Sending my baby to Haiti.

Several months ago, Kat sent out the following letter: 

Bonjou Fanmi ak Zanmi! (That’s “Hello Family and Friends!” in Creole!) 

I have some exciting news to share with you! I’m writing to let you know that I have received the honor of being selected to travel on a mission trip with seven members of my youth group. We will be traveling to the country of Haiti to work this June 11-19, 2012. We will arrive by plane in Port-Au-Prince and then take a very long bus ride to Dessalines. Once there, we will be assigned projects that include painting and repairs at a church in a small community outside Dessalines as well as volunteering at an orphanage and hospital. We will have the opportunity to play with the children and meet the people of the village. Most importantly, we will share the love of Jesus with them! 

I love volunteering my time and talents locally but I have always dreamed of traveling on a foreign mission trip. So this trip is very much a dream come true for me!...

Well, since that time the funds have been raised, a passable amount of Creole has been learned, the bags are packed and loaded, and she'll be on a 6 am flight tomorrow morning (Monday, 6/11) with the rest of the team.

Tomorrow, I'll post their schedule on the side bar of this blog.  Kat will be able to use her phone through mid-afternoon tomorrow until she boards her last flight from Miami to Port-Au-Prince.  I'll post Kat's texts for all to read if there's any real info in them.  (You know, other than "I just got a lemonade from the Wendy's in the food court!") 

Once they leave Miami, there will probably be 24 to 48 hours of "silence" until they are settled in at the mission compound outside of Dessalines.  If all goes as planned, we anticipate receiving a nightly email with a team update as well as a sentence or two from each of the youth.  However, power and technology can be spotty there so no news is considered good news.

Please pray for the team as they travel and minister.  Specifically, we would appreciate your prayers for safety, stamina, good health, and many opportunities to tell people about the love of Jesus.

Oh, and if you'd like to include prayers for the Mommy left here in the States... well, that would be okay, too!  I'm truly not worried. But I am a Mommy.