Early this morning I was scheduled to leave for my mission trip down to help rebuild the gulf coast destroyed by Katrina. (Previous post on the mission trip here.) Unfortunately, a few things came up that decimated our group of 7 into just 2 — the pastor and me.
At this point a few decisions had to be made. Do we still send down an unfull vehicle with only two workers as a token gesture of our support? Or do we wait until the scheduled October trip to combine them? Or do we schedule another trip all together?
It was at this point that human factors come in – selfish interests, ease in scheduling, convenience. For me personally, I was pumped up from all the support I received, had the time off work, and was ready to get down there and get to work. I had also committed to family, friends, co-workers and readers/supporters of this blog to going down there to make a positive impact. I wanted to follow through and make change. I am deeply indebted to the spiritual and financial support from y’all and didn’t want to let anyone down.
But what I had to do was take a step back and really rethink the why of going down there. It’s not about me. It’s not about our church. It’s not about the volunteerism. It is about folks in need down there who are living this day to day. Right now at this very moment in fact. What do they need? How can we best help? Their needs and concerns need to be put at the top of our priority list for this trip to be successful. So I spoke with Pastor Paul and suggested he call down to the volunteer facility — Christus Victor — to actually see what they need. He found out they are currently at 75% capacity which is pretty good. Pastor Paul then asked them when they most would like us down there. They replied some time in September because they will only be at 25% capacity with everyone going back to school and work after Labor Day.
So now we have a rescheduled trip for a week in Sept. We have a meeting Tuesday evening to hammer out more of the details and to pick one of the weeks. I have already reserved the time off at work so I continue to be committed to this effort. I will blog more specifics as I come across them.
I want to thank everyone who has said prayers, kept me in their thoughts and sent in financial support. That means so much and I am committed to getting down there to be a tool of God.
Being a “glass is always half full” person, it does allow me more time to get financial sponsors. Please see my previous post for details.
…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net
