Planning

    I am a natural born planner. Sometimes this quality proves an advantage for me. And sometimes I get too caught up in the plans I make, that I don't stop to ask God what HIS plans are.
Since I am all too familiar with this quality of mine, when I began planning the details of my most recent Haiti trip, I prayed especially that God would direct the plans and I would simply obey them.

   If there is one thing that I learned throughout the trip and its entire process, it's that there is a tremendous amount of planning that goes into a trip to La Source, Haiti. Most of this is done by Lisa Adams. If I wasn't already amazed at all the work she puts into each mission trip, I certainly am now, since this time I was responsible for many of the things that she normally takes care of for each team trip to La Source. (Sometimes I'm convinced she is a super-woman.) Anyways, being the planner that I am, I was determined to handle as many of the details as I could on my own. And determined to think of every last thing that needed to be dealt with and prepared for before Sammy and I could depart. I had a list for EVERYthing. There were packing lists and grocery lists, supply lists, and funds lists. A list of worker's names and people we had to meet, things we needed to say and "to-dos" that needed to get done. I had a list of emergency phone numbers and instructions for how to get places and find certain things. I won't keep going. The funny thing was, that in the midst of all these lists, neither Sammy nor I had one list of agendas to get done once we got to La Source. We both felt instinctively that God was actually telling us not to have one. As I mentioned in my last blog, our lack of projects and agendas was, to some people, questionable to say the least. We got questions like, "What are you going to be doing while you're there?" and responses like "So.. what's the point?" For many of these questions my only response was that we felt God was telling us to go and that He wanted us to be without plans in order to be fully surrendered to Him.

On July 4th night, Sammy and I sat together in her room packing last minute items, sorting out money and going over all of our lists just one last time before we would head for Haiti the next morning. As Sammy was organizing our suitcases I was trying to get us checked into our flight online. When I pulled up our flight information I realized something was missing. We had paid for an insurance through the airline that would cover lost or stolen baggage, but also insured us medically if any emergencies were to occur. The insurance receipt was not there and when Sammy's step mom checked her credit card charges there was never a charge for where we had purchased the insurance. There was no record that we had ever ordered it. The insurance was still available if we wanted to purchase it then...but at a price of $285 (originally it had been only $35.) As we prayed that night we lifted the issue up to God. The next morning we arrived at the airport and told the man at the check in counter our dilemma. He didn't have any authority over matters like that but gave us a number we could call that he thought may be useful. Sammy's dad called and after a few minutes on the phone the airline somehow found the insurance we had purchased. I'm not sure how this happened being that we had no receipt of buying it and furthermore that we were never even charged for it. But I did know that God was taking care of us and it was an encouraging start to our journey. Something that Satan could have used to worry and discourage us, God used as affirmation that He was in control of every last detail of our trip. And so, after parting with our luggage, taking a quick picture, one last bathroom break and a hug goodbye to Sammy's dad...we were off.

 

  Although Sammy and I had no concrete plans, there is no doubt that ideas and expectations of how we thought things should go had seeped into our minds. The one and only thing that Sammy and I knew for sure we would be doing while in La Source was a bible study book recommended to us by Mrs. Lisa. It is called La Jwa Le Chemen (the road to joy.)

 
  On our first night in La Source Sammy and I told our translators that the following morning we wanted to have a meeting with all of the church leaders and pastors of the village. We didn't care what church or what denomination they were from, all the leaders were invited. So, the next morning we all met. Sammy and I introduced ourselves to everyone, took everyone's name and prayer requests and then explained the Bible study that we wanted to do with them for the next two weeks. Collectively we decided that every morning we would all meet in our camp from 9:00-11:00am. Sammy and I both had a similar idea in our heads that the Bible study would result in a crowd of 30-40 people and that we would end up going house to house praying for people and seeing miracles. I can certainly say that God worked miracles during our time there, but He did so in a way different from what Sammy and I expected. Instead of large crowd at our morning bible study, we had a faithful few of ten or eleven. As the bible study continued, Sammy and I realized that investing deeply in those faithful few was more prosperous than the large crowd that Sammy and I had expected. Over the next two weeks we would continuously be astounded at the way God took our expectations and formed them into His grander, miraculous plan. Of course all of this would have been impossible without the impeccable amount of prayer that Sammy and I were both being covered in and taking part in. I'll share more about this in my next post.
Thanks for reading!


The next four pieces to the series are:
Prayer
Power
Patience
Perseverance

Processing

  Today marks a week since I have returned home from my most recent trip to Haiti. Since I have been home I've attempted to take in and process everything that happened during that two week trip. I landed in the Atlanta airport Sunday night and drove back to Augusta getting home passed midnight only to crash and then wake up at 8 the next morning, get back in the car and drive 5 hours to North Carolina to visit my family. Needless to say, time to think and process was not available to me.
  Now that I have been back home for a few days, told countless stories to my friends and family, looked at my pictures about one hundred times and thought over everything that we did and saw, I'm finally ready to sit down and write it all out. Because this trip was so incredibly different and longer than any other visit to Haiti I have made, I've decided that instead of attempting to put everything into one blog, I will be writing a (short) 5 piece series.

  For those who may have no idea what I am talking about I will give a brief explanation of how this whole trip came to be. In April I attended a team trip to Haiti which consisted of mainly high schoolers and four twenty year olds, two of whom were me and Samantha Pease. (I wrote a blog on this April trip soon after I returned.) The April trip was when I was first introduced to Sammy and the first time I heard God telling me that we needed to take a trip to La Source by ourselves. At the end of the April trip I told Sammy what was on my heart and she agreed. Neither of us had any idea how or when or if this could happen but we started praying that if it was in fact God's will, that the trip would work itself out, and it did. Looking back I can honestly say that God directed each effort it took to make the trip happen.
   For most of the process I tried to act like I knew what I was doing and that I was confident. But in reality I had no clue what I was doing, all I knew was that God had placed it on my heart and it was my job to take the steps of obedience. I started by mentioning to Bill Adams that I was going to La Source without a team. I said this in a joking way because I was nervous but Bill's response was simply and seriously, "you can do it." The next step was telling my mom, she was reluctant but is always supportive of me. The next step was talking to Lisa Adams and Cindy Rogers. Donnie and Cindy Rogers, along with Bill and Lisa Adams are leaders of LifeMinistries International which is the organization that I have taken all my Haiti trips through. When I told Lisa and Cindy that Sammy and I wanted to go to La Source by ourselves for two weeks I knew it probably sounded a little bit sketchy. The part I was most nervous about was that when they asked what we wanted to do while we were there, I didn't have much of a solid answer. Sammy and I had both felt like we were supposed to go on the trip without a big agenda or list of projects and to-dos. Even though I was nervous I told them what God had put on our hearts. After a few weeks they had all discussed it and prayed about it and let Sammy and I know that we could move forward with the trip. This is how I know that God was ordaining all of this. And I am so grateful that both the Rogers, the Adams and leaders of LifeMinistries are so open and in tune to God's will.
   I tried to place myself in their shoes and think; if two 20 year old girls who had never been on a trip alone, came to me and asked to go to a small Haitian village alone for two weeks, with no concrete plan.... I would most likely say no. But God had a different outlook on things than I did. And He directed the leaders of LifeMinistries to allow Sammy and I to go, and not only that but they were so encouraging and supportive.
  So that's a little background on our trip and how it came together. I was amazed at how God worked out every last detail and gave Sammy and I so much peace and confirmation about the whole thing. The next five pieces of the series I will discuss the things that God did and showed Sammy and I during our trip and how He has continued to teach us even after our return.
   I hope you return to read the following pieces... thanks for reading!

The five piece blog will consist of
Planning
Praying
Power
Patience
Perseverance