Hello family and friends from Haiti for one final time! This time next week, instead of kicking it on a beach with a coconut in one hand and shovel in the other, I should be freezing my rear off in Romania. Granted, coming from Ohio and Iowa, cold weather is nothing new. Going from sun, flip flops, and short sleeves to likely clouds, snow, and cold is quite the extreme change. That said, I’ll be happy to have a reprieve from the humidity.
The purpose of this blog is to more or less let you in on a few things. I’ve got 2 more blogs planned regarding our time here in Haiti, but I’m not ready with either of them, so this is what you’re stuck with for now until Romania. I do have a couple of fun little tidbits to share however.
1. We had a day off the other day and as a squad took a trip to Jacmel (spelling?) to spend time at a wonderful beach for the day. While there, we more or less camped out at the home of Dr. Ken, a man who recently started an organization called Surf Haiti. We met him and he has an interesting little claim to fame. He comes from Hawaii. If you are familiar with the movie Soul Surfer, about the girl who lost her arm to a shark, he is the actual man portrayed in the movie who was her youth pastor and the surgeon who performed her operation after she was bitten.
2. We leave for Romania this Sunday at 5:00am. Prayers for a smooth couple of days of travel would be very welcome. We fly from Port-Au-Prince to JFK in New York. We’re all hoping for a decent layover which would allow for some time for some greasy food (that will likely rhyme with ‘urger’) that does not consist of any sort of rice or beans. From there, we fly to Turkey before moving on to Romania for the month. We’ll be with working with the all girls team, Team Charis, and working/living with Team Mosaic which I’m super stoked about. They’re a great group of people and we’re going to have a great time in ministry this next month. We’ll be living in Dragnesti, Romania. The population of the county we are in is about 500,000 with only 700 or so Christians. Our task is church planting, but we’re pretty sure that ministry is going to look like a lot of different things next month, and not just church planting. Either way, we’re stoked for it!
3. This week we are having our first debrief session which essentially is a time for the squad to rest a little bit, recharged, and refocused and in the state of mind God desires us to be. Our two coaches from the States arrived last night and we’re happy to spend a couple days with them. Lots of cool things are planned for the week.
4. Finally, the biggie. Finances. Fundraising. I don’t have an exact amount total right now, but if I’ve figured things correctly, I’ve now got roughly $600 left to raise out of a total $15,500! I’m blown away right now and can’t believe how close I am to being fully funded. Thank you all who have been a part of this. Special thanks to the anonymous $220 and $100 dollar donations since I can’t thank you more personally. So, I’m all set for the next deadline of April 1 easily. Here’s the thing, I have teammates who are not there yet. If you could please pray for Candice, Jesse, Justin, and Michelle, they have not yet met the $11,000 deadline yet. If you have been planning on making a donation towards my account, I would like to ask that you prayerfully consider sending it to one of them instead. I cannot in any way, shape, or form imagine continuing this journey without even one of them. We’ve done life together 24/7 for the last 2 months. We’re not ready to give that up yet.
Thank you all again for giving this a read. I promise 2 more Haiti related blogs with pictures and hopefully one video once we get to Romania and are settled in. We’ve been told that internet access should be a daily occurrence, so no more 8 day gaps in between contact. I love you all and God Bless!
