plant it & watch it grow.

this can be said about many things. seeds for plants or flowers, a kind word to someone, a simple moment to remove yourself out of the way and allow the lord to work through you.

this trip was a lot of planting for me. i felt like at times i was planting, sometimes literally, & other times i felt like dry land where the lord was tilling up the dirt & planting seeds inside of my heart. some of the moments in haiti this time were really hard. real hurt. painful even. in the moments of the worst it is so comforting that the lord can wash you with joy, with a smile from a child that doesn't speak your language or with just looking out the window & taking everything in. i am so blessed & so thankful for all of these moments.

it is a funny & magical thing how the lord works. sometimes so slow & so sweet, other times fast & it feels like a band aid being ripped off- in the best way possible.

from the first moment i walked onto the CAD property something happened to me. like this stirring in my heart & in my spirit. that was the moment i realized how much time i have wasted in my life, how  much time i have spent on things that don't matter, how the calling on my life to do missions was pushed aside because of my own desires that were misled. my own desires that led me to time being wasted & now i am trying to make up for all of that. i had found my purpose in those moments. it was so many feelings at once. overwhelming & peaceful.

i have wanted to plant a garden at CAD since december of 2013. i really didn't know how the lord would work it out, how i was going to raise funds to come to haiti again, where i was going to get the plants from, much less how i was going to do all of it. i just knew i wanted to.

why? for many reasons. to give purpose, to provide food, to instill discipline & value into those kids lives, so when they pick the food they can say "wow, we did this, we grew this" -- that is my main goal for everything i do there. multi purposed i guess you can say.

it was amazing to see how the lord unfolded this plan in a blink of an eye. this last trip i went with luke 101 & we teamed up with CIY who was working with Foundation for Peace. i met so many amazing young people that have a heart focused on the lord. the work they did, all the sweat, all the time with the kids, every single moment seeing them in haiti just made me love what i do even more. to see someone passionate for something my heart is so focused on means the world to me. these kids worked so hard & loved so deeply. 

wendy, stacey, jeremy & i were planning on building this fence whatever it took, but the lord gave us clay on this trip who just so happens to know exactly what he was doing. PRAISE GOD. it is so true that our steps really are ordered, if we are on his path he has for us they are.

 so with the help of CIY we got this thing built & planted 48 plants. eggplant, cucumber, sweet peppers & swish chard. we picked 4 kids to be over watering it 2 times a day so the roots can get rooted deep. soon they will be picking veggies out of there & i can't even imagine how exciting that will be. the kids were so happy that we planted food there. their meals everyday are pretty boring & bland & we are slowly making changes to that. literally rice & corn for breakfast, rice & beans for lunch & some weird soup stuff for dinner which most of them eat out of Frisbee's. luke 101 has a church that sponsors the chicken coop they have so now they get a meal of chicken 3 times a week. baby steps. now they have this garden. a little glimpse of hope.

it's funny because here when we view hope we think of our dreams, our future, hope for a summer vacation, hope for a new car, hope for our dream home. when i am at CAD i see how they view hope: they have hope that they will get a  meal, someone to wrap their arms around them & show them love, they have hope that one day they might have a family to love them.

hope: a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. a feeling of trust. want something to happen or be the case.

please pray for these sweet kids. pray this garden flourishes & that we can expand. pray that their view of hope always comes back to the father. pray they always trust him for every meal. pray that when they receive anything they always know who gave it to them. not us but the father. all praise goes to the father because without him we are nothing. pray for the directors of CAD that their hearts are about the fathers business, that they love these kids in a way that is pleasing to the lord, that every decision they make regarding these kids are about the kids & not their own desires.



please be in prayer for my september trip. i am taking my mom, dad & cory! i am really excited to be celebrating my birthday there but more importantly the art classes we will be teaching the kids. the lord always makes a way for me to go to haiti & i cannot even tell you how thankful i am every single time. every single day.  we will be making musical instruments for our december trip, which we will be recording the kids on a cd. needless to say, the kids are pretty excited. i will also be doing an art class where there will be winners & they get prizes & their art work will be going on t shirts that i will be selling to raise money for future art & music classes. i am so excited to be bringing a little happiness to their lives. they LOVE art & LOVE music.

mwen renmen ayiti!

mrs. estes