Learning to live for HIS glory

"The journey of life is a search for truth This journey of faith is following You Every step of the way Through the joy and the pain Right here in this moment Take my heart Take my soul I surrender everything to Your control And let all this is within me lift up to you and say I am Yours and Yours alone Completely"   ~from Completely by Ana Laura  As I was pondering what my life has looked like of late, it made me think of the words to this song.  Lately when people ask me how I am, my response has been, "life is interesting," and it is.  There are a LOT of unknowns in my life right now, and to be quite frank I don't like unknowns.   However, I'm thinking I need to change my perspective.  See, I've been looking at my  life and focusing on where it's going to take me.  When instead, I should be focusing on Jesus, following Him "every step of the way, through the joy and the pain."   Jesus is truly all we need, and He is ...

I'm exhausted.  I've been up for about 15 hours and traveling for over 12 of them.  And I still have a few to go. I feel too tired to write, but at the same time I know sometimes my thoughts come out the purest when I think I'm too tired. I miss my babies.  My arms are begging to pick one up and hold him close.  I even miss Jacob's crying when I laid him down.  I miss Fritzline and her silly faces, her patience in giving me Creole lessons.  I miss Shela who was always ready to hug me and tell me that she loved me.  I miss Venite, who facebooked me in the airport tonight!  But I miss hearing her voice and seeing the genuineness in her smile.   I miss hugging and kissing them. I miss the bond of love in Christ even though we barely knew each other.  I even miss speaking a language I hardly know!  In fact I find myself wanting to speak it to the people in the airport.  Do you think they'd look at me strange?  An Am...

I'm learning so much about love this week.  The Haitian people are so loving and accepting.  The first night that I was here, the Madames told me that they all loved me because I like to laugh.  (Through a translator, of course.)  Since then I have learned the Creole words for I love you, and I hear and say them many times during the day.  I have also learned the word for "so much," and I am often told, "Mwen remen ou apil apil apil!"  Translated, "I love you so much, so much, so much."  What a blessing.  These people barely know me, yet they are so free and genuine in expressing their love for me.  I want to learn from that! Last night my Creole lesson time was a little different.  Instead of learning a lot of new words, I wrote notes to many of the ladies and girls--in Creole!  I don't know much, but I knew enough to write 3-5 sentences.  They loved it, and when one of them wrote me one back it blessed my heart so much! ...

So, a normal day for me this week has looked like this:   I get up around 7 o'clock and eat breakfast in my room--a granola bar:)  Then I brush my teeth with my water bottle, still getting used to that.  After that I go to either the baby or toddler room and hold and play with them. I go back and forth between them most of the day.  Today I spent about 4 hours organizing the bookshelves in the schoolroom.  But most days I just play with the babies and the toddlers.  Around noon time I eat some Creole food for lunch and then go back to holding babies.  I have something for dinner around five and skype my family.  Around 6 I take a cold shower--so wonderful!!  Then I come back to my room and get Creole lessons!  I'm learning alot.  When I come back I may speak only Creole!  haha, just kidding.  That usually goes for about two hours.  I teach them English at the same time.  Then we turn out the lights and go to sle...

I'm going to keep this short, but wanted to let you all know how life in Haiti is going.  I love it!  The countryside is beautiful, the people so joyful.  I walk into the toddler room and have five toddlers reaching their arms up for me to hold them and saying, "mama, mama!"  It's wonderful, exhausting, and made me a little sick this evening--lots of kids and germs, but I'm feeling better now.  And the hugs are so worth it! It's hard too, the OLTCH compound has probably about 75 people on it and less than 10 of them speak English really well.  Communication can be tricky.  But I am learning some Creole, and they are learning some English. :)  I'm also being challenged to look to Jesus as all I need.  The only one I NEED to communicate with.      That said, male bay bay!  (I'm going, goodbye).

Today, God blew me away.  He had provided pretty much everything I needed monetarily and supply wise for my trip to Haiti, but today He went above and beyond!   I even said to one person, "I don't need it."  But God wanted to show me He provides more than enough.  He is the God of abundant provision.  Philippians 4:18-20 says "But I have received everything in full and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.  And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.  Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever.  Amen."   To those of you who God has used to provide, thank you!  Your gift is "a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God."   I am overwhelmed at His provision, especially because it is such a reminder that He does provide abundantly--not just...

  In a week I will be headed for Haiti!   I am so excited to see what God will do.  He already has been providing so much!  It has been awesome to see His provision as I prepare to go.  He truly is a faithful God, the only one that I can trust completely in everything.  Yet so often I  struggle to trust Him.  I know He is faithful and trustworthy: He has proven Himself those things over and over again in my life.  However that knowledge does not always connect with how I live my life.  I am so blessed that God continually reminds me of how faithful He is.  He is such a patient God.   I am looking forward to growing in my walk with Jesus during this trip.  However I don't want to wait until then to grow.  God has been challenging me with things right here in my every day life.  Mostly about whether I really trust Him with the pen of my life story, and if I really am willing to follow His commands and walk in obed...