Haiti 2013: Part 1

This week was too blessed to be put in only one post so multiple posts it will be.

The Lord is so so good. Last year the Lord called me to go to Haiti for a mission trip over spring break.  I left knowing that He was calling me back the following year to lead the trip and He kept affirming this over and over again through prayer.

Since August I had been praying for the team the Lord desired to come together and I had this awesome moment one of the first nights when I stood there praising with the team and I realized here was the team I had been praying for.  The team was 7 girls and 4 boys of multiple majors and a variety of grade levels.  They had all learned about the mission in different ways through different people.  The one thing that we all had in common is that we had all said our Fiat to the Lord and we were exactly where He wanted us to be.

We started out flying out of Pitt to Chicago, the flight was delayed one hour at the gate and one hour on the tar mat, I never heard even a murmur of complaint.  For one of the guys this was his first ever flight and we all clapped for him when we landed in Chicago.  We then slept in the airport over night and early the next morning flew to Miami and then Port-Au-Prince.  The five hour drive from the airport to the orphanage ends up being such an immersion part of the trip as we move through the post earthquake Port-Au-Prince we see on TV through to the country side and finally make it to the orphanage.

Pitt airport

On the truck riding out to the orphanage

We bathed in the river that evening to rinse off the dust and grim from the truck ride.  The team began to get to know the kids.  My heart sang as I got to see the kids and all they had grown from the previous year.  I would say we got to bed at a decent time that night but the thing is I really have no idea.  Time is a loose notion in Haiti and everything pretty much runs on "Haitian time".  Either way we cuddled into our bunks and feel asleep and awoke to the sound of farm animals.

The next post will be about the work we did there and another will be about the kids.  Please comment with any questions you have and I would love to write about it.