Kase tout chèn- Break every chain

I can't begin to tell you all how excited I am about this next blog post. We have a first on the blog today with my first "guest blogger" and I know you will be blessed by her testimony as I certainly was!!

Several months ago, I received a letter in the mail (I love getting letters in the mail by the way) from my aunt Tami letting me know that she would be going on a mission trip in October to Haiti with her church in Pearland. In late September she was in town visiting and stayed at my house. Through visiting with her during those few days, I had the pleasure of hearing about her preparation for the trip to Haiti and I saw a heart that focused on serving and loving God boldly and faithfully wherever he took her on this trip. I knew then that I wanted to have her share her testimony here on the blog with each of you after she returned.

I hope as you read about her time in Haiti that God would reveal himself to you in a new way and that you would be blessed and changed just like I was. Enjoy….

Kase tout chèn (Break Every Chain)

Mission of Hope: Haiti Crosspoint Church Trip October 2014

In January of this year, God showed me Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us” NLT. I have read this verse many times, but it was very clear to me that I needed to get rid of some baggage and see how God can use me when I grow in healing and renewal. I had no idea how God would move so big this year in my life and guide me through months of preparing my heart for Haiti. Since January, I have faithfully attended Celebrate Recovery. My daughter, Kelsey was baptized in June, and we became members at Crosspoint Church in Pearland in June of this year. I was asked to attend leadership training for a new Celebrate Recovery class at Crosspoint Church. It was in this training that our Missions Minister asked me to consider going on Haiti trip. God sure guided me to where I needed to be in order to truly work this scripture that he put on my heart at the first of 2014.

I knew that I needed to pray about Haiti and ask God if I was ready to take this kind of trip. I had been working so hard this year to get rid of unnecessary baggage, the past failures, that were keeping me stuck. I just wasn’t sure if I was ready. I began to pray emotionally and focused on truly making the right decision, and as God loves to do, He answered in scripture. Psalm 71:7 & 8, “My life is an example to many, because you have been my strength and protection. That is why I can never stop praising you. I declare your glory all day long.” I knew I was to go and show the healthy Christian me to Haiti and in return I would continue to transform my relationship with Christ. I would later that same month, sit down and write my recovery testimony and share it for the first time at Celebrate Recovery.

As I began to pray for Crosspoint Church and every individual that God would put together to form our October 2014 Haiti Team, I began to have a spark of joy and stronger faith as I was in God’s word and praying and studying hard. It felt amazing, and I was craving more scripture and more worship to get so close to my Heavenly Daddy. I was at one of my strongest points in my spiritual walk. That is where Satan loves to work harder to tear us down. Spiritual warfare the week before Haiti was absolutely horrible. Amazing that God has put the most awesome Christian individuals in my life, that in one text to many prayer warriors, and the anxiety and worry were lifted almost as quickly as Satan tried to put them on me. I prayed to God to let me spend some quality time with my son, Wade, after his game the Friday before leaving on trip because we have not had time just the two of us lately. I got my quality time in the ambulance as he got a concussion during the game. I think it was funny how the anxiety and worry over him being okay or if I would make this trip was barely crawling through me when I closed my eyes and prayed for SATAN TO LEAVE ME AND MY FAMILY ALONE! Taking it all to God every day in all you do, makes Satan mad. I love making Satan mad. Wade was doing better by the time he was at the hospital. GOD IS FAITHFUL AND ALMIGHTY. Made it home that night, in time to throw bags in the car and head to Haiti.

I would learn very quickly that God strategically put together our Mission Team, with totally different personalities but all with a common love for the Lord. 16 of us on this trip and I feel so thankful for each one,  because God used each one of them in some way or another to change me and/or work in me to help them. I felt God move me in a direction to be blessed numerous times by placing me where I needed to be to have that life changing experience over and over again on this trip. It was powerful.

Shortly after arriving in Haiti, I had my eyes wide opened to why God sent me here. One of the lessons to prepare for Haiti focuses on Compassion, and Webster defines compassion as “feeling of deep sympathy for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.” I have always felt God blessed me with eyes full of compassion in my life.  In Haiti, my EYES were OPENED WIDE and the COMPASSION was intense. I saw pain and poverty, yet I saw joy and simplicity. I was not in any way prepared for what God would show me and how he would use it to change my life and my focus in Haiti and in Texas. The first sunset, I sat at the top balcony thanking God for bringing me to Haiti and for opening my eyes and heart. I cried and knew that God would draw me so close to Him in every moment of this trip and that I would surrender my all to Him. I can’t remember ever praying that intensely or emotionally in my life. God was going to show me so much and I would feel so deeply through this trip in Haiti.

God also began working on me all this year that worship is being in a relationship with God. Like the Igloo Cooler, we drank from the whole week. If we didn’t fill it with good water, then nothing would come out. Our spiritual life is like that, we have to feed our faith through worship, prayer, and study, so that we can pour out to others about what God has done. If we empty ourselves, we will get full.  Blessings are all around us, in Haiti and at home.

As each day was a way not only to minister to others, God helped me dig deep into my heart and soul to invest everything I had and then I saw constantly all around me how He was  blessing me even more abundantly. Every sunset and sunrise during my trip was spent in quiet time with God. 1Thess. 5:17 “Keep on Praying” is what God told me on my second day in Haiti. He was telling me to have a prayerful attitude and be open to all I would learn and experience.

God moved big in my heart every Village Work Day or Witnessing Day. We were in the Village of Turpin. The drive to and from the Village of Turpin was absolutely breathtaking with the gorgeous water and the amazing mountains and valleys, yet all around was poverty. The Haitians were so friendly and made eye contact and greeted us with kindness and love. Our first day was painting a home. We ventured down the mountain with donkeys loaded with 5 gallon paint buckets, and we carried all our supplies and water. We walked for almost two miles through rocks, muddy streams, farming fields, and narrow paths that were way out of my comfort zone. I began to think I would never find my way back, then there was our home. The Monneus family had a sweet little home and we came to give it some good Christian love and a little southern charm. All of our hearts were so completely involved in painting. We listened to Christian music and we even were able to meet the newest Monneus family member, Sophie, just four days old. While painting, I was reminded of how much I complained about everyday life, nagging constantly, and even how much I hated painting. God worked on me so much in that moment, and tears were flowing as God was telling me to enjoy serving Him in life. My life song should be joyful and happiness. While painting a flower on the front of the house and tears flowing, I turned to see a row of beautiful children standing and watching us paint their home. They were all so happy to see their home transpire into a colorful home of love. The oldest young lady caught my eyes with a sweet smile. I blew her a kiss and she caught it and tapped her heart. Our hearts would begin a new journey together at that moment. After painting, we were all trying to decide who was going to carry the supplies and left over paint up the mountain, when the father said his daughters would carry the paint. Seeing these four girls climb this mountain with paint buckets on their head with joy, laughter and ease was a most humbling experience. I kept trying to catch up, saying “I’m Coming.” I wanted to be beside these girls and filled with their joy. Rose Marie, the one that caught my kiss, turned and put her hand on her hip and giggled, “I’m Coming.” She was laughing and smiling and pulling me into her joy. Then she sang “We love Jesus yes we do, we love Jesus how about you.” WOW she impressed me.

That night I thought of that path up and down that mountain and the paths that I have traveled over and over again in my life. Some of those paths, I should not be traveling any more. God told me it was time to make some new paths, and to let those old paths never to be traveled on again. A very humbling day as God brought Rose Marie into my life, and he showed me a child of God in a world that is so lost. Not only have I been on paths in my life, that I should not have been on, but I have also spent it complaining and nagging. God told me today to find new paths that bring honor and praise to Him and to change my Life Song to sing praises of what God is doing in my life.  I also learned a new song “Break Every Chain” (Kase tout chèn) which was a very descriptive song of how God worked in me in all of my Haiti experience. I learned through this that there is power in Jesus name to break every chain. I have spent my life with chains of past hurts and decisions that were hindering my relationship with Christ. It was time to break free and let go and serve God.

Our week in Haiti was life changing, through praying with Haitians, painting homes, planting trees and playing with children. Every moment there, I was completely humbled by all that I saw and experienced. My spiritual journey in Haiti, changed and transformed my daily spiritual walk for me going forward. I needed to break the chains of sin and bad decisions, to allow God to be seen in my heart. God used the Haitians to teach me about simplicity, perseverance, abundant worship, love and changing my life. He put the right people in my path in Haiti to pray for me or for me to pray for all week. He taught me that what he was doing in my life here in Haiti, he could do for me at home. It was about a daily walk with Him, joining Him in his sunrise and all day long being in worship with Him in all I do, and praying with Him in his sunset. I have never felt so close to God as I did in Haiti, and I believe that God opened my eyes to be on mission for Him daily. I experienced moments of total brokenness while my friend prayed over me, In Jesus name asking God to break these chains that have tied me down and kept me from glowing for God. That moment of knowing God chose her to pray so faithfully for me as I was so broken and scared about coming home and not being on fire for God like I was in Haiti. God used her to pray with me and help me to put on God’s Armor. That was a big GOD MOMENT.

The last day in Turpin was emotional to say goodbye to the beautiful faces of all those children in the school yard and to see around us all the people that God put in our path that week. Haitian Missionaries that we prayed together with, Camille who we prayed with and saw later in the week saying God made her well, families with sick children that we prayed with, trees that we planted to bring fruit for families in the coming years, and painting a home for the Monneus family were all part of blessings of our week. 26 people came to know Jesus through our Mission Team in Haiti. THAT IS POWERFUL! Most moving to me all week was Rose Marie. I saw her everyday at school, and our bond grew stronger. I am proud to say that I now am sponsoring her, and I look forward to taking my children to Haiti to meet her. She is forever a part of my family.

Haiti is Life Changing! The power of prayer has transformed me through my experience in Haiti. God used so much this year to prepare me for this trip, and he laid the foundation here at home with a great church family and Celebrate Recovery group to have the love and friendships that would carry me through the spiritual warfare. Galations 2:20 “I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” I close with my vision statement I wrote after returning from Haiti. “to become marked by the cross in every aspect of my life chasing God and breaking every chain that hinders my daily walk with Christ.”  In Jesus Name I Will Never Be The Same.

-Tami