The Starbucks Cup (Red)

    After having a break from my phone this weekend I was quite shocked to come back to a news feed full of arguments over a red Starbucks cup. After seeing post after post about this little thing I thought I would put into perspective what a missionary thinks when seeing these things. 

      If you follow my Facebook page then you have seen some of this story already. But, in order to put into perspective as to why I see silliness in this red cup phenomenon I will give you a little insight on some of the things I encounter while here. Below is the picture of a little boy named Samuel. Samuel is 6 days old and has been in our care since the day he was born. He was a twin, but both the twin and the mother died in childbirth. Afraid for the life of Samuel, his uncle  got on a moto and traveled about 5 hours down from the mountain. He was very tiny, very fragile, very hungry and had some funny breathing patterns. We took him in and fed him, cleaned him off and gave him some warm clothes. Yes, he was cold! To give a little background, his family situation with his father was very unhealthy. The rest of his family either had a busy job, or children of their own and had no time or money to take care of him. This is but only one case we've had where a child has been given to us as a result from it's mothers death.

             When you see the color red what do you think of? Many right now would say that they think of Christmas, the Starbucks cup, maybe even Target. Want to know what I see when I hear of the color red? These precious little ones. The ones that surround me daily and call out my name, asking how I am doing and genuinely caring. The ones who have so little but smile so big. Red, to me, shows the love pouring out from both my heart and theirs. To live a life full of views of people suffering daily, even hourly. To live in a world that is thankful for a cup no matter what shape or color it is. While the world quarrels over the difference between a cup that is red and a cup that says merry Christmas, missionaries all over the world sit and quarrel with the Devil over a soul of someone lost that is right outside their door.  So the next couple of months, when you drive up to that Starbucks window and they smile and give you your nice red cup, remember what missionaries think of when they see your quarreling and be thankful. Be thankful for that one cup full of coffee that so many Americans rely on. Be thankful that you are surrounded by family, that you have a nice car to drive you places, that you have the money to just so easily go spend on a treat. Remember missionaries all over the world who are spending their Christmas in foreign countries all over the world and using the color red as a symbol of love. Pray for them and their work. I hope this opens your eyes to what we see when we log into our social media time after time and view the things that others share. We pray not only for the people we are ministering too but also for our home and the people around it, that their eyes may be opened and they may truly be thankful for what they have. May God bless you and your family this upcoming winter and please, go have a peppermint hot chocolate at Starbucks just for me! ;) 

A Change of Heart

    I’m sorry that I haven't blogged regularly but as you can imagine I am still trying to get comfortable with my new life. Now that I’m here I’m really starting to realize that Haiti has no structure, my mom would have a fit! (Love you mom!) Work day hours vary constantly, you can start work pretty much at 7:30AM and then declare at 3PM that you are going home. With my line of work we are constantly depending on the wifi, which as you can imagine is not the greatest in a third world country, but we manage to get as much done as we can. I can honestly say that every day is different, there is never really a schedule or a plan as to how one should go about doing things. You simply just do them. Transition from the U.S. has not been the easiest on me but it’s still amazing to see how God can work through the little things in such BIG ways! Here’s a story about a boy who really taught me what it is to whole-heartedly follow Christ.

   A boy from our village has decided to follow Christ and in doing so will be baptized in the next upcoming week or so. Before doing this he realized that he had some unsolved conflict between some friends of his. He came to Elizabeth and asked that him and his friends be allowed to come sit in our living room and talk about what had happened between them. Fortunately, I was present during this meeting! Unfortunately, most of it was in Creole so I only got bits and pieces, but what I did get taught me a very valuable lesson. He came and sat down across from three friends in our living room and started out by telling them a few things from his point of view. After that he apologized for everything that he had done and asked if they could forget about the past and move on in their friendships. Everyone was forgiving and well in agreement with the change that was going to be happening.

   I later found out that the reason he had decided to make amends with these people was not only because he cared for them and wanted the friendships back, but also because he wanted to be baptized with a pure heart. Wow! What a great way to step into your new faith! Can you imagine how much more loving people in the U.S. would be if we simply sat down with the people we loved, the ones we cared for, and asked for forgiveness for the wrong that we may have committed against them. What a HUGE act of love and humility! I was completely amazed by this demonstration of full fledge passion to follow Christ with a clean heart! How amazing that boy will feel after his baptism when God has fully cleaned him! Thank you Jesus for the things in life that teach us all a valuable lesson! I can only hope that my heart has the same good intentions while I am here, to serve Him whole-heartedly and to do it in a pure way! Amen!

On a side note there was a HUGE cockroach in our bathroom today, and even after spraying it with poison it managed to make its way into Grace’s bedroom!! EW! Well, guess I better get used to seeing big bugs now! Welcome to Haiti ;)