A Rather Rough Day

Today was rough. It started out pretty great. I actually slept like a rock. Apparently it sprinkled last night for a bit and several girls ran back inside from our balcony, but I wasn’t aware of this until this morning…Oops! Breakfast was great though, we had biscuits with peanut butter and jelly along with hard-boiled eggs.

After breakfast I went down to fed the Miriam Center. This is where I began to get a little annoyed with myselftoday. While I was feeding one of our girls with cerebral palsy, one of the boys that was laying nearby knocked over the cup containing her food (she has to be fed out of a syringe) with his foot, spilling it all over the floor and himself. This was very dumb of me, but that’s okay. I could live with that.

Once that was all taken care of and feeding was done we took the higher developed kids to Bonneau were we played on a place scape. We I had heard of Bonneau, I always thought it was just down the street, but we actually took a bus quite a long ways and the views were some of the most beautiful I have ever seen along with coast of Haiti! This part of the day was also fun, but during the preparation for the trip we had to put shoes on all of the kids, one of the kids, Owen, who actually ended up being my buddy for the day, was given too big of shoes. Throughout our time at the park, it kept falling off, which also was irritating for me because I should have realized this at the mission. Once we were at the park it was fun to get to play with the kids and be outside with them! Owens and I went down a slide and played with a parachute with some of the other kids. We even got crackers and water for all of the kids and staff that came with us. I took one of our kids Den-Den down the slide, he fell and hit his head on the concrete getting off. Also my fault.

The park was a great time and the kids really enjoyed it, but on the way back, I had to grab one of the kids, Mark-Henry, in my lap because the bus was too crowded. He didn’t like this and began to get really upset, to which I got even more upset with myself.

However, on this same bus ride home I began to realize that during my time here, serving these kids, I am not going to be perfect. Even back home I will never be perfect. In fact, I will NEVER, EVER, EVER be perfect. But that’s okay because I wasn’t created to be perfect. I was created to love and to serve others and be Christ to them. And today that’s what I did, because even though I may have made a mess today at breakfast, I got to feed several kids who otherwise would not have eaten and I got to hold them and cuddle with them when they long to be loved on. And even though Owens had the wrong size shoe on, I was there to put it back on and re-tie it EVER single time he needed it done. And even though Mark-Henry cried when I put him in my lap, I got to wrap my arms tight around him when he fell asleep on the ride back.

Today I came to realize that even in my ministry, I am going to mess up, but that doesn’t mean I fail. The only time I fail is when I give up and stop loving others and serving them the best way I know how. And I don’t plan on doing that any time soon.

I wish I could say that may day got easier from there, but it didn’t. After we got back from the park we got lunch (where I got a coke which was a great way to re-energize myself) and after eating I went down to help feed the kids. After this I helped Autumn with outreach, where mom’s with special needs children come to get free therapy lessons so that they can practice the therapy exercise with their kids at home. This was all great, but it was during this time that the hardest part of my day, and perhaps the hardest part of my trip thus far began to unfold.

It was during the Outreach program that Stephanie and a bunch of staff came over to the bird cage (an open area that is covered at the Miriam Center) with a boy who appeared to have C.P. It turns out that this young boy had been left at the medical center by his mother all day. The last few patients at the center noticed him. Stephanie brought him over and he was crying and crying. We were able to clean him up and feed him, but it was clear that he was SEVERELY malnourished. He was even too small for the premature baby diapers we had. I have ever seen a kid so tiny in my life, and some of the kids in the Miriam Center are malnourished as well (don’t worry though, we have them on a nutrition program). But this kid was tiny. We didn’t even know his name.

Unfortunately, due to the fact that the Miriam Center is already dozens of kids over our max and this little boy needed way more medical care than we could offer him, we had to get two staff members, Stephanie and Jackson to take him to the hospital in Port de Paix. Please be praying for them, this little boy, his mother who gave him up (as the fact that she had to come to this decision had to be difficult) and the situation overall. We are hoping, best case, that the mother will agree to take him back if he can be nursed back to health, or that we can send him to the Hope House to gain more weight and then by that time, we can get him back here.

No matter what though, we know that the Lord has this little boy and the entire situation in His hands! I miss you guys like crazy and I hope all is going well!

The Lord's Day in Haiti

Today was my first Sunday in Haiti

We were actually able to sleep in today! And by sleep in, I mean instead of waking up at 6:15, we woke up at 7:30. I am quickly realizing that Sunday’s are the best days around here! We got dressed and then actually had biscuits with peanut butter and jelly! Strange I know, but the other option of gravy this morning looked super sketch. But it was actually really great! The women in the kitchen actually make the biscuits from scratch and they are sooo good.

After breakfast we soon went to church. I like church a lot because we are able to take the Miriam Center kids with us! Gilbert and Joshua came with Kelsey and I. They are both great! Church in Haiti is so much different than church in America, but I like it a lot! We actually sat outside of the church under the shade today in chairs because we have a large group in (40 people are here that aren’t on staff or interns). The worship part of church is longer than in the U.S. and there are a lot more prayers (of course all of this is in Creole, so I had no idea what was being said), but the speaker today was actually a pastor of one of the visiting groups. He spoke in English and then another man translated it into Creole. Overall even though I didn’t know what was going on, I really enjoyed the experience of being at a Haitian Church. The people were so genuine and sweet. It was awesome.

After we came back from church I went downstairs and helped Stephanie with the Miriam Center put together the meals for the more high functioning kids. After that I went up for lunch which consisted of cream corn, rolls, and ham salad. If you read the words ‘ham salad’ and thought to yourself: “Ew that sounds gross!” You would be correct. It was nasty! But the rolls were incredible! Bread here is absolutely fantastic. My friend Kelsey and I went back and both ended up eating three.

After lunch was the survivor challenge. Turns out since there was already an even number on both teams, I am the mascot of Difi. Still awesome. We won our challenge today but only those competing in the game received immunity. So from our team, only Kelsey and Lisa were off the chopping block and since Sinclair was the first one to finish off of the Green Goblin he couldn’t be voted for this week either.

Once the challenge was over we headed to a soccer game. It was a fundraiser for the mission and tickets were two dollars. The game was NWHCM staff verses a Haitian team. I just watched which was really fun and our team actually ended up winning

When we got back from to the mission from the game I was able to a call my parents using the mission’s phone. The number is actually registered as a Kentucky number so we don’t get charge for international minutes, but we only get one phone call a week. It was so good to hear from both my mom and my day and be able to hear how things are going back home. I’m sad I didn’t get to talk with my sister, but Jenna I hope that the wedding you were shooting went well! During this time in the staff lounge I was also able to hang up pictures I had brought from home in my locker, which is great and an awesome reminder of home!

Dinner tonight was spaghetti and apple sauce. It was quite filling and devotional tonight was great! My heart was really open during worship and the message from one of the guys was about strength and he read a verse out of Isaiah 40 on hope and perseverance. It was a great reminder of why I am here.

After devo we had our first tribal counsel and Mary and Tosh were voted off the island because they are both leaving in the next week or so. Instead of touches (because Haiti is hot enough, we are using water bottles. A clear essential here.) Once we were done with this, I took my bucket bath for today and I am now in the staff lounge with a lot of the staff watching a movie and eating real snacks (Cheese Its and Captain Crunch)! It is certainly a great way to end the day!

“But those who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

June 9th's Events

Today started off great and was that way all the way through. I woke up with a couple of mosquito bites because I had kicked my sheet and mosquito net off during the night and while I had put bug spray on during the night, I didn’t spray my blanket because the generator went out at 9:40 and I was strained not in bed yet, so I had to feel my way until I got back to the girl intern’s dorm where some of my friends had flash lights. But the few bites I have are completely manageable (and don’t worry mom, I am taking my malaria medication like a champ!)

We all got dressed and went to devotional where worship was led by another summer intern named Lisa. Side note-Lisa works in the mission’s birthing center and delivered a healthy baby girl yesterday afternoon. Once the baby was delivered, the mother raised her hands up to praise God and then immediately started praying over her child. He is sooo good! After devo was breakfast where we ate cereal consisting of bland corn flakes and Haitian milk. To make the cereal more tasty, we can add sugar, so in reality, it was just like American cereal but the milk was sweeter.

After breakfast I headed straight down the Miriam Center where I immediately started helping Autumn and Stephanie with the kids’ breakfast. The children of the Miriam Center receive many of the same meals that the staff and volunteers do for our meals, but just in special needs and child form. So 18-22 of our kids received their corn flakes mushed up with the help of a blender, while the other got real cereal in its true form. To make sure that the kid’s get plenty of nutrients each day and to attempt to add some weight to each of their bodies, we added bananas to their cereal as well!

After that I helped Stephanie gather some supplies to help clean the kids up in order to take each of their pictures. This is when she showed me the secret depot storage area that the Miriam Center has. It contains a great deal of the supplies that are in short supply and locked so that they can make sure the kids who absolutely need them get them along with having special foods that can be added to the children’s diets based off of what they are being served for the different meals. Because of the foods (some of them being things that can melt and even eggs, the room is air conditioned! So Stephanie told me exactly where the keys where, and that if I ever needed to just get away, I could go there! There’s a good chance I could be using this offer in the next five weeks…

We took the kids outside under a tree to take their pictures. It was quite chaotic because when we would take a kid out to take their picture, they then wouldn’t want to go back inside, so towards the end it took a lot more effort to look after the kids who had already gotten their picture taken rather than dressing, cleaning and taking the photo. I am really excited about what the pictures could eventually do for the center. Autumn and Stephanie are using these (with the help of Justin, the Miriam Center’s right hand/handy man) to create two billboards that will hopefully help significantly with feeding the kids. One of the billboards will be for those who haven’t been fed each meal, and those feeding the kids will be able to move the child’s picture over after they have been fed to the other board. There will also be a way for the workers to determine easily who gets the blended food and who gets the real version of whatever the children are eating at that time. This could potentially be a huge heal to us because with close to 50 kids to feed three times a day, seven days a week (that’s a lot of meals), it can get pretty messy determining which kids have eaten and which kids haven’t. I am really excited to see this once it is all put together!

After helping out with the photos it was time to prepare the lunches for the kids! The three of us (Autumn, Stephanie and myself) blended the meal for those who needed it and then had to cut up the dumplings, lamb, and sweat potatoes into bite size pieces. This was no easy task with the amount of plates that needed to be served, but we managed!

Today the kids of the Miriam Center had a later lunch and we didn’t finish until 1:15. The staff’s lunch is ALWAYS served at noon. So the three of us were a little late for that, but thankfully Justin has caught on to this with Autumn and Stephanie in the last few weeks and has saved them plates in the kitchen, he has graciously added a third plate to this group so that I can eat late with them as well! I also bought a coke today for a U.S. dollar from our on campus store. The best part about it: it was actually a cold drink since we don’t have ice.

Once we had finished with lunch we all stayed upstairs in the common area feeding Petey (Heather’s kid) and then Stephanie brought up T-Stevenson, a young boy had been crying downstairs in the Miriam Center, so she brought him up for me to hold upstairs.

A little bit about T-Stevenson, he has Dwarfism. He looks like a 5 month old infant but is in fact 5 years old. When he was a child, his mother noticed that he wasn’t growing, knew that something was wrong with him, and gave him to a witch doctor to try and “fix” him. In Haiti there is a lot of voodoo and witch doctors are definitely a part of this. Unfortunately, the witch doctor’s form of treatment for T-Stevenson was something closer to torture and involved possibly burning or starving. T-Stevenson has scars all over his arms. It makes me really upset, angry and sad to know that someone actually did this to them, and actually thought that this was okay. It also makes me super angry that he had to experience this at such a young age and had no way of defending himself and no way of knowing what or why this was happening to him. Within his first fear years of life, when so many kids are experiencing and understanding love for the first time from their parents, this poor kid was not.

I really really really loved getting to spend time getting to know T-Stevenson today. I even took him down stairs with me when Autumn gave me a binder with all the information on each of the Miriam Center kids in it so I could get some knowledge on each of them. It was very good to be able to see the diagnosis for many of the kids and put some names to faces of kids I haven’t been able to spend much time with. It was also very moving though because one of the sections of information involved any medical history we have on the children. For three of these kids, the earthquake in Haiti was involved. One of the girls is a victim of the earthquake and has suffered from severe PTSD among many other things since while one of our other super cute girls lost her mother in the earthquake and made it to the M.C. Lastly, another girl was found face down in the rubble and has been with us ever since! It kind of pained me to realize that these kids have been through more than I can imagine and they are all still so young! But the good news is that I get to be here for the next five weeks or so to love on them and serve them and try to make their life as much better as I can! And that is such a blessing.

After reading all these papers, it was time for dinner. We had spaghetti downstairs in the M.C. tonight and preparing that was fun! Haitian spaghetti is very much similar to American spaghetti except that it uses a bit less sauce and more noodles and instead of hamburger meat they use hot dogs. At dinner I fed a kid who needed to take two pills, but unfortunately, I was not given them until he was almost full. So that was quite a challenge. He took the smaller pill with a little edging, but the bigger pill he kept spitting out. Autumn and I were able to find him a piece of hot dog and we hid it inside that (thanks mom, for hiding my pills growing up so I could easily think of such an idea).

I have been spit up on, and have challenges of feeding kids and getting spaghetti all over me, I have bug bites and am constantly sweating and gross. I am eating food that I sometimes don’t know what it is and I am showering out of a bucket with water that many in America would not even drink from. But honestly, I would absolutely not trade any of this for the world. Because today I was able to feed kids that can’t eat for themselves, and I was able to see T-Stevenson laugh and I was able to help make a feeding program more efficient for close to 50 kids! I wouldn’t trade that for air conditioning, or a nice shower, or make-up or anything.

“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for the orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” -James 1:27 This is a picture of T-Stevenson. He is so precious!

My First Full Day's Adventure

Today was my first full day in Haiti and it was absolutely wonderful! I slept outside last night under the stars with many of the other girl interns since it is actually cooler outside than it is inside. And by cooler I mean, you don’t sweat as much. It took me a while to go to sleep because there were a ton of dogs barking and it was still rather warm, but once I did, I didn’t wake up until it was time to arise for the day’s activities

Once we woke up we moved our mattresses back in and got dressed for the day. We then got some Haitian coffee (actually REALLY good) and then headed up to Devotion time, which consists of praise and worship by one of our staff, John Black, who is NWHMC’s media guy and then a devotion by either a staff member or someone who has come in on one of the groups. Today it was an intern who shared with us a Haitian Proverb. After devo we had breakfast which was pancakes and peaches (with butter and syrup) and an orange fruit drink, which I actually drank and enjoyed. For those of you who many know me really well this is quite an accomplishment because I absolutely HATE citrus and all orange flavored things, including fruit snacks!

Once we were finished with breakfast all the interns including myself went up for orientation with the new group that such came in. The other interns, who have been here for a couple of weeks were their because many of them are in charge of groups and take them around the town and on campus for different needs and ministries. I was there because I actually needed the information provided at the orientation. It was very informative even though my fellow interns who are some of the sweetest and most welcoming people I have ever met!

It was actually at orientation that I learned more information on the interns survivor game they are playing. This week, on Sunday our two “tribes” will have a challenge to see who has to vote off a member. I hope my team (yes I was already recruited by team Dife (which means fire in Creole) My teams color is orange, the other tribe, the Green Goblin is well…green! (Orange and Green. Gideon shout out! I can travel 1500 miles and still be reminded of Impact) I am super excited for Sunday though! Not only will we have the contest, but we also have kids graduating from our nutrition program so it will be a day full of events after church!

After orientation each pair of interns (the summer interns who are in charge of the groups that come in are paired off and the groups are split amongst these partnerships) took their group on a tour. I joined Kelsey and Kelly on their tour. Iy was great! I had no idea the mission was sooo huge! To learn more about what they cool things they are doing, check out their website at the bottom of the page.

By the time we had finished the tour, it was almost time for lunch. Lunch today was black beans and rice with some kind of onion sauce. In terms of the onion sauce I had no idea what I was eating, but it was pretty good. I hear I will soon get tired of this meal though. Lunch was another great opportunity to get to know the other interns more along with the group that came in.

After lunch I went down to the Miriam Center to help Autumn and Stephanie in the Miriam Center to fed the kids their lunch. I sorted plates on the table and gathered the silverware. I was able to hang out with a few of the kids as well. After lunch I went up to Autumn’s room to help her feed Petey, a special needs boy who she is looking after for another woman who works in the Miriam Center, Heather. Heather is currently in the Dominican Republic getting medical help since she has been very sick. Please pray for her. Autumn let me actually feed Petey though which was a really cool experience!

Once we were done with Petey, we went back down to the Miriam Center for Outreach. Outreach is a program that Autumn has just started with families in the community with special needs children. These children are not officially apart of the Miriam Center, but once a week at Outreach we are able to show the parents how to do therapy with there kids! The best part of my day was that Autumn allowed me to do the exercises with one of our kids from the Miriam Center with cerebral palsy to be the model for the parents and there kids. To understand how cool this was, in the United States due to liability issues, in all the shadowing of OT’s I have done in clinics I was never able to actually touch or help treat a kid, but today I in Haiti I was able to. I also got really excited when I realized that there would be many days like this ahead and I will likely be able to help with many other kids treatments! AHHH!!!

After this time I was able to bring Autumn and Stephanie the supplies I had brought them from the states. We had a good time doing this and it was a nice break. Once this break was over though it was time to start thinking about dinner with the kids. During this time of feeding the kids of the Miriam Center, rather than just sorting the bowls and silverware, I was able to feed two of the kids which was fantastic! I like these times because I am really able to spend one on one time with one child rather than playing with them in large groups. It was also really fun because one of the other interns, Kelsey (we are going to be good friends I can tell already brought some of the girls in her group to come help feed the kids!

Once the kids ate, it was time for me to eat which was rather unfortunate because I wasn’t able to take a shower even though I got spit up ALL over me while feeding the last girl I helped with.

We then had our evening devotion and now we have a bit of free time which is how I am able to write this blog with some of the other interns in our staff room. If I can I’ll try and upload a picture of the view from my dormroom’s front door onto my facebook page, but no promises with this internet...

Ally-ism of the day: During our tour I accidently put the padlock back over the door leading to the surgery room that isn’t in use right now because the surgery team isn’t here. Little did I know when I did this I had locked Spencer and Morgan’s group in the surgery rooms. Also little did I know, Spencer was the one with the keys and he was inside the surgery. Good thing though: there was another door on the back side.

Deception

I made it to Haiti today after 30 hours of traveling. I tried once already to type up my blog, but then we lost internet. So here is a super condensed version

I landed in Miami last night after my flight was delayed in Dallas. Got there around 11:30. Caught a shuttle to my hotel. The two girls I was sharing a room with were already asleep so I had to share a bed with a girl I had never met. It was awkward but she turned out to be super cool and very helpful coming into Haiti since she has been before and has experience

Upon arriving in Port-au-Prince my group that I was with had a 5 hour layover in the national airport there before we flew to Port-de-Paix on a 20 passenger plane. Scariest flight of my life with the amount of wind and turbulence today! After arriving in Port-de-Paix we took a tap-tap for about an hour to St. Louis du Nord. For those of you who don't know what a tap-tap is, it is essentially a truck whose bed has been converted into a bench on either side.

The ride to St. Louis du Nord made me realize how deceiving Haiti can be. Many people I had talked to told me that Haiti was ugly and flat and treeless. While that may be true for areas around Port-au-Prince, it certainly isn't true here in the north. St. Louis is right off the coast and has mountains and many trees. I'll try to upload a picture of the view from our dorm balcony (which if my checked bags come in that has my mosquito next tonight, I'll be sleeping on outside tonight with several of the other interns.)The view is absolutely breath taking!

Yet while the views of the landscape from the ground and the air are absolutely gorgeous, the living conditions are not. Haiti is poverty. As we rode through on the tap-tap the smell of sewage filled the streets, people had to walk to get 'clean' water and many homes were shacks made out of trees or metal. This country needs a whole lot of help! I feel so incredibly blessed to be able to work at this mission and serve the people of Haiti. Because while they may not live in a place that is desirable, they are desirable. The Lord desires them so much! He wants them! He loves them and he calls us to love them as well.

Ally-ism of the day: I did not know the creole words for women and men. Which made figuring out which public restroom to use in the airport a little difficult.

It's a Small World

I would be willing to bet that everyone reading this has heard of the phrase, "It's a small world" before. In case you haven't, such a phrase is generally spoken when an incredible coincidence occurs, typically when you see someone in a place you would not expect. It is used quite regularly and there is even a ride at every Disney theme park in the world by this name. On this ride, park guests can float along a track and visit the different cultures of the world. In my 20 years of life, I have heard the phrase or variations of it used more often than ever before over the past two years at A&M. Even with a campus of over 50,000 students, you always manage to run into people you know, which is always such a joy! So I'm rather use to hearing "it's a small world" or "you will never believe" at A&M because in many ways, it is the only world I know for weeks at a time during the semester and in relation to the globe, A&M is rather small and if I weren't in college I probably wouldn't believe half the stuff I see around campus.

However, just this Friday I had such an "It's a small world" moment outside of A&M and College Station. I was sitting at my sister's house late that night watching a movie and talking with some friends. My sister's friend Johanna Burleson was there visiting for the night with her three year old son Hayden, Jenna's God Son. Johanna was also my Disciple Now leader one year when I was in high school. It was while I was sitting on my sister's couch that Johanna began asking me about my internship this summer and where I would be at within Haiti.

I replied: "St. Louis du Nord. It's in the Northwestern portion of the country."

It was then, that Johanna got this look on her face and said, "Hold on, I think I may know people who are missionaries there, John and Christi Barnes. Let me check! You may see them."

It was then that I had my "IT"S A SMALL WORLD MOMENT!"

You see, John and Christi Barnes are Facebook friends with me, even though I had never met them due to Northwest Haiti Christian Mission setting up a Facebook group for the summer interns and NWHCM staff to get to know each other. I will be seeing them and will likely be working very closely with both of them over the course of this summer. It turns out that Johanna and her husband Nic Burleson financially support John and Christi as missionaries through their church they planted: Timber Ridge Church in Stephenville, Texas.

Immediately after I heard this I thought, "It's a small world!" But in reality it is NOT a small world at ALL. In fact, the world is rather large. The diameter of the earth is nearly 13,000 Kilometers with a mass that is most easily expressed in moles (that's big). There are 196 countries with a population of just over 7 BILLION people. It is not a small world. It is a HUGE world. It is not a coincidence, it is God's beautiful story, playing out within our lives. It is not a small world. It is a HUGE world. But our God is BIGGER and to Him, our world is small. In that regard, in the hands of our Creator, it's a small world.

Thinking back to the ride at the Disney resorts though. Those rides show places from within our world that are depicted as full of joy with happy and healthy characters in rooms full of bright colors and lighthearted music. But what about the places in the world that aren't so joyful? What about the kid in the U.S. whose parents are going through a divorce? What about the woman in England who is depressed? What the little girl in China who has never heard the Name of Jesus? What about the man in South Korea who is ashamed of something that he has done and doesn't know about His grace? What about the the mother in Uganda that is raising 6 children on her own? What about the autistic child in Haiti that has been abandon by his parents because their culture tells them he is cursed? What about the children who go through life never understanding the word love because no one has ever shown them? What about the thousands of children who will die today of hunger? And the thousands more of preventable diseases? Why aren't they depicted in these rides? They are all apart of the world too right? But that ride depicts 'a small world' remember? NOT my world. Not our world. Our world is big. Our world is full of darkness and hurt and death. But in that darkness there is LIGHT. In our HUGE world full of darkness, there is LIGHT!

Our world is HUGE and full of darkness, but our God is BIGGER and BRIGHTER. Our world is HUGE and full of hurt, but our God is EVERYWHERE within it and He brings HEALING. Our world is HUGE and full of death, but our God is HERE and He is ALIVE!!!

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands." -Psalm 19:1

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved."-Ephesians 2:4-5

Here is a link to Nic and Johanna's church in Stephenville: Timber Ridge Church. If you know anyone in the area or an incoming college student to Tarleton who is looking for a church, be sure to let them know.

Surprises

I hope you have had the chance to experience those conversations in life that while they are taking place you are able to think to yourself, "Man, I'm going to remember this one for a while!" One of these such conversations took place for me in June 2010. My senior year of high school I was blessed with the chance to take a graduation trip that summer backpacking through Europe for two weeks. I learned so much about myself in that amount of time and saw and experienced some incredible things. During the course of those two weeks I had some really awesome conversation about life with many of the people I traveled with, but the one that I perhaps remember most occurred in Florence, Italy. It was a night when my group had gone to dinner at Ristorante del Fragidi. An incredibly tasty place where life pretty much just stops and dinner is more of a social component and time to spend investing with others rather than a need to consume food. In simpler terms, that was the longest, but one of the most enjoyable dinners of my life. At the end of a three plus hour meal we were talking over dessert and coffee about the future and our plans. It was then, that one of our chaperones, Coach George, spoke of how we really couldn't anticipate too far into the future because when we looked back to our lives in 2008, none of us would have ever guessed that we would be traveling through Europe two years into the future. So really, it was no realistic to focus on the future all too much because it's always likely to change. He said, "We can only guess where we will each be two years from now."

Well, roughly two years exactly to that night in Florence I will be in St. Louis de Nord, Haiti. And believe me, if you had allowed me 25 guesses of where I would have been two years from that moment in Italy not one of those would have been even remotely come close to: working with awesome kids with special needs in Northwest Haiti as an intern and showing them and the people of Northwest Haiti the love of Jesus Christ. Not even close.

But that's life. And life is full of surprises. But fortunately for all of us, while the future may come as a surprise to us, none of it is a surprise to God. This last semester has been completely full of surprises from before it even began. Things took place in my life that I never would have expected. Starting with my friend Caleb who as in a ski accident in January. That was something none of us could have ever prepared for, but His glory has been evident throughout all of Caleb's recovery. It was also a surprise to me as a cochair to see all the things that unfolded within our camp this semester. I never would have guessed the amount of growth that I've experienced or the challenges I faced with my partner this semester. I never could have imagined how much work would be put into it, yet also the incredible ways that the Lord worked through 18 college students in 4 months and is still continuing to do so. I was thrown off guard at the Lord's constant call for me to be single and focus on Him this summer even though it was one of the most difficult things I've ever faced in being obedient to Him. I would have never assumed the amount of community and friends He has blessed me with in college, but upon realizing this, I've felt so encouraged. And getting a phone call on Friday that one of my best friends since I was seven and current roommate in college had flipped her car 4 times on her drive home to Georgetown also came as a shock and surprise. Yet, it was in His plan to keep her safe and allow her to continue to recover in the hospital in order to be a huge blessing and light to both the doctors and nurses on her floor, but also to her family and friends as well. I love you Mack!

I know it's easy to forget, especially in the worst of times, but He has got this. As I texted a friend right after Mackenzie's accident I was told "Just remember NOTHING surprises Him. He is sovereign over it all". There are many days in life that I have to be reminded of this. Even though it may come as a surprise to me, He has had this in line from the start. From the beginning of time.

So many of us say that we love to be surprised, but really we only love to be caught by surprise when the outcome is positive. And if you really look at it, all of life is a surprise because none of us knows what tomorrow holds or how any of this is ultimately going to unfold. And you know, that's okay with me. I am twenty years old and I DO NOT want to know what I'll be doing when I am 65 because half the fun is going to be the journey getting there and I know the Lord is going to have some crazy things in store for me. Because I've found that what God has in store for me (good or bad) is going to unfold whether I want it to or not and ultimately going to work out far better than I could have ever expected. So there's no point in planning out my life two years in advance. For, I know that even if given 25 more guess, I wouldn't get it right.

So as I have certainly witnessed from my good friend Mackenzie this week, it's not about getting to where you think God is calling you to be, but about glorifying Him in whatever circumstance you are in as you get there. No matter if that's from a hospital bed with a collar around your next and a chest tube with a smile on your face as you treat your doctors and nurses with such love and hospitality that all your visitors hear from half a dozen of the hospital staff on how sweet you are or the middle of Haiti or where ever else this summer may find you. Because where this summer is exactly where He has called you to be and precisely in His plan. No matter if that's a surprise to you or not. It's no surprise to Him.

I know my time in Haiti this summer is going to be full of loads of surprises and things I will never anticipate. I just pray that I can continually be flexible for what He has in store and faith to know that whatever happens, He's got this and His plan is far better than what I've got. With roughly 3 weeks until I leave for Haiti I can not wait to witness all the surprises He has in store for me!

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." -Jeremiah 29:11