First Haiti Trip, 1st Update

September 19, 2004

God Bless!

First of all, praise God for the amazing things God has done to pave the way for this trip. Second, thank you all for being part of God's answer to prayer. Thank you to my family who has been a constant encouragement and a blessing to me. Thank you to those at Church of the Saviour (COS) for your prayer and financial support, for the blessing of the Missions Board, and for my pastor Jeb's guidance and direction. Thank you to people at work at Eastern States Engineering for your support, especially to my supervisor Choong for helping to free up time in our very hectic project schedules and to Bill for helping me to prepare some of the technical aspects. Thank you to my girlfriend, Jamie, who has been a great source of support and has continued to point me back to Christ when I feel overwhelmed. Thank you to everyone at UFM for your dedication to our God in missions and your help in preparing this trip, especially Jim O'Neill and Paul Halsey. And last but not least, thank you Bruce and Deb for allowing me to come down to Haiti and serve with you. As I look back over the last month and a half at how God has put together this missions opportunity, I am really in awe and feel very blessed.

It's Thursday night and I have spent the night packing and praying. I've packed almost everything and it looks like it will all fit in one bag. You know those movie scenes where people are jumping on their suitcase just in order to get it closed? well yeah, that was me tonight. I think they're going to need a forklift to put it into the airplane.

I will be leaving for Haiti this Saturday, the 21st, out of New York. Bruce and Deb will be meeting me at the airport in Port-au-Prince, and we are going to go up into the nearby mountains to spend the night, go to church in town on Sunday, back out to another place to stay on Sunday night, and then driving to Bruce and Deb's home in northern Haiti on Monday. It will be a great time to get acclimated to the country and the people, and to have time just to talk with Bruce and Deb. The trip from Port-au-Prince to Bruce and Deb's home is only is 150 miles, but it takes 8-10 hours!

A couple prayer requests:

-Safe and smooth travel to and in Haiti for myself and Bruce and Deb
-Adjustment to a new culture/language
-A good time of bonding and fellowship those first couple days
-My daily submittal to and seeking of God
-Opportunities to show people God's love and to talk to them about Jesus
-For the healing of the country of Haiti and its people

Most of all, pray that God will bring Himself glory in every circumstance regardless of my own comfort or desires. God has every situation in His control and He will work it out all for good; pray that I may "be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for [me] in Christ Jesus."

Again thank you all, and God bless,

Ben