wow, hey, well I guess a lot has happened sense I last wrote. I graduated my DTS for one thing. I also went to Haiti. Gosh, were do I start? Well, ummm I'm in the Capital right now. I'm going to be here until the 3rd, I think, then I'm going to Haiti again for a little more then a week. Right now, I'm staying with a family from Logico's church. They're really amazing. I love Dominican hospitality. It's a family with the mother, Sonya and her two daughters. It's been really great. I thought it was going to be pretty akward but it hasn't been to bad, they are really wonderful people. Today I went to the Gym with the Sonya and then she took me to the salon. It was great. After then I went to Logico's pastor's house (which isn't far from where I'm staying) and stayed there until Logico came. These people from logico's church are amazing, they are mostly women and it's great how much they tease him. It's a little hard with the Spanish, but it's been ok. After Logico came and got me, we went to meet some of his friends to hang out with for a while. There are all people from his Record Label so they are all rappers. We went to this mall and just hung out for a while, it was really cool. It was kind of funny though, me, little miss white girl walking around with these four big gangster-looking rappers. but I liked it. I kind wanted to pick a fight with someone just to be like "you want to mess with me? Oh, boys?" My favorite part though was when we got our food and Logico was just like "well, let's pray" and then to see the four rapper guys in the middle of the mall food court, with their heads down, thanking God for our fried chicken and french fries. It was really cool. I really like it where I'm at now and by the way, I'm really falling in love with Spanish rap and reggatone. I'll have to show you it when i get home. Speaking of which....yeah...as for when I'm coming home...I think it's going to be the 18th of July...I think. Gosh, well anyway, like I said, A LOT has happened sense I last time I wrote but I don't think I will be able to write it all now, or maybe at all before I come home. but I guess I can start.
Well, i guess I'll start with Haiti:
Jacmel was our first location in Haiti. we stayed at the bran new YWAM base there with the Director, Lubens, and his family. (Lubens is awesome by the way) We did a lot of different ministries there including street ministry, a VBS for the children in the community, we worked with a orphanage and also a prostitution ministry but I'm mostly just going to tell you about the orphanage. or actually better yet, because I'm tired and don't really want to type a lot, I'm going to copy and paste what Sandra wrote about the orphanage on her site:

"The local orphanage is run by Pastor Millien. There are 26 children in the orphanage, 4 being his. He has recently lost their food supplier. And time has come to purchase the land. The land was on a 5 year lease. The land was to be sold at a locked price. The time has now come to purchase the land. This is where the $2,000 comes in . $1,000 has to be paid for by the 18th of June. The last $1,000 has to be there by the 24th of June. Recently, this orphanage has gone through some improvements. Because of a short term mission team, the orphanage was painted and cleaned thoroughly. Mattresses were also bought for the orphanage. A plan for construction for the orphanage was formed but unfortunately fell through.Youth with a Mission has a vision for this struggling orphanage. This vision comes from the Director of YWAM Jacmel here in Haiti. Lubens Romulus was himself an orphan, and dreams of seeing a new orphanage built, complete with a school. He also would like to see some sort of Tech/Vocational school started. And of course he sees these children being nurtured in the Lord's teachings.

Vacation Bible School--OrphanageOn June o5, Team Haiti and YWAM Jacmel put together a vacation Bible School day for the 26 children from the local orphanage. The children had fun watching some dramas, playing games and making crafts. The VBS theme was "chosen by God" and the children learned about King David and Joseph. They made their own crowns to remember that they are princes and pricesses for the Lord. They then had lunch, PB&J sandwiches, bananas, and juice. The children have lost their food supplier and are struggling to survive right now. Little ones wrapped their 3rd sandwich up to take home for the next day. As I learn about their struggles, my heart breaks but I know that the Lord is going to move for them. May the Lord use you to bless these children."

Yeah, it was pretty hard to watch them wrap out their little sandwhiches because who know when the last time they ate was or when they'll eat again. My God, they're presious! So anyway, this is what has happened sense then. I well telling my parents about how I need to do something to help and then my dad reminded me that we have I have an Aunt that works with Kids against hunger and we talked to her and she talking with her contact in Haiti which (get this) happens to be Gretchen from Lifeline (the organization that I worked with when I was in Haiti the first time) crazy, huh? So anyway, I've worked with Gretchen before and we asked her and she is sending twenty boxes of food for the kids from her shippment now and they are looking into maybe setting up some kind of continual arrangment. So that was great. But there was also the matter of the land...like you read, they needed $2,000, fast. So I asked my dad to talk to the church and he sent out a letter and the money just started coming in. It was really amazing to see how God works and now I'm happy to say that I just talked with Lubens a couple days ago and the land had been bought! This mean good things for those kids. I've seen their living conditions now and it's heart breaking. but I think that Lubens is going to do a lot of really good things with this place.
Anyway. so that's a bit about the orphanage. Now I was to tell you about something else that happened to me in Haiti. This is what Lubens had me write so he could let people know what happened:
Something very unfortunate happened yesterday. Three other female members of my team and I were down by the beach trying to minister and just talk with some Dominican prostitutes that had been working here in Haiti. This was our third visit with them and we seemed to be making really good progress. The three other girls with me were Spanish speakers and one also spoke English as well. Lubens was waiting for us in the van while we were talking to these girls. Then, these two men came up to us on a motorcycle and starting talking with the girls and us. One man left but the other one stayed. He was obviously very drunk and it appeared that he was the type of person that had caused a lot of problems there before. The girls told him that we were having a private conversation and that they wanted him to leave, but he wouldn’t go. He kept asking if anyone spoke English. We all kept our months shut. One of the girls told him that no one speaks English here, only Spanish and that we were having a private conversation, so leave. He didn’t listen and just kept asking. Then he came up to me, being the only white girl there, and said I know you speak English.
By that time Lubens saw that the man was giving us trouble so he came out to where we were and told him to leave. The man started to get really hostile towards Lubens and started cussing and saying things like “You can’t make me leave, I’m not afraid of you! If you touch me you’re going to be sorry!” Lubens just simple asked him to leave again, but he wouldn’t listen, he just kept threatening Lubens and trying to pick a fight. Lubens showed incredible restraint. The man finally, cussed at Lubens and then walked off, but only for a little while, then he can back and started talking to me. Lubens was sitting near by as well. I just kept my month shut at first. He went on to tell me for a while about how he was such a horrible person and how he wanted God to change his life and make him the kind of person He wanted him to be. He told me about how he would drink all the time and how even now that you could smell it on him. He also told me about how many people he’s killed. He told me that he used to kill people for money. He said he’s killed 6 people. He went on like this for a while and then he started to cry. Finally I said something, because I began to feel compassion for this man. I told him this, I said, “I can only offer you this, that I choose to believe you, I choose to believe that you really want to change, even if no one else believes you, I choose to and the next time you want to do something bad, remember me and remember how I believe that you can change.” I told him, “I can also pray for you, but that’s all I can do.” So prayed for him and he thanked me and then he started to cry again.
I really did believe him, maybe not necessarily every thing he said, but I believed that he was tired of the way his life was and that he really wanted to change. For a second, I felt a really strong hope for him but then something just changed in him. He just started talking about how he couldn’t change and that he needed God’s help to change but that God wouldn’t help him and that God didn’t love him and just wanted him to go to the fire. I tried to reason with him. I told him that that’s not true and about how God loved him just like He loves me, but he just kept going on. He sounded so hopeless. He was saying how he would see the people going to church with there Bibles and he would be so jealous. “I want to change,” he kept telling me. By this time he was crying a lot and then he told me, “I can’t change, if I tell you I’m going to change, it would be a lie. I can only change if God wants me to change and he doesn’t want me to, he doesn’t want me for the heavens.” Then he told me that he was going to kill himself, “maybe today,” he said, “maybe tomorrow, but I’m not afraid to do it.” I told him “no, no, you can’t do that,” but he just kept telling me how he wasn’t afraid to do it and that he was going to show me. Then, he went over and found a glass bottle on the beach and broke it. “Watch,” he said, “I’m not afraid.” At this time Lubens got up and took the bottle for his hands and I started talking to him again. “You can’t do that,” I pleased with him, “please, you have to promise me that you wouldn’t do that!” Then he turned his head to look for the bottle again and was saying how life was so hard and that he was going to show me how he wasn’t afraid. At this time, I grabbed his wrists and pleased with him some more to please not hurt himself. Then I let go of his wrist but he went right for the bottle again. Then he took the bottle and stabbed himself in the shoulder. It was a deep cut and he started bleeding right away. He didn’t even flinch when he did it. Then he put the bottle up to his neck and started walking backwards towards the sea. We kept eye contact the whole time. I had my hands over my month and I just started praying that nothing would happen to him. When he got to the water he waited there for a second and then dropped to his knees, threw the bottle and put his head to the ground. I wanted to go over to him but I couldn’t move. Then he got up and started walking towards us again. At this time Lubens thought that we should get out of there. The man can up to us again and said “no, no, don’t go, don’t be scared, please, don’t go!” They told me that we needed to go and so we started walking over to the van. He kept following us. Lubens made sure that we all got in and then he got in and started the car. The man came up to the window where I was and looked at me and started crying again. I looked at him again through the window with tears in my eyes. The others with me told me not to look at him. Then Lubens started going but the man put himself in front of the car. Lubens told him to move but he didn’t move so he just went and the man was kind of pushed out of the way by the van. I think Lubens handled the situation very well. He was telling me how he knew that man and how he had promised to change before and was doing well for a while but then fell back into this same kind of lifestyle.
We had to go to the police station and report what happened just incase the man tried to say that we were the ones that hurt him. It was difficult trying to get the help we wanted. Apparently they told Lubens that they were just hoping that he would go and kill himself so that he wouldn’t be a problem anymore. This broke my heart.
For me personally this was a very difficult experience. People say “Oh, he’s just a drunk” and “he’ll never change,” and maybe he wouldn’t. I don’t know. Maybe everything he said to me was a lie and maybe we was just trying to get attention, maybe. Probably, I guess. But I just think, what if, what if he’s telling the truth. When I was talking to this man, I saw something in him. I saw a hurt in him that seemed similar to hurts I’ve had. Now, maybe this doesn’t make sense and maybe I’m just being naïve but I believed him and I didn’t see him as so different for myself. Yeah, sure maybe the world would see the things he’s done as a lot worse in comparison to what I’ve done, but I know how it feels to fall into the same sin over and over again, wanted so bad to change, but still falling and knowing that only God could help me but not feeling like He would. But I had people who believed in me, even when I proved their belief in me wrong. I don’t think this man had that. This broke my heart so much, you see, because I felt like I was his last hope.
I don’t know where this man is now or what he’s doing or if he’s even alive still, but I asked that you will pray for him, believe in him, but more importantly believe that God can change him. I want to see this man again. I want to hear his testimony about what God has done for him and how that He didn’t give up on him. So please, join me and pray for this man and for all the others like him, here in Haiti and all over world.

That incident was really hard on me. I wish I had good news to give on this man, but I haven't heard anything and I don't know if I ever will.

Well, I'm kind of getting tired and I have church tomorrow so I better get to bed. Maybe later I will try to put in pictures and talk about the grosses experience I've ever had in my life (the Haitian meat market) but for now, I think i've left you with plenty to read. God Bless and I will see you all soon!