Faith and Preparation for the Journey

In less than 48 hours our group from Habitat for Humanity will board the plane to begin our journey to Honduras. Saturday will be a long day --

• Rendezvous with the group at 5:45 AM at the airport
• Fly to Atlanta
• Short connection, meet up with Drew and Kate who are arriving from London
• Fly to San Pedro Sula
• Arrive at 11:10 local time (two hours behind us, so 1:10)
• Rendezvous with Luis Madrid from Habitat Honduras
• Load the bus, tying our 35 or 40 bags to the roof of the bus
• Drive three hours to go about 100 km (60 miles or so)
• Arrive at the Hotel San Jorge about 4 PM local, about 12 hours after we left
• Mass at 5 PM (hopefully)
• Meet with the team at 6:30
• Dinner at 7:00
• Crash
  

My journey actually started almost nine months ago, when I was called to lead this trip. I have been preparing ever since. I have gone from early, uninformed enthusiasm to frustration and near-despair that I'd even be able to find 11 other people to make the minimum number, to amazement at how we now have 19.

There is still a lot to do. Pat has been extremely helpful and supportive, and that has been a source of comfort here lately. It IS coming together, but there are so many variables that are out of my control, from team members' ability to rouse themselves at oh-dark-thirty to the vicissitudes of airline schedules and weather. So much is beyond my control or even influence. And I think it will be even crazier when we get there -- we will be operating on Honduran time, which has little to do with (North) American ideas of punctuality. Plans will change. And change again. And only a handful of people we'll see outside our team even speak English!

I have faith that God brought me to this place and he will lead me through it. That much is certain. How He will do it is a mystery, which can be a source of anxiety, but can also be a source of wonder and awe...

It was perhaps ten years ago that an image first appeared to me that has helped me many times in situations like this. I was a senior executive at a market research firm, and a big part of my job was business development -- beating the bushes for new clients. One of my colleagues in Southern California was extremely gifted at opening doors for people like me to tell our company's story. He was also gifted at squeezing every ounce of value out of every trip I made there. It was not unusual for him to schedule five or six meetings in a single day with five or six different clients. At the same time, I also had existing clients who depended on me to support their important work. It was overwhelming. That was when I first learned to let go and let God take care of me and get done what needed to be done.

The image that came to me was me standing with my arms wide, closing my eyes and falling backward. God supported me, and I never once hit the ground. After that, when I would start to feel stressed and overwhelmed, I would close my eyes and imagine spreading my arms and slowly falling backward.

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And speaking of wonder and awe, as I was writing this I just learned from Lisa at Habitat that we have added two more team members less than 48 hours before departure. What a wonderful surprise, but further proof that I am not in control of this situation! I think I will just close my eyes now...