Mother, May I

In John 16:33 it says, "I have told you these things, so that in me you MAY have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

I just always thought of this as a general, "Oh yes, I can have peace. God has won the world, blah blah blah." And then I would go about my day...getting wrapped up in a to-do list, concerned of what someone was thinking of me/how I was living, worrying about my future, afraid in a certain circumstance, etc.

Most of the time, my day consists of 'not' peace, maybe brief peaceful moments, but not peace as a whole.

But, because of some wise words I just heard about this verse, I now think of it like the game, Mother May I. "Mother, may I take 2 steps forward?" "Yes, you may take 2 steps forward. I give you permission."

MAY = signifies permission granted.

In this verse, God is saying we MAY have peace. He has given us permission to have peace at ALL times. In the time when an assignment is due and your stressing to get it done. In the times when you hear something late at night and its dark outside. In the times when you don't know if you'll be able to find a job, or have enough money. Or, in the times when you have no idea what your future holds.

God says, I give you permission to have peace, RIGHT NOW.

But, do I have to take 2 steps? Do I have to have peace? NO, it is my choice. Because God has already overcome the world, none of the outcomes of the above scenarios really matter. I may choose to have peace in that.

I guess I can't really explain exactly what I mean, what I'm learning. But it is something that has been on my heart, especially this last week as I have felt the pull to not choose peace.

But there is a still small voice I hear...Father, may I have peace in this circumstance? YES, you MAY have peace even in this!

Beautiful Feet!

So, my walk to the Girls Home today was fairly uneventful...until halfway through.

I was walking down the dirt path when I came along 4 men doing some construction of sorts. To me, it looked as if they were basically shoveling sand and small rock piles. It looked a little muddy but not too bad. I decided to go to the far left of the men and their piles. Well, unbeknownst to me, to the far left, they were shoveling the sand and rocks into water...almost creating some sort of cement like material.

Well...guess who stepped right in it? I took one step and sunk like quicksand. And before I knew it, my other foot stepped in as well!!

Beautiful feet!

You should have heard these men. At first they gasped and I think were afraid of what my reaction would be. As soon as they saw me start laughing, they about died. They couldn't get it together.

There I was covered in this mixture up to my shins completely embarrassed and laughing, and there they were seeming to feel bad and laughing as well. We didn't speak the same language or probably have much in common at all, but we just stood together laughing. With my limited Creole I said, "Mal jodia" which means bad day. That's all I could think of!

We waved goodbye and I continued on my journey to the girls home. That was one of the first times I think people stared not at my white skin color, but directly at my feet. I got some pretty weird looks!

When the door to the girls home opened up, their faces were hilarious. Shocked, yet trying to hide their amusement at the same time. As soon as I laughed, they also lost it! They immediately took my arm, hurriedly pulled me back to the laundry area, sat me down, took off my shoes and began scrubbing. One by one, more girls came out to see the sight! They scrubbed and scrubbed until my shoes were clean. And a few of them grabbed a bucket of water and began washing my feet!

“The feet of those who bring the Good News are beautiful.”... How beautiful are the feet of the girls who washed MY feet and shoes!

Washing MY feet, serving ME...so kind! It was a sweet little reminder of God's goodness. Each day that I spend at the Girls Home is showing me how much these kids truly are a family. It's pretty amazing...muddy feet and all!

They even found a pair of flip-flops for me to wear as my shoes dried on the roof.

Wynne Farm - Part 3

More pictures of our time at the field trip, and the rainy ride home!

Visitors...

Pines in Haiti!

Exotic plant!

Bamboo shoot

Artwork on a piece of bamboo.

Nothing is wasted!!

Le Toilet

A plant used to make clothe, ropes, etc. out of the strands of leaves.

Not sure what, but some sort of fruit.

The truck ride home...I know its really blurry, but that's what you get on a moving truck! It started raining so everyone moved from sitting on the benches on the sides, to standing by holding onto the railing in the middle. It was hilarious...so much squealing, falling, laughing, and even singing.

A short video clip of the ride home..."One of these things is not like the other one" ha

Wynne Farm: Part II – Everything Has a Purpose

-->Continued...

“He is coming for me???” What??

Ok, those words are not ones I was hoping would be spoken to me at any point while living in Haiti…for an instant (mind you, a very brief instant) I really thought Jacque meant this man was coming to get me, to take me away, far far away! :)…

But seeing that big Haitian smile as he approached the truck, I realized the Creole conversation I was listening to was that this man (Ajoun) was sent into the ‘town’ to look for us. Jane Wynne knew we were coming and so she sent him to find us ( I guess it’s not every day you have a huge truck with 28 kids sitting in the back just driving through town). Again, long story short, we had driven to Wynne Farms but the educational portion was actually done at Jane’s house, not the farms. Oh well, we had FINALLY made it!

The inside of the house. Lovely!

Jane, standing by the door of her house, having a discussion about the environment with the kids. The sliver of the man in the doorway with the yellow shirt is the guy who came to find us.

The kids, intently listening.

Some of the items we would be making and using today.

We drove to her house, not far away, and began the day. Jane talked for about 30 minutes (mostly in Creole, but a little English) about the environment, what that means to us, and how important it is to us.  The theme I heard her say a few times was that “Everything has a purpose.” EVERYTHING. From the plastic bags used to sell food items, the plastic water bottles that hold soda, each and every plant and living creature, even down to the waste creatures excrete…EVERYTHING has a purpose!

And clearly, with the day I had been having, THIS spoke to me. Everything has a purpose. Not just the plastic bottles we would be using today but each person that was there. Each child. Each day. Each ‘failed’ day. Each moment. Each season in life that leaves you asking, “Why?” The seen and the unseen. I do believe Jane has it right…Everything has a purpose.

With that being said, let me take you through the rest of the day. The kids got split into 4 groups and taken to a station for about 30 minutes. The stations were amazing! The Haitians who taught each station were wonderful, and the activities at each station were interesting and fun. The kids paid such good attention and were wonderful ‘students’. The following pictures will tell you about each station:

1. Plastic Bottles

At this station, the kids learned to make jewelry out of plastic water bottles:

Cutting the plastic bottles into strips...

Folding the strips into tight pieces...

The kids were SO incredibly focused during this task.

Making sure they have it right...

The final product!

These ones were made into earrings and sold in the gift shop...maybe a possibility for our kids to make and sell, too?

2. Making Paper & Briquettes

This station used scraps of old paper to make sheets of paper and briquettes, which are used to burn for cooking:

Group number 2

I don't think you can listen any closer than that...look at those faces!

Crushing up the paper...

Laying the flattened out piece down to dry

Crushing the paper down to make a briquette...

Laying the wet briquettes out to dry...

Drying in the sun.

A finished briquette burns long enough to make 4 pots of rice!

So proud of their creations!

Smiles all around...

And more smiles!

 Watch the video of some of the younger kids making a briquette!

3. Plastic Bag Knitting

At this station the kids learned how to knit out of plastic bags:

Cutting the bags into strips...notice the completed purses lying on the table.

Knitting.

And more knitting.

I LOVE this video...not just because the girls are learning to knit, but because it is such a great example of how the girls really are a 'family' to each other. I love how the older ones are always taking care of and helping the younger ones! So sweet.

4. The Garden and Bamboo

This station we got to walk through the yard/garden and see lots of neat plants, flowers, and other things:

Trying to be 'artsy', ha...the entrance to the gardens.

Five gallon water jugs used to grow strawberries!

Yum! Each person got to taste one. BTW, strawberries in Haiti are about $8 a small container. Won't be having them anytime soon!

Bamboo!

When this bamboo begins to grow, it grows 1 foot per day. A notch, that you see, per day...Amazing!

Lots of uses for bamboo...building houses, jewelry, burning, furniture, and more!

Composting in the hot, hot sun!

Vermiculture - lots of worms used to eat trash and make soil! Everything has a purpose!

Wynne Farms: Part I – God Never Fails

Well, the day started out so well…everyone seemed excited! We picked the kids up and started the approximate 2 hour drive into the mountains.

The views were beautiful and the kids were pumped. Lots of chatting and laughter…and even some squeals of nervousness! The roads up the mountain are not easy, to say the least. An hour of traffic soon turns into another hour climb up roads with hundreds of twists and turns, bumps, narrow pass ways, and steep cliffs on either side. I’m not sure if all the kids have even been into the mountains before, so it was an exciting ride and even more exciting to watch their faces!

We turned off one dirt road onto the next and headed to the tippy top of the mountain. We get to the ‘driveway’ of the farms and the locals tell us not to take the truck down that way – we wouldn’t make it back up. So…all 35 of us get out of the truck and start the walk to the farms. It was beautiful! Really steep, but with the sight and feel of being ‘on top of Haiti!’ 

The view from the top...picture doesn't do it justice!

As we approach the entrance to the farm, I see a security guard…for some reason I don’t have a good feeling about this. Immediately, Jacque starts to talk to him and I can just tell that he has NO idea who we are or what we are doing…ugh!! Not a good sign…loooong story short, he has no idea we were coming, he has no idea where Jane (the owner) is, and no way of getting in touch. We have no phone number, he has no phone number, nothing!

Welcome to Haiti, Kimberlee! I have been warned that this would happen… situations where I would need patience, flexibility, a ‘look at the bright side’ attitude, and an understanding that things will just not go according to plan. Well, did Haiti happen to know that I’m not so good at those things? Did Haiti know I would be ready to cry and throw in the towel at the chance that this exact situation might happen? No, probably not, but God did!

After a few minutes of playing some impromptu games, figuring out if we could call anyone, and discussing our options, we decided it would really be best if we just drove home. We didn’t really have much of a choice.

So, we started the steep climb back up to the truck. As the girls and boys were giggling, joking, and frolicking their way back to the truck, I tried my best to not let what was going on inside of me show.

Starting the descent to Wynne Farms...

Twists and turns on this road...

A beautiful view of the mountains below...

The final bend (or so we thought), only to find...

...another, even steeper descent! In the words of Jacque (in the yellow shirt), "We will have Junior find a way down with the truck!" No one wanted to make the trek back UP!

“What was I thinking?” I thought. “How could I not secure a phone number for the place? I knew I should have talked to her on the phone, not just over email? Now the kids will learn nothing. The day is a complete FAILURE!”

And with that word, I knew I had let my thoughts go too far. A light-bulb went off…this is NOT a failure. I am NOT a failure. What is the biggest lesson I have been learning for the past 1.5 months I’ve been here?…that my WORTH does NOT come from what I do. It comes from who I am…who God has made me to be. And He says, I am WORTH it. Regardless of what I do or do not do. Regardless of whether field trips go according to plan, or not according to plan. Now was the time for me to put that lesson to the test, and REST in His love.

As we loaded up the truck, I was still fighting off the negative feelings, wrapping my worth up in what had just happened. But as we began to descend the mountain, I could feel my perspective changing. This day wasn’t so bad after all…the kids were still having so much fun and ‘learning’ (in a way I hadn’t planned) about parts of their country they had never been too; we got to see some beautiful scenery we had never seen before; we got to hike in nature; and, I got to learn a huge lesson!

The day was NOT a failure…and it hit me, that’s what I was reading about this morning…1 Corinthians 13: 4-8. For my quiet time this morning, I substituted the word ‘love’ with ‘God’ in all those verses. And the final one…God never fails.

God never fails…even when it looks like a failure to us, it’s not. He is always up to something good. He knows what He is doing, whether we see it or not, and He NEVER fails. And I got to read about it this morning, test it out mid-morning, and believe it by lunchtime. God never fails….

But wait…as we are driving, I look out and see this beautiful Haitian man with Bob Marley dreads. We are driving through the middle of a small town and he begins chasing after our truck. Then he begins shouting something to Jacque in Creole…

“Kimberlee, he is coming for you. What do you want me to tell him?” Jacque says.

To be continued…