Processing

  Today marks a week since I have returned home from my most recent trip to Haiti. Since I have been home I've attempted to take in and process everything that happened during that two week trip. I landed in the Atlanta airport Sunday night and drove back to Augusta getting home passed midnight only to crash and then wake up at 8 the next morning, get back in the car and drive 5 hours to North Carolina to visit my family. Needless to say, time to think and process was not available to me.
  Now that I have been back home for a few days, told countless stories to my friends and family, looked at my pictures about one hundred times and thought over everything that we did and saw, I'm finally ready to sit down and write it all out. Because this trip was so incredibly different and longer than any other visit to Haiti I have made, I've decided that instead of attempting to put everything into one blog, I will be writing a (short) 5 piece series.

  For those who may have no idea what I am talking about I will give a brief explanation of how this whole trip came to be. In April I attended a team trip to Haiti which consisted of mainly high schoolers and four twenty year olds, two of whom were me and Samantha Pease. (I wrote a blog on this April trip soon after I returned.) The April trip was when I was first introduced to Sammy and the first time I heard God telling me that we needed to take a trip to La Source by ourselves. At the end of the April trip I told Sammy what was on my heart and she agreed. Neither of us had any idea how or when or if this could happen but we started praying that if it was in fact God's will, that the trip would work itself out, and it did. Looking back I can honestly say that God directed each effort it took to make the trip happen.
   For most of the process I tried to act like I knew what I was doing and that I was confident. But in reality I had no clue what I was doing, all I knew was that God had placed it on my heart and it was my job to take the steps of obedience. I started by mentioning to Bill Adams that I was going to La Source without a team. I said this in a joking way because I was nervous but Bill's response was simply and seriously, "you can do it." The next step was telling my mom, she was reluctant but is always supportive of me. The next step was talking to Lisa Adams and Cindy Rogers. Donnie and Cindy Rogers, along with Bill and Lisa Adams are leaders of LifeMinistries International which is the organization that I have taken all my Haiti trips through. When I told Lisa and Cindy that Sammy and I wanted to go to La Source by ourselves for two weeks I knew it probably sounded a little bit sketchy. The part I was most nervous about was that when they asked what we wanted to do while we were there, I didn't have much of a solid answer. Sammy and I had both felt like we were supposed to go on the trip without a big agenda or list of projects and to-dos. Even though I was nervous I told them what God had put on our hearts. After a few weeks they had all discussed it and prayed about it and let Sammy and I know that we could move forward with the trip. This is how I know that God was ordaining all of this. And I am so grateful that both the Rogers, the Adams and leaders of LifeMinistries are so open and in tune to God's will.
   I tried to place myself in their shoes and think; if two 20 year old girls who had never been on a trip alone, came to me and asked to go to a small Haitian village alone for two weeks, with no concrete plan.... I would most likely say no. But God had a different outlook on things than I did. And He directed the leaders of LifeMinistries to allow Sammy and I to go, and not only that but they were so encouraging and supportive.
  So that's a little background on our trip and how it came together. I was amazed at how God worked out every last detail and gave Sammy and I so much peace and confirmation about the whole thing. The next five pieces of the series I will discuss the things that God did and showed Sammy and I during our trip and how He has continued to teach us even after our return.
   I hope you return to read the following pieces... thanks for reading!

The five piece blog will consist of
Planning
Praying
Power
Patience
Perseverance