Latest / Clay to Crown / Talking with Angelica Mourges of Fleri Cheri Part 1

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Talking with Angelica Mourges of Fleri Cheri Part 1 · Clay to Crown

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome everybody for this episode of Clay to Crown podcast.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: I have a special guest with me today. Her name
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: is Angelica Morges and she is a missionary to Haiti.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: And I just want to let her introduce herself and just,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: you know, just tell us a little bit about you.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So my name is Angelica and I've lived in
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Haiti for the last seven years.
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: Um, full time.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: And I first got off the plane in Haiti in
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: May of 2016. So almost 10 years ago coming up
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: this year, which is crazy.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: That is crazy.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: So time has flown.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Um, but yeah, I went on a one week trip
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: to Haiti in May of 2016. Um, I think similar
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: to a lot of people that do mission trips and
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: then just people that do end up on the mission field.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: Um, I really loved the country after the week.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: And I never thought that I would become like a
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: full-time missionary, but I had went just a week after
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: I graduated college. And the game plan was for me
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: to go and meet a little boy that I had
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: been sponsoring to go to school. And the goal was
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: for me to come back and have a graduation party
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: and start applying for jobs. And I had gotten off
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: the plane after that one week trip and I was
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: so sick.
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: I'd gotten food poisoning.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: And my mom had to pick me up in Boston,
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: which is three hours away from our house. And I
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: barely made it home. Like, we had to keep stopping.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: And everybody was like, oh, like, you've been talking about
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Haiti for a few years. Like, we're so glad that
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: you kind of, like, got that out of your system
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: is what I had heard a lot. Yeah. And I
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: think the more people had said that, the more I.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: Was like, I think I'm going to go back.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah. When people said that, were you, like– maybe, like, offended? Like, oh,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: you got that out of your system? Like, it was
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: a flippant type of trip?
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Yes. And I think originally, like, I never thought Haiti
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: would get out of my system. Like, I planned to
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: continue sponsoring this little boy. But I think the more
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: people said it, the more I was like, oh, no. Like,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: I don't think this is going.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: To get out of my system. Like, not right now.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Right. And I had kind of looked into different opportunities,
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: and I had this opportunity to go back for three months, like, self-funded. So...
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: I had worked for maybe about four months, four or
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: five months, and then I went back from November to February,
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: which was the 90-day visa that you could get.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: And I went back to help start a school in
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: an orphanage there. And that's what you're trained in too, right?
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: That's what you went to college for.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Yep. I went to school to be an educator, an
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: early childhood educator. And I decided to take a year
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: off and pursue going back and forth. Right. And my
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: parents were very supportive. They were like, okay, like never
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: saw this for you, but we understand. Like you could tell,
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: like you came back. Like my mom was like, I
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: knew like this wasn't going to be like a one.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: Week thing for you.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: And after that year, you know, it's coming, you think
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: a teacher, like you have to get a job over
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: the summer. So a year after graduating, it was kind
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: of like, okay, like what are you going to do
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: this next year? And I was like, I think I'm
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: going to keep going back and forth. So I did
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: that for two years. And when I say back and forth,
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: like I had no idea what a missionary was.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: I didn't call myself a missionary at the time. I
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: was just going back and forth.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: And so basically I would come back for a few
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: months and I would work nonstop. And then I would
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: take all that money and go back to Haiti.
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: And I did that for two years. And at the
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: end of the second year, my dad was like, you
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: need to.
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: Use your degree. Like you need to get a job.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And he was like, you know, you're so blessed,
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: like you're going to be a teacher, like you have
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: the summers off, go back in the summers, but get
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: a full-time job.
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: So people that don't know me, like I'm pretty stubborn,
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: like my dad. And I applied.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: I actually took a test to get certified to teach
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: in Tennessee. I thought maybe I wanted to move there.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: And I was kind of like done with the beach scene.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: I went to school in Myrtle Beach and I was like,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: maybe I just want to be by the mountains.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: Right. So I took a test to get certified in Tennessee.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: And then I applied to some jobs like in the
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: area that I'd gone to college. And I went on
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: one more trip. And I knew that would be the
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: last one for like a year until the following summer.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: And a girl that I met there was like, oh,
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: my gosh, like there's a school in Port-au-Prince, the capital.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: And they pay teachers there.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: It's you teach the more wealthy of the capital and
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: they pay their teachers like a very low teacher salary
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: compared to the US, but it would allow me to
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: stay there instead of going back and forth to work
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: to sustain my trips there. So I applied while I
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: was there. It was like a quick little application online
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: and I applied. And I came back and I told
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: my dad the good news. I was like, wow, like
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: I applied to all of these different opportunities, you know, Tennessee,
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: South Carolina and Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: And my dad was like, that's not what I meant.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: And Haiti called first. Amen. And I took a position.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And I went back for my third year out
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: of school and I taught there and I ended up
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: teaching in the Capitol for two and a half years. Um,
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: didn't fully use my degree. I did, um, kind of
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: like a bunch of different things that they needed me for. Um,
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: so I wasn't in like early childhood. I had the
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: opportunity to move actually to early childhood after my first year,
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: but I, um, really liked the.
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: Position I was in. I was doing, um, like student activities.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: So I worked with every single grade from pre-K through
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: 12th grade. Right. And it really allowed me to know
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: the kids. And I also did some stuff with, um,
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: special education. Yeah.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: Let me, let me ask you this.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: When.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: You talked briefly about you didn't really consider yourself a missionary,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: don't even really had an inkling of what that was,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: that sort of thing. Let's talk a little bit maybe
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: about your faith.
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: Background, because I know it's diverse. I know you a
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: little bit.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: And so just how does that look full circle now?
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Coming from that, the faith background you came from, to
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: kind of where you are in your faith now?
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I grew up Greek Orthodox, being my dad.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: My dad's Greek, and we grew up Greek Orthodox. My
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: mom grew up Catholic, so kind of had a little
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: bit of both growing up, but mostly the Greek Orthodox Church.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: And they didn't talk about missions. I didn't know that
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: missionaries existed to be honest. Like I had no idea
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: that people were like called out to go and like
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: preach the gospel and live overseas.
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  Speaker 3: And I had no idea.
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  Speaker 2: Um, and I think growing up in the Greek Orthodox
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: church as somebody that does not.
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  Speaker 3: Speak Greek, you miss a lot.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: So, you know, we sat and like, it was very, um,
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  Speaker 2: you know, this is what happened every Sunday. And like
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: you sat and you listened, but I didn't understand a
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  Speaker 2: lot cause it mostly was in Greek.
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  Speaker 3: Um, so maybe they talked about it here and there,
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  Speaker 3: but it went right over my head.
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  Speaker 2: Um, And when I went to college, I had a
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: roommate that grew up Mennonite and she had, we just,
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: you know, sitting the kitchen table late at night and
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: just like had different conversations about how I.
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: Grew up and she grew up.
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  Speaker 2: She really started to open my eyes just to the
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: Bible outside of church. And I think I grew up
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  Speaker 2: in the church, but I don't think I grew up
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  Speaker 2: in the word. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: It's kind of how I would explain it. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And so just with like late night conversations with her,
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  Speaker 2: She knew the word. She knew the word back.
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  Speaker 3: Front, the whole thing.
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  Speaker 2: And so just having different conversations with her, I think,
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  Speaker 2: really opened my eyes. And she could not find a
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  Speaker 2: church that she resonated with in our college town. So
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  Speaker 2: we had gone to one church together. She was like,
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  Speaker 2: I would love to start going to church again. I
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: just don't really know where I would start. So we
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: had gone to a church service, just like a non-denominational church.
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  Speaker 3: And I really liked it.
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  Speaker 2: And I ended up getting involved with a Bible study,
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: and then I ended up volunteering at, like, kids' church.
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  Speaker 3: And so I really dove into that church, probably, like,
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: junior year of college.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. And keep in mind, like, I went to Haiti
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: right after college. So this was probably two years prior
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: to Haiti. Right. And just, I think I realized that, like,
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: there's so much more to religion than just church.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: To kind of keep it simple, but... she kind of
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  Speaker 2: opened my eyes to the Bible.
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  Speaker 3: As a whole. And I still didn't know anything about missionaries.
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  Speaker 2: So when I first started going back and forth to Haiti,
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: like I said, I went because I started sponsoring little
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: boy and I had the desire to meet him. And
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: that's what I asked for, for my college graduation gift.
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  Speaker 2: And I think when I went to Haiti.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: For the first time, I realized that, you know, people
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: always ask me like, why did you decide to go back?
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  Speaker 2: And I think really the moment that I bring it
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: back to my brain is that I realized Haiti was.
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  Speaker 3: Something special to me.
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  Speaker 2: And I didn't at the time know that it was
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: going to be like this huge calling or anything like that.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: But I was like, man, like this place is special
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: was when we went to church. So we were only
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: there for a week. So we went to church on Sunday.
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  Speaker 3: We went one time. Right. And church felt like so
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: much more.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: That church service felt like so much more than how
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: I had grown up. And you could just feel God.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: And I was holding, like you're talking 90 degrees.
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Plus no AC, no ventilation. You are dripping sweat. And
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: I was holding this little boy. He had to have
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: weighed 60 pounds and he had cerebral palsy. So he
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: can't support any of his own weight.
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: And you're this little boy that can not move. The
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: majority of his body is dancing with everything that he has.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: And I think I just realized like, this is what
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: it's all about. Yeah.
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: Like this is what Christianity is as a whole, you know?
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: And like, it's so much more than like going to
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: church on Sunday. Yeah. And it really is about like
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: your relationship. And I didn't know anything about like a
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: relationship with the Lord growing up. Yeah. And I think
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: Haiti brought me that relationship with the Lord overall. Like
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: between going to that non-denominational church to then Haiti, I
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: think I had enough of my mind opened before going
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: to Haiti with the two years prior. And then like
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: being in that church service, I was like, this is
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: what it's all about. Right. And, you know, as simple
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: as that seems, like there's so much more to that,
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: but this is, this is it, you know? And so
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: I think when people saw me, I could not eat
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: any of the food at my graduation party.
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: I was sick. And people were like, obviously you're not
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: going back there. And I was like, no, like I
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: am going to go back there. And this is why.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: I love that you brought like that sort of, you know,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: thought up. I don't know the right word to say, but,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: you know, because that's what, like the podcast is all about.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: That's what, you know, some of the things that I
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: preach about, you know, and I talk about is like
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: this thought that we have, and I call it, you know,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: it's Western Christianity, you know, cultural Christians that they, you know,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: and I try not to like be too harsh, you know,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: and give grace because... People don't know what you don't know.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: You know, just like you growing up, you know, that's
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: what you were used to, you know, the more liturgical, ritualistic,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: and there's nothing wrong with that. But when you can
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: then get your eyes open by the Holy Spirit to
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: where there is a relationship, you know, with Christ that
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: is so much more than just, you know, stand up,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: sit down, you know, read this particular thing.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: And I love.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: I mean, I know your parents, obviously, you know, and
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: I just love their testimonies as well about how the
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Lord has, you know, and maybe a little bit through
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: you and your experiences, just how the Lord is pulling
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: them too, you know, and it's just a beautiful thing
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: to hear. And I teared up when you're talking about the,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: you know, the little boy with cerebral palsy because, you know,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: he's praising, as you said, with everything he has.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: And yet there's a lot of Christians in the United
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: States and, you know, in the Western world that are
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: just kind of like, well, you know, can we get
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: out by noon? Because I got things to do this afternoon,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: you know? And so anyway, I could talk forever about
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: how much that irritates me.
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: But so I just love that you brought that up.
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: I think growing up.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: Like in hindsight, not growing up, but in hindsight now,
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: like one of the things that I say when I
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: share my testimony is like, I never doubted that there
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: was a God. Sure.
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: I knew there was a God. I didn't know who
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: God was, you know?
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And I think that is the difference is like,
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: I knew there was a heaven. I never doubted that
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: growing up. Like I was raised to know that. Yeah.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: But I didn't really know what that actually meant and
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: like how powerful that is.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: And who he is, you know?
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: It's beautiful.
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: So, you know, as we come, you know, full circle
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: to where you are today, you know, and, and you've
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: been now in Haiti for nine.
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: Years, seven years, full-time, full-time seven years.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah. What sort of things, you know, like has your
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: understanding of your calling changed over the last seven years
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: that you've been there full-time? Yes.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And I think, Maybe the best way to put
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: it is like in the beginning, I didn't know it
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: was a calling. In the beginning, I just knew that
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: like there was this little boy that I wanted to
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: go and see. And then it became, I really feel
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: like I should go back there. And then it became,
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: I feel like I should go back there for another year.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: And then it became, okay, like I am going to
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: get a job, but it's going to be in Haiti.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: And then eventually it turned into the nonprofit world. Right.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: And I realized that like, kind of like to put
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: it simply, like this is it for me.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: And I think a lot of it is like my
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: relationship with the Lord changed.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: And I think I really started to like prayerfully be like,
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: why am I here? Like, why do you have me here?
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: And like, what is this supposed to look like? Because
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: Haiti could look like a bunch of different things. I
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: could have stayed at that school forever. Or I ended up,
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: like I said, I dove into the nonprofit world. And
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: I ended up opening my own nonprofit about three years
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: ago now.
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: And I think that after working for two.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: Nonprofits and kind of realizing that like there was bits
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: and pieces that I felt the Lord was calling me
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: to with each of them, I knew I had to
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: start my own.
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: And I think I had known probably two years before
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: I did.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: And I was scared. Like I was a single missionary.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I felt like I was barely keeping on just
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: living day to day. I could not imagine taking on
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: like accounting and fundraising. And I was just like, Lord,
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: I'm tapped out. Like I can't do it. And I
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: think I finally said yes. Like I said, I felt
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: like the Lord was nudging for a while. And I
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: kind of was just like, not yet. Like not yet.
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: I'm not saying no, but not yet. And then eventually my.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: Dad was the one that kind of sat me down
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: and was like, you can do this and you need
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: to do this. And like the Lord has literally made
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: you to be able to do something like this. As
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: far as like my personality, I'm very type a, I'm
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: very organized.
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: And my dad was like, you could do this.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: Like, it's going to be a learning curve and you're
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: not going to know everything, but like you have the
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: personality that you can do this. And I think it
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: gave me the confidence to be like, okay, like I'm
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: just going to do this and see what happens. Yeah. Um,
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: And I didn't know exactly what the nonprofit would be
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: when I started it. I knew I wanted to work
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: with women. I felt like I had that calling for
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: a while prior. And that was one of the things
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: that I think with the other nonprofits that I had
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: worked for, they're doing great things. But I think there
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: wasn't that niche for women. There wasn't programs for women specifically.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: And I think I knew... with a second nonprofit that
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: I had worked for when I had kind of inquired
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: about like starting something with women and they were just
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: kind of like, Oh, like we don't, not, not, not
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: right now for us.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: And I was like, Oh, like this is right now
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: for me though. Right.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: Um, and that's when I had kind of realized that
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: like the organization would be, you know, to keep it
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: simple about empowering women.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: And we do that through, you know, a few different
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: routes with programs and Bible studies and job creation. And, um,
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: but I think it kind of morphed just with things
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: that I had saw in the nonprofit world and the
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: missing piece.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: So, you know, you kind of talked about, you know,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: I I'll do it just not yet. You know, it's
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: like that, that delayed, that delayed obedience, you know? And
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: I find that myself in my own walk, like, Lord,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: I'm not ready for that yet. You know, like, like,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: let me, let me, let me learn a little bit
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: more first, you know, or let me do X, Y,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: Z first, or can't, can't, you know, somebody else do
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: that or whatever. How would you say that you have
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: seen Because I, you know, in our own self, you know,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: there's the cliche about, you know, God doesn't call the equipped,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: he equips the called, right?
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah. So how have.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: You seen the Lord work in supernatural ways in order
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: for you to have that equipping that you need to
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: do what you're doing?
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: I think eventually he gave me this, like, I don't
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: know if it was like this, you can do it mentality,
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: but it was, I'm going to walk alongside you and like,
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: this is, you are going to do this. And I think, again,
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to say I didn't drag my feet
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: or I didn't stomp my feet in the beginning because
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: I didn't want to do it. But I think when
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: I realized that this was truly what I was supposed
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: to be doing, it became a little bit easier to
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: slowly say yes. And I think some of it was just,
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: I think I was just scared. And I think I
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: did not feel equipped. And I think really what had
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: happened is like, I started to remind myself of that,
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: like that phrase that you just said.
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: And I was like, okay, like if.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: I say yes to this, like he will equip me
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: and this will be okay. Right.
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: And again, like.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: I tell some of my friends now in hindsight that
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: kind of slowly started a nonprofit or that had wanted
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: to for years and years. And like they slowly did it.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, man, I'm so jealous of that because I.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: Just jumped right in.
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: Like looking back.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: In hindsight, like three years later, I feel like we're
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: finally figuring out like what Flarey Sherry, the organization, is
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: supposed to be. And Flarey Sherry literally translates to English
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: from Haitian Creole to Flourish Darling. And that is truly
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: what we try through our organization to get women to
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: do is like flourish.
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: So, you know, that said, I think that's a great segue.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: What do you, you know, because here in South Carolina
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: is where we're currently located, but, you know, the United
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: States as a whole, we know Haiti's maybe an island
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: down there in the Caribbean, you know, or, oh, it
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: gets hit by hurricanes from time to time, you know,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: and that sort of thing. And there was a bad
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: earthquake there once, you know, but in reality, we really
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: have no concept about the country, the people, the culture
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: down there or anything like that. So what is maybe
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: something that you wish that people here in the United
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: States understood about the Haitian people?
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: I think that was the hardest thing for me when
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: I started going back and forth, but then, you know, moved.
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: Is that I would come home and I felt like
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: a totally different person. And I felt like nobody understood me.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: Not even like the new me, but nobody understood my life.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: And I think, you know, after 10 years of this,
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: I think I have learned to put into words a
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: little bit more the different stories and the different people
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: and kind of being more of an advocate for them.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: But I think one thing that I always go back
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: to that I wish people knew, and I think this
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: is for me because I know the country here. And
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: when it pops up on the news, my ears plug
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: open when my dad's watching the news at night. And
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: I sit there and listen and I'm like, man, that's
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: not even fully true. That's not even half of it.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: And I think I realized how the news perceives Haiti
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: and I'm sure many other countries is just so far
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: from what it actually is. And I think one thing
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: that I wish people knew is like, Haiti is not
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: the capital. The capital is such a small chunk of Haiti.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: And we're connected to the DR. We literally border the
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: Dominican Republic. And you think about the Dominican Republic and
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: you think of Punta Cana and you think of tourism
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: and you think of resource and.
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: Honeymoons and stuff like that.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: And Haiti is the exact same island. I've been to
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: the Dominican Republic to go in and out of Haiti.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: And Haiti is more beautiful. in my opinion, in a
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: lot of the natural landscapes. We have way more of
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: the mountainous areas. And I wish people could see what
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: I see. And I think I have slowly found my
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: voice in sharing about Haiti and knowing what to share
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: and what not to share, but also sharing enough snippets
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: where people can slowly start to visualize.
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: Different things in my life. And I think....
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: I wish that people could see how God-fearing these people
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: are and how we joke all the time, like a
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: lot of my missionary friends there, that some of these
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: women have a direct line to the Lord.
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: Like, you cannot convince me otherwise. Yeah. And I think
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: a lot of times we think.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: Of missionaries and we think of countries that missionaries are.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: And we think that they are these people that don't
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: know the Lord. And I'm not going to speak for
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: every country because I know there are some that there
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: are a lot of people that do not know him. Sure.
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: Haiti is not one.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: And I think sometimes you see the news and you
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: see all the evil, like the pure evil on these
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: people's faces.
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: And you're like, oh, clearly that country doesn't have God.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And that could not be further from the truth.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: Like I said, when I first got there, like one
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: of the reasons why I felt called back ultimately is
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: because of how I felt standing in that church service.
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: Right. And I think I just wish that people....
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: Knew that what you see on the news, it's not,
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: it's not Haiti. It's such a small percentage. And it
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: makes me so sad that that is how people represent
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: Haiti and her people. Yeah.
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: Cause it's not.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure if that fully answered the question.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: I think, I think, you know, it's like you said,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: you know, we get this, we're in our own little bubble.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: you know, and we get what, you know, the newspapers
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: tell us if anybody reads newspapers anymore, but you know,
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: like the, the television tells us, or even social media
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: tells us, you know, like what's, what, what does TikTok
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: say about Haiti today, you know, and that sort of thing.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: And it's such a, a small snippet of what, you know, um,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: is actually true. Um, I mean, and you could even
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: say that for, you know, here in the low country, anywhere,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: you know, what my mom knows, and this is totally
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: kind of related, but not really, but she'll hear about
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: a weather thing that's happening in like Myrtle Beach, you know,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: or whatever. And she's, did you get lots of rain today?
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, mom, you know, more Greenville or Myrtle Beach.
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: But I'm like, mom, it's a totally opposite side of
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: the state.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: So even in that, there's a disconnect because people are
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: in their own little bubble and they think they know
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: or they have an idea. But like you said, the Capitol,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: and I know there's lots of turmoil in the Capitol.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: We've had those conversations. There's lots of just violence and
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: just evil things. But the Capitol is not the country
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: as a whole.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: No.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: And that there is a lot of good and a
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: lot of, you know, beautiful things that happen.
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: And the people are good. Yeah. Like, they're not the majority.
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: I'm not going to speak for all of them.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: But the majority, just like in America, they're not evil. Right.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: And I think, you know, I remember one time I
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: came back after being in the U.S. And something, I
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: feel like every time I'm in the U.S., something crazy happens.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: And you hear it on the news. And you're like, okay,
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: that's kind of the truth, but it's kind of not
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: the truth. And then you go back and, you know,
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: with technology advancing, like most people in Haiti have phones
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: and they see what other countries are saying about them.
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: And I remember one time.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: I came back and one of my neighbors was like,
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: do you know that this is what they're saying about us?
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: And that hit me so hard. I was like, oh
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: my gosh, like, yeah, but we know that's not you.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: And they were like, yeah, but they don't. And I
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: think that is hard because you live alongside the average
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: person Haitian and it's not the gangs you know right
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: so so that kind of you know those stories you
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: know kind of tug at your heart like to hear.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: That somebody else you know a Haitian is saying do
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: you know that this is what you know your country
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: thinks about us you know and and that has to
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: be hard to hear and then you have to kind
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: of explain away you know and that sort of thing
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: so it's I guess along those lines is it stories
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: like that, and not that you have to defend the
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: United States. I'm not saying that you should or need
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: to or whatever, but stories like that, you know, have
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: you keep going. You know, it's the people. It's the
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: helping of the people, the women that you're empowering. You know,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: maybe give one, because I know for me, like, When
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: I was doing women's ministry, I don't know how many
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: times I wanted to hang it up and just tell,
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: you know, my lead pastor that, look, I'm done with this. Like,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: I can't do it no more. I don't want to
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: do it no more. These people are upsetting me, you know,
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: like my peace is ruined, like all of these sorts
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: of things, right? But then at just the right time,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: you know, and God and his timing will bring encouragement
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: to you. You know, God and his timing will bring
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: that woman that comes to you or even that man
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: or person, you know, whatever your story is, will come
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: to you and say, you know what, when you said X, Y, Z, Amanda,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: that really spoke to my heart. And thank you so
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: much for doing what you're doing. Because if without you,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: I would this, you know, whatever. Yeah. And it's those
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: sorts of things that kept me going. So I'm sure
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: that you have, in your own experience, multiple stories like that.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: So maybe give us one or two examples of how
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: the Lord had brought somebody to you or a situation
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: to you that just helped you to keep going.
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: I think one that has forever stood out is there's
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: a lot of missionaries that.
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: Are leaving Haiti. Rightly so. Yeah.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: Truly a lot of, it's very hard. There's no commercial
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: airlines flying in. We have to cross in and out
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: through the DR a lot. It makes it, for lack
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: of a better word, it feel impossible. And I remember
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: when the airports closed and a small air company that
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: used to fly us over the mountains, over the gang
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: area to my house pulled out. I was like, oh
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: my gosh, I'm going to have to leave. Like there's
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: literally no way to get home now. And like I'm
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: going to have to cross out and I'm not going
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: to be able to come back in. And three of
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: my friends left that same month. And I remember being like,
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: this would be stupid to go back in. And my
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: parents are going to kill me.
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: But I'm going to go back in.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: And there we found a new route through the Dominican.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: And it was you have to take a boat to
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: get over the terrain. Yeah. And I will never forget
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: telling my parents that this is how I was going
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: to have to come back in and it was fine
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: and it was safe and everything like that.
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: And I know how to swim and we're not that far.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: Off the coast and talking my way through this crazy
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: situation to tell my parents this was fine.
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: And when I had gotten back, my community knew that
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: my other friends had left.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: Some of them had announced it. Some of them had
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: not announced it because it was a more last minute decision.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: And I had lived with two roommates and then the
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: other girl lived down the road. And I was going
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: back alone. Like my community. that I had that got
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: me through the hard times, my American community was not there. Right. And,
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: you know, there was a few people there I wasn't
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: as close with, stuff like that. And I came back
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: and I walked through the gate to my house and
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: the neighborhood kids came and they were like, we.
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: Did not think you were coming back.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: Because they know, they know that airlines pulled out and
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: stuff like that and everybody was leaving.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: And I said, I told you guys I was coming back.
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: And they said, but everybody says that. And then they don't.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: And I think I realized how.
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: Traumatic Americans coming and going are. And I had known,
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: but to hear those words of like, yeah, but everybody
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: says that and they don't come back. And I think
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: for security reasons, a lot of people leave and they
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: don't say anything and then they don't come back. And
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: you can't blame anybody, but like, the impact that it
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: has on the kids, on the community that you're doing
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: life alongside.
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: And then one day you're just not there. And this
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: was a while ago.
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: Like I, I'd come back for a while after that and,
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: or like I had been coming back, you know, through
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: a lot of chaos.
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: Right. And they were like, yeah, but this time, like
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: there is no airplanes. And I was like, yeah, but
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: I found another way.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: And like, yeah, like, That will always stick out for
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: me of like, okay, it does matter. Me being here
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: and me continuing to come back through this chaos and
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: through what feels like the impossible travels, it does matter.
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: And I think a lot of people think like, oh,
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: I can just do it from afar. It's the same thing.
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: As long as I keep sending in money and we
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: continue things, it's the same.
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: It's not. Yeah, it's not. It's not.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: And another thing that recently happened to me is– next
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: door to the land that we're building we're building a
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: mission house and a pavilion to do programs and we
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: had started building this house I think at the point
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: like the walls were going up and I had just
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: gotten to that new area and I started to walk
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: around the community I like to go on walks I
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: think it's a good way to.
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: Meet your neighbors people.
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: Invite you in sure and it's an old lady she's
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: got to be in her 90s she does not know
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: her age that's very typical And they can tell you
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: what president was alive when they were born, but they
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: don't always know their age.
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: So it's kind of like a four to six year gap.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: So she's somewhere in her nineties and she's my neighbor.
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: And I was walking by her house one day and
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: she was sitting outside just doing basket weaving. So I,
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: you know, she was sitting in her yard. So you
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: can kind of walk into people's yards.
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: It's not a big deal.
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: And I like introduced myself. I said, hi, like my
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: name's Angelica. I'm building this house. Like I'm going to
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: be living in this area. And she, I sat with
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: her for a little bit. I said, can you, can
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: I sit with you?
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: And I talked to her.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: She was basket weaving, asked her some questions. And she
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: could not stop thanking me for just sitting with her.
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: And she was like, you know, like I'm a lot older.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: Like I used to go to the market every day.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: I used to have like more of a purpose and
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: a job. And now I just sit here and I
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: can't really, she can't really move. She goes from her
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: house to the yard, back to her house. And she
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: was like, you know, some people come and they sit
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: for a little bit, but then they don't come back
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: for a while. And I sat with her for a
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: few days in a row. Every time I would go
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: for this walk, And she said, you know, like, it's
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: so nice that, like, you sit with me. Like, I
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: get really lonely. You know, her kids have jobs. They
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: don't live with her anymore. And, you know, I walked,
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: you know, I didn't tear up in the moment, but, like,
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: I walked away, and I was like, wow, like, sitting
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: with people and being in the community and showing your
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: presence and being there for people, like, it matters.
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: And I would almost beg to differ.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: It matters more than, like, different programs that you're doing.
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: Like, being a part of the community.
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: really being a part of the community and sitting on
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: people's front porches and having the hard conversations and carrying
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: the hard things with them, even if you don't have
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: money to give them to help them through a situation,
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: that matters.
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: Praying for them, praying with them, it matters.
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: And I think that is when I realized that I
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: would always go back through the hard. And one of
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: the things that I've learned more recently just for myself
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: is like, you can ask people to carry the heart
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: with you.
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: You don't just have to sit in it by yourself.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: The Haiti heart is hard.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: And you, sometimes I can't put things into words and
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: it comes out a lot, like just tears. Cause you,
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: you know, you come back to the States and you
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: go into the grocery store and there's all this food
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: and it's very colorful is what always stuck out to me. And,
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: you know, multiple times when I first came back, like,
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: you know, the first thing you have to do, you
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: got to go to the grocery store, you got to
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: buy some things, whatever. My mom would take me and
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: I would always go back to the car and I
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: would just cry.
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: Sometimes I would cry in the middle.
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: Like I walked out of grocery store so many times
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: and my mom in the beginning would be like offended
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: that I offended her that I was leaving or couldn't
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: put into words.
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: Right, right.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: And eventually she started to realize, and I think I
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: got better at vocalizing. Yeah. Of like, it's just overwhelming.
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: Like sometimes I just got to get out and you
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: got to just let me walk out. And I'll come back, but, like,
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: I just got to go take it. And, you know, or, like,
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: I'd be sitting in the car and looking at, you know,
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of blessings in America, financial blessings and
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: houses and things that are very well functioning. Yeah.
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: And I live in a country that is not. And
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: sometimes just driving in the car.
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: Like, you sit and you think and, like, I don't
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: always know what's going on in my mind, but it
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: comes out in tears, you know, the first car trip.
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: And I think I've gotten better at vocalizing that.
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: And I think what has made me, this is kind
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: of going off on a tangent, but I think what
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: has made me found my voice in that is I
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: feel like my calling is Haiti, yes. But I think
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: my purpose within Haiti is advocating for them.
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: And advocating for the names and faces that I know
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: that you may not know. Like, how can I share
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: those stories?
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: Excuse me.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: How can I share those stories? And how can I
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: get you to see that these people are worth fighting for?
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: Just like your neighbors are. Right. Just because they're a
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: different skin color. Just because they were born on a
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: different country, on a different island, if you will.
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: Like, how can I.
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: Get you to believe that their life and their dignity
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: and their future.
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: Matters just as much as ours? Yeah. And it's hard.
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 36:08
  Speaker 3: It's hard.
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: On let's um let's end there on that no I
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: think that's a wonderful place um to kind of stop
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: this part of our conversation just kind of let that
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: those thoughts about you know because I've said before and
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: I've had these you know um thoughts before and just
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: you know thanking God yes but also like Lord, help
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: us not to take for granted of the blessings, just
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: by virtue of where I was born.
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: Like, even the.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: Most, you know, one of the poverty-est, the poverty-est, that's
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: not a real word, the poorest region in the United
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: States is, you know, however many more times wealthier than
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: Haiti or some of the other third world countries, you know,
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: and that sort of thing. And Like, what are we
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: doing with that blessing, you know? And that's where I
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: think the American church can really, you know, do something
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: special and good. And that's why the Lord has granted
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: us that. Like, he wants servants in these other places
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: in order.
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: Anyway, I could go down on that tangent too, but it's... Yeah.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: I think something.
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: to kind of wrap up my thoughts on that, what
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: you just said, because that is a lot, is something
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: that I have really realized probably over the last three
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: years is like, it is a privilege to grow up
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: in a first world country.
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: And I didn't know that growing up, you know, you're just,
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: you're born where you're born.
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: And my grandparents immigrated over from Greece and my great
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: grandparents immigrated over from Italy.
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: So I'm not that far removed from having been born
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: in a different country.
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah. That, You know, Italy, okay. But Greece, they have
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: a lot of struggles over there. But what are you
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: doing with your privilege? And your privilege can look a
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: lot of different ways. Sometimes it's just your voice. Yeah.
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: Sometimes it's finances. But, like, sometimes it's your time.
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: But what are you doing with it?
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: And I think that is something that I have realized
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: over the past few years is, like, I have a
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: privilege of being able to come back to the States
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: and to share. Yeah.
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: And to speak. And that is something that I've tried
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: to find my voice in.
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: Well, when we come back, you know, when I, when, uh,
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: when we have you back, we'll talk more about, um,
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: the house that you're starting and Flarey Sherry as a
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: whole and the organization, because I think that story, um,
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: you know, where you are now, you know, we've talked
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: about all your backstory getting, you know, getting, um, you
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: to this point, but When we come back, we'll talk
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: about where you are now. Sound good?
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: Sounds good.
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: Awesome.