In preparation

I have been absent from posting for some days now, and it has been some weeks since I offered a new post here.
There is good reason. In eleven days I will be embarking on my first missions trip, and I am excited, and preoccupied with all this entails.
Originally we were scheduled to to go to Haiti in August of last year, but this was not God's plan so the date was moved. While this felt disappointing at the time, I looked to the future with anticipation. Now the future is, and there is much to do. Meetings and prayer, finances for the trip to arrange, inoculations, packing, supplies, and the collecting of all I can to bring to the people I will serve and witness to in Jesus name. The team of dedicated Christians I will be serving with will be doing a variety of tasks, assisting in the field clinic ministering to the physical needs of the poor, who may get the only medical attention they will see all year there. We will be hand pouring concrete and laying cinder block walls for a seminary school in 90 degree heat and 100% humidity. We may work at assembling working computers from spare parts, paint, teach and most importantly witness by word and deed of the love of Jesus for His people.
Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere with 80% of it's population living in abject poverty. Violence and crime is a daily occurrence while the specter of disease and starvation looms ever present in the lives of the Haitian people. Kidnappings of foreign nationals, and missionaries in particular are a fact of life here. We have been told to expect anything.
As I do what I can to prepare, I consider that all the material things I can bring to help these people will not last for long. I am packing minimal clothing and personal items, all of which I will leave there, I have ransacked my apartment for hammers, screwdrivers, wrenches, and soap, I am gathering my daughters outgrown clothes from her guardian family, and their neighbors. My fishing buddy builds computers as a hobby and I hope he will donate chips, hard drives, and processors for the missions school. Today I am going to buy socks, underwear, towels and facecloths, as much as I can afford, and hopefully my employer will donate over the counter medicine and first aid items to contribute to the missions clinic.
I am struck with the gross wealth all around me, and am doing my best to pack as much as I can into two 50 lb. suitcases and one 40 lb. carry on. My heart is beginning to break with the realization that all this will be less than a drop in an enormous bucket.
Yet with this in mind every morning I pray and thank God that He has called me to this task and given me an excited heart to do his will, and serve His Kingdom. While I despair in the smallness of my ability to give, and the weakness in my flesh that I know will feel the shock and shame of exposure to a society of the truly materially destitute, my spirit soars and I am brought to tears of joy and humility, that Jesus would choose such a worthless sinner as myself to share the witness Christ has given me, and allow me the privilege to labor for His Glory.
Now that you know where I have been and where I will be going, I need to ask you all to pray for the team, and for me. Please ask The Father for safe travel, protection from disease, and that He will give us great strength of body to labor, and an even stronger heart and spirit to witness to and serve the needs of our brothers and sisters in this poverty stricken land. It is my fervent hope that we will willingly give all that He has provided us to this calling, and that the people of Haiti will see Christ in us, and praise His Name for the helping hands and humble witness we bring by the will of God.