It’s been almost three years since we’ve lived in the States, and I forget what it’s like sometimes. One thing I don’t miss, and have been struggling against since I have been back living here, in this waiting period is: Greed. Materialism. Consumerism.

I mean, let me paint a picture for you. In Haiti, I try to blend in but because of my skin color that never happens. So I try to blend in by other means. I don’t wear my nice jewelry, I don’t wear my best fancy clothes-mostly cause it’s too hot-, I have a dorky but practical purse, I don’t wear nice pretty sandals -mostly because of the dirt roads everywhere we go. But do you see what I mean? I even stopped wearing my wrist watch because I was asked about 3 times a day for it. Everywhere I went. It drove me nuts. Because contrary to what you may think, even though many Haitians are very very poor, they still very much care about what they look like. They go to great lengths washing and cleaning their clothes and shoes, they wear as much bling as they own, and when they go out they do it up. They fall into materialism just like we do, only it looks differently when you make less than $5 a day.

And so when I compared myself to my neighbor in Haiti, man I could feel pretty guilty. I am (was) the only one in my neighborhood with running water in my house. I was the only one with consistent electricity, not just when the public electricity would come on-maybe three/four times a week at random times. We were the only ones with our own vehicle. The only ones with a washing machine. And on and on it goes. So when you are surrounded by that, this need to compete, to “Keep up with the Jones'” really does not exist. At all. In fact, it has the opposite effect. While I might some days bemoan the fact that we have left and sold our house and almost everything in it, I can’t feel sorry for myself too long in Haiti. And that’s a good thing. At times, it’s good for me to be surrounded by people that have less than me. Because it totally changes my perspective. I am so grateful and thankful for what I have-the little and the big things. And that is one thing I love about living in the third world. Being born and from the first world, I do need that constant reminder.

And in just three and half short months, I feel the ugly pull of consumerism and materialism trying to get a hold on me. I resisted for so long, I could look at what others had and not want, and feel no judgement towards them for having those things. But now? I find myself wanting things more than I would like to admit. Of course I need a pair of cute boots even though I only have 2 more weeks to enjoy them. And I pry need them in black and brown too. (Mind you-I can’t wear boots in Nicaragua-it’s too hot!) I can hardly justify buying closed toes shoes- I wear sandals all the time!

Now hear me out. I’m not saying shoes are bad. I’m not saying stuff is bad either. What I am saying is that as I am doing a study in James, and the fifth chapter is talking about having wealth and hoarding it, I have to ask myself where my heart is in this issue.  One leader compared her issues to Pinterest. How she would make boards and boards of all the stuff she wanted, the vacations she desired to go on, and it was too much. It consumed her thoughts and was always thinking about her next purchase. So she had to stop. Now, I don’t have that problem. I love Pinterest, and it doesn’t bring out the green monster in me. But I’ve realized one thing that does-simply shopping. When I can see all that is out there, and what I don’t have, I just want more. I want cuter things, nicer things. And you boys, don’t think this doesn’t apply to you too. Shopping probably isn’t where you do your comparing. Maybe it’s seeing your friends stuff, their bigger nicer house, their toys, whatever.

I was so challenged by this statement, “When we know something that cultivates immense greed in our hearts, we need to cut ourselves off from the source, whether or not the source itself is sinful.” A few years ago, for Brandon and I, it was walks in our neighborhood. You think I’m kidding right? What harm is there in a walk?  We had just purchased our first home in a lovely and wealthy area, and we loved our little house. Ours was modest compared to our neighbors, whose value we knew because we loved Zillow! Every evening we’d walk our neighborhood, and go from one million dollar home to the next, we became sick with envy. At first,we were so thankful for our one acre lot, our clean, adorable, perfect house. Until we played the compare game. And it was months before we realized how toxic it was. It had creeped in, ever so slowly, to poison the joy and thankfulness in our hearts until all we could see was what we didn’t have, what we wanted. To be honest with you, it became our idol. We spent every minute of our free time on it, every single penny on it. The good news? Our eyes were finally opened to our greed, our sin. We repented of it, and turned from it. The bad news? It had consequences-not at first. It made me think maybe we had learned our lesson and that was enough. As God put missions on our hearts about four years ago, and as we prayed about direction, we had this sinking feeling we were going to have to sell our home. And sure enough, as we were struggling to figure out what country He wanted us to move to, He kept whispering to us,” sell your house, and I will tell you.” It didn’t make sense. Especially for my very financially prudent husband. To loose all the money we put it? All our blood,sweat, and tears? How about we hang onto it, rent it, and sell it later. Use the money to pay for our mission work. But we knew what God was asking of us. We knew this was the alter, and God was asking us to put our house on it. Most of you know the rest after that- the house sold in three days sight unseen, God clearly and dynamically lead us to Haiti,and He brought people and couples who supported us financially when we were support raising. It was amazing. He blessed us in ways we couldn’t have imagined.

And so I want to end with this quote, one that hit me pretty hard. I realized. living in the States, that not being caught up in the consumerism, or greed around you has to be a conscience choice. It doesn’t happen naturally. I have to fight against it…often. I kind of get a free ticket out since we are moving to Nicaragua next month. I get the easy way out, out of the middle of it, where I am simply removed from it. So how will you fight the green monster? Because if you are a child of his, God has called you too to live differently, but to still live here-in it and around it all the time. And what does that look like? For each person it will look different. It doesn’t mean we all need to take a vow of poverty-please hear me-but it does mean that we need to consciously fight against our nature, the nature to be be greedy or selfish. How do we give to others in our time, our finances, or the extra that we all have? I took my cue from Beth Moore when she asked herself this question,and I had to do the exact same thing, “While in the throes of self-evaluation, I dropped my head in prayer and asked God if He was unhappy with our household over our relationship to finances or possessions.” And I did just that. He is showing me alright! And I can promise you He too will show you too,if you ask.

So here is that quote. Chew it over. Tell me what you think. “Excessive desire to possess things is hardly innocent and left unrestrained will result in a harvest of evil. We all know the statistics about global poverty. We simply cannot be obedient disciples of the Lord Jesus and continue to willingly choose self-indulgence, all the while ignoring the desperate needs of others. We need to get serious about guarding our hearts from this ugly sin.”

I feel stumped. I mean, when the title of our blog is “Stones in Haiti sharing their experiences with you…” how exactly do I write about life now? In this strange quasi land of the unknown? Perhaps we should rename the title, “Stones in limbo sharing their experiences with you…”?

One of us is Haiti. One of us is in the US of A. We might as well be on two different planets. Some people, okay more like most, would say that poor Brandon has the rough end of the stick. After all, he did just get stuck by lightening. And what is that about anyway?? You wanna know how jacked my hormones are? I cry at anything and everything normally, but when he was telling me what happened,moments after it happened, all I could do was laugh. Laugh!! At my husband who was freaked out, shocked, and didn’t know what to think. Mind you, he was urging me to go out and buy lottery tickets in the midst of his relating of events, so don’t judge me to harshly for seeming cold hearted.  And the whole time I’m wishing I was there-twisted I know.

So it should be almost over. This living apart ridiculousness. Plans are getting more finalized, and we should be off to Nicaragua by mid November. !!! Haiti has turned me into a sceptic, so I guess I probably won’t really believe it until I am standing on Nicaraguan soil.

It has seemed silly to me to post about life now in the states. I guess because of that darn description at the top-it has really been holding me back. But what else am I supposed to be writing about then? If you know me, you know I’m not writing for lack of things to say that’s for sure. So maybe I’ll just change the title and feel better about posting anything I feel like! So this post is dedicated to the fun photos I want to share-and have wanted to share. Simply because they are fun. Because I hardly ever get to post photos of our family and friends, since, well, we haven’t been around them much in the last three years! So here are some fun moments captured on film over the last few months… I’m so far behind, so I will only  give a short description below the photo. Enjoy!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This year, we as Living Water picked two ‘zones’/areas to work in. The idea is that we could really focus on the needs of that area, and saturate them with God’s word, health and hygiene lessons, and provide clean water. This works much better when we can work with a whole community, or area. We go in and talk with the local kasaks, or mayors, and work with them hand in hand. This helps the whole community see and understand that this is in fact their well. They decide where they have the most need in their zone, they decide who gets the first well. They work with with the local church, as we always try to drill on church property. This helps the ‘government offices’ to work with the church, and allows the church to see what we are doing as an extension of the body of Christ-in addition to church then being able to use a new well as a tool to reach the lost in their community.

All that to tell you one zone we picked this year, based on a map of where there is high need, was St. Suzane. The problem with that pick, is there is a reason it’s rated such a terrible zone for clean water-it’s way up in the mountains. So we in fact, cannot use our drill rig there. We had to contract out, with another reputable organization, who has three giant, uber manly, rough and tough drill rigs. Over the last few months, they have been able to drill SEVEN wells. That is pretty amazing. And our ‘software’ team has been working with the churches we are drilling at, and the surrounding schools holding health and hygiene lessons. It’s a beautiful thing. Something we have been working towards for a long time. To see it in action, happening the way we had prayed and hoped it would, is just, well, exciting.

But there is a place called Sarazen. It’s on the way to St. Suzane, a few miles before the heart of the little town in the mountains. Just when we thought St. Suzane was desperate for clean water, God lead one of our Haitian staff to this crevice in the mountain. Brandon describes the road as following an obscure donkey trail. The first day he went to check it out, he told me the road was sketchy. One of the worst, scariest roads he has ever been on. Time out. I have traveled some seriously intense roads with him that are on the side of mountains-one slip and we fall to our death-have to get out of the tap tap we are on because the extra weight of passengers tipped us up onto three wheels and we had to walk a few blocks while the truck drove empty ahead of us.  So for him to say that, made me a little uneasy.

And when he described the need there, my heart sank. One of the downsides of living in a very, very poor environment for a while is, sometimes your heart can be desensitized to the needs around you. They become the new normal. But in a good way, it does allow us to see the levels of poverty too. When we first came to Haiti we thought everyone was poor and destitute, but now we can see that is not the case. Believe it or not, there are varying levels of poverty. God has allowed us to find and work with the people and areas that have the biggest need. So for Brandon to say this community was in need, in major need of clean water, let me know the situation was pretty bleak.

Brandon consulted a map that shows where water may be underneath the ground. (A pretty amazing map let me tell you!!) It’s not always accurate, and just because it shows water doesn’t necessarily mean we can get to it. But this map showed a small area, in Sarazen, that didn’t have as much rock, and he thought maybe, just maybe, we could try drilling there. It wasn’t possible for the burly rigs that we contracted out to get there, the road was too narrow. So Brandon and our two head drillers, Deriber and Daniel, decided after one visit, they had to at least try it.

The next day they drove the rig on the ‘donkey trail, and thankfully made it there without incident. They set the rig up and went to it. They were able to get down about 40 feet the first day. Not huge progress in one day typically, but deeper than they thought they would get considering there is rock all around them. So the next day they went back and got down to 80ft. Things looked good and they decided to case it, and see if they had found water.

No water.

They formed a new plan. They decided to move down the road a bit. There was a very small area on the ‘water map’ that showed a possibility of water, so they knew they didn’t have much wiggle room. They went back the next day. Mind you, to drive that awful road. In addition to that terrible stretch of road, it’s about 1.5 hours from our house/office in Cap Haitian. So these poor guys were commuting three hours a day, on a road that makes any healthy back cringe.

The drilling went a little quicker in this new location, and in one day they went to 100 feet. This was great news. The next day they went back to case (the large pipe that encases the pipe that will pump the water up). They got stuck at 50 feet. After trying every trick they knew possible, it became clear that the casing wasn’t going down any further. The amazing part was, Deriber was able to get the casing back up the hole. That rarely happens! Usually they push, shove, wiggle it so much to get it to go down that it won’t ever come back up again.  And the super cool part? Deriber, on his own, decided he could not walk away from this well. He could have. He could have said, ‘we tried’, we gave it our best effort. Which they did give it a huge effort. But he wasn’t ready to give up yet, seeing the desperate need for clean water.

And so we prayed.

God is the one who provides clean water, He simply allows us to be the tools in helping to get it. So we gave it back to Him again. Trusting that if He wanted a new well here, it was no big thing for Him to make that happen. It’s been heartbreaking the few times we’ve tried and tried for a new well in a community that needs it, only to come up dry again and again. But we are reminded that God is big, He is faithful.  He has a plan for those people and of course knows their need. So when a hole comes up dry, while it can be so hard to walk away, we have to trust that God cared for and provided for them before we got there, and will continue to after we leave. But it’s not easy let me tell you.

The next day, they started fresh. They re-drilled the same hole, hoping to clean out whatever had blocked the casing. Once that was done, they once again attempted to put casing down. It went all they down, perfectly, to 100 feet. And only now, after all that, could they see if there was even any water there.

It came out gushing. It was pulsing and flowing through the casing, as the people from the community yelled, cheered, cried and praised the Lord. Brandon said it seemed like the whole community was there-hundreds of people from the beginning were there watching, waiting. It’s common to attract a crowd in our line of work, but usually the more white people we have, the bigger the crowds. Ya know, it’s good people watching fun for them! But this time, everyone was there for two reasons. One, to see a huge machine that many of them had never seen the likes of before. Second, to see if our staff really could find water.

And God provided. The water came forth and He was glorified in that place!

It’s a rare thing to get Brandon on this blog. He’ll tweet his witty 120 words, but isn’t real fond of the long posts. So here are some thoughts he put down on paper I’d love to share with you guys…