"The more you have going for you the more potential you have for identity issues. Why? Because it’s easier to base your identity on the wrong things. It’s rather ironic, but the greatest blessings can become the greatest curse simply because they undermine our reliance upon God and become a source of pride instead of relying on God’s grace, you rely on your brilliant mind or charming personality or good looks. Instead of living out the motto in God we trust, we trust the dollar bill that saying is inscribed on. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with money, smarts, charm, and all the rest. They are gifts from God. But if you fail to praise God for them, they will become a source of pride. Pride is simply the failure to praise. And the lack of praise always gives rise to pride. The Creator has hardwired you to worship. In fact, you can’t not worship. The question is not whether you will worship. All of us worship all the time. The question is who will you worship? And you have only two options either you will worship God with a G or you will worship a god with a g. And if you choose to worship the god of you, you will become a disappointing little God to yourself and all who worship you. Ultimately, all identity problems are really worship problems. Identity issues are the result of worshiping the wrong thing. " (Street Cred -Kelly Greene)

I owe my God so much praise today, he has blessed me with this wonderful opportunity to worship him through serving the people of Haiti with clean water; he has blessed me with great health; he has protected me and my team through some of crazy experiences that are now becoming normal. I sit here reflecting after an extremely long day of travel yesterday. A day that started at 4am from Detroit, then to New York were you have to go through TSA again (figure it out LaGuardia), then down to Miami where I watched hundreds of people scramble through the airport on their way to some wonderful spring break destination. I completely forgot that it was spring break due to being completely overwhelmed and consumed with working, traveling and everything else going on in life. But in that moment I began to thank and praise my God for what I get to do instead of vacation. I thought to myself, thank you Lord for allowing me to spend the next 6 days maintaing 9 water filtration systems that you have blessed our organization with. You have provided the funds, the people, and the technology to supply thousands of people with clean drinking water. And it’s my “job” to maintain them! We began to board another plane down to Haiti were I could predict a Haitian would be sitting in my seat on the plane. Sure enough I happen to come to my row and there he was, as innocent as possible but totally guilty of taking my seat. I just had to chuckle. Landed in Haiti, and as normal had to wait forever for our bags, something that we have grown totally used to. It is nice to finally be in a place were I don’t have to stress about not having my stuff, or my needs, or my problems fixed now! I have learned to rely on God to provide the resources in Haiti that he sees fit for our mission, so if that means I don’t have any clothes for the week, that means I don’t have clothes the week. 

God continuously shows his power and protection over our team. We’ve had to travel through the night in our truck the past two nights and haven’t had a single issue mechanically. He also granted me the strength and focus to drive tonight not only through Port Au Prince in the dark but during Carnival crowds. I did, however, get stopped twice tonight by the police which ended both times in a bribe to remove the hilarious accusations. I couldn’t help but pull our team together after the ride and praise the Almighty. He deserves so much more praise then we give him as an organization, and WAY more then what I give him. I’m thankful for a roof over our head tonight as the rain begins to trickle down in Petit Goave and extremely thankful for the people that he has surrounded me with this week and in life. 

Today before our trip into Port Au Prince we stopped in at Papette Wesleyan Church and School to check up on our waterhouse that was built by Fall Creek Wesleyan Church in Indiana. The first thing I noticed when opening the door of the waterhouse was the 133,000 gallons of clean water that had been made since September. The Lord literally poured out his presence upon me as I stood in amazement that he can just take willing and able servants to bring life and clean water to the church, school and community. I began to discuss with the Pastor Wilzor and another leader of Papette a few minor changes that I wanted to make with the system to increase it’s productivity. He began to share with me about how he was so appreciative of Poured Out and the blessing of the waterhouse. He couldn’t believe how much we cared about the project and how we took responsibility to come and check up on the filter. I realized today that not only do we as staff of Poured Out watch so many water projects in Haiti get neglected and left, but the local leaders noticed them too. I began to thank him and his staff for watching over the project, protecting the equipment, and for taking care and responsibility of the project. Again I can only praise my God for what he has allowed me to be responsible for, to care for, and to serve him through. I can’t wait to wake up tomorrow and live life for the God-moments in villages like Papette and Fondoux. Pray for our team this week as we will be driving quite a bit, and through the celebrating villages as Carnival begins tomorrow and pray for those coming to be awakened to what God is doing here in Haiti through the hearts of his people.