This is really turning into an adventure, and we haven't even left Indiana yet.

At around 1:00 on Monday, June 21, 13 students, 7 adults, and around 45 bags packed up and headed towards Chicago to prepare for an early flight for the next day. Emotions were all over the place. Some tears, lots of laughter and card playing, and a few worries. We didn't know what God (and Haiti) had in store for us over the next 10 days.

Our first adventure began before we even left the state. As we were driving up 65, one of the tires blew on a church bus we had borrowed from another church. Tanya, our driver, was so calm as we pulled over. We immediately started looking for a spare, and then realized that this was a bus with dual tires in the back, and that there was no way to jack up that kind of vehicle and replace a tire. We called the van ahead of us to let them know what was going on. They stopped at the next exit, and wouldn't you know it? The very first building at that exit was a tire store. The store had one tire that fit the bus, so after coming to get the kids (who had been running around in the woods and acting like hooligans) , Tanya and my brother Dave got the bus to the tire store and had it changed while the rest of us waited at a Burger King.

I was so impressed by everyone throughout this situation. It could have been so easy to already be frustrated and upset, but the kids (and the adults) were in great moods. Some of the kids made a "Honk 4 Jesus" sign and tried to get trucks to honk while we waited. Those who were waiting at Burger King sat and talked, not complaining about the time they had to spend. And about an hour and a half later we were on our way. As the rest of the trip played out, I'm glad this group was okay with things not going as planned, as you'll see in upcoming posts.

After finally getting to Chicago and waiting for Mac, our Haitian Christian Outreach leader, to arrive, we had our last "American" meal: pizza and ice cream drumsticks, and settled into our plush hotel rooms for one last night of air conditioning, long showers, and cell phones for quite a while. We were about to be taken out of every comfort zone we could imagine, and it was, as our Haitian friend Alex says, "Very good."