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2013 Aug 21 Coming back to Haiti is always interesting. At least for me, some transformation happens, involuntary and largely unnoticed by myself until lately. Doesn’t matter what you’re dealing with back in the States or what internal struggle you have raging in your heart and/or mind; Haiti trumps all that. She demands your full attention the moment you deplane and are enveloped in an atmosphere of swelteringly hot air and loud, unreasonably cheerful music. I can crawl onto

2013 Jul 23 As the big flatbed truck loaded with hundreds of 98-lb sacks of cement waits, I walk over to verify the number of sacks delivered (“control”) as they are unloaded behind our storage house. Four Haitian men talking rapidly and loudly carry the sacks one by one on their heads as the Haitian on the back of the truck carefully lowers each sack to the crown of a waiting head. They stumble and stare when they realize I’m there to count. I hear fast phrases peppered with

stock image It took me forever to learn where my “deep gladness meets the world’s deep hunger” (Buechner); I was much older than I feel I should have been. But I did finally find it when I worked internationally as a missionary. It married so many of the things I love: travel, consuming work, problem solving, and, most importantly, living for others and relying so heavily on my faith and cultivating a personal relationship with Jesus. It was easily the most grace-filled time