The Take Aways

I have been doing a lot of processing over the past week or so. I attempted to do it all in Haiti, but there just seemed to be something preventing me from accomplishing this. Surprisingly though, I was able to do quite a bit of processing during my travels on Tuesday.

I have been processing a lot of different things, everything from 'how my trip went', to 'what comes next', to 'what my long term vision is', and even though I have not found all the answers that I would like to have found, I did find some.

My trip, for me, on all accounts was a success. My time in St. Marc was good, but I really felt that as soon as I moved to Port-au-Prince and started my work there, my heart for the Haitian people was finally ignited. Largely impart because I was finally able to spend the majority of my time with them. (Especially by living there at the New Life orphage.) But in addition to that, the ministry that I specifically came to Haiti to be apart of finally got started, and as much as I enjoy Haiti, my heart and passion lie with in discipleship.

Missions Adventures or MA for short, was a huge success for me. As far as my personal goals to see growth in the students and commitments to love and serve God both in personal relationship with him and in missions. I was amazed once again by the amazing work that God did in and through the lives of our teenage students. One of the more interesting surprises was the commitment of our oldest MAer to do a DTS. All in all though, I think that about three-quarters of our MAers committed to doing missions work, which is huge!, and all of them grew in leaps and bounds. Go God!

As far as long-term, I do feel called long-term to missions, but not just specifically to one nation (like Haiti), but to something called discipleship. Throughout my trips to Haiti and elsewhere, is the discipleship that I get to be apart of, that speaks to mt heart the most. Whether in the lives of my students or in the lives of the people whom we are ministering to. I think that is why I so love ministering in Haiti, because everywhere you go (especially now in the tent cities) the hearts of the Haitians are so open to God. The spirit in the majority of the tent cities that I have been to can at times be similar to that of a DTS classroom. Their hearts are so open to what God has to offer them.

So now that I know what my long-term vision is, which in one word is discipleship, but as for what comes next, I am still a little uncertain. There are a few certainties though, I will be flying out to Denver to visit my brother, and then I will return to Salem, Oregon directly after that. As far as after Christmas though, when I return home to visit my family for the holidays, I do not know for sure. At the moment I am praying about extending my commitment to the campus in Salem, Oregon, and also returning to Haiti for as long as a month to serve the base there. But we shall see, I will definitely update this as soon as possible with what I am getting in prayer.

-Kyle