The room we were in was full of people who had huge hearts for Jesus. Their love for God and other people simply radiated out of them whenever they spoke or smiled at me. As nervous as I was, I felt pretty calm about the meeting and where I was.
By the end of the meeting it was official- in my heart, and by a hand count when asked how many of us were positive we were going- I was going to Haiti! It would be later when I got home that my parents would give me the official okay, but in my heart I knew that I would be going. It was so surreal. After almost four years of praying to go on a mission trip, my prayer was finally being answered! I went home and texted all of my friends in tears that I was going to Haiti over spring break. The next day at school I could hardly contain my excitement, and I'm sure my friends wanted to kindly tell me to shut up. I simply could not help it!
At one point on that Sunday my dad had told me that he knew it would be okay for me to go, but wasn't exactly sure that he would be going. After all, it wasn't fair to leave my mom home with the other four kids for an entire week while they're all home from school. In my mind it made sense, but in my heart I really really wanted him to go with me. I trusted that even if I had to go alone I wouldn't really be going alone, but part of me wanted so badly to experience this with my dad. Although I knew it wasn't likely, I began to pray that God would change the heart of my parents so my dad could come with me.
I remember telling my "old" junior high youth group leader that it seemed impossible for my parent's hearts to be changed. After all, what they said made complete sense. It wasn't fair to leave my mom home alone with the other four kids for a week. I did my best to accept that I was going alone but kept praying anyway even though it seemed pretty impossible.
October 9th is my dad's birthday. It was a week after the Haiti meeting. A week since I had begun praying that God would change the heart of my parents so I wouldn't have to go alone. I was sitting in our computer room looking for a picture of me and my dad so I could make a Facebook post about him for his birthday. Eventually, he walked in the room and asked what I was doing. Once I told him what I was doing he asked what I was going to say about him. When I responded that I didn't know he said: "Well how about this: 'This is my dad and it's his birthday. He's pretty cool, and he's also going to be my missions partner when we go to Haiti together over spring break'".
My heart stopped.
"Are you serious?" I asked, hoping he wasn't just messing with me. "Yeah, I'm serious." he said.
I couldn't believe it. I was literally dumbfounded. I simply could not believe that the God of everything, the God of the universe, would hear the prayer of a 14 year-old small town girl from northwest Indiana, and not only hear it... but answer it! My heart was overflowing with thankfulness. I then proceeded to cry and hug my dad and my mom. Words don't even begin to describe how awestruck I was.
On November 6th we had our first official Haiti meeting. By this point my dad and I had sent out letters to family and friends asking for donations, and I'll admit I was a little bit worried about the money situation, because for both of us to go we were going to need to bring in quite a lot. When we got to the meeting and I was handed the slips that said how much money we had raised I felt like I had gotten hit by a brick.
We didn't have much. And I'll admit, I kind of began to panic. Why was it that God had changed the heart of my parents so that my dad could come with me only to make us fend for ourselves with trying to collect all of the money? However, I quickly shoved these thoughts aside. For the next week I told myself over and over and over again: "The same God who changed the heart of my parents so that Dad can come with me to Haiti is the same God who will provide the money for the both of us to go." It was hard, but I had to trust that He was in complete control. And let me tell you, He was.
Within less than a month of my panicking about the money, we got an email from our mission trip director saying that we had over $2,000 in our trip account. We needed a certain amount of money by the weekend and we ended up having $685 OVER what we needed. I received the text from my dad during one of my classes and literally broke down crying. My friends probably thought I was insane, but I didn't care one bit.
Even after that, money continued to show up out of nowhere. And when I say nowhere, I mean in ways I never could have thought of in a million years. In just a month, the Lord had taught me so much. He had taught me that His ways truly are higher than ours. He had grown my faith tremendously. The word "trust" now had a whole new definition to me. Trust wasn't just simply saying "I trust you", trust was literally taking the things I had no control over and surrendering it to the only One who did have control over it.
Eventually, the year 2017 rolled around. The minute I saw the clock on my phone change to midnight and the date read "January 1st, 2017", I was only able to think of one thing: I'm going to Haiti this year. I made it.
Later on in January, we had another Haiti meeting. We went over lots of different things, but I think the biggest thing for me was when they told us the estimated time we would be leaving the church that morning. Not because it was too early, but because after years of waiting to go on a mission trip and now having the date and the estimated time we would be leaving was crazy for me.
Towards the end of the meeting they asked us to break into groups based on what it was we would want to do specifically in Haiti besides helping with the construction, which we'll all help with. There were four groups: construction, medical, sports, and children's ministry. Ironically, my dad and I both ended up at the sports group, which they described as the group that played with the kids and provided them with things to do. As a group, we discussed the things we would want to bring to Haiti. I was so excited to have the chance to play with all of the kids!
And now, here I am, having started this blog posts months ago, and we are exactly sixty days away from boarding a plane for Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Which to some people might seem like a long time, but to me it isn't. Sixty days seems like nothing compared to how long I've been waiting to go on a trip like this. From the minute I walked into that room in October, people told me that this trip was going to change me and my outlook on God. While I fully expect this to be true- we haven't even left yet and my faith has grown tremendously!
To say that I'm excited to go on this trip is a complete understatement. I have found myself unable to fall asleep some nights because I'm imagining what it'll be like to board that plane and simply get there. I am beyond thankful to God for giving me such as amazing opportunity. And if you've read this whole thing and you don't take anything from it, at least take this: The God of the universe created you and loves you. And whether you choose to believe it or not, He hears your prayers. However, not only does He hear them, He answers them. You just have to have faith and wait for His perfect timing. Because when it is His timing He will move mountains right before your eyes.
"Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, "Here I am. Send me!'" ~Isaiah 6:8
Within less than a month of my panicking about the money, we got an email from our mission trip director saying that we had over $2,000 in our trip account. We needed a certain amount of money by the weekend and we ended up having $685 OVER what we needed. I received the text from my dad during one of my classes and literally broke down crying. My friends probably thought I was insane, but I didn't care one bit.
Even after that, money continued to show up out of nowhere. And when I say nowhere, I mean in ways I never could have thought of in a million years. In just a month, the Lord had taught me so much. He had taught me that His ways truly are higher than ours. He had grown my faith tremendously. The word "trust" now had a whole new definition to me. Trust wasn't just simply saying "I trust you", trust was literally taking the things I had no control over and surrendering it to the only One who did have control over it.
Eventually, the year 2017 rolled around. The minute I saw the clock on my phone change to midnight and the date read "January 1st, 2017", I was only able to think of one thing: I'm going to Haiti this year. I made it.
Later on in January, we had another Haiti meeting. We went over lots of different things, but I think the biggest thing for me was when they told us the estimated time we would be leaving the church that morning. Not because it was too early, but because after years of waiting to go on a mission trip and now having the date and the estimated time we would be leaving was crazy for me.
Towards the end of the meeting they asked us to break into groups based on what it was we would want to do specifically in Haiti besides helping with the construction, which we'll all help with. There were four groups: construction, medical, sports, and children's ministry. Ironically, my dad and I both ended up at the sports group, which they described as the group that played with the kids and provided them with things to do. As a group, we discussed the things we would want to bring to Haiti. I was so excited to have the chance to play with all of the kids!
And now, here I am, having started this blog posts months ago, and we are exactly sixty days away from boarding a plane for Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Which to some people might seem like a long time, but to me it isn't. Sixty days seems like nothing compared to how long I've been waiting to go on a trip like this. From the minute I walked into that room in October, people told me that this trip was going to change me and my outlook on God. While I fully expect this to be true- we haven't even left yet and my faith has grown tremendously!
To say that I'm excited to go on this trip is a complete understatement. I have found myself unable to fall asleep some nights because I'm imagining what it'll be like to board that plane and simply get there. I am beyond thankful to God for giving me such as amazing opportunity. And if you've read this whole thing and you don't take anything from it, at least take this: The God of the universe created you and loves you. And whether you choose to believe it or not, He hears your prayers. However, not only does He hear them, He answers them. You just have to have faith and wait for His perfect timing. Because when it is His timing He will move mountains right before your eyes.
"Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, "Here I am. Send me!'" ~Isaiah 6:8
