Ready, Set, ...

• The Lord is refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.  -Psalm 9:9
• Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your path.  - Proverbs 3:5-6 

When was the last time you stepped up to take a challenge?  A new job, working on a troubled relationship, moving, taking a leadership role in your community... any challenge.  You recognized a need and thought to yourself "I'm not sure if I can do it, but I'm going to try."  As you took your first steps and assessed the true nature of the task, did you question whether you had made a mistake?  Did you wonder if it could even be done? 

Twelve members of Seacoast Church in Charleston, SC have been working through some of these questions for the past 6 weeks.  For most of us, it has been even longer- on January 12th, 2010 at 4:53pm the people of Haiti experienced an extraordinary catastrophe and we started praying about how God could use us to bless them.  Our prayers were answered as our leaders found the best use of our resources would be to help staff a clinic run by Samaritan's Purse in the slum for a week.  Twelve people- all of varying medical and mission experience, but with the heart to help and the faith that God will provide. 

During these past 6 weeks we learned that Samaritan's Purse (SP) has enabled medical missions around the world since 1977 and was serving in Haiti immediately after the earthquake.  We learned about Cite Soleil, a 300,000 person (in 2 square miles) slum outside of Port-au-Prince before the quake and how 38% of the population is children under 14years old.  We've been learning about malaria and typhoid and dengue fever and how Water Missions International has contributed filters which provide safe water for 150-200 people per hour.  Soon our learning curve will become much steeper.

Saturday May 22nd our team leaves Charleston and arrives in Port-Au-Prince.  From there we will meet with the Samaritan's Purse staff and put all of our effort into supporting them and our common mission- to show God's love through compassion and quality healthcare.  Every one of us will have to tap into our last reserve and we know that we each have a specific purpose for being led to this place at this time.  Most importantly, we have the support and prayers of so many friends and family and we know that we are only going where our Father leads.

Please keep us in your prayers on this journey.  We have been told we can update the blog daily while we are there and we will make our best effort to do so.  It is only a week, but we know it will be life-changing - hopefully for us and for the Haitians.
-Kim Sudheimer