encouragement.

so this weekend I had the opportunity to go to Reno, NV for the annual Women in Aviation conference. It was wonderful to be able to reconnect with a few friends from Purdue that I hadn't seen in a long time, and very encouraging to hear about how they've each found their niche within the world of aviation. It was great to be affirmed in what I'm currently doing, and the goal I'm working towards. For those of you who don't know, I'm in school right now working on my A&P mechanic's license, so that I can be as effective as possible as an aviator in the mission field, by being able to work on my own airplane when it breaks in a third world country somewhere. The specific details of exactly how the aviation piece is going to fit with the mission piece is still a little fuzzy, but I'm trusting that God knows what He's doing. My heart is definitely in Haiti, and I would love to just move there as soon as I'm done with school in December. However, I know God has nothing less than His best in store for me, and I can't wait to see how the plan unfolds in the months to come.

so in the meantime, I'm very, very excited to be going back to Haiti in less than two weeks (even if it's only for a week). The latest update from Renee is that we'll be helping build more transitional shelters - just like the June trip - and also helping with the finishing touches on the choukoun (the big open-air pavilion at the beach property that we dug the foundation for last March). As always, things are subject to change, but that's the current plan. Everyone on the team has been awesome about gathering donations, so we should have a pretty good amount of donated things and supplies to take down with us as well.

that's the short version of everything going on right now... stay tuned for updates as the trip dates approach once again!

to Him be the Glory.

UPCOMING TRIP!

hi friends,

sorry for the lack of updates recently. things have been pretty crazy here stateside, with school and work and all those 'normal life' sorts of things. BUT... here's the scoop. we were (praise God!!) able to get a full refund from American Airlines for our tickets for the December trip that we had to postpone at the last minute. what that means is that we've been able to reschedule our trip, with a majority of the same crew, for UAkron's spring break week, March 11-20. I can't tell you how excited I am to be finally going back in three weeks!

I'll write another post soon, with more details on the current projects in Grand Goave (there are quite a few underway!) as well as the current situation in Haiti as a whole.
For now, continue praying for the people of Haiti, and for our team as we finalize preparations yet again for our upcoming trip.

To Him be the Glory!

change of plans...

so the original plan was to be writing this update from the Mission of Hope office in Grand Goave, and to be sharing with you all the stories of our trip thus far.

however.... God has had a different plan in store for this week.

If you've read the last post or been watching the world news lately, you know that there has been major rioting in Port-Au-Prince since the announcement of the preliminary Presidential election results last Tuesday night.
As a result of the riots and general chaos in Port-Au-Prince (and therefore the inability of airport employees to get to the airport), American canceled all flights into and out of PAP on Wednesday, and that afternoon I also got a message from Renee saying that as much as they would love to see us, we needed to cancel our trip. I felt that those two things combined were a pretty clear indication that we weren't supposed to be in Haiti this week.

We had a team meeting Wednesday night, and while everyone was very disappointed to not be going, we also all knew that it was the wise decision to make.... not that we had a ton of choice in the matter anyway! A general consensus was reached that we would reschedule the trip for this spring, most likely mid-March over UAkron's spring break week.

For those of you that have so generously given financial support to myself or anyone on the team, rest assured that your donation will be held onto and used for the rescheduled trip in the spring. Also, good news about American canceling the flights (instead of just us deciding not to go): we were able to get a full refund for all of our tickets, which is a huge blessing! This means that we'll be able to repurchase tickets for the rescheduled trip without wasting any money on ticket change fees or anything. We haven't yet solidified details or a specific timeline for the rescheduled trip, but we'll keep you up to date as things come back into focus.

Thank you for your continued prayer over the people of Haiti in the midst of the chaos and uncertainty in their country right now. We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is sovereign over all of this, and that He will continue to bring hope and light in the midst of darkness and confusion.

To Him be the glory.

political turmoil in Haiti

While Haiti's official election day was in late November, the results of the first round of elections was not announced until today. There are many protests going on right now, as people are angry and frustrated with the outcome, as well as how the election was held. Many are claiming fraud and turning to violence to show their frustrations.
Renee posted this earlier tonight [a few minutes ago]:

Please pray for Haiti and the millions of people in this country.
Port-au-Prince is on fire, shooting, rocks being thrown everywhere,
vehicles and businesses being smashed. The people don't know how else
to express their frustration. They announced the election results at
night to avoid people taking to the street this afternoon, but the
people have decided not to sleep tonight.

We are still in the process of making a final decision of how to move forward from here, but it's looking like the timing of this trip may not work out how we originally planned. Postponing a trip a few months is worth not getting caught up in the middle of any truly dangerous situations. We will continue to keep you updated as we decide how to proceed from here.

We are trusting that God is sovereign over all of this, and we are ready to follow wherever and however He leads.
Please pray for the people of Haiti, and for clarity and wisdom as our team seeks to love and serve them as best we can.

to Him be the glory.

less than a week away!

Bonjou! Hard to believe we're less than a week away from the next trip to Haiti! Our team has almost doubled in these last few weeks to a group of 13, including myself. Many from the June team are coming back, plus quite a few new people, as well. The team is:
Caleb Kuzman, Becca Lamb, Ben DiMarco, Tori Maloney, Ashley Day, Casey Shaffer, Stephanie Kline, Gail Andrews, Rachel Hurst, Kelley Parker, Lauren Pshsnychniak, Jeff Martin, and myself.

Caleb, Stephanie, Lauren, Rachel, and Kelley were part of our June team, and Jeff was part of the AIM team that was also at Mission of Hope in June.

We're making final preparations for the trip, as we leave this coming Friday! After a layover in MIA, we'll arrive into Port Au Prince mid-day on Saturday the 11th, and will be flying back to the US Sunday the 19th.

So excited to go back and reunite with our Haitian friends from this summer! It will be wonderful to see how much progress has been made with the rebuilding work, and the new orphanage site up in Icondo. Looking forward to getting our hands dirty as we contribute to the work being done!

Specific ways you can be praying for our trip:
-continue praying for the many affected by the cholera outbreak. many people in Grand Goave have access to safe, clean water through Mission of Hope, but there are still many others in Haiti who do not. pray also for all of the medical workers and hospital staff throughout the country as they do their best to help as many people as they can.

-continue also praying for the political situation in Haiti, as things are still in turmoil even after the recent elections.

-pray for the children at the orphanage and school, and the many others in Grand Goave that we will be interacting with - that they would see Christ's love through us as clearly as we see it through them.

-pray that above all, this trip would be about the people of Haiti, and not about us. pray that we would stay focused on Christ and his work of restoration and redemption in the lives of people there. pray that we would be humble servants, continually seeking out ways to love people well.

to Him be the glory!

life update and upcoming haiti trip!

Hi Friends!
While I’ve talked with some of you recently, others of you I haven’t caught up with in several months, a year, or more. I promise, despite my lack of long-distance communication skills, that I care about all of you! This is a little of the background of what I've been up to, and I'd love to hear back about what's going on in your life too!

I just completed my internship at The Chapel in Akron, working specifically with Campus Focus, the college ministry there. It was a two year internship that included full-time ministry as well as classes toward a Masters of Arts in Christian Studies through Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. My internship officially concluded this past August, and for my final thesis, I’ll be writing about my upcoming trip to Haiti in December. Also in August, I began work on my A&P [Airframe and Powerplant] Mechanic’s License through the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics. This is the last piece in the puzzle for me to be most fully effective in the field doing mission aviation work – using aviation as a tool to serve people in the name of Christ. Exactly where this path will go, I’m not exactly sure, but I know without a doubt that if I’m following God and trusting Him to lead me, it will be good.

In August of 2009, I connected with a group called MFI – Missionary Flights International. They are based in Fort Pierce, FL, and have a few DC-3s that they use to support over 250 various missions organizations, mainly in Haiti, but some in the Dominican Republic and elsewhere throughout the Caribbean. I volunteered with MFI for a week last December, helping in their warehouse, loading boxes, and serving as a flight attendant / cargo handler on a round-trip flight day, during which we flew from Florida to Cap Haitien, Pignon and back, bringing people and all sorts of cargo both to and from Haiti. When the earthquake struck Haiti last January, it hit me hard because I had been there less than a month before. While it was impossible for me to fully comprehend the totality and depth of the devastation that the earthquake had caused, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I needed to help somehow. I remember a few days after the earthquake, sitting and staring at the computer screen, seeing the flood of pictures and news stories about the thousands and thousands of people whose lives had been so severely affected over the past few days, and being overwhelmed by just imagining the fear and confusion and panic and hopelessness that they must have felt.
MFI had begun relief flights less than 18 hours after the earthquake, partnering with Samaritan’s Purse to provide water and food and tarps and other immediate necessities, and they posted a list of needed items on the website. I spread this list to people I knew, and as soon as the word got out, it was met with an outpouring of support and donations from so many of you who wanted to help in whatever way you could. It was a huge testimony to me of God’s faithfulness to His people in a time of desperate need, and of the unity of the body of Christ, as people from all areas of my life contributed so generously.

That generosity inspired, empowered, motivated me to dream: what if? What if I took a group to Haiti to help over spring break? How could we help? Sending down tons of boxes of donated supplies was a great and very much necessary piece of the puzzle, helping to meet so many immediate needs… but my heart ached to be there, on the ground in Haiti, using my own two hands to serve in whatever capacity was needed. I discussed this with a few friends, and over the next two weeks or so, a team of 11 formed. We had no idea yet specifically where in Haiti we would be going, who we would connect with, or what we would encounter once we got there, but we knew God was calling us to go and serve, and so we trusted that He would be faithful and lead us exactly where He wanted us… and He did.

In true Campus Focus form, a few guys from our ministry had been in Haiti over Summer 2009, and had gone back with a couple others to help immediately following the earthquake. They connected us with Mission of Hope, a ministry in Grand Goave, Haiti, run by Lex and Renee Edme. Mission of Hope (MoH) runs a church of several hundred people, a school of several hundred students, and an orphanage that houses just over 30 children. About 80 percent of the MoH buildings were completely destroyed or severely damaged in the earthquake. Our Spring Break team of 11 helped dig foundations and did other manual labor to begin the rebuilding process post-earthquake. When we returned home, so many others from Campus Focus wanted to join the rebuilding efforts that we put together a team of 14 people to return to Grand Goave in June. Nine people served for two weeks, and five of us stayed for the entire month, including Caleb Kuzman, Stephanie Kline, and myself who had also been on the Spring Break team.

[read more updates from our June trip under the archive log!]

Not only is Mission of Hope currently working to rebuild their own facilities, but since June, they have also been partnering with Samaritan’s Purse to build temporary housing for thousands of people since the earthquake. Our June team, along with another group from the World Race, built almost 100 homes for families in the village of Thozin [where the main MoH church/orphanage/ school is], and also up in the mountains near St. Etienne, where there is another MoH church and school. It was wonderful to be able to serve the people in the village during the week and then talk with them again at church a few days later. Each family we served was so full of joy and gratitude and love, and the kids especially were great to spend time with everyday. They remembered each of our names, and would scream them when they saw us walking down the road each morning! Another great aspect of MoH’s work is that they truly want to empower Haitians to develop skills and work for themselves, rather than fostering the cultural mindset of dependence on outside help. MoH employs quite a few Haitians, including a crew of Haitian builders who we worked with building the Samaritan’s Purse homes. One of the things I’m most looking forward to about going back is getting to continue friendships with Mary-Yve [the wonderful cook], Pepe [the building crew foreman], and all the others that blessed us so much during our time there. After spending a month with a group of people, they really do begin to feel like family, and I can’t wait to reunite with all of them in December!

That brings us to the future: what’s next? The people of Grand Goave, and of Haiti as a whole, have captured such a piece of my heart that I know I will continue to spend time in Haiti for years to come. I would leave tomorrow if I could! However, since school and work and responsibility frowns on random disappearing acts, we’re currently planning the next trip to Grand Goave for December 11-19. This time it will be myself plus six others, including Caleb, who will be on his third trip as well. While details are constantly changing to meet current needs, we are anticipating that the December trip will include continuing construction of more Samaritan’s Purse homes, as well as more time with the children at the orphanage and teaching at a church service or two. In addition to the upcoming December trip, I am also anticipating another trip in the spring, as well as another longer period of time spent in Haiti next summer. Beyond that… we will see what God has in store!

How can you help? Pray. Pray for the people we will be serving in Grand Goave and St. Etienne. Pray for Lex and Renee and the other faithful at work at Mission of Hope as Christ’s hands and feet to their community everyday. Pray for our team, that we would be following God closely in all that we do, and that we would continue to rely on Him and His strength as we are challenged and stretched. Pray that we would be focused 100% on what God has for us in Haiti, and not what we have planned for ourselves. This is truly the most important way that you can partner with us to do God’s work in Haiti!

If you would like to make a financial donation to assist with the cost of the December trip or future trips, whether it’s ten dollars or several hundred, I would love your support! All costs for a week trip [including airfare, food, housing, transportation, etc] total $900, while a two week trip increases to $1300. Because we are traveling independently from a specific organization, all checks should be sent to me directly, and I will return a receipt of your donation for your tax purposes. [Kim Conrad, 616 E. Buchtel Ave, Akron, OH 44304] It would be most helpful to receive your donation for the upcoming December trip by November 15th (ish). If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Love you all, and I look forward to hearing back from you soon!
To Him be the Glory.

seeing Haiti friends in America = awesome.

Got to hang out this past weekend with Travis Knipple, who had been independently working in Haiti while our CF team was there in June. Travis is an electrical engineer, and was installing a solar panel power system at a school in Les Cayes, a few hours from Grand Goave. he worked on the transitional houses with the AIM team and our team in Grand Goave for a couple days on each end of his work in Cayes. When we were initially talking and asking the 20 questions of where are you from, what's your story, etc., found out that Travis lives in Johnstown, PA, doing ministry work there with his brother Josh. the small world connection is that the summer camp that is pretty much a second home to me is 15 minutes from Johnstown! so this weekend, I went to pick my sister up at the end of a term of camp, and got to hang out with Travis as well. Great to talk about past Haiti trips, and to talk about future ideas that he has for continuing the electrical engineering work there, as well as all the exciting growth with their ministries in Johnstown. Awesome to see how God provides for His people, and how He is so clearly at work putting pieces in place for His work to continue to be done in Haiti!

To Him be the glory.