Mission Work is Messy ;-)

Whew!  What a day . . .

So, some bumps appeared in the road, but we are all still very excited about the trip to Haiti.  As of now, everyone will be departing tomorrow for Cap Haitien rather than today.  The pilot needed some extra time to do some work on the generator on his plane, but we didn't put up a fight - we want that plane in tip-top shape!

We believe (fingers crossed ;-)  ) that we have all of the passenger information that we need for the pilots, and we spent a good deal of today divvying up all of the supplies that we have received.  The outpouring of donations from individuals and hospitals has been tremendous!

Being the introvert that I am (wink, wink), I just didn't know what to do with myself when the cameras and reporters showed up from the TV station!  Somehow I ended up being interviewed along with my dad, our transportation coordinator, and another doctor who will be going with us.  You might see me on News14 tonight!

Even with the stress, Josh and I are so happy and grateful to be taking such an active role in this project.  It really allows us to get a feel for how we will work together on MMI projects in the future.  We are constantly learning and we feel that we are definitely up for the challenge!

God willing, we'll be flying out to Cap Haitien tomorrow morning.

Love and God Bless

Helping in Haiti

I have thought and prayed and thought some more about how to begin this blog. A blank page is very intimidating! God has initiated a turn of events which has allowed me to skip the drawn-out ponderings and explanations and skip straight to the important stuff - helping his children around the world!

Josh and I were in Wilmington last weekend celebrating my birthday with my family. We were watching TV one evening when my dad walked in and said that some surprising doors had been opened and that he was going to start getting together a limited number doctors, nurses and organizers to go to Haiti that same week to provide medical aid! As of this evening, the team has been assembled, supplies and three private planes have been donated for the trip, and we are all planning on leaving for Cap Haitien, Haiti tomorrow afternoon. Wow!

From what we understand so far, Cap Haitien is a tourist town on the northern coast of Haiti, and is about 80 miles from Port au Prince (http://www.maplandia.com/haiti/cap-haitien/). We should be a relatively safe distance from the site of the earthquake, but still close enough that we can provide much needed medical care to victims. We don't know exactly what to expect (do we ever?!) but we are prepared to do whatever we can to help the people there.

Josh and I feel particularly blessed to be able to participate on this trip as we are leaving for missions training in Colorado on February 8th. We feel that this may give us a taste of what our lives in Ecuador will be like and we cannot wait to get our feet wet! I will keep everyone posted!

Love and God Bless