with some of my friends from thinking about the green little bugs in our beds (haha). This is one of the things you can pray about.

                                                                   The App State Group!

Getting tackled! 

The cutest thing happened to me as I was heading back to the warehouse from a water break this morning. So many of the kids were all outside in their school uniforms playing with each other in between their sessions.  I waved to them and before I knew it they were all running full force towards me screaming with huge smiles on their faces and just tackled me. All of them just wanted me to hug them and hold them. I had about two boys climbing on my right leg, and two other boys climbing on my left. I held two little girls on each side of my hip and had one precious girl on my back crying because the little boy behind her was pulling her down so he could get on my back. It soon got out of hand and before I knew it my pants were falling off and I was completely on the ground laughing hysterically, trying to remember how to say, “just hold on” in Creole. It was chaos but it was a moment that I will never forget. They all had no idea who I was, but they showed so much love to me and just wanted to be loved back. It was beautiful. 
Please continue to pray for me and for our team. We are going into Port au Prince all day tomorrow and working with University students!