Tongue Check

"Oops" "I didn't really mean it.." "No offense.." "I was just joking" "Lighten up.." "Come on you know it was funny" How many times have you heard or used excuses like these in a conversation with someone who you just insulted but are trying to back out? Yeah, me too. Too often things slip out that we instantly wish we could pull back into our mouths and swallow forever, but it's too late. Spoken words are said and last forever. Even under forgiveness the scars remain. More than likely the most common times you let hurtful words slip out are when you're tired and frustrated. People push your buttons and you just snap at them by insulting them, becoming sarcastic (yes, I'm professional at that one), or just not being patient. Yesterday at work, I got several comments about friendly service or my smile, but today I had so many people ask if I was tired or having a bad day... What was the difference? Maybe I was tired.. but should that change the way I speak to people? Should my feelings affect my influence on those around me? God forbid I let it happen again. The Bible has a lot to say about words and how permanently beneficial or damaging they can be. Proverbs 18:21 says "the tongue has the power of life and death." Holy cow, we hold some mega power just in our tiny mouths. And Proverbs 12:18 says "reckless words pierce like a sword." So the Bible is pretty serious when God tells us to be careful what we say. A good way to be either a light for the Lord or a terrible rep to his name is by how we talk. A friend of mine told me to let my character speak louder than my words so that I could win unbelievers to Christ "without a word." When you hear a teenager on the street cussing up a storm with his buddies, we don't naturally think he's a Bible-believing Christian. But how often do we as claimed God-fearing Christians slack in the guarding of our tongues in order to fit in? I can confess I've done it myself before. But when I sit back and think about it, instead of being cool for ten minutes with my non-Christian friends by talking like them, what if I spent those ten minutes witnessing so that I can spend eternity with them later? That sounds like a better use of my time.. So why don't I have the guts?? I need to pray daily for God to let his Holy Spirit help me overcome the people-pleasing urge to talk like everyone around me. Even the small words that aren't really bad, if we let them become too comfortable slipping off our tongues, do we sound different enough to outsiders that God will be represented well? Sometimes looking at our life, we have a totally different vocabulary around different people. James 3 addresses this as salt water and fresh water coming from the same spring. It shouldn't be happening. We need to keep our mouths in check and never have to pull the "oops" card out again. Even under stress or fatigue or attack from someone else we cannot attack back. Philippians 4:5 says "let your gentleness be known to all." This is the perfect description of a calm, clean-talking, patient under stress, Christian person who will win their friends over "without a word." And that's how I want to be known. I want to put on the fruit of the Spirit and be changed from the inside so that my words will pour out with love and gentleness demonstrating the character of the Saviour I represent!! 

Last Words

8/3/10

I don't really have anything left to say, but I still feel like I need to write because more happened today. So the Miami airport was great, we got to eat!! American food is so gross, but it's all we wanted. We stuffed our faces, said goodbye to the Roos family, and are now in mid-flight to Chicago. It's getting close to Haiti bedtime so I'll probably sleep the whole flight.. If anything exciting happens I'll jot it down, but otherwise just a night of travel ahead and my shower calling my name!

Epilogue: For those of you reading this log, it's merely my journal that I kept in Haiti typed up. I hope you enjoyed the stories and got to share in the absolutely amazing experience that our team had. God really worked and I hope you continue to pray for the Haitian people on the mountain of Grenier. From now on my blog will be more present day happenings as I prepare, leave, arrive, and live in San Jose for the next year. I'd appreciate your continued prayers, I know I'll need them! Bondye beni ou!!

Until We Meet Again

8/3/10

This was the earliest morning yet - maybe because of the energy about leaving, maybe because we slept in the church - but either way we were up between 3 and 4am. Making sure everything was all packed was sorta crazy, but we got it all done and ready. This morning we had a stew for breakfast. Nice and hearty food for our downward trek. It was more like a soup and had potatoes, carrots, beans, goat meat, bananas, and these dough things that looked like fingers. It was very good. Other than packing the morning was spent just sitting and talking. I’m going to miss these people so much. It’s crazy how close you get to people in just a week. Before we started our hike down, we circled up, held hands, and prayed. I cried.. of course. I’m so thankful for everyone and all God has done this week, not only through our own group that became my dearly loved family, but also through the Haitians who also became my dearly loved family. Saying goodbye to Closiane, Madame Simon, Madame Thoma, and Samantha come next, how it was even possible I don’t know. Then the journey down began. Loaded with my guitar I started to say farewell to my mountain home. I love hiking so the walk down was extremely pleasant even though it was very hot. We had a lot of helpers who carried many of our bags for us. We waited at Kesnel’s house at the bottom of the mountain for the truck to take our bags to the airport. This was like a two hour wait since we had come down so early. But sitting in the shade for a while just chatting and chilling and playing my guitar was nice. The hard walk came with the truck, because we had to walk up to Thomassin. This was the crazy cliff-like hike that we partially rode down on the way to Grenier when I feared for my life on top of a loaded truck. Going up was much less scary, and yet a lot more difficult. But I really enjoyed it because I walked with Joe, Ivener, Austin and Hannah and we just chatted about Haiti the whole way up. When we made it up we waited for a bus to take us the rest of the way to the airport. It was packed again like the ride in, but not nearly as long. We followed the truck for part of the way then a gas run split us up, but we met at the airport and regrouped with all our stuff. Being in the city again reminded me of how extreme Haiti is. There are tent cities on one side of the street, and hotels that beat out 5-star hotels in the US on the other side. The rich and poor is separated by a mind blowing gap. The poverty in the city, and the filth because of it everywhere is so overpowering I can’t describe it. I’m just so thankful we were on the mountain all week with, though poor, hardworking, loving, hospitable, wonderful people, not these viciously greedy, cutthroat, desperate people living here. Finally we made it to the airport where we met up with Miami and he helped us get all our bags checked and through quickly again. But we had to say goodbye. Kesnel, Naime, Jeto, Ivener, Joe, and Josie all gave me a hug and we said goodbye for real. We all thanked Kesnel for all his hard work arranging everything for us and helping us and making our stay on his mountain wonderful. Then we waved as we entered the airport and that was the last goodbye. It only took us about a half hour to be boarded and headed home. I’m sitting here crying as I stare down from a tiny plane window at my beautiful Caribbean Island. I decided that I won’t say goodbye, but instead “until we meet again.” Because if God wills I’ll go back someday, and if he doesn’t I’ll see my Haitian friends someday in Heaven. It’s so sad right now but it’s reality and life is taking us different directions to minister in different ways until someday we minister together once more. This is what makes me hate traveling. I meet people, I fall in love, and I never want to leave. Every time I go out of the country I cry when I get on the plane going home because I just want to stay. My heart truly is not in the United States. Yes, I love it, and it’s my home, but I know God has given me a love for other countries. It’s when I’m out there that I feel most alive and most at home. It’s comforting because once again it reminds me that Costa Rica is where God wants me to be this year. I’m ok with moving on and leaving this place to adventure to new, because my Haitian friends will never be gone from my heart and someday we’ll meet again.

The End Has Begun

8/2/10

This morning was bright and we all woke up with a lot of energy. I sat and talked with Angel and Hannah and enjoyed a cup of coffee on our favorite side of the mountain. We got to have pancakes again today and they were delectable. Closiane even made more than before so we got to have a bigger half this time. The next thing on our schedule was pow-wow about the day and the plan for getting ready to leave. VBS would be shorter than on Saturday, but much of the same lay out and movement. I was in music, but this time it was during the lesson time. Joe and Ivener helped me out again. It was very chaotic this time though, because older kids from Gremoth came halfway through the day just to cause trouble. They misbehaved, didn’t stay with their leader, stole from younger kids, wandered to whatever station they found most interesting, and just caused trouble. We talked to Kesnel about it and he sent a lot of them home, but it was hard to deal with all the same. We gave the kids silly bands and blow up balls this time and they were a major hit. Things went well overall and of course the kids had fun. We fed them peanut butter sandwiches before sending them off to their homes and even had leftovers this time. After VBS was completely over we had a lunch of ramen noodles and whatever else we could find to make like a ramen stew, courtesy of Austin. While we ate the guys (Joe, Ivener, Josie, Jeto, and Naime) serenaded me with my guitar. They sang mostly in Creole, but played the English song that I taught them as well. I played euchre with Olivia, Jacob, and Levi for a while. The men broke camp and all our stuff was packed and made ready for the departure tomorrow. We kept only our carry on stuff as well as anything needed overnight in the church for this evening, but everything else we had sent down to Kesnel’s house. The evening after that was totally chill. I played music/talked/hung out with just about everyone. Some people went on a hike further up the mountain, but I stuck around to relax and do my mountainside devotions. I ended up playing a crude version of bench top volleyball with a few crazy Haitians. It was a really good evening. Dinner came quickly and we had our debrief for the week as well as our talk of timing for tomorrow. It’s so weird that this is the end. There were times in the week that I wanted to go home, but I don’t want to leave at all. I want to stay for another month. These people have part of my heart, and they will forever. Last night was such a high and an encouragement and made me love the people and this place so much more. But I know tomorrow will come, and I’ll have to go home. I hope to come back someday, but who knows what God will do. He’s worked in me so much this week. All I can think about is leaving and I don’t like it at all. I feel excited and happy after such a week as this, but now as it’s the last night I’ll be in Haiti I can feel the sadness creeping in. I’ve spent a whole week with faces and hearts, and I can’t imagine leaving them. God has so blessed us with this opportunity. My dad pointed out last night that because of the way God works, if we didn’t come, someone else would have because these people would have been told somehow. But in his awesome love and grace and goodness, he chose us to be the ones to come and experience the blessing of this week and these people. And I will never know why, but I thank him daily for the amazing gift. I know every second has molded me in some way for the future and I’m way too excited. I can’t wait to serve him more! God is so good. Goodnight for the last time on Grenier Mountain, Haiti.

My God Speaks Your Language

8/1/10

Bonjour to a day of worship! I woke up really excited for today because I absolutely love listening to people worship in another language. Ruby and I woke up, washed our hair, and put on our beautiful church clothes. Even up on a mountain with little access to anything modern the Haitians still manage to dress extra special on Sundays with ironed shirts, colorful skirts, and even high heels, so we decided to look our absolute best. Then for breakfast we had this oatmeal stuff with cinnamon sticks in it, and it was really tasty. After breakfast we gathered on the side of the hill to take a group picture while we were all dressed up. It was cool to capture the closeness our group had achieved in a photo, though anything from this trip is hard to actually capture in just a picture. Sunday school started at nine, but we took that hour to pray, practice our special, and prepare our hearts for the service. And the service is indescribable.. but I’ll do my best. It started with singing, which just melts my heart at how good and genuine and just full of passion their singing is. There were prayers and scripture reading interspersed with the music, which to my delight lasted quite a while. When Kesnel introduced my dad, as the preacher, he in turn introduced us to the congregation. Then we had the opportunity to sing for them. We sang a trio, my mom, Sarah, and I (Hosanna), and then another with the whole group (Hallelujah). From up front I could tell how much worshipping God meant to these people. Even though they probably understood very little if any of our songs, they were so attentive and passionate and loving of the fact that we would prepare a worship song for them. The Haitians then sang two specials for us. The women sang first about “I was lost, but Jesus found me and carried me,” which is really significant because the women here always carry everything on their heads. Anything they move or take up and down the mountain or need to transport gets carried by the women. So when they get up and sing about how their Lord saved them and carried them, they really know what it takes to carry something. It hit home for them and they chose to share that exciting truth with us. Then the men sang an incredible song. It was acapella and filled the church. The bass was strong and the tenor grooved.. it can’t be duplicated in the US, the culture and soul behind it was too strong. This song was about how sometimes life is hard and you have so many troubles that you forget that there is a God. But instead you must take your troubles to God when you slip and fall and he will hold you up and give you strength for life. As they walked down the aisle still singing softer and softer I just sat in my seat thinking “Wow. God is so great that he is praised everywhere by every culture with passion and love and lives that are changed because of his grace.” My dad got to give the message which was totally cool. He talked from 1 Corinthians 12 about the body of Christ. He used a demonstration to illustrate the main concept and got the kids involved. He took two Haitian boys and told them that they were feet, and all they could do was what feet do. He took another boy and told him to be a hand. And lastly took a Haitian girl to be the mouth. He then described what was going to happen. The feet would have to carry the hand over to a table to pick up a cup of water. Then carry the hand back to where the mouth was, and the hand would give the mouth a drink from the cup. The kids, and also the whole audience, loved it. It was humorous and perfectly fitting. Without having to worry about translating, the picture was sent home. Then he opened the Bible and dove into more detail about how the body works together and God designed each part for its purpose specifically. Joe translated for him and it was wonderful. After church we had a long time of mingling where we got to just talk to all the people and meet them and enjoy being with them for their church service. Then we headed off for a visitation hike. We went about halfway down the mountain and wove around visiting a ton of people’s houses. It was really cool to see not only where they live, but also how they live and the real Haitian environment. Everyone was so hospitable and the minute we got there, every chair in their house came out for us to sit on. They kept giving us gifts of fruit and things to show their appreciation for us not only coming to help out, but taking time to visit their home. I loved it. Plus it was a hike so it was super fun. When we got back dinner was waiting for us, so we ate and chilled out for a while. Joe, Olivia, Jacob, Levi and I played some more President. It was really fun. When we finished playing and I went back outside, I looked up and saw clear blue skies. Only the second clear night in two weeks (and probably longer but that was as long as the Roos’s had been there), and it was the first time we had a clear night since we had been here! It was so beautiful.. no menacing dark clouds bringing rain, no fog, nothing but brilliant blue and gorgeous mountain views. When it got dark we all gathered together and had a worship service that was more powerful than can be described. We all felt God’s spirit moving and had so much love pouring over we couldn’t hold it in. Each night we had to deal with rain, so we never got the chance to meet together and praise God and talk about what we were experiencing, which made this time of testimony long over due and extremely heart-felt. I’m so thankful for each member of this group and all that they bring. We were placed together by God’s hand and are working for his glory. Kesnel said it best when he said that although he’ll be sad when we leave, he knows that our spirits and hearts will never stop working together on God’s plan to reach the world with his message. He encouraged us to keep serving and praising God because that’s all we can offer him anyway. He was dead on. All we can give God is our lives and our worship. It was a perfect evening end as I walked to my tent under the bright shining stars.

Loving the Mob

7/31/10

I woke up smiling this morning, very early, because all the Haitian’s cell phones were ringing. It’s so funny that they live up here on Grenier, don’t have running water or stable electricity, but all have cell phones. Our massive slumber party was broken down and put away so that we would have room for VBS later today. For the most part, despite the storm and craziness of last night, everyone slept fairly well. I still can’t completely comprehend let alone capture on paper just what happened.. I just take a deep breath, let it out, and say “Wow, God is so good to us!” We had egg sandwiches again for breakfast today, delicious! And then as we were slipping and sliding everywhere on the treacherously wet mountain side, we set up for a day of VBS. The ground was nearly impossible to walk on without slipping, even the Haitians had trouble, but I managed without killing myself. Kesnel said there weren’t going to be as many kids as originally predicted because of the slick conditions of the mountain. It turned out he was right; we only had 240ish instead of the possible 400!! But still, with that many kids, they were literally everywhere. Packed into the church, staring in at the doors, wandering around the field, all curious and wanting to see what was going to happen. It took about an hour just to get the kids sorted into age groups, but once that was done groups of about 50 kids went from station to station with only one leader. First they came to me at music. Wow, my Lord really really sent his strength to me. I’ve mentioned before my fear of not knowing the language and being thrown in to lead music to kids that I can barely communicate with, so let me tell you how it all played out. One blessing was I was not alone, my mom played with me, so I at least had another presence to be stared at along with myself. But I also had some translators. I didn’t expect this, just because I figured each group leader would take a translator before I got one at music, but with the fact that the translators had major crushes on me, they stuck around at the music station to help me out. In this case, I was incredibly thankful that they were around, because the usual banter and introduction and transition talking that I would instigate in English disappeared. I had nothing to say. I had nothing I could say. It was so weird and very scary and very hard. But because Joe was around, he spoke for me. The super cool thing was, he was amazing when it came to talking to the kids, getting them excited about singing, and choosing a song he knew I would know. Because of his intercession I could lead songs the kids would recognize in English, and even got to learn a few kids songs in Creole. God worked it out absolutely perfectly. I was astonished, grateful, and incredibly relieved. I know that all you back home praying for me and my fear of the language barrier as I stepped into this leadership role was the cause of this amazing day. I can’t be more thankful for God’s goodness and all your prayers. They have gone far and been a fabulous blessing. After music the kids moved on to lesson time where they listened to Kesnel. He gave the Gospel in a bold, simple, and clear fashion that kept their attention. This was the whole reason we had called all these kids to come from all over the mountain, to hear the Word of God taught. So remember the children of Grenier Mountain in your prayers as the seeds have been planted and now need water. Then came game time and face painting which was really fun, but with the number of kids, absolute chaos. The toys that came out led leaders to be mobbed over the excitement. However, just playing with the kids was an amazing experience to be sure. The next station was crafts where they got to decorate bags and get crayons, stickers, and coloring books to fill them. Of course the stickers ended up all over their faces as well as the bags. When all the groups made it through all the stations, we brought half of the kids into the church at a time to feed them. We gave them bread and fish (how suitable for the situation huh?) and kool-aid. Some of these kids walk over two hours to get to the church and eat only one meal a day, so it was a big blessing to be able to give them something to eat before sending them home. Before they left we prayed over them. David prayed with Joe translating and we all stood in front of the group of kids and stretched our hands out over them to bless their departure. It felt like a physical way could give these kids the love of God that they needed so much. It was heart wrenching as we watched them all leave just hoping that the seed was planted deep enough in their heart, and that we showed them true love coming straight from the Lord. After the kids were off to their own homes, the rest of the day was plan-less and wonderful. We ate some, relaxed, and laughed a lot for about an hour. Then it started to rain pretty hard so we ran to the church and just talked and eventually ate dinner. As the time goes on these down-time moments cause me to fall in love with every single member of my team. Through rain or shine (literally) we come together and smile in the midst of chaos. God could not have put more perfect people in each role to create a wonderful working body of believers that are now called my family. By the time we finished dinner the sun came back out and we could resume our blissful wandering. Some of us girls got to paint the nails of a lot of the ladies who were staying with us and cooking for us. They loved it. The smiles on their faces were priceless as we gave them the bottles to keep so they could redo them anytime later. I found a spot on the side of the mountain to read my Bible before another massive monsoon blew in and we had to bunker down again. It’s almost frustrating how religiously the rain comes around here. Because of the strong winds we have to literally hold down our tents, causing everyone to be out in the storm, getting soaked to the bone and freezing. By the time we can get to any kind of suitable cover anything that’s dry is now wet because it’s being used to keep us warm. It’s just crazy. I definitely won’t be the same when I get back. My emotions have run the gamut, and my heart has been stretched to what feels like its max. I never knew I could love or be loved so much by people I don’t even know. And on top of all that God has molded and changed me in ways that I never expected or knew possible. He has shown me a side of his love that I have never truly grasped. I thank Him over and over for allowing me to be a part of this even in the middle of the hardship. It’s more than a blessing in disguise.

Ministry Reversal

7/30/10

The night and morning were about the same as before, crazy and early. But this morning we got pancakes! Yes, real pancakes. The Roos’s brought the mix, because the Haitians hadn’t ever seen or heard of pancakes before. They had some trouble with the pans and ended up using only some of the mix so each of us only got half a pancake. They were delicious and rare. Then another day in the Grenier clinic began. Today was a little slower, we saw 161 people and ended early when the line died down, but that’s still an incredible number! It totals to a number of 389.. Wow, praise God!! We cleaned up and organized most of the medicine left over, logged the papers away, and gave out the last of the hygiene kits before having the same dinner of rice and beans again. Little did we realize that after dinner would hold an experience none of us would have ever dreamed possible. The clouds descended from the top of the mountain just like they had every day, but this time they were especially black and menacing. The winds came harder than they had ever previously and the rain hit like I’ve never seen before. Most of us ran into the church for cover, but our men and many of the Haitians ran up to our camp in the middle of the storm in order to save our stuff. They came carrying down our luggage in garbage bags along with anything we needed for the night. Then they had to stand up on the side of the mountain and physically hold our tents from blowing down the mountain in the monsoon. Those of us in the church were constantly praying for our family out there.. although Tanya did decide to wash her hair from the church door in the rain. Because of how scary and how hard the storm was, we really needed God’s arms to wrap around and hold us onto the mountain. Eventually the winds died down enough for everyone to come back into the church, but the rains were still so terrible that we decided that it would be better to just all sleep in the church. When the guys came in they were shivering so badly, especially the Haitians not used to the cold of the rain (they even said there was hail at one point), we had to grab all the sheets, towels, and shirts that we could find to wrap them up and keep them as warm as possible. By God’s sovereignty alone were we fortunate enough to have brought in our towels that day to hang up to dry, the Roos’s had brought their clothes into the church to keep the water off, and we had chosen sheets instead of tarps for the medical clinic dividers. So because of all these random things that happened to work perfectly together, we had sheets, shirts, and towels to warm up these freezing men. God is so good! So far this whole week we had been ministered to over and over by these people of Grenier Mountain. This was our chance to minister back. We gave them our clothes, our food, and literally joined beside them for the night. What a picture of Christ’s love! It was such a blessing to be able to be the arms and heart of our very Lord to these people. I got out my guitar and two different cultures, languages, and church bodies joined together to worship the name of Christ in the midst of a massive monsoon. For the next few hours we set up mattresses and prepared the church for a huge slumber party. It’s slightly chaotic, but totally cool. And of course since the storm started around 5 we were stuck in the church from then until bedtime so we had many hours to kill. I of course practiced my ethnomusicology and played music with the Haitians. I learned more Creole, some of their life stories, and taught them one of my favorite songs in English. Eventually it was close enough to night for us to be tired and try for some sleep. God had certainly given us a day we will never forget for the rest of our lives. It was incredible to say the least. I wound down the day by reading my Bible and writing in my journal. It was almost hard to write about today because of how emotionally packed it was. Talk about a missions extraordinaire.

God Sent Success Exceeding Expectations

7/29/10

Mm what a night.. You’d think Haiti would be hot, but last night was actually cold. There was a massive wind storm that kept us up a little and even blew our tents over partially. Thankfully we have awesome people taking care of us who nailed in some new stakes and we survived. And I made it through the cold by snuggling up to my little sister space heater. Then as the sun rose around 5 it became hard to sleep so I woke up and got ready for the day. Our shower/bathroom is a bamboo structure with tarps as the walls. There are big rocks for the flooring and the toilet is a bottom-less 5 gallon bucket with a “luggable loo” seat top. He became our best friend. The shower half is just rocks for the flooring as well and a bucket of water used to wash off. It’s quite the camping experience. Usually we have someone stand guard as we take showers or wear a swimsuit because the Haitians really enjoy just watching us as we’re in our camp. We had plenty of time to sit around, chat, do our morning devotions, and drink coffee because the sun came up at 5, but we didn’t have breakfast til 8. This, as our first morning on the mountain, they decided to provide a very Haitian breakfast.. spaghetti.. but not spaghetti with sauce, spaghetti with ketchup. For breakfast!! It was really good, but so weird still. Then after breakfast we circled up and prayed for the coming clinic. Today and tomorrow we would hold the clinic from 9-12, then break for lunch, then more clinic from 1-4. So we needed God to be with us! Each of us had jobs to fill. I worked in the outtake station. The people coming in started in a line outside the door of the church where a few guys were stationed as bouncers and only let a few people in at a time. Then they would get their blood pressure, temperature, age, and problem taken and written down at the intake station. They would then, based on their problem, either go straight to the pharmacy or wait for the nurse. Angel and Hannah were our two nurses, and my mom ran the pharmacy. Everyone who came through would get vitamins and a hygiene pack along with any medication they needed. There was a pastor who worked in the pharmacy to explain to everyone how to take their medicine. Then they would come to Sarah and me at outtake. We checked their number and paperwork to keep it filed for if they ever came back and a doctor needed to see what we had given them already. It was so neat to see all the people come in and be helped. Our expectation was to see around 60 people each day and just today we saw 228 people!!!! It was completely a God thing. I couldn’t believe it. Our Lord is absolutely amazing! I’m in awe every single second of the day because of how he’s working. It’s indescribable. Today when we were praying after the clinic many of us started crying because of how utterly thankful we are for the help of the natives, the support from our church back home, and God’s hand in it all. I can’t say enough how humbling and even breaking it is. Wow. Then the evening was interesting. I got to play my guitar with some of the Haitian guys and sing in both English and Creole, which was easily a major highlight. I was just playing and they asked me to sing too so I started singing “Lord I Lift Your Name on High” in English and they recognized it so they joined in with Creole, and I got to learn it. It was so cool and I was grinning the whole time. I mean, language, music, and praising God, what could sum my passion in life up better than that?! Then dinner rolled around: rice, beans, French fries, and fried bananas, again. But even having it every night it’s still delicious. Ruby and I watched the sunset together tonight just talking and enjoying the view. Over the mountains is absolutely gorgeous. Plus the clouds were rolling down from the top of the mountain like fog and it looked incredible. Of course it did rain again monsoon style: downpour for maybe an hour with major thunder and some lightning, then calm again as it got dark. God has blessed us and allowed most of our stuff to stay dry. I got to have some down time to play cards with Olivia, Jesse, and Jacob tonight. We played “President” which was new and interesting, but very fun even though I lost every time. Now I get to chill in the tent and chat with my little sister about all the Creole words we’re learning and the awesome people we get to hang out with all week. Morning comes fast around here, and I’ve got to be ready for clinic round two, so keep the prayers coming, God is surely working!!