Sunday Relaxing

Ayvah brings a significant amount of joy to my life.  This 9 month old is full of personality and love.  We spent some time relaxing in the shade on Sunday as she explored the grass, leaves, bark, and sticks.  She shared them with me by shoving them into my eyes and nose.  We had a lovely time.  I was thankful for the peaceful moments with her.

Moments of Refreshment

I decided I am going to start acknowledging moments of refreshment during my day to day life. I want to remember the feeling of being refilled by God.

There is a huge oak tree that I can see out of my kitchen widow.  I like to look at it all year round. There are three dead branches that protrude out of the middle high into the sky. 

Today, I could see a white bird perched on one of the dead branches and it swayed back and forth with the wind. 

I sipped my coffee and took in this mundane moment of beauty. 

Haiti 2017

Haiti! May 2017.  I was originally going with a few ladies who I am in a Bible study with to visit Liz and get the Haitian experience..... Wooooaaaah buddy.  An unfortunate event kept the leader of the Central College team in the USA and I became their leader!  Great!

I was nervous to say the least.  God uses the willing, not the skilled or the prepared.  I was willing and I dove in to becoming more prepared!  In my weakness, He is made strong.  I submitted to being completely out of my element and tried my hardest to trust God for every step of the way. 

 

I climbed the mountain in a little over an hour.  I didn't feel as exhausted as I did last year at the top! 

A VBS for 75 middle schoolers in the neighborhood!

The team prepared a silent skit showing the Gospel.  We sang "No Longer Slaves" in Creole.  One of the guys shared his testimony.  We made a bracelet together as we shared the steps of salvation.  We had a snack and played games!  Each of the members learned a Bible verse in Creole to share with the kids.  It was a beautiful time with these awkward pre-teens.  It's amazing how similar kids are regardless of culture and language.  

 Maaaaaaaaangoes!  We had plenty of mango moments.  It was beautiful to spend so much time with Liz.

Sunday after church, we went to a local restaurant.  That is a loose term to describe where we were.    At church, we sang our song and acted out the skit for the congregation.  I prayed they would understand the Gospel more easily.

We visited these lovely ladies and their housemates at the local deaf school.  Can you believe that they remembered me!  It was great to see their faces.  I hope they are feeling loved and learning.  We performed the skit for them, which was perfect since it was a silent play! 

 We climbed up to see the Citadel and saw this majestic tree being held up by supports.  Caitlyn said it was a good example of how prayer to God holds us up in our lives.

Here we are at the top of the mountain just before entering the castle.  A fog rolled in just after this picture was taken!  We couldn't see anything.  It was amazing to hear the history of the Haitian kings and enjoy some time with the team.  

  Of course, Liz and I were twinning.

Caitlyn ended up getting a severe concussion on the second day of the trip. I was horrified and didn't leave her side the rest of the time.  Although she didn't remember her birth date for three days, she was fun to be around.  As a result, we became good friends!  I don't think she remembers most of our moments though.  :-)  I was thankful my grandma was a nurse, so I knew to write down when she took Tylenol every 4 hours!  I had no idea it would be a useful skill.  

The woman in the blue and turquoise dress has experienced something so horrific in her life.  It's hard to believe it's a true story.  The two young children in the picture are her twins.  When she had them at the hospital, she was drugged by a witch doctor.  She was believed to be dead and was buried in the ground.  They don't bury people in caskets there and I won't go in to detail about what they do do!  The witch doctor dug her up and took her to Port au Prince where she was his slave for two years.  She was not dead, but her heart had slowed so much, they believed her to be.  When he died, she found her way back to Pignon, which is where we were.  She is forever changed from the horrific events she had to endure while being his slave.  We brought her family food and sang our song, "No Longer Slaves."  It had a powerful meaning at this house.

The Central College kids raised so much money for goats!  A few people funded goats individually too!  Thanks. :-) We had enough for 29 by the time we got there!   Caitlyn and I named our goat the first day Martha and the second day Mary.  This was one of the families that we gave a goat to.  So many lives were impacted because of a simple goat.  

I was so happy that I wasn't the only one who needed to use the bathroom multiple times on this trip.  We experience quite a few Haitian bathrooms!  Ki kote twalet?

  We distributed two Personal Energy Transportation carts built by people in Leighton, Iowa. It was beautiful to see two men be mobile again after not being able to leave their house independently.  This was my favorite part of the trip. They had to learn to use the machines and operate the break. They had to sign a contract agreeing that they would only be for their use.  Incredible. 

  This darling boy... I loved him last year and I loved him this year.  Sebastian.  He seemed different this year.  Something was sad about him. I wanted to hug him and tell him loving things.  We had a mango together on this day.  Some of the older boys had been picking on him and he was feeling bummed. 

  

Saying good bye to this sweet best friend of mine was so hard.  Why do we have to live so far apart?  I loved every second I was able to spend with her and seeing her life in Haiti. I am so proud of her sacrifice for living there and serving the Haitians.  I hope I get to go back soon.  

The next step is to focus on Mission Coaching!  Whoop!  

Thank you for your prayers.   

Mittens

I bought a pair of mittens after college that said, "U of Iowa" on them. Not expensive. Just regular mittens. I've had them for 12 or more years. I realized two weeks ago that I lost them! I looked everywhere for them. How can you have something for 12 years and then lose them? I was so sad. I loved these mittens. I was leaving work with my mom talking about the mittens. We looked on the ground and she said, "Maybe that is your mitten." I was doubtful... turned it over!! It was!! Where is the other one? I'm looking all over. There it is lying in the gutter. Whoop! Just like God finds us! Run over by cars. Covered in sand and filth. He's so happy when we are found. I put them in the washer to clean them then in the dryer. They left sand and dirt all over ever after I shook them and slapped them trying to get it off before washing. I had to wipe out the machines to clean up the stuff that fell off. When we are found, we have to get rid of all the junk that was stuck to us. Other people have to help us clean up our lives.

Nicaragua- 2017

Our home for a week- Casa Cepino.  It was an authentic Nicaraguan living experience.  

Nicaraguans loves sensory bins too!  We had a community event on Saturday where 53 people dedicated or rededicated their lives to Jesus!  Whoop!  I was in charge of the children's activities. :)  Shocker. 

This cute nugget and I had fun together.  It's amazing that even though we can't communicate, I can still make kids fall in love with me and I with them.  

After the games and fun, we had a worship service.  I shared my testimony with the crowd.  I felt pressure to make sure I was articulating my story clearly!  

After a long hot day at the community event, we enjoyed a relaxing night of walking around downtown Managua.  They have gigantic Arbor de Luz!  Light Trees! 

The main occupation in Acahualinca is to recycle the trash from the dump.  These guys were searching for computer parts.  He had a whole pile of hard drives.  He was giggling at Andy's singing and jumping over some football team he liked. 

We prayed for families in each of the three churches.  Adrianna (in the floral shirt) translated our prayers and questions.  Andy (in the blue) shared a psalm with each family.  We all took turns praying at the houses for the families. 

The families were very open to us coming in to their front room.  They were very hospitable and made sure we had a place to sit if they had a chair for us.  Most of the families are mainly women as the men are often addicted to snuffing glue or alcohol. The women are the true backbone of the country right now. 

We had a fun day with the families of all three pastors.  We went to a beach house in a near by town and enjoyed breakfast and lunch together.  We swam in the ocean and went to an open air fish market!  It was a beautiful day of trying our best to communicate with the few words we knew of each language.  These are truly beautiful people. 

Genesis.  What a gem!  She and I were able to get to know each other better on this fun beach day. I'm thankful for her in my life.  She lives with her grandparents who are the pastors at one of the churches we are friends with.  I'm working hard to learn more Spanish so I can communicate with her more successfully. 

I enjoyed this little one so much.  She is Pastor Henry's granddaughter.  She and I hung out on the beach day and had a fun time together at the community event as well.  

Pastor Henry and his wife made amazing meals for us all week long!  I definitely gained weight.  He has already committed to cooking the food at my wedding. :)  

This is one of the families we prayed for.  They have a thriving business of cleaning out oil jugs and selling them to stores to use for other things.  They are doing very well for themselves and are committed to serving the Lord. 

This is Pastor Oscar's family.  They are sweet people who are working to help their community.   Their members are very poor as they live in a section of Acahualinca that was created due to the lake flooding.  Many of their members have dirt floors. 

Pastor Antonio's sweet family.  His wife and granddaughter are two of my favorite people in this world.

My trip to Nicaragua was beautiful.   I went with these wonderful people below.  God solidified my purpose in this world as a woman who is living to encourage other women to grow closer to God.  My purpose is to focus on helping women realize they were made on purpose, for a purpose.  I loved being in Nicaragua and I am looking forward to returning next year.

You of little faith!

Matthew 16:5 When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. 6 Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 7 And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.” 8 But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? 9 Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 11 How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.


Jesus JUST fed thousands of people from small amounts of food... HE JUST DID IT!  The disciples forgot to bring any food with them on their next journey??  

I can imagine Jesus at this moment... SMH moment.  Rolling his eyes, shaking his head.  Looking up to Heaven.. "Really Father?"  Oh you of little faith.  
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Two weeks ago, I was stressing about money.  How was I going to pay all my bills?  Can you believe the money all came just when it was supposed to?  My life long lesson, it seems, is to have faith and trust that God will always provide.

Here I am again... I literally need thousands of dollars to pay my bills and the insurance companies are still holding payments this month.  People owe me money for their co-pays and deductibles, but they are just not paying them. What is going on?

God is in charge of all the money.  He can prompt people to pay me.  He can open the doors to multiply the pennies into the money I need.  It will happen.

Since it is amazing to see how God provides every month, I'm going to tally what I need and what I have each day just to bring glory to God:

2/9/17
I  need $820 before the end of tomorrow.  Stay tuned.

7:00 am- auto bank deposit $59.32
10:25 am- $129.38 in the mail. 
5pm- $30 

2/10/17
Payments: $414.12
Still need  $186.88

2/13/17
$48.75  still need $138.13

I need $1,600 more by the 15th.

I need $6.769 more by the 24th.

All together, $9,189.

2/13/17
The Lord will provide.  I am leaving country for 11 days and will not be able to update any more income information.  I received mail today telling me I was getting paid for claims submitted at the beginning of January.   I am at the mercy of the insurance companies.  The Lord is in control of everything.  I need to continue to have peace in my heart and know that this company belongs to the Lord.  He always provides.

3/10/17
Quote from my mom/office manager: "It was amazing.  As soon as you left, all the money started rolling in."  Needless to say, God provided every need and more.  He always provides.

Every Need

Philippians 4:19  

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. 

For an unknown reason, insurance companies decide to hold payment at the end/start of the year.  What does that mean for small business owners?  Difficult times.

A common theme in my life is, "God always provides."  It seems my faith has been building block by block over the years through this grueling process of trusting God to provide my needs. January was one of the hardest to exercises trust.

I needed $7,500 in one week.  Intense.  I was doubting everything.  Should I even still be open as business?  Should I move to Haiti and forget this adventure?  Does God even want me to be doing this?  Why am I so terrible with money?  Every negative thought I could think went through my head.

My dearest friends reminded me of my own words over and over that God would provide and that He always provides.  Confirmation that I needed to calm it down was when Liz was reminded of Philippians 4:19 and was supposed to tell me. *Sigh of relief*  It's going to be ok.

Would you believe it?  All of my bills have been paid except one final thing that is due on the 15th.  Shew.  God does always provide. No late fees.  No overdrawn accounts.  Everything is just fine.... except maybe I have another grey hair.  

How many more times will I have to learn this lesson?