6 days till Haiti!!!!

I can’t believe how fast time has been flying. It is exactly 5 days till I will be on my way to my favorite place in the entire world…HAITI! I have a lot to share with you all as God has really been working the past few weeks.

As many of you know from my support letter I had my trip all planned out…I even had a detailed color coded schedule of every fifteen minutes of my day. I was ready….I had spent months preparing supplies so I could complete what I wanted to…THE PROBLEM…MY plans were not GODS plan. God has really been sifting me & taking away MY plans and revealing to me HIS BIG PLANS. It has been a hard few weeks as I try to surrender, switch gears, & prepare for HIS Plans.

So what does my summer look like now?

I will no longer complete evaluations on Miriam Home children or be able to do tons of the activities and training I had planned INSTEAD God has called me again this year to focus on For Jonathan’s Sake (my outreach program). This was the hardest area of surrender for me. I wanted to really focus on Miriam Home because last summer my focus was on For Jonathan’s Sake.

What are HIS plans for For Jonathan’s Sake which has grown from 38 to 100 families since last summer!!!
1. First that I develop a 9 week Bible Study based on the names of Christ to do with the For Jonathan’s Sake Parents. He has revealed to me that it is through the names of Christ the parents will learn to first love God and through their love for God learn to love their children and therefore have the motivation to learn how to care for their children. I have seen these families come a long way last summer as I worked with 38 families BUT we are not quite there yet and I am so excited to see How God uses this Bible Study he is writing with me. I have already complete the first 3 weeks. Elohim- the creator and El Roi- the God who sees. The first week is going to be about the importance of names in scripture.
2. My second goal with For Jonathan’s Sake is to develop home program folders with treatment plans that the parents can do daily at home and a different one they can do on their day in the clinic when they have access to supplies. Each will have a folder to take home that is in a BIG ziplock bag to protect it. This folder is how they will receive their food for the week by bringing it every week showing they still have it 1 and demonstrating they have been working with their children.

Many of you know that I had been planning to train NAHAM to be an Occupational Therapist (OT) all summer…Well…God has changed those plans as well. We are really focusing on getting our Luke 2:52 special education school up and running this summer and this coming year. God has blessed us with a special education teacher Stephanie who is taking a year to serve in Haiti with the school. We have also hired a Haitian who is going to be the teacher and learn all year alongside Stephanie. God is leading us to have Naham be the Aid/therapist inside the Luke 2:52 school. My focus has switched from training him everything I can about OT to how I can train him to use specific OT skills within the special education environment to help increase these children’s education. I do not think it is a coincidence that God has had me working in the school system as an OT this whole year.

When I am not training Naham and not doing Luke 2:52 school, I will be training on all the assistive technology I have been able to get for Haiti. Some of the pieces I am most excited about include:
1. IPAD- I am so excited for the many possibilities for the kids for education and communication through this piece of equipment. I have bought the proloquo to go application which turns the IPAD into a communication device which will open a whole new world to many of these children who have never been able to communicate. I have also got many educational applications that will help with teaching basic math, increase fine motor/visual motor skills, and help with teaching writing skills.
2. I am bringing in 3 other types of communication devices CheapTalk4, Sydspeak100, and 3 button communicator. These are all going to allow the children to demonstrate their knowledge of what they are learning by verbally showing it and allow them to communicate their basic needs and desires…like I have to go to the bathroom or I want more please….
3. I have 2 programs I got that will help with communication and develop reading skills called boardmaker and writing with symbols. These programs are going to be able to be utilized in so many ways for all of our programs and I am excited to see how God uses them
4. Final one I will share with you is I purchased tons of adapter and different switches to turn any batter operated toy or electrical plug appliance into a switch operated one. This is the coolest thing since many of my low functioning children cannot play with any of the toys we have in their. This will teach cause and effect and allow them to interact with their world. I plan on hooking the blender up and allowing these children to help make a meal or make a smoothie. I am so excited for the possibilities.

God has truly blessed me with the ability to purchase so many exciting supplies to take in this summer and I am so thankful! Thank you to each and everyone of you that made that possible and to all you who gave me advice on what to get.

On Saturdays I will be working with the Miriam Home children on learning to do chores, being able to do more activities of daily living like dressing and bathing. I also want to do a cooking project 1x per week. I actually sent money to a church group who is going to pick up supplies to make 8-9 different cooking projects over the summer. I have even adapted the recipe’s to be in picture form with the pecs from the board maker program. I am really excited for this.

So as you can see…although God has changed all my plans at the last minute and gave me His…He is helping me get everything ready & organized. He is also giving me peace about the direction He has taken me. He has provided 2 interns who will be working with the Miriam Home children…they have not been forgotten but if I were not to work with For Jonathan’s Sake they would have been. He is BIG and I am so excited to dance with HIM!

Please pray for me as I have so much to finish before I leave at work, at home, and then for Haiti. This may just be the hardest transition yet into Haiti because I am leaving with so many unknowns and changes for when I get back. Pray for packing…I have so many supplies to take in and there is a summer embargo in place right now which says I can only have 2 bags at 50lbs…well American Airlines yesterday told me well maybe they can be up to 70lbs. I freaked at first but God has been faithful & I have 3-4 church groups helping me out by buying supplies to carry in for me or letting me ship boxes of stuff for them to carry in. God will make a way when their seems to be no way!

Promises from scripture I am leaning on:
1. God will never give me more than I can handle
2. God will never bring me to something He will not bring me through
3. When I come near to God… He will come near to me
4. His divine power has given me EVERYTHING I need
5. When I trust in God with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding…I will have a peace that transcends all understanding.
6. NOTHING is IMPOSSIBLE with GOD
7. I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me
8. God has a call on my life and a perfect plan

Song lyrics that are just my hearts cry….

Today is the day by Lincoln Brewster
I'm casting my cares aside
I'm leaving my past behind
I'm setting my heart and mind on You
Jesus

I'm reaching my hand to Yours
Believing there's so much more
Knowing that all You have in store for me is good
Is good

Chorus:
Today is the day You have made
I will rejoice and be glad in it
Today is the day You have made
I will rejoice and be glad in it
And I won't worry about tomorrow
I'm trusting in what You say
Today is the day
Oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh
Today is the day

I putting my fears aside
I'm leaving my doubts behind
I'm giving my hopes and dreams to You
Jesus. We are sisters and brothers in Christ.

I'm reaching my hand to Yours
Believing there's so much more
Knowing that all You have in store for me is good
Is good

I will stand upon Your truth.
(I will stand upon Your truth)
And all my days I'll live for You
(And all my days I'll live for You)

Thank you again for all your prayers and support as I prepare to Dance Hard in Haiti.

I also wanted to share a picture of the painting my friend Ben Hubbard did at the Haiti night I did at my church here in Nevada. I spent an hour talking about the view of disabilities in Haiti, How God sees these children, and then went on to show videos and share stories of what God is doing in Haiti through the Miriam Center. Ben started out throwing black paint onto the campus and smearing it around with his hands…He wanted to make it look like a mistake since this is how all these children are seen as. Well...in the end it was really powerful as people saw that He had a plan…He took great time, thought and detail to complete this painting and as psalms says “God knit us together in our mothers womb and we are fearfully and wonderfully made” My ending point was that God spent just as much time creating you and me as He did these children and he took much thought in each detail of their life and appearance and they are not mistakes but they have been made with a plan and purpose. God is GOOD! The painting is a painting of one of my children T-Willy 