I will be leaving on Thursday afternoon for a much anticipated trip to Haiti to work with a medical team. I get a lot of questions about this and I thought I would take the time write out my answers here.
When is your trip?
I leave March 5 and come back March 15.
What will you be doing there?
I'll be working with a team of about 15 people offering medical care to a village of people who otherwise have no access to care. We will be seeing people for whatever issue they may walk in the door with. We treat them the best way possible with the means available. The clinic has a pharmacy full of medications and we try to give each person is given a bag of rice.
Who are you going with?
A team from my church, Mosaic, who is teaming with the Haiti Foundation of Hope. There is good info on the HFH website!
How much does it cost and how did you pay for it?
Total cost is $1700. Our families were very generous this Christmas :)
What if you die/get AIDS/get kidnapped? Isn't Haiti dangerous?
This question may seem kind of funny...but it could be the most common question. What if I do? It is obviously not my goal or plan to become sick, stolen or dead. The leader of the team we are going with has been travelling to Haiti for 25 years. They lived there for 2 of those years. There are a number of precautions we are taking to protect ourselves and I take that very seriously. I work in an area of nursing where bodily fluids flow freely at will. It will not be a new concept to protect myself from that!
Why Haiti anyways?
My answer may not satisfy some people. God placed Haiti on Jordan and I's hearts over a year ago. Since college I have been exposed to mission opportunities, taken mission trips and heard hundreds of missionary stories. While I felt propelled to help in some way with these trips and stories...rarely did my heart break for them. I am saddened by a lot of things, but not moved into action. In summertime of 2007 when I started reading some of the blogs listed on the bottom right of my blogroll...(the Haiti ones and the Ivey's) I literally could not stop myself from being consumed by it. God was molding and shaping my heart for those people for some weird reason. I convinced Jordan to read the stories I was seeing, so we read and we cried and we prayed. We still don't know what that all means, but when we moved back up here and visited a church who had a partership with Haiti and was taking a medical team there in March...it was obvious to us what our first move would be. I honestly believe this is just the first step to what He is doing in us.
What about your kids?
Teaching the kids about this trip has probably been the best part so far. Let's be honest, Noelle is 2 she doesn't know what the crap is going on. Landon is about to turn 4 and he is very much aware of things, but no so great at processing the why's and how's. Austen is 5 and needs to know every detail about everything everywhere all the time. We have been talking casually about Haiti for over a year now, so when the idea came up of me going...they just expected it. We talk about how fortunate we are to have food, housing, medicine, mommies and daddies and school. We talk about how God has given us those things to be His hands and feet. We were not chosen to have these things because of good things we or our parents do. By His grace, we have been provided for and by His grace we will continue to provide for the needs of others. It's simple really.
Are you scared?
Yes, of dumb stuff mostly. Nothing to do with kidnapping or HIV. I am afraid that I will be dysfunctional after not being able to kiss my husband and babies for 10 days.
What can I do to help?
You can pray for us. I have an excellent prayer letter that I would love to send anyone who wants it. It outlines what we will be doing and where we will be day by day. You can also call my husband and be sure he hasn't listed any of the kids (Landon) on craigslist. Maybe even cook him a meal or bless his heart bring him coffee. If you don't live near us then just call him to let him know you love him and be willing to assess his mental status.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
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