I am excited but a little nervous to be going on my first mission trip to Haiti at the end of the month. I’ll be traveling with four friends from my Summit Church Connect Group (aka small group or life group).

We are traveling there to learn about and work with a group called Mission Of Hope (http://www.mohhaiti.org), to experience the ministry first-hand and to share our experiences and the MOH’s vision with others  which will hopefully lead to greater awareness of the need there and of the good works being done and may lead to future trips. MOH is a non-denominational Christian organization that runs an orphanage that provides a home for over 60 children, a school that educates over 2500 students, a hospital and medical clinic and more. Two of MOH’s initiatives that I am very interested to learn more about are MOH 500 and 3 Cords.

MOH 500’s goal is to construct 500 homes in two years for earthquake victims. I can’t imagine being homeless whether due to financial issues or natural disaster. If I lost my home, I know I would have a safe place to live with friends or family until I was back on my feet. I can’t comprehend what it would feel like to not only lose the safety and security of my home but to then realize that everyone I know has no home and to be forced to take shelter in flimsy make-shift housing that offers little real protection from the elements or the outside world.

3 Cords is a small business initiative that provides sewing machines and trains amputee women and mothers of amputees to sew items they can sell to earn an income. We think 10% unemployment is horrible here in the states, and it is, especially if you’re one of that 10%, but imagine living in Haiti which suffers from 70% or more unemployment and where 80% or more of the people live in “abject  (utterly wretched, miserable, hopeless) poverty”. The provision of practical job skills training and the means with which to work is so important in re-building their economy little by little, and I can only imagine the sense of pride and hope it must create. I love the bible verse where the 3 Cords name apparently comes from, Ecclesiastes 4:12 “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” It brilliantly sums up the importance of community and the strength to be found there.

I’m excited to be traveling with this group of friends and to have the opportunity to get to know them and have them get to know me in a whole new way, on a much deeper level, in these completely foreign surroundings and situations. I am excited but also anxious about how this trip will touch my heart and change me and whether I’m ready or strong enough. I guess the greater fear and tragedy would be that I would come back and not be changed in any significant way.