I’ve been praying this whole trip about not putting limits on God and how amazing his wonders truly are.  Today, I saw a miracle in action.  We were able to bless two families with some chairs, a dining set, and a mattress and box spring for their 2 room homes.  Each family had at least 3 to 4 children.  Until we arrived the homes were empty concrete structures.  Their faces lit up with pride and gratitude as the dining chairs were placed around the table where their family could now sit together.  My heart opened up and I could feel His magnificent presence in their homes on this mountain side.  He did not discriminate where to place His love.  He didn’t look for a fine suburban home filled with the best furnishings—He came to this 2-bedroom home an inhabited the hearts, minds, and soul of these families.  And I was blessed to breathe Him in and feel the miracle of His love and power.   I left feeling like I was leaving a friend’s home and hope to return very soon. I’ll post pictures soon—you have to see these families.  :)

Today was a great day.  I woke up around 6 am after getting about 10 hours of sleep.  I got dressed and headed over to the house and Veronique was already preparing breakfast for the group.  She made pancakes for us today.  I asked her if she could make a ze (egg) for me.  I finished breakfast and settled down to catch up on news as I waited for the rest of the group to come over for breakfast.

After breakfast, we headed down to the workshop/storage shed for a day of painting and roofing.  We spent the morning painting.  Mr. Bolden and I took a few breakfast from painting to help the guys with the roof supports as they were finally ready to work on them.  After we got everything prepared for the roof, we went back to help the ladies with the painting.  We had to wait for the painting to finish in order to put on the roof anyway.

At about 11:00 am we ran out of paint…..break time!!  Linda had Lucien go out and pick up some sugar cane for us.  Most of the group hadn’t tried sugar cane before.  Minister Tina really liked it and dug right in.  Linda also had one of the guys climb a coconut tree and get some coconuts for us to try.  They were dry, so there was no coconut water, but the coconut milk was just right.  We headed into to lunch to enjoy some of yesterday’s leftovers.

After lunch, Jimmy had returned with more paint.  We pent the afternoon finishing up.  It’s amazing how much the concrete absorbs the paint.  We had to put 3 or 4 coats of paint on to get a good look.  After painting we cleaned up and had dinner.

Tonight’s meal consisted of fish, banana bread, steamed plantain, rice & peas, and some other stuff I don’t recall because I don’t eat them.  After dinner, Minister Tina rounded everyone up to start our short 15 minute devotion a bit early.  About 60 minutes later we finished.  Tonight’s devotion was on 1 Corinthians 12:12-22.  Min. Tina asked us to think about how the scripture related to us and what we were doing here.  Min. Tina also had us think about our spiritual gifts and share them with the group.  My gift is service.  Min. Tina has us do one more thing.  She passed around sheets of paper with everyone’s name on them.  We were to write one or two sentences about the person on the sheet, fold it, then pass it along to someone else to write.

After devotion, I discovered I’d be able to watch the State of the Union on my iPad.  There seemed to be enough interest, so I connected it to the television so all could see.  Some of the group started a loud card game.  Realizing I was unable to hear the president’s speech, I disconnected my iPad and went to listen to it using my headphones.  Mrs. Hobson was watching and spoke up loudly when I disconnected it.  She let me use her Android tablet to watch if I reconnected my iPad.  This seemed reasonable, so I tried it out.  It worked for about 5 minutes, then the CNN app on her tablet kept crashing.  Of course the card players had gotten much louder by this time.  I was frustrated, but I figured, I could just replay it after it finished.  After they finished, I got my iPad and began to search for a replay.  60 minutes later I could find no replay, so I headed of to bed a little disappointed.  Maybe tomorrow would be better.

I’m sitting here reflecting on yesterday’s church service. As the minister read the scripture from Esther 4:14, I knew God had a message for me.  He spoke of Esther’s commitment and her courage to stand for God.  We each have been put here on earth to be salt and light in the world–to carry out His works and be a blessing to all those in need.  We loose sight our mission. We tend to focus on having life like we  want it–a life filled with the things we want, the job we want, the social circles we want, etc.  But God has blessed us with with these things so that we can use them to change the world.  While I’m here in Haiti, I’ll be thinking about the ways I can use my blessings to reach out to the world.  I’m believing and trusting that God will trust me with more tomorrow as I surrender everything I have today.

Blessings from Haiti,

Melissa

Today was our first work day at the Heart to Heart location. We worked hard painting, moving rocks and taking inventory of medicines -all while listening to praise music and getting out of the way of runaway wheelbarrows. Guess which mission team member was steering said runaway wheelbarrow?!   This evening we are tired and sore but excited about what God is doing in Haiti. We praise God for allowing us to witness it!

The people were warm & welcoming, the music was from the heart and Jesus was proclaimed so it didn’t matter that all of the songs & sermon were in Creole. We were connected with our Haitian brothers and sisters and to each other by God’s amazing, mighty & beautiful Holy Spirit.  ”Jezi renmen ou” – Jesus loves you!