Wednesday, November 11, 2009

A Prayer to Remember

Tomorrow morning, I'm leaving for Haiti with four other missionaries from St. Andrew's. We're going to work with our partner school in Maniche, where we'll paint, teach, take photos, visit students' homes, and worship with the people there.

I've been spending a fair amount of time and effort recently working out the details of the trip and making sure I have everything in order. On top of what it takes to get out of the office for a week and a half, all this mission-trip work has been occupying a lot of mental space. Too much, as it turns out.

I didn't realize quite how distracted I'd become with the trip's details until a committee meeting today – a committee that, ostensibly, had nothing to do with the mission trip. We sat down to begin our meeting, and the convener – a parishioner who is much too humble to want to be recognized – said, “I'd like to begin today with a prayer for our missionaries about to leave for Haiti.” Then she offered a prayer that made me stop short. She commended us, and our mission, to God's care. She reminded the group that we would be bearing God's love to children living a world away from Kansas City. She asked God to bless us and protect us in our travels. And she gave thanks for our offering of ourselves to bear God's presence to the people of Maniche.

In the midst of my overscheduled last day in the office, in the midst of all the details of getting five of us to Haiti, I had forgotten why we were going. But as this parishioner prayed, I sat there in a committee meeting, crying.

Something tells me this will be a good trip. God willing, we'll have a wireless connection at our guesthouse in Les Cayes, and I should be able to post daily updates to this blog during the trip.

Tune in tomorrow.


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