Finally in Haiti - July 10, 2010

I'm in the process of catching up on my promise to update my blog with stories and pictures from the mission trip I took to Jacmel, Haiti in July.  I am using the journal I kept during the trip as the primary material and will add in thoughts when I have them.  Thanks to everyone who has shared kind words about my recent updates. It's nice to know people are reading and that they are actually interesting and/or meaningful to someone else!

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July 10, 2010
7:30am Eastern (4:30am "body clock time")
Hotel in Miami, Florida

Fell asleep watching Titanic last night.  Even with the Ambien I woke up a few times, but more because I was nervous about oversleeping. 

I'm a bundle of nerves this morning.  Got up early enough to have a "relaxed" getting ready time.  Enjoyed my shower.  Keep thinking my next stay in this hotel (on my way home) will be much more relaxing!

My bags are packed and I'm getting ready to catch the shuttle for the airport.  Honestly, I'm not looking forward to meeting the team and making small talk.  That is hard for me when I am nervous.  I actually delayed going to the airport and then putzed around after I got through security so that I wouldn't arrive at the gate super early and feel weird about standing around meeting strangers. How grumpy am I?

My anxiety is really general right now.  I'm not scared specifically about the flight, danger in Haiti, or really anything. It's more like I'm really keyed up. 

OK, so I'm also a little nervous about my stomach today. There I said it.  I will be fine.

Please God help me not to be afraid.  Help me remember why I am doing this and keep me focused on being a servant, instead of focusing on myself.

July 10, 2010
10:30am-ish Eastern
Sitting on the plane in Miami

Made it to the airport on time and not too nervous.  I needed to walk to stay calm though.  I called Eric and texted my parents. Started to feel sad. I met Gina, Aubrey and Patti and we talked until boarding.  There are a lot of relief teams and military personnel on the plane. We actually boarded on time and it looked like we were ready to go, but we've been sitting on the plane at the gate for more than an hour.  Apparently someone on the "No Fly List" boarded the plane, so they removed the person and now they have to search all the baggage to remove their bags.  It sounds like now we can go.  It's been a wait, but here we go! That was actually very ridiculous. First we boarded and then waited. Then they said the thing about the "No Fly List" person/people. Then we waited. Then they said we could take off. Then we waited. Then they said someone on the standby list who didn't get on the plane had luggage checked and they had to get that luggage off too. Then we waited. In the meantime, I called and then texted Eric and my parents for awhile. My least favorite part about flying is actually boarding the plane and waiting to take off. Once we start moving, I am usually fine. So this was an extra test for me, the "waiting for an extended period of time without taking off".

July 10, 2010
6:30pm Local Time (which coincides with the US Central time zone even though Haiti is southeast of Florida)
Jacmel, Haiti (!!) - Roof of the Loving Light Hotel

WHAT? I haven't "done" anything today but I'm pretty wiped out.  The drive to Jacmel wasn't conducive to writing, so I'm going to try to explain as well as I can what has happened and what I've seen.

When we landed in Port-au-Prince (PaP), the first thing I saw was tent cities and military vehicles (parked at the airport).  You could see the blue tarps all over the place as we flew in - tent cities, but everywhere.





View of a small tent city as we flew in to Port au Prince

Military barracks set up at airport

Airport terminal

My seatmate was a scout for a medical mission (secular) and had been to Haiti two prior times.  He asked how I was feeling about going and I said, "Nervous and excited." He said, "You should be." I said, "Which one?" and he said, "Both." That kind of freaked me out. 

Prayers have been felt - I haven't had an anxious stomach all day!

When we left the plane, we were herded into an "immigration" hallway.  We had to take a small bus about 1/2 mile to the immigration area.  From there, again herded, this time to submit our entry documents.  The building was a giant shed/warehouse that was very hot and smelled like sweat. 



Waiting in line to present entry documents



The craziest part of the airport was baggage.  It was extremely crowded and people were just ramming into each other and pushing and shouting (mostly in Kreyol, some other languages).  My hand got smashed - hard! - by an irate CNN cameraman who was slamming down his equipment and yelling at someone. We later learned that Anderson Cooper was reporting live from Haiti the day after we got there, so maybe this was one of his camera men. I would much rather have met AC, that's all I'll say about it.

Yes, somewhere in this mass of people there is a baggage carousel

Patti, expressing the craziness in the baggage area

It took awhile for all of us to get our bags. Because there is only 1 baggage carousel -- really I have no idea what the "because" is, this could just as easily say "because we were in Haiti" -- some of the airport workers were putting some bags on to the carousel and putting some in a baggage area roped off on the side. There was no system that we could understand for which bags came around on the carousel and which were pulled to the side. And the ropes made us think that those bags were somehow "off limits" - it looked like the little rooms they have near baggage claims in the states for when someone misses a connection or a bag gets lost and they set those bags aside to wait for the owner.  So after waiting and being pushed for probably 15 minutes, I realized that one of my bags was in this roped off area. That solved a mystery as many of our team members were still missing bags and it was because they were off to the side. I still have no idea if I was supposed to go to the roped area or not, but I couldn't reach it anyway (crowds) so I ended up pantomiming to a guy who lugged it over the rope and to me.  Patti, pictured above, ended up waiting about a half an hour for both of her bags.  It was really starting to look like they were not going to show up and she got really nervous that she would be in Haiti for 8 days with NOTHING. But, God was watching and her bags showed up eventually!

We went through customs and gathered inside the fence.  This was the part of arriving that I was most worried about. Given the travel advisory and comments from a few friends who went to Haiti on missions before I did, I knew that "once you exit the airport, you are in Haiti". So it was with some sense of dread that I walked through the doors with my two gigantic bags to come face to face with whatever reality was out there.

View out the doors of the airport. In my head I kept hearing, "Don't let go of your bag. Don't let anyone take your bag."

Of course the very first thing that happened when I got to my group, waiting inside the fenced area, was that some random guy started taking my bag. I was seriously ready to start punching people if it made the difference between losing and keeping my bags! But Gary [Our team coordinator] told me we needed porters, so it was fine.  The porters loaded our bags and then argued (loudly) in a way that I found hilarious about who was the "boss".  It turned out to be a good thing we had porters for our bags. It was about a mile walk from this spot to where we met our vans and I had 100lbs of baggage and a backpack. The hardest part was that there were 5 or 6 porters and my 2 bags ended up on 2 different carts, so I was trying to appear relaxed but keep up with my group and keep an eye on two different carts with my bags.  I was really surprised how quickly I switched into "St Paul mode" and the street smarts kicked in.  I felt those personal safety type instincts almost immediately when we walked through the fence of the airport.  For those of you who aren't familiar, I taught elementary school for 2 years in one of the poorest, high crime neighborhoods in Chicago. Anyway, I introduced myself to our team coordinator, who had been in Haiti for about 10 days at that point and knew what was going on, and stuck right next to him from the point we left the airport fence until we got to the vehicles.  I figured, stick with the guy who knows what's what. 

The porters kept flashing badges at each other and shouting.  Apparently the "boss" receives the tip and is responsible for dividing it up, so there is financial gain to be had if you are the boss.  While that arguing was going on, some of the porters who were clearly NOT the boss were making the rounds asking for payment for carrying our bags.  They would pretend to get angry when we said "no", but then would move on to the next person.  A couple of the ladies actually started going into their bags right next to me and I seriously almost tackled them to get them to stop. We had explicitly been told by our team coordinator not to tip the men, that he would handle the payment to the porters. 

Discussing who is boss.

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Tomorrow: The CRAZY drive from PaP to Jacmel, my first impressions of the town, and some details about our accomodations as our first day in Haiti comes to a close

Haiti Mission Trip - Day 1, Part 2

Last time, we left off halfway through my cross country journey from Washington to Miami, Florida, where I met the other members of the Forward Edge International team going to Jacmel, Haiti on July 10, 2010. Again, text is from the journal I kept during that time, with side comments "in the now" in italics.

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July 9, 2010
11:30am local time (10:30am Pacific)
Denver International Airport

Just loaded into the plane headed to Charlotte.  Had my first mini panic attack while waiting in the hallway to board.  Still a little shaky. 

I had a nice visit with Mark and Sharon [Eric's parents] at the airport.  We were able to hang out for a little over an hour.  It was good to see them.  Sharon is obviously looking forward to visiting Eric and the kids. They had lots of questions about my trip and updated me on the goings-on with the Denver family.  They encouraged me many times for being brave and adventurous. I need to remember it now.

I AM BRAVE AND ADVENTUROUS!

So, panic attack details.  [Like many anxiety sufferers, I always find it helps me calm down if I name the anxiety or talk about the symptoms I am feeling. I decided it would be better to do that in writing this time, rather than suddenly announcing a list of "symptoms" to random plane travellers in my general vicinity. Didn't want to be kicked off the plane for being disruptive!]  Waiting in line in the little hallway. Stomach queasy. Hot. Took deep breaths.  Ran through "worst case scenario" (sick on plane). Reminded myself that I am just taking a plane trip today.  Got to my seat.  Turned on the air vent.  Turned on my IPod, listening to Third Day.  I'm going to read my book again soon.  This plane is bigger, so it is taking a long time to load. Blech.

I need to eat something soon. I've been up 7 hours with just a latte so far.  Not hungry though.  It looks like boarding is FINALLY done.  If so, then I scored and the seat next to me is empty, except the aisle lady's giant bag.  She's a little "fancy". [Older, very well dressed, gigantic jewelry, a little too much makeup] 

One thing I talked about to Mark and Sharon is the number of people who have told me they would like to do a mission trip sometime.  I told them I'd like to try to help form a little group to do a US mission trip maybe next year. 

Door closed - empty middle seat! Hooray! [Oh, the joy of the small things in life! Hey! I'm 5'10, I can use that extra leg room!]

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Halfway through the flight. Ate 1/2 a bagel.  Just got ice water from the flight attendant.  He called me "Kiddo". Ha... The fancy lady took off her shoes before we took off and seat belted them to the middle seat. That is very weird. 

July 9, 2010
5:45pm local time (2:45pm Pacific)
Charlotte Airport

I finished my book on the plane.  I have another one, but I think I might buy one if I have time at the airport so I don't run out of reading in Haiti.
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I just bought The Hunger Games [which I had been wanting to read -- the Charlotte airport was a treasure trove of reading material for some reason.  The little stand I stopped at was packed with books on my "to read" list.]  and a small sub sandwhich that cost $8! What a rip-off.  Waiting to board.  The flight is on time but there are lots of other delayed flights.  It's entertaining to watch business people trying to "nicely" put pressure on the airline people. Like the gate person decides about flight delays.  Time to board! 2 hours to go for today. 

July 9, 2010
10pm local time (7pm Pacific)
Hotel in Miami, Florida

My flight to Miami was pretty uneventful.  My seat neighbor was a woman travelling to Peru with Young Life for a missions trip.  She was very nice.  There were a lot of Italian guys on the plane too. I don't know why. 

As we flew in to Miami, I remembered again how ugly I think Florida is.  But, I imagined flying in over Haiti tomorrow and seeing the tent cities.  Unimaginable still. 

I have to be up at 6:30am Eastern tomorrow [3:30am "my time"]  so I'm going to take my Ambien and go to bed.

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Tomorrow: I finally get to Haiti!

Haiti Mission Trip - Day 1

As I start reviewing my July 2010 mission trip to Jacmel, Haiti with Forward Edge International, I am going to be relying primarily on the journal I kept during the trip.  Journal quotes will be in regular font, editorial comments in italics. Or maybe I'll come up with some other system if that works better!

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July 9, 2010
5:15am Pacific
Pasco Airport

Through security and waiting to board the airplane.  I am pretty tired - got up at 4am.  I am glad that Eric told me to get up early to take a shower. It is nice to be clean if I am going to be so tired.

Not super nervous at this point.  I have been enormously sad the last two days about leaving Eric and the kids.  Only part of it is fatalistic "What if I don't come back?" There is another, bigger sadness that I am surrendering the kids, or failing to take care of them. The last time I felt this deep sadness was when I had post-partum depression after Little Man was born and would randomly get sad and cry at the same time every day. Anyway, for more than 4 years my identity has been "mom" pretty much exclusively.  It is very weird and scary to be doing this other thing now.  Even though I'll only be gone a week, mentally this is like stepping off of a ledge into a different life. No idea what to expect.

I am really glad the kids are small enough that they didn't realize how sad I was yesterday.  Sister did a little bit, but in the end the selfishness of being 4 years old won out.  Little Man is only thinking about trains, bars, snacks and cars... as usual.

It is really strange to be living in the world without my wedding ring on.  [We were told to leave all jewelry and valuables at home because of the risk of burglary/theft.] I keep going to fidget with it and realize it's gone.  I have a moment of "Oh crap! I lost my ring!" before I remember I left it home on purpose.

It sounds like we are boarding!

July 9, 2010
8am Pacific
Flying to Denver

Boarding was quick and easy.  Cramped. As usual, the person in front of me had his seat as far back as possible but wasn't sleeping. Flying pet peeve.

I had a brief moment of "What if we crash?" anxiety when we first took off, but really minimal.  A product of not flying very often, I guess.  I snoozed on and off [Very rare while I am travelling]  and read some more of Mrs Kimble.

I just realized that I forgot to write down the emergency numbers for Forward Edge and the State Department. What a moron! I'll get them from Eric later.  [I had left Eric a lengthy note with contact information for every possible agency related to my trip, as well as the login names and passwords for important accounts and my email, my social security card, birth certificate, copy of my passport, etc. but forgot to bring a copy of the phone numbers for myself.]

I am meeting Mark and Sharon [Eric's parents] at the airport for an hour or so.  I'll have to go through security again.  At home, they searched my backpack because of my powdered Gatorade.  Hopefully the security here will let me keep it. [Powdered Gatorade was on our supply list to be used for flavoring our water and also for electrolytes in case of diahrea.  I ended up bringing a cannister of powdered Gatorade which apparently looked like a stack of CD's when they scanned my carry-on bag.  Since they couldn't see through the Gatorade, they ended up basically emptying my carry-on bag to go through the entire thing. They thought they were looking for CD's so actually passed up the Gatorade at first before realizing they had found the ominous item. It was a 10 minute search process that I found completely ridiculous.  In Denver when I went through security, I "declared" my Gatorade along with my ziplock of liquid items and it passed through without anyone batting an eyelash.  It's good to know the security check people at our little, local airport are on their toes!]

I just accidentally penned my pants! Suck! I only have two pairs, so now I'll have to spend the next 10 days looking at that stupid pen mark!

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To be continued...

The Mental Stuff: Haiti Prep

Part 2 of the saga of preparing for my mission trip to Haiti in July 2010...

One of the coolest things about preparing for the mission trip, and something I did not expect, was the opportunities it brought about for me to get to know some  of the people at my church that I didn't already know.  We have only been living here a year, and while the members of our church have always been nice to me, it has mostly been in a "smile and nod" type way. Maybe an occasionally hello or comment about how cute the kids are.

I was really blessed by how encouraging and friendly the people at my church were when I gave the short info talks about the trip. And then I was planning for my garage sale and met lots of people that way too.  I had asked for donations for the sale and was approached at church and also had people calling me (or sometimes just showing up at my house) with items they wanted to give me to sell. I'd say 75% of the people who gave me items were people I had never had a "real" conversation with. Most of the people were older/elderly and many were giving me items that had some kind of meaning for them. It was actually really cool. Someone would bring me a box of items and then sift through it with me explaining what they had brought and, in many cases, telling me a little story about how they got an item, where it came from, etc.  It was an interesting way to get to know some of the people at church that I might not have otherwise met. 

On the other side of things, I think this experience gave people a chance to get to know me better too.  I was up in front of church on a regular basis talking about something that is important to me, in addition to writing bulletin insert blurbs and an article for the monthly newsletter. It gave people a way to connect with me, something to ask me about other than the kids.

Now, on to the mental prep part of getting ready for the trip.

A lot of people have asked me if I felt bad leaving the kids for 10 days.  The kids spent the time with their daddy who, thankfully, has a flexible work schedule in the summer and was able to be home with them with little impact to his job/normal life.  I was not in even the slightest way worried about how the time would go for the 3 of them.  Eric is an excellent daddy and the kids love him. I actually really looked forward to that time for them because I knew it would be good for all of them.  Plus, Nana Sharon came for part of the time from Colorado, and who can beat a visit from an out of town Nana?

I didn't feel much emotional stress about leaving until just a couple of days before I left.  About a week before I was scheduled to leave, the US State Department re-issued their travel warning for Haiti. This warning recommended no non-essential travel into Haiti due to lack of governmental and police presense and escalating violence and criminal behavior (burglary, kidnapping) towards travellers entering Haiti via Port-au-Prince's airport. I didn't think much about changing my plans, but it did reinforce that there could be danger on this journey.

The last few days before I left for my trip, I was pretty emotional.  My mind was in a lot of places, but the overwhelming emotion was deep sadness. Part of the sadness was fear that I would actually die while I was there, leaving the kids and Eric without "the mama".  This thought occasionally crosses my mind anyway - how would my family do if I died in an accident or something? - but it is very different when headed into an unknown situation that could potentially involve violence or disease? I was sad that I might miss my kids lives. And sad that if I died while they are so young they wouldn't remember much about me, and Little Man probably nothing at all. And, yes there's more!, sad that if I died on this trip, it would totally be MY OWN FAULT! since I chose to go and "put myself at risk".  In fact, thinking back on how I felt then, I still get teary and emotional.

Less serious but adding to the emotion was dealing with the emotions of choosing to leave my family for the 10 days.  This one probably sounds silly to most people. In fact, it sounds silly to me, but things are different for those of us living in the world of Stay-at-Home-Mom-dom. My life is pretty much 24-7 about my kids. Even the things I do for myself are affected by my kids because my free time is scheduled based on their schedule. When Eric and I have a date night or, extremely rarely, a getaway weekend, there is always the thought of what is going on at home, whether the kids are being good and are happy, what they will be doing when we get home, etc.  The decision to go on this mission trip was the first major decision I have made in at least 5 years that was selfish in that it was made without "considering" the kids. (That isn't really accurate because Eric and I did discuss the kids when we talked about whether I should go, but my choice was made "in spite of" the kids not "because of" or "for" them.) God called me to go on this trip and one of the challenges for me was accepting that call and not using the circumstances of my life as an excuse.  Not saying "I can't go because I have kids" (or "I can't go because [insert random reason here].")

It was a hard couple of days. I was excited to leave, nervous about going, busy preparing and spending time with my kids while fighting sadness about leaving them and the occasional "this might be the last time they get to play at the park with their Mommy" type thoughts. 

And then, leave day came!

Haiti Mission Trip Prep - July 2010

Yes, I do feel dumb that it has taken me two months to get around to this. I am going to share a little of what I remember of preparing for my mission trip to Jacmel, Haiti in July. No, I am not preparing for a mission trip right now. Are you crazy?

One of the most unexpected things that happened as I prepared to go to Haiti was the speed in which my funding was completely covered. I spent a few months working on planning - things like making an appointment to see the health nurse for shots, applying for my passport, etc. - before I officially told people I was going and mentioned needing financial support.  I was really worried about the money part. I felt like I was supposed to be going on this trip and agreed to go, but did so without knowing where the money to cover the expenses would come from. But, God totally provided and my worry was for nothing. Within 2 weeks of telling people I was trying to raise money for this trip, the money was there. There were many people at my church who were very generous. I also had a gigantic garage sale at my house with all the money raised going towards my trip. There were about 20 families from church who donated items for the sale, and I had a crew of about 8 women who helped me price and worked at the sale.  The help turned out to be life saving - I came down with strep throat in the days leading up to the sale. My temp was around 103 and I was too insane to do any work or price anything. I ended up having to sit to the side at the start of the sale to finish the pricing!

"You could help price instead of standing around taking my picture!"

The garage sale was exhausting but a huge hit. It put me over the total funds I needed for the trip by $5 - the first of my "supplies" money.  After the sale, I still received almost $500 in donations, so I ended up with a large chunk of money to spend on supplies to be donated at our work site in Jacmel. 

Pretty soon after the sale, within a week because I was still on the strep throat antibiotics, I had my appointment with the travel nurse. This was the second week of June, about a month before my trip. The Health Department travel nurse is awesome. She had tons of information for me about preventing, recognizing and treating different illnesses, and also general information about safety while travelling.  One super cool thing about this part of the prep -- I have a friend whose husband works with my husband who went to Africa in summer 2009. She told me about the awesomeness of the travel nurse, and also told me that the shots end up being pretty pricey because they aren't covered by our insurance. I needed the shots, right?, so I made the appointment anyway and then worried about the "where is the money going to come from?" part. For real, 2 days before my appointment, I got a call from the travel nurse's office saying that they had just THE WEEK BEFORE switched to being able to accept insurance so I should bring my insurance card. Yes, that is right. Instead of paying for a visit and shots, I paid my $30 co-pay and that was it!! I ended up with 3 shots, a RX for malaria pills and a general antibiotic (for intestinal stuff) and a TB test. Little Man was very proud that I didn't cry.

Showing off my shots

Money covered, shots received, passport arrived in the mail. I got to move on to the "fun stuff" and start buying the things I needed for my trip.  I had a pretty comprehensive list of supplies from the sending agency, so that didn't end up being too difficult. Other than that I couldn't find rehydration salts anywhere. I packed keeping in mind that I would be trying to leave as much of what I brought as I could.  I also decided to make the trip even more of a challenge by planning ahead of time to not shower the entire 8 days I was in Haiti. It seems like a really dumb thing to do now, but at the time I was thinking "Avoid water as much as possible" because of fear of disease. So I bought lots of camping wipes which became my shower. I cannot even tell you about the disgustingness that became my hair. That is for another day.

With items purchased, I moved on to the supplies I would be donating in Jacmel. Again, I worked from a list given to me by the sending agency. I ended up filling a 49lb bag with items (lovingly packed by my super-organized-packing husband at 10pm the night before I left) that were on the list. Mostly basic first aid and medical supplies. Also, school supplies (Walmart's "back to school" sales started the week before I left, so I got some awesome $.25 deals!), bras and underwear, toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc. Pics below.  The 2nd grade class at Eric's school donated 22 pairs of flip flops along with really cute letters for some of the kids there.

School supply donations

Flip flop donations

Bras, underwear, "feminine products", hair ties, toothbrushes...

Medical supply donations

I'm not going to lie, I did freak out a little bit about how much stuff I was bringing with me. I had this grand plan that I would only need one bag, but I ended up bringing 2 bags at max size and capacity. So much for "packing light"! I probably spent 2 hours the night before I left packing and repacking my bags. Probably not necessary, but it gave me something to do!

Next time: The emotional side of preparing to leave...

Seriously, I'm going to start talking about Haiti now. Or tomorrow.

It's been a couple of months now since my week long mission trip to Jacmel, Haiti. Before I left, I fully intended to return home and then write some awesome blog posts about my experiences there. And, of course, what I learned and generally amusing thoughts about the whole thing.

And then I actually got back and was completely exhausted and overwhelmed by the entire experience.  For the first week or two after I got back, I struggled mightily to summarize my trip for the nearest and dearest. I felt like I did right after I had my kids - I felt like my mind was working normally, but instance after instance proved that my mind was indeed abnormal. I would go to the phone to return a phone call and the mere thought of forming words into sentences to talk outloud to someone seemed too daunting to attempt.  People would ask about my trip and all I could muster was "it was good" or "it was amazing". Etc.

Now I have entered a new phase of post-missions thought. I'll call it "I've told this story so many times I keep losing track of what I'm saying", AKA "am I repeating myself?" Like, at this very moment I am fighting the urge to re-read my blog posts from the past few months because I am sure I have written this before. I will wait until I'm done and then go check! My apologies if you really have already seen this. That would be very sad.

I have told some version of my mission trip story to hundreds of people at this point. Most have been cozy, sitting around at dinner/coffee/cards type chat. But I've also given a 1 hour information talk at church for approximately 150 people and spoke 2 nights ago at Lutheran Women Missions League (also at church) to about 30 women about my trip.  There has also been an occasional, ambush style "tell me all about your trip and what you learned, but I only have 5 minutes" conversation.

And so, with all of that behind me, I am finally ready to start talking about my trip. Tomorrow. I kept a journal of my entire trip, starting from leaving my house for the airport. I haven't been able to re-read my journal yet. I told someone this the other day and the response made me feel like maybe that is weird. It is what it is. I have picked my journal up a few times to look at it and can't do it. Memories are too fresh. Or weirdness about reading my own "raw" thoughts. Or, I don't know I just can't open it. But, I will.

Here's my plan, and if I type it, I will stick to it. (In theory, at least.) Tomorrow I'm going to share a little about the last minute prep leading up to the trip. Then I'm going to transcribe or summarize my journal thoughts and use that as my mode for communicating about my trip. 2 birds with one stone - tell the story, force myself to process the journal.

For now, here is the (pretty long) photo-vid I made for the presentation at church, but mostly for myself and for the other people on the team to remember our trip. Feel free to check it out if you'd like!

Missions Support

About 5 weeks to Haiti...

This past week my preparations have been focused on building my support team. The support team includes people who are praying for me, people providing emotional or physical support in some way, and people supporting me financially. 

Saturday is my garage sale fundraiser. Memos have been put in both the church and school newsletter requesting donations for the sale, or help with the actual selling. I have to say, at first the goal was the end game: have enough stuff to sell to make some good money to go toward my trip expenses. But, there has been a second, very beneficial benefit. More on that in a minute...

Sunday was my first "ask" at church. I created a bulletin board with info about Jacmel, info about Forward Edge (my sending agency), info about what I'll be doing there, and prayer requests. I included some maps and pictures.  I also made a bookmark with a map, my picture and 4 or 5 prayer requests that anyone from my church could keep to help them know how they could pray for me and Haiti in regards to my trip. 

I spoke after both services. I was pretty nervous. I can talk to kids or teenagers without fear, but put me in front of adults and it is an entirely different story. I am not a gifted public speaker. I talk to fast and tend to end sentences in a giggle when I am nervous. It's trademark, but doesn't make for a clear oral presentation. 

I realized, as the time was drawing near for my first chance to speak at church about my trip, that a lot of my nervousness was coming from some really silly assumptions I was making about my audience. I was going into the situation with the mindset that people would be judging me - how I look, whether I sounded intelligent or "dumb", etc. This was unintentional on my part. I didn't really think I thought that (!!), but obviously deep down it was a fear. So I reminded myself: this is my church family. These people are just interested in putting my (fairly new to the church) face with the name and hearing about what I'm doing. They are curious and interested, not judgmental or harsh.

And I spoke. Thankfully, Eric made me a simple powerpoint to go with my talk, so that helped me stay focused. I didn't go much over my allotted "minute talk" time.  I said what I wanted to say.

After the services, I hung out at the back by my poster and answered questions about my trip. I gave out my bookmarks.  I manned my little donation basket. 

And so, like with the garage sale donations, I realized something very cool that doing this - putting myself "out there" in the church community - has brought about.  I am getting a chance to meet or get to know lots of new people at our church! We have been here almost a year, so I recognize a good number of the church members, and I know quite a few names, but matching names to faces is not something I'm great at. And most people I have met briefly or said "hi!" to, but haven't had lengthy conversations with. But now I am finding myself talking with new people and getting to know little things that people are sharing with me about their own lives.  I am enjoying and appreciating that aspect of this adventure more than I would have thought. (I guess that isn't that hard since I didn't really think about it before it happened!) This trip and my info sharing and fundraising have led to conversations and getting to know people in my own backyard.

Just another cool result in this still ongoing adventure!!

****

Side note:
Passport application is in processing and should be finished next week.
Appointment with Health Dept Travel Nurse in a week.
All paperwork and documentation turned in to FEI.
Flights to Miami and then on to Haiti have been purchased.
Progress...