Love Your Neighbors

My neighbors have been on my heart for the last couple of months. I love the children who live next door, but sometimes the adults are a little difficult to interact with. A few weeks ago I stopped by to take the children up the mountain for our feeding program and apparently some of the adults were making some very rude comments to the Haitians that were with me.  I started really praying for a way to make our relationship with them more positive and a way that we could help them. It seemed like a bit of an impossible task....how exactly do you help a group of 22 people living in tents with a hand up instead of a hand out?  Only a day or two later I stopped in at the cafe and while I was there a few people from an organization in Leogane stopped in and I started talking to them. They told me about all the programs that they have and as soon as they started talking about putting in gardens for families that need them it hit me that it was a perfect idea for my neighbors! I asked them more questions about what a family has to do to qualify and whether or not it would be possible for them to help my neighbors. They said they could do it...an answered prayer for sure!! We worked out the details and today we put in the garden! My neighbors were excited about it and helped work the soil and plant seeds after participating in a class to learn how to garden and compost.  I'm just so happy that the precious kids that I love will be able to eat more regularly than they do now and they will be eating nutritious vegetables! And if they decide to expand the garden it might even provide a way for them to make some money by selling produce in the market.  I'm going to bed tonight thanking God for answered prayers and new beginnings for my neighbors. Please pray that their garden will produce an abundance of vegetables and that the positive relationships that started today will continue. 

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Happy Birthday Daddy!

I seriously have the best dad in the world.  He is my rock and has always been one of my greatest supporters.  I think the Lord blessed me with such great parents in order to give me a passion for children.  I want every child to experience childhood like I did, always knowing acceptance and love.  Thank you Daddy for being the best earthly father a girl could ask for.  I love you and I hope you have a wonderful birthday!!

P.S.  Still hoping and praying that you and Mom are going to come to Haiti to visit me :)   

Wish List

Hey friends!
I've had a few people ask about sending me a care package, but I don't have an address here where I can receive packages.  I am coming back to the states soon so I made a wish list on Amazon in case anyone is interested in purchasing items that I need/want before I return to Haiti.  Amazon may not be the best place to purchase the items, but it was the easiest place to make a list so feel free to purchase them elsewhere instead :)

Wish List

Brokenness and a Rainbow

Every day here is heart breaking but some are more heart breaking than others. Today was one of those days. I hadn't seen my friend Kersland in a couple of weeks and I was starting to wonder about her.

Mwen avek zanmi'm Kersland - 6/23/13

I finally saw her today because she came up the mountain during English class. She had some really bad scrapes across her nose and when I asked her what happened she said that her mom hit her with a cinder block because she didn't go get water when she asked her to.  I had to just hug her really tight, tell her how much I love her, do my best to hold back tears, and pray that God will surround this sweet girl with His love and protect her from harm.

During a break in class I started talking to her about school and we practiced some math problems.  I found out that she couldn't really do any of them even though they were simple addition problems so I went with Bernard after class to ask her mom if she could come to our tutoring program.  Her mom wasn't home, but we talked to her grandma and she is going to start coming to our tutoring program three times a week.  I'm really glad that I will be able to see her more often.  Megan and I are also going to go talk to her mom sometime this week about appropriate discipline.  Please pray for her mom's heart and mind to be opened.

After coming back up the mountain from taking Kersland home I looked over and noticed this beautiful rainbow.

Genesis 9:16  "Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

Somehow the Lord always finds a way to remind me that He knows exactly what He is doing.  I am praying and trusting.  I am glad that His promises are trustworthy and He is bigger than I can even imagine.

My God is Awesome

Here's just a short clip of my english class.......singing praise songs with them is one of my favorite things to do!

English Class

I give it all to you God

I've been busy so this post is a little late, but I still wanted to share it :)

6/20/13

"I give it all to you God trusting that you'll make something beautiful out of me"  As we sang those words tonight during worship I looked up at the beautiful full moon and I just thought about how the moon reflects the light of the sun and how I want to be a reflection of God's love.  My prayer is that He can make something beautiful out of me.  That He will use me.  That I will glorify Him.  I hope that I am able to reflect God's love to each person that I meet here.  I can't stop thinking about walking down the street yesterday and stopping to say hello to the neighbor kids.  After I picked one of them up they all wanted to be picked up and hugged.  They are so thirsty for love and I just want to show them how much they matter and that God has not forgotten them.

Precious neighbors