Travel and Blessings

So my travel here was remarkably uneventful...that being said, I have many instances where God was clearly walking with me - some I didn't even know about at the time. For some reason I was a bit anxious about my travel here - probably because I didn't feel I really knew what my travel plans were once I landed in Haiti - just having faith that God was taking care of them for me. I remember a sermon from Junior High - probably the first one I really ever paid attention to and tried to apply. Pastor Andy Hollinger spoke about "living by Faith" asking God for the little needs and watching Him show up in those areas to build our Faith to ask for the big things. At the time I seem to remember my application involving school and a boy and being quite impressed with How God worked things out... Now that seems like a selfish application yet it really moved me forward in my understanding of living for Christ and trusting Him to come thru as I walk in obedience to the direction He was leading me. Back to my travels, I have had remarkable support from family and friends, especially Tami, who worked so hard to let people know what God was leading me to do. That in and of it's self is an answer to prayer because I know that my being here is the result of many people giving to the work here and to the vision of what Hands and Feet wants to do in the lives of these kids and in Haiti.

So I landed in Ft. Lauderdale on Friday afternoon after circling the city for 45 minutes because of rain and lightening. My bag was not checked all the way to Haiti because my layover was so long, so I got my bag -47 lbs and headed to the hotel shuttle area which was clearly marked - as being in the opposite direction from where it was. After asking three people for help someone finally explained where i needed to go - by now my arms were aching from carrying my duffle while having my camping back pack and carry-on bag all on me as well - I'm sure I was quite the sight! The rain began to fall harder and I was having a difficult time staying dry with the wind blowing and walking beyond the overhang. A young man walking the other direction stopped and asked if he could help me with my bag. At first I declined because it was so far and in the opposite direction from where he was headed by he offered again so I accepted. He carried it all the way to the other end of the next concourse for me!

The next morning I rose early and headed for the airport about 5 am. The sitting in the airport was long and boring as there was no one to call at that time of morning and little to do to entertain myself. Still the flight got off without a hitch, I swapped seats with a man so he could sit by his nephew on the flight and moved to the back of the plane. I sat next to two very nice, but non-talkative men. I realized at some point filling out my immigration form that I didn't know the address of where I was heading. Neither of my neighbors had cell phones that were turned on yet in Haiti so they couldn't help me but the one to my left offered to get his friend to let me use his once we landed - I did have a phone number. One of the flight attendants approached me and asked if i was going to an orphanage. I replied that i was and she asked if i could take some donations. She had two paper sacks of clothes and flip flops her sons school had collected to donate. She said she always tried to find someone to donate to when she flew to port-au-prince. The line through customs was long And I ended up at the end of the slowest line. I was three people away from the front when I heard my name! Michelle, who works at the Port-au-Prince site was there to meet me. Se helped me gather my bags and head out to the vans. Kyle and I headed out to Jacmel while the others (Mark, Will, Shannon, Cora, and Michelle) headed to the Grand Guave site. Kyle told me the fact that I got here on a one way ticket was pretty impressive they often require people to buy a return ticket before letting them come! Thank God for that. There were more little blessings along the way... The man who sat next to stayed with me until I met up with Michelle - which was kind of him.

So here I am. Taking time today to get to know the girls and to see what I think needs to happen in their house. Dr. Ken got me set up with a Haitian cell phone so I have that now and I may be able to call home on occasion which is good news as I look forward to hearing voices of my loved ones before three months are up :-). More to come...