The Importance of Prayer

The trip was SO amazing and God showed me so many things. There are two things, however, that stick out the most. The first is the importance of prayer…from the very first day of being in Haiti, I felt like God was showing me what a privilege it is to have communication with Him…Secondly, God just showed me how broken and hopeless people are…[everyone is] broken inside and in desperate need of the hope that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are God’s primary tools of showing and telling that hope to others.
Thank you so much for allowing us to come to Haiti and be a part of the ministry there. I hope we can come back!
-Devon

The Healing Power of God

On this trip, God taught me even more about how powerful he is. On the first night, I fell on the stairs. I thought it was just a badly sprained ankle. It looked terrible, but it hardly hurt the entire week that we were there. In fact, after two days, I was able to take the wrap and splint off. I was able to do everything that the team did. On the trip home, my ankle began to hurt. Come to find out, I had fractured a bone in my foot as well as sprained the ankle. The doctors immediately put my foot in a cast for three weeks. God was faithful and kept the pain away and allowed me to continue working while opening my eyes up to what the Haitians went through after the earthquake and in their daily lives. They don’t have the luxury of going to a doctor and getting a cast. What strength the Haitian people have. I consider it an honor and privilege that God called us to go to Haiti and work with Gary and Linda…I think Americans could learn a lot about how to truly worship from the people of Gary’s church. I loved being able to hand out the shoebox gifts. It is wonderful knowing that with every one of those gifts, we were not only able to meet the child’s physical needs, but their spiritual need as well. Every child that received a box heard the Gospel, and that is most important of all.
-Sheila

Rest in the Lord

I had been told we would be doing some building on our trip to Bethel Mission Outreach. So, I was prepared and ready to do some hard labor. Well, things didn’t work out for those projects, so we did other things that were not such intense labor, mostly playing and interacting with children. I felt guilty! I struggled for a couple days with my new found leisure, and asked the Lord to show me the purpose of my being there. And of course He did. The Lord really spoke to my heart that He wanted me to rest.

Can you believe that, all the way to Haiti to rest? It wasn’t difficult to find in scripture what the Lord has to say about rest. God even rested from His work of creation on the 7th day (Genesis 2:2-3). The Sabbath day is to be a day of special worship to God, and a day of rest for us and a sign of the covenant between God and us (Exodus 31:12-17). It is meant to protect us from overwork and imbalance, to encourage our health physically, emotionally, and spiritually so that we may be whole (Exodus 23:10-19). The Lord even provided instructions for rest for the land and animals too (Leviticus 25:1-7). Resting from work requires faith to believe that God will provide. In Deuteronomy 16:1-15 God prescribed a regular and healthy pattern of work and rest. We don’t even have to figure it out. In Isaiah 58:13-14 we are promised great honor and our full share of the inheritance God promised Jacob for keeping the Sabbath holy. In Mark 6:30-32 Jesus took care of the disciples by drawing them away from the crowds for rest and solitude. Rest is essential to the maintenance of any kind of balanced life. I don’t have to accept guilt for resting. It’s ok to recharge. I know how to “work as unto the Lord” and praise God, now He’s teaching me how to rest.

There are of course so many more things to say about Haiti, the people, and BMO. I could really go on and on. But, the ‘rest” issue is really what God dealt with me about the most personally. I am excited to find out this Sunday what it’s truly suppose to be like to rest for a day like the Lord prescribed.
Love and miss you guys!
-Christy