It's hard to believe it was our last day of class today. After a refreshing night of rain and coolness, we were ready for the day. Our morning group was more of the "target audience"we had imagined back in Andover. We were so excited to see that everyone had kept knitting and completing their bags and had a lot of creative touches of color and detailing. We were able to work on making handles for the bags and finishing them. We oohed and ahhed over everyone's creativity. The message today was about how God has a plan for each of us and we need to keep praying for direction and turning our lives over to him. I ended by telling each of them what an impact they had on us and that we are all knitted together as sisters in Christ. Each time they pull out their knitting I asked them to remember to pray for God's direction in their lives and for their US sisters. We promised to do the same. We handed out official diplomas and called out each woman's name and took photos and clapped. You could see the pride in their eyes! Maude, the oldest woman of the group at 33, is an artisan and already sells her handmade necklaces and bracelets. This new skill will help expand her reperatoire. The other ladies talked about continuing to meet and knit together and possibly selling their goods as well.
We came home from lunch and toured the nearby clinic, Haiti Health Ministries. They are making progress since I was here last in the construction of their new building. Our hearts went out to all of the crowds waiting in the hot sun to be seen.
We were wondering if we would have a return of the mob scene and chaos of yesterday afternoon. About a half hour after our start time we had a nice group assembled in the church and then the heavens opened up and it poured. There is nothing like the sound of rain on a tin roof! Again, this younger crowd surprised us with the progress they had made on their bags. Some had already sewed them up and just needed to make handles. Some had even made a bag out of their beginning swatch from the first day! It was awesome to see their creativity at work as they planned out the remainer of their project. Some crocheted a decorative edging ruffle and many had interesting and beautiful color combinations. Some had many holes/knots and others were nearly flawless. We lavished praise on them all and offered some "complimentary"knitting to get them close to the finish line. We noticed one girl who kept finishing the others' projects but arrived on day 2 after all the bags had been distributed. We cobbled together the remainder of our supplies and presented her with a bag of her own along with enough yarn to create her own bag. Again, the diploma ceremony was very touching and we had all of the girls pose for a photo with their bag. The tye dye TShirt yarn was a huge hit (thanks Sonya)! We also greatly appreciated the nice quality needles (especially in the humidity with sticky yarn!) and other supplies provided by All About Yarn in Coon Rapids (thanks, Rox!) This wouldn't have been possible without all of the help from our generous supporters.
As our time draws to a close and we were debriefing tonight, we reflected on how this experienced has changed us and our worldview. How to reconcile how we in the US have so much and live on an average of $90 a day while Haitians live on $1-$2 a day. About why this country has been in turmoil for so long and the possibility of things ever changing seems so small. About how we want to spread this message to others who have never been here or seen poverty like this. About how the Haitian people are so welcoming and loving. We talked about the spiritual darkness but material abundance in the US. It is hopeful to see many believers here in Haiti who know this life on earth is not all there is and how they come to depend and trust God every day for every need. We Americans with our self-sufficient mentality could learn a lot...
Our knitting was just a tool God used for us to meaningfully connect with other young women and girls in this country. We were able to find a common connection and communicate our love and God's love for them and they know they are not forgotten.
God will use this experience to continue to shape us and them. He will continue to knit our lives into a beautiful master pattern. We are not finished....
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Plans
As the saying goes: We plan. God laughs. Today was like that.
Our morning session went great. Some of the students were very progressed on their knitting and had made color switches and almost completed a bag. They were very interested in learning how to add embellishments or crochet an edging to finish them off. It was a small group with older women/teens.
Things became more interesting in the afternoon. Some of the girls had done more work on their own but many of them had not or had some wonky-looking bags! Soon there became more "stragglers"who had not been there previously including a pair of cute 11 year old boys (same age as my Alex). We struggled to help the serious knitters while still trying to include the latecomers. We started a braiding headband/bracelet station and I've never threaded so many needles or sewed through so many layers in my life! The flower-making/embellishment station was going full bore as well with a thick cluster of kids around it! Hard to keep any organization in the chaos. It was taxing to our patience but we went with it. At one point there were 27 of them with only 5 of us plus our translator. Amazingly, they all quieted down for our bible lesson where we talked about how we are like fragile jars of clay to let God's light shine through....except our translator couldn't really understand how to translate fragile, or clay jars or the whole concept! So I went with the sample knitted bag with the holes in it and how it was too weak to hold 100 mangoes. But with God's help in our lives, He will give us the strength to face our difficulties, of which there are many in this country. A little thinking on the fly and a lot of God's help to get through that lesson!
So many things that happened today were definitely not on our radar as we were carefully planning for this project...but we kept praying for God to bring who He wanted and for us to be open to trusting Him with our plans.
A wonderful blessing to us has been our translator, Herphlyne (pronounced Eff-Leen'). She is 20 and the daughter of Rosita, the cook here at the guest house. I think she is one of the only Haitians I have ever met here that actually knows how to knit which is a miracle in itself! So she has been a huge help to us with her knowledge of knitting plus she can really relate to the young women here. This morning they all immediately went to sit right next to her. She is a natural teacher although would never think that was so. She is amazing and it has been so cool to hear more of her story. She hopes to attend the university this fall and I believe God has some powerful things in store for her, given her giftings. After we returned to the guest house she showed us how to make beautiful flowers out of organdy ribbon. The creativity of the Haitian people with the little they have continues to astound us!
We ran out of TShirts and most of the yarn but want to have enough for people to finish so we sent Claudy, Ashlee's (the director of the guest house) husband to the market to buy more used shirts for us. He didn't really know the going rate and we think he got a little ripped off even though he told them he was buying them for prisoners! So our hands are all pretty tired from all the cutting and our remaining scissors are pretty dull!
We have been having a lot of fun and enjoying each others company . We are sure we are the most fun group they have ever had:) We are the first all-woman group. God has blessed us with wonderful friendships!
We look forward to what tomorrow has to bring and hope to be "knittable"for God according to His plans.
Our morning session went great. Some of the students were very progressed on their knitting and had made color switches and almost completed a bag. They were very interested in learning how to add embellishments or crochet an edging to finish them off. It was a small group with older women/teens.
Things became more interesting in the afternoon. Some of the girls had done more work on their own but many of them had not or had some wonky-looking bags! Soon there became more "stragglers"who had not been there previously including a pair of cute 11 year old boys (same age as my Alex). We struggled to help the serious knitters while still trying to include the latecomers. We started a braiding headband/bracelet station and I've never threaded so many needles or sewed through so many layers in my life! The flower-making/embellishment station was going full bore as well with a thick cluster of kids around it! Hard to keep any organization in the chaos. It was taxing to our patience but we went with it. At one point there were 27 of them with only 5 of us plus our translator. Amazingly, they all quieted down for our bible lesson where we talked about how we are like fragile jars of clay to let God's light shine through....except our translator couldn't really understand how to translate fragile, or clay jars or the whole concept! So I went with the sample knitted bag with the holes in it and how it was too weak to hold 100 mangoes. But with God's help in our lives, He will give us the strength to face our difficulties, of which there are many in this country. A little thinking on the fly and a lot of God's help to get through that lesson!
So many things that happened today were definitely not on our radar as we were carefully planning for this project...but we kept praying for God to bring who He wanted and for us to be open to trusting Him with our plans.
A wonderful blessing to us has been our translator, Herphlyne (pronounced Eff-Leen'). She is 20 and the daughter of Rosita, the cook here at the guest house. I think she is one of the only Haitians I have ever met here that actually knows how to knit which is a miracle in itself! So she has been a huge help to us with her knowledge of knitting plus she can really relate to the young women here. This morning they all immediately went to sit right next to her. She is a natural teacher although would never think that was so. She is amazing and it has been so cool to hear more of her story. She hopes to attend the university this fall and I believe God has some powerful things in store for her, given her giftings. After we returned to the guest house she showed us how to make beautiful flowers out of organdy ribbon. The creativity of the Haitian people with the little they have continues to astound us!
We ran out of TShirts and most of the yarn but want to have enough for people to finish so we sent Claudy, Ashlee's (the director of the guest house) husband to the market to buy more used shirts for us. He didn't really know the going rate and we think he got a little ripped off even though he told them he was buying them for prisoners! So our hands are all pretty tired from all the cutting and our remaining scissors are pretty dull!
We have been having a lot of fun and enjoying each others company . We are sure we are the most fun group they have ever had:) We are the first all-woman group. God has blessed us with wonderful friendships!
We look forward to what tomorrow has to bring and hope to be "knittable"for God according to His plans.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Stuck/Abundance
Today's blog is a two-parter since so much happened! Part One: STUCK
It rained most of the night and this morning HARD right before we left. As we entered the vehicle, the rain pouring off the roof gave us a refreshing drenching. As we bumped along the muddy, rutted roads it became evident that the large vehicle we took would not make it up the steep hills to the church. We phoned the guest house and Claudy came and swapped us for a 4 WD. We made it to the church but the rain kept all our students away...We were a bit discouraged but made the most of our time and learned how to make flower embellishments for the knitted bags. We decided to come back to the guest house for lunch...that's where the fun began. Our vehicle had to move to the right for an oncoming vehicle and we became hopelessly stuck in the mud and almost up against a cement wall. Immediately a large Haitian man with a booming voice took charge of the situation and pretty soon there was a battalion of men and one ripped elderly woman trying to push us out. It soon became apparent that it wasn't going to budge so they pulled out the big guns. We exited the vehicle and stood by with all of the village woman in watching the scenario unfold. There was a strong potential that many things could go wrong including destruction of the vehicle or someone getting hurt. We all started praying! The first tow rope broke, then they brought out the chains-still no go. Finally they decided to tow it in reverse and lo and behold, it got unstuck with very minimal vehicle damage!
Reflecting on how this same situation would have gone down in the US brought a few laughs. If a team of men surrounded a group of white women, we would have immediately locked our doors and rolled up the windows...
How often in the US do we get "stuck"in our mud and refuse to acknowledge we need help, let alone ask for it? How often do we immediately go to prayer for an answer? How often do we let others in to help us if they even offer? How often do we operate out of a fear-based mentality?
Part Two: ABUNDANCE
Last night Denise Scott read from her Henry Nouwen devotional about having a mentality of abundance as God does vs. a mentality of scarcity. How God lavishly blesses us above and beyond what we need.
So we returned to the church for our afternoon session with bated breath that people would show up now that the rain had stopped. Pretty soon more and more of our ladies started showing up! Some brought friends. We ran out of our kits and then began giving away our personal supplies. Our team mobilized in an amazing way and we started the newbies and progressed our advanced students. We taught all of them to cut the shirts into yarn strips too. More friends, including boys kept showing up and we soon had a rapt audience. The girls began sharing their supplies and many instructed the others in what to do. The one-day experts, suddenly became teachers! It was organized chaos but all of us were loving every minute of it! We developed more of a rapport and did a lot of laughing.
The message was Ephesians 2:10 about how we are God's handiwork with lots of knitting analogies. They were attentive listeners and were enthusiastic about the day.
We left feeling very encouraged about how God worked it all out. Maybe we don't have a big group of women entrepreneurs supporting themselves with their knitted wares but we have a whole mess of girls/young women who feel pretty special about something new that they learned and hopefully know how we are all connected in Christ and are infinitely more valuable to Him.
We can't wait to see what He has in store for us tomorrow!
It rained most of the night and this morning HARD right before we left. As we entered the vehicle, the rain pouring off the roof gave us a refreshing drenching. As we bumped along the muddy, rutted roads it became evident that the large vehicle we took would not make it up the steep hills to the church. We phoned the guest house and Claudy came and swapped us for a 4 WD. We made it to the church but the rain kept all our students away...We were a bit discouraged but made the most of our time and learned how to make flower embellishments for the knitted bags. We decided to come back to the guest house for lunch...that's where the fun began. Our vehicle had to move to the right for an oncoming vehicle and we became hopelessly stuck in the mud and almost up against a cement wall. Immediately a large Haitian man with a booming voice took charge of the situation and pretty soon there was a battalion of men and one ripped elderly woman trying to push us out. It soon became apparent that it wasn't going to budge so they pulled out the big guns. We exited the vehicle and stood by with all of the village woman in watching the scenario unfold. There was a strong potential that many things could go wrong including destruction of the vehicle or someone getting hurt. We all started praying! The first tow rope broke, then they brought out the chains-still no go. Finally they decided to tow it in reverse and lo and behold, it got unstuck with very minimal vehicle damage!
Reflecting on how this same situation would have gone down in the US brought a few laughs. If a team of men surrounded a group of white women, we would have immediately locked our doors and rolled up the windows...
How often in the US do we get "stuck"in our mud and refuse to acknowledge we need help, let alone ask for it? How often do we immediately go to prayer for an answer? How often do we let others in to help us if they even offer? How often do we operate out of a fear-based mentality?
Part Two: ABUNDANCE
Last night Denise Scott read from her Henry Nouwen devotional about having a mentality of abundance as God does vs. a mentality of scarcity. How God lavishly blesses us above and beyond what we need.
So we returned to the church for our afternoon session with bated breath that people would show up now that the rain had stopped. Pretty soon more and more of our ladies started showing up! Some brought friends. We ran out of our kits and then began giving away our personal supplies. Our team mobilized in an amazing way and we started the newbies and progressed our advanced students. We taught all of them to cut the shirts into yarn strips too. More friends, including boys kept showing up and we soon had a rapt audience. The girls began sharing their supplies and many instructed the others in what to do. The one-day experts, suddenly became teachers! It was organized chaos but all of us were loving every minute of it! We developed more of a rapport and did a lot of laughing.
The message was Ephesians 2:10 about how we are God's handiwork with lots of knitting analogies. They were attentive listeners and were enthusiastic about the day.
We left feeling very encouraged about how God worked it all out. Maybe we don't have a big group of women entrepreneurs supporting themselves with their knitted wares but we have a whole mess of girls/young women who feel pretty special about something new that they learned and hopefully know how we are all connected in Christ and are infinitely more valuable to Him.
We can't wait to see what He has in store for us tomorrow!
Monday, May 13, 2013
Connected
Today was our first knitting class. We were a bit worried when we only had one girl for awhile but a few more came trickling in. There had been rain earlier in the morning so the travel time increased to the church where we were teaching. We ended up with a group of 4 plus the young woman acting as the interpreter who is also a knitter. I wanted to share Colossians 2:2, the verse printed on the bags and on the TShirts our team was wearing. I shared how so many supporters back in MN helped to make this possible especially all of the supplies. They seemed impressed with the kits and were thankful. I shared the message that although we come from the US we are all connected ("knit together") as sisters in Christ by the love he has for us. By the end of the morning session, all knew how to cast-on and do the basic knit stitch. We also taught them to make braided headbands out of TShirt yarn which they really seemed to like. We ended up pretty hot and sweaty in the tin roof church!
We were able to lunch in the guest house at the church and were entertained by an adorable 3 year old named Jeremiah who jabbered incessantly in Creole even though it was obvious none of us knew it! He was mesmerized by videos on Denise's cell phone especially ones of her grandson, Dieter.
The afternoon session participants trickled in until we had 12 young women. Many already knew how to crochet which was a help. The heat drove us outdoors under the shade of a mango tree. There, we were faced with an unexpected hazard, falling mangoes! The Haitians were all primed for the impending "missile"by the rustling of the leaves, but we Americans were a few beats behind. Luckily, no one was beaned! A sudden rainstorm moved us quickly back inside the church. The personalities of the girls became more evident as time passed and some were not receptive to us taking the needles to show them anything again and insisted on plowing through the learning on their own; there was a few "battles"of the needles! Eventually everyone, except a left-handed crocheter got the hand of it. She got the basic gist but her work kept growing and none of us ever figured out where she was messing up... We were able to visit a bit and did lots of smiling and laughing and throwing out a few (horribly-prounounced, I'm sure!) words of Creole to encourage them. They all seemed proud of what they'd accomplished by the end. We were very impressed how quickly both groups picked things up and stayed with it through the heat and humidity. Our team was pretty ripe and wilted at the end!
We still are not totally sure where this is headed. There are several adults but more than a few pre-teens and teens as well. This may not end up being a vocation money-maker for all but we are certain God has a plan in all of this and we are committed to trusting Him in where it will lead.
Please continue to pray for us and the people we encounter. We are so impressed with the resourcefulness and resiliency of the Haitian people. They have been so warm and welcoming to us and the Christians we have encountered have an enviable trust in God's providence and sovereignty. They have much to teach us. We will come away challenged and changed.
We were able to lunch in the guest house at the church and were entertained by an adorable 3 year old named Jeremiah who jabbered incessantly in Creole even though it was obvious none of us knew it! He was mesmerized by videos on Denise's cell phone especially ones of her grandson, Dieter.
The afternoon session participants trickled in until we had 12 young women. Many already knew how to crochet which was a help. The heat drove us outdoors under the shade of a mango tree. There, we were faced with an unexpected hazard, falling mangoes! The Haitians were all primed for the impending "missile"by the rustling of the leaves, but we Americans were a few beats behind. Luckily, no one was beaned! A sudden rainstorm moved us quickly back inside the church. The personalities of the girls became more evident as time passed and some were not receptive to us taking the needles to show them anything again and insisted on plowing through the learning on their own; there was a few "battles"of the needles! Eventually everyone, except a left-handed crocheter got the hand of it. She got the basic gist but her work kept growing and none of us ever figured out where she was messing up... We were able to visit a bit and did lots of smiling and laughing and throwing out a few (horribly-prounounced, I'm sure!) words of Creole to encourage them. They all seemed proud of what they'd accomplished by the end. We were very impressed how quickly both groups picked things up and stayed with it through the heat and humidity. Our team was pretty ripe and wilted at the end!
We still are not totally sure where this is headed. There are several adults but more than a few pre-teens and teens as well. This may not end up being a vocation money-maker for all but we are certain God has a plan in all of this and we are committed to trusting Him in where it will lead.
Please continue to pray for us and the people we encounter. We are so impressed with the resourcefulness and resiliency of the Haitian people. They have been so warm and welcoming to us and the Christians we have encountered have an enviable trust in God's providence and sovereignty. They have much to teach us. We will come away challenged and changed.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Useful Servants
Our team arrived safely in Haiti yesterday afternoon and have been getting settled at the guest house in Gressier. Today we had the privilege of going to church at Source of Grace church in Port Au Prince; this is Pastor Moise's church. This church is doing the Global Fingerprints sponsorship program that CFC is supporting. We were so blessed to have our driver, Frank, do the interpreting for us during the service so we could understand the message! The worship was great and we were able to follow (somewhat!) along with the lyrics printed in Creole.
The message centered on being a useFUL not useLESS servant of Christ following the parable of the talents in Matthew where the master gave each of his 3 servants different amounts of money and some was multiplied but the useless servant buried his in the ground. The pastor talked about receiving a new "passport"when we accept Jesus that guarantees us a destination in heaven despite a sometimes difficult journey here on earth. He then used his own analogy about 2 donkeys each carrying a different load. One had a very heavy load of salt on his back and moved slowly and steadiliy along under a great weight and burden. The other had a load of sponges which were light and easy to carry. He ridiculed the donkey carrying the salt for being so slow and labored. Then they came to a river. As the water hit their loads, the salt began to dissolve in the water and the donkey was able to move out from under his burden the cross to the other side. The sponge load filled with water and became more heavy and the donkey was buried under the heavy load. He was unable to make it to the other side. Of course the salt represented the load many Christians must carry in this life but the promise we have in Jesus to make it to the other side. What a message of encouragement for so many here who carry a heavy burden or feel weighed down by sin in their lives!
What an awesome experience to worship with all of our brothers and sisters in Christ here; we are all united in Him. This connection crosses all cultures, languages, mountains and oceans!
We are ending our evening packing our knitting kits for the ladies we will meet tomorrow. We are anxious, excited, nervous and just trying to trust God to direct how this entire operation will go....
Please pray for us all and know that so many of you reading this are a part of this with us and without your support, this would not be possible. It is such an honor to be a part of this big picture that God is creating.
The message centered on being a useFUL not useLESS servant of Christ following the parable of the talents in Matthew where the master gave each of his 3 servants different amounts of money and some was multiplied but the useless servant buried his in the ground. The pastor talked about receiving a new "passport"when we accept Jesus that guarantees us a destination in heaven despite a sometimes difficult journey here on earth. He then used his own analogy about 2 donkeys each carrying a different load. One had a very heavy load of salt on his back and moved slowly and steadiliy along under a great weight and burden. The other had a load of sponges which were light and easy to carry. He ridiculed the donkey carrying the salt for being so slow and labored. Then they came to a river. As the water hit their loads, the salt began to dissolve in the water and the donkey was able to move out from under his burden the cross to the other side. The sponge load filled with water and became more heavy and the donkey was buried under the heavy load. He was unable to make it to the other side. Of course the salt represented the load many Christians must carry in this life but the promise we have in Jesus to make it to the other side. What a message of encouragement for so many here who carry a heavy burden or feel weighed down by sin in their lives!
What an awesome experience to worship with all of our brothers and sisters in Christ here; we are all united in Him. This connection crosses all cultures, languages, mountains and oceans!
We are ending our evening packing our knitting kits for the ladies we will meet tomorrow. We are anxious, excited, nervous and just trying to trust God to direct how this entire operation will go....
Please pray for us all and know that so many of you reading this are a part of this with us and without your support, this would not be possible. It is such an honor to be a part of this big picture that God is creating.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Strong Ties of Love
The verse we have chosen for our mission trip is Colossians 2:2 (NLT):
I want them to be encouraged and knit together with strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God's mysterious plan which is Christ himself.
This sums up the prayer we have for the women we will encounter in Haiti.
The picture above shows the logo designed by Heidi McDowell at CFC. It is on each tote bag of supplies we will give to the women.
The other photo is of some items knitted with TShirt yarn. The one on the left is an iPad case then there are 2 different sized purses. It is very thick and sturdy yarn. Other pattern ideas are hotpads, coasters and placemats. The 2 larger items took about 3 different T Shirts.
We are excited this trip is finally coming to pass. After much planning and the help of many supporters, we will leave this Saturday, May 11. Please pray for us and the people we will encounter in Haiti. We truly want to trust God and where He will lead us.
The Sunday sermon message was so appropriate and something for us to hold close as we travel to this troubled country:
Life is difficult. Jesus is Lord. I will rejoice.
Words for us all to remember!
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Pictures of team and supporters
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| HAITI TEAM from L to R: Denise Scott, Maria Douglas, Denise Rickenbach, Bonnie Laugen, Gail Brown |
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| Constance Ladies service project to cut TShirts into strips of yarn |
Spring Trip 2013: A Knitting We Will Go!
On our last trip to Haiti in January, a seed of an idea began to blossom. We felt such compassion and a burden to help the women of Haiti. Many have children to support, no husband and little means to do so. So many appeared hopeless, with all the light gone out of their eyes.
As we did our knitting projects with kids, it occured that we could do the same with women and it could be a viable vocational skill. Ashlee from ReachGlobal was totally behind the idea and shared her excitement with Pastor Jim Scott from Constance who was there the week after we left.
God has been behind the scenes all the time orchestrating this entire plan which all started about 3 years ago when a few friends and I decided to take a knitting class. It had been on my bucket list for awhile. Shortly after learning, we became aware of a knitting group at Constance hosted by Jim Scott's wife Denise (a knitting veteran). We all laughed, talked, prayed and enjoyed fellowship together and once in a while we actually got some knitting done!
God had also placed another burden on my heart which was on my bucket list too. I had always wanted to go on a mission trip to a third world country. That item was fulfilled in August of 2012 when I went on my first mission trip to Haiti...
So these very women I had knitted with are part of the team going to Haiti in May to lead this knitting mission trip! God's timing of all of this is truly amazing.
We don't have all the details worked out in the bigger picture. There are many questions about how this will work or where it will lead. I certainly don't have "business sense"as far as how we can turn this into a profitable vocation for these women. But step by step, God has been leading us and we can see his fingerprints all over this project.
I was reading this in my Jonah bible study by Priscilla Shirer and felt God speaking to me and our team as we are preparing. It's 3 principles to remember when we are up against a monumental task that seems too overwhelming to tackle:
1. We are right. It most likely is too big for us to handle.
2. If God is calling us to it, He will equip us for it.
3. God has been at work in the situation long before we are scheduled to arrive and and He is preparing the way for our obedience to make a difference.
So we pray. And we trust. And we buy supplies. And we get our shots. And we ready our passports. And we cut strips of T shirts into yarn. And we pray some more.
The God who helped Joshua win the battle of Jericho and David slay Goliath can certainly work miracles in Haiti as well. And we don't have to do it by our own strength but through His...
As we did our knitting projects with kids, it occured that we could do the same with women and it could be a viable vocational skill. Ashlee from ReachGlobal was totally behind the idea and shared her excitement with Pastor Jim Scott from Constance who was there the week after we left.
God has been behind the scenes all the time orchestrating this entire plan which all started about 3 years ago when a few friends and I decided to take a knitting class. It had been on my bucket list for awhile. Shortly after learning, we became aware of a knitting group at Constance hosted by Jim Scott's wife Denise (a knitting veteran). We all laughed, talked, prayed and enjoyed fellowship together and once in a while we actually got some knitting done!
God had also placed another burden on my heart which was on my bucket list too. I had always wanted to go on a mission trip to a third world country. That item was fulfilled in August of 2012 when I went on my first mission trip to Haiti...
So these very women I had knitted with are part of the team going to Haiti in May to lead this knitting mission trip! God's timing of all of this is truly amazing.
We don't have all the details worked out in the bigger picture. There are many questions about how this will work or where it will lead. I certainly don't have "business sense"as far as how we can turn this into a profitable vocation for these women. But step by step, God has been leading us and we can see his fingerprints all over this project.
I was reading this in my Jonah bible study by Priscilla Shirer and felt God speaking to me and our team as we are preparing. It's 3 principles to remember when we are up against a monumental task that seems too overwhelming to tackle:
1. We are right. It most likely is too big for us to handle.
2. If God is calling us to it, He will equip us for it.
3. God has been at work in the situation long before we are scheduled to arrive and and He is preparing the way for our obedience to make a difference.
So we pray. And we trust. And we buy supplies. And we get our shots. And we ready our passports. And we cut strips of T shirts into yarn. And we pray some more.
The God who helped Joshua win the battle of Jericho and David slay Goliath can certainly work miracles in Haiti as well. And we don't have to do it by our own strength but through His...
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
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