Fighting on our knees.

Sometimes being a missionary is amazing. You get to serve God every day and your service is so apparent. For instance, we work for an organization that is directly impacting 52 children's lives. We get to see these children every day, to interact with them, and to love on them...daily. We get to watch our Haitian staff grow in wisdom. We get to play a part in encouraging our church's pastor and our school administer and those men are and will continue to impact even more lives. We get to be a part of our clinic and the vision for bringing knowledge into the community. It is a wonderful job. 

Sometimes being a missionary is just hard work. It is easy to feel alone, to get our feelings hurt, for misunderstandings to stop good work from happening. It is easy to get tired and it can be easy when you spend a lot of time with your family to long for the comforts of America. 

We have only been here for 3 months and we have already experienced both sides of being missionaries. 

We have noticed an increase in spiritual battles since we arrived. They found a bottle that is used for voodoo outside of our church. Its a small wine bottle with liquid in it, a paper with writing, two candles that have been partially burned, and ash. To be honest it looked just like they do in the movies. Except to know that someone's intent was to harm with this bottle makes it look a little more scary. 

Some nights I can not sleep because I feel that I must pray for protection. Often times the next day I will ask the other missionaries how they slept and will hear the same thing, they too where awake and praying. 

Our Grace Village kids heard noises outside of their dorms and voices. They were filled with fear. 

Satan is alive and spiritual warfare is real. The good news is that if Satan is working so hard to fill those of us at Grace Village with fear, we must be doing something right. God's light must be shining a little more brightly. We are clinging to these verses;

Ephesians 6:12-17

For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 

Because of the power of Jesus' name, we do not have to be afraid. We will continue to trust and follow our Lord and Savior. Our devotion time has taken on a new meaning as we cling to the truth of God's armor. We are literally on our knees daily in prayer. From what we can tell, when we get on our knees, God's power begins in full force. 

One of the things happening for God's Kingdom is a few of the local gang members have begun to attend church. One of the young men, named Johnny, was taken in by Shane. He was given help to go to schol but he did not have any clothes to wear when he went to school. We felt lead to help him with this and have become friends with him over time. Recently, Shane invited him to church. He said he doesn't go because he does not know if he wants to believe in him. So Shane said to come and see what God shows him. 

Last Sunday, we had 4 gang members sitting in our church pews. I sat behind them and didn't hear a word of the service because I spent the entire time praying for them. I spoke to our friend Johnny afterwards and told him how glad I was that he came and how I hoped to see him again. He said he would come. What if he turned his life over to Christ? What if he became a witness to our gang in Titanyen and more of them became Christians? I'll tell you what will happen, demons will flee Titanyen. 

One of our security guards is also, we believe part of the gang in Titnayen. He doesn't scare me because he is on our side right now, but he is one scary dude. He is not a Christian and was recently sick for two weeks because of a voodoo curse. He is filled with anger most of the time and walks with a chip on his shoulder. Last week, Shane had to give him a warning for his behavior on the job. We were very concerned with this warning. In the past, he has reacted very aggressive towards anyone who questions him.  So we sent out a prayer support request to our board member and she got her prayer warriors on it. When Shane and our Haitian HR talked to him, he actually listened and agreed! He even made some good points himself.  

Then later that day, I had the chance to show him support and respect in an issue he had with one of our children. God just used us to affirm him and hopefully to show God's grace and love. We believe that God is working in his heart and that he too could be softening to God's calling. We are praying for his salvation. 

God is moving at Grace Village. Please pray with us for:

-the salvation of these two young men

-our children at Grace that they would find freedom from their past

-Grace Village that it would shine God's glory

-that the demons in Titanyen would flee 

 

The stockings are hung with care.

Our little Christmas tree. 

I know its cruel, but the weather is so nice!

Christmas crafting with the Grace kiddos.

A missionary friend of our took this picture. He said it was the day chasing the night. This is about 5 in the morning east and west. 

Tiny acts of obedience

Grace Church is a wonderful place to worship. Pastor Wesley has a passion for worship and praise that I have seen in few others. He is also a very gifted speaker that keeps the audience engaged and makes listening to him fun. 

Grace Church holds its services in the feeding center at Grace Village. The room dimensions are approximately 40' x 80' and hold our 52 children that live at Grace comfortably during meal time. However during the Sunday service there are anywhere from 150-300 people attending church. It is close, hot, and filled with God's spirit. 

Last week I was sitting about 5 rows from the front. As I was sitting there I became aware of the woman next to me. The reason I noticed them was because they smelled very bad, it was the smell that comes from bodies that have not been washed for many days. This told me that she must be very poor. So I began to discreetly observed them. She was very slim and had on a long green skirt and a bright yellow shirt. Sitting with her were three little girls approximate ages 6, 4, and 1 1/2yrs old, dressed in their Sunday best. Their little white dresses looked like confirmation dresses and one of the children had on soccer cleats. They were incredibly cute and it was obvious that their momma loved them and took care of them as best she could. Everything about them screamed absolute poverty and love. 

During the hour worship, the smallest little girl began to cry and throw herself around while the mom tried to get her to relax and to fall asleep. She did eventually fall asleep, cradled in her momma's arms. As a mom, I know what a hungry cry sounds like and that is what she was, hungry.

I have a job during the service to help put the offering in a safe place and when I returned,my spot was taken. The service was full so I decided to go sit on the medical clinic stairs so I could listen in the shade. As I was sitting on the stairs, the same woman was being helped out of the church by the ushers. I watched as the woman held her sobbing middle child, and two of our ushers helped the other two kids follow their mom. They came and sat on the stairs near us and I felt a prompting, "Feed them." 

Immediately I had a million excuses why this was a horrible idea, but I said to the woman, "Bonjou. Pou kisa pi ti ou ap crye?" (Good morning. Why is your child crying?) She patted her stomach and said that her daughter was hungry. That was all the confirmation I needed. I told her that I was going to give her some food but that it would only be this one time. I gave her 4 granola bars and then hung out with her as her little girls ate the snacks. After a little bit, the girls where finished and the momma moved them back into the feeding center to finish listening to the service.

After the service I went to Pastor Wesley, the woman and her children were still sitting in the feeding center, so I pointed to them and asked Pastor Wesley if we could do something to help her. And thats when I heard the rest of the story. 

Pastor Wesley had been working with this family for the last month and had actually just recently asked us if we had clothes donations to share with this family. The family had come from the country; a father, the momma, and three little girls. The father was a voodoo priest and a rival priest was trying to kill him and his family. So they moved to Titanyen. They are living with another voodoo priest in Titanyen and yet somehow the man got connected with Pastor Wesley and they began to attend our church. The man accepted Christ recently and Pastor Wesley was mentoring him in what it means to be a believer. 

Two weeks ago, the man mentioned that when he was sleeping he had spirits attacking him with faces in his dreams and lots of fear. Pastor Wesley told him that he was saved but he needed to use the power Jesus' name to cast out the demons so that he could be free. The man did this and the next morning, he told Pastor Wesley that it was different...he was free. Well, the wife has noticed the difference too. Pastor Wesley told me that was why she came to Grace Church today. She had decided to give her life to Christ as well. After she had gone back in, she had given her life to Christ. 

1 Chorinthians 12:12

The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. 

This story isn't really about me. My part is tiny and relatively unimportant. All I had to do is to listen to God's prompting and give 4 granola bars so that the woman could go back inside and accept Christ. But this family is going to be saved for eternally because of many tiny acts of obedience by believers. Our God is SO big!! It is an honor to be able to play a role in someone's eternal destination. 

This puppy is 3 months old and our missionary friends have adopted him. (He's huge!)

The parent child team in Haiti had a Christmas party for the elderly. They also acted out the Christmas story. My kiddos had so much fun. 

 

Sierra calls Maxim her Haitian dad. He's a huge softy.

Salsa Dancing with Jean. He told me Sierra reminded him to, "Do the dip". Austin did amazing...and his partner was Jean. :) 

Landen is our Dog Whisperer