Waiting....

Things are winding down here.  We had a huge group here last week...about 75 participants on 5 different teams.  It was a surprisingly slow week for me though.  We'll continue to have 30-40 participants every week from now till the 3rd week of August.  There will be NO teams here during my last few days in Haiti.  I suspect I'll be very busy then though.  We are looking for a smaller staff house and if something comes up before the end of the month then I guess since I'll be one of the last staffers here I'll end up doing a LOT of the moving.  I hate moving!

A theme among the staffers this summer has been, "What's next?"  It seems like everyone here is in some sort of transition in their lives.  With one month to go I find myself thinking the same thing.

What I want to do is affiliate with a sending agency- raise support- and go back to Ukraine.  I've been talking with a Florida based organization for a few months now.  I have to make up my mind quickly upon returning home since their next training will begin in October.  The thing is- even though it most definitely is what I want to do- I can't say with any degree of certainty if that's what the Lord wants me to do.

Another option would be to enroll in an Intensive Russian Language Program at Columbia International University.  I relish the idea of being a student- renting an off-campus trailer and just enjoying the change of scenery.  But that doesn't really get me any closer to Ukraine does it?

I can go back to Mississippi and work.  And wait.  I don't like waiting.  I've told my Haiti Family several times this summer that my love language is "Leaving on Time" (I get that from my Dad I think).  I'm tired of waiting.

Words of Wisdom from Dr Seuss:
You won't lag behind, because you'll have the speed.
You'll pass the whole gang and you'll soon take the lead.
Wherever you fly, you'll be best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don't.
Because, sometimes, you won't.

I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
that Bang-ups
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.

You can get all hung up
in a prickle-ly perch.
And your gang will fly on.
You'll be left in a Lurch.

You'll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
And the chances are, then,
that you'll be in a Slump.

And when you're in a Slump,
you're not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself
is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted. But mostly they're darked.
A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And IF you go in, should you turn left or right...
or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?
Or go around back and sneak in from behind?
Simple it's not, I'm afraid you will find,
for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused
that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles cross weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place...

...for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or the waiting around for a Yes or No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for the wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.

NO!
That's not for you!

Short of Cash. It's a statement, not a question. Can you help?

So...I'm a little short of cash.

When I left for Haiti I thought I left enough money in the bank to cover my Car Insurance, Health Insurance, Child Support (take a breath...I sponsor a child through Compassion), and a Credit Card Payment.

Alas, I spent too much money buying new gear (lightweight clothing from REI, Water Filter, etc) before coming down here.

As you probably know, even though I'm serving with AIM this summer I'm not really on Staff and so I cannot offer you a way to receive a tax-deduction.

If you want to help me cover my bills over the next two months (July and August- I'll return to Mississippi August 25th), then really the only way to do that is to send money in care of my Dad who will deposit said money into my Hancock Bank Account from which I can pay my bills online.

You can send a Check to: Clinton White, in care of John White- Post Office Box 601, Mize, Mississippi 39116.

We're talking about $121.00 per month for Car Insurance and $38.00 for Compassion.  My Credit Card payment is about $30.00...so I need about $200.00 a month for 2 months...I left money with my Dad to cover Health Insurance for the summer.  I should get reimbursed at some point for my airline ticket to Haiti and that will knock the credit card back down.

How's Haiti?

A buddy of mine asked this profound question today, via Facebook..."How's Haiti?"

It's crazy.  I don't think I've ever been anywhere where I'm more affected by "the tyranny of the urgent"- those things that pop up that demand your attention and keep you from doing more important things.  When something pops up here it quickly becomes a major ordeal.  I suppose a lot of that is spiritual warfare.  The enemy can't be pleased with what's happening here.  It's hard and frustrating but being here seems very significant most of the time.

I could cite a lot of examples.  A day of important shopping is planned.  We have responsibilities to pick-up ministry supplies like food or lumber or concrete or whatever.  Then spur of the moment a vehicle won't start, or is overheating, or someone forgot to tell me they need a truck for some other purpose.  Suddenly the whole schedule is thrown off.

A kid gets sick on one of the sites and necessitates dropping everything to go to a hospital, which is an all day affair at best and often an overnight affair.

The Generator's Air Filter gets grossly clogged-up to the point where it won't run.  That necessitates a night without power and half a day of searching for the right part.

All that stuff is actually important.  It's of utmost importance that we take care of participants...that we get them to a doctor if they need to go.  It's really important to get parts to make the generator run or keeps the trucks going.  It's important to respond to a team that's running low on bread or water.  But anything that isn't planned for nearly shuts us down elsewhere.  The urgent knocks out the planned every time.

It's not that we aren't flexible- a word that anyone who's been on a Mission Trip is familiar with.  We're beyond flexible here.  We're Fluid.  We roll with the punches.  But the planned-for stuff is what we want to be about.  We want to be about serving our teams and serving our Haitian Church Partners.  We want to honor our meeting times with them.  We want to be timely in delivering ministry supplies.  We want to pick-up participants and deliver them at appointed times.  We want to be safe and smart.

AND we want to have some "margin" built in and the discernment to be able to be "Fluid" when we know the Holy Spirit is directing us beyond our "planned-for" stuff.  But when the Urgent comes, the margin is wasted and maybe too often so is the opportunity to join God in what He is doing.

I'm not one to see a demon behind every discordant note.  But you can't deny the spiritual warfare here.  I remember hearing somewhere this axiom: "If the devil can't make you sin, then he'll make you busy"!  It's a good thing to be busy with the "work" of ministry, but sometimes busy is the enemy of productivity and fruitfulness and intimacy with God.

Any Electrical Help Out There?

Attention All Electricians Out There!  I need some help here!

What you see to the left is the junction box for our Staff House?  If I have it right, the Main Power comes in on the Right Side.

We also have a Generator.  Somehow or another, there's a safety built in so that when the Main Power comes on (a few hours a day at random times) it doesn't affect our generator.

Ok..When the generator comes on, (I think the contraption on the Left), the little button on the contraption goes in and the contraption on the Right...that's a switch of some sort...a bridge-like thingy that closes the circuit and provides power for the house from the generator.

Now notice the next picture and my problem:

There should be a really heavy gauge wire from the top-right of the Left contraption to the top-left of the Switch on the Right.  Someone used wire that was way too small.  I suspect that as that wire got hot it eventually burned up the connection on the top-left post on the Switch.

Here's the Question:  What the heck kind of switch is this?  Could some other kind of switch work?

Can someone find something that will work and send it to us?  We have teams coming down every week and someone could bring us what we need.

Right now, we have disconnected the Main Power- we are completely off the Grid to avoid a conflict with our generator and the main power source...which means we are completely dependent on our generator.  That's gonna get expensive and it's a heck of a strain to run the whole house on it.

Let me know if you can help: email me at Clinton@clintonwhite.net

Happy 4th of July

This is my 2nd 4th of July overseas.  In 2007 we had Hamburgers and Hotdogs in Swaziland, Africa.  Last year of course I was at the Camp in Lugansk, Ukraine where we had an "American Breakfast" which was a fried egg on top of a bowl of Chili with a hotdog in it!

Over the last few years I've had the great privilege to meet and know people all over the world.  Today I've seen Facebook Statuses (Stati??) from friends celebrating the Fourth of July in Ukraine, Russian, South Africa, Korea, Peru, Guatemala and Cambodia.  That's crazy!

Today has been pretty low key so far.  We had an early morning Airport pick-up.  Later today I'll go with a local bus driver to pick-up 2 groups totaling 27 people.  Once we get them settled then I can enjoy the rest of the 4th of July with my fellow staffers.  I think we have Hotdogs and Watermelon.

BUT the big surprise for today was a special lunch.  One of our staffers, Toya, definitely has a "Momma/Cook" Gene and she cooked me a Steak with Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Fried Okra.  The steak was pretty tough but it was spicy and very tasty the way she cooked it (which was quite a fete by the way...she was basically cooking over an electric hot plate!)  

Mmmm

Saturday- Pizza Day

Another Saturday.

We've had "Pizza Night" every Saturday that I've been here.

The first 3 or 4 weeks we had Domino's.  Yes.  Domino's Pizza.  You know those Portable Trailer thingy's you might see at some sort of festival or carnival??  Well, some enterprising genius brought a Domino's Pizza Trailer over from the Dominican Republic (I assume this because the writing on the trailer is in Spanish) and parked it pretty much right next to the US Embassy and across the street from a UN Compound.  I said genius, right?

Anyway, for a mere $18.00 a pizza you too can eat like a youth group in Haiti.

Alas, a large contingent of US troops have left Haiti so the Dominoes packed it up and moved to a new location.

But we had Pizza anyway- we bought it from the Quebec Hotel here in Port Au Prince...cheaper and just as good.

So...Saturday...after dropping off all our teams at the Airport, we enjoyed Pizza Night...and Worship Night while the entire team is in the house.