Woah, I'm going to Haiti in 3 weeks... for real!
Yeah... me... in Haiti... in only 3 weeks from now... WHAT?!
Dana and I were planning to be in Texas visiting her family for vacation from February 9-17. It was going to be a great time to introduce Hannah to all our friends in Texas, where we met, dated, got married, and spent the first 6 months of marriage. I was excited about it! I have the time off from church, airfare is purchased, everything is ready to go. And then earlier this week I got an email from a friend who asked me if I'd be interested in going to Haiti during that time. I talked with Dana about it and we were both kinda like, "Umm, no, we already have plans." I couldn't admit to this person that it was actually vacation, so I beat around the bush a bit. But as this week went on I was thinking, "Dude, Tim, how self-centered could you possibly be? You have a possible opportunity to go serve people who are in desperate need, and instead you're going to go on vacation?!" Matthew 25 kept coming to mind, "Whatever you do for the least of these, you do it for me." And James, "If anyone knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins." (That's the downside of memorizing scripture -- the Holy Spirit uses it to convict you.)Last night this guy emails me again with more details about the trip, says that it's officially going to happen, and asks me if I'm in or out. After praying for about an hour, there was no getting around the conviction in my heart (doh!). When Dana finished with her girl's bible study in the other room, I talked with her about it and she was really supportive even before I told her I was thinking about actually doing it.
So here I am, going to Haiti to help with water and food distribution and some other things instead of vacation. I'm so stinkin' nervous for some reason, but I know it's the right thing to do -- not necessarily what my flesh, in it's very depraved nature, wants to do, but I'm doing what I know the Lord wants and am both excited and nervous at the same time.
Pray for me as I prepare to go. Fortunately my passport still has a couple months left on it, so I'm good there, but I need like a whole arsenal of shots and immunizations. Fun.
There are some other exciting details about this trip that I can't talk about publicly yet, but hopefully by Monday or Tuesday I'll be able to post full details on my blog at http://www.studentministry.org Keep your eye there in the meantime for why this trip is going to be so unique, who I'm going with, and all the other details.
