Ordinary People to Extraordinary Leaders

Luke 6:12-13 says “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles.” He appointed them to bear fruit- fruit that will last. In appointing them, Jesus offered a life that was hard of work, uncomfortable positions, a life of conflict and persecution. To accept His call meant that it would be a time of fellowship on earth with our Messiah and an eternal reward in the future to come. Jesus took his ordinary apostles and turned them into extraordinary leaders of faith in His kingdom. With this, our leaders on the trip explained that on this trip we are extraordinary leaders. We are serving for a purpose and this purpose is to share the Gospel to those who do not know about the Word of God. You can be a leader praying, worshiping, helping someone or just doing something out the kindness of your heart. Those are acts of service but also being an extraordinary leader. Jesus called his disciples and appointed them. Just as he did through each one of us on this trip.  To end this paragraph i read Matthew 28:18-20 which says ” Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” 

Some questions that were in our daily reflection today were “What did you experience today that pushed you outside of your comfort zone?”, and “what did you learn about God and yourself as you worked with people of different backgrounds and a different nationality?”.

To answer these questions I experienced a child randomly coming up to me to give me a hug and hold my hand while doing family visits in the morning. At first i did not know what to do. But the smile on the child’s face made everything so much better. I kind of related myself to being in America at that time because if a random child or someone came up and did that i think it would be a little bit awkward. But then again, i thought of the times i did that when i was young. I remember my parents telling me stories about being so excited to go places i would hug random people. I have a cheerful heart and that was a way i could get my excitement out, so i thought of this child and thought of him as a younger version of me. I thought of Romans 15:13 which says “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” This excited me reading this verse because it is all about the joy and peace overflowing in our hearts. With this i learned that God does have a strong sense of love for His children no matter what you look like or how you act; God is still in love with us and made us in His image. This is all part of His plan for us!

Silvia Bourn

Meeting the People in the Community

The definition of community means a non-blood related family working together towards the same goals, and with the same outlook in life.  Today our newhope group split up into different areas around the rural area to visit family homes. The first place my group visited was right down the street. The lady there talked about how she broke her leg and had to get surgery on it, how the doctors put a palate in her leg to repair quicker and feel more comfortable walking. We met lots of kids in her home. Only 2 were her kids. Her oldest child was 16, and her youngest child was 12. Her older daughter talked about school and what her favorite subjects were. She loved social science and mathematics. Her youngest child was not there but it was still amazing to see some of the children from just across the street coming into her home and not minding the visitations. The children walk into the homes and just love to have the conversation with others and especially meeting new Americans. My favorite part about being in the community was meeting new people, and the children walking along our sides walking into the homes with us. Praying for the people in the community today almost made me fall apart. My group that went into the people homes took turns praying for the community and showing them what God really has blessed them with. The people did not judge or ask for money. They had smiles on their faces and just asked us to bless them with our prayers. Those are the chances we should take in life and know that we need to priorities our responsibilities and not take things for granted.

Having dinner with our group is another part that is favorite about my day and being able to play games, sing songs, make beats, and just enjoy the company of one another. We have been practicing our Haitian- Creole. I love hearing everyone getting along and asking each other questions to ask the community. Let them know that we are trying our best and we are doing this to share God’s glory. I absolutely love hearing the kids talk together in the community and hearing what there accents are like. It has been a great day with the kids and people in the community. God has moved our students in many ways and it bring me joy! J looking forward to another fantastic day with the community and digging into God’s word!

Silvia Bourn

The Exciting Road Ahead

Waking up at 2:30 am was probably very difficult for most of the students this morning, but everyone was bright eyed and very excited to get into Haiti. Our newhope group sat together on the plane in one section asking each other “what are you looking forward to the most on this trip, where do you think you will be with God by the end of the trip, and if you got to live in Haiti how long would you stay there or would you live there to serve on God’s mission field?” Finally after about a 2-hour flight we arrived into Miami Florida where our flight was delayed 3 hours. Talk about being a little stressed, but then again time to engage in relationships, walk around and find new exciting things in the airport and of coarse look for food because we were very hungry! Miami is probably the biggest airport I have been to, which added a lot of excitement but also lots of stress. newhope did a fantastic job in staying together and making sure get to our flights on time. The Miami flight took a little bit longer then 3 hours because the airplane was just not ready for us to go! Had a little bit of difficulties. I was so stressed and a little freaked out and uncomfortable because the plane would not start so I began to pray asking God to please take this plane and just let it work! I was just more so excited to get to Haiti and see all the new surroundings. Benjamin Kelley said “ if you wave to just anyone they will brighten up and wave back.” That definitely made me even more excited and brought memories back to my trip with my family to Romania with my family. Driving through the traffic in Romania frightened me a little bit but waving to the new faces and them waving back just made my day so much better.

Going back to my story, as we got into Haiti from our delays driving through the city all of us students just waved and laughed. I have to say this was the best part of my day.  I repeated to myself “ what if I lived here? What if God really does have this plan for me and is what He wants me to do?”

Talking with Wesley Kelley, Sebastian Hernandez and Ethan Mikhail I could just see the excitement in their eyes and the hunger to serve others in another country made me get a sense that this is definitely what God had in mind of us on the trip. God has already done so many things on the trip so far. He has blessed us with great leaders, opportunities to share each others stories, the 3 hour delay in Miami and getting to Haiti safe and sound, meeting the leaders from the 410 Cambridge sponsorship team, and the amazing food the ladies served us. It just get’s me so excited because it is something new that we were all looking forward to and it is actually happening! The start of the week begins tomorrow getting into Bohoc Haiti. It is going to be a long drive but a drive that is totally worth it!

Silvia Bourn

Bucket List Number 3

Five years ago on my bucket list I wrote down to go on a mission trip to Haiti. It was number three on that list. My best friend and I just found this list a couple of weeks ago, and I was so excited because it is something I can cross off my list. I have only been out of country one time before to Europe and that is it. This is very exciting and new experience for me because I have never been on a mission trip before. I cannot wait to see what God has planned not just for me but also for the group that we have going.

The van that Keith Fox drove was beyond crazy!  Wesley Kelley one of our students loves to sing and was the controller of the music. The whole way to Washington our van sang, laughed and created so many conversations. It made me feel like I was with my family. By the time we got to Washington our group was so excited and very hungry! Most of us were just looking forward to getting to the hotel to either work out, swim or just watch television. It has been a great day with kids and great leaders in our lives. We are very blessed to have this opportunity to go to another country and spend time showing others about God’s Word. I’m very excited for our departure to Miami Florida and then Port-au-Prince Haiti! Looking forward to a great week with students and leaders.

To start off the trip our group prayed and was asked one question that really got to me. What Am I hear on Earth For? One thing that I am thinking, I think I am here on earth to serve, have adventure, create memories, and show others God’s Word. This trip will help me understand why I’m on earth to serve, why have adventures, why create memories and why show other’s God’s Word. I love adventures and creating memories. I think that is one importance of life is that. Without adventures life would be sort of blank. And without adventures you cannot create memories.

One thing that came to mind was a verse 1 Peter 4:10-11 which says “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” Each one of us has our gifts and with these gifts we should use them to glorify God’s Kingdom.

Silvia Bourn

Inaugural HMI Blog Launch

Greetings everyone…

…and welcome to the new Hope Missions International blog for newhope church!

For those of you who used to follow our old blog (http://hmi-nc.blogspot.com), we will no longer be posting to that site and will, with all future posts, be posting to this new site.  In the coming days, I will create summary pages of all our trips through January 2014.  You will be able to find these in the Haiti and Kenya Blog Archives.

In the future, please come follow us right here.

God’s peace to all of you!!

Dave