A Changed Destination

This week, Al and I are leading a team from Michigan who have been planning and preparing for their time in Haiti for over 2 years.  That, in itself, blows me away, but there is a combination of stories that show how God really works in amazing ways in the background.  Here is a very brief version of some of the stories I have been told this week.

In Michigan...
There was a team of 22 people who had put so much time, energy, prayer, and effort into preparing for a mission trip to Haiti.  They went to a short term missions training conference in Canada and have worked together as a team to make sure they were ready.  In their hearts, they felt called to serve at an orphanage for the week that they would be down here.  They were placed to serve in Gressier, a community at the southern edge of Port-au-Prince.  They received the news that they wouldn't be serving at an orphanage for the full week, but would visit an orphanage a couple of times during the week.

As the trip approached, there were a number of things that happened that were confusing and hard for the team to accept--one of which was a pretty serious surgery on the group leaders' shoulder.  They pushed on, knowing that they were going to be in Haiti soon.

In Haiti...
Al and I received a call from our boss a week before this team arrived and asked if we would be willing to switch with him to lead this team instead of the team we were scheduled to lead.  He told us that we could change the location that the team would be serving in if we wanted to do that as well.  We talked it over and thought about the possible locations for this team to serve in.  We thought of an orphanage that has been asking us to bring a team.  We decided that we should lead this team and serve at this orphanage.  We had heard nothing about this group or their desire to serve at an orphanage or anything about them at all.

A week went by after we let our boss know that we would take this team before we talked to the group leader for the first time.  They were scheduled to be in Haiti two days after that call.  On that call we talked about the projects for the orphanage, the lodging at the orphanage, the donations the orphanage needed, and so many other things.  I could hear the group leader getting more and more excited about the upcoming trip.  We hung up the phone and said, "See you on Saturday."

On Saturday...
The team arrived a couple of hours late, but excited to be in Haiti.  We heard their stories.  They shared all the things God had done for them.  They began making themselves at home.  They started forming relationships with the kids.  They started serving.

And now...
Today, after a couple of days of great ministry, I know that God had this in mind for this team before we knew about them.  He put Al and I with this team at this orphanage for this week for a purpose.  Today, as the team was presenting the many suitcases full of donations (peanut butter, soap, toothpaste, clothes, shoes, school supplies, and so much more) from their church a couple of things were brought to my attention.  First, that the church members kept showing up with more and more donations even as the team was heading out of the church to catch their flight.  One church member even paid for ALL the extra luggage (quite a hefty fee) so all these donations could get here.  And second, that their luggage tags had all the "old" destination addresses written on them.  Sometimes we make plans and we think they are the best, but God has already determined what steps we will take.

"We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps."  Proverbs 16:9