You know it’s a good trip when you have to take malaria pills

Yesterday I posted this on Facebook:

(Our church is) going to Haiti March 16-23. If you would be interested in joining us, it will cost you about $1300 which will include round-trip air, transportation in Haiti, lodging, and 2 meals a day. You will also need some spending money, need to pay for your own malaria pills, and must have a passport. You can ask questions on this post or message me.

After I read it I told my wife that you know it’s going to be a great trip when you have to take malaria pills.  I’m not making light of malaria.  It’s horrible that people in other counties die unnecessarily from it – (almost 2,000 people per day!)  My point is, of course, that you know adventure awaits you in places where you have to take precautions against malaria.  You know adventure awaits you when you leave what you ‘know’.  Brad Paisley has a new song, Southern Comfort Zone.  It talks about how people in other places are different than we are and in order to experience and understand them, we must be willing to leave our comfort zones.  ‘Not everybody drives a truck, not everybody wears a ball cap and jeans, not everybody drinks sweet tea, not everybody knows the words to Amazing Grace.  I know what it’s like to talk and have nobody understand.  I know what it’s like to be the only one like me.’  Watch the Video & Listen to Southern Comfort Zone

The guy who is arranging our trip asked if any of us had been to Haiti before.  I told him that my wife and I went to Ghana, Africa in 2010.  He said it was pretty much the same  – abject poverty is abject poverty.  My wife readily admits she was uncertain about going to Africa before we went.  Now she wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.

People are often afraid of things – afraid to fly, afraid of what they will eat, afraid of getting sick, afraid of the unknown, afraid of not having the money, etc.  None of that should matter.  The only thing, the ONLY thing that should matter is if God would have us go or not go.  When God tells us to go, it is not without risk.  But we know if God would have us go, then everything will work out for His purpose and His glory.