Ripe Mango Chronicles

Can our sins be used for good? Romans 8:28 says, “In all things God works for the good of those who love him.” In John 20 Jesus says, “If you forgive someone’s sins, they’re gone for good. If you don’t forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?” I’m sitting here thinking about this, thinking about the wording of that. “If you don’t forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?” We need to DO SOMETHING with our sin. I’m a visual person, so let me paint a picture for you: picture a garbage dump, it’s smelly, it’s gross, it’s massive, the pile just keeps getting bigger and no one knows what to do with all that useless garbage stinking up the neighborhood. Then some genius comes along with this brilliant idea: Recycling! Who would have thought we could convert waste into a reusable material. But that’s not all this genius came up with. Not only are we going to recycle, but we’re also going to reduce our waste and reuse what we can. Stay with me here and you’ll see where I’m goin...

I recently read the book Blue Like Jazz. The book itself was very scattered and I found it hard to follow, but there were random quotes and thoughts throughout the book that really got me thinking. The writer talks about living in the woods with a group of hippies for a short period of time. Through that experience he was changed: he didn’t make a conscious choice to change, he just did. He was still the same person but he was different. He had seen the world through the eyes of someone completely different from him, he had learned to appreciate the thoughts and views of a group of people he had never before cared to associate with. In the short time he had spent in the woods he had started to absorb the culture, the attitudes, the passions of those around him. For a few months after he left the woods he becomes this in-between guy, this part hippie part yuppy guy. After a while he goes back to hanging out with his yuppy friends, and absorbs their culture, attitude and passions again t...

God has been speaking to me over the past few weeks. It's always a wonderful thing when God speaks to you, although sometimes it's painful. No one likes to be told they're doing something wrong. As much as we try to pretend, no one truly enjoys being criticized. Yet, the Bible says we are the clay and God is the potter. We need to be pliable and allow God to form us and mold us into the person He wants us to be. Which means sometimes God needs to let us know when we start down a path He hasn’t laid out for us. I am so accustomed to my way of doing things, to my way of thinking. I am set in my ways and to be completely honest I don't want to change. Change is hard. Change takes effort. Change takes energy. Change hurts. Change is humbling. Change means I have to be willing to say, "I need to do something different, because what I'm doing isn't working." I like to think I have it all together. I like to think, "I have arrived." I like to think...

It's been a strange week for me. I've been sick with a very bizarre illness. I usually like to keep my illnesses quiet for my mother's sake. I don't like to make her worry, but I am better now and this story is just too interesting to keep to myself. It all started with a little tiny dot on my side. It must have been itchy, but I don't really remember. I'm often scratching so it didn't really stand out, except for the fact that it kept growing. It took about 4 or 5 days before it really went wild, but on that last day it went from a couple inches wide to a small dinner plate sized, red, itchy, swollen, hard area of weirdness. I went to Grant and Sandy's to see what Grant thought (he's an Advanced Care Paramedic and quite handy to have around!) He told me it looked like some sort of bite that I was having an allergic reaction to. He told me to load up on Benedryl for the night and recommended I get down to the clinic first thing in the morning. Thankf...

Today was strange for me. I sometimes think I'm running out of "firsts" when it comes to the kids at Hope House but then something always happens and I think to myself, "Well, here's something new." The kindergarten kids usually stop by my office when school lets out. Steevenson is a bit of a tattle tale so I am always well informed if one of the other HH kids in his class gets into trouble. Today was no exception. He let me know that one of the girls got in trouble today for showing a boy in their class her underwear. Apparently the little boy asked if he could see her undies, she said sure and up went her skirt. This little incident reminded me that I've been meaning to have a talk with the kids about their "private areas", what's OK and what's not OK, and of course what to do if someone tries to touch their private areas. And so I spent the afternoon with the kids (in separate groups according to sex and age) talking about these thin...

I'm not sure what to write today, but I feel like writing something. Writing just makes things better, writing helps me figure out what is going on in my mind, things I haven't yet digested sometimes come clear when I write. I've been having a hard time sleeping again. It's a cycle. I have finally figured out what triggers the beginning of a disruptive sleep cycle: Nightmares. I have had issues with nightmares for as long as I can remember, but since moving to Haiti the nightmares have become much worse. More frequent, more violent, more frightening, more graphic, more disturbing. I don't often complain about being single, for the most part I don't mind. I can eat the 'last piece' of everything, I can be spontaneous, I can eat peanuts and candy corn for lunch, I can work long hours and come home and work some more if I feel like it and I never have to wait for the washroom, there really are a lot of perks to being single. However when I wake up in the mi...

Thanksgiving was pretty exciting this year, seeing as we actually celebrated! Turkey (non for me of course), stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and of course pumpkin pie. It was a regular thanksgiving feast celebrated with lots of CANADIAN friends, both new and old. It was a fantastic day of celebration. We were all especially thankful to have Laurens with us to share in the festivities.