An Easter Post

Happy Easter, beloved ones!

Jesus on the cross shows us that our sin leads to death. BUT Jesus says, I'll take your death unto me, so you don't have to die. So now in Me, you can have LIFE.

Being away from home, family, friends, and usual Easter traditions is tough, but this year I can say that even when you don't get a new Easter dress, and there isn't an Easter basket to wake up to (yes, mom still does that for us), you can still lift your eyes to celebrate His death and rising, maybe even more richly than when the culture of Easter is mixed in.

Though it was tough to be away, this season I'm thankful that:

I got to get up to see the sun rise over the mountain to begin the day celebrating the Son that rose!

I got to get back in bed to read the stories of Easter and worship His name.

I got to enjoy pancake breakfast with family here.

I got to worship with my Haitian brothers and sisters here.

I got to FaceTime with the family I miss so much!

I got to dye Easter eggs with the gals on staff.

I got to be a part of the Village of Hope/Orphanage Easter Egg Hunt with the kiddos.

Most of all, that Jesus still rises. Despite my wavering emotions.

In this season, one of the craziest things to me is that not only did Christ die for us and raise so we could have eternal life, but that the Lord cares to perfect us to make us like His Son.
"For by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." Hebrews 10:14

Rejoice that forever He is risen!

 

 

Life Transformation

 its a transformed heart, that transforms lives, that transforms villages,

that transforms nations

Our vision statement at Mission of Hope is that as an organization following Jesus Christ, we exist and seek to bring life transformation to every man, woman, and child in Haiti. 

Life transformation. I think before my internship in the fall, and throughout the beginning of my time here, I would have told you that Haiti needs a lot of money. That money is the solution to this poverty. As I began vision casting to my teams, living life with people who believed that vision without a doubt, and spent more time here, that view began to change.

I can truly say now without a doubt that I believe that the way to change this third world country is the Gospel. It is. Because it's a transformed heart that is going to transform this nation. Resources help, but without the Gospel we're missing it. We're missing it. If we have well-fed, educated students walking around, sure they would be more successful, but where's the eternal impact there? If we want to truly love this nation and these people, then we need to care more about them having eternal victory in Jesus.

At MOH one of our core resolutions is "Evangelistic Saturation;" that in everything we do we want the Gospel to be heard, seen, and felt. So that includes the medical clinic, the schools, painting houses, spending time in the villages, the food program, everything we do! Education is one of many vehicles that we use to share the Gospel in Haiti; a way MOH seeks to bring life transformation to every man, woman, and child in Haiti. Each child in our schools is receiving a Christ-centered worldview education. That child is learning about Jesus, and is able to take that back home with them and their family.  We are using education to advance the Gospel. By sponsoring a child, making an individual investment in one child, you can help change this nation from wherever you are right now. We believe that this nation will be changed one child at a time!

If you have read the guest post about God pairing sponsors and students you'll remember that only the Lord knew that the sponsor and the student had similar life experiences and hurts that the sponsor could use to bring hope to the student. That sponsor didn't know anything about the student when she picked her out; only the Lord could arrange such a heart connection. Imagine how the Lord could use you in a student's life, to come along side them and tell them you believe in them, encourage them, partner with them to let their dreams for their lives become a reality, and most of all that they would hear about the love of Jesus and so be eternally impacted.

I'll leave you with a story from last week.

I'm visiting one of our schools in Turpin with one of our Haitian Child Sponsorship staff members. We're waiting on some of the students to finish their letters and waiting on some to get back from break. As we're waiting, I'm sitting in a conversation between two Haitians that have both lived in mountain villages, have left and gotten an education, and now live in Port au Prince. One of the Haitians is Mr. Frenel, a member of our Child Sponsorship staff. Mr. Frenel got so fired up about the importance of returning to the mountain to help. "Don't forget where you came from," he said to the young teacher he had just met. "Go back and share that knowledge that you've gotten or else nothing will change." He talked about selfish ambitions and how those hinder change. How it's not about having a car or nice house. "If you have a student living beside you that needs to go to school, give them money to go to school. Food if they need it." The kids that smoke weed near Mr. Frenel's house he says are his responsibility. Mr. Frenel spoke with such passion. Such boldness in encouraging someone that he had just met. This guy he was talking to is a teacher at a school in the mountains and travels over an hour each day, each way, down an unpaved road. He's still in school. And Mr. Frenel is on staff with the Sponsorship program. He takes any chance he can to encourage teachers and students on things they should be doing daily like personal hygiene, helping family and friends, and living a life of daily prayer. The Lord is using these two men and many others to change this nation.

Join me in praying for them.  For Mr. Frenel and that teacher. For all Haitians. They will change Haiti! Let's empower them. And provide them with the resources they need to carry out the vision they have for their country. Would you prayerfully consider sponsoring a child today?

Lastly, I pray that all of the lists, the sponsor visits, the excel spreadsheets, the gifts, letters, serve as a reminder, a gentle whisper from above that it's about transformed hearts. It's about pointing them to Jesus knowing he's the only thing that can change Haiti. 

 

 

Sophia, the 3 year old that I sponsor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The view out the Cream Van window

The view out the Cream Van window. If Child Sponsorship had a mascot it would be the Cream Van. I have traveled in this van to one of our schools every day for the past two weeks to work on delivering gifts, letters, and our Spring Correspondence. For us on the Haitian side of Child Sponsorship, sending out our Spring Correspondence means going to each school and letting our sponsored kiddos draw a picture and write a message to the person that sponsors them to go to school. We have 4 Mission of Hope schools, and 13 partner schools. Some of those schools are in the mountains and up unpaved mountain roads. Sometimes we get to take a sponsor with us for a visit, but recently it's been me and our Haitian staff. You can't really read on the unpaved mountain roads, and when the guys start speaking Creole, there's really nothing else I can do in the van except look out the window. The Cream Van is a vehicle for hope and life transformation that comes through the education sponsorship provides. Sometimes we joke about the Cream Van being embarrassing; like the van that you never wanted to be seen in when you got dropped off in middle school. The door rattles ,and third gear is loud, it smells like wet dog because they rinse it out with water each night, but it takes us where we need to go. And along the way, the Lord graciously gives me these long rides to mountain schools that give me time to think and pray and soak in the beauty the hand of God has created. These are all iPhone pics through the dusty window of the van, so you'll have to excuse me. But they're real, and a glimpse into my daily life here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is what my job is shaping up to look like!

My life in sponsorship consists of letters, gifts, and sponsor visits!

Life transforming letters from sponsors to their students. They get printed, labeled, and matched with a thank you card to be delivered to students from their sponsors!

A group of students at our Mission of Hope school receiving gifts from a group of sponsors.

Our Leveque community has a large deaf population, so our Leveque school has some deaf classrooms. This is a sponsor visit with a student that is deaf, so there is someone translating sign to Creole, and then Creole to English, and vice versa.

Beautiful. 
 

Gifts getting packaged and sorted by school to be delivered!!
 

 

One of our schools in Minoterie 
 

 

A sponsor visit at our Simonette school. Our Haitian sponsorship staff do such a great job translating for visits!

This guy sits outside our office window and crows! Go gamecocks, right?

Students coming to receive letters and gifts from their sponsors!

 

In her gym outfit! I could eat her up!!

 

When we deliver gifts and letters to our MOH school Mr. Frenel brings the students groups at a time. Sometimes they all surround me and kiss my cheek. 😍

At the beginning of March, when we got to turn the calendar to that face, our office got a whole lot brighter!

Team members that volunteered to help label over 2,500 cards! So thankful for their help!

 

Students writing letters back to their sponsors!

 

Students drawing pictures and writing their sponsors!
 

Mr. Frenel, one of our Haitian staff members reading a letter to a student from his sponsor.
 

Mr. Frenel explaining how to fill out the card for their sponsors!

Filled out correspondence from the student to their sponsors!! So exciting!

Guest post!

Brooke is a friend on staff with me at Mission of Hope and I couldn't express this story we both experienced any better than she has, so I've asked her to share it on my blog for you all to hear. It was truly a beautiful testament to God's unique care for us and how He's orchestrating things that we don't even see. All glory and praise to Him!


This story starts with sponsor visits. Sponsor visits may sound pretty straight forward, but rarely are. This particular day we were traveling to two different schools for visits. The sponsorship team met the sponsors at the school and the first visits went great. We went to meet the sponsors at the next school and when the Child Sponsorship team arrived we found out the student had not come to school. My heart was beating 80 thousand miles an hour, my hands were sweating and my head immediately went into puzzle solving mode. How could this be? We called ahead of time to tell the school we were coming. We told them to relay this message to the student. This is the first time this has happened. What do "I" do?! So after speaking with the school direction, they assured me the student would be in school the next day, could we bring the sponsor back?

Could we bring the sponsor back?! No we cannot bring the sponsor back. We are visiting 5 other schools tomorrow in the exact opposite direction. Could we bring the sponsor back?! (This is what my head was thinking, but in my heart I knew, whatever had to happen to make this visit work, had to happen.) So we agreed to meet back at the school the next day.

So the next day after we had visited the 5 other schools we went back. And let me tell you,

One of the most beautiful things happened. 

Yes the student was there, but it was SO much more than that. As the sponsor began to tell her story to this student, you could tell that every. single. thing. that was happening was God ordained. The sponsor began to tell this young girl of how God had redeemed her life. How when she was lost, hurt, broken and alone she didn't lose faith in God. This sponsor, in the midst of a devastating life, finished school and moved to America. She told of how God healed her broken heart and mended her soul. She could see God redeeming her and giving her a purpose. You could tell this sponsor was being used by the Holy Spirit AND you could tell that was exactly what the student needed to hear. I could not keep the tears from flowing. The student changed from shying away from the sponsor, to laughing and enjoying her time with the sponsor. All she needed to know, was that in the midst of her hurt and trial and pain, that God is there. That He is still moving in her life, even if she cannot feel Him close. That she has someone who will believe in her, pray for her, encourage her, and support her!

The next day the student met the sponsor at the local basketball court. She was wearing the gift the sponsor gave her plus a smile. WOW. To know that at the end of 2013 God was working on behalf of the student. God was ordaining that moment. He was arranging the lives of both the sponsor and the student AND that the sponsor listened to His quiet prompting.

I pray I never lose sight of those moments. THIS is what it is all about. THIS is transforming every man, woman and child in Haiti. I am so grateful that God allowed me to be a small part in that story. I am so thankful God uses these moments to remind me of His ultimate goodness and to bring glory to His name.