Well, friends, it would be seem we have to come to the end of this little adventure. I find myself once again dealing with the pain of goodbyes, culture shock and readjusting to life in America. My story has come full circle but I am far from where I started. These last five months were a time of intense spiritual growth, plenty of new experiences and where I did a lot of growing up... They have taken my relationship with God to a whole new level and woken me up to come to an even greater understanding of how much more there is in this world than just me.
Being home has been both unbelievably amazing and surprisingly difficult. I've loved being with my family again, sleeping in my own bed, eating home-cooked meals... But at the same time, I feel somewhat lost without the people who have been my family these last five months and the structured, busy daily schedule that YWAM provided. Tomorrow, I leave on yet another (much)short(er)-term missions trip with my church to Pelican Rapids in Minnesota. I will be helping to lead a small group, working in the kitchen, and will be part of an evangelism team that will be ministering to the Hispanic and Somali communities nearby. After I get back, I will start work and will be working through the end of July here in Minnesota. In August, I head out East for a family reunion and then make my way to Miami University of Ohio where I will be studying Journalism.
Before I wrap this up, here are a few pictures from my time in Haiti to give you all an idea of what it was like:
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| One of the hundreds of tent cities in Port-au-Prince |
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| One of the many beautiful faces of Haiti |
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| At the orphanage in Port-au-Prince |
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| Doing laundry by hand... a pretty exciting skill :) |
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| Piles of rubble were everywhere in the capital. |
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| Maxsteeve, Valencia, Samantha and their Mom |
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| One of the villages outside Gonaives |
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| Painting- one of my newly acquired skills! |
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| Preaching at one of the many churches we visited |
And so it ends... This amazing chapter of my life has come to a close. Thank you so very much to all of you who made this possible through financial support, and to all of you who covered my time in prayer! I have loved every minute of this adventure with you- and a whole new sort of adventure is just about to begin...
