I have been a Christian for a long time, and was baptized when I was little. However, I don’t remember that important event.  And I have thought about doing it again, several different times throughout my life. I was going to do it in high school, when I finally starting making Christianity more than just something I did because my parents did, or just going to church on Sunday. I thought about doing it again about three years ago when I really began to grow in my relationship with Him. But it always felt strange, since I had been baptized before. But it also felt strange that I didn’t remember it. Don’t you think something like that should be remembered? And so, when one of the pastors on the trip announced he was going to do baptisms, I perked up. I thought, it’s time. It seemed appropriate to  do in Haiti, considering this is where the Lord ultimately led Brandon and I. It was three years ago that we began to question ourselves, our relationship with the Lord, and what it really meant to be a Christian. We read several books like Crazy Love, The Hole in our Gospel, and Forgotten God and they left us questioning our walk with the Lord and our commitment to Him. Of course we loved Jesus. Sure we wanted to please Him and do good. We went to church on Sunday, were in a growth group during the week, we tithed and volunteered. But something wasn’t quite right.

All we knew was that God wanted us-all of us-and nothing less.

And He wanted obedience. In my experience, sometimes obedience is that nagging feeling in the bottom of your stomach-knowing your supposed to do something but not sure how to do it or even if you want to.  In our lives, it started with small things, things that seemed fairly inconsequential at the moment. But I believe God was challenging us, giving us opportunities to obey him to see if we would choose to obey-even when it’s hard, or inconvenient, or not what we wanted.  Of course there were times-and still are-when we know what the Lord wants or is asking but we still don’t do it. Why? I’m not sure really. Fear is one. Or my pride will get in the way. Or even laziness. But He is faithful.  Even when we miss an opportunity, or disobey Him, he freely forgives when we repent, and gives us another chance.

So I did it. Even though I felt slightly silly, since I have been a Christian for a long time and baptism seems to be something you do when you first become a Christian, or when you are ready for everyone to know. But I think the reason I finally did it was actually because it became an obedience issue. Those other times I mentioned how I wanted to get baptized throughout the years was because I think the Lord wanted me to. But I didn’t want to. It seemed embarrassing to do it so many years after I had given my life to the Lord-like I wasn’t that committed at the time, or only now was I wanting others to know. So, as strange as it felt-as a missionary getting baptized-I did it. And it was pretty awesome.

Everyone on the team went out for culture day, and one part of that day was visiting a beautiful Caribbean beach. There were five of us who wanted to get baptized and we took turns being dunked into the clear warm ocean. We shared our testimony with everyone else who was there. And it was pretty cool to have Brandon on the other side of me, baptizing me with Ryan.

I forgot to tell you that the poor second liquid church team had a few uninvited visitors too. We found and killed three large spiders while the first team was here. In fact, check out this story…

I went upstairs after getting home one day with the team. I went to shut our door and right behind it was a giant spider. I remained fairly calm, considering,and ran downstairs yelling for Brandon. But turns out he was outside and the panic in my voice got worse. One of the team guys, Jeff, asked if he could help with anything. In fact, his direct quote was, “Is there something I can help you with? Because you are calling your husband in that high pitched panic voice my wife sometimes uses when she’s freaked out.” I paused to laugh and breathed a sigh of relief. Because even though I pride myself on killing all sorts of nasty bugs here, I haven’t been able to kill these beasts yet. If I’m forced-like I”m home alone and it’s him v.s me- of course I will I step up and rid Haiti of one less hairy legged monster. Until then, I am perfectly okay with being the damsel in distress and asking for help! So Jeff followed me upstairs along with a  few other curious people. I grabbed the best spider killing instrument-the broom. You can’t use a shoe for these things. Using a shoe would require getting way too close, and you have to use the right broom otherwise they just grab the bristles and swing back at you. So Jeff assumed the position, wound up and smacked him good. He scriveled up into a ball and Jeff turned to me with a satisfied face. However, myself and Dawn weren’t too sure. We voted for another at bat. They are too large to do anything but smash them to pieces. But Jeff thought once was enough-until he went in for a further inspection and wouldn’t you know his little leg twitched. Jeff grabbed the broom, handle first, and went for the glory. But the spider had the last laugh because as Jeff made contact black oozy stuff squirted on his arm! No lie. We all screamed out and Jeff calmly asked me to remove to black goo from his arm. I used a precious Clorox wipe, thinking that the bleach should kill whatever that stuff was, and Jeff was worth using a wipe on considering he did kill it and all. And now, weeks later, I can’t close that door without first checking behind it to see if any more of those things are lurking around.

So the second team didn’t get to see any of them that up close and personal. But the guys did find one outside while unloading the trucks. They took care of business and vowed not to tell the ladies-and I can totally support the ‘on a need to know’ theory when it comes to that! Except when downloading photos I found this photo…

They have come and gone. It’s been almost three weeks, and I’m just now getting to post some thoughts and photos. That malaria really put me behind, and I still am not caught up on all my random thoughts and musings that I love sharing with you! So for now, you’ll be getting information just a bit behind, and I am sorry about that. What I love about our blog is updating you on life as it happens here-so for now just pretend you are streaming a video with terrible internet and instead of a just a few seconds of a  delay-this is like a three week delay!

Not only was being sick terrible, but that also meant I was not able to participate in any other activities. And as such, I hardly went out with the team! It was killing me, but Dr. Stone had me under strict rules-and even though I felt better while they were here, I still got tired super easy and couldn’t risk not getting better. So typically, when a team is here, Brandon and I split up the team for the day. Brandon will take half and show them how to drill, how the rig works, and they work on getting the church/school/community clean water. While they are busy doing that, I take the other half of the team and  we interact with Haitians. We do Bible stories, hygiene lessons, visit homes in the community. Because even though people think they are coming down here to drill a well, that isn’t the only thing they are doing!  And that is why Brandon and I make a good team. Brandon is in charge of the logistics and everything involved with that, I am making sure that they don’t just remember the hole they drilled in the ground, but the people they served and helped too.

It was super fun to have another group from the same church come and visit. As always, it was so nice to sit and chat with them and hear their hearts-for serving, missions and even Haiti. The cool part is that this church has already planned another trip sometime in the spring. We are amazed at the passion they have for the Lord, for sharing the gospel, and for giving people something so needed and so simple-clean water.