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.
- What are the most important things to protect our kids from? Why?
- 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…
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