First of all I would like to apologize for not being able to post last week. As most of you know we had our friend Omar blow on by last Wednesday night!!! All I can say is THANK YOU ALL for your prayers!!! All day wed. we were hearing reports of how the storm would be a category 3 storm and it was projected to pass right over the top of us! I have to be honest I was pretty stinkin Stoked when I heard that. A hurricane with 100 to 125 mph winds oh man how exciting! We did not get hit with the hurricane as bad as we could have, it made a nice little shift in its pattern at the last minute and went to the east of us and didn't really hit any islands dead on like it was suppose to! Although there were still winds up to maybe 60 mph where we were. The east side of the island is in the worst shape obviously because it was closer there but I would guess it was nothing compared to what it could have been. We spent all afternoon putting boards on all our windows and preparing for the storm that night. I think it was such an awesome experience because we as staff had to really work together to get the whole base ready for the storm! Working in the rain all day long was great I loved it, it took us from about 12:30 to a little after six to get fully finished which due to the fact we have only one staff person that has ever been here for a hurricane telling us what to do wasn't a bad time. I'm sure if we ever get to do it in the future it will be a lot faster. WE all got to sleep in the great house which is just the main old plantation house here, where we have our class and everything. A HUGE rock and concrete building that is the safest place on base. We had 20 people stay in there and it was just an awesome time to hang out and fellowship!!!
A group of us were able to stay in the dining room during most the storm which is just a mostly open room with a roof. So we were able to watch the power of God bend and break trees and dump about 8-10 inches of rain. I actually got to out into the middle yard and feel the wind almost blow me down the steps and WOW it was incredible!!! We were learning about the voice of God in our teachings last week and I couldn't help but being reminded of a few verses in 1 Kings 19:11-13 Where God tells Elijah to stand on a mountain top and to wait for him to pass. He sends a mighty wind, earthquake, fire and finally a soft whisper and in that He speaks. In my bible it translates the mighty wind as a hurricane wind, and it was just such an awesome example of how God is capable of creating all this and we are always expecting Him to reveal himself in HUGE ways and most of the time it's the simple gentle voice that we have to listen specifically for.
It was an awesome exciting week we lost power that night and didn't regain it until Sunday evening! We had a generator so we were able to keep our kitchen appliances running and we hooked up our water pump so we were able to shower but our nights were filled with flashlights and kerosene lanterns!!! It sure was an experience that I am thankful it wasn't even close to being horrible, we only had to spend 2 days cleaning up our yard!
This week we are learning about The Father Heart of God and it is an incredible topic which obviously challenges us to see God as our Father. To try and get past the positive or negative perceptions that we have of our earthly fathers and draw near to our heavenly father. I honestly can't even express how great of an experience this is!!! I love the students that are here, they are so much fun to be around and to talk with. It is hard to believe that it has only been 2 1/2 weeks since I met them because it seems like the friendships have been around longer. We are learning how to function as a team and trust each other and be open with everyone. I feel this group is going to have amazing opportunities when we get to go on outreach and God is really going to use us in a special way to meet the needs of the Haitian people both spiritually and physically!!!! I am so excited to see what God is going to continue to do in each one of our lives in this time. It is such a perfect place to really find out who God is and to fall intimately in love with him more and more each day!!!
