IT’S HAPPENING – I’M LEAVING FOR HAITI IN A MATTER OF HOURS. Our flight is early tomorrow morning, but we’ll be leaving the hotel at 11:30pm to go to the airport, and kick off our World Race experience appropriately by sleeping there. Whoo-hoo!
My nerves and anxiety and meltdown mode have greatly abated — thank you for your prayers!! It was definitely real rough saying bye to the family yesterday, and I definitely predict a lot of home-sick moments ahead. But I am also so excited to go and do this. There’s a healthy mix of nerves and a bit of fear, but also thrilled anticipation for what the Lord has in store for this next year. For the more of Jesus that I hope, pray and believe that I will encounter, and through that, the growth that will come about.
The same hodge-podge of feelings and expectations holds for my team as well. I love each of the individuals and love our team as a group, but that word, and that love, holds no real weight or substance. Yet. It’s genuine, but it’s not an intimate, gone-through-the-fire love. And I’m wanting and chasing after that. It’s not going to be easy for me, but I am making a conscious and determined decision to commit to investing in my team, in being vulnerable and open, and embracing them in the depth of my heart as my family. In every sense. Already they have made the separation/saying goodbye process more bearable and brought me great comfort and peace and joy. I love them. (Pst, go check out their blogs and get to know them. They’re all super awesome!! (; I promise.)
And another thing that helps bring me some measure of comfort and ease is in the fact that our first country is Haiti, where my family and I already went to for a week for our family mission trip earlier this summer. Though the ministry my team will be serving with is not the same, there is still somewhat of a sense of familiarity. And I am also CRAZY pumped to get to know the ministry family in Haiti. Seriously, my heart is SO MIGHTY FULL right now, this very exact second, that I can’t even begin to put it into words. The ministry is called Together We Can, serving in an area called Montrouis, I believe.
I don’t have the details on what specifically we’ll be doing with them, but we will be partnering with them in their ministry work, and also hopefully being a source of encouragement and refreshment for them. We will also be with another team (Team R.O.A.R.) on my squad during this month (the other 4 teams will all be at Mission of Hope in Haiti), made up of 7 FABULOUS ladies. So please pray for both teams and myself, that we will really seek to be Christ’s love and light and truth, spilling His joy & peace & hope, wherever we go into every heart and soul we encounter, whether it be the community people or the ministry teams or the airport/airplane workers or each other. Pray that we will love well, with the love of Jesus, as ones who are rooted in the knowledge of being Loved.
So as I get ready to really leave now, I humbly ask you to continue to partner with me through prayer (SO ESSENTIAL!!), encouragement (drop a line in the comments or email! Genuinely makes a difference and so valued), donating (still have about 50% left to raise if I want to do all 11 months of the Race!!), sharing with your friends (send them my blog link, be a messenger (; hee).
Thank you so much for your amazing support – I have been blown away by the grace, generosity, joy, and love that I have received from everyone. Thank you thank you!!
Next time I write I’ll be doing it from Haiti!! (: I promise I’ll try to include pictures in as many of my updates as possible!
