Breathe Deep

I recently saw this segment from 60 Minutes on Michael Phelps.



I love to swim, and I'm so glad my kids love to swim too. (It's been so great to coach Kenni in learning to swim the freestyle stroke recently. She's all excited to pass the swim test at camp next week so she can swim out to the deeper part of the lake with her friends.) I swam competitively in High School but was not good enough to go beyond that.  However, knowing something of the sport and the training required at the highest levels, I have a certain appreciation for the sport and it's competitors.


When I watched this piece, there were two significant elements that resonated with me greatly:


First, during the interview they talk about the specialized enclosure where Michael sleeps.  It's a transparent box-like enclosure that surrounds his bed in his room.  When inside, it simulates being in an environment with the same oxygen level at ~9000ft elevation.  So for the average person, being in that chamber would make it more difficult to breathe.  (ie get oxygen to your lungs, brain, muscles etc.) For Michael however, it conditions his body to acclimate to that oxygen level, so when he competes in an environment that is more oxygen rich - he has a greater advantage.


Second, in the teaser to the interview Anderson Cooper shares that the last few years has been the most difficult times of Phelps career.  *WHAT! Are you kidding?!*  He won more gold medals than any other swimmer in a single Olympics - IN HISTORY!  That's incredible!  However, as Michael talks about his life and experiences we begin to see that even as one of the greatest athletes in the world; arguably the best swimmers that has ever competed - cannot fulfill himself.


This makes me think about the Psalmist words...


For the word of the LORD is right and true; he is faithful in all he does. 5 The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love. 6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. 7 He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses. 8 Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the people of the world revere him. 9 For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. 10 The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. 11 But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.  (Ps. 33:4-11)


Verse 6 basically says that God put life into our universe with His breath.  In other parts of Scripture the Holy Spirit is described as Breath or Wind...(ie Jn. 20:22)


It also makes me think about spending time with God more intentionally as well.  When I spend time with God I need to be in a space and time that I am alert and completely undistracted. 


(Mt. 6:6 says, But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.)


I should have some kind of "enclosure" or "special place" or room where I am able to breathe in the enriched Breath of God, so when I find myself needing to be on my best game... that I will have a greater advantage to compete against temptation and sin that tries to bring me down.


How's your spiritual-breathing?    
Do you have a time and a place where you go to inhale the fresh life-giving breath of God and His Word?I really hope Michael comes to a point in his life where he realizes his significance in Christ as well. I'm stoked to watch him compete at the London Games, but.. then what?
  
If you don't currently have one, make a plan today to carve out regular time to "breathe in God" - deeply. He's the only one that can provide us significance, fulfillment and success beyond ourselves.

Updates on Go-Haiti

The following posts will provide you with some insight to our experiences together in our last several days in Haiti last summer.


I've intended to write earlier, but have had to put it on the back burner until now.  
However, since I've connected with Dr Franco over the last few weeks - I just had to share the exciting things that God has been doing with Go Haiti in Port Au Prince the last few months.  

I plan to write here more often from now on, so I look forward to our interaction together in the days to come.  That said, let me first share some quick updates and for additional details check: www.go-haiti.org.  


Recent Achievements at Go-Haiti: 

• The purchase of the Go Haiti property is complete!
• Initial gardens - to move toward self-sustainability!
• All children have been sponsored to attend school for one year! (more sponsors are needed to continue this great progress!)
• Chicken coop complete with chickens!
• More bunk beds complete 
• Additional Storage Closet constructed
• The Dump Truck arrived safely! It is now being repaired so it can be used on site and rented out.

I will list more updates as I have them.  

The accounts of the ministry projects from last year are recorded in earlier posts, but the second week is when it all came together - at least most of the time.  So, the following posts are "snapshots" of those experiences and holy moments we were privileged to be a part of....

Hurricane Irene, Kaliko, and The Hike (Tuesday Aug 30, 2011)

There were just a handful of us left with the staff and the children on Tuesday morning.I believe the hiking team began their ridiculous 10-12mile hike up to an area in the mountains where Dr Franco was born.  I originally had planned to go with them and take Kendalyn with me, but Amy and I decided that it might be best for us as a family to spend some time together just being together.  

As you may know, Amy had just completed her BSN at Southern CT State University with 29 other students (four of whom were with us).  The program they graduated from was a full BSN crammed into one grueling year.  So, Amy had spent the previous two years in pre-requisite courses that she needed to be accepted to the nursing program in the first place.

When we arrived at Kaliko we were the ONLY ones in the entire resort.  As you may recall, there weren’t any sane travelers headed to Haiti during that week because Hurricane Irene was off the coast of Haiti and the weather was uncertain at best.  When the weather got better later that week (because Irene came to New England instead – how ironic!) more people came to Kaliko to swim and relax so our kids met several other children from Europe, different parts of the US and Haiti. 

Meanwhile, while we were relaxing at Kaliko, the Hiking Team lead by the fearless Jon Cooke.  They made it, but from what I heard later… there were several points that some on the trip wanted to quit because the rain was so terrible from the Hurricane’s peripheral storms, but each of them shared how meaningful the trip was and how blessed they were to meet so many people and to be able to teach God’s word to so many.  I’ve recently heard that Jon’s planning another hike and apparently this one might be twice as difficult.  If you’re interested, I’m sure you can get the details from him. 

We arrived back later that week in enough time to wash some more clothes and pack up to get ready for home.  However, what we learned was that because of all the cancelled flights due to the hurricane the earlier in the week, the entire air travel system in Haiti was now backed up so much that hundreds of people were waiting outside the airport for hours at a time just hoping to get on a flight back to the states.

    

To make a very long story short, the ten of us that had tickets to go home were able to finally get on our flight as originally scheduled, however, it took us 8 hours to travel about 100’ (no exaggeration) – navigating through all the lines and paperwork. 

All in all, it was probably the craziest thing we’ve done so far… but we’re already dreaming up more adventures to come in the next several months.  We don’t know when or where we're headed yet, but stay tuned.

The trip was incredibly valuable for our family for a few reasons –

First, Haiti is a wonderful place in many ways… and it is a hurting place in so many other ways.  We are so incredibly thankful for the opportunity to serve with the team we were with and to get a little bit better understanding of Haitian culture, expectations and how Haiti “works” in general.  That said, I am not going to go into any detail here, but as “in-need” as Haiti is… we are trying to discern how best to help.  We’re not sure what that looks like exactly yet.  We know that Dr Franco and GO Haiti have been woven into our lives through Divine orchestration, but we’re excited to see how God may help us refine what we do and how we serve while stewarding our time and resources in the best way possible.

Second, this was a great reconnaissance trip for us.  Amy and Sasha got the distinct privilege to go first in Jan. 2011, but I had never been.  So as we prepared to go all together in August there were so many things that a video presentation can’t tell you.  Haiti is unique and you can’t really grasp the experience, people, daily obstacles, daily victories, and needs until you spend time there.  So this was a great way to help us assess what our next steps to help, may be.

Third, I don’t know if we realized how powerful this trip would be for our whole family.  We have been “kicking around” the idea of serving together as a family for some time now… but until this opportunity surfaced we weren’t exactly sure what that might look like.  Honestly, we had several people –including close friends and even some family – discourage us from the thought of taking all of our kids and going to Haiti to serve together.  I know for sure that our friends and family want the best for us and want us to be safe and healthy – I know that what was shared came from the best of intentions.  However, Amy and I have come to a couple conclusions that are the biggest factors in leading our famly together. 

1. What are the most important things to protect our kids from?  Why?
2. What kind of people do we want our kids to be… Really?

I’ll write more on those two thoughts later… but our American culture (even The Church) spends a lot of time protecting our kids from a lot of things while managing their lives to go to just the right school with just the right academic record with just the right sports accolades… and look at the results.  In our minds, generally speaking they’re not all that great.  We’ve become an extremely “P.C.” and self-absorbed society, anxious for a bailout and stepping on others to get whatever we can for free. 

We want our kids to do great things… and while we will never “cattle chute” their every move… we will do everything in our power to give them opportunities that will stretch and challenge their bodies, minds and hearts to love, honor and serve God – and make a huge impact on their world – whatever that looks like and wherever that may take them. 

We don’t do it right all the time as parents…and there are dangers in life… but think about it… would you rather die after protecting yourself from the worlds’ greatest adventures… or die in the middle of one?  Until next time… 

Time To Process... (Mon. Aug 29, 2011)

Monday morning about 20 more people left in waves to head back to the airport to go home.  After everyone had packed up and gone, a few of us did some more cleaning up.  It was good to have some time alone by then… and I continued processing the experience.  

Another Great Worship Experience! (Sunday Aug 28, 2011)

The ride to and from church was pretty similar except we got another flat tire on a different bus – but then finally got to Church.  The worship was as powerful as we had experienced the week before and a huge lunch was waiting for us when we returned from Church.  The rest of the day was spent sharing stories and playing games together.

Kaliko, Bus and a walk to the Police Station (Sat. Aug. 27, 2011)

On Saturday morning over 30 of us piled in a bus and headed off to get some refreshment at the Kaliko Resort, about a two hour drive away.  Some of us were initially a bit reluctant to go to Kaliko because we wanted to focus all of our efforts on serving there at GO Haiti… We hadn’t come to Haiti to sit around the beach.  However, we recognized it would be good for us to relax and reflect on our experiences together. It was so good not only to rest our bodies, but to relax our minds and debrief our experiences together.  

We also got a chance to see more of the countryside and other gorgeous parts of Haiti that the western world has been so attracted to for the last several hundred years.

Later that day we piled back in the bus to make the trek back to the compound, and while I was half asleep sitting with Tariku on my lap, I felt what sounded like chunks of the road hitting the underside of the bus.  I didn’t think much of it at first but then realized that within minutes it was the back tire splitting apart.  Almost as soon as that thought came to me the driver pulled over to the side of the road.  We were still about a half an hour away and it was getting dark.

Since this was the end of the week and we had already experienced a myriad of obstacles like this throughout the week… we all laughed a lot… and started walking down the road toward the rural police station where we waited for another bus. 

Miraculously, the replacement bus came in record time and took us all back to our bunks.  I don’t think the screeching frogs bothered anyone that night.  

Finishing up and capturing memories (Fri Aug 26, 2011)

On Friday we began to finish up our projects and get in a few games of Ultimate Frisbee and soccer. 

Additionally, by Friday these three video segments were finalized and broadcast by our friend Sarah French and broadcast on CT FOX Channel 3.  She and our friend and Videographer, Dustin Schultz did a tremendous job telling the story of the GO Haiti ministry and communicating some of the areas’ greatest needs and how to help. 

Segment 1: Meet Kim Cornell

Segment 2: Meet Dr Franco, The Man behind the Mission

Segment 3: Inside a Haitian Tent City