Haiti

i just got back from haiti! i was there for 2 weeks and fell in love with the people there! they have soo little but they are so joyful because they have God in their lives. i saw so many horrible things there. people living on dirt floors with thatched roofs and still so happy. children that are bloated with red hair because of malnutrition and still so happy. people who own one shirt and one pair of pants and mismatched shoes and still so happy. the kids during kids camped just wanted to be loved on and thats all they needed. the youth during youth camp getting up at 4 in the morning to sing praises. everyone dancing because they are so filled with the holy spirit. i also saw and heard things that you can't really imagine in the states. saw voodoo alters, heard from a former witch doctor, saw a girl get a demon cast out of her. all so real but also impossible to imagine in sioux county let alone orange city. about 50 people came to know Christ during the 2 weeks i was there and many more recommitted their lives.

i saw mountains and valleys and caves and trees and animals that are all so beautiful that i don't know how you can't believe in God. a language barrier that seemed almost none existant at times. so many little things that God did that could only be God things as well as some big! kristies mom died while we were there. the beginning of the second week. so she and her family and vali and wreni left and so it was our youth group and the local haitian youth group and the translators led the youth conference. with little to no planning and a language barrier that was very obvious at that time. so many awesome things happened there with 40 people giving their lives to christ in just that 4-5 day time. so many things that could have gone wrong went right.

planning in haiti is impossible that is something we were told from the beginning. that only became a reality that second week when jean jean and kristie and family left. there were suppost to be crafts and games with the youth and it really turned more into a free time to try and hang out with them even though there was a language barrier. there were culteral differences that didn't make much sense to us americans.

through all of these differences you don't have to try to see God working. during my devo times in the morning i couldn't help but wonder why i couldn't see God working in the states. sure there are those obvious times of God things but never as much as in Haiti. during one of my devos times i found a ton of awesome verses that just kept telling my that i need to ask God and be intentional about seeing his works. then i looked at my usual quiet time at home with God. generally it consisted of 15-20 min of reading scripture in the morning with maybe 5 min in prayer and thats if i even remembered to have a quiet time. compared to the devo time we set aside in haiti. from 6:00 to 7:00ish or till breakfast was ready (on haitian time that usually meant closer to 7:30 or 8) most of that time spent in prayer for the people i was around and the place i was in. No wonder i felt closer to God. i was being so much more intentional and was really enjoying my devo time.

the day after that hit me was the day that one girl had a demon in her and cast it out during the youth conference. that was a big struggle for me bc i realized that satan and demons were real but i didn't like to picture them in orange city. our youth group had a great talk about what happened that night and how powerful satan really is and how in orange city we don't like to think about him, we like to imagine that he isn't real at all and has no effect on us, how we act, and the people around us.

a few days after this we talked with Price who is a former witch doctor. voodoo is basically devil worship, witch doctors are kind of like our pastors. they pray to the demons and bring curses upon people when they are paid for it. the first week i was there we had talked to him too but it hadn't really hit me that it was a real religion. after the demon being cast out i paid atttention when he talked. he said explained what he did as a witch doctor and how he lived his life. people would come to him to put curses on people, or have demons come into people. he also talked about they made people into "zombies" it was all very creepy and strange but also very real. the most amazing thing he told us was that whenever he came in contact with a true christian not a fake christian he couldn't do anything in worshiping the devil anymore. he couldn't call demons. the demons that were there had no power and that he couldn't curse or touch with any sort of voodoo a true christian. that was so cool! my mind kept wandering to the last bible study we had about demons an the devil and what leah had said about cj saying at some point in your life you will have some sort of demonic experience and it made me so excited to realize that bc i'm a true christian not a fake the devil can't touch me without Gods approval and God cares for me and won't let any harm come to me!

What a great trip! i may never be able to go back (though i would really love to) but i won't ever forget thoses lessons i learned during my 2 weeks there