It is no wonder our team size doubled. Eight adults. Five youth. Eight newbies altogether. And here we are boarding a flight to Miami, then Port au Prince. Our original mission was to help reconstruct two homes for two women whose homes were beaten down a year ago by the earthquake. We are still on that mission, but God has been so gracious, so very gracious, our plans have expanded...by both gerth and weight! In fact, in addition to our alloted bags of clothing and necessities, we are taking extra cargo this year, lots of extra cargo.
Called by a team from Canada, we are delivering 180#s of green bean seed. Not just any green bean sead, mind yiou, but a hybrid seed that can be harvested five times before seeding again. Then when fully matured again, another five harvests, and so the cyle of life begins. In case you're not sure what a 180#s of bean seed looks like, it fills four full size pieces of luggage. Four. Beasts, I'm telling you. 45#s each... in one hand. Feels like 200.
And then there's the motherly request for her son. A local artist near the Haitian Artisans for Peace International (HAPI)complex was in need of a few basics: copy paper, ink, a set of new contact lenses, and a few boxes of staples for her son's staple gun. Those are stuffed in one of our bags too.
Then there's the twenty four handmade cotton dresses and the 24 hand sewn shorts with buttoned pockets. Our friends next door at the Presbyterian Church asked if we might have room for them and a bag of green felt turtle prayer pillows. Of course we have room! A perfect gift for the children at the orphanage we will be visiting.
The Girl Scouts came through again this year also...and I mean came through!! Eighty kits of sewing materials for the artisans, health and hygiene kits for the health clinic, and school supply stuffed bags for the local children. Three entire suitcases full! Amazing what can be accomplished by a bunch of Daisies, Girl Scouts, and a phenominal group of dedicated Scout leaders!
And we haven't even gotten to the largest, heaviest, or most costly cargo...
When we saw how gracious God was being in our preparation for this year's trip, we asked the director of HAPI to give us a current list of needs. In addition to the construction needs were a solar internet inverter, a lounge style camp chair for a disabled woman, and a whole slew of musical instrumentS and electronic needs. So we priced each one and waitied to see which God would possibly point his finger at. To all of our surprise, God never stopped pointing!! His divine pointer said, "Yes, go ahead and get the mixer for the church and those two guitars, a couple of 15" speakers would be nice, and a full set of drums would be pretty awesome too.
And so it was, and is. $24,000 of fundraising blessings later, and the entire list was purchased, along with cables, microphones, a full size professional keyboard, guitar strings, stands and straps. In fact, we hauled nearly fifty pieces of luggage, carry ons and oversize/overweight cargo into Amerian Airlines like we were moving in! And we nearly did!
It took my friend Kasandra and her hubby William two oversize SUVs and a huge pull behind trailer to get it, and us, all to the airport. We walked up to the counter, smiled our best smiles, and then waited to see who laughed first. :-) They didn't. Giggled maybe, but no laughing. In fact, the workers at AA busted butt to get each and every piece weighed, measured, tagged and loaded, and several hundred dollars cheaper than even our best shipping estimates.
We did good. God did good. All our prayers warriors did good. The AA workers did good. We told the workers they had been prayed over for almost two weeks now. They smiled...and when we were all done, the last woman took my hand and said "God bless all you are doing." I blessed her back. And off the journey began. Detroit to Miami. Miami to Poinciana United Methodist Church.
Talk about blessings! Rev. Gordon Pike and our awesome brothers and sisters in Christ picked up not only the 13 of us, but all 48 pieces of cargo, as well! Here we thought we wouldn't see them again till we landed in Haiti, but noooo...that would be too easy. Come to find out, AA doesn't keep cargo/luggage on site for layovers longer than 6 hours. Ours was more than 12 hours. Hauled it into the airport in Detroit and now had to haul it out of the airport in Miami. One short phone call to Rev. Pike and he came up with a second van and a smile on his face.
Sonshine drove the other van and blessed us with her bubbly spirit; Christ led, for sure. We arrived just in time for an awesome two hour bible study, pizza for all, bedding and blow up mattresses for each and every one of us, and breakfast to boot!! Can you say "audacious generosity??" PUMC certainly can...with their eyes shut! Thanks new found friends in Christ! You ROCK!!
3 am comes early. Just ask Darryl...
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