Heading To Haiti

Many of you know that Ryan and I are going on a mission trip to Haiti with The Vineyard Church. I thought I would blog what details I have so that if you were willing to pray, you would have all the info.

We leave on Saturday, June 12th, and return Saturday, June 19th. I believe there are 11 of us on our team. We will be traveling to Cap-Haitian, which is in northern Haiti, about 6 hours north of Port-Au-Prince. Our team has 2 different purposes: some will be working on building a school, and others will be doing outreach, such as praying with people, passing out Bibles, etc. Ryan and I will be doing the latter. Originally, the plan had been to go into Port-Au-Prince to do outreach, but things were unsettled there, and there were plenty of needs in Cap-Haitian, so we will be doing the outreach there. We are working with a Haitian pastor whom our pastor had connections with from years ago. We had the opportunity to hear this pastor speak at Vineyard a couple of months ago, and it's truly amazing to try to imagine what life in Haiti is like for him and the other believers there.

So, what needs prayer? Here are some of the thoughts I have:

-Health & Safety for our team (our travel itinerary has us arriving in the Dominican Republic in the middle of the night and driving on a school bus for 5 hours across the border into Haiti - and it's pretty much the same for the way back) Please pray that we will be well rested in spite of the circumstances and also that, as Psalm 91 says, "no harm will come near our tent". Please also pray that our team will be free from any sickness.

-Our kids (Madison, Michael, & Max will be with grandparents for the week, so maybe the prayer is really for the grandparents!)

-The Holy Spirit to move in POWER, and for there to be miracles, signs, and wonders! Most are aware of the powerful presence of Voodoo in Haiti - many need to see evidence that our God is real and powerful before they will even pay attention. We need the Holy Spirit to move through us in miraculous ways! Pray that our faith and expectation will be high!

-Protection from evil spirits - Pray that we will be covered in the blood of Jesus in such a way that evil gets no where near us. Psalm 91 is a great prayer of protection.

-Opportunities (There are still a lot of unknowns as far as exactly what we will do and how we will do it. Pray that the Lord will go before us and pave the way!)

-Growth & Glory - Please pray that we will learn and grow through this experience and that through it all God and His son Jesus will be glorified!

Thanks for being willing to pray! I know without a doubt that your prayers are powerful, and that they have eternal consequences!!!

Where Have I Been????

Someone asked me recently, "Do you ever plan to update your blog again?" Well, in this life what I plan to do and what I actually do are quite different. Of course I plan to...but sometimes plans don't work out.

So where have I been? I've been here, doing the stay-at-home-homeschooling-mom thing. I've been at Vineyard, doing the prayer ministry thing. On a regular basis, that's about all I do. In December we went to Brown County again, which was a huge blessing. Christmas was blur...I'm not sure it really even took place. The end of January found me spending a day at the Naturally Supernatural conference before heading to the annual scrapbooking weekend.

Those are the places I've physically been. Where else have I been? I've been in the doors-still-closed-situation-unchanged adoption waiting room. It's been three years since we received the paperwork and began our dossier. God recently spoke encouragement to me about this at the Naturally Supernatural conference, and I'm inspired to keep dreaming in this life...but it is a challenge for sure.

Spiritually I've been in a lot of different places over the last few months. I feel like I'm learning so much, yet I have so far to go. I feel like I'm standing on the edge of a cliff, ready to finally jump off in such a way that there's no return to where I've been, but only new places in which to soar. I just hope I don't let my self get in the way of what God wants to do.

So that's a little about where I've been. I wish I could tell you know about where I'm going...who knows? We'll see what God has in store for the next year.