The Dust is Settling

As the dust of our first 10 days settles, I’ve been feeling reflective this afternoon and want to recount the ways that God has blessed and sustained Tim and I over the last week and a half.  It might be that this is one of the most difficult weeks of my life.   Not bad; just hard.  I cannot believe we have been here just 10 days. Life in DC with AC, our own cars, a quiet apartment, our jobs, grocery shopping, church meetings and what was “normal” life seem so far away already.  I feel like we’ve crammed a lot of life changes into just 10 days!  

Side note: When I share about these changes, I don’t intend to compare, complain or judge; these are simply my experiences and things I’m learning. I love experiencing a new culture and find it fascinating that what is a totally new for me is how everyday life happens in another part of the world.

We have had many firsts including riding in the back of a truck through the streets of a busy city where there are not traffic signs or laws.  

Tim witnessed a chicken being butchered and later being on the dinner table.  (this is a first I can hold off on for a while!) 

I had a Haitian cooking lesson.  

We sleep under a mosquito net.  

Most days, we apply bug spray multiple times (the good stuff, with deet). I have a favorite bug spray. 

There is not hot water for showers. 

Cows, goats, chickens and pigs roam the streets. 

(I'm standing funny b/c I was only in that spot for a second and quickly got out of the way)

 

We don’t have cars of our own (and would be terrified to drive them if we did). 

We live with 5 new people. We use a mosquito-zapper racket on a regular basis. We brush our teeth with bottled water. 

We cannot leave the house after dark. We are learning a new system of money, sense of time, new foods, language, ways of thinking, placed to shop and an entirely new perspective on life.  We are hot & sticky all of the time. 

Our water is brought in a truck once each week. Electricity is not available all of the time, so a generator is used as back up.

Through these times, we have had moments of wondering how we were going to adjust to so many changes.  There have been moments where we feel stressed, lonely, frustrated, confused, overwhelmed and tired. But, in the last couple days, I have felt like I’ve turned a corner. I’m coming out of what has felt like a fog.  What was just a blur, I can now look back on and reflect, remember and rejoice in God’s goodness to us.

I’ve thought of how children must feel when they are first adopted. They have a new home, bed, food, language, smells,  people, sights and sounds. I can see how many children experience a time of shutting down. It’s so much change to take in all at once and Tim and I are adults and had each other in these first days.  I can’t imagine what must be going through their little minds and hearts.

As I look back, even in just 10 days, God has given us glimpses of Himself in the midst of what looks and feels like chaos at times.

We know that God has sustained us. We have felt the prayers of so many people who have committed to walking along side us during this journey. We could not do this without the support and encouragement of so many.  The littlest things mean so much to us!

In the midst of challenges, God’s goodness is evident…

• The sunsets will take your breath away.  They are an incredible explosion of color that we get to see every evening from our balcony.

 

• We live on a hill, so there is slight breeze that comes through that cools us off from time to time.
• My husband is my coworker!

I’ve seen some of the brightest smiles in the new people we’ve met.

• Safety & protection.
• Beautiful mountains, water, flowers & scenery.

• We have made new friends.
• We visited a children’s home and got to play with the kids, hear their giggles and just have fun!     
• 
• God gave us neighbors from TN. We have people who know what its like to be in our shoes and are here to answer questions and shed light on things that are so new to us.
• We have laughed.  The other staff here who are Haitian are learning English from us and we’re learning Creole from them. There are sounds that we simply do not have or know how to make and giggle as we try to teach each other.
• We have peanut butter and jelly.
• One of the cook’s singing will send chills up your spine. It’s beautiful.
• The house manager has taken care of us, welcomed us, taught us a lot and been very patient with us.
• We have fans. Even blowing warm air is helpful!
• We have learned some Creole.
• 
• 3 men took a pile of wood and turned it into furniture for the house in just 1 day. Such talent and hard work!

• Marcel found us!

God has brought us comfort, peace and joy when we felt scared, overwhelmed and sometimes sad. 

We have a unique opportunity that we recognize as a gift.  We are seeing God in ways that we may not have otherwise.  He is here with us.  He has brought us to this point and continues to carry us and guide us. We need Him like we have never before and He's near. We know that God could have used anyone to manage a guesthouse, but he allowed us to do it.  What a gift! I could never write a story so great as the one He is writing.

Tim says...

It has now been one week since we arrived in Port-au-Prince from Washington, DC.  In some ways it feels like many months ago, yet it also feels just like yesterday.  The Lord has taught us much since coming to Haiti last week, especially the importance of trusting in His Character. 

The last sermon we heard before leaving the DC area was centered on the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel chapter 3, as they refused to bow down to the King’s idol.  In the face of being burnt alive, these men trusted in God’s character, instead of focusing completely upon his capability to bring them out of trouble. 

As Aimee and I keep moving forward into the year ahead, I am challenged to trust the character of God; namely, what I know about Him and not just focus on His capability to always do what it is that I ask Him to accomplish in prayer.  We pray knowing that God can and will answer our prayer (if He chooses to), but also knowing that “He may not”. 

A large part of the process of being a missionary and Christian person is trusting in who we know God to be, not just what I want Him to do for me. 

Additionally, the Lord has reminded me that though it is uncomfortable to have mosquitoes everywhere, no A/C, and other inconveniences, the point of our situation is not simply be grateful for all of the “stuff” we have back in the U.S.  I am reminded of some years ago, hearing a group of people speaking in a church meeting about their trip to Romania.  One man simply stated that his main take away was that he was so thankful for all of the “stuff” he had, and commented about how sad it was that the Romanian citizens were not as blessed. 

As Americans, Christians or not, we are tempted to believe that our way of life is THE way of life, often feeling sorry for other people groups and nations that do not have what WE have.  However, my interactions with Haitian people this past week has reminded me that there is not necessarily a right or wrong way of functioning as a society. Its exciting to learn new perspectives, ways of thinking and ideas about life.

Haitians generally seem so very calm and tranquil at times, unless of course they are in traffic, and then it’s on!  As we have tried to make a plan for the day or decide on a time to do this or that, we have been told to relaaaaaax. We are learning to go with the flow and settle in to a new pace of life. 

How is it that a people that have so very little material possessions, often appear so very content?  Of course, not every Haitian is a Christian but it does beg the question to us – Are we intended to be made happy through acquiring “things” or are we to be made happy in something/Someone else? 

Haiti so far in pics...

We flew to Miami on Sept 17th...

 The clouds were pretty amazing that day...

 This was it. The moment was here...#wilsonstohaiti

 Our first glimpses of the streets of Haiti. Lots of hustle and bustle...

 We loaded our luggage into the tap-tap and headed for our new home...

 This is the view from the 2nd floor...its pretty amazing...

 My new office is pretty sweet...

 and, look at the new guy at America World. Crazy.

 Love seeing all the shirts arriving to their owners...

 These are 2 of the 3 puppies who live at the house. They are growing on me :)

 This made my day to walk down and see these. We would not survive without them...

 Buying bananas with Haitian money or Gourdes. These bananas were about 121 gourde, or about $2.89.

This is the best invention ever. A mosquito zapper racket. Its kind of sad how enjoyable it is. But, I feel less bad knowing that 30 or more of the little guys have bitten me...

 I love being at the house throughout the day and looking out our always-open front door...

 New friend and coworker...

There you have it, a view of our first few days!

How did we get here?

So this is how this went down…

July 11, 2013 Learned about an opportunity to help run a guesthouse in Haiti. Prayed, asked for counsel and decided to take the leap of faith to raise support and commit to one year in Haiti, serving orphans, adoptive families and mission teams.

I (Aimee) sat in my office at AWAA and overheard talk of a blog post that was going up about a guesthouse in Haiti.  The house would be a place for adoptive families and mission teams to stay while completing their adoptions or serving in Port-au-Prince. Immediately my thought was “I want to move there.” I said it out loud jokingly but the idea just seemed right.  I’ve been involved with adoption for almost 4 years and love being a part of the process of children becoming a part of a loving family.  My current role was helping families with the paperwork aspect of the process and over the past several months I began to wonder what I could do to have a more active role in a family’s adoption and serve people in-person, rather than from behind a computer screen.  This seemed like the answer.  I then realized that “I” am now a “we” and quickly texted Tim. It went something like this…"AWAA is opening a guesthouse for adoptive families and mission teams, lets move there.” This was just the beginning of many conversations we’d have over the next few weeks. We sought much prayer and counsel and after weighing all of the input, we decided to take the step of faith. Just like when I moved to VA, it was more difficult to picture NOT taking this step than it was to take it. Even if it sounded crazy.

I saw a quote by Sheila Walsch that said, “Most people will not understand what the love of Christ compels you to do, but do it anyway.”  As we found ourselves counting the cost of going to Haiti, they were real and important. Things like grad school, lease, uncertain income, quitting our jobs, raising support quickly, storing our belongings, being newlyweds, wanting to start a family in the future, saving, investing, health risks, spiritual warfare, etc…we knew that with these factors were real risks and uncertainties, but even in the midst of all of these questions, God gave us a sense of peace and assurance to just take one step forward. So we did and one by one, these potential issues or roadblocks quickly vanished. It some cases quite literally. Our faith has already been tested and our trust in God increased.  I have never felt so literally incapable of meeting my own physical, spiritual, financial and emotional needs. This is something we’ve never done. I’ve never needed to trust God so completely with my future down to the very need of finances themselves. He is God. He is good.  He has paid my eternal debt and loves me more than I’ll ever be able to fathom. I have felt a literal “end to my abilities and resources” and been put in a place of total reliance that I never have before. It would seem that this would cause me to clench my fists and hold on more tightly to things than I ever have, but miraculously, I see God doing the opposite. He is helping me see all that I have as HIS more than it is mine. He provides all we have and is capable of taking care of my needs more than I could ever do on my own.

Here begins the journey...

Introduction

Welcome to our blog.  Pull up a chair, grab a cup of coffee (or something equally yummy) and let’s catch up. We are Tim & Aimee. We got married May 11, 2013 and just 2 months later, we learned about a need in Haiti to serve adoptive families and mission teams. We’ll be running a guesthouse  for the next year and surely there will be stories to tell!

We hope that you will be encouraged, learn ways to pray for us and see glimpses of God’s goodness as we share about the work He is doing. We are passionate about serving Jesus with our whole hearts. We prayed that He’d guide and direct our steps in ways that we’d grow and be changed. Its difficult to think that this journey to Haiti is anything less than a very specific answer to that prayer! We want nothing more than for our lives to reflect the grace and love we’ve been shown through the gospel.  As we interact with other staff, neighbors, the children and their caretakers we hope that we can be a shining light of Christ’s love.

Here we go!