Roller Coasters and Jet Liners...

Leaving for Uganda in 2 weeks and 2 days.  As I make preparations, it's feels a bit like I'm on a roller coaster climbing to the top of the first hill.  Committed, strapped, and locked in there's no turning back at this point. Although not much is happening yet, there is this anticipation/fear/excitement that is building as I approach the top where the adventure really begins.

Thoughts fill my head like: 

• 'Is this safe?' 
• 'What did I commit to?'
• 'Ahhh, this could hurt!'
• 'This could be really fun... or not.'
• 'Am I gonna get sick?'
• 'I'm not comfortable and I'm kinda scared...'
• 'Why am I doing this again?'

I know there will be ups and downs. Yet there is this hopeful anticipation that I will get off this ride and say, 'I wanna do that again' and maybe it will all be worth it in the end.

Then I am reminded that it is not about me. As we in America process the tragedy of the bombings in Boston including the senseless death of an 8 year old boy. We all want to do something to help. We ask, 'How can we prevent this from happening again?'  

I am reminded of a book I once read, written by the president of World Vision.  The Hole in Our Gospel, has a chapter entitled '100 Crashing Jetliners'...

"Whenever a major jetliner crashes anywhere in the world, it inevitably sets off a worldwide media frenzy covering every aspect of the tragedy. I want you to imagine for a moment that you woke up this morning to the following headline: 'One Hundred Jetliners Crash, Killing 26,500'. Think of the pandemonium this would create across the world as heads of state, parliaments, and congresses convened to grapple with the nature and causes of this tragedy. Think about the avalanche of media coverage that it would ignite around the globe as reporters shared the shocking news and tried to communicate its implications for the world. Air travel would no doubt grind to a halt as governments shut down the airlines and panicked air travelers canceled their trips. The National Transportation Safety Board and perhaps the FBI, CIA, and local law enforcement agencies and their international equivalents would mobilize investigations and dedicate whatever manpower was required to understand what happened and to prevent it from happening again. 

Now imagine that the very next day, one hundred more planes crashed - and one hundred more the next, and the next, and the next. It is unimaginable that something this terrible could ever happen.

But it did - and it does.

It happened today, and it happened yesterday. It will happen again tomorrow. But there was no media coverage. No heads of state, parliaments or congresses stopped what they were doing to address the crisis, and no investigations were launched. Yet more than 26,500 children died yesterday of preventable causes related to their poverty, and it will happen again today, tomorrow and the day after that. Almost 10 million children will be dead in the course of a year. So why does the crash of a single plane dominate the front pages of newspapers across the world while the equivalent of one hundred planes filled with children crashing daily never reaches our ears? And even though we now have the awareness, the access, and the ability to stop it, why have we chosen not to? Perhaps one reason is that these kids who are dying are not our kids; they're somebody else's."

I am reminded that it's not about me.  It's about these kids who need love, medical care, education, hope and a future. There is an ongoing tragedy in which we don't get to choose all the endings, but sometimes we are asked to take risks and be the rescuers .  So I'm choosing to make some sacrifices and do something.

If you'd like to donate to the work I will be doing with Palmetto Medical Initiative, the deadline is this Friday.

Here's the link:
https://bos.etapestry.com/fundraiser/PalmettoMedicalInitiative/Uganda/individual.do?participationRef=3841.0.250385423

Thank you for your prayers and support!

I'm excited to share the rest of this adventure with you.