Ignite Church Missions trip to Haiti: 8 March 2010: Day One

Following the devastating earthquake near Haiti, Ignite Church is sending a group to assist with the recovery efforts. Going are: Cory, Josh, Kelly, Sarah, myself, a Haitian named Bernard Israel and his neighbor from the Zelienople area. We gathered at the Blue Violet at around 3:30 and departed for the airport (Zack Tanaka and Jason Orahoske volunteered to drive us to the airport and this was much appreciated). However, before we could depart, Josh had to drive back to his apartment to retrieve his driver's license. (As it turns out, he didn't really need it.)

Whilst waiting for our flight, Kelly shared with us a paragraph from a book that she was reading, I found this passage to be particularly motivating and felt pumped for what we were about to embark upon. The flight to NYC-JFK was uneventful, I slept through most of it.

We are pesently (8:30 - yes, I have a watch this time) at NYC-JFK and looking forward to 2 hours of waiting. Amongst discussion, Josh queried as to our plans in Florida for tonight (as we had a layover that lasted a day). My response was this: "what we do every night, Pinkie, try to take over the world!" This somehow triggered in Sarah's memory that "The Tiny Toons" theme song was stuck in her head at some point (she even sung it at Josh's behest). We are currently attempting to catch up on some lost sleep.

We make it to Fort Lauderdale where Sarah's aunt picks us up. After a brief visit to Bernard's relative's house (Sarah opted to stay with some of her relatives who live nearby) we venture off to Miami beach. Mostly just walking and talking occur, but we also found a pretty decent seafood place. Whilst on Miami beach, I found some pieces of coral for my sis and a seashell for Kayla.

Back at Bernard's relative's house, we relaxed and enjoyed some home cooking. We also took some time to pray for certain forseeable hardships to be smoothed over. The night's sleep was good. In the morning, while awaiting for transportation back to the airport, we chatted and listened to some tunes, courtesy of Josh's iPod.