...weird.
Weekends hold so much variety. They can be so hard, so lonely, so slow. But they can also be so beautiful, so refreshing, so free.
This weekend, so far has been all of those things.
(Disclaimer: This post is more of a details-of-the-day post. Sorry for giving you all the details and no real thoughts, but my creativity is zilch right now.)
On Friday afternoon Guerline left and went to Limbe, planning on returning on Monday night. This gives me Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night all alone. Half of me was excited to have some time where I'm alone and can just relax, do whatever I want, talk to myself without feeling totally crazy (I live on an island and have no one to speak English to... don't judge, you'd do it too!), whatever. Then Friday night came.
I checked skype. No one there.
My friends and family were all working, celebrating birthdays, going out with friends, taking weekend vacations, etc. I felt so alone. Then I wished Guerline was here. Instead of doing the normal thing that most human beings would do (enjoy some peace, read a book, etc.) I allowed myself to get very lonely. Cried a little, (ok, ok. a lot.) and went to sleep around 7pm, (yes I'm aware that I'm a grandma.) Around 11, I got an urgent text from a dear sweet friend of mine. Her brother was in the hopsital, very scary situation. I cried some more. Wishing I could do something. I hated that I wasn't there to talk to her or help in some way. Its hard to say, "Call me if you need anything at any time of day/night. I'm here for you." When your phone signal is spotty and you are oceans away.
I couldnt sleep again, so I distracted myself by doing some catch up reading on a few blogs, and eventually went back to sleep around 3am feeling much more peaceful and sane than I did at 7pm earlier.
Saturday was pretty stellar, and included all of my favorite things.
Jenny, (my baby) came by to visit me. She is such a cuddle bug, and I love that! One of the things I didn't think about before coming here was how much of a touch person I am. And how much I would miss being hugged all the time. (Meaning that when I come home I'm expecting all of you to hug me like you mean it!!!)
The whether was perfect: sunny, but not scorchingly so. I took a nice, long, cold shower (not my favorite, but being clean is nice), washed my hair for the first time in, well its not important how long its been, but I felt refreshed and clean. Then I warmed up dinner, which happened to be my absolute favorite Haitian food and skyped with a friend and compared our awesome days while I ate. After that I put fresh sheets on my bed, and it started raining on the tin roof (my favorite). After that I texted my mom for a while and had a few good laughs.
Since I had finished the book I was reading (Crazy love, by Francis Chan) that afternoon while Jenny was sleeping, I decided to start another. I began reading God Is the Gospel, by John Piper. Y'all. Go buy this book and start reading it now! I'm only through the introduction and chapter 1, but its SO good so far. My sister, Gracie gave me Crazy love when she was here in February, and my dear friends Jeff and Natalie, whom I've adopted into the family, gave me God is the Gospel for my birthday in September. I can't believe I haven't started it until now, but I'm glad I finally started! So Saturday was just all around a great day! Praise God for days like that!
Today has been good so far. Sundays are always hard, but today hasn't been as hard as others. I figure Sundays are what you make of them. So I've started going to 2 churches on Sundays. The one here in the village. And also my church back home... (Thank you podcasts. My mom raved about the "Gospel of John" series back in '09, but I hadn't gotten to listen to it until now!)
Something I thought I'd never do that I did today... Listen to a sermon and suck on a mango and pick mango fibers out of my teeth... (I hope God didn't mind. I was enjoying His creation!)
So I guess the point of this post is to say that sometimes weekends are weird. This weekend I went from crying myself to sleep on Friday night, to having an awesome day on Saturday, to having what is so far, a pretty great Sunday. And I'm sure tonight will complete the weekend of awesome-weirdness!
If you are still reading this post you must be truely dedicated. I feel so lame that I'm just spouting off details of the day. I'm sorry if I bored you. I'll try harer next time. But for those of you that wonder what I do on a day to day basis and what little things make me happy (skype conversations, cuddly babies, cold showers, rain on the tin roof.)... Well. Now you know!
Have a Happy Sunday!
Showing posts with label church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label church. Show all posts
4.10.2011
2.25.2011
February Update
So much has happened this month! Just looking at the calendar I would have never expected that so much would happen here. It is such a priveledge for me to be here and get a front row seat to all that is going on. AND to be able to tell you all about it. Sometimes the Valcins get so busy with all that they do in their ministry that it is too hard to sit and write a newsletter about it because it would take all month!! Thankfully, God has brought me here, and given me a semi-reliable internet system in order that I can update you on what is going on in the Valcin ministry here in the North. (Now we just need someone to talk about all that is going on in Port Au Prince!)
Church: This month, as I've mentioned before, a lot of things happened in the church. Please continue to pray for those who attended the class that Gersan was teaching about the foundations of Christianity. Please continue to pray for Tolem as Gersan prayerfully considers starting to mentor him into becoming one of the church leaders. Pray also as he tries to start a small buisiness of selling minutes for the telephone, so he can support himself in his ministry. Pray for the current pastor, that he will have a teachable spirit and start acting like a man of integrity as the leader of the church.
Voodoo: Please continue to pray for those who are living in fear and bondage to Satan. There has been a voodoo ceremony going on this entire month almost, and they are still going on, morning, afternoon, evening, night, dawn. You name the time, and they are chanting, shreiking, beating the drums etc. Here is what I know about the ceremony... They have somewhere around 20 chickens 11 goats and at least one cow. They are going to be sacrificing and eating these until the end of the ceremony. The word in the gossip circle around the village is that the voodoo preist is getting rid of all of his voodoo stuff by having a huge ceremony in order that he can become a Christian at the end. However, this is not a good plan. I wish someone would tell him that He needs to just come to Christ if he is going to do that. Please pray that he will come to Jesus. And not wait another minute, because his soul is at stake. (Not to mention that I'm sure those goats,chickens and cows wouldn't mind living longer. AND I could use a decent nights' sleep!)
Click here to read background info on the church and voodoo.
Medical happenings: Last week I asked for prayer for Lèlène and her leg. She went to the hospital in Cap Haitian and spent at least 2 days there. They decided not to do the graft surgery after all because the doctors thought they could save her leg without doing that surgery. As far as I know she is back at home and visiting a nurse daily for wound care. Thank you for your prayers for her! Also, I believe I had mentioned Bebelove and her severely infected eyes.
I saw her yesterday and her eyes looked beautiful! Praise God! (sorry I didn't get a picture of her beautiful eyes and smile. Next time!)
One of the men who works here full-time told me last week that his little baby had a burn. When I asked follow-up questions I discovered that she had fallen in some boiling milk and her entire bottom and the back of her thighs were burnt. I told him to call his wife and bring her that afternoon. Thank the Lord for His provision! Last year, He gave me the opportunity to work at Global Outreach International in Titaynen, Haiti. There is a specialty burn clinic there, and I got one day of burn experience before the earthquake, which then gave me lots more burn experience. Little did I know I would be doing much the same thing, without the earthquake setting here in Little Guinea. I have been taking care Krystena (I don't really know how to spell it...), or as we call her NaNa, for about a week now. She is making progress every day!
I was able to call Sheryl, the nurse at Global Outreach and she sent me some more burn supplies, because I was running low on them. Thank God for His goodness and grace. I think NaNa is going to recover well. We are about 2 weeks past the day of the burn and no infection. She is starting to get some of her skin back as well and it is no longer raw and red.
Nana was somewhat unhappy with me when this picture was taken. Burns are incredibly painful and I had just finished soaking and removing some of the dead skin from her burn. But recently she has been much happier. We are not best friends, but I think we might get there one day! Madam Tchaly is adorable. I love her. She is one of those people that I can tell is a good mom! Please continue to pray for NaNa as she heals.
Community projects: A lot has been going on in our village too. Water Missions Haiti has built latrines for several families in the community. This past week the director came and brought some of his team to have a formal ceremony of giving the toilets and doing my favorite thing... Health Education!! They had a wonderful presentation on cholera and general sanitation.
This girl was very articulate and did a wonderful job of explaining throughly and clearly what she wanted to communicate, but also expressing it in a way that someone could understand even without any type of education.
She explained how water gets contaminated with microbes, she explained what microbes were, and what the bad ones will do to you if you get them inside of you, and how to properly wash hands!
I was so happy that this education happened. I haven't been able to do much health ed like I had hoped because my language isn't quite that far along. I have been able to talk to NaNa's mom a lot about the burn, but she is very gracious with me and re-translates things back to me in CORRECT Kreyol, to make sure she understood what I was saying.
On top of doing health education there was a short presentation on the care and keeping of a toilet. Each person recieved a bucket to put clean water in and wash thier hands after they use the toilet, and to use to pour in the toilet to flush it. They were given toilet brushes, soap, a water carrier pouch to drink in the fields or at work, and a containter to carry water in and leave on the counter to drink. A lot of times people here get water in 5 gallon buckets which stay open and stagnant and go bad, but they still drink it.
I'm so glad that these people have this education and the tools to have better drinking water! The drinking water distribution site is here at Jacob's Well and it has been a joy to see people coming to fill their buckets!
Also:
We gave this man a house at the beginning of the month.
I'm not exactly sure how this came about, but he is one of our security guards here. He and his wife live in his house along with 7 other people. His house is smaller than the master bathrooms of most of you who are reading this. 10 feet by 10 feet maybe?
You can't tell very well from the picture but total in the house there about 4 beds all shoved together. I'm talking like beds without mattresses. Just the frames with wood or wire holding the rags that used to be sheets. People shouldn't live this way, but they do. Praise God that we were able to help this man and his family! The house we are giving him is a lot nicer, and will keep the rain out. And it will not be made of rags. Its still small for 9 people to live in, but it is a gift that they are very thankful for. We have all the materials ready to begin building, but don't currently have money for a slab. The slab will cost about $550 USD.
In conclusion: God has done so very much this month in our village. There is so much I want to tell you about, but I think this post is about 7 times longer than it should be already. Bottom line... Pray for us. Pray for these people. Pray for their hearts. Pray for their souls. Pray for their bodies. Haiti never ceases to amaze me. And neither do the prayers that our God answers!!!
Church: This month, as I've mentioned before, a lot of things happened in the church. Please continue to pray for those who attended the class that Gersan was teaching about the foundations of Christianity. Please continue to pray for Tolem as Gersan prayerfully considers starting to mentor him into becoming one of the church leaders. Pray also as he tries to start a small buisiness of selling minutes for the telephone, so he can support himself in his ministry. Pray for the current pastor, that he will have a teachable spirit and start acting like a man of integrity as the leader of the church.
Voodoo: Please continue to pray for those who are living in fear and bondage to Satan. There has been a voodoo ceremony going on this entire month almost, and they are still going on, morning, afternoon, evening, night, dawn. You name the time, and they are chanting, shreiking, beating the drums etc. Here is what I know about the ceremony... They have somewhere around 20 chickens 11 goats and at least one cow. They are going to be sacrificing and eating these until the end of the ceremony. The word in the gossip circle around the village is that the voodoo preist is getting rid of all of his voodoo stuff by having a huge ceremony in order that he can become a Christian at the end. However, this is not a good plan. I wish someone would tell him that He needs to just come to Christ if he is going to do that. Please pray that he will come to Jesus. And not wait another minute, because his soul is at stake. (Not to mention that I'm sure those goats,chickens and cows wouldn't mind living longer. AND I could use a decent nights' sleep!)
Click here to read background info on the church and voodoo.
Medical happenings: Last week I asked for prayer for Lèlène and her leg. She went to the hospital in Cap Haitian and spent at least 2 days there. They decided not to do the graft surgery after all because the doctors thought they could save her leg without doing that surgery. As far as I know she is back at home and visiting a nurse daily for wound care. Thank you for your prayers for her! Also, I believe I had mentioned Bebelove and her severely infected eyes.
I saw her yesterday and her eyes looked beautiful! Praise God! (sorry I didn't get a picture of her beautiful eyes and smile. Next time!)
One of the men who works here full-time told me last week that his little baby had a burn. When I asked follow-up questions I discovered that she had fallen in some boiling milk and her entire bottom and the back of her thighs were burnt. I told him to call his wife and bring her that afternoon. Thank the Lord for His provision! Last year, He gave me the opportunity to work at Global Outreach International in Titaynen, Haiti. There is a specialty burn clinic there, and I got one day of burn experience before the earthquake, which then gave me lots more burn experience. Little did I know I would be doing much the same thing, without the earthquake setting here in Little Guinea. I have been taking care Krystena (I don't really know how to spell it...), or as we call her NaNa, for about a week now. She is making progress every day!
I was able to call Sheryl, the nurse at Global Outreach and she sent me some more burn supplies, because I was running low on them. Thank God for His goodness and grace. I think NaNa is going to recover well. We are about 2 weeks past the day of the burn and no infection. She is starting to get some of her skin back as well and it is no longer raw and red.
Nana was somewhat unhappy with me when this picture was taken. Burns are incredibly painful and I had just finished soaking and removing some of the dead skin from her burn. But recently she has been much happier. We are not best friends, but I think we might get there one day! Madam Tchaly is adorable. I love her. She is one of those people that I can tell is a good mom! Please continue to pray for NaNa as she heals.
Community projects: A lot has been going on in our village too. Water Missions Haiti has built latrines for several families in the community. This past week the director came and brought some of his team to have a formal ceremony of giving the toilets and doing my favorite thing... Health Education!! They had a wonderful presentation on cholera and general sanitation.
This girl was very articulate and did a wonderful job of explaining throughly and clearly what she wanted to communicate, but also expressing it in a way that someone could understand even without any type of education.
She explained how water gets contaminated with microbes, she explained what microbes were, and what the bad ones will do to you if you get them inside of you, and how to properly wash hands!
I was so happy that this education happened. I haven't been able to do much health ed like I had hoped because my language isn't quite that far along. I have been able to talk to NaNa's mom a lot about the burn, but she is very gracious with me and re-translates things back to me in CORRECT Kreyol, to make sure she understood what I was saying.
On top of doing health education there was a short presentation on the care and keeping of a toilet. Each person recieved a bucket to put clean water in and wash thier hands after they use the toilet, and to use to pour in the toilet to flush it. They were given toilet brushes, soap, a water carrier pouch to drink in the fields or at work, and a containter to carry water in and leave on the counter to drink. A lot of times people here get water in 5 gallon buckets which stay open and stagnant and go bad, but they still drink it.
This is the group shot of everyone who recieve a Each person recieved a latrine.
I'm so glad that these people have this education and the tools to have better drinking water! The drinking water distribution site is here at Jacob's Well and it has been a joy to see people coming to fill their buckets!
We gave this man a house at the beginning of the month.
I'm not exactly sure how this came about, but he is one of our security guards here. He and his wife live in his house along with 7 other people. His house is smaller than the master bathrooms of most of you who are reading this. 10 feet by 10 feet maybe?
9 people live here.
And sleep here.
In conclusion: God has done so very much this month in our village. There is so much I want to tell you about, but I think this post is about 7 times longer than it should be already. Bottom line... Pray for us. Pray for these people. Pray for their hearts. Pray for their souls. Pray for their bodies. Haiti never ceases to amaze me. And neither do the prayers that our God answers!!!
If you are interested in donating to our ministry for the slab for this man's house or any of the other projects that we are involved in currently then please email me and I will send you more details: noelle.gonzalez11@gmail.com
I will be writing again soon about some of the other projects that you could donate to if you are interested. Please check back for details!
2.16.2011
Prayer update: Solid Foundations
It's 3:36 am.
Yes you read that right. Earlier it was torrentially raining and my internet wasn't working. When I say torrential I am not kidding. I was shouting at my sister, Grace, who was less than a foot away, because of the noise. When the rain stopped I think the silence woke me up... or the almost silence.
Drums. Chanting. This appears to be the marathon of voodoo ceremonies. Currently they are somewhere between hour 12 and 13. I'm actually really suprised they didn't stop for the rain!
Because I'm up, and because the rain stopped, (but really because I'm so excited about it) I figured I'd do a short ish update on what is going on here spiritually. I am so excited for this upcoming week and would love for those of you that see this to commit to daily praying for the church here!
Gersan, the pastor that I am partnered with is here in the village this week and will be going through a foundational class with the church members and others who are interested!! I can't even begin to tell you how much they need this. This is a very basic, but important class that Gersan teaches in Port Au Prince to the baptism class in order to be sure that people understand and have a good, solid foundation in Christ. But here, he is doing it with the whole church!
Here is where the church is now: They have a body of members that loves the Lord. They really do. They Love Jesus and call Him their Savior, and love that God is their Father. But the vast majority of them have no idea what any of that means. They don't know why they need a Savior, they don't know that you can't lose your salvation. They think that Salvation is by works and baptism, and they don't understand grace and faith. They are not recieving sound biblical teaching from their pastor, nor is he setting a half decent example of living a life of integrity and character. He is muddling the gospel and honestly has told some of us that he would rather be doing other things than pastoring this church. To add to the problem, many people in this area cannot read, and if they can its only Kreyol. The Kreyol Bible is not the best translation, in many ways it is more of a paraphrase or interpretation like the Message, and so they do not have the resources to feed themselves God's word, but are relying on the church, which is not delivering well. And there are many other struggles that they face as well.
I have been praying since I got here that God would raise up a man who fears God ONLY, who lives and breathes God's word. A man with leadership and boldness, with love and wisdom, someone who can speak the truth to these people and love them fiercely. I have been praying for a man of integrity to rise up from this village and shepherd and disciple this flock. Someone who will pour God's word into their hearts and help them gain a firm foundation. Their houses are built not on rock, but on sand. And, as we have seen tonight, the rain does come! (and so do the earthquakes! but not tonight thankfully)
How to Pray: This week, while Gersan is here he will be teaching this foundational class. His first class took place tonight and he said there were about 20 people there. Pray for him, and for the students as they walk through this class together. After class tonight Gersan said that one of the most difficult things may be for him to go slow enough to make sure that everyone understands.
This is a class with NO spiritual background in truth, but rather lies and distortions of truth. Even after hearing the truth it is very hard to change the thinking and ideas that people have had for years and years. Pray for wisdom for Gersan, and for open and soft hearts towards the truth for the people. Thankfully truth shines greater, peirces further, and stands stronger than lies. Gersan is a man that loves the Bible more than anyone else I've ever met. He loves God and loves truth. Pray that God will give him wisdom to speak truth into their hearts. Pray for the body, and for each individual. Pray that they will understand! One of the beautiful things about Christ is that faith, while we make it so hard sometimes, is really so simple! Pray that they will grasp that. Pray that God will be raising up in this village a man, after God's heart, full of truth and wisdom, and love and patience.
Just pray.
If you want to commit to praying (and getting your friends to pray too, hint hint!) it would greatly bless me, the Valcins, and most of all the church body of Ti Guinea. I would love to know that you are praying daily! I promise to post more updates as the week goes on. Leave a comment or Facebook me and let me know that you are praying!
Also, it is 4:19 and appears that the voodoo ceremony is over. That aspect of life here is a million prayer requests as well. But for tonight, I'm finished.
Goodnight.
Yes you read that right. Earlier it was torrentially raining and my internet wasn't working. When I say torrential I am not kidding. I was shouting at my sister, Grace, who was less than a foot away, because of the noise. When the rain stopped I think the silence woke me up... or the almost silence.
Drums. Chanting. This appears to be the marathon of voodoo ceremonies. Currently they are somewhere between hour 12 and 13. I'm actually really suprised they didn't stop for the rain!
Because I'm up, and because the rain stopped, (but really because I'm so excited about it) I figured I'd do a short ish update on what is going on here spiritually. I am so excited for this upcoming week and would love for those of you that see this to commit to daily praying for the church here!
Gersan, the pastor that I am partnered with is here in the village this week and will be going through a foundational class with the church members and others who are interested!! I can't even begin to tell you how much they need this. This is a very basic, but important class that Gersan teaches in Port Au Prince to the baptism class in order to be sure that people understand and have a good, solid foundation in Christ. But here, he is doing it with the whole church!
Here is where the church is now: They have a body of members that loves the Lord. They really do. They Love Jesus and call Him their Savior, and love that God is their Father. But the vast majority of them have no idea what any of that means. They don't know why they need a Savior, they don't know that you can't lose your salvation. They think that Salvation is by works and baptism, and they don't understand grace and faith. They are not recieving sound biblical teaching from their pastor, nor is he setting a half decent example of living a life of integrity and character. He is muddling the gospel and honestly has told some of us that he would rather be doing other things than pastoring this church. To add to the problem, many people in this area cannot read, and if they can its only Kreyol. The Kreyol Bible is not the best translation, in many ways it is more of a paraphrase or interpretation like the Message, and so they do not have the resources to feed themselves God's word, but are relying on the church, which is not delivering well. And there are many other struggles that they face as well.
I have been praying since I got here that God would raise up a man who fears God ONLY, who lives and breathes God's word. A man with leadership and boldness, with love and wisdom, someone who can speak the truth to these people and love them fiercely. I have been praying for a man of integrity to rise up from this village and shepherd and disciple this flock. Someone who will pour God's word into their hearts and help them gain a firm foundation. Their houses are built not on rock, but on sand. And, as we have seen tonight, the rain does come! (and so do the earthquakes! but not tonight thankfully)
How to Pray: This week, while Gersan is here he will be teaching this foundational class. His first class took place tonight and he said there were about 20 people there. Pray for him, and for the students as they walk through this class together. After class tonight Gersan said that one of the most difficult things may be for him to go slow enough to make sure that everyone understands.
This is a class with NO spiritual background in truth, but rather lies and distortions of truth. Even after hearing the truth it is very hard to change the thinking and ideas that people have had for years and years. Pray for wisdom for Gersan, and for open and soft hearts towards the truth for the people. Thankfully truth shines greater, peirces further, and stands stronger than lies. Gersan is a man that loves the Bible more than anyone else I've ever met. He loves God and loves truth. Pray that God will give him wisdom to speak truth into their hearts. Pray for the body, and for each individual. Pray that they will understand! One of the beautiful things about Christ is that faith, while we make it so hard sometimes, is really so simple! Pray that they will grasp that. Pray that God will be raising up in this village a man, after God's heart, full of truth and wisdom, and love and patience.
Just pray.
If you want to commit to praying (and getting your friends to pray too, hint hint!) it would greatly bless me, the Valcins, and most of all the church body of Ti Guinea. I would love to know that you are praying daily! I promise to post more updates as the week goes on. Leave a comment or Facebook me and let me know that you are praying!
Also, it is 4:19 and appears that the voodoo ceremony is over. That aspect of life here is a million prayer requests as well. But for tonight, I'm finished.
Goodnight.
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