Destination Accomplished

Welcoming Band at the Haiti Airport

We are here! We've touched down and arrived in the hot humid country of Haiti, greeted at the airport doors by a local singing/banjo playing/drum beating and smiling band. We've past the wooden immigration desks where not a question was asked, but ouor papers were stamped. The Miami half of us are through. We were meant to make it, after all.

However, the adventure continues...

Back when we split ways in our team, Al Heron thought it was best that the Miami half take all the second checked bags. There seemed to be more chance that the bags would go directly to Haiti. We wouldn't have to take them off in Miami and re-check them.

Last night, we confirmed with three people from Delta, standing near the baggage claims. Our bags would be held in storage at the Miami airport overnight (while we stayed) and transferred directly to Air France in the morning. With worry and bags off our chest and mind, we hurried to bed.

Now, the conveyer belt is empty. There are no more bags coming through from our flight. The air is thick and the smell a little dense; the airport continues to bustle with noise and people (and I feel very much a minority), and all fifteen of our bags our missing.

After waiting for some time, Vic went to the front desk shot off to the side of the small concrete room and enquired about our luggage. We were told (it seems just like every other white person in the room) that our bags didn't get transferred to our Air France flight, and they would be here tomorrow.

Immigration Desk - Steph made it!

It doesn't stop. When God sends you on a journey and you begin to trust Him in the small things...He will quickly add to that. It's been one change after another. One detour after the next. Yet, we continue to gather and wait and pray and hang onto Him.

Elaine and Vic begin phoning Leslie, who is still back in the Miami airport waiting for a flight home. She told them that when she talked to Air France about re-directing her checked bag...it had already been sent to Haiti. In fact, Air France in Miami said that all fifteen bags had made the flight.

Somewhere, there is a major communication breakdown between the workers here in Port-au-Prince and back in Miami. Something's not being said.

Dorothy informs us that they often take away bags in Haiti and hold them here for a day, telling you they never came through, but rooting through them in a local warehouse.

Therefore, as we sit here on the concrete floors among the mass crowd in a tiny airport, we can only pray the materials we brought, wherever they are, will reach the souls of whatever hands they are put into.

I'm tempted to tell God that we can't begin our work without our supplies. We're already behind a day. We have a daycamp to run, construction to get started and a people to treat in the clinics. He tells me, we are His workmen. It's Him indwelling in us that is all we need to bring to these people. He will take care of the materials we put together, and He has promised to take care of us.

We can only wait, trust, pray that the other half of the team makes it safety, while we enjoy the off-set fan in a crowded room of over 200 travellers...and enjoy the ride :)