Musings and Haiti

sometimes I wish I could paint
I would paint the mountains, I would spend a lifetime painting the mountains.....

I love the look of the mountains, so gigantic and full of mystery, yet so warm and inviting. all at the same time.
spring is the worst though.
finally warm weather and clear skies, when I look out on the glorious mountains they call me. they call me to explore and adventure.
but spring is the worst, to much snow for exploration, to chilly for much adventure.

I am sitting here at a lake when I should be heading to work.
I just LOVE escaping to quiet, lonely places.

even just for ten minutes.
it makes my day.

I can't stop thinking about my latest trip.
Haiti.
beautiful countryside, beautiful people, beautiful culture, with my beautiful friend Shari!!!
mango trees full for the picking, smiling faces yelling "blanche, blanche" as we drive by, and the smell of fire. whether for cooking or getting rid of garbage, there is always smoke in the air.

the beautiful kids we got to love and play with for a week.
those kids who might never have a family, who are hard for some people to love because of their mental and physical ailments.
the ones I love even more.
Those kids stole my heart.....Denley, Monel, Immanuel, Christine and Christina, Mckinsley, Joshua, Anderlin.....the list goes on.

one day we got to go do street evangelism. And when I say street I do not actually mean street like you would think in north America, it is more wandering from one house to the next in the village of Don Don. The biggest challenge for me was walking into the yard of a home which was clearly owned by a witchdoctor. The side of the house had a devil painted on it, with snakes surrounding it in red-the one of two colours that represents witchcraft in Haiti. A fire place fenced in meant for sacrifices.....
there was definitely a heavy feeling walking into that place.
And I am expected to share the gospel with people of this home?
people who clearly worship the devil?
people who have for generations given themselves and their households to satan and his work.
scary.
but God was with us.
we shared.
they listened.
God did his work in their lives.
we ended that time with the wife of the witchdoctor kneeling in the dirt, hands raised, praying to Jesus for freedom and relationship. wow. I'm getting goosebumps just writing about it.
that stood out to me, I think it always will.
yes I have been places with witchdoctors before, yes I have been in churches surrounded by witchdoctors chanting their curses on me, but to go to one of their houses and talk about a God who is love, who brings life, and who is so trustworthy.
that is completely different.
I thank God for that opportunity.

we were blessed with being involved in many other areas of missions.
me in the clinic, seeing the sick, and hearing the "lub-dub" of babies hearts in the womb.
In the classroom teaching and sharing, English, math, health.

Then there was Coleen and Kate.
Two long term missionaries who graciously offered their home for us to stay for a week.
They are amazing women of God.
They pour themselves into their work, their mission field. Following the call God has for them and jumping in with both feet. They have both spent the closer end to ten years in Haiti as missionaries and it was a blessing to be able to walk alongside them for a week, consume their wisdom, and observe their lives of missions as I strive to live with more of a missions mindset here in Alberta.
They are great role models. They live their lives with purpose, spending time doing the important things, and not wasting time.
I hope to see them again.

So that is basically my two-week trip in a nutshell.
I am sure if you ask Shari she would tell you a whole different perspective. I love that, different perspectives that is. Life would be boring if everyone viewed the world with the same lense, from the same point of view.

I learnt a lot this trip, as I do most trips.
But this trip was really eye opening to me about my life and my future.
My heart is in missions and it always will be. But this trip to Haiti made me realize the apathy that our church in Canada portrays. The need for missionaries here, for believers who are pursuing a relationship with Christ above all else.
For a generation who stops wasting time on unimportant things and makes room in their lives for focusing on the things that really matter.

Even though most of the time I wish I was living in a hut in Africa, or on the amazon I realize that God has me here. In Southern Alberta, in Pincher Creek. That He wants to use me here and now.
I don't want to miss what he has for me.

Right Now Ministries

There is this website that is used for the training of church and christian leaders. It is amazing. It is called rightnow.org and has podcasts and amazing resources to use. one thing i found today was a short video on a progject they have called "traders" people who trade simple things for more of the kingdom. watch this video it is only 2 minutes and it is great..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mhsjoTmnY0&feature=relmfu

fun fact: my roommate and my boyfriend wear the same brand of deodorant. old spice fiji.

Revelation

So today was another day of training and podcasts and laughter. I had a revelation today when we were talking about characteristics of christian leaders. We were talking about being people of prayer and we were looking at scripture. We read Luke 6:12 where Jesus goes to the mountain top to pray and spends the day in prayer. We also read Mark 1:35 where it talks about Jesus going to a quiet place on his own to pray. I was blown away and conviction with the revelation that Jesus took time and made it a priority to pray, that he would pray for the entire night. He is God yet he still prays. wow. How much more do i need to pray if the Son of God spends time in prayer. wow. Country of prayer today: Bangladesh. 88% unreached, 0.7% Christ-followers. Also i thought i would include a picture or two that my lovely friend Thea took at the runway show i was in on saturday. Thanks thea for taking these amazing pictures!

This is me on the runway modeling one of the lovely outfits i got to show (above)

Here is a picture of my friend Teaka who is one of the designers who i also did a photoshoot for (above). I want to end with a quote. "I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self. This is the way Jesus came to reveal God's love." Henri J. M. Nouwen

SABC the beginning

So camp has started and the past two days have been full of training for us leadership staff. We are doing a podcast series on this guy called Britt Merrick who is a pastor in Southern California. He is young and a surfer and his story is incredible. If you get the chance to check him out go to his website www.biggodbook.com and his podcasts are on there. Britt shares a story about his daughter getting cancer. The podcast is a sunday morning service where he is sharing with his congregation about how he found out his daughter had cancer that last monday. wow. so this is still very fresh. His daughter is 5 years old and she had a tumor in her abdomen the size of a football. He was talking about how faith is proven even stronger in suffering, and how him and his wife are experiencing that when after they prayed for immediate healing they didn't see it. i could go on about this man and the amazing way that he sees suffering and the amazing way that he is dealing with the most tragic event in his life but i just want to say one thing that really stood out to me. The night before his daughters surgery he was praying and he said to God "God i love my daughter, but i love you more. If she dies tomorrow in surgery nothing will change between you and I." wow. can you imagine saying that? Being so confident and trusting in God your father that even the death of your own child could not change your attitude towards Him. James 1:2 talks about having joy in troubles and suffering. Joy. Joy. Joy because we know who our Father is, Joy because we have faith, Joy because we can't fix it so what else can we do, Joy because happiness isn't an option. our country to of prayer for yesterday was Afghanistan where 93% is unreached. where there are 29,074,395 Muslims and 0.05% are christians. They definietly need prayer. There is so much learning going on more to come......

The Honey Line

So i did this little modelling gig for a friend of mine from church.

Her blog has some photos on it.
Take a peak!

http://www.lifelikehoney.ca/2012/04/test.html

http://www.lifelikehoney.ca/2012/04/honey-line-part-2.html

It has been way to long!

Wow.
Almost an entire year has gone by.
Today i find myself avoiding studying for the finals i have tomorrow, finding anything at all to fill time to take away from studying.
will i regret it tomorrow?
probably for 20 minutes, but then i'll be over it.
i'm not going to fail right?

So i could go into detail about this year.
About university life
About my small group girls
About my amazing boyfriend
About Jesus revelations
About adventures
About lethbridge
About the Jay-Mack
but i don't think i'm going to do that.

Instead i'm going to study.
But i made a promise to myself today, to keep blogging!
To continue to produce the revelations, struggles, and adventures that my Abba takes me on.

I was reading some of my older posts today and last spring after just returning home from my YWAM adventures i wrote something that stuck out to me.
I wrote:

"Sitting in the plane today i was totally bummed.
Thinking about how i am going to miss this life, the atmosphere, the hearts, oh the burning hearts, and the ripe lives of DTSers who are about to be transformed.
Then it hit me.....the real transformation doesn't happen during DTS. During the worship and prayer times and definitely during the outreach there are fresh revelation and new perspective but the ultimate proof of transformation is when the students go home. It is when they re-enter their homes, their schools, their churches, and their communities. It is when they are tested, hated, burnt out, without answers, and tempted with the same old things. THAT is when the true transformation shines."

Yes i'm not sitting on a plane (even though i long too)but i find myself longing for the hearts of those around me.
I long for salvation, for love, for hope, for joy, for revival of the heart, for hunger, and for passion.
For an awakening to the fathers love.

There is no easy answer, there is no solution that i can obtain on my own.
Jesus is big enough and good enough and his love is SO strong.
That is enough.
That is the answer.
I just have to lean into that.

Well back to sociology and the many issues in our society today!