Lilly, Voodoo, and Ester.

So today was the first day I saw God's plan laid out in front of me and saw the attacks of Satan waiting for me. During the morning quiet time for the group I didn't get to have time to read The Word because I was doing dishes. We then rushed off to Ansefoleur for the morning. As we were on our way, I looked up out of the windshield and saw a woman laying in the middle of the street having a seizure. People had started throwing water on her (a typical custom to help in a first aid situation in Haiti). I immediately told the driver to stop and jumped out of the bus. My dad and a few other people followed. I ran over to her and started feeling for a pulse. We then moved her to the pavement as to not be sitting in the middle of morning traffic in St. Louis du Nord, Haiti. I started pulling out every ounce of my first aid knowledge to try to help and then we decided we needed to run back to the mission. So me and the leader of the group, Paul, took off on foot to run up to the mission. I led him to the big hill and then let him run up it in order to not be slowed down by me. I then ran back to the street to find that a crowd had gathered. As soon as I got back, my dad had informed me that this woman, Lilly, is the sister of Woodley. Woodley happens to work in Aquaponics at the mission. By this time, another staff member came down on the 4-wheeler. We put her on the 4-wheeler and sent her back to the mission. We found out later that she is known in town as "the crazy lady" because she has frequent seizures. She would come to the back of the mission near Aquaponics with a bloody face because people would hit her and abuse her for being "crazy." She had just been undiagnosed with seizures. She was given seizure medication and this is the first month she has been on it and she has done very well. Yesterday her medication ran out and she didn't renew it. And we just happened to be on the same street at the same time to be there to help her. Talk about God's timing!

But once again the Devil let me get too busy for The Word and then I almost missed the opportunity to help a woman in need. God is totally convicting me of how I become enthralled with service and not those I am to serve. I become caught up in how well I am washing their feet than why I am washing them and Who I am washing them for. The Lord has truly opened my eyes to those tendencies.

We then continued on to Ansefoleur and walked up to the monument. We had an awesome time of prayer, Scripture reading, and worship. On our way down, one of our team members got to lead a young girl to Christ. Like...seriously?!?!?! How cool is that?

In my last post I talked about a young girl, Ester. We have gotten very close over the last few weeks. We had a special sleepover with some of the girls from the community that we have gotten close to. At the sleepover Ester asked me to be the godmother of her baptism. That is such a big deal because she is asking me to be the individual in her life to put her back on course when she has gotten astray and to be an enormous part of her spiritual life. I am so honored. I also get to go over to Tortuga to help with her baptism and spend time at the revival that is currently going on over there.

So much is happening and I can't believe the summer has gone so quickly. I have one more week and then I head home to "real life" again. It is so strange how this place has become home. The Lord has not ceased in amazing me with His plan. I am so honored to be his vessel.

So it's been a month....

So it's literally been a month since I posted last. I don't know why but it is so hard to blog about your life when every 5 minutes your life is changing. It's so easy to get weary here. I'm feeling very tired and am finding it hard to get the motivation to be enthusiastic and ready for ministry. 

We've experienced many losses. One of our workers, Idalia, passed away  one of our elderly orphans, Israel, died. And a baby that was born in the birthing center, Isaac passed away at just 1 day old. That all happened in 1 week. And there have been countless events in between that have shaken us to the core.

It was so difficult watching Idalia's 5 children become orphans in front of our eyes. Fedline (18), Mishelda (16), Ester (13), Jose (7), Chernider (6). Not only did their mother die but their father told them that he wanted nothing to do with them and that he was leaving after the funeral to start another family. I can't imagine the difficulty of such an event and to witness a close friend go through it was difficult for me. I've built some amazing relationships out of that loss though. Idalia's daughter, Ester, 13, has become so close to me. I knew her before and we joked plenty but after we mother died we really bonded.  I went with her and her sisters to drop her brothers off at the orphanage. We drove out there and the boys were pretty upset, the older girls were trying to keep a brave face and pretend everything was normal, and Ester was just sitting, a little shocked and a little lost. When we got to our La Baie campus and took all the boy orphans out there to the beach. Idalia's family came with us too. Ester had the time of her life with her siblings and the other boys. We played in the water and just had a blast. She would just hang onto me te whole time and just love on me. Which felt strange because she was the one who needed to be loved on. She had pure joy even in the midst of a trial.

Ester then decided to push me and Caitlin, a fellow staff member, to run every morning from on top of the hill where the mission is to the edge of the city and all the way back up. It's not fun but we turned it into a ministry. Some of the orphanage girls have started running with us. We call ourselves The Bouke Club. Bouke means "tired or exhausted from exercise or physical labor" in Creole.  We ran a couple mornings and then started a Bible study after our run. The girls are working on memorizing scripture. 

1 Timothy 4:12

"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young but set and example for all believers in speech, life , love, faith, and purity."

I'm excited to see where these ministry opportunities lead. It's kinda scary to think that the summer is almost over. Only 1 more team and then it will be time to head home. But I'm enjoying these last few weeks and loving every second I'm here.