We are Home!

Yes, we arrived almost a week ago Tuesday. We are so happy to be home again after almost two years. Today we were blessed to have some fellow missionaries visit us at our home. We had an awesome time talking about St. Lucia, the blessings, challenges and mission work there. I am so glad to be back home!
God bless you're week!
Abi

Helping the Poor in Spirit

One day when we were riding the bus down from the mountains back to Castries I saw a young girl, perhaps 18 at the oldest, walking the streets. She was a very pretty girl, with long silky black hair, and beautiful eyes, however, her clothes were typical ghetto clothes. Not really ratty, but skimpy kinda like a designer copy. She had a young baby on her hip, when we caught each other’s eyes, even for those few seconds, what I saw in her eyes tore my heart. I have never seen so much despair; she looked like she didn’t hope anymore. When we passed her I wished with all my heart that I could have got off the bus and talked to her. I don’t know why she looked that way, that might not have been what she felt like, but somehow when I saw her, I knew that’s how she felt. Days after she still haunted me, I wonder what I would have done, could I have talked to her, I’m a shy person; I don’t like talking to people. Would I have had the courage to stop her? Would I have been able to help? I would like to say I said a prayer for her, but I didn’t think about that till much later.

The poor here are different than the poor that we found in Mexico, they don’t just need food, clothes, houses, they do sometimes need that, but their needs are something much deeper. It’s spiritual. Its like that girl, she probably has a house, a boyfriend, some sort of a job, but she still had that hopeless look. Why? It’s a deep longing that they, as we all do, try to fill with what the world offers. Drugs, sex, money, power. But let’s face it; those don’t fill that hole, that longing. Only God can. Now that might sound easy, well then we just tell them about God and bang! Everything is better. Unfortunately the real world isn’t that easy, because we are a fallen humanity. What would you do if something like this happened to you? Would you be able to stop and help? Would you be able to pray for the person? I hope that God will be able to send me people like this to help.

Asking for prayers is hard.

Today I was thinking about something, and that is asking for prayers is sometimes hard. It takes humility to say "I'm not perfect and I want you to help me by praying for me." This reminds me of a something that happened to me in Mexico. One afternoon both my parents where out at the Ranchos, (small villages) and I was left in charge of all the kids save Issac. We had just finished a rosary with some of ladies, it was a Marian feast, I can't remember exactly what it was. Anyway Miss Genie, Susanna and some of us kids had like 10 minutes to get ready and head out to another Rancho. As all older children know, getting 8 kids ready is not easy. Shoes, coats ect... had to be found and children had to be taken to the bathroom and then loaded in the car. I was getting really frustrated and everyone kept saying,

"Come on y'all we need to hurry!" Muttering to myself I hurried the kids only 3/4 ready into the car, I sat down with them and was really annoyed. Miss Genie asks,

"Who is going to share tonight?" (Every time we go to the ranchos different members of the team get to share a personal testimony of faith, or something the Lord has done for them. )

No one said anything, Miss Genie looks behind to us in the backseat and said,

"Why don't you do it Abi?" Things had just gone from bad to worse, I had nothing that I wanted to share, I didn't even want to be there! But I said yes. I tried to clear my mind, but all I could think of was how mad I was and how I just wanted to sit down and cry. The car parked and everyone loaded out, Miss Genie gave some of the kids orders. Meanwhile I pulled Susanna aside and asked,

"Susanna, I'm really upset right now. Can you please pray for me?" Believe me asking that when I was mad and didn't want prayer was hard, but I knew that if I was going to get up and talk I had to let the Holy Spirit work through me. And the only way I could do that was if I wasn't angry.

"Sure Abi." She pulled aside two of my sisters and they prayed for me. I felt all the anger and tears melt away, and I walked into the small chapel, I was ready. When I stood up to talk about my reversion I didn't say exactly what I thought I was going to say, but one of the missionaries told me as we left,

"You did a good job Abi, I saw some ladies crying." That blessed me so much that I was able to bless them, I didn't know them, or see them, or even speak Spanish, (miss Genie translated) but I was able to bless them.

This event taught me that asking for prayer is very important. If I had not humbled myself in that moment I know that I could not have given my testimony. God gave me the grace to ask for help, and through me he touched someones heart.

Many blessings!

Abi

Leaving St. Lucia

Its official, we are leaving St. Lucia. On the 20th of Sep, it will be 8 months of living in missions. We are so excited to be going home, we have not been to our home town for almost 2 years! There will be so many new babies in the family, so many people we have not seen in so long! Our life here in missions has been so blessed, I know this is God's will for out family. While we are home we will be praying about our new mission post. That is also exciting, when you are abandoned to God's will you realize that the whole world is open to you. Two years ago I had never heard of St. Lucia, and even if I had I would never have dreamed that some day I would be leaving here. God is so good!

These last weeks are going to be very busy, we have so much to do. I'll try to post more this month. :)

Blessings,

Abi

Happy 16 to me.

:) This is just a short post to say I did change my age on purpose. My birthday was last week, I was just too sick to post anything. I am now 16 years of age, an age that no matter how old it looks is not all that old. I remember being 7 and thinking how old 16 would be, now I find myself there and feeling that it is not that old. :P Such is the lot of life.

God Bless,

Abi

Friends and Goodbyes.

This week has been busy, well the past FEW weeks have been busy. One of our friends, a young girl Jessica is going to be leaving St. Lucia at the end of this month. She wants to give her entire life to God by becoming a sister. She will be going to Jamaica to join Fr. Ho Lung's Missionaries of the Poor sisters. Needless to say I'm going to miss her. She has been such a blessing in the whole family. My little sisters adore her and scream her name when ever she comes over, covering her with hugs. She has also been a good witness to my sisters and I, especially the three of my sisters who are praying about Religious Life. Jessica has been trying to raise money to go, but its going to cost a lot. She told us a beautiful story that happened while she was at mass. She felt like God was asking her to do a special devotion to him, God says that when you say this devotion many graces and blessing will be poured out open the person. She agreed to say and did it, after mass a lady she did not know came up to her and told her that she had heard Jessica wanted to go to Jamaica. Then the lady asked her how much it would cost. Jessica told her and the lady then said she would pay for the entire ticket! We all praised God to hear about how he cares for the people he loves.

One of the other things that we are doing to help Jessica is with our Youth Group. We are putting on a production with little skits and music, we are going to ask people to donate money.

The other reason why this week has been busy is that my brother Peter was complaining of stomach pains. We soon guessed that it was his appendix. One of the sisters here, Sister Rosemary is studying to be a doctor. We asked her to come look at him and she confirmed our guess. My parents took him to the hospital where his appendix was removed. He spent two and a half days there before he was able to come home. He is now on the mend. We praise God that nothing bad happened and that the surgery went well.

God blesses his children in so many ways, He is so good to us.

Blessings,

Abi

This song touches my heart.

Tim Hughes: God Of Justice Lyrics

God of Justice, Savior to all
Came to rescue the weak and the poor
Chose to serve and not be served

Jesus, You have called us
Freely we've received
Now freely we will give

We must go, live to feed the hungry
Stand beside the broken, we must go
Stepping forward, keep us from just singing
Move us into action, we must go

To act justly everyday
Loving mercy in every way
Walking humbly before You God

You have shown us what You require
Freely we've received
Now freely we will give

We must go, live to feed the hungry
Stand beside the broken, we must go
Stepping forward, keep us from just singing
Move us into action, we must go

Fill us up and send us out, fill us up and send us out
Fill us up, send us out Lord
Fill us up and send us out, fill us up and send us out
Fill us up and send us out Lord

Fill us up and send us out, fill us up and send us out
Fill us up, send us out Lord
Fill us up, send us out, You fill us up and You send us out
Fill us up, send us out Lord, yeah

Acting justly, loving mercy
We must go, we must go
To the broken and the hurting
We must go, we must go

We must go, live to feed the hungry
Stand beside the broken, we must go
Stepping forward, keep us from just singing
Move us into action, we must go, must go

Fill us up and You send us out, yeah
Heaven open