KaPaFu

Finally.

It’s been a few weeks and I’m just finding some time to pour my heart out.

As most of you know I went to Haiti over Spring Break this year.  We traveled to the Northwest region of Haiti to a small town called Mole St. Nicholas (better known as “The Mole”).  This is the same place we went last year and it was incredible.  To go back to the same place and see how things had changed was such a treat.  I’ve been processing and mulling over the things we did and learned that week and I want to share a little bit of that here. Instead of telling you the trip day by day I want to explain each big thing we were a part of over there.

We did a lot that week including VBS, hut-to-hut evangelism, construction, teen youth conference, and playing with orphans.

I’ll start with construction.

This year, we worked on a project to build a cistern in a small fishing village called KaPaFu.  (side note: waking up at 4:45am and doing physical labor all day sounded to me like nothing I wanted to do) This was a place that we could only access by boat.  My small group of 9, plus our interpreter Pierre and a few other Haitians all piled onto a small motorboat around 5am one morning and took a 45-minute ride to the village.  Upon arriving it was still dark and we got right to work moving boulders.  We worked until the sun came up and then took a break for breakfast.  The rest of the day was filled with fellowship.  The guys in our group continued with the labor but the girls had the opportunity to hang out with some women and children.  Boy was that a treat!  We got to watch a woman gut a fish, we were welcomed into many of their homes, we got to pray over and speak with them, and loved on a few of the children who were too young to be in school.

In particular, there was one precious little 2-year-old girl who was around the entire day.  I got to hold and tickle her for a little while but the second she met Marie that changed.  She loved Marie.  She wanted to be wrapped in her arms all day!  Abbey actually picked her up first and she loved Abbey!  Then Rachel, Stephanie and I were with her for a bit before she met Marie.  The second she saw her she was hooked.  The others who held her were good, she liked us, but no one was like Marie.  I couldn’t help but in that moment, see a beautiful picture of what our relationship with Jesus should look like.  Before we meet Jesus, we might know other things that are good.  I know I did.  Before Jesus, I was here and I liked what I had.  I thought I had it all. But the day I met Him my entire perspective changed.  All of the sudden what used to seem sufficient, no longer mattered.  We might even go back to those things sometimes, but when in the presence of the Lord we realize He is ALL sufficient, ALL fulfilling, ALL satisfying, and those old things don’t even hold a candle to Him.  Once you’ve tasted His glory and His goodness how could anything else suffice?  Nothing does, nothing can.  

The one day I really wasn’t looking forward to God did more than I ever thought possible.  We went there to serve them, bless them, and to build for them, and I left feeling served, blessed, and built up.  Funny how God works, huh?

Peace & Blessings.

Mere

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." 2 Corinthians 5:17