Our God Really is an Awesome God.

I can't believe I am back in Haiti. Six months ago,
I didn't even think I was going to be able to come
down for at least a year. Stepping off the plane
into the Haitian airport, I felt like I was stepping
back home. It feels so amazing to be back again..
it's hard to think that I am only here 9 days!

Jeff (my uncle and the co-founder of Healing Haiti),
Jeffrey (my cousin), Jessica, Kerry-Ann, and Jean
(our Haitian Mission Director) picked us up at
the Haitian airports full of hugs and smiles.
It was so great to see familiar faces and to
meet up with the group that has been down
here for the past 2 weeks.

It's a full house at the mission home in Haiti,
but it's great to be here with so many people
that love Haiti and that are just getting their
first dose of what will be the most profound
week of their life.

On my way down to Haiti, I spent some
time reading a book about Mother Teresa,
and her life reflected through the Beatitudes.
Mother Teresa spent much of her life facing
human suffering, poverty, and death.
She cared for sick, dying, disheveled, and
outcasts of our world. She was a woman
that gave up her life of comfort to come face
to face with suffering. While many people fear
suffering and try to avoid it at all costs
(often times using drugs, alcohol, or other
worldly pleasures to numb their emotions/ feelings),
Mother Teresa dove right into the deep-end,
into places most people would not dare to go.
Her work eventually received recognition and
praise from others who had heard of what
she had done and what she was doing for the
poorest of the poor and those on the margins
of society, but Mother Teresa continually gave
her glory to the one that was working through her,
Jesus Christ. There is so much to be learned
from this great woman; there is so much I aspire
in her.

The idea of suffering brought up throughout
the book really strung a chord in my life and
what is being done in Haiti. Over the past few
experiences I have been down here, I have
realized that God uses Haiti for so much more
than we (the missionaries) realize. Many
people that come to Haiti to do mission work,
realize this contradictory about Haiti; it is literally
a beautiful mess. How can a place full of so much
poverty be such a beautiful place? While many
question this about Haiti, they also began to
realize their own brokenness.. their own mess...
Many times people are faced with turmoil,
uncomfortableness and doubts in their own
lives. They face a period of trial, which often
leads to frustrations, sorrow, and drastic life
changes. People on the mission teams began
to open up about their suffering, and allowing
other team mates to partake in their suffering
experience... helping them to understand or
discern what exactly is happening in their life.
It is through this human connection and
relationship that the Body of Christ is exemplified. ...
and so often we realize how God turns our
broken selves into a beautiful mess, as well.
God calls us all to look into our own lives to
see how we are broken, and how we are
poor of spirit. God calls us to find beauty
in our suffering... just like that of the suffering
and persecution of Jesus Christ. When we
allow others to partake in our suffering,
we allow the work of Jesus Christ to be
reviled and God's love to heal us and make
us more beautiful than we have ever been before...