July 18th Haiti

<3 July 18th 2009 <3 Les Cayes Haiti Bonswa! That’s Hello after 12pm! Like so so much I could scribble on the page all at once but let’s go slow…. Right now I’m on the compound sitting outside with Mary Scott. I’m FREAKING out at how Bella (Creole for pretty) it is here. I’m just wishing that I could live here for the rest of my life, “I never expected to love it here so much” -Hannah Montana Movie 2009. I mean I knew I would like it but never that I would want to uproot my life in the sates and move here me of all people NO WAY! Oh my gosh I am so positive that I want to come back next summer and I want to find a Creole curriculum and learn it ALL by then! The Wray’s are SO nice and I just love Tony and Tracey they are so nice and Oh the Cain girls So sweet! We have just a great team! Now some Haitian Dangers! 1.Vehicals have the ride of way. 2.There are no lanes. 3.Pot holes could be a pool (NO LIE). 4.There is NO speed limit. 5.Tap Tap’s (big bright buses) are OVER LOADED! 6.Tarantulas! EWWW 7.Everything is done the un-safe way. Well it’s time for dinner and I have to pull up my hair. Oh Happy 14th Eyleah! <3 Love, MacKenzie As you can see I was super EXCITED to be there and even more excited for what was to come! I'm going to try to post more of my journal through out the week. God Bless! PS: Mrs. Tracey is back from Haiti check out her blog to see what she did there! :)

The Song Love'em like Jesus

“Love'em like Jesus” Why didn’t anyone tell me, it was going to be hurt so bad the poverty I see, has already begun to make me sad. What do I do, how can I matter, where do you want me to start? I hear you say you’re on your way, just listen to your heart. Chorus: Listening to my heart, you tell me what to do Love'em like Jesus, then give them back to you. We’re on this bumpy, old dirt road with four more hours to go the empty eyes, their little faces fly by me outside this window. I wish I could hold these children, I wish could care for them all I close my eyes, say a silent prayer, I just want to answer your call. Chorus: Listening to my heart, you tell me what to do Love'em all like Jesus then give them back to you. Blessed to be an American, here I sit in this foreign land the needs are great and I am small, but I’m determined to do it all. Your word is true and I’m sure of it, you’ve called me to this place I’ll offer your love to all who need it until I see your precious face. Chorus: Listening to my heart, you tell what to do Love'em like Jesus then give them back to you. We keep on driving on that road - so many rocky miles to go. The week ahead is going to be hard but I know that I’m going to grow I know I’ll see their little faces, dirty feet and sweaty hands I will give my heart and soul to them, because that is your plan. I already feel a call to this place, to live my life and share I already feel I want to stay and show these children you care I cannot tell what my future may hold or when it will finally start But I hear you say, you’re on you’re way – just listen to your heart. Chorus: Listening to my heart, you tell me what to do Love'em like Jesus then give them back to you. Listening to my heart, you tell me what to do Love'em like Jesus, Just Love'em like Jesus (just voices) Listening to my heart, you tell me what to do I'll Love'em like Jesus, and give the back to You. I hope you enjoyed that :)

The story behind the song.

From the moment we stepped out of the airport in port au prince (which has since been destroyed by the earthquake) and the Wray’s (the missionary family we stayed with) picked us up, we threw our entire pile of luggage in to their car and we started down the incredibly bumpy road. I had lyrics pouring into my head the entire time. Now I’m no writer as you can see by my poor grammar and run on sentences. I don’t write or play music at all the only thing I had ever written was a poem for my dad. So did I expect a song to come out of that trip? Absolutely not!God had other plans cause that song shared my experience in a different way on a different level and he also gave me a great friend through it. =) No one knew about the song the whole trip not even me really I was just scratching down lyrics every night. After we got back to the states and I finally wasn’t fuming about having to leave I pulled out my journal and played around with it a little bit. Never did I think it would ever leave that book. One night the Herrera’s son and I started chatting on Facebook (he was still in Haiti with his parents and I had been back for almost a month). We were kind of friends before this but it was a little odd for us to have a spur of the moment 4 hour chat. So as we started talking he was telling me about his guitar playing and how he found one there and was working on a song. So I slipped in that I maybe possibly wrote one about Haiti, immediately he asked for the lyrics. I sent them to him and by the next day he had a tune and we had made Mrs. Tracey cry!At some point it the conversation that evening it was said that we sould sing this song at our haiti presentaion!I'm not really sure how that happened but anyway. He came over the night they got back and played me the song, it was amazing! From then on it was tunes, bridges, which verse should open, should it be a duet, on and on! I was terrified! I’m the quiet shy one who is constantly worried about who is looking at her and what they think. So obviously standing up and singing in front of a bunch of people was not ideal. The fear kept amounting till one night Tony and I were practicing and I just felt like wow this is kind of cool isn’t it? Not many people can tell their story this way. Now I would very much like to say I kept that mind set and everything went smoothly but then I would be a liar. Well half a liar everything did go smoothly and we got so many complement’s some even asked if we had a CD of the song. Now no one could see it because I’m the kind of person that hides her feelings till they just about explode out of you (I know not a good thing). I was so nerves I was shaking! I was shaking so bad I felt like I was going to fall over. Tony was the perfect person for me to be singing with. He is all fun! He kept it light and made it feel like we were just singing in my living room again. Of corse that didnt stop me from being so hard on myself (once again I know not good). So all in all great performance aside from my “nerves shakedown” Okay I’m sorry that was really lame but I couldn’t resist! =D so one day I might actually get a recording of it and you all can hear it but until then it’s called “Love’em like Jesus” Enjoy!

The Plan......

Okay so the Herrera’s are planning to be in Haiti full time by January of 2011, and I plan to be there with them by June 2011. I will be there the entire month of June, and then God willing the last week of June or Maybe even the 1st week of July, my family will bring a team through Harvest International for a week long mission trip to work with the Herrera’s and I and I would just fly back with the team. My trip will not be through Harvest I would just get a flight to port au prince and meet the Herrera’s there and I would stay with them so I don’t need lodging and stuff set up for me which is what Harvest does. I am EXTREAMLY excited to be a part of the Herrera’s ministry and love them to death! =) I think this trip will be a great learning experience for me, for example flying internationally at 15! That is like the only thing I’m freaked out about seeing as when I went last year that was my first time on a plane! So God must want me to learn on this trip if he is having me face a huge fear in my life ;). If you are interested in contacting the Herrera’s and supporting them go to their blog theherrerasinhaiti.blogspot.org. If you are interested in the summer team you can email me at blessed.dehart0@gmail.com. Please keep reading and praying. God Bless =)

"7.0 earthquake hits Port au Prince Haiti"

On January 12, 2010 at 4:53pm a 7.0 earthquake it Port au prince Haiti it lasted about 30 to 45 seconds but in that time over 200,000 people lost their lives. I was eating dinner with our new pastor and my friend’s mom posted on Facebook that an earthquake had just hit port au prince. I got up from the table and started googling all I found was “7.0 earthquake hits port au prince” I had no idea if the missionaries we stayed with were okay or if anything was okay. So we kind of brushed it off like it can’t be too bad 30 seconds what could happen in that time. It just got worse from there, I remember that Sunday Mrs. Tracey crying and I so naively asked why and my mom said “That earthquake in Haiti for her is like an earthquake hitting our town for you”. Then I got it that weekend the Herrera’s left a long with their son Tony Jr. (Ti-Tony). They were gone for at least a month and that whole time I just wanted to be there with them helping just doing whatever I could do, which was basically nothing cause all they needed at that point was Medical attention. I still just felt the urge to be there to help anything. Haiti will never recover from that earthquake, they will move on but they will never recover. Because of that earthquake an estimated 350,000 NEW orphans are in Haiti 350,000 kids without parents if you can just think about that for a moment then you will understand why I want to go there. Right now all I ask for is prayer, prayer for the Herrera’s , prayer for ALL the orphans, prayer for all the missionaries already down there, and I finally ask prayer for me and that everything will just come together smoothly and the same even more so for the Herrera’s. All I need right now is prayer, for the people who can give money give prayer most of the time prayer is more needed then the finance. So just pray and keep up with the Herrera (theherrerasinhaiti.blogspot.org) and I’s blogs (compelled2care.blogspot.com) and with Harvest through their website (harvestinternational.org). God Bless =)

How Haiti Project 2011 started......

The Plan of this trip all started around the time of Halloween 09’ I was helping Mrs. Tracey with her yard sale for Haiti. This was a yard sale of all the things they wouldn’t need in Haiti when they moved there January of 2011. Now there are a few things you need to know about Mrs. Tracey she makes the world’s GREATEST CUPCAKES and she knows how to get you to Haiti (not to say it took a lot to get me their). The conversation started with cupcake ideas and new things to add in, and then we started talking about what they would be doing their, then she said it “You should come stay the summer with us in 2011. We will have just moved up there and you can help us out, then your parents can bring a team up the last week and you can fly back with them!” That was it I was absolutely into it we even started planning it out she was like “Start saving now then by the time that summer comes around you would have half the money, and tell your parents for your 16th birthday all you want is to go to Haiti, and you could say they only have to put up the other half!” So we were psyched but I wasn’t sure my mom would go for it. I was right (no offense to mom). She said no to the whole summer she didn’t want me be gone on my 16th so we settled for a month. I was just so excited I could burst I was saving and telling all my friends and was excited all through Christmas I was just HAPPY. Then there was sadness. I will explain the sadness next although most of you could probably guess. God Bless =)

My first Mission Trip Port au Prince Haiti.

Last year I went on my first mission trip, it was a one week trip through Harvest international (harvestinternational.org) to Port au prince Haiti. That all started well with me I guess, I have always wanted to go on a mission trip and the Herrera’s hooked me on Haiti. That mission trip was life changing for me, I learned so much on that trip and I immediately fell in love with probably most of all the kids I just love all the kids. I really and truly was devastated when that week was up and I was incredibly angry the next day when I woke up in my bed with air conditioning. Needless to say that trip brought many things for sure it brought a really special friend and it drew me closer to God. We went down in the middle of July and the Herrera’s had been there since June the spent the entire summer there to see if that’s where God wanted them to be possibly on a full time basis. Now their story is absolutely amazing they are a big part of every decision I have ever made about Haiti go to theherrerasinhaiti.blogspot.org to learn more about them and their ministries. That is all about last year I may eventually get around to typing up my journal from that week and the song I wrote but that’s all for now the next post will be about this trip. God Bless =)

Welcome

Hey Welcome to my Blog! I’m MacKenzie and this blog is for all the people who have and will support me in the past and the future. It’s also so you know what you’re supporting and it’s to give you information if you want to join the team! So once again welcome and I can only pray for how God may change my life in the coming months. I will try and get more info on here today and then I will post as often as I have information. God Bless =)