THE WHY BEHIND IT

I have people ask me all the time why do I love serving in Haiti so much. Especially at work other nurses are very interested in what I am doing. Most people think of the heat, poor sanitation, the diarrhea I usually get when I come home, the tiredness and fog you are in when you come home. It takes a while to decompress and get back to life as usual. I think now that I have been there three times my family realizes that I will get back to normal it just takes a while.
This is why I do it. God has given me the talents and gifts (through my mom making me go to nursing school:) (thanks mom!!) to use for more than just working. God continually is showing me needs all over Haiti. Very real and very sad needs. I know without a doubt He wants me to serve there. If I dont do it I am saying No to God. He gives us choices all the time that are hard. Not always pleasant things to do and we choose what to do with them. The joy I get from being obedient to what God is asking of me and showing me is beyond measure. Second to that is knowing I am helping people to have a better quality of life there. This is the first time in my life that I know I have a choice in what God is showing me and asking me. I can say yes or no. God gave Tom, Jeremy and I, Nick ,and autism, to live with. It is hard but we cannot say yes or no to it. We dont have a choice. We rely on Him to get us through it.
I would never have ever imagined that I would have the opportunities I have been given, or have even been asked to do them, and I thank God every day for them.
So that is why I do it. Knowing I have a choice to do what God is showing me, even though it is hard, is worth more than anything.
I think my family is pretty proud of me too! Who wouldn't love that.

VITAMIN FOR THE DAY
James 1: 22-24
22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

Thank you Lord for your words and guidance and for the Bible to show us how we should be acting. I pray you give us all ears to hear what you are asking of us. Give us the strength to be obedient to those things even if they are hard or not supported by the world. We all have difficulty doing what you ask. We on our own are weak but with you anything can be accomplished. We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.

Food for thought:
Do you hear what God is asking of you?

Steph