Blown Away.

Do you ever have what I like to call 'oh me of little faith' moments? Well, I do. One of my favorite blog posts of 2011 was finally being able to talk about this football season and what the Lord taught me. That may have been the first time that I experienced a desert season with joy and the expectation that the Lord had a plan.

I'm not going to rehash that here today...today is about another time the Lord has blown me away recently. I've already told you all I committed to go to Haiti the day I found out there was a trip. My heart for that country has grown of there years and since I flippantly said I'd go if my church did, I knew I had too when I got the chance.

With the lofty goals I set for this year I felt a little scared at the idea of raising $900 plus buying a passport, getting vaccines, meds, etc. But I sat down and wrote out my prayers. I talked specifically with the Lord about my fears, my anxiety, and my needs. If I was going to go to Haiti I needed Him to clearly keep marking my path for me and encouraging me along the way.

The bible says more than a couple times that when we submit our requests to God we're called to have faith and believe he'll do it. So I set out to do just that and had a little 'help me with my unbelief' clause at the end.

The Lord continues to blow me away. With 24 hours of deciding to go a group from another church offered to do a fundraiser for me and and 2 friends offered to help support me financially. My family agreed to put money towards my expenses and trip as part of my Christmas, and bought quite a few of the supplies I needed.

I started to doubt myself when I went to the first meeting and the Pastor leading the trip said it was a mostly man trip, because we'd be laying 35 pound cinder blocks 12 hours a day. But as I sat in the back and thought 'maybe I should get out of this' that same Pastor who I haven't spoken to in years walked right up to me and said 'Becca, I was so excited to see your name on the list for this trip. I couldn't be happier to have YOU, specifically, for this trip. You're the first one we approved to come'.

Ok Lord, I get it. Here I am, send me?...

But it gets crazier still friends.

My application to go to Haiti held the question: what are you most afraid of when you think about this trip? For those of you who have been following this blog faithfully you know my health has been a bit of a struggle the last 2 years as my doctors and I have fought through how to treat my severe case of IBS. Combine bathroom related problems with a 3rd world country and you pretty much have my worst fear. But I told the Lord I was committed...

So I marched my butt down to the doctors office on my Monday lunch break with my speech all prepared. It was going to go something like this: 'I'm going on this trip Doc, so give me whatever you've got because I don't have time to be sick I've got a church to build'. Can I just say that the Lord delivers me more than I ask for or imagine, on the regular. Not only did my Doctor help me make a stomach plan (Can I get a whoo hoo?) BUT he also agreed to write my prescription for my malaria meds (when I find out which antibiotics are recommended for the region I'm going too) - and said he'd do it via the phone so I didn't have to pay for another appointment.

What a blessing! The health center was going to charge me $50 to write the prescription. Ah, and while were talking about the health center... that's where I was told to go for my vaccines. Mind you, I was also told I'd have to wait in line, outside before they open, in the ghetto, to get them done. They don't take insurance, and each shot was going to cost me 50 bucks plus a 30 dollar 'administrative fee'...oh and that's per shot, per round (hep shots are series shots..). They also said there was one other option in town to get my vaccines but the first time would be $185 and I'd have to go 3 times to finish my vaccines. Ouch.

I was prepared to do it. I was in this trip for the long haul. But when I look back at how simple my requests were to the Lord they can be summed up by this, 'Lord, meet the needs I don't even know I'll have yet. Meet me where I'm at and meet me everywhere I have to go to get to Haiti and show your people love'...

Just before finishing up my consultation with my doctor he said, 'Hey Becca, what vaccines do you need?'. I responded Hep A and B - but that when I'd called the office they said they don't do international travel vaccines. To which he said to me, ' we do hep a and hep b, and we can get em done for you today while you're here'. I was thrilled not to have to wait in line at the health center so I got both shots done....

That's not even the good part! When I got back to the office I logged into my insurance policy online and looked up the cost for those vaccines with my insurance (since I wasn't going to be able to use my insurance either of the places recommended to me, I'd never checked). Are you ready for this? $22 a shot. Instead of $80-$120 a shot. Now when you think about the fact that I need 3 rounds of these shots, that's a TON of money. He probably saved me, what, 500 bucks?

Oh me of little faith...I feel so grateful the Lord gives me more than my little faith can imagine.

Hey, I'm going to Haiti!

And I won't be coming back with any of the heps. ; ]

Love,
B