Beach Weekend.

we all knew that we needed a "getaway". we needed rest. we needed to be refreshed. renewed.

Megan looked everywhere for places to stay in Jacmel but, everything was booked bc of a festival that was coming to town. we didn't give up. we decided to go to our local beach which is about 45 min away and rent a house their. this is the beach we normally go to for the day but, we've never stayed the night.  we finally got all packed and were waiting on our tap-tap driver to pick us up.

what seemed and looked like an abandon beach hotel---we arrived.  once we pulled up, we all kinda looked at each other with the look of, "is this it?"  we unloaded and checked out all the rooms. we had the whole place to ourselves. well, besides the Haitian family there that was cooking for us. after we ate an amazing meal, we all sat around talking. we laughed alot and they were super sweet. we were all so exhausted so while the generator was still running we headed to bed. janice and i shared a room together and before falling asleep, we laughed our heads off.  we laughed at the fact that we were in the most random abandon looking house, random people cooking for us and watching out for us. we could not help but laugh. we also decided to sleep with our lights on. haha.

at 4:30am when the generator ran out of gas, i woke up and could not go back to sleep. it was pitch black and i could not see a thing. it was alittle scary. as i laid there, i thanked God for His protection and for His randomness. haha. @5:45 i decided to get up or i was going to get carried away by mosquito's. i started to hear the others in the house as well so, we all got up and walked to our most amazing view. the Caribbean. along with the amazing view, we got to see the local fisherman in their homemade wooden boats. they were making their way to their nets. such hard work. i was so humbled by their hard work. such hard work for so little.

in our Pj's with our feet in the ocean, we sang happy birthday to Micha. we turned on some worship music from my phone and sat and listen to words of truth. i was reminded on How much God loves us just by the view that was before my eyes. almost as if it was a painting in a famous museum. never in a million years did i ever think that i would be here. WOW- what saying Yes to Jesus can bring to your life!!  thankful and humbled. extremely thankful.

Tachi, Ester and i stayed near our house on the beach while the others walked a little further down to where we normally go.  I love spending time with Tachi.  She is always so honest and such a true friend. i love our conversations.  i know part of me being here is to build a stronger relationship with her and Esther. i love them both dearly and our friendship will be forever. Tachi is a very special to me. her heart is so good.
we relaxed all day. bathe in the sun all day. we laughed all day and we looked for awesome rocks all day.

the next morning was pretty much like the one before. up early, enjoyed the morning view and watched the fisherman. after watching them pull their nets in by hand, we walked over to them to see if they had any fish in their LARGE net. HUGE. like this net is supposed to catch thousands of fish. when we got close enough to see, we noticed that the huge net only had 1 small fish in it. one. just one. after all that hard work. just one. my heart went immediately in "what should we do for them? mode and all i could  hear was..go pray over them and their nets. pray? well, they don't speak my language. they are to busy to stop and pray.. just go jessi. Go. ok, ill GO.
so, i yelled to wadley,janice,the girls and tachi and we prayed over their nets. we all held hands in a circle with their homemade nets at our feet and prayed over their hands and their nets. we prayed and asked our God, the King and the commander of the sea to overflow their nets. overflow. i have not stopped thinking about those men and their nets, i am believing that God will fill their nets and that the men will acknowledge that GOD did it. that God is the commander of the sea. we worship the commander of the sea!

for supper we had lobster and fish fresh from the sea and celebrated Michas 9th Birthday. as Micha was opening her presents, all i could think about was how thankful i am for her. the Lord has used her life to open the hearts of so many. her life has shown so many people Jesus. her life has shown restoration. her life is being used and the Lord will continue to do so. i am so blessed to know her. she has taught me so much. i am thankful that know her. im thankful that her momma has given me the chance to know her.

the next day. we swam all day. wadley tried to catch fish, that looked like the same fish in Finding Nemo, with a bucket and the lid. i laughed at him a lot but he did not give up! i have found a new love for snorkeling. i really like it!  janice and i just wanted to lay out and get a Caribbean tan. we even asked for cooking oil. yes, we did. she gave us a cap full and we lathered up. and we got burned. yep, the sun likes cooking oil. haha. when it came time to leave it was bittersweet. the sweet family that we all had built relationships with helped us load up in the tap-tap. as they were telling us goodbye, we knew that this wasn't going to be our last time to see them. wadley said a prayer for them and we could not thank them enough for what they did for us. we said our good-byes and headed back to Gressier.

             we were all sun-kissed. we were all thankful for rest. we were all thankful for each other.

the weekend was full of sun.  

 full of friends. 

full of joy. 

full of rest. 

  full of an amazing view. 

  Jesus was near and i am so thankful. 

times like these are much needed. a nice getaway from the reality of what sometimes looks like hopelessness is needed. its needed because we are ready. ready to bring Hope through Jesus Christ.