Well after my mini 2 week blog sabbatical I'm back. For those of you who care I went to Texas for a week where I had the amazing opportunity of participating in Antioch's annual missions conference World Mandate. It was so fun to worship with thousands of people and pray for the nations of the world with so many people. I love our sweet times of worship here in Haiti as an 8 person team, yet I still loved being able to look around and see so many people swept up in the presence of God. I accompanied one of my team leaders, Erika, for some fundraising opportunities and some meetings back in Waco. It was so fun to see my family once again and to hug so many dear friends, even friends who had come into town for the conference. Waco was a whirlwind but it was sweet and rich.
I then headed to south Florida. We have a requirement to leave our city and work every 8 weeks and another 8 weeks rolled around right around the time of our trip to Texas. So, Erika and I met the Rounke family in south Florida for a week of R&R. It was so fun to bake cookies in a beautiful kitchen, drive a car (we somehow rented a white VW bug, it was hilarious getting all of our luggage in it), and simply resting with my teammates. I've been back in Haiti since Friday and I haven't stopped sweating since we landed at the airport.
For the month of October we are upping our hours of language learning. I am excited and nervous about this at the same time. As the administrator for our team I spend a lot of time in our office which happens to be in our house. This new language push will force me (in a good way) to get out of the house and into villages and the lives of Haitians I don't know well. Today we spent a couple hours in the village where the 100+ homes were built and it was a blast. 7 people asked me why I wasn't married, and then why I didn't have children. It was a very interesting conversation (all in creole) trying to describe that I was waiting for both. In the end I don't think we truly understood each other, but I learned a lot. One lady also told me about 10 times that she had 7 children. I kept thinking we were starting a new conversation and in fact we were just having the same conversation over and over again.
I love languages so this is very exciting for me to be pushed to learn a lot more. I have a small fear that I'll loose my first foreign language but I'm hoping it will come right back to me if I'm forced to communicate in Spanish again.
All this to say, I'm back. This had been a harder re-entry than others so far, but I'm convinced more than ever that where there is hardship or it feels difficult there is gold beneath the pain. I'm committed to find the gold below and not settle with the metal that I can reach out and grab.
Until next Tuesday, orevwa!
I then headed to south Florida. We have a requirement to leave our city and work every 8 weeks and another 8 weeks rolled around right around the time of our trip to Texas. So, Erika and I met the Rounke family in south Florida for a week of R&R. It was so fun to bake cookies in a beautiful kitchen, drive a car (we somehow rented a white VW bug, it was hilarious getting all of our luggage in it), and simply resting with my teammates. I've been back in Haiti since Friday and I haven't stopped sweating since we landed at the airport.
I laughed every time we walked out to this car
For the month of October we are upping our hours of language learning. I am excited and nervous about this at the same time. As the administrator for our team I spend a lot of time in our office which happens to be in our house. This new language push will force me (in a good way) to get out of the house and into villages and the lives of Haitians I don't know well. Today we spent a couple hours in the village where the 100+ homes were built and it was a blast. 7 people asked me why I wasn't married, and then why I didn't have children. It was a very interesting conversation (all in creole) trying to describe that I was waiting for both. In the end I don't think we truly understood each other, but I learned a lot. One lady also told me about 10 times that she had 7 children. I kept thinking we were starting a new conversation and in fact we were just having the same conversation over and over again.
I love languages so this is very exciting for me to be pushed to learn a lot more. I have a small fear that I'll loose my first foreign language but I'm hoping it will come right back to me if I'm forced to communicate in Spanish again.
All this to say, I'm back. This had been a harder re-entry than others so far, but I'm convinced more than ever that where there is hardship or it feels difficult there is gold beneath the pain. I'm committed to find the gold below and not settle with the metal that I can reach out and grab.
Until next Tuesday, orevwa!
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