light hearts.

As you have probably gathered from my last few posts, the past few weeks in Haiti have been hard. They have been filled with unimaginable heartbreak, tears, and feelings of despair for everyone. We as a team and family had just about had all we could take. Praise our God that He knows us and has given us a few days of restoration and recuperation this week.

We have been having some serious car trouble here in Haiti. The roads are terrible, and it is [as we are learning] nearly impossible to find a decent mechanic around here. So since I have been here our cars have been consistently in and out of the shop for various reasons. This week we have been left all day every day without a vehicle to leave the house in. As frustrating as this was at times, it has proven to be a genuine blessing from God because we have been able to take time to just rest. Rest is not something I do willingly, generally speaking. Actually, there are several of us here who have a problem doing it until we are forced to. I'm so thankful that God forced us to this week, because it was much needed.

We spent a couple days sleeping a little later, laying around and watching tv, catching up on emails, listening to podcasts, and stumbling on stumbleupon.com [ahem, Ashton & Wilna]. Yesterday we were able to get away to the beach for a few hours as a Chadasha family. It was so good to see everyone smiling and laughing, with light hearts and truly having a good time. [and I must say, everyone looks better with a tan :)]. Below are some pictures from the day:

You can see more pictures by clicking here.

As I reflect on the last few days, Psalm 46:10 comes to mind. It reads: "Be still and know that I am God." It is easy for things to get moving here so fast that we forget to be still in Him. This is even more true for things in America. But it is so important to take time to just breathe... just sit still and relax yourself even if it's just for a minute, being completely confident that God's got this or that and everything in between because He is God. So I challenge you today to do just that... no matter how crazy your schedule is or how hectic your day might be, take a personal timeout for as little as 1 minute to do nothing but remind yourself that He is God. Because I can assure you nothing can give you as much peace and rest as this.