We have completed another day here in Haiti.  Our days are full and in many ways we wish we could slow down our time here.  But we are learning to cherish the moments, even the down time, or when the pace doesn’t move as we are accustomed to.

Today started a bit differently for us.  For many of us who have been to Nicaragua on mission, we are accustomed to going to the market on one of our days.  This is the opportunity to load up on souvenirs.  And the big joke we say is, it’s where you go to get your Nicaraguan souvenirs that were likely made in China.  But here in Haiti, the market actually came to us.  About 5-6 vendors bring in their goods and set them up at ESMI.  So we started our day out shopping!  Probably not a favorite pastime of all on the team, but it was neat to see some of the local items and some that looked strangely familiar to items we see in Nicaragua!

So, it was a slower start to the work that needed to get done today.  We continued working on the wall and are making good progress, but sometimes it’s still difficult to process coming down to build a wall.  This is where we always need the reminder that so much of missions isn’t about bringing our amazing skills or abilities to a country, but learning to see with the eyes of Christ and to allow the experience of building also be about what Christ wants to build in us.  Sometimes the mundane tasks can be difficult, but we usually need a course correction in our thinking… to remember that most of life is lived in the mundane and it’s not the extraordinary (even though when the Spirit works that way it is awesome) but it’s learning to live dependent on the Spirit in the ordinary work on mission.  So we are continuing to learn and grow.

After lunch, some on the team put their VBS skills to work and hosted an impromptu afternoon kids camp.  Most of the orphans here came up the hill to the covered pavilion and experienced a presentation of the Gospel through skits and a coloring page that we had prepared.  We are super grateful to our translators for helping us communicate the Gospel clearly.  And to finish it all up we had bouncy balls and lollipops for everyone!

God has given us a really gifted team and the VBS was just a part of that.  To see those with a passion and skills for building, those gifted in the hands-on acts of love and relationship building, those gifted in intercessory prayer and more is such a picture of the body of Christ at work!

To top off the evening, we celebrated the birthday of Sarai – our Guatemalan team member.  The story of how she got here with us is really cool.  Josh & Christina and some others from our Wildwood Guatemala team had met and ministered to and with her for years in Guatemala.  But she has longed to do missions outside of her home context and so we were excited to see God work out all the logistics for her to join our team.  Even though being fluent in Spanish (yet understanding English), she has jumped in with both feet.  Well, tonight, we surprised Sarai with a birthday cake and a Feliz Cupleanos song!

God is at work… both in us and through us.  Each and every day we are reminded of this and are learning better how to walk in the Spirit and rely on the Spirit to do the supernatural.  We appreciate you following our mission and for praying for us!

PS – Someone let us know if FSU wins the Orange Bowl tonight… we’re missing out big time on all the excitement with no access to the game!