Haiti

This past summer I had the privilege to go over seas on a mission trip to Haiti. If you don't know much about Haiti, it is the poorest country this side of the hemisphere. I believe 80% of the population is unemployed and about 85 to 90% live in poverty. People have to eat mud cookies to fill their bellies so that they don't starve. The populace speak either French or Creole (a dialect of french for the commoners). The country is based on a mix of Catholic, Voodoo, witch doctors, animalists. There are no traffic laws so people go as fast or as slow as they wish and gas is extremely high. We are talking 5 or 6 bucks a gallon and this is a poor poor country! This is a place where a person's home could be a piece of sheet metal that they use to cover their head when it is raining! But don't get the wrong impression from these facts...GOD IS STILL THERE!

15 people, 13 from Missouri Baptist University, went on this trek to help out a small school in croix de bouquets, Haiti. This school is known as the Bethel Church Outreach and is funded through IHOP (International House of Prayer). The one who leads this outreach is Pastor Gary Hippolite. Let me tell you, this guy knows the gospel and he shows it through his life each day. He thinks logically and worships expressively. He actually came and visited Missouri Baptist University for a chapel service on October 16th, 2008 for our Mission Minded service. He has truly brought light into a dark place, by the power of Christ who is in him! What I found so amazing about this man, let me infasize MAN, is that after leaving Haiti, he gained a wife, children and a house to go with it. As he and his wife prayed about it, they sold their house to start God's mission in Haiti. He lives in Haiti every other month and while he comes back to the states, gains support, then goes back to Haiti with much needed food. At the outreach that he built, he has created a free Christian School for about 200 children. While here at the school, the children are given an education that they would never get other wise, enjoy recreational activities such as soccer and basketball, and are given a free meal for lunch time.

Though the Haitians are in a country filled with poverty, pullution, and dangerous religous practices, they have a calmness about them that I have never seen. They seemed very content with their position in life, the ones we kept in contact with. They were not dependant on luxuries, clean water, plumbing, electricity (for the most part), cars, nor do they always have a meal. They are a people very open to the Gospel because it brings nothing but good news to them. It gives them a hope that surpasses all that we take for granted here in America.

The children were the most loving children and well disciplined. There really wasn't much whining or complaining or outbursts. Their parents instilled in them honor, respect, and love for others around them. Those of us who went were shown so much love and were seen as family...a distant family :) When we arrived in Haiti and arrived at the outreach, we already saw the love they had for us. They had prepared a meal for us, let us eat first, attended to any of our needs, and were always always praying for us and the mission God had in store. It's hard to even imagine that I might not go back this upcoming May. They helped me see through my constant whinings of what I wished I had or wishing I had better then what I did have. The experience I had there was greater then most others I have had in my lifetime (which isn't really that long). They are brothers and sisters that I will never forget. I may forget their names or what they looked like, but I will never forget the love they clearly had for us and for our mighty God!

What's On My Mind

Wow...as of late there has been a lot going on in the rafters of my little pee brain. I have several choices to make in the next few months. Some will be good and I'm sure will be bad. The first thing on the list is where I am going to do my internship at. Well I see it this way; it will either be at the current church that I am attending, the Journey, or my home town church, First Baptist Church of De Soto. I got an application to fill out for the Journey but I don't think I'll be filling it out. Not because it is a long list of things to do but because I really think I should go back to my home church where they have helped me out so much over the years. Also, the Journey internship would probably drive me into the ground with all the fund raising and I would have to commit to a full year. Then I wouldn't be able to go to the seminary that I would want to attend which I will talk about next.

Next thing on the list is what am I going to do when I graduate? This struck me about a couple months ago that I should think about seminary. So I did some digging and I think I found the place I really want to go to...Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. It's in Forth Worth, TX if you didn't know. It has a concentration that I have found to be very interesting...Christian Ethics. This is under the umbrella of the Masters in Divinity program where I would take 12 extra hours toward this concentration. I might even use my elective credits to finish up the division of Christian Ethics. Now my purpose is not to become a pastor! My purpose for wanting to get an M. Div. in Christian Ethics is to merely increase my knowledge and ability to minister within the church. I still feel completely called to the Music Ministry as a Music Minister but I feel that I would be lacking in my teaching ability as a minister which is why I prefer Music Minister over Worship Leader. I want to be more then a guy who plays or sings music on Sunday mornings and prepares all week for music. I want to be a minister who does music on Sundays as well!

All this stuff sounds all well and good but now I find myself in a greater dilemma...money! I keep thinking about how I might pay for school, live in a university apt., get food, pay insurance on a car, health insurance to live in university apartments, gas, etc. I just got enough money to pay for my first semester at Southwestern, if I get accepted that is. I don't want to have to deal with loans and borrowing money. I would already get half-off of tuition for being Southern Baptist but I really don't qualify for many other scholarship opportunities. Why does money always have to cause so much grief?!

Now here is the final problem...I have to actually apply for the place that I would like to attend! Then I have to get accepted! I have completed about half of the application but I keep stalling when it comes to finishing the whole thing. I guess it's just the thought of being far away from friends, MBU, my dad and I have an awesome work environment that pays me well for how long I've been there. All I can do is surrender it to God. He holds my life, my future, my plans in His hands. For as much as I worry, I should be on me knees more often taking it in prayer to God!

What is it about free that they don't understand?

I'm sure you have all heard of and seen the commercials for Free Credit Report.com. I happened to be one of many people who tried it out about 8 months ago or so. It was great to actually see my credit report and that it was so good. Little did I know that they would be charging me 8 months or so later for 14.95. I found out after I called Triple Advantage, who are the ones behind Free Credit Report, that it was due to me not ending my account after the 30 day free trial. Well, I never remember even reading such a thing when signing up for the thing and it wasn't like I really got any real updated information when I checked back with it anyways!

So what did I do to rectify this situation. I google searched Triple Advantage and I found this review on knowzy http://www.knowzy.com/Personal_Finance/Credit/Credit_Monitoring_Is_A_Rip_Off-StepByStep-Canceling_CIC_TripleAdvantage.htm#1CallCIC. It gave me all the knowledge I needed, not only to cancel my account with them but to also get a refund for what I was wrongly charged for!!! So I called them up and the first thing that I said was that I would like to have my account cancelled. Then this guy started spouting out all this information about stolen credit card information and how I needed to stay with them. He then told me that he would keep it active after I just told him that I wanted it cancelled. I came back with, "I want it cancelled and I want a refund as well." "Well sir," he says, "I can cancel your account but we have a strict 'no refund' policy." This was clearly a lie because the review told me about their 3800 complaints to the Better Business Bureau concerning these charges that should not be made on a "free credit report." I told this guy what I knew about that and he kindly told me he would cancel my account and refund me for the month's charges that they WRONGLY charged on my credit card! Just say the magic words of "Better Business Bureau" and they are almost willing to do anything to appease you. That was a fun time.

A Mind In Distress

Oh what can be said that already hasn't been said? That's right, I haven't said anything yet. Well this is my first blog post ever, unless you count facebook. I guess the first thing up for discussion will be what happened two nights ago. After going to a party with 15 people crammed in a 4 person townhouse, I came back with my friend Ben to hang out with our Resident Director Jon Hessel. We played games for a couple ours or so then we left the apartment and to our rooms. Oh and by the way, this is in a dorm. I came back and watched Donnie Darko which was a suprisingly good movie. Time travel is quite interesting but anyways.

After watching that movie something came over me. I couldn't go to sleep or anything so I went downstairs into one of our lobbies and sat at the desk with my laptop. I started typing in things that popped in my head to look up on google search. I typed in "unfocused", "uncreative", "depression", and more that I can't quite remember. Then I go outside while it is raining and start to pace back and forth spouting all sorts of things. I do this for about a half hour telling myself that I'm false, and that I need to leave MBU, I need to quit my job and start somewhere fresh. I even used a cussword when spouting off which is very rare for me. D$%@. I then decided, how much can I get for my car if I sell it. When should I tell my boss and my RD that I'm leaving school and quiting my job. What am I going to tell them? I don't have much of a reason for this. In fact it was very unreasonable that I do this because I only have one more year left here, which means I only have to work here one more year, and I have free room and board as an RA. I would be totally screwing myself over as well as my bosses.

My head finally cleared after I went and talked to my dad about the whole thing. It was just me and him talking in the West County Mall food court while eating some chinese...which I didn't even finish! I remember telling my friend Ben, a fellow RA, about what I did and walking in the rain and such and right after I told him that I was talking to myself he just looked at me and said, "Most people seek help for that." I thought nothing of it until it was me doing it in the middle of a rain storm. I was told that it was a little emo to do so. I remember doing it once before in high school when I took a long walk around my neighborhood at about 9 at night. It was just me and God talking to one another. Me speaking and him showing me things in my mind that is. Not his acual voice but I have often wondered, "What does God sound like?" In any case my mind is not as distressed as it was a couple nights ago but I'm sure this will come again because it often does I just don't talk to myself or others about it.