Another inspiration... who are we and what is our purpose??

I’ve been inspired this morning.

I spoke with a young man that really inspired me this morning. You know, don’t you just love people? I love people!! All kinds of people. You can be inspired by everyone you meet if you let yourself. You can be inspired many different ways, but one of them is to get ideas from talking to people. And that’s what happened to me this morning.

Hands for Haiti – what is that? What are we? WHO are we? What are we about?

These questions have been running through me since this whole mission group began. As many of you already know – we had been involved in doing fundraising for the building of schools in Haiti for 9 years, but always wanted to be involved more “hands on” but the opportunity never really presented itself. When my daughter and I accompanied her class to the Dominican Republic, I saw first hand how these young men and women were affected by the service work they were doing and by the relationships they were building with people like themselves from another culture. This opened up an immense desire to help bring this experience to more than just Bekah’s school kids.

The next step was to head to Haiti ourselves and see what was needed. Jake and I set off in February and brainstormed how to do this. In June of 2010 our first “group mission trip” was under way bearing the name of our newly instituted organization, Hands for Haiti!! During this entire process, the support and encouragement from family and friends was overwhelming and God’s willingness to guide and challenge us was amazing. We have learned so many lessons along the way.

Now, what is next? Where do we go from here? We are planning another trip, but the details haven’t been worked out yet. We have been approached by another organization to partner with, but that hasn’t exactly worked out. I have really been struggling with what are “mission” is. What we are all about. This brings me to my “inspiration” this morning.

I have been thinking long and hard about this and have asked God to show me the direction that we should be going with our mission and this is what I believe God has shown me – at least for now. There are so many mission groups out there – and in Cadillac, too. They are all so wonderful. I have read about many of them and continued to be inspired by those that give of their time and talents to help others. I would like Hands for Haiti to be able to provide a mission trip experience for those that would otherwise not be able to. I would love to be able to raise enough funds to help the cost of young men and women who would never even think they could afford to go on a mission trip to join our teams!
I love the people of Haiti and I love Christ’s teaching about helping the poor and I love to see common everyday people I know working alongside common everyday people I don’t know and together, despite language and culture differences, form relationships. Wow – this is Christ’s love outpouring on a whole lot of people and it is the most awesome beauty one can hope to witness.

No, I don’t have the perfect trip planned yet or by far the perfect organization. But I think God is working in all of us in our journey to get there. I love the quote by St. Francis of Assisi (I quote it often), “Preach the Gospel at all times, use words if necessary.” The most powerful witness we can be is by doing - by "being" the gospel!  Let’s let “Hands for Haiti” help not only the Haitians, but us Americans be able to use our hands to DO what Christ has asked us - to LOVE!!!

I love you all – because you are common everyday people just like me!!!!

Debbi Gischia

YES!!!! We are going back!!!!

Yes, it's true!! We are going back to Haiti!! We have settled on our dates and are beginning our planning. Anyone interested in joining us May 18-25, 2011, please send me an email so I can get you on our list and prepared!! We are still working out the details, but as soon as we have them, they will be posted!!!

You can email us at HandsForHaitiTeam@gmail.com

Facebook anyone???

Good morning!! We are considering giving Hands for Haiti a Facebook page to include blog posts on. Please vote on the poll on the right side of the blog site to give us your opinion.

Video call from Haiti...

Hello on this snowy Sunday afternoon!!! Yes, I just got off the "phone" with my friends in Haiti. Actually, it was my first SKYPE experience!! It was a little bit fuzzy and the conversation was somewhat delayed, but it was free - so it works for us!

Well, we feel like it has been way too long since we have been back in Haiti, so we are in the process of planning another trip very soon!!! Hands for Haiti is at it again!! We originally were looking at April 27-May 4th. There may be some complications with these dates, but we will keep you posted. If this is when we are going, we need to act fast!! We have also planned our 2nd trip of 2011 for Sept. 28-Oct. 5th. This second one will give us a little more time to raise funds for some bigger projects.

While on the video call with Tom from Faith in Action, I got to see how much his little boy, Ryan, is growing. And for all our friends that were praying for baby Ryan - he is doing much better and is healthy!! Tom shared with me their need for more nurseries to grow fruit trees to help the Haitians in the mountains and also about the water filters they have been giving out and the need for more. We are excited to help with these projects!!!

If you are interested in either of these trips, please email me HandsForHaitiTeam@gmail.com.