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This past week has been so crazy busy, that there is no time or energy to write, even thought there is a plethora of things I would love to tell you about.
 Kristin and I have new work out plan. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we worked out our arms by sanding and painting an entire house. Today was legs, while we scrubbed up all of the paint that was spilled off of the floor with our shoes and some gravel. :) We have been having a blast working. We never have a lack of help, even though most of the time we end up cleaning up after them more often than not. The kids in the village hear us coming each morning and come a running to help us.
We get to go to church every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday which we dont understand, but have so much fun goofing around with the bored kids, that service passes by very quickly. It is crazy though how even in the midst of the language gap, you can be enveloped in God's presence and get lost in worship with your brothers and sister, even if you dont understand eachother.
We are quickly making friends with the moto bike taxi drivers. They seem to really like driving the two American girls around and giving us marriage proposals. We never have had to stand for more than 30 seconds before a taxi comes up out of no where to pick us up. I wish we could ride around on the back of  motorcyles in Portland every day.
There is a house that we walk by every day that has two toddlers who live there, and I think the only thing they know how to say is "good morning" in English. from bright and early till late at night, every time we pass by we hear little giggles and squeals of delight as the two little guys shout good morning to us. Oh what Joy!
I have been blessed to make a special connection with one of the girls who lives at the pastor's house. The pastor's house is a refuge for girls who either have no family or were sold into prostitution or were in dire circumstances. Now they have a chance at life and such joy every day. This girl's name is Fafund. I dont know her story, but I do hope to get to know her better. We bonded in the way girls do in the states... talking about boys. I told her that she could marry my little brother. I think it would work. She seems pretty excited, I'm not too sure how my little brother will feel about it. We now call eachoter sister and she says we are "cafe au lait" she is the coffee and I am the milk, and together we are great.
Sorry this is so incredibly random and not too fluid, but I suppose that is what you get when you work and play hard all day.
Well, till next time I have a chance, be blessed. Love you!

Phantastic

This evening, Kristin and I were laying in our luxurious queen sized bed reading George McDonald's Phantastes out loud to each other and I realized that I feel like my life right now could be a chapter from this book. Today we drove from smoggy, grimy Port-au-Prince into the crisp, beach air of Jacmel. We drove into town and it was comfortinlgly familiar, as if we were returning home from a long day of work. I was getting more and more excited by the minute as we approached our hotel, but we drove right by it. I didn't feel like asking our driver why he didn't stop, so I let him go on and see where he would take us. We drove up the street and pulled into a place I had never seen before. He said that Pastor LaFleur (the pastor we are working with) had changed plans. We warily walked into this new hotel, not knowing what to expect and were astonished to find a hotel nicer than any I Have ever been in the States. I'm sure we are staying in no less than one of Haiti's nicest buildings. I will take pictures in the daylight and post them for you :) our room is perfectly pink! We can't believe God's grace upon us. We were expecting to stay in the "Best Western" of Haiti and instead got the Hilton.
Another blessing is the lack of need for security detail on us at all times. We took a walk into town and were delighted to see local life all around us...without 5 guys following us at all times (Don't fret Dad, we are being safe).
We can't wait to see what God has in store for us in these upcoming months, but if this homey feeling continues, we may have to extend our trip ;)
Thank you all for your prayers!
Love you!
Be Blessed!
Dani

A lovely day in the Lord’s Kitchen.

Today was a nice break from the taxing work of construction and garbage pickup. 3 other women and I had the blessing of working in the Lord’s Kitchen.  We got to sort rice and beans. Now, this may sound like a tedious task, but it was one of the most wonderful things I could have done today. Picking out burnt rice grains and deformed beans in and of itself is not fun but it was wonderful for the conversation it facilitated with the other delightful ladies I got to work with. One of my favorite things about Forward Edge trips is that we get to share our testimonies with one another. I was so blessed getting to hear what God has done in these women throughout their lives. All over the Old Testament, God tells Israel to tell their sons of what God had done for them; to tell of all the miracles God had done to bring them out of Egypt; to tell of His wondrous works in the wilderness. I got to hear hours of these stories from women who have walked with our wonderful savior for years. I got to hear about God our redeemer, God our healer, God our comforter, God who still works miracles, God who still speaks, God who has knit us together from before the foundations of the earth, and has great plans for us. I was so blessed by these testimonies. This is the God we serve.

Praying for the city

Sitting on the roof of the guest house (an unfinished hospital), 3 stories above 15,000 people living in tents I am pondering. The clatter of life below is loud, busy and delightfully distracting; a reminder that life in a Haitian tent city is now the norm. Up to 10 people living in one tent, setting up their little stand every day, just to sell enough of whatever they sell to feed their family for the day and buy enough supplies to replenish their independent business for the next day. Is it crazy that in the midst of this intense world, I find an overwhelming peace? That I feel more at home in this place than any other on the face of the earth?  It has been 3 months since I have been here and have missed it dearly. I think one thing that makes it so welcoming to me are the children. There is nothing more satisfying to me in this world than walking through Grace Village and having dozens of kids screaming my name, coming up to give me hugs and kisses, asking where my family is and telling me how their families are doing. They also ask me to bring them bicycles, clothes, and airplanes from the states next time I come. We laugh about our inside jokes from my last trip. I could stay with them forever. In those moments of rapturous joy, it is very easy to forget that their daily life is not so light hearted as our brief meetings on the streets of the village. They work just as hard if not harder than their parents and some don’t have any opportunity to go to school and have a chance of bettering their future. In the midst of these ponderings is the strange truth that I know I could cozy down, make a life for myself right here, right in the midst of this injustice, in the midst of this chaos, and in my overly naive, optimistic mind, could forget any of this sadness exists. As I sit here, I know that I must purpose to live missionally here. What that looks like, other than living a normal life, I don’t exactly know. Except, I know this means to pray.

“Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare. “ Jeremiah 29:7.

It is so easy, no matter where we are at, to glaze over the issues, get caught up in our own routine and forget that God has greater things for the cities we are called to and that we must seek its peace, pursue the welfare of the city and beseech our good God to work miracles in the midst of the turmoil.

I am challenged. Instead of sitting on the roof and just enjoying the view, I should be also praying to the Lord on behalf of the city.

3 Days

In  3 days Kristin Gregory and I will be embarking on an adventure of a lifetime. In merely 75 hours we will be on a plane to Haiti where we will spend the next 106 days serving the Lord and His people.
The last couple of days I have found myself wondering why the Lord is sending me to Haiti. I am not wondering  in the doubting sense, but rather the wonder of what good am I there? Its almost too fun, too fulfilling and sunny to be real.Why in the world would God choose a loquacious hairstylist who is rarely serious and probably has too many tattoos for her own good to go to Haiti? I think that if I were God, I wouldn't choose me. I would probably pick the well seasoned, missionary couple who have had a great marriage for 15 years and have been to multiple bible schools in the African bush together and know how to start a fire out of two sticks and a rock in the middle of a down pour. And then I remembered 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 and life made a little more sense:
²⁶For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;
 ²⁷but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,
 ²⁸and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,
 ²⁹so that no man may boast before God.
I am the weak, I am the foolish, I am the base and I am nothing; that God may be everything. So that no man may boast before God. So that I may not boast of myself before God or men. That He may have all of the gory. I have nothing to boast of except the Lord. He is so good! And I feel honored that I get to experience the things He is going to do in Haiti first hand.
Sometimes, I wonder what good it is to send a bunch of missionaries into a country that is economically debilitated, physically crumbling to the ground and its own people are already preaching the gospel. Are we doing more harm than good? Are we making an impact for the Kingdom in Heaven and Earth? Or are we just more mouths to feed? Then the Lord comforted me. Isaiah 61 says :
¹The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
         Because the LORD has anointed me
         To bring good news to the afflicted;
         He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
         To proclaim liberty to captives
         And freedom to prisoners;
    ²To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD
         And the day of vengeance of our God;
         To comfort all who mourn,
    ³To grant those who mourn in Zion,
         Giving them a garland instead of ashes,
         The oil of gladness instead of mourning,
         The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting
         So they will be called oaks of righteousness,
         The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.
There are many in Haiti, and right here in Portland who are the afflicted, brokenhearted, captive, mourning and fainting. The same Spirit of God who is the one to bring good news, bind broken hearts, set people free and comfort is the same Spirit that dwells in any of us who have received Him and we now get to be His hands and His feet. I get to be His hands and feet in Haiti for the next three and a half months. I don't need to worry about the impact I am making, if I know He has called me to do His work. I know that He has called me to to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep myself unstained by the world. (James 1:27) I know that He has called me to go out into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation (Mark 16:15). As I go, doing these things in His Spirit, He will make the outcome He desires, as opposed to what I think should happen. What a glorious God we serve! What Joy to be with the creator of all things and to have adventures in life with Him! I believe there will be many adventures to come for Krisin and I in Haiti and I hope I get to share them here with you. What adventures has God prepared for you, since before the world began? If you listen to Him, to His still small voice, I bet you will find adventures and joy in Him greater than you ever could have imagined.
Be Blessed!