Overflow

Everyone is asleep...Yeah, I am going soon ;)  But I thought I would log onto the blog and just check it out.  I can't believe that it has almost been two months since I last posted anything.  Sorry for those of you who follow along and have been waiting, but I just really wanted to enjoy my time at home and be present in the moments and more so process things internally first as they came to me instead of in a public forum :)

Things did come...

Not so much the first two weeks, as we were so busy seeing people and traveling around, but the last three weeks when we were at the lake I really felt things come to life or come to the surface...

What will life look like when we go back?

Why are we "missing out" on things here and why are people missing out on us too? (mostly family and friends and relationships...time goes on and kids keep growing and changing)

How do I reconcile my life in Haiti, or more over the life of those I live amongst, with the lives that are lived in the United States?

Why was I born where I was born?  Is it guilty to feel comfortable here in the states?

And the list goes on...

I am not going to dive into any of those answers or responses...at least not yet.  For some of those questions I don't have the answers, and for others God is still unfolding and showing me what the answers look like for me.  That is one things that I did realize at home...I am unique.  My story is unlike anyone else's ever.  Yes there may be similarities, but no story is exactly like mine.  In that, no one else is exactly like me, leading the same life.  Somewhere through this realization, I need to dig out the places that it is OK to look different and also identify the core truths that we are called to live by and within...those are the places our stories, as Christians, should look the same.

I was just talking with a dear friend who was able to come back to Haiti with us for a few weeks, and was telling her about a sermon we heard while we were home.  For me it described where Rob, and even myself a little bit, was at by the time we went home.

The pastor used a water bottle as a visual.  When he started referring to it he had already been sipping on it throughout the sermon and it was only about 1/4 of the way full.  He went on to explain that so many time, as Christians we try to function at minimal capacity.  Whether it is because we are being continually drained or even whether we are just never taking the time to fill ourselves back up, we are unable to pour ourselves out, give to, or bless others b/c we hardly have enough in our tanks to keep ourselves going.  But when we allow the Spirit to fill us...when we allow our tanks to be filled and more over to OVERFLOW...it is then, out of that overflow that we are able to BLESS to be a BLESSING!!!

That is what our trip home did for us in a lot of ways...it renewed us, revived our vision and our passion, restored our hurt places...but most of all it refueled us to a point that we are overflowing with God's goodness and mercy and grace...and we are PRAYING and seeking and striving to allow that OVERFLOW to be what God uses though us and in us to bless the people we live with and serve.

We are really excited to be back in Haiti...we are excited for so many of you to partner with us through this next year of our journey (more to come soon on ways you can do that!) and we are so THRILLED to see what God has in store for us!

More than ever we continue to TRUST his ways, his love, his plan and his provision for our family and the people of Haiti...

Continue following HIM (in us) to Haiti with us on this journey!  It is bound to be a wild ride!