Well, it's about time.

Hello, friends!
Many of you have indicated (kindly, of course) that it's high time I started a blog or an email list or a newsletter or something. Yes, I suppose you're right. I want to chronicle the next 15+ months as I jump into Haitian life, and I'm honored and humbled that you want to join me on that journey.

For those of you who stumbled across this blog or don't know what's happening in my life these days, here's the CliffsNotes version:

• I'm getting ready to move to Haiti for at least 15 months.
• I'll be working with a Christian orphan care organization called Kids Alive International.
• I will be teaching and tutoring and loving children for the sake of Christ.

Sweet. And pretty scary.
If I had to pick a banner for these weeks and months leading up to the big move, it would proclaim one simple word: Trust.
Trust that God will meet my need for meaningful relationships in Haiti.
Trust that He will give me the grace and strength to adapt to life in a completely new culture.
Trust that, if I get sick, God will still provide.
Trust that I will be able to learn Creole well enough to teach in that language.

Maybe it sounds like a cliché, but I feel it in every bone of my body.  I wake up each day and stare uncertainty in the face, and I make a conscious decision: to let the Holy Spirit indwell me, and put Him in charge of keeping my inner control freak stuffed away in the closet. I hope and pray that someday soon, she (control freak, that is) may starve to death and cease to exist, but for now muffling her screams is a good start.

I humbly ask that you would pray for me as I continue to put one foot in front of the other toward the goal of departing for Haiti. I'm leaving for training in about five weeks, and after that it's onward and upward (well, southward, technically speaking). There is much to do between now and then, and still much to learn about really, authentically, holistically trusting Jesus.

I'll leave you until next time with a few of the verses that have spoken comfort to me in recent weeks.

When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me? (Psalm 56:3)
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth the prisoners with singing... (Psalm 68:5, emphasis mine)