Involve

Which do you prefer: the journey? or reaching the goal?

Day 4 brought near completion of our major project – the concrete for the basketball court.

But by now I’m losing track of the days. I’ve been so deeply engaged in leadership and problem solving, all I really know is what happened, but not when.

I know we loved children and taught them about Jesus. I know partnered with pastors and their churches. We prayed with families, worshiped together, shared the Word. Bonded. Loved. Cried. This is a group of young men and women who have left everything they knew to minister the life and love of Christ to people hurting deeply.

It hasn’t been perfect because we aren’t perfect; circumstances aren’t perfect; we are just fragile containers whose cracks and gaps are windows for God’s glory to shine.

I’m tapping this out with my thumb as I hold the phone in my one free hand as we drive from Port au Prince to the Dominican border. We are on a new journey with a new destination since our airline cancelled this week’s flights. Great symbolism, as none of us are the same any more. We are new people with changed hearts reaching for new goals.

We’ll keep you posted along the way…

I’ve got to start working on this earlier in the day!

Obviously, with the results of the presidential election tonight, at least 50% of Haitian voters are disappointed, and we are taking safety and security quite seriously.

Tonight, rather than the scheduled outreach, we stayed in and spent time with the boys here in the care of the Center of Hope. We had a time of “verbal worship” as we listened to one another answer two questions: how has God revealed Himself to you? and how has that changed your life?

The Haitian, American and Dominican stories were so beautiful and moving. Jesus was lifted up and many tears rolled down. Common themes touched on hope, grace, purpose and forgiveness. What an amazing group of people. What an awesome God.

We’ve only been together for a bit more than 48 hours, yet this is a family!

Most of the day was spent working on the basketball court. Mixing water, sand, gravel and cement. Pumping more water from the well (no, not for drinking.) a bucket brigade passing the concrete mix down to the forms, pouring it out, passing it back empty. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Making the backboard from scratch since the airline reps at LAX refused to allow us to bring the one we purchased (after clearing it with them by phone.) Measure, cut, paint, mark. Prune the tree overhanging the court. Dig the hole for the pole.

We had some great breakthroughs today too. We don’t mind hiring locals for pay – providing jobs is beneficial for the community. But we’ve also been trying to engage people in helping each other. Today we had a good group from the community join us to help build THEIR court, which is great and encouraging progress seeing increased ownership.

Also, we connected with several new people and organizations who we have been hopeful to develop future relationships.

Much to pray for, much to praise for.

Now we are beginning a new day, starting with team devotions in the Word, then onto breakfast and pouring more concrete to finish the court.

Many are asleep, but a handful remain awake playing “telephone pictionary.” I know the emotion of the day, the spiritual insights and the visceral images are now being expressed through loud laughter and silliness.

It’s been a full journey already, from packing to airports to a new language and culture. The immense poverty, the unappealing smells, the basic food. But we’ve seen so many smiles today, and already have been meeting so many needs.

Today there was a soccer game in an open field, and VBS for younger ones, and all of us in a ring praying together with our Haitian neighbors. Games at a youth outreach, worship singing Mighty to Save, and Jorge sharing how Christ changed his life via translation.

Tomorrow we begin our day in worship and a devotional at 7am local time, breakfast and then getting rolling on projects including a basketball court for the community. More stories, more pictures, more names and stories of changed lives to come.

Writing from the plane now. The trip started off for me in a whole new way. This veteran trip leader left his passport, wallet and cash for ministry projects on his desk at home. Never done that before. Had to run home before we even left for the airport. I had to remind myself that I was so busy taking care of everyone else, I needed to take care of me too.

Once we’d gathered and prayed we packed all twenty of us into our transport (thx Erik & Grant) and got up to LAX without any issues.

A few more moments for prayer when we learned that American Airlines was enforcing a new embargo against traveling with oversize bags, crates, tubs and boxes. Jourdan initiated a moment of prayer for an exception – to no avail; but we now could rest knowing God had a different plan for us. Our crew quickly got to work repacking into alternate luggage (abandoned suitcases provided for free by AA desk staff), even breaking down the basketball goal into our new bags. (We had to leave the plexiglass backboard behind.)

It’s been uneventful since then, getting through the TSA bodyscan, some dinner in the terminal and boarding our flight to Miami. All too soon we will arrive in the middle of the night – 5am ET but 2am to our bodies.

So it’s time to get a few short hours of rest before we get on our way…

More to come, more to pray… (Please get all our bags there, Lord!)

P.S. In Miami now.

Tomorrow we’ll be taking a team of 20 back to Haiti – the 6th mission to Hispaniola in 2010. This brief and personal video greeting inaugurates our mission overseas. We are at launch D minus 1 day.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBN4qiYAPC0