Four Full Days

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Sunday night it rained so hard. The next morning it was still cloudy, but the sun was starting to shine through the grey clouds. As I looked at the water from the night before on the leaves that are now clean, it reminded me of something. Yesterday, the leaves were dusty and thirsty. Today though, they are clean and fed, no longer thirsty. That is exactly what Christ does for us and continues to do for us. He cleansed us of our sins and washed us clean. He gives us his word so that whenever our souls are hungry and thirsty, we can eat and be fed spiritually. How amazing God is here in Haiti. The sun that blasted through the clouds, reminds me of Christ's love for all people. It is for everyone and He is calling us, his children, sons and daughters to this amazing love. As I was relecting on this vision that the Father showed me, I thought to myself "God is going to use us all in a supernatural way this week and I am so excited to be a part of it.

We went on a prayer walk which not a lot of us had done before. I had done it, but not for a few years. When I went on one before, I remember the Holy Spirit's leading as we walked down the paved street to pray for buildings that would have ministries started in them soon. This prayer walk though was taking place in Petite Rivier, Haiti and not in North East Minneapolis, Minnesota where I had done it a few years ago. Let me explain what a prayer walk is if you don't know. You walk around either by yourself or with a group (we walked as a group) and pray for people you see, houses, people you are with et. Pretty simple, but very impactful.

As we all, Hatians and Americans, but all brother and sisters in Chirst walked down the rocky road, we past many a house that we knew were in need of prayer. We came to one house that Pam was working on getting as a mission house in addition to the orphanage as well as the land to create a bigger garden. We all gathered around it, laid all of our hands on it and prayed in a different way. It was so cool. We decided that we would pray out loud all together at the same time. I got major goos bumps on my arms. Not because I was cold, but because I knew that the holy spirit was there with us! I knew that God was going to use this house for something amazing! Maybe I will get to see the outcome of our prayers when I arrive there again for my year of ministry.

After that prayer, we kept on walking. I think that we walked for another hour. I was holding Lucy 7, and Santia 5 hands as we were walking. I felt a prodding on my spirit to pray for them. For some reason, I was nervous to pray randomly outloud while we were walking. But then I realized, this is why we are taking this walk, to pray. I overcame the fear that the enemy was trying to instill in me and spoke out loud a prayer and blessing ove these two precious girls. That they would be protected from the enemy and know and listen to the truths of their heavenly father since they have no earthy father. Santia's parents died a few months ago and then arrived at the orphanage. She has always been extremely quiet and withdrawn, but is but is now starting to come alive. Lucy, she was taken out of slavery. She was going to be a sex slave, on her way to prostitution. Shortly after she arrived at the orphanage, some Haitians were dancing which is common in Haiti. Lucy started dancing like she was trying to suduce somebody. This stopped before I ever met her because Pam and many others prayed for her and over her for this to end. God works in miraculous ways.

That night after a full day of praying and VBS, we met with the Haitian youth group that Pam has started. They asked alot of questions. It really made us think as well. How did evil come about? Did God create evil? Why do we have free will if God knows that most of the time we might fall and accept it? Anyone of you have answers to those? It was really hard for me to answer them. Thankfully there were others there that came up with answers. But it really made me think about my own personal faith. What do I believe about Christ? What if someone, a non-christian, asked me those questions and I didn't have any answers? It was a good situation for me to experience so I knwo that I need to dig deeper into the word of God so that when I minister in Haiti, I know the truths of Christ to help guide these youth to the light of Chirst.

Tuesday morning we woke up at 5:30 to make breakfast, do devotions and be on our way up the mountain by 7am. I love climbing the mountain. First, because it is so extremely beautiful! Whenever I climb it, the creator of all the universe takes my breath away by waht he has created. Even in a place so destitute, God can do amazing things! Second, because the people that live on the mountain are so extremely hungry for the gospel.

Before we did the VBS at the school, we made lots of house visits. What we did on these house visits was simply go up to people and their houses and asked if they would like us to pray for them and what they needed prayer for. There was one house that I experienced the Holy Spirit's prodding that I have not felt in a long time. There was a couple living in this house, good people. They had a servant girl, her name was Rose Michelle, which is also the name of one of the girls in the orphanage. She was living in the house with the couple. She told Pam that they were taking good care of her, not beating her, feeding her, but the other kids at school were making fun of her. Pam asked her why. She didn't have barely any clothes to wear and they made fun of her for it.

Pam asked if someone would pray for her. I felt like something pushed the words "I will" out of my mouth. Then Nathan, one of the adult leaders of the Washington team, volunteered to pray for the man and his wife. I prayed that the evil one would be bound from her, that only Christ's truth would be instilled in her. That she would be thankful for everything that the Lord had given her. That she would seek him with all her heart. Nathan then prayed for the man and his wife. But the Lord was not done working through me. "Tell her she is precious, tell her she is loved" I heard in my head. I started crying and the wind blew through the doors of the house. I got goose bumps. Isaiah 43:4 immediately came to my mind "Others were given in exchange for you. I traded their lives for yours because you are precious to me. You are honored, and I love you." I prayed this prayer over her. That is when I realized that the spirit was working. I opened my eyes while praying and looked at her. Even though she did not speak one word of english or understand what we were saying, she was crying.

My eyes were opened that day. God can still work even if you don't understand. We were all moved that day, and the only explanation I can give is that it was the spirit moving in our lives. She later that day came down to the orphanage so we would get her some clothes. I and Megan helped get her 3 skirts, 2 shirts, and a dress for her to wear. It spoke worlds to my heart to be able to do that for her.

I was so excited for Wednesday morning, we were going to be going to a Haitian church service. I had never been to one and was just so excited to experience some more Haitian culture. But I got sick I remeber at exactly 6:30. I fainted, had cold sweats and almost vomitted. I knew that I wasn't dehydrated because I had been drinking plenty of water. I didn't know what it was but I didn't care, I was too sick to go to the church service. I was so incredibley disapointed. The rest of the team left at about 8am and returned at about 11:30. I ate some bread, drank water and slept pretty much the entire time they were gone. When they got back, lunch was ready to eat. I didn't feel that sick, but didn't have that much of an appetite either. I ate a little of beans and rice and started feeling sick again. I laid down for about 15 minutes to see if that would help.

After about those 15 minutes, I heard that Patchouko was there with shell jewelry that he had made and was selling. I went out to look at them because I wanted to buy some things. While looking at them, I started to feel better. Still looking at the jewelry, it fellt like all this energy and healing was being placed in me, it was weird but exhilarating. I looked at my watch and it said 12:30 exactly. I went back to the team house to get my money and ran into Nathan. He asked me how I was feeling. I said that I all of sudden felt better! He simply but powerfully said "We prayed God's healing over you Kirstin." That is when, once again, I realized how much prayer really does work.

On Thursday, we set out to complete six projects that morning. We planned for it to take all morning until lunch. Sift large rocks out of sand into tubs. Then we would carry the tubs of rocks up the small path to put under the swing set that had been built. The swing set was built by the team before us that came down. We wanted to put sand underneath the swing set because it was just hard ground and rock. When the kids fall off (which they often do), it is very painful to fall on gravel and cement instead of soft sand.
Build a new rabbit cage for the rabbits that are at the orphanage. They were extremely small with not alot of room for the rabbits to move around in. Erik, Nathan, and Peter were the ones working on this.
Count the cement blocks. The materials of these were mixed together by hand and then put into molds to make the make the shape they needed.
Pick up leaves that had fallen from the trees and throw them over the ravine outside the wall. If left on the ground and it rains, they will cause alot of very slippery mud and become hard to walk.
Take the rocks that were sifted from the sand and in a way regravel the path within the orphanage walls with them. When it rains, it washes alot of the rocks away to the bottom of the compound.
We also needed to take varnish the wooden bedroom doors in the team house and there were three doors.

There were 13 of us that worked together. We split up the jobs and set to work on these projects. Now remember, we were planning that it would take us all morning to complete these projects. Well, it didn't. We started all the work at about 9am. After we all had finished the projects and were sweaty and tired, we asked Pam what time it was. "11 o'clock. Are you all finished?!" She said in amazement. We were also amazed that it only took us 2 hours to finish! "Many hands make light work!" I simply stated. So true. We got everything done, amazing. Sue and Fern were just amazed and grateful of all the work we had done. What a blessing it was to be a blessing.

Even though we were tired, we still had a full afternoon of a bible story and playing games at the water with the kids. This is what we did every afternoon. We took a big tub of sports equipment, frisbees, soccer balls, and a volley ball and played with the kids and the youth on the beach. This afternoon, we took instruments and sang Christian Haitian songs with the kids after a short bible lesson. We then brought them all back to the orphanage compound to make a craft. After that, we each grabbed some kids, grabbed some books and read to the kids we had sitting around us. It was so much fun. The books we were reading to them were english. They didn't care, they just liked the time that we were spending with them as well as looking at the pictures. I love ministering to people in the simplest ways!

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