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"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6
We are no longer orphans because of what God did for us. With one simple act of obedience our sins were forgiven at the cross. So what are we doing with the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ? Our family has decided to take a step of faith and do what He's called us to do, to take care of widows and orphans. Our journey starts with adoption.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Missions Trip, Blessings, & Confessions Part II


Here is part II of our mission adventure.  I'll try to pick up where I left off.  The whole team had an emotional week but the Nanny asking me to take the kids back to the Guest House with me set the tone for my emotions for the rest of the week.

I struggled back and forth all week with all sorts of wrong thoughts.  What kind of a person am I?   Are we doing the right thing?  Is this a mistake?  I'm not cut out for this.   What am I doing?   I was all over the place.  When we came home I talked with Joe about it all and he pointed me right back the WORD of GOD.  Of course we're doing the right thing and just look at the hand of God throughout this entire process, there is no doubt that we are doing the right thing.  Satan found a weak spot and did all he could to discourage me and plant seeds of doubt.  If not for Jesus I would have completely succumbed to the flesh a long time ago.

What this shows me is that God is NOT in the business of using perfect people.  We don't have to have it all together to be used by God.   He uses sinners like me to show that He is great.  All I need to do is follow Him each minute of the day because without Him I am nothing, I have nothing to offer without Jesus and knowing that makes everything possible because it's only in Him that I can do anything.




We had some great days at the orphanage and were able to share the Gospel bead bracelet with the kids and the staff.  In case you don't know what these are here is what each bead on the bracelet means:

The black bead reminds us that our SIN (bad choices and actions) deserves punishment.  That means we cannot have a relationship with God.

But God wants to have a relationship with us!  The red heart bead reminds us of God's great LOVE.  He gave His Son, Jesus, to take our punishment.  Jesus shed His BLOOD and died to take our sin away.

The white bead reminds us that Jesus' FORGIVENESS takes away our sin making us pure-whiter than SNOW.

The Blue bead reminds us that when Jesus rose again and passed through the SKY to heaven, He sent us His HOLY SPIRIT to be our friend, counselor, and helper in this life.  He will never leave us.

The green bead reminds us we need three things to GROW spiritually -
  1. Prayer
  2. Time in God's Word (Bible)
  3. Fellowship with other believers.
The yellow bead reminds us of the "STREETS OF GOLD" - the promise of living with God forever (with no sorrow) in Heaven after we die.

The butterfly tying it together represents the transformation that takes place in our lives when we accept God's forgiveness.  He makes us a NEW CREATION - The ugly caterpillar is transformed into a beautiful butterfly!



The team and our wonderful translators.

We were also able to bring down two Jesus Story Book Bibles in Haitian Creole which were sold out but we were able to get two with expedited shipping which arrived in time for us to take them.  This was truly a God thing because the next publication wasn't going to be available until October 1, we left on September 29!!!  As well as the Story Book Bibles we had two cases of books in Haitian Creole that we were blessed with free of charge that weren't meant to arrive until after we left.  But that's human timing and our God is far greater than time and those also arrived just in time!!!  The two books we took and were able to hand out to many people while we were there are Jesus + Nothing = Everything by Tullian Chi-Vi-Jin and Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die by John Piper.

Because of the Jesus Story Book Bible being in Haitian Creole, the older kids were able to read it to the younger kids and they were captivated by it.  

On one occasion Lisa was reading with a small group of older kids and one of the girls told her she wanted to pray!!!  She accepted the LORD right there and then due to that story book.  Praise the LORD!

Check her out smiling in the back there with Lisa!
We learned how to sing Jesus Loves Me in Haitian Creole which the kids got a kick out of.  They already know it in English so they knew the tune.  That was fun.  We were able to love on the kids each day and hopefully they saw the love of Christ in all we did.

My dear friend went down with ideas in her head of what her week was going to look too and God just rocked her world.  She fell in love with some certain kiddos and she and her family are now in the process of adopting to add a fourth child to their family.  It's so exciting to see them go through this process and I can't wait to meet the newest addition to their family!


As I sit here thinking about my kiddos I'm in awe of how God works and I can't wait to see what He will do with our family.  I am greatly anticipating "that" phone call with the date of our "Gotcha Day" and I trust that God has it all figured out no matter what may come our way.  Again, thank you for praying for us and following along on this emotional roller coaster.


May God richly bless you as you celebrate this Christmas season.















2 comments:

  1. God is such an amazing God. It's amazing how he has his calendar for each of us. Our hearts were left in Haiti. Thank you Carleigh for revisiting our visit.

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  2. Truly amazing! Can't wait to go back and pick my heart back up! Praying God's calendar for us would move along.

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