Time is Moving Fast

It is getting close to the time that we leave for Haiti and there is still so much to do. As you may know by now, the trip to Haiti was postponed from January to the end of February because of the potential of political unrest and violence in the face of a run off election for the Haitian presidency. The postponement itself may be an issue as the run off was also postponed and may be durning our currently scheduled time in Haiti. Add to this that the past dictator "Baby Doc" and past corrupt president Aristide are both looking to play a yet undefined role in Haiti and there more than enough spark to start a fire.

Even with all that is going on in Haiti I still hope that we move forward with our plans so that the people of Haiti realize that they are not alone, especially when things are not going as smoothly as they might.

You may also be aware that because of the date change I am able to extend my stay on Hispaniola and now plan to spend the first week in Haiti and then join a group of fifty people providing medical aid and food to the Haitian and Dominican sugar cane workers in the Dominican Republic. These people live in poverty and make a few dollars a day cutting sugar cane. To earn those couple of dollars a workers has to cut several tons of cane in a day.

To prepare I still have much to do, including getting any needed shots, malaria medication, and any necessities I will need for the trip. Oh, and also I need more funding :) I am hoping to be able to send more video and picture in real time this year and am working out how best to do that and all suggestions are welcome.

Today we are had a pill packing party for the trip. This is when we get together and count medications from whole sale sized bottles into bags that will last an individual about 14 days. This provide the doctors an easier way to distribute medications in the field.

There are still some open questions as well. Where will we be staying while in Haiti? How will those of us that are continuing on to the DR after Haiti get there? Will the trip happen on schedule? So please pray for us and that it will all work out in the end. These trips do make you realize how much is in God's hands and not our own.

Discernment

I have been thinking about discernment a bit today, so please excuse me if I go off the deep end and become philosophical, reflective, and religious more than my norm. "Why?", you might ask. Well the reason is that it looks like the mission trip to Haiti has been postponed from January to likely sometime in March. The reason for the postponement is the potential safety issues due to the election run-off that seems to be scheduled to happen about the time we were planning to be in Haiti. The concern from M, a Haitian who helps with local planning for these trips, is that this continued election cycle may cause some social unrest.

Now, don't get me wrong, I respect M's opinion and even agree that there is a safety risk. I guess my general feeling is, so what. Isn't this a time when Haitians, particularly those that don't wish to take part in the social unrest, need others in their mist to stand with them; to let them know that they are not forgotten?

Part of the reason to go to Haiti is to share the stuggles with the Haitians, if only for a while. I don't want to be isolated from the dangers they must face and have them face them alone. I know my presence in Haiti won't mean much to the population and my being there won't help diminish their stuggles, but perhaps it will make a difference to one individual.

This is where discernment comes into play. Who's will am I listening to? God's or mine? I have always had a hard time with discernment. I simply have a difficult time listening to God's will and separating out and ignoring my own stubborn will.

From a practical point of view. If you have graciously helped fund this mission trip I will be contacting you shortly to understand better how you would like to handle your donation going forward. The options are that I can return your donation or the church can hold it to help pay for the trip when it is officially reschedule. If the trip is later canceled then it will be returned. In other word the funds won't go to a general fund; it will be used to support me in a mission trip to Haiti or returned.

Thank You

It is just before the US Thanksgiving holiday and I thought that this would be an appropriate time to thank all those you have contributed to help fund my mission trip to Haiti in January. The time is coming quickly and I am starting to prepare for the trip, which can be difficult with all the other things going on.

I continue to watch the activities that are going on in Haiti through various news and blog outlets. Between the earthquake rebuilding, attempting to establish agriculture capabilities, cholera outbreak, and the upcoming election Haiti has a lot of activities.

On this day I see hope for Haiti. I think it will be a long time before a sense of normalcy returns to Haiti I pray for the Haitian people and celebrate efforts to help move them in a healthy direction.

I am continuing my study of Creole as well. Right now I am on lesson 13 of around 34, so still a long way to go. I wish I knew some local native Creole speakers so I could get some sense if my pronunciation is actually close. Even so, I still wonder how much value it will be to be able to ask someone if they would like to drink something tomorrow evening at the restaurant on St. Joseph's Street. I wonder if there even is a St. Joseph's street.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I wish you and yours a relaxing, contemplative, and happy time.

Speaking of Haiti

S, K, and I spoke at the First Congregational Church in Sutton, MA this morning. Not sure I kept it together as well I would have liked. My experience is Haiti last March is still very vivid and I am able to very easily transport myself back to that time and re-live each and every moment and emotion. It is a pain sometimes, but it does point out how real that experience is to me.

While I had written about 3 pages of text that I was meant to share, I quickly went off script. I do hope I got most the message across, it is all a bit of a blur to me. Not quite sure how long I was up there. It felt short, but time has a funny was of passing when you are speaking to an audience.

Overall I think the talk went well and we showed the video from last years trip after the service as we chatted with a few people from the congregation. The church was very gracious to invite us to speak and I am truly grateful for the opportunity.

I met a gentleman who served in the South Pacific during World War II. We spoke about how you can still live past traumatic events. He was still able to go back to a couple days during the war were all but a few men (about 130) were lost in a battle. These were men that he considered brothers.

We learned some interesting things about the church as well. It was established in 1720, so it has been around quite a while. Their pulpit has a bullet hole. This happened way back when the town was under attach by the local natives. That same pulpit also almost went up in smoke once when the church caught fire. It was saved by a group of men who ran into the burning building and carried the pulpit to safety.

It was a good experience and I hope some from the church decide to join us on the trip. I think it is a worth while experience to participate in a trip like this and it definitively changes your life.

Haiti Trip is a Go

Just found out tonight that the trip to Haiti is a go, even though it looks like we will have far fewer people than we would like. So if you are interested in helping out in Haiti there is still room. As you can see to the left the fund raising continues. I have not yet reached that half way mark, so if you are willing to help I would surely appreciate it.

This Sunday, November 14th, I am planning to help out in a service in Sutton. I am meant to speak at the about the mission trip to Haiti last year. This will be the first time that I have spoken about the trip in a public forum like this and I am hopping I can keep it together. Last year's experience is still very real to me. It was a great experience, but that doesn't mean it is always easy to think back on it. If you are free this Sunday, please come and join us.

There is other fund raising continuing for the Haiti trip as well. We have been put in contact with an organization called Spirit of Hope. This is an organizations "founded to fund individuals and groups that give direct service in Haiti". We are hopeful that they will provide us with some funds to help build the school in Haiti. Another person that is going on trip is working to organize a fund raiser in December up in Nashua, NH. It sounds like it will be a lot of fun as it is being held at a club. Details are not yet firm, but you can be sure when they are I will let people know.

I did read an interesting blog from Hope for Haiti Foundation. It speaks about the level of schooling typically available in Haiti. The more you read about Haiti the more you see how much need in Haiti there was even before the earthquake. It really boggles my mind how easily I was able to turn a blind eye to Haiti for so long. It makes you wonder what else we are missing.

Haiti, Cholera, and Funding

The time is quickly passing by before the the Haiti mission trip and with the news this week of cholera in Haiti the situation on the ground is quite desperate. Now, to be fair, our plan in Haiti is to build a school, which will do nothing to help ease the physical pain or suffering of those that are still reeling from the earthquake or have been stricken by cholera. We do feel the school will represent hope to a community and without hope it can be hard to move forward in situations such as those in Haiti.

On a more practical level, we are are looking at some water purification technology we might be able to bring with us or build out of local materials. Some water filtration has been done on the previous trips in the Dominican Republic and we hope to learn from that as well as other inventions we have seen such as sterilization of water by sunlight or clay pot filter.

I promised an update of the fund raising for this trip. I am currently at $350 out of $2000. So please, if you feel you would like to donate to help support me on this trip I would truly appreciate it. You can donate electronically or send donations to the address below. Any amount is appreciate.

Acton Congregational Church

c/o Haitian Mission Trip / David Bainbridge

12 Concord Road

Acton, MA 01720

Haiti Fund Raising Progress (and more)

Well it has been a little under a month since I announced my fund raising efforts for the Haiti mision trip and as you can see by the tracker on the left I have not been too successful to date, but I do want to thank those who have contributed: thanks Mom! $100 down, $1,900 to go.

It has been a fairly busy month. I have been working on raising awareness of the trip at church by manning a table during the coffee hour and talking about last year's trip and the plans for for this year's trip. I was also sharing the video I made from the photos of the last trip.

I set up a Facebook group so that people interested in the trip can track activities, get event notifications, etc. And finally I printed up some cards (below) for both the Haiti and Dominican Republic Mission trips.

So while there is lots of activities the funds are still moving slowly. If you would like to donate please send anything, and I do mean anything to:

Acton Congregational Church
c/o Haitian Mission Trip / David Bainbridge
12 Concord Road
Acton, MA 01720