My days run together as we prepare for the end of the school year. My days are full of parties, award ceremonies, cook outs, normal calligraphy jobs and Apparent Project jewelry parties.
This week I had two. Thursday, I was invited to a lady's house to set up a shopping area for teachers from Patterson Elementary here in Orange Park. It was a wonderful time.
Last night I was invited to not only set up a "boutique" but to share my testimony about my recent trip to Apparent Project in Haiti with a group of teenaged girls. They have a regular Bible Study and had been collecting boxes. Last year, one of the mom's ordered her own party box and told the girls all about everything after she had followed me on Facebook and on here. This year she has me come and tell all about my trip and share photos. It was so much fun! They invited their younger sisters and I spoke to about 18 girls, ages 8 - 19ish, plus about 4 moms.
After my presentation, the girls shopped and I spoke with one of the moms. We were talking about how worried I was about going to Haiti and falling completely apart emotionally. I shared with her how I had noticed many people going away on mission trips and returning completely angry and overwhelmed by our wealthy culture here in America. I had been worried that would happen to me as well. I know when you are faced with a third world country for the first time, you can get sucked into an overwhelming desire to fix everything -
right now!!!! And when I say fix - I mean, it's very easy for we Americans to feel like other countries NEED to be like us. NEED to have all that we do.
Obviously, that cannot happen over night. Thousands of people go in and out of Haiti each week in an effort to "change" it and make it better. In their effort to help, some only make it worse. That's another blog post - one that I am not sure I am qualified to write.
Anyway, while chatting with her, I realized something -
God prepared me for an entire year for my trip. I didn't see all of it at the time - but I am obviously still processing.
For a year, I followed
Apparent Project's Blog,
Sit a Spell and the
Livesay (Haiti) Blog. All three were of families living in Haiti and being completely honest and real about the way things are. I read about their desires for the Haitian people, the cultural struggles they come up against each day and the harsh realities of living there. I would laugh and cry with them as I read their posts. God was revealing the Haitian people to me in a new way. They were not just pictures on a computer - they were human beings.
I was still nervous about going - afraid of being shaken to my very core. But I think God had already been doing that. If you follow my blog - you know that I am S...L...O...W... to learn things. God has to work on me for a while - not throw it all at me at one time. I see now that I did a lot of my grieving, processing, and dealing before I even went.
The very first day I was with Shelley, we went for a walk in the village around the Artisan House. I braced myself, praying that I would not fall apart. I thought I knew what to expect, but I was wrong. I saw the shacks, the tents, the cute little wooden houses that Apparent Project had built right after the earthquake. I saw the tiny streets with the houses practically on top of each other - no privacy whatsoever. But even more than all of that - I saw the faces. I remember the community - the people sitting outside of their homes chatting with one another. The curtains in the windows and the little flower gardens out front. I remember children sitting outside their homes doing homework - because their parents could afford to send them to school. I remember being invited inside one of the artisans homes and the pride they had as we all crowded in to this 10 x 10 shack with two beds that slept 10 people. I remember dignity. I remember making the little baby cry because she's not used to seeing very many white people. I remember the man cleaning himself with water from a bucket. I remember being amazed at how clean they all were. Clean clothes, well kept hair. I remember how one greeted Shelley and showed her beads they were rolling after having already put in a full day's work at the artisan house. I remember hope. I remember people laughing, smiling at us as we went by.
We drove through Port Au Prince later in the week and visited a tent city. Things were very different there. I saw poverty, more desperate situations. I sat in silence as we rode in the Tap-Tap (Taxi) to Crouix de Boquet - the Metal Works Village - and I soaked it all in. Again I wondered why I was not becoming overwhelmed with a desperate urge to help them ALL. And the Lord spoke to my heart and said, "You are already part of the solution. You have been for a year now."
Wow.
It didn't really hit me then - but it hits me now. What a precious gift God gave me that day. That entire week, really. To know that I am helping to make a difference - that I had been helping.
I'm only one person. I have not been called to live in Haiti like Shelley and Corrigan do. But, I have been called to spread the word about Apparent Project here in the US. To talk to people about making a deep and lasting change by helping to employ these people, not just giving them handouts.
I love to sell the jewelry - but really it has nothing to do with the jewelry. I love the beads and the beauty that comes from the cereal boxes - but it's not about that. It's about the people. It's about those faces that I remember. It's about what Apparent Project is doing in the lives of those people. It's about what God is doing. It's about His Kingdom. It's about redemption. It's about grace.
Tomorrow I am shipping 9 boxes of cereal boxes to Haiti and returning to the church to pack more! We are overflowing with boxes! I have never dealt with this many at once before. That's a great problem to have! I'm so excited and I cannot wait until Shelley gets them all!
Wednesday, I am having an Open House at the church so all the local school teachers and others in the community who have helped collect boxes can come and shop.
With the fund raiser bracelet sales at church, and my recent parties, I already have another $3000 to send to the artisans - making it a total of $10,000 since March. That's nuts! No - that's God, my friends. He has His hand on Apparent Project. He does nothing but confirm this to me over and over and over. I am just along for the ride - and what a ride it is.
Please do not get me wrong - I am not trying to brag about anything that I am doing - my goal is to tell you ALL that God is doing. He has given me a truly special gift in allowing me to be a part of it all. This is my appointed task from the Lord - my "God assignment". There is absolutely NOTHING better than knowing you are doing exactly what God has called you to do. And I LOVE my job!
I am forever grateful, overwhelmingly humbled and completely amazed.
Until next time......
*****If you are local and would like me to come and talk to your group - your church - have a party in your home, office, etc. - PLEASE contact me! I have a steady inventory of items coming in and would be more than happy to share with you!
