Haiti: Leaving!

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Like always, time seems to move more quickly when you are planning something big, and I suddenly find myself leaving on Saturday for Haiti. Yes, my support funds are raised and my suitcase is 95% packed, yet I must admit I still feel very unprepared and unworthy to participate in this great adventure that God placed on my heart a year and a half ago.

It wasn't until this week that I thought about what it will really be like to meet people who live on $20 a month, who worship their ancestors and practice voodoo, or Christians who have so little in terms of physical wealth yet live by faith in this broken country. This week, I've thought about what it might be like to like in Haiti with a disability, or what it's like to grow up in a Haitian orphanage. Selfishly, I question if I am ready to see and process this level of physical and spiritual need, if I am ready for the heartbreak I know will and must happen on this trip. But I know no matter how difficult, there is something profoundly beautiful in this kind of heartbreak and brokenness happening in my soul.

This week, I've been a total bundle of emotions, both mountains and valleys. I've been nauseous with nervousness. I've been quietly joyful that this calling is being fulfilled, yet simultaneously feeling great unrest in my soul with this joy. I've realized I'm on the edge of never being the same, and frightened by what I will be like, what I will care for and champion, when I return. Or have I over-thought and built up this experience for more than it's going to be? I've burst into tears on multiple occasions, and sometime for no apparent reason at all.

I've heard so many stories of spiritual warfare and attacks when folks are on the edge of doing something big for the kingdom, but never truly experienced this feeling of battle in my soul until this week. I realize I've naively ignored the battle going on around me for humanity. I hate the feeling of being constantly attacked, constantly on the edge of stumbling, and totally unlike myself. But I know Satan would not bother attacking me if I wasn't about to do kingdom work. This realization only confirms to me that I not only am supposed to go on this trip, but I was made to go and serve and love the Haitians I will meet in just a few short days. FYI, prayer, the Word, and constant worship music are good ways to fight back.

We have a more formalized schedule for our trip. This plan is place to serve and reach the greatest number of people with disabilities with wheelchairs and the Gospel, since travel is so difficult for them. What's really cool is that you can see the places we'll be on Google maps.

Saturday: Our team meets up in the Miami airport, then flies to Port Au Prince. We'll be staying in Delmas Christian church, within Port Au Prince, with whom Wheels for the World has built a relationship.
Sunday: We'll stay in Delmas, plan, get to know each other, run through how our clinic will work, then drive to Jakmel, a few hours away.
Monday and Tuesday: Serve and run our wheelchair clinic in Jakmel, returning to Port Au Prince Tuesday night.
Wednesday: Serve at Delmas Christian Church in Port Au Prince.
Thursday: Travel to/from St Marc, to serve at a medical facility.
Friday: Travel to/from Laogane, to serve from a church there.
Saturday: Wrap up, who knows what else?
Sunday: Return to Miami and our homes.

As I prepare to leave, I've never been more in need of a mighty group of prayer warriors. Here are just a few of my current prayer requests:

- Travel mercies for our international travels, and our travels within Haiti
- For friendship, unity, and good working relationships within our team
- To speak and act with boldness, to accurately and courageously depict Christ to the Haitians
- For our physical, spiritual, and mental health and well being during the trip
- For God to move powerfully within the Haitian people we meet, that we would plant seeds in their hearts
- To be mobilized, not paralyzed, by our fear, our heartbreak, our brokenness
- That I don't forget to pack anything important (ie, my anti-malarial pills or money :))
- That I would learn to love and serve like Christ, to reach out to these people that most of the world has forgotten and marginalized
- To remember that He who lives in me is greater than he who lives in the world
- Safety from natural disasters and bad weather

I have so many other prayer requests, but I pray that God will guide your prayers for myself and my team. We have been told we may have Wifi at Delmas Christian Church...I plan to update Facebook only to save time and update the greatest number of folks in the shortest amount of time. I'm not sure how often I will be able to do this with our schedule, but I'll try my best.

For over a year, I've prayed that God would send me, and now He is. I can't wait to share my stories and pictures with you all in a little over a week!