You have pretty bones.

I’m taking a break from writing about Haiti. I will continue to tell my Haiti journey, but God taught me something recently and I just wanted to share it with you. It’s cool how He uses the smallest things in my life to teach me something incredible about who He is to me.
A story that you will hear on a later post is about what I brought back from Haiti. Yes, I brought back a lot of cool souvenirs, but along with that I carried home an infection in my foot. I know, a crazy thing like that would happen to me—it’s a really interesting story that I will for sure tell later.
Because I had the infection in my foot, the doctor wanted me to get x-rays just to make sure the infection had not got into my bones. This thought made me nervous and I prayed hard every day that it had not. As I was driving to get my x-rays done, I looked and my foot and begin to think. My foot has been really swollen and honestly gross. I wondered how a machine could look past so much swollenness to see my bones. The thought seemed unreal to me and I just didn’t think it could be done. After completing the x-rays, we went to the screen and a perfect picture of my foot bones appeared. I was amazed, because technology had actually made this happen. I looked at my bones, and nothing was wrong with them. There was no infection there and I could see each one in a very clear state. The x-ray tech actually told me I had very “pretty bones”. I enjoyed receiving a nice compliment.
As I left the x-ray office, I began to think long and hard about what had just taken place. Yeah, it was just a simple procedure that I had done, but I realized real quick that God was teaching me something about Him. My life is just like my foot has been—nasty, gross, disgusting—my sin makes me that way. The cool thing is though that God can look beyond that stuff and see me just for who I am. He can see me perfectly clear and see the person he has shaped me to become. That’s how great my God is. He’s just like an x-ray.
This is something I think about all the time now. It just amazes me that God is so big and so great that He chooses to do that for me. Think about that today and know that, just like my foot, our lives are full of sin that make us gross. But God looks beyond that and sees us in a different way. He has forgiven us of our sin, so He doesn’t see that. He sees us in a way that we can’t see ourselves. So, to God, we are His pretty bones.
Holding Open His Door,
JB

Big Dreams. BIGGER GOD.

Before telling my adventures this took place in Haiti, it is only fair that I give praise to my Father for what He did so that I could go. While God did a lot in my life while I was there, He had also done big things to allow it all to happen. For quite a while, my dream has been to be able to go on a foreign mission trip. I just never had the opportunity or felt the Lord leading me in that direction. This past year, God really taught me a lot about dreams. And what I remember, specifically from a message by Louie Giglio, is that it’s a great thing to dream in God, BUT, you have to let Him decide when and how He wants to make those come true. It was really hard for me to take that in, and it took a lot of faith for me to say, God, here’s my dream, its now fully Yours.
Ever since the earthquake took place in Haiti, the country has been a huge passion of mine. Its been my burden and my heart has broken for what they have had to go through. God had really given me a love for the people, and I wasn’t sure how He would use that love he developed in me. My immediate thoughts were of things that I could do here at home to help the people of Haiti. Little did I know, God had other plans.
This summer, I worked CentriKid for my third summer and we do eight weeks of camp. Our last week was really small and we did not need a staff of 24. Our coordinator called some of us and asked if we could go home a week early, and my first response was…yes. I thought I could use an extra week of vacation and just some extra time to get ready for school. I had no set plans of leaving a week early from camp.
Two weeks later, I got a Facebook message. The subject line read…Free Trip to Haiti. My jaw dropped open and I was confused for a few minutes. Most of you probably know that when you go on a mission trip, it’s not usually free, so this was a big shock for me. As I read on, I learned that they wanted eight people from our local colleges to venture to Haiti to do VBS and camps for kids. Anyone that knows me knows that this was right up my alley. I instantly replied to the email and said yes, I would love to go. I didn’t know at that time if I would be selected or not and just gave it over to God.
I don’t have to tell the end of the story, because everyone knows what happened! I was one of the eight selected and went to Haiti last week. As childish as it seems, dreams do come true. I gave my dream over to God and He took care of everything. I could have never planned it out the way He did, but He took care of that. I am so thankful to Christ for having blessed me with this opportunity that I will never forget. This was just the beginning of an incredible journey, and I cant wait to tell you guys all about it!

Holding Open His Door,
JB

Never Have I Ever...

I used to be the pro at this game. Because to be honest, there's a lot of things that I just haven't done. My first one I would always say was "Never have I ever...been to another country." It would immediatley knock out the majority of the people that were playing. I realized today that I can not say that anymore. I have taken a trip outside of the United States, to what felt like a completely different world.

As most of you know, the country of Haiti went through an earthquake about seven months ago. Ever since that day, my heart has broken for the country and the people have become my passion. I had thought of things I could do to help them from here, and that seemed to be going well. Little did I know, that I would get to help them in a bigger way.

This past week I spent the week in the country of Haiti, ministering to the children and working on other various projects. As my first foreign mission trip, I knew it would mean a lot, but I don't think I realized just how much it would change my life. Check back later through the week as I tell you about my experience and how the Lord worked in BIG ways in and through me.

Holding Open His Door,
JB