We want to thank you all for your prayers so far, please keep them coming.  Our travel down to Haiti went really smooth and on time.  We have all arrived safely today into the Port-au-Prince International Airport.  We are all very glad that today has come! We have arrived into Haiti to begin out medical missions week.  We were warned by our leaders that going through customers might be a little overwhelming.  Customs was fine and we waited about 30 minutes for our checked medical bags to arrive into baggage claim.  All of them arrived perfectly.  Once we stepped outside the customs building that is when the hot sun hit our white bodies, that was wonderful to step into a 90 degree day with airport workers everywhere to either side of us trying to assist us with our bags.

Our leaders had warned us all of this and we were as ready as we could be.  We just kept walking straight towards the Grace International Bus in the make shift parking area.  It was pretty much chaos by this point.  All 26 of us and all our bags fit into the bus with many of the bags on top of the bus.  It was an experience to remember for a life time. Jeff, Scott, and Bob from Solid Rock & Forward Edge ministry were all there guiding and directing us with this whole process.  Once we started to drive, I was blown away by the rubble and destruction that was still apparent everywhere from the huge earthquake over two years ago.

Our senses with smells, sight, and noise were all of a sudden on over drive.  Our drive time to Grace International was 1 hour long and really telling on how poor the whole country of Haiti actually is.  For the 7 different countries that I have personally served in international missions, this is the poorest country with the most need.  I am glad we are here.

We are all thankful that we are here to serve the Haitian people.  We arrived by 3:30 pm and had a short introduction given by Jeff what to expect for the rest of the day.  Dinner was served at 5 pm and was wonderful.  We had some traditional Haitian food with beans and rice, and goat.  It was the first time I ever had it and I would definitely eat it again and with a green salad.

The weather was hot and sunny, 90 degrees, just the way we like it from Portland.  The rest of the night was spent organizing for Sunday with sorting 26 medical bags full of donations that will be used for the medical clinic this upcoming week. Sunday, January 29th we will be visiting two different churches in the morning.  Our wake up time is set for 5 am so we all are feeling it tonight after flying on a red eye flight from PDX to JFK in New York.  Our whole team of 26 men and women with various medical and non-medical backgrounds are super excited to get the week going here in Haiti.

Again, thank you all for your prayers, support, and love for us all.  We greatly appreciate you all!

Chris Kingston