Update (finally)

Greetings friends and family!

I didn’t realize how long it had been since I had posted an update, time just blurs past out here!

The past month has been great! Each week I have had a different group of kids, usually ages 10 – 15. Each group brings a different dynamic of attitudes, maturity, and how much fun they’re willing to have. Overall, each group has been a great experience, though in different areas.

A typical week will start on Sunday at 2 pm, and end on Friday at 2 pm.

Sunday: The group arrives at around 2 (ideally J ) and us leaders then separate them into their different small groups that they are in for the week. Once all their luggage is put into their rooms, we take them off and do ice breaker games, energizers, and get to know you games. After an hour or two of this, all the groups come together for large group energizers. Dinner is then served at 7. After dinner, Ilie, the camp director, introduces the camp, lays out the rules, etc. Then the kids go to bed.

Monday: We meet the kids for breakfast at 8:30, and then let them go and get ready for the day. At about 10/10:30 we meet up with the kids and hike up to the ropes course. The first day at the ropes course consists of low ropes elements, i.e. elements that are close to the ground. These elements require teamwork and thinking outside the box type strategies to get through. We leave the ropes course around 5 and go to dinner at 7. After dinner the leaders perform a bunch of crazy and fun skits, and then it is bedtime.

Tuesday: Same morning schedule, and back up to the ropes course at 10:30. Tuesdays we do high ropes course elements, which involves climbing boards suspended from cables, jumping between platforms, and walking across suspended logs. Most of these elements are 7-8 meters off the ground (22-25 feet) and a good number of the kids will have fears to overcome. Watching someone who is shaking as he climbs the ladder, but comes down glowing after he conquered the element is one of the most rewarding parts of being a leader out here. Tuesday evening we stay up at the ropes course and have a fire that we roast dinner and s’mores over.

Wednesday: After breakfast on Wednesdays we start with orienteering (navigating with a map and compass) around the woods here. In the afternoon we go on a short hike out to some small cliffs and do some rock climbing with the kids. This is another area where you see kids conquering their fears growing in the process. Wednesday evening is a game night with a few different competitions that the groups compete against each other with.

Thursday: We start the day with a short hike and do an ecology section where we talk about nature, how to take care of it, etc. This can be about how to pack a backpack for a hike, how to treat a campsite, campfire safety, or etiquette around other hikers. Thursday afternoon we do arts and crafts with a few different stations where kids can make things, and then we do an economic lesson where kids can buy crafts that other kids made, and the money will go towards a fundraiser. Thursday ends with a big dance party!

Friday: In the morning we take our small group out somewhere quiet, and do a “closing ceremony” with them. During this time we talk about the week, what the kids learn, where they struggled, and where they excelled. We then read through a list of ways that we can all work on to change and live better in our own lives, and they each choose one of these and promise to work on it. At the end they are all given a bracelet to symbolize and remind them of this. All of the groups then gather and watch a slideshow of pictures of the week. After this we send them off home.

By the end of the week I am usually exhausted, and the rest on Friday afternoon and Saturday is very, very welcome and appreciated!

A lot of people have been asking me what I have learned this summer, or where I have seen God. One of the things I have really grown in and been learning is to live in the present. Too often I look ahead to the next big thing in my life, counting down the days until whatever happens. I have really been learning to stop rushing through life and enjoy it. And in enjoying, look for God in the small, quiet moments. Some of the passages that have impacted this growth are Elijah encountering God in cave; not in the earthquake, fire, or wind, but in the small whisper in his ear. Hezekiah talks about trusting in God no matter what, and living out your life for Him and knowing He is with us. Jesus words about the Lord caring for the birds, and how much more He will care for us has impacted me as well. Perhaps the simplest yet most impactful is the phrase: “Be still and know that I am God.”

All of these phrases and passages have had a huge impact on my life, especially in the context of being away from home and often getting lost in worry about the future. But God is good, He is patient, and He continues to guide me.

Thank you for reading, and God Bless!

– David Vanderhooft 

The first few weeks.

Where to start? The last 2 weeks have been a whirlwind. After 30 hours of sleepless travel, I arrived at the apartments here in Lupeni, Romania (the “i” is silent; pronounced “Lupen”). I met the other interns at the Bucharest airport and we were then driven out here by 2 full time volunteers; Janelle and Felipe Silva. Jack and Kelly Organ, Jack being my supervisor, had a delicious homemade meal waiting for us. After hours of cramped seating and “meh” food being able to stretch out and relax with a full stomach felt great! The next day Jack met with us and gave us a tour of Lupeni and a brief history of the area and how communism had affected this area and its people. The first few days here were packed with getting to know everyone else on the team.

Sunday Monday morning we drove out of the valley up onto Staja mountain where the ropes course is located. Jack had all of us interns go through the different challenges at the ropes course so we would know what the kids would be doing and better be able to facilitate them. Doing this what a great time of team growth and trust as we had to help one another cross elevated ropes, perform trust falls, and lead one another through the woods while blindfolded. At the end of the week we had 3 days with a group of 5th graders that came out for an end of the year field trip. It was a blast putting into practice what I had learned the past few days. Watching the kids explore and trust one another through the activities was a joy. Very, very excited to be working with youth out here, and can't wait to have more updates on working with different groups as the weeks go on!

This past week and this coming week I have off as Viață doesn’t kickoff until next week Sunday. This past week has been a blur and yet so incredible. I have had the opportunity to explore God’s creation; from the peaks of mountains, to hidden waterfalls, to exploring a cave! This next week I will visit some other cities and see more of the country. As great as this exploring has and will be, I am so excited for next week when the program kicks into full gear and I will be able to work full time with the youth out in the wilderness!

As mentioned earlier, a huge blessing here has been the other interns. Last night we got together to have an English worship service and do/discuss a Bible passage together. The passage we read was from Luke when Jesus washes His disciple’s feet. We all agreed this was a very fitting passage for our situation out here, as we are here to serve the kids. It was very encouraging to be talking with the others about this, discussing what this may look like, and praying over one another together.

Thank you again to everyone who is supporting me through prayer, encouragement, and financially!

God Bless!
David 

Another Adventure

Once again I find myself being led into the missions field by God. It's been 3 years since my last excursion overseas, but in the meantime I have found myself serving God and being stretched by Him in so many ways. From working with my church youth group and Youth for Christ to being challenged by friends and life circumstances, God truly never stops moving; for which I am forever grateful. He has taught me to continue to trust in the hard times, grow ever closer during the easy, and seek His will in all ways. However, I am far from done learning and growing in this, I'm only 22!

All this leads me to this next adventure in Romania, where I will be serving with New Horizons Foundation. I will be at a summer camp in the mountains leading groups of teenagers in hiking, orienteering, on a ropes course, and other team building activities. While I will not be doing explicit evangelism, the goal of this camp is to instill Christ-like and Biblical ideals of trust and community in these youth. And its all through camping and wilderness, which is right up my alley!

For those who read this, I will be posting updates as well as where I see God and the areas I need prayer in. Thank you in advance for the support I have already been given prayerfully, through encouragement, and financially! I could not have made it here without all of you choosing to walk alongside me!

My flight out of MN leaves at 11:25 am Thursday morning, less than 48 hours! WOW!


God Bless!
David

It comes to a close.

As promised, a final blog post (more than a few days later, sorry about that).

This past summer down in Haiti, I experienced God in multiple ways, met a bunch of new people, and all around had a great time.

First of all, as you all know, my main project/goal while I was down in Haiti was to work on construction, mainly a new house being built for Nick and Nikki Stolberg: the field directors for Children of the Promise. When I first arrived down there the main construction on the house had just finished. The cinder block walls had been plastered and the countertops in the kitchen and bathrooms were being built. While I was down there, I helped in painting the walls and ceilings, finishing construction of the countertops and bathtub forms. Nick and I also completed almost all of the electrical work as well as hooking up the toilet mounts and bathtubs to plumbing. In addition to these things, I also helped tile the floors and countertops, the outdoor patio, weld the security bars over the windows, put screening and frames on the windows, cut and varnish trim for the window frames and doorways, and helped hang doors. By the time I left, the house was nearly completed and almost ready for the Stolbergs to move in!

As for how I encountered God…I don’t even know exactly where to start.

As stated in an earlier blog post, I read the book “Safely Home” by Randy Alcorn while I was down there, and it really opened my eyes up to a deeper, fuller and more meaningful view of what it means to have a relationship with God. In my past I have often, whether I realized it or not, used God as a “911” friend or treated my relationship with Him as a buddy-buddy relationship. I didn’t really have to work at it, when I hit a hard time in my life I would put Him on the back burner after it was over, and not really pursue Him again until I hit another rough spot in life, when I would proceed to pursue God with everything I had until it was past. Reading this book opened my eyes to a much deeper and more meaningful, and I believe true picture, of what it means to have a relationship with God. First of all, it is not a “buddy-buddy /911” relationship. God wants all of me, or he wants none of me. When I only come to Him when I have “need” of Him in my life (parenthesis emphasizing that I always do, whether I realize it or not), there is something more important in my life than God, He is not on the throne of my life. Luke 16:13 says we cannot serve two masters. We will love one and hate the other. So, if God is not the most important thing in my life…well I hate Him then. That’s obviously not good. That is the first thing this book helped me learn. God needs to be my everything or my nothing. Another thing I learned from this book is that my relationship to God needs to be more in the aspect of King-Servant or Father-Son than friend to friend. YES, God loves me immensely and as the utmost care for me. YES, He wants His best for me and guides me in every step of life. And, YES, He cries with my pain and laughs with my joy, but He is still my King, and I His servant. I need to obey Him in every step of life and give Him the respect He deserves. It is ok to ask God why, and say you don’t want to, but we need to follow Jesus example and say yet not my will, but Your will be done. If we fully give God everything and pick up our cross daily and follow Him, it will be so much more rewarding and “The peace of God, which transcends all understanding…” (Philippians 4:7) will fill us.

To end this, I want to thank everyone who came along on this journey with me, who loved me, supported me financially and prayerfully, and who kept up with this blog and offered encouragement. And most of all I want to thank the Lord for leading me down to Haiti this summer and for what He showed me there and how He took me a little further down the path He has set me on.

Dear Jesus, help us to spread your fragrance
everywhere we go.
Flood our souls with your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly
that our lives may only be a radiance of yours.
Shine through us and be so in us
that every soul we come in contact with
may feel your presence in our soul.
Let them look up and see no longer us, but only Jesus.
Stay with us and then we shall begin to shine as you shine,
so to shine as to be light to others.
The light, O Jesus, will be all from you.
None of it will be ours.
It will be you shining on others through us.
Let us thus praise you in the way you love best
by shining on those around us.
Let us preach you without preaching,
not by words, but by our example;
by the catching force -
the sympathetic influence of what we do,
the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to you.
Amen.

(Mother Teresa)

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Farewell for now!
In Christ,
David Vanderhooft

Update and Psalm 125

Totally last track of time and did not realize it had been so long since I wrote a blog update, I have my sister to thank for reminding me!

Anyway, over the past week the house has come a lot nearer to completion! Almost the entire floor is tiled, with just a few spots left and then the trim/baseboard around the entire floor. We then have to cut and put up the trimming around the doors, hang the doors, finish electrical and plumbing work, and it will be ready to go!

The section of the Bible I am going to write about this time is Psalm 125. The whole Chapter is really good and I encourage you to read it, but I will be focusing on verses 1-2.

“Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forever more.

 I really enjoy the comparison of those who trust in the Lord to a mountain, when I think of mountains, I really cannot comprehend just house much rock and strength there is there. They are huge, their roots reach deep, and they are completely, totally and utterly immovable. God is promising us that if we trust in Him, by his strength we will be like mountains. We will not be moved or shaken, and just as we are like mountains, God surrounds us with a love even stronger than that to protect us. This is a great reminder for anyone who is struggling or being attacked in some way, God will protect and provide you the strength to make it through. So take heart and trust in the Lord!

Update and thoughts on Psalm 91

Over the past week, the house out back finally reached its final stages. I spent Monday varnishing all the trim board for around the doors and windows, and we are now tiling the floors as well! One of the rooms is totally finished, Monday I will be cutting the edge tiles to fit into place for the 2^nd room that is being tiled, and so on until the floors are completely tiled. I also have gone into Cap Haitien a couple times to help with getting the mail, as well as going to the market for supplies.

This past week has been somewhat difficult for me. I have not been sleeping well at all as well as feeling sick, and I have had difficulty focusing on God, and drifted away from the reasons he brought me here. This has resulted in me burning out drastically, and not even wanting to be here anymore. Yesterday I was talking to my mentor, and he said I should read Psalm 91 and meditate and pray over it and see what God said to me. While the entire thing was very encouraging, a couple parts of the passage in particular stood out to me, and really spoke to me:

Psalm 91:1-3, 14-15: He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence.

“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.

I heard the Lord telling me that I needed to rest in Him, and to trust Him. I was calling out to Him, and he would answer. And because I follow His voice and calling, he will deliver and honor me. This was very encouraging too read and a great reminder. Following God isn’t always the easiest thing in the world to do, and it can wear down on us, especially when we forget Him and draw away from Him, which I had done. In these verses God promises us rest and protection, but how can He do that if we turn our backs on Him? I know for a fact that my parents love me to death and growing up in their house I had every need provided for me, but they couldn’t have done this if I ran away or something like that. It is the same with our relationship with God. If you feel He isn’t responding to you, or that He has abandoned you, see if you have really been pursuing God and developing a relationship with Him. If we don’t take the time to get to know God through His word, which is one of the main ways He speaks to us, we won’t know how to look for or listen for his voice when He wants to speak to us.

In Christ,
David

Halfway!

Today was the halfway point of my journey here in Haiti-5 weeks down, 5 to go.

Over the past 5 weeks God has done a lot of work in my life. I came down here worried about what was going to happen, if God was going to abandon me, and how I was going to survive 10 whole weeks down here. God has shown me that He does NOT lead me somewhere only to abandon me, He will be there side by side with me as I experience it. He has also shown me to a deeper level what it truly means to be a Servant of the King, and that to follow Him will mean sacrifice and changing how I live.

Looking ahead to the next 5 weeks, I anticipate growing to even deeper levels in my faith, as well as seeing God’s work even more here at COTP.

Also, today at a Bible study I lead, I used Romans 8, focusing on verses 9-11:

⁹ You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ,he does not belong to Christ. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. ¹¹ And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

I gave part of my testimony along with this, as an example of how God will free you from the bondage of your sins, and you will die to sin if His spirit is in you. So be encouraged: if you are in a rut of sin, God is there with you, and you just need turn to Him and give your burdens to Him, and He will free you from your bondage.

In Christ,
David