random stuff!

these first two pictures are from where we buy our beans. i had a couple other pics, but they won't upload right now. i'll try some other time. there was a muddy creek full of trash, and pigs, chickens, and goats roaming around.





and these two pics are the view from my roof.




and now for the random things:

- we don't have electricity in the mornings, (the only time we have city electricity is at night), but i'm usually willing to do what it takes to have some coffee. so i boil my water. not that difficult, i can handle it. but a few days ago, after i put the water on the stove, i got called away to other things. by the time i got back to my room and remembered about the stove...well, there was just a pot and no water!

-rats and mosquitos love me. don't worry though, unlike the mosquitos, the rats aren't biting me...they just like to hang out.

-i learned something new! as you know, in the american culture, if you slide your hand or a finger across your throat, this symbolizes saying "you're dead meat!". however, while driving, the person i was with made this gesture to someone on the street...and then explained to me that in Haiti it simply means "i don't have anything".

-the kids at the orphanage love the movie "Annie". i think they would totally be okay if we watched it every single day. they sing along with the songs, and even when we haven't watched the movie for several days, it's not uncommon to hear one of the kids singing an "Annie" song through-out the day. but i have come to realize that while the seem to have the songs pretty well memorized, they get a lot of the words wrong. i don't bother correcting them though, it's fun hearing the songs in their broken English with the wrong words! (ah man! now i've got in my head "let's go to the movies Annie...")

-and we finally start school tomorrow! we were originally suppose to start Sept. 8, but the government pushed it back due to all the hurricanes. so we'll see how that goes!
okay, i promise to share more later!

i'm here!

okay, as you probably know, i am in Haiti now! i arrived Friday evening (the 5th). although the days feel long, i can't believe it's almost been a week!

i know most of my blog followers are involved in Three Angels, but for those who have started reading to keep up with my stay in Haiti...let me give you some background.

i am here as a part of Three Angels Children's Relief. i think i've told everyone how i got involved...so i'll skip that and tell you a little bit about Haiti and what i'm doing here.

first, please continue to pray for Haiti. Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere...and all the hurricane's that have recently hit have made things even more difficult. here's an article i found from http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/10/2360479.htm:
------------------------------------------------------------

Haiti hurricane death toll tops 100

Posted Wed Sep 10, 2008 10:00am AEST

More than 100 bodies have been found since Monday in Gonaives, the Haitian city hardest hit by Tropical Storm Hanna and Hurricane Ike, Vicky Delore-Ndjeuga, a spokesman for the UN Mission in Haiti said.

"As the floodwaters recede, we found three more bodies in the city," he said. "The total is now 101 dead," she said.

"If we don't find a way to deliver massive humanitarian aid, we will see fights and riots that will kill more people than the cyclone did," she warned.

Gonaives was flooded when Tropical Storm Hanna lashed the low-lying northern city surrounded by deforested hillsides at the start of September.

Four major storms, two of them hurricanes, have struck Haiti in less than four weeks.

All told more than 600 Haitians have died, and the disaster is still unfolding due to the challenge of delivering aid in the impoverished and waterlogged Caribbean country.

"We estimate that 800,000 people are in urgent need of humanitarian aide in Haiti," a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in Geneva, adding that almost half of them were children.
-------------------------------------------------------------------



please pray that God would show this country mercy!!

i recently sent out an update email explaining what my days have looked like so far. if you didn't get it and would like to, please email me. (my email address is on my blog profile)


this is how i shower. don't be mislead by the facet handles. only a drip comes out of the facet. i leave it on and the drip keeps the blue tub full...so i'm always good to go for a nice bucket shower!


and this is our lunch. beans and rice!! it's actually pretty good!


okay... that's all for now. i promise i'll keep you more updated!!

Why I'm here.

Do I love it? Yes. Is it easy? No. But, I think that is okay. We've gotten so use to things in life being easy, that when things get hard, we think something is wrong.   

God cannot mold us to who we need to be unless He first breaks us. He disciplines because He loves. God never said He would command only what was easy for us to fulfill, but that He would be with us. He never said we wouldn’t walk through fire, but that it wouldn’t consume us. (Isaiah 43:2)

Haiti has taught me more about God than I could have ever learned in a Bible class or by reading a theology book. Would I say I understand Him better? Not really. Maybe He is even more of a mystery to me now than ever before. Sitting around a table discussing God, life, theology and doctrine is easy. You can believe God is Sovereingly in control. And I do. To sit in your comfortable chairs, sipping coffee, and declare that God is in control of a hurting child in Haiti is one thing. To stare that child in the face is another thing. It changes things. It does not change what I believe to be Truth. However, it does make God all the more mysterious to me. But seeing things from this point of view, realizing how little I know of God, does not complicate things. It simplifies them, really. We can argue and debate these great mysteries of God. Or we can simply work on living out what Jesus referred to as the Great Commandment. To love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. We are called to live as Christ lived. We are called to deny oursevles. Jesus spent His time on earth showing compassion to the sick and hurting and teaching the gospel. Jesus lived His life serving people. And we are called to do the same. All the mysteries of God do not change that simple fact and command. 

“If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done for you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.” John 13: 14-16

How I got here.

...I sat and listened as a co-worker told me about her previous and upcoming trips to Haiti. She told me stories and showed me pictures. I've heard other people talk about their mission trip experiences. I've had other opportunities to go. But God placed Haiti on my heart. I didn't even know how much at the time. I just thought, "hey, here's an opportunity in my lap, so I'm just going to take it." But it was more than random happening. I thought it was just a one time trip to Haiti, but it changed and influenced every part of my life.

After my first trip to Haiti with Three Angels Children's Relief in August 2007, I took two more trips, one in October and then again in February. Then June of 2008, I did something crazy. I quit my job, told my roommate we couldn't renew our lease like we planned, packed my bags and said good-bye. I drove across the country to California. Why I did that is still a mystery to me. I lived with a friend and her family and got more involved with Three Angels. And really, part of my hopes all along were that I would get the chance to do a long-term stay at the Orphanage. While in California, I was able to help out some. Mostly data entry type stuff. Making sponsorship cards. Helping with the newsletter. While my desire was to be in Haiti at the orphanage, I knew that there were so many other ways I could help. I had watched the leaders of TAs put so much time, work, and money into what they do. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes, I was happy to be any small part in that.

And then it came. The opportunity for me to serve as a temporary House Manager at the orphanage. I arrived in Haiti September of 2008. I worked at Three Angels for a year, then transferred to Heartline Ministries, working with processing adoptions. I was in Port au Prince for the earthquake Jan. 2010. That changed things. Like, everything. :) I spent a little over a year in the states building the foundation for a new ministry, Leve Project and now live in Cayes Jacmel, Haiti. God has brought me this far, so I will trust Him with my future! 

update...

well, Gustav and Hanna have gotten in my way a little bit, and i have yet to make it to Haiti.

last Wednesday (the 27th), i made it to Miami only to find out my flight to Haiti had been canceled. no problem, i can easily book a new flight, right?? there wasn't another available flight until 5 days later, Sept. 1st. SO i rented a car and drove 4 hours to invade the Huijskens home. I booked a flight from Jacksonville to Miami and rescheduled my flight to Haiti for today. after checking several times to make sure my flight was still good to go before we left the house...i get a message as Gretchen and I are on the way to the airport saying my flight has been canceled. so here i am, still in Palm Coast. it's been a grand adventure. thanks Huijskens, for taking me in!

i am now re-re-booked for the next available flight- Friday. hopefully Hanna will let me out of Florida.

this and that.

well, i made the short little drive back to Indiana from California! seriously, though i vote we get rid of some of those states in between. they are totally unnecessary.

things i noticed/thought about on the drive:

-i like driving at night because it saves time. i mean, you'd just be sleeping anyway, so you might as well be driving. but there is one problem. i like the stars. and at night, driving out on an open highway, you can see them really well without all the city lights around. it's just probably not the safest thing trying to stare out my window to get a good look at the stars while driving.

-i really think i could have listened to the Jon Foreman CDs the whole 30 hours and been completely happy.

-this is something i've thought about before, but i'll take advantage of this opportunity to tell you about it. i know you are familiar with this sign:



but does it bother you like it bothers me?? when have you ever seen a deer leaping across the highway like this?? sure, when they are out in a field running, they might prance around a bit...but that is not what they are doing on the highway. if they were, they probably wouldn't get hit by cars so much. i just feel the sign would be more adequate if it pictured a deer just standing there.

-about a week after i got to california, they put into effect a cell phone law. you could only use hands-free phones. so on my drive back to Indiana, and now just driving around town, i feel like i'm doing something "bad" when i use the phone while driving. but then i realize it's perfectly okay here, and i smile and leap for joy and continue my legal phone conversation while driving.

okay, so moving on to being back in Indiana. as most of you now know, i am going to fill in at the O for a few months. i got back in town Friday night, and fly out of Evansville early tomorrow (wednesday) morning. it has been a crazy 4 days!! i won't go into all the details, but i do want to praise God for His faithfulness! from the moment i agreed to go to Haiti, i knew it was what wanted and what God had called me to...but i couldn't see the big picture of how it would all work out. But since then God has worked everything out in ways i would not have even hoped for! He is faithful indeed!!

well, that's all from Indiana...next time i'll be posting from Haiti...

summer in cali

so you saw pictures from my drive to california....but what have i been doing since then, you ask? well, again, i'll just show you in pictures.


VeggieTales. Calvin, Olivia, and I have all the words memorized to the "Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" song. We listen to the soundtrack from the movie all the time, there's quite a few songs from it we could sing for you.




spent some time with Spidey....




Ellie LOVES making tents. and then playing a game or doing a puzzle in the tent.




probably the most popular activity this summer has been duct tape. did you know you can make ANYTHING out of duct tape?? we started with wallets, folders and purses. then we moved on to more advanced things.





Calvin had made himself a whip, so then we thought, why not make a full Indiana Jones get-up? i made him a hat and a pistol. he made the pouch.




i made Ryan a sniper rifle.




Calvin and Ryan playing with their guns. i think they killed Jacob.




dance praise. the "christian DDR". fun times.





the Santa Barbara zoo.




the giant ant-eater. Leah and I decided this must of been the first animal God created. He wasn't quite sure what He was doing yet. :)




Jacob, Ellie, and Grace playing on a turtle statue. it's hard to get ellie both smiling and looking at the camera at the same time.



of course, what's a trip to California without going to the beach?




Ryan and Jacob trying to catch waves.



pokemon. my summer has been filled with pokemon. i had no idea it was still so popular...but maybe i just didn't hang around enough 8-10 year old boys in Indiana. we draw pokemon, play pokemon, watch pokemon, eat pokemon macaroni and cheese...etc.



and while visiting some friends in Orange County, i got to see the wonderful TBN building. the only thing i've ever learned from that station is "pick up the phone, pick up the phone!!! pledge now!!!"

and that's my summer in a nutshell.

rend your hearts.

"rend" by jimmy needham



"you've been tarnished
you've been stained
all the varnish you used to cover up with is peeling away
even now return to me with nothing less than your wounded broken heart"

when i first heard this song, i thought of a verse i had recently read in Jeremiah.

"Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Lord." Jer. 2:22

there's no doubt we are dirty, wicked, evil people. and something else Scripture teaches us- there is nothing we can do to clean ourselves! we can cover ourselves in varnish, it will peel away. we can scrub with soap, the stains are still there. Ephesians 2:1-10, Colossians 2:13-14, and Titus 3:3-7 are just a few of the passages that remind us of our former selves and make it clear that it is by grace we have been saved. God made us alive together with Christ. a dead person cannot raise themselves, life has to be given to them. a blind person cannot give themselves sight, sight must be given to them. a sick person cannot heal themselves, it must be given to them to be healed. and so a corrupt heart cannot chose to become clean, a new heart must be given to them.

"And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, 'Live!' I said to you in your blood, 'Live!'....Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk." Ezekiel 16:6 & 9-10

and what an amazing thing it is, that God would take us while we were still sinning, while we were wallowing in our blood, and give us life, forgive our sins, count us as righteous and give us a new heart! and now He can say to us,

"You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you." Song of Solomon 4:7

i spent a few days over at the Ballock's house...Leah's son Ryan loves playing on photobooth. as soon as we discovered you could make videos, Ryan wanted to make one to share online.

just for fun.

i promise i'll do a real post sometime soon. everyone seemed to enjoy Fred so much, so here are some other fun pictures.



chatting with this nice gentleman in Chicago.


@ Navy Pier. this really isn't original, everyone does this. still fun though.



and the last of the Chicago fun.


at Senor Frogs in Myrtle Beach


having fun at the Underground Mall in Atlanta


doing surgery at a museum in Nashville.


then we decided surgery was too boring. we took the zombie approach and ate our patient.



Calvin with Elias in his hand


Calvin climbing on Olivia's racket

california.

well, i made it to California. if you don't already know, i came out here to stay for the summer and am staying with the Hoffmann's.

here is what a drive to california looks like:



and a few things i've discovered:

-Californians think being in a turn lane means you don't have to use a turn signal
-my definition of "sleeping in" has changed
-everyone i know, i know because i've babysat their children

to love.

Everything we know, every concept we have, is tainted by sin and evil. no, not tainted, fully polluted. this includes our idea of love. our love is not like God's love. God's love is perfect. God's love is unconditional. We throw that word around a lot, "unconditional", but think about what it means. This is who we are without Christ:

"For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our day in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another." Titus 3:3

"BUT God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

it doesn't matter who you are, what you've done, where you've been...God LOVES his people.

our love is not perfect. and our love is very conditional. sure, your spouse, children, closest friends and family- we may love them no matter what they do. but we do not always TREAT them in love. we all know what 1 Corinthians 13 tells us that love is. "love is patient and kind, love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong-doing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." based off of that, how often would we have to say, "I have not loved."?

this song is called "Love" by Above the Golden State. (they're a new band, the CDs not out yet. but as soon as it is, you should get it!)




Father, i pray for a love like Yours! i pray i would love others as You have shown me undeserving, unconditional love. I pray for a heart like Yours, that i would seek to reflect Your image.

"I have loved you with an everlasting love." Jer. 31:3

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another." John 13:34

evansville:

the adventure's of elias and megan. and spiderman. and some other people, too.

he's home!

my brother is home from Afghanistan! my parents, sister, and I went to Savannah to visit him, but because of some delays (nothing too surprising there!), we had some free time to enjoy savannah while we waited.

this is me chatting with Fred (well, that's what we named him) at Bass Pro Shop.


my sister-in-law being the arms for the mannequin.


and at the beach...





and then my brother finally got home! here are some pics of his from Afghanistan and some after his arrival to the states.

okay, i'll do it!!

i am: at work
i think: therefore i am
i know: very little!
i want: to be able to teleport. or for flying to be free. teleporting would be cool though
i have: (yes, yes, more than i need! but that's what everyone else said, so i'll come up w/ something else) a funny taste in my mouth
i wish: i could teleport. (i didn't see a rule book that said i couldn't use the same answer twice)
i hate: spiders
i miss: haiti. and lots of people. you especially.
i fear: spiders
i feel: blessed
i hear: the Leeland CD. and stephanie talking to a customer.
i smell: with my nose
i crave: same things that i miss.
i search: using goodsearch.com!
i wonder: what God has planned for me...
i regret: lots of things. but i don't dwell. even the things that i have screwed up, God has used for His glory
i love: you
i ache: same things that i miss and crave. (i guess i could be more creative and not use the same answers over and over again. but oh well.)
i care: yes
i always: make a list for what i need at the store then forget to bring it with me
i am not: creative enough to come up w/ better answers for this
i believe: God is sovereign. there is absolute truth.
i dance: never
i sing: maybe in the car
i cry: on mondays
i don't always: only cry on mondays
i fight: like a man
i write: on thursdays
i never: touch a washrag or sponge without smelling it first. seriously, once that "old washrag" smell is on your hands, it never goes away!
i need: to learn to teleport
i am happy about: seeing my brother in a few days

just because

here's a video of your kiddos from my February trip.

the first song that plays is "Hide Away in the Love of Jesus" by Sovereign Grace Music, and the second one is "Hang On" by Mainstay.

puritan prayer

"He humbled Himself." Philippians 2:8

Jesus is the great teacher of lowliness of heart.
We need daily to learn of Him.
See the Master taking a towel and washing His disciples' feet!
Follower of Christ, will you not humble yourself?
See Him as the Servant of servants, and surely you cannot be proud!
Is not this sentence the compendium of His biography, "He humbled Himself"?
Was He not on earth always stripping off first one robe of honor and then another,
till, naked, he was fastened to the cross,
and there did He not empty out His inmost self,
pouring out His life-blood, giving up for all of us,
till they laid Him penniless in a borrowed grave?
How low was our dear Redeemer brought! How then can we be proud?
Stand at the foot of the cross,
and count the purple drops by which you have been cleansed;
see the thorn-crown; mark His scourged shoulders;
see hands and feet given up to the rough iron,
and His whole self to mockery and scorn;
see the bitterness, and the pangs, and the throes of inward grief,
showing themselves in His outward frame;
hear the thrilling shriek, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?"
And if you do not lie prostrate on the ground before that cross,
you have never seen it!
If you are not humbled in the presence of Jesus,
you do not know Him.
You were so lost that nothing could save you but the sacrifice of God's only begotten.
Think of that, and as Jesus stooped for you,
bow yourself in lowliness at His feet.
A sense of Christ's amazing love to us has a greater tendency to humble us
than even a consciousness of our own guilt.
May the Lord bring us in contemplation to Calvary,
then our position will no longer be that of the pompous man of pride,
but we shall take the humble place of one who loves much
because much has been forgiven him.
Pride cannot live beneath the cross.
Let us sit there and learn our lesson,
and then rise and carry it into practice.

undeserving.

one of the best things a parent can do for a child is not give them everything they want. they may not like you for it now, but they will hopefully learn to appreciate it. it seems to get worse with every generation. i see it in the teens/early-twenty-somethings of today. we think we deserve everything. we expect things to be free, we expect things to be handed to us. we think we shouldn't have to work for anything, for whatever reason, we've got this idea in our heads that world owes us. just today i saw a little girl wearing a shirt that said, "saw it. wanted it. threw a tantrum. got it." and that's the world we live in!! i'm not saying we should deny children every good gift, i'm saying we need to realize that these things are GIFTS, not things owed to us.

this is one of my favorite passages, it keeps me in check when i start to whine about things being unfair.

"For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, 'You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give to you.' So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, 'Why do you stand here idle all day?' They said to him, 'Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, 'You go into the vineyard too.' And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.' And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying 'These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorning heat.' But he replied to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?' So the last will be first, and the first last."
Matthew 20:1-16

The master did not give the first workers less than what they deserved, he simply gave to those who came later more.

this prideful attitude of how mistreated we are creeps into our lives more than we realize. at least it does me. we are always looking around, comparing, seeing what others have- thinking we should have the same. and if it seems we have less, well, that's just not fair! but instead, we need to realize what we deserve. nothing. anything above that is a gift.

"If God gives that grace to others, which he denies to us, it is kindness to them, but no injustice to us."...."Instead of repining (i looked it up, it means complaining!) that we have no more, let us take what we have, and be thankful. If God be better in any respect to others than to us, yet we have no reason to complain while he is so much better to us than we deserve, in giving us our penny, though we are unprofitable servants." Matthew Henry

my life's song...

if my life could be summed up in one song, it would be this:



yup. that's it. i'm always late. in fact, Late is my middle name. Megan Late Haug. as late as i am, it should really be my first name, but my parents thought "megan" sounded better.

i'm late for everything. paying bills. these days, you don't even have to mail in your bills, you can pay them online or with a phone call...but that doesn't matter, i'm still going to pay them late. my credit card will never be paid off with this $40 late fee i always get!! i don't think they even have grace days...i need grace days!!

i know the library is suppose to be free, but it's not for me. i just went to the library the other day to check out a movie. i couldn't find anything i wanted, but after already wasting time there, i figured i had to come out with something. so i picked up a couple of CDs. i should have just left. i go to check out, only to find out i have to pay $7.50 in late fees first. and the library even gives you a grace day!! but i need more! i need more grace days!!

it's just a fact- if it has a due date, i'm simply not going to make it.

i'm late for work all the time. i was always late to class. i can be on time to something if it's a one-time or temporary thing, but once it becomes routine, i will routinely be not on time.

i'm pretty sure it's a disease.

video chat fun!

okay, so all you other mac users out there know the fun of photo booth. BUT have you experienced the fun of video chat? Elias and i discovered the fun of moving and lining up the video boxes and taking screen shots! THEN why not mix in photo booth with it??