Rain, Rain, Go Away

A few weekends ago we were able to get away for a few days with friends and go camping. Now, I love camping but it’s a lot of work and with the amount of work we do each day it just didn’t sound like an extremely relaxing getaway however our kids really wanted to go and we were told it would be a low maintenance camping trip so we decided to give it a try. It was about a 3-hour drive south, which was beautiful! When we got to the campground it was so well landscaped and appropriately named Eden. Nestled between and river and the beach you could just lay in your hammock and listen to the waves all day. There were staff there to help set up our tents and a wonderful Pastor who runs the ministry and his wife who was our amazing cook while we were there. Now that’s a camping trip where you don’t have to worry about meals or putting up your tents! Still part of me wondered how I would sleep. I mean, camping in August in Haiti…it’s beyond HOT! First night was not too bad, our battery fans lasted all night and I was able to sleep some although I couldn’t decide if I was hot or cold because of how humid it was. I felt so strange but looked over and saw Matt with a blanket on and decided if he is cold I must be too. The second night was a little different story and involved rain. I am pretty sure our tent was not even water resistant. We felt it from the first drop. Matt gets up and finds a tarp and gets help covering the top of the tent. This helped some until the wind started blowing it in from the side and the pools of water started to form throughout our tent. There were 4 people that ended up moving into the hot stuffy van to try and sleep so they would at least be dry. The others slept with it raining in their tent and everyone prayed for it to stop. It’s not often that rain last more than an hour or so in Haiti but not this night. It rained all night. In the midst of my asking God to please allow the rain to let up He guided my prayers towards thanksgiving. Thankfulness that we have a house with a roof that doesn’t leak that we can sleep under each night. Thankfulness that we had a van people could sleep in at that very moment. Thankfulness that we had air mattresses so we could float above the pools of rain in our tent. Thankfulness that God has provided houses and new roofs to people in our community so they don’t have to go through more hardship every time it rains. I began praying for the people that have many sleepless nights when it rains because their children are wet, cold and crying. Their belongings are probably all wet and muddy from a leaking roof, flooding house, or no roof at all. I am most thankful that God gave me a much needed reality check that night. It is so easy, even living here, to forget how a lot of people have to live. I laugh when I hear people in the states say “I sometimes envy people there living the ‘simple’ life”. I am convinced there never was such thing as a simple life and if there was it would be the one Americans are living right now. We are spoiled and we take so much for granted. Lord forgive us, me included, for not giving You thanks daily for all You have allowed us to have. I really just wrote this blog so I would not forget this trip and how God reopened my eyes. But if you are reading it then my prayer is that every time it rains God would remind you to first be thankful for your shelter and second to pray for those who have none.