GENERATIONS

Saddle up your horses we've got a trail to blaze
Through the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace
Let's follow our leader into the glorious unknown
This is a life like no other - this is The Great Adventure
Come on get ready for the ride of your life
Gonna leave long faced religion in a cloud of dust behind
And discover all the new horizons just waiting to be explored
This is what we were created for
  We'll travel over mountains so high
We'll go through valleys below
Still through it all we'll find that
This is the greatest journey that the human heart will ever see
The love of God will take us far beyond our wildest dreams
Yeah... oh saddle up your horses... come on get ready to ride

Stephen C. Chapman

 

When my dad asked us to go to Haiti to host a medical clinic we went. When I arrived in Haiti God handed me a gift. The gift was my true purpose. Don't get me wrong, being a mom and wife is HUGE purpose, but to fall in love with the people of an entire country...that can only be God's leading.

 I know I had purpose before I went, but He touched my eyes and showed me that He could show HIS people HIS love through me. This year marks 5 years of being involved in Haiti. 

 God has opened doors that I believed were opened for us to work and help Haiti and He also shut some doors. At first it was medical clinics and school improvement. After the EQ it was answering questions about how we adopted. God gave us divine appointments with wonderful people and he sent me back to Haiti to a different area in 2011. Having a car breakdown in Haiti can be a bad thing, but God used it to show me a very special place where He has led us to join in ministry with a local pastor.

We have been led to create a sponsorship program for the students and also to put together a Haitian History curriculum and Kindergarten Curriculum for the school because everything was buried during the EQ. We are starting a sewing program for ladies in the US to make pillowcase dresses for the girls and shorts for the boys. Since the school lost all of its supplies, we are hosting a school supply drive.

We have struggled with where we fit in Haiti...are we to stay stateside and help or go to Haiti more?...only God knows.

The biggest life changing part of our journey was adopting our son.  Clifford will be home 3 years in September.  YES we still get funny looks and people stare.  I like to think that they are just trying to figure out if Clifford is lost or if he really belongs to us.  I have people tell me the foster care system needs more people like me!!!!  I just smile and say,"He's my son".  We adopted him from Haiti.  That will either involve us in much conversation or it will cut people who really don't care off.  Either way, He's ours and he is here to stay!!!

I have come to believe that change can come to Haiti and it will come through education. The future generations will govern Haiti. But in order for it to change, people will have to go where God sends them, link arms with the people already at work there and be ready for ANYTHING.

 Michael & I were married May 20, 1995...the recessional out of the church was the song to the words at the beginning of this blog.  Haiti has mountains, valleys and plenty of horses!!!