Beach Day In Haiti!!!

Wahoo Bay! 

Yesterday we went to Wahoo Bay! It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to in my entire life. We started off the day at the beach by going snorkeling. That was quite an adventure in itself as about twelve people all hopped onto this one small wooden boat and had to balance it out. We went about a mile out and there wasnt enough gear for everyone. We all took turns from treading water to snorkeling. As I was in the middle of the crystal clear water with the most insane mountains surrounding me I just kept thinking to myself how crazy it is that im in Haiti, snorkeling at the most beautiful beach. Although I didnt see anything, it was so worth the experience to be out in the water and remind myself how blessed I am to be here. All day I kept thinking how amazing and beautiful God is. He designed everythifng!
The ride there was beautiful but it was hard to see some of the villages and people on the streets. When I was at the beach I couldnt believe that I was at the same place that is filled with so much poverty and destruction. We drove past where the people were buried from the earthquake, and we drove past hundreds and hundreds of tents and tiny homes all lined up on the mountains. As I was driving past all that, I just reminded myself that even in the brokeness God is still God and He makes beautiful things!

Love the App Crew! 

Although none of us wanted to leave the beach it was awesome to get back in time to see the Sunset! It was so beautiful! I took 260 pictures just yesterday. Cant wait to show you more!

We are headed to Port au Prince againt today to work witht he campus crusade students!

What Faith Can Do...

In the "Tap Tap" with our Sodas we bought from the grocery store in Port au Prince 

 Ephesians 6:19 "Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should." 

God really spoke to me through this verse yesterday as we went to the University in Port au Prince and shared the gospel to the college students. I had never experienced anything like it. It was so amazing to watch God show up and work in us so that people far from God would come to know him. It wasnt easy, especially with the language barrier, it was one of the most challenging experiences, but I knew I wasnt alone. Its even hard to step out and have the courage to share the gospel at my own college campus. But its a completely different challenge when your in a another culture. Faith was what got me through it and is what led me and my friend Read to get Johnson (the guy in the picture) to accept Christ yesterday.

Read and Me with Johnson after he recieved Christ

Right when we arrived, we gathered in this room with Pastor Sony, the president, and the secretary of the University and our translators. After we introduced ourselves one by one and sang a song of worship, we were on our own to go up to any one of the students and talk to them. Two of my friends and I started talking to this one guy (he spoke some english). He was a Chrisitan, and he kept saying "give me advice, I want advice from you." He wasnt very specific so I began to tell him what God has been teaching me over the past 2 years and gave him advice on trusting God with everything you have even in the hardships. After I was done talking with him, two other college students waved me over to them. I didnt have a translator with me so communicating with them was very challenging. At first they just wanted my number, when I said no, they asked if It was because I had a boyfriend. I said, "yes, he is back in the States" (haha thought you would laugh at that Samuel). One of the guys left and I asked Johnson what he believed in. He said he only believed in himself. After I started asking many questions and telling him who Jesus is, he said to me that he didnt think he was worthy enough to recieve Jesus love. At that point my friend Read came over and we both were talking with to him. As the conversation started getting deeper, Pastor Sony came over to be our translator. We went through the four spiritual laws with him. We gave him the booklet that was in Creole and we had an english one. As we asked him what each verse meant to him you could totally see God working in his heart. We asked him if he would like to invite Jesus into his heart. After he said YES, Pastor Sony prayed the prayer with him. We then all held hands and I prayed over Johnson and prayed for the incredible journey he is now on with God.

I had never experienced something like this in my whole life. For God to use me and Read to lead Johnson to Christ is the greatest blessing. What this experience taught me is that with God nothing is impossible. We cant do these things alone. It has nothing to do with us but it has everything to do with God. He is your best teammate. It was so awesome to share this experience with Pastor Sony and Read. Before we left Port au Prince one of the Haitian leaders from Campus Crusade led us in a song called "Trust and Obey." We must trust God with everything, and obey and follow what He has called us to do.
 With love because He is love, Cam

Blessed to Bless

Genesis 12:2-3

"I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." 

Going to Port au Prince today to share the gospel with many college students at the University. Please pray for me and for the team as we step out, share our stories, and try to bring students to Christ. We have been having evangelism training all week to prepare for this amazing experience we are going to have. I am so excited and I know God is all around me and His power and love will work in us today.

A Sweet Monday In Haiti

MY sweet girl Camalla

Yesterday we started a new task for work. The girls worked in the garden and pulled out weeds while the boys went in the chicken coop and dug up poop. It was so fun to work right next to where the kids had school because during their recess we got to take a break and play with them! Its quite overwhelming and very chaotic when about 100 kids are all wanting to be held and played with, but I must say it is a very beautiful thing to be apart of. We were all getting tackeled. Its amazing to see how jealous the kids get of each other when your only holding one of them. This little girl got punched in the throat by a little boy because he wanted me to hold him and not her. I brought her into the school and held her for about 30 minutes while she cried. It was so sad. As I was holding her while the other kids were climbing on me and circling around me screaming "photo" my heart started to break as I thought about how all these kids want is affection. 

When we got back to work in the garden, some of the older Haitians just grabbed some shovels and started helping. It was so great to watch all of us working together. They have the biggest hearts and are the hardest workers. It was very humbling to see how much they love to serve. I met this one 19 year old girl. She was one of the sweetest people and we both started singing "Forever God is Faithful" as we worked together. It amazing to watct Haitians sing, they have the most joyful smiles on their faces and they love to sing praises to God all throughout the day.
I was so happy when I saw my little girl Camalla outside the fence in the garden. I gave her one look and smiled at her, and she started running to me and just jumped in my arms. I could hold that little girl for days :)

I am excited to see what God has planned for today. I know He is all around me and His presence with me is a promise. Please continue to pray for me and for the team!

You Are Making Me New

Church was amazing today. Seeing Haitians worship God is unlike anything Ive ever seen before. God is so amazing. We were all singing to Jesus saying over and over again, "Nothing is impossible for you, you hold the world in your hands!" It felt so good to sing that to God as I have experienced feeling like its impossible to communicate witht he haitians and impossible to fix the brokeness here. When I go through port au prince and when I go to the village and see the kids and what people live in my heart just wants to change everything for them. I just want to help instantly. But I was reminded today that only God can fix things and can make beauty come out of brokeness. With him nothing is impossible. He holds Haiti in His hands even though its hard to see that sometimes. I know God can keep anyone at perfect peace when we stay close to Him
As I was worshiping God at church, It was crazy to think that my family and friends were at church back in the states praising the same amazing God! God is a big God, He is everywhere. Even though I am what feels like an entire world apart from my family, I am growing in love through Gods word with my Haitian brothers and sisters. I realized when I was in that room that we are all one family and that the one thing we all have in common is that we are all growing together as God is working in each of our lives. Thats such a beautiful thing.

After church we distributed rice and beans, and hygene packets to the Haitians. Durning this week of work, were stuffed bags of food, and made the hygene packets. There were times when I was bored and felt like I could have been doing something so much better, but then today really showed me that what we were doing really made a big difference. It was really cool to hand out what our team has been working on this whole week. There were guards directing people where to line up. It was difficult to watch how rough the guards have to be with the woman and children but I know that without them it would have been so chaotic. It broke my heart to watch people line up so close together and push each other around a little bit just to get one bag of rice and beans and at the same time I knew that I was just 30 steps away from being in an air conditioned kitchen about to be fed yummy food. Im still trying to wrestle with that. Why I am so blessed? I know I need to welcome challenging opportunities to trust God knowing that no set of circumstances is too much for me to handle.
This little girl held onto me for the longest time when I was done handing out the hygene packets. Everytime I would put her down she just held on to my neck and wouldlnt let her feet touch the ground. She was the cutest thing and I felt like we just had an instant connection. It was hard leaving her to go have lunch, but I told her that I would come see her at the village soon!

God is teaching me so many things. Although I miss home sometimes, Haiti is feeling like home more and more everyday. Please pray for me as I continue this journey for a little less than 4 more weeks!

The cutest little girl ever!

I love my family with all my heart! Thinking about you!

Catch Up

The best way to summarize these past 3 very rainy days is to tell you that God has been testing my patience and has given me circumstances where I just have to trust him with my whole heart. I have kind of been having a hard time in feeling helpless and useless sometimes.
I thought I would share with you this of the highlights of this week so far-On friday, I went to the village with some of my friends. As I was walking into the village, I stepped in the huge pile of mud and my shoe and foot was covered. I started to walk again and then the little girl that was holding my hand stopped me, got down on her knees and started to scrape the mud off my shoe with her finger. It was one of the most humbling and eye opening moments. The reason it was so beautiful to watch that is because it gave me such a vivid and amazing picture of who Jesus is. The little girl didnt know me, but she served me. Those precious moments are when my heart breaks and I pray for God to help use those moments to become more like him.

James 1:2 "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith developes perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

What an amazing reminder that was to read yesterday morning as the day really tested my patience and my trust in difficult circumstances. Experiences like these teach you so much about being flexible. The plan of going to port au prince got canceled due to the rain, so instead of interacting with college students it was another day of work. I worked in a swamp yesterday. Now, if you know me, you know that I am the last person in the world to work in a swamp for the day. With spiders everywhere, mosquitos attacking you, being told to not freak out about snakes, and your feet sinking into the mud in the rain, I really needed the Lord to help me have a good attitude.
Im learning that people dont always grow from an amazing experience. They grow the most in times of discomfort, times of frustration, dissapointment, and times of uncertainty. Even though I have not seen the kids that much and cant really communicate with the haitians other than saying "hello, how are you? and how old are you?" I know God is teaching me, that I only need Him. Even though I may spend a whole day just moving boxes, I am praying that God would help me see situations through His pure and perfect eyes.

All Creation Will Proclaim..."You are Lord!"

With the Birthday Girl in the "tap tap." What a rewarding place to spend your 21st!

"For I am the Lord, your God  who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you." Isaiah 41:13

Today we went into Port au Prince. I woke up just thinking about what this day was going to be like and the challenges it would bring me. I opened up my devotional and thought that I would share with you what I read this morning-God is SO AMAZING!

"I AM INVOLVED in each moment of your life. I have carefully mapped out every inch of your journey through this day, even though much of it may feel haphazard. Because the world is in a fallen condition, things always seem to be unraveling around the edges. Expect to find trouble in this day. At the same time, trust that My way is perfect, even in the midst of such messy imperfection. Stay conscious of Me as you go through this day, remembering that I never leave your side. Let the Holy Spirit guide you step by step, protecting you from unnecessary trials and equipping you to get through whatever must be endured. As you trudge through the sludge of this fallen world, keep your mind in heavenly places with Me. Thus the Light of My Presence shines on you, giving you Peace and Joy that circumstances cannot touch."

Now that I am laying in bed processing what being in Port au Prince was like, I realize more and more how bad I needed to read that today. We rode in the "tap-tap" for 2 hours through Port au Prince to get to the Campus Crusade office.  When I say two hours, that was two hours of driving through the most poor, broken, crazy, and messy place I have ever been to in my life. I couldnt believe what my eyes were seeing as I was looking out at all the destruction from the earthquake, seeing hundreds of tents that people live in, and watching people lay in the trash on the ground starving. All I can say is that being in Port au Prince for just one day has built up very deep questions in my mind and has re-shaped my perspective on a lot of things in life. We had a little break of rest and peace when we got dropped off to meet with the Pastor of Campus Crusade at the University there.
A very special moment happend to me. One of the University students came up to me with the biggest smile on his face telling me about how he found Jesus. He said to me over and over again, "I am free, I am free, through the love of Jesus Christ." It was so humbling to hear that as he was standing in the poorest and most broken place. Only knowing my name, he then asked me what my story was. In his very broken english he said, "How did you did you come to know Jesus?" It was so great to share our stories with one another and help each other out with the language barrier.

ME AND TWO OF THE UNIV. STUDENTS!

The ride back to the compound was another adventure in itself as we drove back for 2 hours in the pouring down rain. There were some laughs as all 26 of us were getting thrown around from the insane driving and bumpy roads (that was the physical draining part). There were times today when I was complaining in my head from being tired, soaking wet, and getting a little car sick. But then my selfish mind slapped me in the face when I took a moment and looked out of the bus and saw people asking for a dollar and food. I have nothing to complain about. I felt very frustrated and confused today as I was looking at Port au Prince and asking myself why things have to get this bad.  As one of the guys waved and said "Bonswa" to this one mother through the bus, she held her stomach and pointed to her baby saying that they were hungry. My heart hurt so bad. I was feeling their brokeness and just wanted to get out of the bus and help. It was hard to just drive past all this and not be able to do anything. I felt a huge sense of helplessness.

God brought a little peace to my mind when we got back to the compound. As I was about to go on a run with some of my friends, the kids were  getting out of school. The kids grabbed my hand and I let go after a while and started running. They thought it was a game and started running after me. It was so funny. This one little girl wouldnt let go of me the whole time and I ended up walking them to their village from school and got to see some of their homes and say hey to some of their families. Ill never forget doing that.
God has challenged me and the team in a huge way today. The only thing there is to do in the process of trying to understand everything is just to PRAY about it and trust that God is sovereign. He uses our frustration, our sadness, our circumstances, and uses the times that we dont understand anything to help shape us to be MORE LIKE HIM!