Haiti: Reprise

If you're reading this blog, then you most likely know that this past June I participated in a one-month missions trip to Haiti to help provide earthquake relief in the aftermath of the disaster. While I did not do as much manual labor (e.g. picking up rubble, construction, or demolition, etc) as I had expected, I had the opportunity to spend the month at the RENMEN foundation (www.renmenhaiti.org), an orphanage of sorts that houses 60 kids and runs a day school for the surrounding community. I was also blessed with a team of nine incredible sisters and brothers, family who came from all over the States to help show God's love to the people of Haiti. We had the absolute best month hanging out with the kids and each other, seeing God's kingdom grow and encompass our little orphanage "compound."

Even before we left Haiti at the end of June, most of the team felt that God had put it on our hearts to return to RENMEN, and soon. These kids have had so much heartbreak and have been abandoned by so many people in their lives - we do not want to be seen as ten more people who came and then went away, never to be heard from again. We want these children to know that we love them, that we think about and pray for them every day, that we would never abandon them, that we want everybody to hear their stories (please visit the RENMEN Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/RENMEN-foundation/124817047560302 to see photos and read stories of the RENMEN kids).

Several weeks ago, two of my teammates (Melly and Emily, pictured above) and I made the final decision to return - we purchased our plane tickets for December 29-Jan 5 so we can be a post-Christmas surprise as well as spend the New Year holiday with our new Haitian family (and my 25th birthday!). Several of my other teammates have intentions to return with us but are figuring out scheduling/financial issues. I am so incredibly excited and blessed for this opportunity to return!

To make this trip a financial reality, I need to raise roughly $450 for a plane ticket and incidental costs, which means I need great people like you to consider supporting me both financially and prayerfully on this trip. I have complete confidence that God wants me to go back to Haiti and so have faith that we will easily match and exceed my goal. Any money left after trip costs will be used for my relocation to St Louis, Missouri after I return from Haiti - St Louis is where God is leading me and so I will follow.

As my dear friends and blog readers, I do hope that you will thoughtfully consider being a necessary part of my support. Thank you so much for always supporting me in the past as I know you will do in the future!

Please send me an email at ajbulgrien@gmail.com if you would like more information (like my address to send me a check!).

My life on the flooded streets of Ghent

For the past week, the east coast has been experiencing quite a lot of rain.

That's probably an understatement.

It started raining last Saturday night. I remember because I was childsitting and the head of the bed I was sleeping in was right under the window. The sound of rain drops woke me up. It made me really happy because I like rain very much and it has not rained here in awhile. Off and on, off and on, all week long, the clouds dumped buckets of water upon our heads. And as it seemed, off and on, off and on, all week long, life went badly.

My car window regulator broke. I don't have $300 to fix my car right now, so I taped the window shut with duct tape so it wouldn't gap and drench the inside of my car.

Because it was raining so much, the ceiling in my room (and then the ceiling in the TV room) started leaking to the point that plaster began falling. Now there is exposed mold in my bedroom, all the furniture is in disarray from moving it out of the way of the leak, and I can't sleep in there until the landlord comes to fix the leak by ripping out a huge section of the ceiling.

I tried to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, but someone's fiance recently got his own place, so she took all her cooking utensils over there. After deciding to try and make cookies anyway, I somehow (probably in my distress over the rest of the week) forgot various ingredients and the dough was a sloppy mess.

Weddings - especially weddings in which one's sister is getting married - are very stressful to plan.

I have physically felt run down and in a funk all week.

This week, more than any other week after my return from Haiti, I've really felt like I'm not supposed to be here right now. In Norfolk, in Ghent where the streets flood like crazy when it rains and people have days off of school and work because the roads are impassable. I am a visitor, a guest. I don't have a lease. While I do have a job, I was perfectly up front with my boss when he hired me: I was not planning on being here past December and in fact, could leave at any time. My current decision is to move to St Louis in January, although there is always a chance I could pick up and leave tomorrow. That is where I'm supposed to be, where I was headed in July before my sister got engaged, where I am headed pretty much as soon as I can.

How much of me feeling rotten is because of physical illness/fatigue gained from years of running myself ragged, and how much of it is because I know this place is not where God intends for me to live my life and I am just visiting for a little while?

It stopped raining sometime last night, leaving a cold front in the wake of the tropical storm remnants. How long can it last?