Day 1 - We're in Haiti!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

 

We made it!                                       

 

And God gave us a great day.    Though all of our connections were delayed, for some reason or another, (snow in Detroit was one of them) our last delay turned out to be such a gift from the Lord.   Our poor Missionary Aviation Fellowship pilot, Dave, landed just fine in the Northern city of Cap Haitien to get us, only to find himself without enough fuel to get us to Port of Prince.   (Bless him Lord and all those providing support systems for the relief work).   As we waited we struck up a conversion with Grant, a young missionary (early 20’s) and recent graduate of Wheaton College.  He works with an amazing group called Northwest Haiti Christian Mission.  They feed thousands of people, have a K-6 school, a Bible School, a 1^st rate hospital and are training pastors and planting churches.   We talked of ways we could work together.   It truly felt like a God-encounter.   While I was drilling Grant with questions Linda was learning Creole from a nice Haitian young man, which turned into 2, then 3 Haitian’s.  She learned how to say “may I pray for you?”  and then was able to pray with one man for the completion of documents to apply for a job in a nearby town.   Thank you Lord for these cool moments on the way in to Port au Prince. 

 

An hour and a half later, Dave, our pilot, finally got the fuel that he needed and we were off to Port au Prince (PaP).   Part of me is so relieved to be here.  Part of me is excited, but part of me is saddened.   As we drove to the hostel, we saw a glimpse of the devastation and the gravity of the situation.   The driver we hired, Welton, talked of how almost everyone in PaP is sleeping outdoors.   He spoke with such sadness of the loss, chaos and decimation of lives and of the city.  

 

Even so, it is good to be here.   Through this process, we knew we could never be fully prepared for this.   Linda and I sense that God has us here for reasons that we do not know.   We also sense that the Lord wants us to love people, pray with them, make connections and serve with joy.  

 

Thank you so much for praying!

 

Mike & Linda