Thoughts from an airplane

In the movie Armageddon, there is a scene, just before the crew takes off in their space shuttle, where the crew sings “Leaving on a Jet Plane.” As they watch from the control room, the NASA employees look at these oil drillers singing with one another and remark, “This is the group that is going to save the world?”
Walking through the airport, it felt like people would be asking the same question of our group today. Mike Rezac with his man-purse, Tyler with his camo fanny pack, Mike Anfang sporting his classic fro pulled back into a ponytail, and Travis in combat boots and a straw fedora. Just a bunch of 20-somethings heading out, not sure what they are getting into.
As the team leader, I have been working on this project for over a month now, and I still don’t know all the details. However, it was even more impressive to me when I realized how little I had actually related to these guys about what we were doing. I started explaining today who we were going to work with, what towns we were going to, and even where we were sleeping and who was feeding us. Who agrees to go to a third world country without that sort of information?
Apparently, these guys. It’s a model that’s been seen before though. Abraham had even less direction that our crew. He was told to go, but didn’t even have a destination. So he went, knowing that God would lead and provide for him. So we go, in a similar manner. Unsure of what is ahead, but knowing that He is there waiting for us.
He confirmed that today as we walked into the airport and talked to the nicest airline employee I’ve ever met. She was checking in our bags and started asking where we were going. As we explained that we were headed to Haiti to put in solar power, including that we really had little experience, she was excited to hear about it. Then, she even let slide the few pounds of extra baggage we had, since the scale I had used was apparently not accurate at all. This was such a huge blessing that she doesn’t even realize. We were out of room in other bags, and had at least 4 bags slightly over the 50lb limit. I don’t know what we would have left behind, but thankfully we did not have to make that choice.
I am looking forward to what He has in store for the rest of this trip, but already I know it will be special. Sometimes it is nice to get the reminder that God doesn’t NEED us to reach the world, but He wants us to go, and He will honor our faithfulness and willingness by providing just the right opportunities and showing the way, one step at a time.
We look forward to meeting up with Bruce and Renee in Grand Goave, and will have a “fun” journey to Les Cayes in our cargo van. This post will be published tonight in Cayes when we have internet, so expect to hear more about the experience then.