i'm sweaty. dirty. and i smell bad. but our God is the God of the impossible and He reigns! The bittersweetness is starting to set in; three weeks left in Haiti and God is far from done working in my heart and with this kiddos.
i wrote that this afternoon after feeling just an abundance of His blessing the past few days. (see previous posts). In an effort to quantify His blessings and teachings, i will reflect on a few sweet, revelatory (wow! that is a word!) moments from today:
i woke up this morning awake and energized. and on time. at intercession this morning we were to pair with a person whom we've never met. and i walked up to sweet, sweet Maria from the El Paso/Juarez team. without knowing a thing about her, i began to pray authoritatively over her. i couldn't even believe the clarity in my own prayers; something that for the past couple weeks i've found a real challenge in praying through my own confusion. this sweet woman received my prayers, and continued on praying for me . . . in spanish. i was just touched by God's heart even though i could only understand every fifth word or so. there's something so strong to me in the agreement of prayers that bridge barriers such as language.
upon getting to school after intercession, philipson walks by sharing that he just received an email from the US Embassy granting him an emergency visa appointment . . . tomorrow, at 7 am. PRAISE GOD. a little background: after praying about it, he feels led to do a secondary school (YWAM thing) in Kona. Philipson is such a wonderful man of God and has SUCH an anointing on his life for this country, like serious ya'll. he is going to lead this country in such powerful ways, and for the Lord! i digress; to go to Kona, he needs a visa. that takes months. he plans on leaving july 8th. last night in the prayer room, we stopped worship to pray for him over this, and BAM! granted. in less than 24 hours!!! Praise God; He is the God of the impossible!
i've also been experiencing a bit of negativity around me through someone who does not have the authorization to even bring that with them, but that has sort of brought discouragement upon me regarding my classroom. but today, all of that melted away and i realized the truth of just how very far my kinders have come. i am so proud of these kids. the fact that they can decode words. put words into sentences as they explain what the word means in English. typically, i plan for the day and have plenty of things left over that we just did not have the time today. today was not one of those days. we progressed through our bible, calendar, phonics, math, science, craft and literature time so smoothly and with such finesse that we actually had time left over. in that spare time, we began spelling words generated by the kids! amen! stacia came in at the MOST appropriate time, and the kids retold the Very Hungry Caterpillar story that i had been teaching thematically. they explained to her the life cycle of a caterpillar. they recalled the things we did in class that day, in order. i sat there, so blessed by their eager spirits as they raised their hands and waited patiently to be called on. just typing that makes me want to cry; i don't think you realize the victory that is. in the states, i would be looked down on for them not having accomplished that by day 2 of kindergarten. but here, i see how far they have come and i am so blessed. stacia just looked at me and said, "i love you," in regards to their alacrity and ability. encouraged!
after school, i walked up to lunch just feeling so blessed and encouraged. i couldn't help but let my joy exude from every pore as i practically floated into the cafeteria. ya'll could totally smell the Lord on me. in a good way. not a funky, i-smell-like-haiti way; and ohhhh, yes. that is a smell, too. and, we had leftover potato salad. its the small things, ya'll!
we had our teacher meeting which, to be honest, was sort of a damper on the day. at least it started off that way. but afterwards, sarah asked us to pray with her over a new opportunity for her. she's been asked to step into a teaching position with the DTS, which would require her to leave her position with Liberty Academy. as we prayed for her, i just really felt the Lord's presence speak truth and encouragement over her. from my own lips, prayers were spoken that i didn't even know how to pray. again, i just felt such an authority and clarity in my prayer language, and it was so so delightful. (note: i am not claiming i pray well. i'm stating simply that when letting the spirit lead, He can declare pretty amazing things through me that i could never articulate in my own flesh.)
afterwards, i came home and sat down with my lovely roommate, anne, and talked about some of the frustrations and negativity i had been around that was causing me to become discouraged. if you knew anne, you would know this: she is one the most down-to-earth, sweet, kind-spirited women you've ever met! in the middle of our discussion, she says, "ya know, let's just pray about this. right now." and we did. and i felt so encouraged just by the reminder that we always have prayer. and God hears and answers our prayers. i seriously have been so blessed by having her as a roommate. to get to know someone so different from me and to become so close and feel so encouraged by the light spirit she just brings to my household here! love her!
on my way to dinner, i was stopped by one of the guys on the arts and entertainment team from Kona that has been helping out bi-weekly (every two weeks, right cara?!) with the school kids, and he just spoke sweet encouragement to me, over me being here as a teacher and diving into what God had even though it wasn't what i had planned. even just in the short exchange and first formal meeting, i left feeling blessed and encouraged. and i've realized, that is how people should part from each other. mental note on that.
after dinner, i had an uncommon wave of motivation and decided to go for a run. yes, a RUN! in HAITI! in the HEAT!!! i invited jenna and laced up my tennies and we were off! it was such a blessed time just spent making 9 laps around the base, feeling the caribbean breeze on our face as we prayed for rain to dump on us (it never did).
after a quick stretch and shower, i showed up to worship in the prayer room, on island time. we spent an hour blessing the heart of God with praise, learning verses in spanish, haitian worship songs, dance, and even clapping. as i was laying there, soaking up the presence of the Lord (in between the dancing and clapping, of course), i just felt the warmth of knowing i was exactly where he created me to be in this moment. i had been sort of hung up on a few things i've been missing out on in nashville, but right there i realized, i'm not missing out. this is it. ahh, goodness.
leaving with sarah, we both had been blessed by the worship. i mentioned craving ice cream, and in an unlikely turn of events, we were able to assemble a team with ease to head out to ginou for some chocolate soft-serve. amazing how choco fro yo can bless your soul, too.
***
today was a full day, indeed. full of encouragement, prayer, blessing, and refreshment from the Lord. it happened tonight. that moment in which the eagerness turned to bittersweetness as i prepare to leave. the realization of how much i have grown and changed and developed in the Lord, and how these people have come to be more than people, but my family. that this has come to be more than a base, but it has been my home. that these aren't just haitian students, they are my students.
so yeah, i'm sweaty. dirty. and i smell bad. but our God is the God of the impossible and He reigns! i have just three weeks left in Haiti and God is far from done.
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