Tears for Haiti, Heartbreak for the World
What did God do to me in Haiti? On May 20th I boarded a plane in Atlanta with a final destination of Port Au Prince, Haiti. 31 days later I landed in the Miami airport and looked the shock of returning back to the States directly in the eyes. I spent several hours of my layover in Miami in tears. Tears because I missed the community in Haiti and didn’t want to be away from the presence of the Lord there, tears because of the great need still left in Haiti and massive tears for the selfishness, greediness and lack of gratitude and praise to the Lord in the States. Everywhere I looked in Haiti, on every Tap Tap (bus/truck) on buildings or every other word in a church service was “Merci Jesus!” “Thank you, Jesus!” The Haitians can say thank you Jesus in the midst of their trouble, how do we respond to trouble? It was then I realized that I left my heart in Haiti. “Why Haiti?” I asked the Lord. He knew exactly what He was doing. Before I left for Haiti I was dry, empty and close to giving everything up to the “easier” road in life. The Lord captured my heart just in time! When I was preparing for Haiti I had the mindset that I work for a missions organization, I’ve been a Christian all my life and I’ve got this whole “I’m right with Jesus” thing down…I was so wrong! In fact, I needed Him more than I’ve ever needed Him before. In the four weeks I spent in Haiti the Lord stripped away the layers of crap I’d been hiding behind exposing the brokenness that He wanted to heal. The brokenness I thought I was doing a good job of masking, maintaining and “fixing” by myself. Thank the Lord for His unconditional love and abundance of grace. I am just bursting at the seams with His joy. I feel like a high school girl who just got a new boyfriend and she wants to tell everyone she meets how dreamy he is and how much he loves her. The cool thing about my Beloved is He loves me unconditionally, nothing I could ever do could make Him love me more or less, I will never lose His love, I’ll never get boring to Him, He’ll never “change his mind” and He’ll never stop pursuing after the depths of my heart. I’m so in love with my Creator!
What did God do through me in Haiti? My main roll all four weeks was support staff for our Short Term Mission teams. Each week I was assigned a new team to support. I figured out the food, water and supplies the teams would need for the offsite ministry locations. My roll in support staffing also required me to serve the Project Leader and minister to the participants. I lead small groups of ministry teams out into the communities to pray, heal, love on and bring Kingdom to the Haitians. God worked through us and we saw people come to Him, we saw people healed from sicknesses and disabilities. Each week we blessed the communities through the pastors by giving them water, rice, beans, Bibles, tents, tarps, whatever was specific to the needs of that community. AIM Haiti is about coming alongside the Haitian Pastors and working with them to meet the spiritual and tangible needs of their communities. We are about discipleship and seeing the glory of the Lord in every life, on every street corner and in every tangible need met in Haiti.
Thank you for your prayers while I was in Haiti. I know I am loved by my King, He romanced my heart, I am blessed. Please partner with me and continue to pray for the nation of Haiti and the AIM staff giving up everything for God’s glory there.
Enjoy some pictures from my trip! (There are lots more on Facebook, check them out!)
James 1:27 – Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their disress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Luke 11:34-35 – Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness.
2 Corinthians 8:9 – For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that thoughhe was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
We are soo proud of you…fyi…look up the song…ok don’t laugh by Billy Rae Cyrus…I need you now from his album “the other side”…I love that song and I think it will bless you. Have a GREAT time in the Philippines we love you.
Doug, angie, erik, katie 🙂 🙂
Every time I read your blog I just cant believe how far the Lord has taken you since Peru. I am excited for you and what He has next for you. Thank you for allowing Him to love you and for loving Him back and allowing that Love to minister to those around you. Cant wait to see you again one day.
Awesome!! Love what God did and is doing in you!!! Can’t wait to see what else He does next!!!
I love it Kelsey! I’m so glad to hear that God has captured a new part of your heart. We’ll never be the same.
I really wanted to go to Haiti too, but was torn between going there and my ministry here. I choose to be faithful to where God has me, but I still think about Haiti a lot.
So glad you got the opportunity to go. Love you girl, and I’m proud of you. I miss you too. Hope all is well, and new adventures are always on the horizon.
Great blog!!! Thanks for sharing – awesome to hear what God did in and through you! The pictures are beautiful – makes me want to go bring one of those precious children home. Proud of you and thankful you were there to hold them and hug them! Love you!