Poor

We have made it to Detroit with no flight cancellation calls from the airline! The further we made it down the road today, the greater became the realization that we are actually on our way. The weather was beautiful and cooperative, and we made good time, even pulling a trailer. Tonight we gathered for an informal meeting to collaborate on our mission, and the sharing time was very rich. We prayed together and now we are readying for a few hours of sleep. As always we have much to do, and little time to do it in. So we will do our best to accomplish all we are allowed to do, and trust it is enough. Rick shared a thought tonight about how the poor view themselves, it's funny how we become disillusioned by what we possess. We often gather opinions of ourselves based on what we have or don't have. His point was that the poor see themselves broken, useless, and unwanted. In truth, the reality is we are all broken, in some form or fashion we are useless and unwanted, even when we have much. If you happen to possess much at all, you are usually envied for what you have, not for who you are as a person. In our culture, we are wrestling with entitlement mentality that says take from those who have and give to those who do not, balance the equation we say. In truth that will fix nothing because our value system has been broken, it's now about stuff and not people, or relationships. As we shared around the room tonight, relationship took center stage and it was refreshing to feel, to partake in. As we plunge ourselves into the Haitian culture tomorrow, we enter a realm where relationship is not in poor straights. As we share with them this week, we will all take away something from them as well, if we don't, it will be our own faults. While they are the poorest of the poor as the world counts riches, they seem to possess a wealth of relationship understanding, and we suffer a terrible deficiency of it in our culture right now. We busy ourselves in pursuit of the American dream, and then just about the time we achieve it, we die and leave it to another. Or it's never quite enough, and we cut off all that really matters in our reckless pursuit. Don't take me wrong, hard work is good for us, there is nothing wrong with making money, this mission cost me personally, it can't happen without hours of labor to pay the bills. But we need to be careful to seek balance, to not give away the most important thing for a bowl of porridge. So time to rest, to pause the cursor on the screen, 2:30 am steams toward us, 28 suitcases, 13 day packs and 13 travelers to get to the airport early and catch our 6:20 am flight. We need some rest! Blessings tonight!