24 years ago I got on a plane to Port au Prince, Haiti for 10 days. I slept on an army cot and dug rocks out of creek beds and used a pick to help make footers for a school and cried my eyes out. I saw men with big guns and garbage burning and sewage running in the streets and stunning green mountains. I saw tarantulas in the outhouse and watched the Jesus movie in Creole or French and held a little girl named Milla in my arms. She had fathoms of stories in her eyes and I wrote poems about it. I spoke with great drama at my church when I returned…and gasped at how great and white and clean the airports were when we got back to the States.
It was my first mission trip and it wrecked me forever…. in a good way. It blew open the perimeters of my “life” vision and filled me with a desire for MORE. More life. More culture. More travel. More Jesus. More dirt under my feet in different lands. More different stuff. More DIFFERENT overall. And I guess anyone who knows me knows that I kinda march to the beat of my own drum….that maybe I haven’t done the things that folks have expected… that maybe I’ve taken a chance here and there….and maybe it’s been the long way home sometimes. There has always been Jesus in it. There has always been this hunger. And Haiti opened it up.
And after 24 years, yesterday I went back. I went back because I’m going to marry someone from this very same island and I needed a new stamp in my passport. I went back because I’m trying to beat the system and get this paperwork on my own terms. But the Feelings ROLLED over me at I crossed that border. The goodness and faithfulness of God overwhelmed me as I drove on these roads with mountains and plantains on either side. Girls with hair ribbons walking home from school, motorcycles flying by me churning up dust. Not so different than THIS side of island, is it? But 24 years later…… 24 years later and here I am. I live on this same land. I am loved (still) by the same God who brought me here, who showed me His Face in another language so many years ago. I am loved by and I’m going to marry a man who was raised on this tierra. How Good Has God Been To Me! It felt like coming full circle, this quick trip to Haiti. It felt like I could see His Hand over me, guiding me through college and nursing school and travels to Europe and living in Florida and California and Pennsylvania, in working in so many different hospitals and holding new mama’s hands and crying tears of joy and sadness and agony and celebration all through these years.
It felt like God was bringing me back to the beginning…the reminder. I love DIFFERENT. I love God’s face on laughing 10 year girls with bright green hair ribbons. I love God’s voice in Sandy Valdez when he’s preaching. I love God’s teaching heart in Kari mentoring the young ladies at church. I love God’s healing in our patients. I love God’s patience in Laura working with her mamas and babies in the Nutrition Program. I love God’s servant-heart in Dan preparing special coffee drinks for us in the Guesthouse. I love God’s hand on Dr. Caceres when he’s doing surgery. I love God’s calling on my life. I feel so grateful for the opportunities that I have had….both in the past 24 years of my life…and in those to come. It takes my breathe away, to recall where I have been, where I have come from, and how FAITHFUL My God Is. It makes me laugh to think of the young girl (me!) who went to Haiti…who was afraid to eat the food, who hated sleeping on her soggy cot, who wore pajama pants nearly every day and cried at the poverty that she saw. I laugh at her now during my cold showers, when I carry buckets outside to get water, when I drive my pasola to work, when I light candles because we don’t have electricity, when I take parasite medicine, when I play dominos with my neighbors in the light of the afternoon sun under the mango tree.
I think of that young girl, anxious to be like her friends and do the traditional scene…..work/money/marriage/kids. I think about her now that I am preparing for this new step, this new Sharing of Life. Monchy and I are about to marry. 24 years later, I am going to become part of a team, The Team Rodriguez. God has been faithful and surprised me when I least expected it. His goodness has not ended. I am praying that I will learn to be a godly wife, that God’s goodness can be seen in our marriage. I think about who I was and who I am and I am so GRATEFUL that God’s timing was not mine. I’m so grateful that I can relish every minute of this. I’m so grateful that this man, this marriage, this job, this ministry, this calling……came when it did.
And I’m grateful as always to be here. THANK you for supporting me. THANK YOU for praying. My cup is overflowing and although I think sometimes that I have some words, they just can’t explain what it feels like to SEE GOD’S GOODNESS. Through you. With you. Because of you. Because of Him.
I’m including a copy of our wedding invitation so that you can see and remember to pray for us (It doesn't actually look like this but you can see the photo and the info and the verse!) We covet prayer. We covet your words of encouragement. We covet your wisdom shared with us. THANK YOU. Dios Te Bendiga Mucho!
Love, Nicole
Monchy & Nicole
The Wedding: December 14th at Camp Bethel in San Juan de La Maguana, DR at 10 am
Philippians 1: 9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and understanding, so that you may be able to discern what is best….
*Please be on time. We will start at 10 am
*Bring casual clothes to play baseball or dominos and a bathing suit for the pool
*No alcohol please
