From snow to sweat!

I'm here! I'm here!

Thanks to your support, I'm back on the ground in Haiti.  I made it safely and this week has been a week of adjustment. Adjusting to the heat, waking up early, and learning the ways of the Child Sponsorship world. While I miss all of you at home so dearly, it has been so fun to be back here in Haiti!

Here are a few pictures from this week! 

The countdown that my sweet friends sent me all the way up until I got here!

Getting ready to board!

Pictures from the plane! I finally got a window seat!

 

 

Yes that is two open seats beside me on the way to Port au Prince!

Back in Haiti!

 

So excited for these ladies to be my roomies again!

 

 

First Child Sponsorship visit that I got to facilitate

 

Cooking fresh Haitian vegetables with Brooke!

Thankful to get to spend some time these guys again!

 

Got to enjoy a day off at the beach!

Faith

I'm currently home, raising support for being in Haiti this spring, and talking to schools about teaching in the fall. And I wanted to do a short little post because I'm writing thank you notes and praising the Lord for all of the faithful people in my life.

people faithful to sacrifice their money
people faithful to believe in me and what I'm doing
people faithful to obey the Lord and give to what He's doing globally
people faithful to invest in the redemption plan that God has for Haiti
people faithful to give so that there can be hope and life transformation brought to Haiti

this is what faith can do.

Thankful for you! Praying for you!

A Late New Years Post

Inspired by the Instagram trend on New Year's Eve to create a "Flipagram" of pictures from 2013, I decided to blog some pictures from 2013. 

In 2013...

I skied with the best

I enjoyed some good concerts

 Checked things off of our Senior Year bucket list like this one: mattress surfing

I moved out of a dorm for the last time...
 and realized I have way too much stuff!

 I graduated!

Cyd graduated!

 












Meghan got married!

Ally had a baby!
 

I ventured to Haiti
 

Spent lots of Sunday mornings with little ones like this

Made lots of new friends

Laughed over many games of cards


Made trips into Port au Prince

Celebrated my birthday in Haiti
 

And made it home in time for Christmas!

I'm left with the reminder that God, oh He is faithful. And so good. And I don't deserve a bit of this. Thank you Jesus for who you are and the life you have given me!

Exciting News!!

Blog readers,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! 

I'm humbled and excited to say that I will be returning to Mission of Hope this Spring! I will return based on when support comes in and I will stay until the beginning of June. To sum up my time with MOH this past Fall, I was so humbled to be a part of what God is doing in Haiti and through Mission of Hope! What a privilege it was to be a part of that community and what a joy it will be to return!

I have been asked to work with Child Sponsorship as well as with Mobilization. My days will look a little different this time as I will be using my organizational, administrative gifting.When I was in Haiti this Fall, I had the opportunity to help out in Child Sponsorship a few times and enjoyed it so much!  I will be working alongside a great staff member and assisting her with facilitating child sponsorship visits, sponsor letters, sponsor gifts, and facilitating profile cards. I'm passionate about education, so I'm very excited to be doing what I can to make education possible for the children in Haiti!

This link will tell you more about our Child Sponsorship program. 

I will also get to to take on some intern responsibilities when things get busy. I will greet/welcome teams, lead tours, and lead teams as I'm needed. I'm also excited to meet the new interns and be able to encourage them as I have been where they are.

I'm humbled to have been asked to come back and serve. I'm so thankful to the Lord for this opportunity to go back to Haiti before starting my teaching career in the Fall. I believe He has set this up for "such a time as this." 

This ministry opportunity is only possible through your prayers and financial support. I'm so thankful for how support has allowed the Gospel to advance thus far and I kindly ask that you pray about  supporting Haiti through me. If you're interested in supporting me, you can click this link below. Please put my name in the "additional info" box so that Mission of Hope knows where the money should go. Where it asks you to "Choose a Program" keep it on "General Fund" category. 

Support Brittany!

If you would also be so kind to email me and let me know if you give so that I am able to keep track of my support.

With love and thanks,

Brittany Donnelly

One Week

As I sent off a team this morning it hit me that that will be me leaving MOH and flying out of Haiti this time next Saturday. As I go into my final week as an intern at MOH, please keep me in your prayers for this time of transition from a 3rd world to 1st world, safe travels, and for my next step after this adventure. 

I pray for this Christmas season that it's a joyful time as we gather to adore Him. 

Thank you for following my journey and making it possible!! With your support, you're helping MOH carry out the vision of bringing life transformation to every man woman and child in Haiti. 

I'm sure I'll continue to have some thoughts to post once I'm back in the States, as the journey will continue to affect me even after I leave Haiti. 

Here's a picture of some of my sweet friends before we went into Port au Prince on Saturday. So thankful for them! 

Happy December! And happy first day of Advent!

I had such good time in the Word today and it was a great way to start the advent season. A lot of this is from the devotion and my study Bible and not my own thoughts, but I just wanted to share. 

The advent devotion that I started this morning goes through "The Songs of Christmas." I feel like knowing and spending time learning the meaning of the songs I hear every season will give me a new view on these songs and be able to worship Christ in a new way. 

The scripture that went along with the devotion was Luke 2:13-14 "And suddenly there was with the angel  a multitude of the heavenly host (thousands of angels) praising God  and saying "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased!"

Jesus kept me right here and I stayed in this passage for a while. This is a familiar text that is read during the advent season, but God was gracious to give it new meaning for me today.

The notes for verse 14in my Study Bible:

Angels are proclaiming the news about Jesus. 

He is the eternal, omnipotent, Son of God. 

He is taking on the “form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” Phil 2:7

The “fullness of time” has now come.

God has “sent forth His Son born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law.” Gal 4:4-5

Jesus is the “Prince of Peace” prophesied by Isaiah in chapter 9 verse 6.

He is fulfilling promises by His birth!

The devotion material was on the Chris Tomlin song “Angels We Have Heard on High” and I just so happened to be already listening to it when I saw that was the song for today. 

His birth radiated glory. The glory was so bright that the shepherds went to find the source. In Luke 2:15 they say “let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing…”

Shepherds why this jubilee?

Why your joyous strains prolong?

What the gladsome tidings be

Which inspire your Heavenly song?

So I’m reading this, and I’m like, wait. In the scripture it says that Angels are praising, thousands of them to be exact, but what are the shepherds doing? The song says they are singing. So I look back at the text in Luke and Luke 2:20 says “And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told to them.”

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always just sung that part and never really listened to the words and sung from the heart. But now that I have spent time in that passage, I can!

Jesus entered the earth in the same way He enters our hearts: right in the middle of the mess! You know, the manager, with the farm animals, to Mary and Joseph. Just like He didn’t look for a palace to be His birthplace and an earthly throne His dwelling, so does he not look for clean hearts to come into of perfect people who have it all figured out.Praise the Lord!

He came for us, that He could dwell in our hearts. Ephesians 3:17 “…so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith…” while we were still sinners. Romans 5:8

This is what He has been telling us since birth, an invitation that never expires:

Come to Bethlehem and see

Him whose birth the Angels sing

Come adore on bended knee

Christ our Lord, the new born King!

Let us join with the shepherds and the Angels in the awe of the birth of the humble Son of God that came for us!

Here’s the link to the Advent plan if you’re interested! 

https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/775-the-songs-of-christmas 

Life Around Here

Enjoying learning new healthy recipes with this gem of a friend!

I'm in charge of the schedule on the board here. This is it the night before we got 130 new team members on campus! Jam packed!

Just chillin with some of my favorite drivers! You gotta trust your driver on these roads.

Helped the mobile medical team count vitamins for their mobile clinic this week!

Meet my friend Michelson from Leveque. When I asked him "Ou renmen Jezi?" Which means "Do you love Jesus?" His response was "Mwen renmen Jezi anpil!" meaning " I love Jesus so much!" Precious. He also didn't wear pants all day. :)

Got to ride in this this week! With 40 high schoolers that liked to sing. It was wild!

Fun Haitian friends!  

He's riding on the back of the King of the Road. There is no fear in the hearts of Haitians.

The sweet little Toms that Haitians receive when you buy Toms!

The delicious pumpkin muffin that Amanda  and Matt (check out their blog here) made for us for Thanksgiving! So thoughtful.

Our hard working Haitian kitchen ladies that learned some new recipes in order to fix us a traditional Thanksgiving meal!

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to capture these two and their outfits. :)