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.

 

Learning to be more relational

I am a very task-oriented person. It's easy for my brain to be go go go. Focused on what's next and what still needs to be done. It's satisfying for me to cross things off of a to-do list and feel productive.I'm constantly generating lists and will even make lists of (good) things to do on my days off. While this can be beneficial and is often a helpful thing for me to stay focused, it can be a hindrance as well.

I have been so encouraged by my coworker Brooke and her faith. From working with her I'm stretched so often to put that list mentality on the back burner and open my eyes to the people to love around us. I'm reminded that you can't treat people like a to-do list. They're real and they need real time, care, love, and intention.

I'll share a quick story that stopped me in my to-do list tracks.

It's been a long day in the office, we have to leave at 3:30 because the school offices are closing but we're overwhelmed with work that we still need to finish before calling it a day. So as we walk home up the hill, we're talking out what else we still need to do and Brooke stops mid conversation to notice a mom carrying her sick baby outside of the clinic. And right there, without hesitation, used what creole she knew to ask the mom how the baby was and to pray. Brooke took a moment to step away from her agenda and step into what the Holy Spirit was promoting her to do. You see God has a far better, more eternal agenda going on that I so often neglect. It would have been so easy for me to tell the lady good afternoon in creole and walk right by. In fact, that's probably exactly what would have happened if Brooke wasn't walking with me. Instead, that lady was given a little hope as Brooke pleaded to the Father on her behalf for His presence in her life and for the healing of her precious child.

 I'm so thankful to be working with such Christlike staff and for the way I'm constantly growing in my faith here.

Oh that I would shift my eyes from my own agenda to be in tune with the agenda of the Father; rescuing his people back to Himself. That I wouldn't be so caught up in my selfish world of to-do lists; fleeting list of things added and crossed off that never seem to end, that I miss out on all God has set before me. 

February Highlights

I had every intention of keeping you guys updated once a week and then the internet went out for about a week, so those plans failed! Ha.

Since I'm updating you on a few weeks of life here in Haiti I'll just hit on a few highlights.

Sometimes I get to stop by the classrooms and snap a few pics of these cuties!

All smiles at the new playground in Leveque!

Critters in my room. Always. No matter what I do. I'm defeated.

I'm always too afraid to kill these guys because I hate the crunch it makes so then my roommates hate me because these little guys sometimes make it into their rooms. Hehe.

It's hard to have clean feet in Haiti. Don't judge us!

This is my Haiti home!

It rocks to live with a hairdressers daughter.

Felt so loved on Valentines day!

Rest.

Found an old friend at the school in Minoterie! So much joy!

We've been trying our hand at some grilling.

Looks good! Am I right?

Love walking up the hill after work to see these little friends.

We're working on saying my name. :) It's a tough one, especially the "Br" part.

One of the most restful days off for lunch at the beach!

Fried goat! Yum!

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!