the tiniest role

SORRY it has been so long since I have gotten a chance to blog. We have been busy with teams here the last few weeks and updating sponsors on their cuties in Thrive. We have had some really great (big) teams here lately and it has been awesome to see everyone’s passion for Haiti and their energy to help with projects going on here. MH4H is continuing to put cement floors in the houses of sponsored children in the Thrive for 5 program. It has been so cool to see how much healthier the children are and how big of a difference these floors really make! J Thrive for 5 has been going great as well, we are busting at the seams with children wanting to get in! Right now the parents are deciding if their child will be “out” of this program in October – depending on whether or not their child is old enough to start school. All of the parents are so excited that MH4H will be finding sponsors for their child to attend school this next fall. It takes a huge burden off the families, especially the ones that are too poor and otherwise would not be able to send their child to school. J God is good!

The other day I was reading a page out of an old copy of “Our Daily Bread” and it talked about the story Jesus told of the widow who gave two coins, which was all she had. (Luke 21:1-4.) I was quickly reminded about the gift I received (to bring to Haiti) when I was home in December. After church, on the Sunday I spoke about Haiti, I was chatting with a few people when all the sudden a lady who I didn’t know came running up to me. She said, “Here, take this to Haiti. It’s all I have in my purse right now.” She slammed some change in my hand and as quickly as she came, she took off. Out of all the donations I received to bring down here and use as the Lord desired, THIS one is the most memorable. I didn’t even know the woman who gave me the change to be used in Haiti and she didn’t even know me, yet she felt called to give all she had with her at the time. How many of us can say we actually do that? It’s a lovely thought but reality is that giving “all you have” at the moment doesn’t happen that often. I love this Bible story because it reminds me that we should all have a faith like these women (the widow in the Bible and the woman I encountered.) I should always be willing to spend what I have on the Lord, because God is faithful and He will always provide for me. When we have open hands to freely give to the Lord, He is faithful and He will freely give back to us in ways much better than money can buy. Open palms freely give and freely receive. This is such a short story in the Bible that it could easily be overlooked but I think it’s such a beautiful story about authentic faith in God and giving what He’s asking of you, no matter what.

At the beginning of the month I was reading the book Consider Your Call by Gisela Yohannan and one quote that I loved in there was this: “The job He assigns to His tiniest sheep is as great a calling as leading a church with 10,000 people.” It is so true! I love this quote because it’s a great reminder that every single job in the Kingdom of God is worthwhile. And not only is every job worthwhile, but even the tiniest contributions count just as much as the biggest ones do. If God can feed 5,000 people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish – think about what He could do if we all gave what we were called to give – not only in money, but in time as well. (Maybe God’s calling you to volunteer at the Many Hands Market?! J ) After receiving quite a few donations while I was home for the holidays – it was still the tiniest amount of coins that had the biggest impact on me. The smallest gesture can make the biggest difference. J I love this reminder that none of our roles are ‘a little less appreciated’ by God.

Also an update for those of you from Hope Church on the January 2014 trip to Pignon. Wilfred and Carolyn are doing GREAT! Their house is finished (see below) and their burns are healing more and more each day. WOW! J Carolyn is all healed, but Wilfred still has a little ways to come with his foot. They have a wonderful new home, new beds to sleep in and from the looks of it – they are officially back on their feet! J Thank you so much for all of you who left money behind on the trip to pay for this project. You have no idea how much joy is in their eyes every time we go out to visit them. They are SO thankful for your generous hearts. Bondye beni ou! (God bless you!)

Love,

Tampico

:: the new normal ::

Sorry it has taken me so long to update! Things have been a little crazy around here. A week after being in country again, the Spencer Hope team came down and that was pretty fun to see some familiar faces! J Not to mention, my mom!! The team was here for a week and then went home, but my mom and two other ladies stayed an extra week with me and Cassidy. It was such a great time! J

We have had lots of crazy things happening the past few weeks and have been busy running in a million different directions. Many Hands for Haiti has been led to help a couple who has lost everything in a house fire (their home, their possessions, their health, and even their 4 month old baby.) You can read Carolyn and Wilfred's full story here. Many Hands for Haiti is in the process of building them a house so they can get back on their feet as well. In the past week we have also met a young mother (Cindy) and her son (Gilson) whose intestines were literally sticking out of his stomach. Since the hospital in Pignon could not fully treat him, they had to head to Milot to get an operation to fix this. We helped with what we could and they were on their way. We don’t know if we will ever see them again. We also had a child in our Thrive for 5 program (Frislin) who had a HORRIBLE deep rope burn on the back of his knee from a donkey. (It is healing quite nicely now.) All of these things are heartbreaking and devastating, but something else has begun to weigh on my heart even more right now.

The last book I read was called Radical by David Platt and this is a book everyone should read to have their “fire for Christ” ignited even more. I have been thinking a lot after reading this book and it’s really making me think about how living radically for The Lord looks. For example, when people see us living in Haiti they always comment how awesome it is to see young people devoted to The Lord. (We’ve talked about the pride issue already in the last blog.) But now I keep thinking to myself, shouldn't THIS be considered a normal thing for Christians? People shouldn’t say, “Wow that’s daring & courageous of you to do” when they hear of someone being called to serve in another country. Moving to Haiti (or anywhere else) shouldn’t be considered “outside the norm” for Christians of any age and it definitely shouldn't be considered a drastic step. It should be normal because going where God calls us is exactly what is expected of us. We are called as Christ followers to go to the ends of the earth to share the good news. We are demanded to do so, it’s not optional if you want to truly follow The Lord.

Right now what is considered as "radically living for God" should be the normal Christian lifestyle. It scares me to think about how off we are on what “radically living for God” means. It doesn't just mean reading your Bible daily, praying before we eat, going to church on Sunday, joining a Bible study, and doing nice things for people. It means truly GOING to the ends of the earth and taking leaps of faith in order to make His name known (even walking across the street and witnessing to your cranky neighbors if that is where God has called you.) It means truly focusing on people’s salvation instead of just what their physical needs might be at the moment. One of my friends once heard someone say, “If you Christians truly believed people would go to hell if they didn't believe in Jesus, you would be crawling through the streets begging people to listen to you.” We totally don’t do that. We say we believe you need to know Jesus to get to heaven, yet we don’t beg anyone to listen to us. Sometimes we won’t even talk about God with others! We figure if we don’t know about/don’t address the issue, then it’s not OUR problem. The Bible tells us differently. God sent his son Jesus (a REAL person) to come to earth and witness to others about God. We were created for the exact same reason, we are REAL people too who are supposed to go out and spread the good news just like Jesus did. Whether we want to realize it or not, it is on our backs to plant seeds and go to the ends of the earth proclaiming the good news to everyone in our path, no matter where God places us. And when we as Christians choose to take responsibility and do this, it shouldn’t be considered “living a crazy dedicated life for The Lord.” It should be the normal Christian thing to do. (Note: I am totally NOT saying I have this one down and figured out, or that I’m living like this every day, because most days I honestly don’t feel like I’m doing enough for the Kingdom. It has been really on my heart though and it’s something that all of us probably need to work on.) If you haven’t read the book, I would highly suggest doing so!! J (Radical by David Platt) 

Please keep our team in your prayers so that we continue to follow the path that God wants us to and to be reminded daily to take time for the people He places in front of us. A quick prayer for energy wouldn’t hurt either. J

Love,
Tampico

[pride]

Me with a few of my little buddies after Thrive for 5 one day, Lensly (left) and Wensley (right). =) <3

A few verses that keep coming up in my devotions and readings are: Luke 18:10-11 and 13. And Luke 18:14, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” And from the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan, he really put into words exactly how I have been feeling lately: “A person who is obsessed with Jesus knows that the sin of pride is always a battle. Obsessed people know that you can never be “humble enough,” and so they seek to make themselves less known and Christ more known.” I was very clear when coming into this that it wasn’t about me. I knew that I would be PART of the new programs going on here, but I wouldn’t be the one to make or break them. It has never been about me, not even for a minute. I recently have become extremely sensitive to the feelings of pride after thinking about how easy it would be for me to feel prideful at this time in my life. 

If I wasn’t being watchful for it, it would be so simple right now to have a false sense of “awesomeness” about myself for just doing what God has called me to do. I am literally told all the time “how great it is that I am in Haiti,” and “how proud my parents must be of me doing such a wonderful thing,” or “how great of a person I am for helping people in such a poor country.” All of those things make me feel uneasy and make me realize that some people don’t really ‘get it.’ Being in Haiti serving the Lord makes me no better than anyone else and it certainly doesn’t make me feel any better about myself, in fact I probably feel even worse some days! Some days I honestly ask God why he has decided to bring me here –see, sometimes I even doubt God’s plan – how can I even call myself a missionary!? Nobody should ever think just because someone does mission work, “they have it right and all figured out” because that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I am just as much of a sinner as everyone else is and I’m still working on figuring stuff out. I need to be reminded of the Fruits of the Spirit constantly and need to check myself to see if I actually am being fruitful. Anybody can give up material things for a few years and give some stuff to needy people, but what matters most is where your heart is and that’s what you need to constantly check. Just because God has chosen to stick me here right now doesn’t make me any different from those of you who are called to serve back home. My main point is this whole thing should never be about “me being IN HAITI and being such a great person for moving here.” (Again, so not true.) It’s about all that God is doing and it’s about furthering His kingdom wherever you are called to do so – whether we are at home working on witnessing to our neighbors or in Haiti working on witnessing to a witch doctor. We are all in the same boat!

                As most of you know from my previous blog, I’m a background girl and sometimes compliments are really hard for me to take. As I said, especially when our team gets told all the time, “you guys do such awesome work, you guys are so great for living there and working in a place like that every day,” etc. God has really been working on my heart recently and I have become very sensitive to these ‘compliments.’ Don’t get me wrong, encouragement is great! But sometimes I feel like the way things are said, aren’t necessarily focused on the Lord, they are more focused on “us being such great people.” I would so much rather hear, “wow I can really see God working here, the love of Jesus is oozing out of you!” I know most people don’t mean it bad when they give us compliments and I’m not saying they aren’t nice sometimes, but if I honestly let them all go to my head – it would probably explode with pride! I would also probably think this couldn’t be done without me, which couldn’t be farther from the truth. I am PART of God’s plan, it doesn’t revolve around me. We can all be part of God’s plan if we choose to be, but that doesn’t mean it’s about any of us. I think this is a good lesson for everyone to be reminded of and God has really been placing it on my heart. No matter where we are at in our faith walk or what country we are in, it’s not about us, it’s about making ourselves less known so that we can make Christ more known. We all have to work at picking up our cross daily and following our wonderful, powerful, and loving Savior.

                Ebens, Cassidy, Cliff, and I got to go visit Denilson last week and couldn’t have been more excited! Denilson is an 8 year old boy who was badly burned and Many Hands for Haiti has decided to get him the help he needs to heal. He is doing so well and we have posted many pictures of his recovery on the Many Hands for Haiti Facebook page, as well as on my own Facebook page. We will continue to give updates about him as we have them! Thank you so much for the prayers, he needs them! God has a great big plan for this beautiful child’s life! =)

                I am really looking forward to coming home December 18^th and we would really appreciate the prayers as we fly out that day. I have been craving the most random things like: milk, apples, green olives, pickles, and yogurt to name a few. Of course junk food is ALWAYS good to have around as well, but strangely enough that’s not what I miss the most! It will be so great to spend the holiday season with my family and friends! Can’t wait to see some of you back in Spencer soon! =)

Love,

Tampico