Blessing Hearts Ministries

Blessing Hearts Ministries Blessing Hearts Ministries is a non-profit organization that partners with international Christian ministries.

"Lavi se dans kongo."("Life is a Congo dance.")Traditionally the dance style known as "kongo" in Haiti was a couples dan...
10/30/2025

"Lavi se dans kongo."

("Life is a Congo dance.")

Traditionally the dance style known as "kongo" in Haiti was a couples dance and has a pattern to follow, but as with other Haitian folk dances it often includes improvisation.

Dance on Hispaniola is less about following a specific model and more about following the beat.

Dancers allow the music to guide their minds and bodies and just flow with the tune and rhythm.

Most on the island of Hispaniola wouldn't have a second thought about life being compared to such a dance.

"Going with the flow" is definitely a pervading mentality there.

"Going with the flow", however, is not something that comes naturally to me...thus much of my time living on that island was spent learning to let go (over and over) of my schedules and plans and desire for control.

Soon I will be entering a brand new season of life; one that I am so excited about, and also one which, I anticipate, will require a quite intense review of this lesson.

In order to fully let go and slow down I will be taking a sebatical from these proverbial posts.

I hope to still post every once in while just to keep you all informed about what is going on in Haiti and the Dominican Republic and with Blessing Hearts Ministries...
..but if you don't hear from me for a while know I am okay, I am just focusing on the new little Life God has entrusted to our family!

Life truly is a dance, and when we let God carry us along its captivating rhythm it can often bring us to places we never dreamed of.

It can be invigorating, challenging, inspiring, overwhelming, and wonderful all at once.

I am so looking forward to this new season and all God will be teaching me through it.

I will see you all in a few months!

Love,
Shaina

"Zwazo poze sou tout branch."("Birds land on all branches.")Sometimes it can feel like everyone around us is getting wha...
10/23/2025

"Zwazo poze sou tout branch."

("Birds land on all branches.")

Sometimes it can feel like everyone around us is getting what we want.

Or what we need.

Or what we feel like we deserve.

And that can be a tough pill to swallow.

But something I have learned over the years, and honestly am still learning, is that when I am focused on comparison I am always more discontent.

Looking around at everyone else keeps me from seeing the goodness in my own life.

And dwelling on those desires of mine and how they aren't yet fulfilled actually reveals my deeper desire for control.

When I lean into God's love, remember His past faithfulness, and trust in His timing, I experience so much more peace.

What this proverb is saying is that "your turn will come".

It may not be when you want.

It may not be in the way you want.

But "Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" (Matthew 6:26)

God will provide.

He know what is best...and when is best...for you.

Trust Him.

"Ou pa kapab kouche sou nat pou ap pale nat mal."("You can't sleep on the mat and speak badly about the mat.")While livi...
10/16/2025

"Ou pa kapab kouche sou nat pou ap pale nat mal."

("You can't sleep on the mat and speak badly about the mat.")

While living on Hispaniola we learned that though a country that close to the equator doesn't have four weather-based seasons like we were used to, it definitely had seasons.

Even the ocean tide had its own seasons.

We learned when to stay out of the water because of it being "jellyfish time".

We also learned when was the best time to go shell-hunting, and eventually, when the hermit crabs were easiest to find and collect.

For collect them we did.

For fun, for school projects, for whatever.

Usually they were tiny, but I will never forget the time we found this one.

A giant among hermit crabs, letting his younger cousin hitch a ride on his shell.

We thought it was so cute, and funny.

And unexpected.

How often do animals "help" each other out in such a way?

Maybe niether of them was even conscious of what the other was doing, but my imagination likes to assume a background story between these two.

I wonder if they were friends before, or if this was their first meeting?

I wonder if the little crab was just tired, or if he was injured somehow, or if they were just having fun?

I wonder if the little crab was grateful afterwards?

This example from nature makes me think...
..in the U.S. we are entering into a season of thanksgiving...
..how many of us have people in our lives who have helped us in some way, that maybe we have forgotten to appreciate?

How often do we complain or gripe or grow despondent about our circumstances when our chins could be lifted just by giving thanks?

To the One Who gives us all good things?

For the ones He places in our lives to lift us up?

What is ONE thing...or maybe ONE person...you can be thankful for or thank today?

"Zepolèt pa zo saliè."(Shoulder decorations are not one's true self.")Due to Haiti's background, much of their historica...
10/09/2025

"Zepolèt pa zo saliè."

(Shoulder decorations are not one's true self.")

Due to Haiti's background, much of their historical military-dress was French-influenced, including pieces like "epaulettes".

Traditionally such ornaments only adorned the shoulders of officers, and the fancier the ensemble the higher the rank.

But Haiti went through so much governmental turmoil and so many regime turnovers that often titles and ranks became rather convoluted.

In fact there was a time in the mid-1800s that it seemed everyone in the Haitian military was an officer!

Thus the "shoulder decoration" could no longer indicate the truth about a person.

It can be really easy for so many of us to get caught up in the belief that appearance is everything.

Or even that appearance is ALMOST everything.

But God tells us in His Word over and over that He looks at the heart...that a person's character is what truly matters...that our motives impress Him more than our actions.

These truths ought to not only affect what we choose to prioritize within ourselves, but also how we view others.

It is not our place to be casting judgement on others at all, but when we find ourselves forming opinions based solely on what we see rather than giving someone the benefit of the doubt we can miss out on a valuable relationship or simply an opportunity.

Or maybe we are placing someone in a place of prominence in our minds simply because of their fame or achievements.

When we do that we often miss the humanness in them and are in danger of idolatry.

Instead of judging either way, let's choose to open our eyes to see beyond the "shoulder decorations" today.

"Malere toujou bouke; gran nèg toujou nan vakans."("The poor man is always tired; the big shot is always on vacation.)Th...
10/02/2025

"Malere toujou bouke; gran nèg toujou nan vakans."

("The poor man is always tired; the big shot is always on vacation.)

Though it didn't happen often, there were days when I was living overseas that my coworkers decided we needed a specific type of break.

Sometimes our break simply meant going to the nearest gas station to find a familiar but rare treat (I always chose an apple or chocolate), but sometimes it meant going to the local resort for an afternoon of relaxation on a quiet beach with an ice cold bottle of Coke in hand.

Since the area where we lived contained several such resorts, we always knew almost everyone employed at them.

The first few times we chose this type of rest I dealt with a lot of guilt.

Many of the people serving us were also those we were helping put their kids through school, or providing with a second job, or paying the rent on their homes, or counseling in preparation for marriage, so it wasn't like we were just taking advantage...
..but it still made me feel uncomfortable, knowing I could afford this break, this respite, this time to relax and unwind and most of them couldn't.

To be clear, none of them ever made me feel this way.

In fact, the longer I chose to live there the more I heard that they felt I was one of them in some ways, and they never once insinuated that I was unjust or indulgent for using my time in this way.

The attitude towards rest I experienced on Hispaniola, no matter who was doing the resting or how the resting was done, changed my perspective completely.

It wasn't about "deserving".

It wasn't about "earning".

There it is believed that we all *need* rest and no one shames anyone else for taking the type or length of rest each deems they need.

Also, I was reminded several times of the reality that by spending some of our resources at these places we were still helping the employees.

If their places of work ever ceased to exist then what would they do?

Of course there is a lot of nuance with that mentality, and how they are treated & provided for must also be taken into account, but it is all about the heart.

Sometimes even in helping our mindsets would get skewed and it could be easy to become callous or even arrogant about what we were doing.

These breaks brought us back down to earth and reminded us that we are all the same.

Whether or not we had more material resources didn't matter in the long run.

What mattered was the love that we showed.

What made a difference to the people around us was our attitude towards them, our treatment of them as *people*...people made by God and loved by Him unconditionally, with the same love we ourselves received from Him.

And that is what made whatever break were taking okay.

It wasn't about what we had or what they didn't.

It was about what we did with it.

"Pawòl gen pye."("Words have feet.")I was amazed over and over again when in Haiti how living there was so comparable to...
09/25/2025

"Pawòl gen pye."

("Words have feet.")

I was amazed over and over again when in Haiti how living there was so comparable to living in a small town.

One example is how quickly news traveled.

Even with a terrain like a crumpled sheet of paper from a giant's desk, words there did seem to literally have feet.

And this was true for both the good and the bad news, though of course we were most appreciative of quickly receiving the good.

Often in Scripture whenever news or words being "carried" or spread is mentioned it is in reference to the good news of salvation and God's truth.

In Isaiah 52:7 we read "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, 'Our God reigns!'"

Unfortunately in our world today it seems that so often all we are hearing is of war and strife and hatred and discord.

Some of that may be due to the source of our information, and the amount of time we spend reading or listening to it...
..but another reason might just possibly be that we followers of this God, believers in this Good News of salvation, are not making our feet available for His Kingdom purposes.

I am extremely convicted even as I type this out...are my feet "fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace"? (Eph.6:15)

Am I doing my part to ensure that the Good News spreads faster than any negative words?

What can we do today, no matter how small we start, to break this culture of constant negativity in news?

It's time to make our feet beautiful again.

"Si ou pa t'ap fikse sou syèl la, ou pa ta wè tan kouvè."(If you were not staring at the sky you would not have seen tha...
09/11/2025

"Si ou pa t'ap fikse sou syèl la, ou pa ta wè tan kouvè."

(If you were not staring at the sky you would not have seen that it is cloudy.")

Over and over God tells His people in His Word some variation of "Do not fear."

Over 150 times in many translations, actually.

Why does He seem to feel the need to repeat this command so often?

It shouldn't take us very long to determine the reason.

Fear, anxiety, worry...whatever we call it...are typically at the root of many, if not most, of our decisions, struggles, and even beliefs.

But, as I'm sure we have all heard at one time or another, at least 90% of the things we fear never come to pass.

Which means we are expending time and energy on essentially nothing.

We are staring at a sky of clouds assuming they mean rain, when we could simply be thankful for some much needed shade from a hot sun.

While living overseas, in a country where I was surrounded by people who were often in desperate circumstances...
..where I was daily confronted by the realities of material poverty...
..which lacked many conveniences taken for granted by the world in which I had grown up...
..where corruption among leadership was rampant and pressure to provide aid was at every turn...
..I learned how vital to our survival and health was the mindset of actively seeking out hope.

If we allowed ourselves to be constantly bogged down by the clouds (which most days seemed to be far more than the sunshine) we would quickly find ourselves worn out, burnt out, and lacking purpose.

But when we stopped looking for trouble...fearing the worst...seeing only the negative...
..our morale was boosted, we regained motivation and enthusiasm, and our faith was strengthened.

We might feel surrounded by clouds today.

Our minds might be full of fear and anxieties.

In fact it can be really easy to get to that point in today's world with a constant influx of news from every direction.

Maybe it's time to turn off the TV, radio, TikTok, Reels, or podcasts and choose to look right around us for hope.

We may be surprised by what we find in our own neighborhoods and communities.

Address

O'Fallon, MO
63366

Opening Hours

Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+13092555393

Website

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