Gods birthday gift

Today is my 39th birthday. My haitian friends told me not to work on my birthday. I said it was just another day. Maybe I should have listened.

I was using coconut trees that I cut down to build a support so I can put a porch swing in our yard. After we put the main beam across I began to nail it together. As I was hammering a piece of the nail flew off and went into my eye. I knew right away it way imbedded into my eye ball. I put my hand over my eye and told everyone helping that this isn't good. Then I went looking for Theresa. After I found her I opened my eye for the first time. I didn't know how bad it was. I was lucky the metal sliver was about an 1/8 inch away from my pupil. Just beside the edge of my contact lenses. But it was still stuck in my eye. We call a doctor friend and he called his friend who is an eye doctor his name is Dr Dennis. He told us to come.

We got there about 4 pm. As he looked at my eye I could tell it wasn't good. He told Theresa and I that he could remove it but he was scared it might be too deep and the inner fluid would leak out. He recommended he call a friend who has an eye clinic in Port Au Prince. He could remove it and had the items that could suture my eye if it started to leak fluid.
Dr Dennis tried to call his friend many times but couldn't get through. He then told us he wanted to call some friends in the states to ask their opinion if they thought it could stay in my eye until Monday. Monday is when the Dr in Port Au Prince had office hours.
After talking with his friends they all decided it had to come out today. If my eye leaked fluid it would be a small amount and we could deal with that until Monday. We agreed.

First he put a couple drops of  liquid to numb my eye. The he took a pair of tweezers and was going to grab in. Then he said I'm going to use smaller tweezers. He turned and got them. Spun back around and looked back into his microscope to take out the splinter. As he looked he said you are not going to believe this but God already took the splinter out. It was gone. The wound was there but the splinter was gone. He flushed my eye out with drops but we didn't find the splinter. Can you believe that? What a wonderful present from God.

I had sent a message out on Facebook for prayers as we were leaving for the doctor's office and  Theresa and I prayed a lot during this whole thing. PRAYER WORKS!

Thanks to everyone who prays for  us. We couldn't do it without you!

The mountains

We went into the mountains today to see some kids. We picked up our friend Joe and headed out. It is a long drive that has many beautiful views.

Once we got there we went to the kids house. They were happy to see us. These kids are the kids we brought out of the mountains to go see our Doctors. They had parasites on their feet and fingers.

One little girl had things that looked like ring worm all over here body. We told the mother she need to go to a doctor. The problem is it isn't easy to get down the mountain.

We then went with Joe to homes and gave them dresses and shoes. There was one small boy who took a stick and made it into his toy horse. It was a great day. The mountains are so beautiful.

What do you believe?

Do you believe in God? Do you believe in Satan? Do you believe in angels? How about demons or evil spirits? Do you think they can be on the Earth? Before I (Theresa) came to Haiti, I would answer yes to the first three. I didn't want to believe in demons, I mean how could I? They aren't real, right?!? You read about them and the aweful things they do, but you just put that all in the back of your mind, just tucking it away. At least that's what I did. I was one of THOSE people, oh there's no such thing as demons or evil spirits! But now, after living in Haiti, I will answer yes to all those questions. Here's my story of why yes...

This past Saturday Watson and I took a team into the mountains. Now, we have taken teams into the mountains before, but not to do what we set out to do on this day. We were going up there to evangilise! I was excited to do this as I have gone on prayer walks with groups before, but never in the mountains! I knew we would pray for people and give out some much needed bibles and maybe, just maybe, have somebody come to Christ. Little did I know that God had even bigger plans for this day. Oh, did I mention that this group was made up of 10 teenagers and 7 adults. Along with Joe (who is familair with the mountains), Watson, Loveline, Miranda, Ariel, and myself, off we went. We seperated into 3 groups- Loveline taking the girls and married couple with her, Watson taking the guys, along with the youth Pastor and Miranda & Ariel, and Joe taking most of the adults and myself. It was kinda of odd how we split, I know, but it was all HIS plan.

We started out just like I thought we would. Went to a house, asked if they knew Jesus (they did), asked what they needed prayer for and prayed over them. After doing this with several people I asked Joe to ask the young lady that was leading us around if she knew anyone who didn't know Jesus. She did!! So, off we went to a middle aged woman's house who didn't know Jesus. Here it was, finally the moment that we had been waiting for, and it was WONDERFUL! She was spoken to in a simple way, nothing complicated. She was ready to change her life and she did!! Mesi Jezi!! Thank you Jesus! Now, for those of you who haven't been to Haiti, when white people are walking around, you tend to get a following that goes with you the whole time. So, with that being said, we had a farmer who had been following us around and after this lady accepted Jesus, he started chatting with us. He had some ailments, his wife has some problems, and he is raising 2 of his grandchildren. He thought is was great what we were doing and he was happy that we were there to tell people about Jesus. We offered to go to his house and pray for him, he agreed. While there, he was asked if he know Jesus, and he said he knew who Jesus was but wasn't a Christian. So, the group told him everything that Jesus had done for him and he understood, but wasn't ready to make that commitment yet. Ok, but at least the seeds are planted and he accepted all the prayers we could pray for him. On to the next house. This was a young lady who didn't know Jesus and again God worked through us and she is now a sister in Christ. Mesi Senye!! By now I was thinking, this is great, 2 people accepted Jesus today! This couldn't get any better! OH, but God doesn't disappoint as our day was not over! We moved on and came to a young mother that happened to be the wife of Joe's friend. She said she knew Jesus, but right now she had a voodoo curse on her. Uh-oh, I've heard this before and it can't be good. She proceeded to tell us that sometimes she can't walk, other days she can't use an arm, and other times her head or stomach hurt. She just had all sorts of things going wrong with no explanations. Now, I know what some of you are thinking, just take her to a doctor and they'll figure it out. Well, that's not always the case, especially here in Haiti. I looked at different members of the group and then to Rod (Team leader with his wife), he said "this is real isn't it", and I agreed. I told them that she probably does have a curse and we need to pray over her to help erradicate whatever is ailing her. I knew it wouldn't hurt! We gathered around, laid hands on her, and Rod began to pray. After about 30 seconds, she let out what was like a mix between a cough and gasp and immediately the child in her lap began to cry in terror. Someone removed the child to calm her down. Rod continued to pray, she did this 3 more times ( I'm getting goosebumps as I write this), and as he was praying I started to get a tingling sensation all over my body. This sensation went out my hand that was touching her and then a warm, calming sensation came back through the same hand and into my body. I also felt lead to pray and prayed for her to have peace. When we were finished, she was trembling, but ammittedly felt good. Did all her problems leave? I don't know, but, I know something left that young woman's body on Saturday. And, I know the Holy Spirit was there working hard too, because I felt it. Afterwards,one of the other ladies said she felt the same sensations I did but was afraid to admit it because that was the first time she ever felt it and didn't want to sound crazy. THAT, was the Holy Spirit and GOD was amazing on Saturday!! Of course he is everyday, but somedays it's more in your face than others!

The other groups had awesome stories to tell as well...
One teen girl prayed out loud for the first time ever. She said she didn't realize she could pray so well and the words just flowed eloquently out of her mouth. The boys prayed for a witch doctor. Yes, you are reading correctly, a witch doctor! On that day his father became a Christian too, so again, some more seeds planted. Maybe when we return to take some more bibles up there, the witch doctor will have changed his ways! The youth Pastor baptized a man in a parasite infested creek. Props to Logan for not even thinking twice about getting in a Haitian creek! A young boy stopped the group and said that HE wanted to know who Christ is right after his brother accepted Christ. They also challenged the young boy's brother to start a bible study. We will be returning to check in on everyone because follow up is key.

So...
I believe in good and bad spirits. I believe that there is a spiritual struggle everyday here on earth. I believe that with God all things are possible because GOD is all powerful. Satan and evil spirits may not be in your face everyday like this, but they can use things in your life to distract you from your walk with God. What do you believe?

Gods Grace

Greetings from Haiti! It is hard to believe it is June 2013! I now believe time does go faster the older you get. We have had an amazing year so far. I won't lie there has been many trials too. But I think that is when we know we are doing God's will. Satan will attack us so much more when he sees us working for God.The team this week will find this out when they return back to the States.
On Saturday Theresa and Watson took the team into the mountains with seven bible and a desire to spread the good news. When they got back the stories they told were like stories right from the Bible itself. They told about casting out Demons, baptizing a person in a stream, and  most importantly they told stories of people accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior! Isn't this the reason we are here? And I don't just mean the Snyders in Haiti, I'm talking about each and every person who asked Jesus to save them.
Are you afraid to grab your bible and go out and preach the good news? Are you one that will say I don't know the Bible well enough to lead people to Jesus? Do you think that "I could never do that"? All I have to say is God Grace is enough! He has and will give you all the tools to share the Gospel. He will speak through you.
Theresa plans on blogging the stories. I felt led to say what I said.
God Bless.