Kenyon returns from Haiti

This is my favorite picture from Kenyon's recent trip to Haiti. He's about to get on this helicopter and fly to a remote village to help with a water filtration project. He looks tough and like he means business...watch out world, Kenyon is here to whoop some *$$! I am so glad Kenyon has returned safely home to me. His last assignment caused me great concern. He was going in to a remote area with the non-food item kits. The last truck that travelled that road was hijacked and mobs were a norm at distributions. They tried to hire security detail and all the security companies said, "no, it's too risky."

My organization works hard to go to the areas few are willing to go - yes, we go to the dangerous areas like South Sudan, Darfur and Congo; yes, we go to the remote areas where it is difficult to get to. It is our goal to go where the greatest need is, regardless of the challenges it takes to get there. I get that. I even like that...most of the time. When it is my husband who is going I am a little more protective. There is a limit to my willingness to let him go to the most remote and dangerous part of a country. Before he left on the assignment we talked about how to conduct crowd control at the distribution, etc. There are thousands of people in need and they only had 500 kits, that causes problems at distributions. My advice to him, "if it gets out of control, step out of the way. let them take the stuff. it is more important to preserve your life." He told me he would call me Sunday night after the distribution.

I didn't hear from him and I didn't get an email Monday morning. That's when I started to get worried. I called up the Regional Director and said, "I just need to know that someone heard from my husband after the distribution. I need to know he's alright." They were experiencing technical difficulties (which happens in rural parts of the world), but one of the team members in Haiti had reached him on Satellite phone the night before. I was scheduled to leave to South America the next day and had decided if someone couldn't confirm Kenyon was safe, I wasn't going. Things did get a little wiry at the distribution, but he's fine and he's home.

His trip to Haiti was an incredible learning experience. I believe we learn best in discomfort, pain and suffering...when things are easy it is human nature to coast through life. It's in those hard times that our character and skills are refined. With that definition, the incredible learning experience that Kenyon had was also one of the most trying experiences of his life to date. This weekend someone asked him if he would go again. His answer, "on another DART (disaster assistance response team)? Sure. To Haiti? I hope not. I'm praying God never sends me back to Haiti, but if he tells me that's where he wants me to go, I will go."

So, since I know God and I know He has a way of making us do things we hadn't planned on or wouldn't choose for ourselves (living in Topeka, visiting China, etc) I am expecting that Haiti will come up again in our life...and like Kenyon, if God says go, I will go.