We arrived at our destination without a hitch. That's Trent Redmann (Lead Pastor Valley Creek Church in Woodbury) and me on the Miami to Haiti leg of the trip. For some reason we were put in business class even though we didn't pay for it and there were plenty of other seats. Very nice!
Got to Fedja at night, so no pictures yet. But all I can say after going over to the orphanage is that I'm completely humbled that we had a part in this. I was here in Sept of 2005 and all that was on the land was a bathroom we had had built. Now it's a campus! Unfinished, but unbelievable. The amount of work our teams have put in, the vision of Mike Mularoni and the generosity of Five Oaks members is astounding.
I was so happy to see my brother Yves (pronounced like Eve) at the airport. He heads up GVCM, our ministry partner in Haiti. He drove us up to Fedja and will be with us all week. Going up the mountain, no guardrail, dark, big drop...a little disconcerting. I kept reminding Yves that it would not bode well for our partnership if he killed the senior pastor. I think he drove closer to the edge just to get me.
Notes on food. Food on trips like this is very important to me. Love it. Ate goat tonight cooked in a great sauce. Delicious. Ate Cuban in Miami airport. Very good meal of Cuban steak, white rice, black beans, maduros, Ironbeer (Cuban soft drink that's a lot like cream soda), cafe con leche and cafe Cubano. I'm stuffed. We begin the conference tomorrow.
Trent and I taught the Purpose Driven Life International Conference today. We got started late and ended early. I didn't feel like we were making a personal connection until Trent was teaching the third purpose and then did a Q&A session. After that I got up and shared some stories that got them laughing and we were off. Trent also had a really strong finish challenging all of us to make an eternal difference in the lives of people who don't know God. I'm looking forward to getting to know that pastors better over the next three day.
