I should update that I am able to go to Haiti with the group from my church to the Northwest Haiti Christian Mission. I am amazed that I was able to get the money to be able to go in such a short time. There is even a chance that more money could come in than I need and I plan on passing that along to one of the people on my youth staff so that she can go with the team going down in June. So if you would still like to donate you can help out Christy Bucher.

Today, my family and I decided to sponsor a teen who is at the orphanage down there. His name is Ti-Frane and you can see his picture here. I have always thought about sponsoring a child before, but never did it. With me going to Haiti in April I thought that it would be cool to sponsor someone because then I could go and meet them. So we sat together as a family and decided to sponsor Ti-Frane. He is 18 years old and his birthday is one week before mine.

Of course, I would pick a teenager. 🙂 He is in 7th grade and has two brothers. I am really looking forward to getting a chance to meet him, and bring him some clothes and stuff when I go down. It is neat to think that we have the opportunity to help someone out and that I will get to meet him as well. I look forward to our family being able to develop a relationship with him and watch him become whatever God wants him to be.

I must admit that I am a little nervous about going to Haiti. I have never been to a foreign country. (Sorry, to all my Canadian friends but I don’t count Canada.) Not having the modern comforts that I am accustomed to here in America will be a challenge. Sure I have gone camping, but this is different. Then there is the language barrier and trying to communicate with the Haitians that will be a challenge.

Even though I look at all of the odds that I am going to have to face and I can get a bit overwhelmed with the thought of it all I know that I am supposed to go. I am not going because I want to be comfortable and explore an exotic land. I am going because I want to be obedient to what I know God told me to do. So I go with excitement and a little bit of fear.

My prayer is the same that Francis Chan said in his book Crazy Love, “God, bring me closer to You during this trip, whatever it takes….”