another sign of Faithful-Is-He-Who-Calls-You

Man alive.  This photo was taken exactly five years ago today (Friday).  It was 6 am.  We were 22 & 23, and we were boarding the plane to Haiti, and about to start on one of the greatest, hardest, craziest adventures of our lives.

They say the "old time" missionaries packed their belongings in coffins when heading for the field of calling, knowing they wouldn't return until the coffin brought them. 

All our possessions might have been crammed into 10 Rubbermaid totes, but things sure did feel that permanent and drastic that morning.  

There was no turning back.

Cap-Haitien was nothing like Port-au-Prince...the comforts and luxuries of the "big city" that I was used to and of "Over There" (America) that Matt was used to were far behind us.

We jumped right in at EBS (at it's previous location), starting to teach just 2 weeks after moving to Haiti, something I had sworn I would NEVER do and something Matt had been waiting for since giving the Lord his life just five years earlier.  It's a complete joy to look at this picture and see men and women that we're still working alongside today, and even some, like Belony, Lucner, Vilmer, Fanfan, who we were hanging out in the office with this week!

This was taken our first month of living in Haiti, in front of the very house where I'm sitting now. 

 We had no idea what He had in store...only that He was leading us.

 I can honestly say that some of the hardest and most beautiful things in my life have been here in Haiti these past five years, and as I look through posts from that first year, as difficult as I remember it being, I'm almost surprised at what joy we found Just in Him.

My best friend and room-mate moved to Africa exactly one day before we moved to Haiti, so I'm copying her fabulous blog and going to take a few days to dwell on some of the highlights, in pictures, of the past few years (this post being year one).  

From a post that first year...

"These may all seem like rather small things, but there are no small encouragements here, no small works of God's hands. In Nehemiah 6, Nehemiah sought to do what he was called by God to do, rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. And yet, the "Enemy's Plot" continued to call him away, threaten him, encourage him to leave it, and to discourage him.

Nehemiah finally addresses it in this way (vs. 9) "You thought that by trying to bother and frighten us, we would become discouraged with the work and it would not be done. But now, O God, strengthen my hands." 

We must not be discouraged with the work God has given us! Instead of praying that life would be easier here, that our inverter would work, that I would feel no sickness, that everything would be more peaceful, we want to pray first and foremost that God would just strengthen our hands...make us stronger, keep us firmly resolved.

We are blessed to know exactly what He has called us to here: training and discipling and living life alongside Haitian men and women called by God to take the Word throughout Haiti. So, "strengthen our hands!" 

 The recurring theme we echoed over and over that first year and a million times since is of His faithfulness.  He has been.  He is.  He will be.  Faithful to be who He IS in our lives, and that is all we needed.  All we need.  All we will.