Sparkling Breadcrumbs

People often ask me, "why Haiti?" or "what brought you here?" I am not good at these questions. The reason I am not good at these questions is the answer is an emotion. How does anyone put an emotion into enough words to make someone who has never experienced this emotion be able to fully comprehend it? You just can't. I can't explain to you "why Haiti?" but I am going to try.

You know that old fairy tale, with the bread crumbs? The little kids go into the woods and leave breadcrumbs to establish a trail. I feel like sometimes God is leaving me breadcrumbs- I know this may sound crazy... but it feels true. I feel like when I start to do something that is right and down His path He encourages me and rains glitter down to show me that this path is right. I start seeing His sparkling breadcrumbs and feel that "ah-hah!" moment. Like when you are hiking and you havent seen the trail marker in a long time and finally you see that small painted square on the side of a tree and your heart beats a little slower. 

You may be with me until this point but now you are saying, what are these so-called, "sparkling breadcrumbs"? They are woven deep within life. This is what makes it difficult to see them sometimes and can lead to discouragement or a feeling of defeat. They are the way the stars sparkle here in Haiti like nowhere I have ever been. They are the way I can navigate through the chaos that is town as though I have been driving in Haiti for many years. They are the wind blowing through my office window when it is, what feels like, one million degrees. They are a child running up to me and hugging me so hard I feel each little finger digging into my skin. They are a teenager confiding in me to protect the secrets that they hold nearest their heart. 

When I am granted a chance to see one of God's little breadcrumbs He has thrown for me, I feel deep in my heart the answer to "why Haiti". I feel the answer of, "this is what you were made for, you are not meant to be somewhere else". 

Now that can be a hard answer to give a perfect stranger when they ask why this is the ministry that I find myself in, but it is the truth. I do not have a big theatrical answer as to why God sent me here. I just know that He adjusted my route every single step of the way to shift my feet to make sure I was marching here. I know that every time I tried to do something else I felt that panic in the woods when I realized I had strayed from the path that was created for me.  I know that when I imagine my life without this country, without these children, without Kids Alive Haiti I feel very much "breadcrumb-less". I dont believe God created me for endless wandering, I believe God put motion in my feet. He has sent me on a rapid run through the woods, seeing His breadcrumbs throughout so I know to just keep running. Running towards Him. Running towards love. Running towards my life He has created. 

So when you ask, "what brought you here?" My only answer is God. I am excited to keep following my sparkling breadcrumbs where ever He may throw them. I pray you find some of the breadcrumbs He has been throwing for you too.