Haiti Here We Come!

Today is the day!  We leave for Haiti tonight with a brutal flight, arriving in Port Au Prince tomorrow afternoon.  We will be working at God's Littlest Angels located in the mountains above Port au Prince.  (It is about a 2 hour drive from the airport to GLA.)  We don't know exactly what work we will be doing, but it will likely be in construction...building, painting, etc, spending time with kids, and help out as needed whether that be cooking or cleaning.
My mind and stomach are a whirling mess of thoughts and emotions.  I am incredibly excited!  I have never gone on a "missions" trip before...(I call it "missions" because to me my whole life is my mission, and it is not limited to a few acts of service.)  I can hardly wait to meet Sebastian (you can check out his story at GLA's website/blog), cuddle the little ones, horse around with the older kids and just love on them with all I've got to give!
I'm also worried.  Worried about how my heart will fare.  I know a part of me will stay in Haiti...forever...I'm just not sure how I will handle all the emotions of seeing pain, suffering, kids without families and then come home to my very rich and oh so blessed life.  Would you please pray that somehow we would manage?  Thanks.
I'm also a bit concerned about my kids...especially Raina.  I know they are in good hands and will be well taken care of...but, I worry about her crying because she misses us...typical protective mama here! :)

This entire trip has been amazing to plan.  I'm sure you remember back in May when I posted about my encounter with God at our Women's Retreat.  That experience was a huge motivator for this trip, along with Martin vowing to help out in Haiti after the earthquake.  I began asking people to join us...we needed 8-10 people.  Many were interested, but the timing was not right.  I began to think that God was closing the door.  Eventually we had 6 team members and planned to go ahead with 6 people.  However, within days we had 10 team members with more people wanting to join us!  Amazing!
Back in November we planned a soup and pie supper and raised over $3000!  Not bad for our little church.  We knew we had too much money to fill up 10 extra suitcases and knew God's hand was certainly in this!  BUT that is not where the story ends.  My brother and his wife have a small home-based business and asked if they could set up a pail for funds...of coarse we agreed.  Their customers gave $150!  More than I expected!  Then a small, conservative Mennonite Church asked if they could help out as well.  This is the church I grew up in and I knew they were generous people, but they honestly knocked my socks off!!...in 2 Sundays they raised a whopping $8500!!!  Then another brother decided to sell his freezer...conveniently stored at my house...and donate that money to GLA...another $100.  We also received another cheque from one of my brothers, for $300.  Then a woman from our community donated $100 from her sales of Christmas baking.  And then yesterday another $1000 came in!  That works out to well over $13,000.00!!!  $13,000 that GLA can use to build their expanding orphanage, diaper and feed their babies!!  God is so VERY GOOD!!!

I will not be posting while we are gone, but plan to share when we return...until then...please keep our entire team in you prayers...Thanks!

PS:  Here's a sample of the items we bought...diapers, formula, sleepers, toiletries, markers, caulking, screws, tie rod ends, and much more...so much fun spending someone else's money!! ;)

Team Members:  Nick and Elaine Kimpinski (pastors of our church), Karen and Phil Ens, Phil Reimer, Bill Unger, Dorothy (Fehr) Janzen, Dolores (Fehr) Rempel, and us.  :)