The ups and downs of trips

Is it lame to say that I need to start all over again?

Here's the scoop:

Got back from my trip to Haiti in September, where I had learned tons of interesting ways the non-profit community are reaching out to high-need areas (and that Matt Damon was also in the mix; go figure). Could see some ways our church could get practically involved. Met with a pastor who asked if we could slow down a bit and see where this was going. Huh?

Turns out that a couple of other worthy initiatives were just starting to take off which were a bit more closely linked with members of our church, and sure enough, those initiatives quickly gathered steam and WHAM-O! Haiti has been set aside, at least for now, at least for me.

This is all part of the rollercoaster that is following God. It's taken a while for me to let go of this. At first I was going to plan a trip that would be a closure sort of thing- follow through on training for a church we met up with. That idea just recently got reexamined as it's been a hard spring with a death in the family, a death in the workplace, and the demise of a ministry in the church.

With death comes resurrection, at least in God's take on reality, and I'm hopeful that I'll be shown what my next steps are. Needless to say, pursuing practical ways to love the poor has reshaped my thoughts in terms of loving the world at large.