Miracle Report and Adventure Stories.

It's a miracle report after my last update to be able to say that each and every student is covered for their outreach fees.  Each and every student has their passport.  Each and every student who needs a visa..... has it.  Can you say WOWOWOWOOWOWWWW!?!?  It's truly a miracle.  The hope for Haitians to travel to Benin to cut the ties of Voodoo between those nations will finally be able to happen.  In the past, YWAM schools in Haiti have attempted to get Haitians to Benin, but the difficulty in getting US transit visas has always prevented that from happening.  God's favor continues to blow us away in this discipleship training school.  It actually turns out that the woman at the US embassy who conducted the visa interviews, lives in the same neighborhood as us, she is a Christian, AND one of our staff members is almost completely sure that he has seen her slow down as she drives by our house during worship times to take a peek.  What are the odds?

EVERYONE is going out into the nations. Praise Jesus.  Seriously. 

Another miracle report...
Last weekend, Emily, my aussie bestie, and I wanted to go to Mont-rouis (another city in Haiti) with one of our guy friends to visit an orphanage I had visited and fell in love with last summer, but she had been stricken a few days earlier with staff infection on her right foot and could hardly walk.  Our speaker from that week prayed for her foot, and instantly the pain ceased and she could walk totally normal.  Healings can happen in real life, without a big hype-up... just some faith and some prayer.  Praise Jesus.

After her foot healed, we headed out for a little adventure.  Traveling in Haiti means being squished in a TapTap (back of a truck with benches and a covering) with as many people as you can fit, and finding ways to entertain yourself.  What else to do but SING!  We whipped out some good Creole worship songs and asked for God's presence to come.  One tatap ride Emily and I sat in the front with the chauffeur singing and praying with him.  After we stopped singing, he asked us to keep going!  It's beautiful that a few Jesus tunes can change the spiritual atmosphere and make people soften. 


After several hours of travel on taptaps, buses, and motos, we arrived with Jhud at his house in Mont-rouis.  A lovely meal of rice, beans, chicken, and herbs awaited us with our favorite Haitian soda, Couronne.  As we finished, we hopped on a moto to ride to Cannan.  I called it an orphanage earlier, but in all reality it is just a community.  The owners of the place have 67 kids, not up for adoption, that they train up in the Lord as nation changers.  Last year my heart was totally captured by this place, and I just remember it having such an overwhelming sense of peace.  I felt the same thing this year.  The woman leader, Gladys, is weary.  They have a school, are opening a medical clinic, and have many other aspects to their community.  With 67 kids, from babies to 17 years old, there are only 9 long term staff, and there are lacking in helpers for the clinic.  Pray for their mission.  It is beautiful, and all of their support comes in by prayer... they never ask for anything. If people come to them, they accept.  It's a beautiful testimony to God's faithfulness.

As we were talking with her, my friend, Jhud, felt that he was supposed to ask how their water situation was. As it turns out, they are struggling with salty water, and it is impossible to get water from the ground because the property is basically on a bed of rocks.  We started explaining about the water tanks we had been trained to build here in our DTS... rain water catchment systems that are above ground, and after one good rain can fill the tanks and provide ample water.  She was so interested, even asking if there was a waiting list.  It was a God appointment, and it looks like a few of us will be staying at least an extra week after DTS to help build a water tank for this incredible woman of faith. 

And after that, it was fun to get to spend the night living the real Haitian way.  As we made our way back to Jhud's home, there was no electricity anywhere, which makes it so dark you can hardly see your feet in front of you.  Thank goodness for cell phones in that sense :)  We made a few pit stops to visit some friends.  Arriving back at his house, we sat under the big Haitian sky talking.  We could see galaxies and zillions of starts.  Breathtakingly beautiful.  We changed our clothes by candle light and climbed under the princess canopy (aka - mosquito net) for a sweet sleep. 

Haiti is teaching me still the importance of relationship.  So there is no running water, no electricity, no toilet... but there is so much love.  There are people that care about you.  There is time to spend just talking.  There is community.  There is patience.  There are long conversations.  There are so many friendships.  People meet at a market and make the time to visit each other... to build relationship.  People are important.  People are valued.  It's a beautiful thing.  Haiti might have a lot of things that need change, but it has so much to teach us, too.