Things I Never Thought I’d Do – Part 1

First of all, this Jessica, not Matt.  I am 31 years old and in the process of moving to Haiti to run an orphanage.  Over the last two years we have been to Haiti about 13 times.  Most of these trips have been for a week or 2 at a time and right now we are here for a month.  During this time, I have found myself in situations I never thought I’d be in and have done some things I never thought I’d do.  I decided I needed to start a list and keep it ongoing so I don’t forget some of the funny things as well as some of the things God has used to teach me various lesson.  So, with that being said, consider this part 1 of: 

Things I Never Thought I’d Do

• Move to a 3^rd World Country
• Buy toilet paper from a moving vehicle
• Take a battery out of someone else’s car and put it into the one I am trying to use just temporarily then put it back
• Be told that American $100 bills are not good because they “don’t have the specimen” (these are the new $100s that came out in October….they will not accept them here)
• Go Tarantula Hunting
• See a rat the size of a small dog
• Watch a mother give up her child to a stranger so that the child could have a chance at survival
• Watch women go through a trash bag and pick out things for themselves that I considered trash
• See a 17 year old boy have to go to remedial school because he is in the 4^th grade because he was never given the opportunity to get an education until now
• Watch children be so hungry that they eat so much they throw up
• Watch a woman cry because she is so thankful we gave her a job….a job cooking for 34 children on fire outside in the mud
• See a 14 year old girl on her Sunday afternoon iron 34 sets of school uniforms (with pleats) using an iron filled with coals on the ground because she just wants to help

These are things God has used to make me laugh when I need to, to teach me to be thankful for the things I have, to humble me, and to draw me closer to Him.