Moving Forward with CRI

A lot has happened since my last post. Actually, that is the reason that I have not written in a while. I have been too busy with all of those… happenings.

I will be in Haiti February 27th through March 13th. I will wait until I return from Haiti to determine when (and how long) I will go back again.

The 27th feels so far away, but I am grateful for the time to prepare, pray, and serve before I go. I want be as spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically prepared as I can be when I arrive in Haiti. The more prepared I am, the more effectively I can serve.

I am joining CRI staff to help with mobilization. I am so excited to be jumping on board with them in this way. It is a perfect fit for me and pretty much exactly what I have wanted to do with CRI.

The way that the whole thing came together amazes me. It also amuses me.

A quick answer…

Someone recently found my blog by the following search:

“what is missing in my body that i cannot slee[“

Well, I can tell you one thing that is clearly missing…

How You Can Help

There are several ways that you can help me as I get ready to go to Haiti with Crisis Response International.

Pray for Me
This is my greatest need. The Lord gives us more when we ask, so I am doing all the asking I can. And you can be a part of that. As I am able, I will continue to update my blog to highlight specific prayer requests.

Financial Assistance
After prayer, this is my second greatest need. The cost to deploy each time with CRI is $1000. I am trying to raise funds now for at least two deployments. In addition to that, I need money for vaccinations, travel insurance, prescriptions, gear, and so on. My immediate support-raising goal is $3000. If I can raise enough money, I actually hope to spend much of this year serving in Haiti.

The fastest and easiest route (my preferred method) is to use this link to pay by credit card, bank transfer, or a PayPal account.

If you want your donation to be tax-deductible, you can write checks to IHOP-KC, attach a post-it with my name on it (Christine Wasinger, please do not write this on the check itself) and mail them to:

IHOP Support
3535 E Red Bridge Rd
Kansas City, MO 64137

If you will not be itemizing your tax deductions, please consider giving directly to me. I have to pay 25% tax on any support that I receive through IHOP. If you interested in covering the full cost of my registration for a deployment with CRI, let me know and we can talk about writing the check directly to CRI–also a 501 (c) (3) organization. It looks like I will need to pay $500 and then pay directly for the other $500 of expenses for each deployment (domestic flights, baggage fees, etc.).

Help with Gear
I have started an Amazon wishlist specifically for the gear that I need for Haiti. If you like shopping, this might be a good way for you to get involved. Please select shipping options that will have the gear to my house by February 7th, as I may be deploying as early as the 12th and need time to purchase final items and to figure out how to pack.

Also needed but not yet on this list: a good (strong, lightweight) flashlight, a good headlamp, duct tape.

Ask Your Friends
A lot of people are looking for ways to give towards the relief work in Haiti right now. And I could use all of the prayer and financial assistance that I can get.

Thank you for your help! Thank you for partnering and agreeing with the Father’s compassion for those who are hurting in Haiti.

Going to Haiti

It is decided. I am going to Haiti. The dates are not yet determined, but I am looking at some time in the second half of February.

Our first team of six is there now. We send 12 more today. Our next team then leaves on Sunday, and then new teams ever week after that.

In the time between now and when I actually deploy, I am doing four things:

1. I am carrying on with the quotidian things of my life.
I’m still in the day-to-day. I still go to the prayer room every night. I am still working on projects for Anne House. I am still tutoring for the eSchool. I am still going to morning prayer and still celebrating the Eucharist at an Anglican church on Sundays. I am still spending time with me friends. I am still reading and studying my Bible.

2. I am helping at the CRI base.
This has meant a little less sleep in the last few days. I am answering emails. I am helping schedule flights. I am praying for the sanity of the people who are far busier than I am, whose loads I am barely able to lighten.

3. I am getting ready.
I am getting my passport. I am finding replacements for my IHOP duties. I am making lists. I am collecting gear. I am working on getting my necessary shots and prescriptions. I am raising money. But, most of all, I am praying.

I am praying for the people of Haiti. I am praying for those who are now serving in Haiti. I am praying for my friends in CRI. I am praying for the orphans. I am praying for greater revelation of God’s heart. I am praying for boldness & confidence. I am praying for my own heart.

I feel so unready for what I know I am about to encounter. I lack adequate concepts to try to reasonably imagine what my eyes will see, what my spirit will discern, what my heart will feel, what my ears will hear. The Lord has been putting iron in my spirit and my heart is very alive in hope. I have known the Comforter in the place of pain. But I am desperate for more.

Please pray for me. Please pray for the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our midst. Please pray for abundant hope. Wisdom. Discernment. Prophetic insight. Signs and wonders. Healing. Prophecy. Boldness. Strength. Courage. Favor. Protection. Provision. And for hearts to be undone by the kindness of the Lord, turning to Him to find a joy that leads them through this time of devastation and loss.

People are desperate and He is the only real answer. Our food and medical aid will help them. Our search and rescue missions are already bearing fruit. Our smiles, our labor, and our love are not in vain. But none of these things compare to the One who satisfies the deepest needs of the heart. I hope to strengthen the Body of Christ in Haiti and to reach the harvest in this time when many are seeking comfort. Devastation raises a lot of questions.

I am trying to raise $3000 to get the gear and vaccinations that I will need and to cover the cost of deploying twice with CRI. We intend to be in Haiti fr many months, helping to rebuild in the days ahead. If I can raise the funds, I actually hope to go and serve with CRI many times over the next few months.

Please consider sowing into my time in Haiti.

More details will follow.

Pray for Haiti

I just wanted to throw out my little “Please remember to pray for the people of Haiti,” in these days following their devastating earthquake. Prayer is one of the greatest and most effective things that we can do in the body of Christ. Of course, that is not all that we can and should do, which brings me to my second prayer request…

Please pray for my friends. Crisis Response International has already sent six people down (with supplies) to make a general assessment and begin setting up base camp. I love what CRI is all about and I am really keeping the CRI responders in my prayers. Several more people will begin flying down in the next several days. CRI intends to be working in Haiti for some time. For more information about what CRI is doing, check out www.criout.com

AND… please pray for me. I am seriously praying about deploying to Haiti with CRI. The more I pray about it, the more my heart burns. Every hour, I begin to feel more convinced that I will be going to Haiti. But I am still really seeking the Lord about timing and all of that. On the practical side, I already have the go-ahead from my supervisor, but I still need to get my passport and raise funds. (All of that is already in motion, but it takes time.)

I will write more about this soon, especially as my plans become more concrete. Please pray for clarity and for provision.

If you are reading this and already feel a little stirring to partner with me financially in what I will be doing with CRI, anything you can give would be helpful. For tax-deductible contributions, you can write checks to IHOP-KC (attach my name on a post-it or piece of paper, but do not write it on the check) and mail it to:

IHOP Support
3535 E Red Bridge Rd
Kansas City, MO 64137

Or, if you are not concerned about tax deductions and prefer an even easier route, you can click here to send money to my PayPal account.

Thank you for your prayers. I will keep you posted as I continue to move forward with this.

Precious in the Sight of the Lord

This morning, our IHOP family suffered a devastating loss.

I have little to say. And this is one of those times when it is perhaps best that little be said. So instead of endeavoring to process my emotions and thoughts in the public realm, I will direct you to a post written by Randy Bohlender.

I have wrestled with death much on this blog. It is one thing to express the sighs, confusion, hopes, and grasping of my heart as I grieve the loss of my own mother. But this man was not my husband. This man was not my father.

I am confident that this family will know the ministry of the Holy Spirit more intimately than ever before in this difficult time.

Oh, Comforter, do what only You are truly able to do. Let them find friendship in the Jesus who wept at the loss of His friend. Awaken in them the confident and joyful hope of the resurrection as you meet them in the pain of their loss.

Truly Missing the Sun

If you walked past my house right now, you could look up to find my feet happily perched in our living room window. Just below them, the rest of me is sun-bathing like a cat in our lovely blue “womb chair”.

Technically, I should be asleep right now. I have only slept for three hours and I have a very long night ahead of me. Very long.

The nights are lengthening as we creep toward the winter solstice. We still have more than two full weeks before we reach the peak of night and begin the slow and snowy journey toward the new life of spring.

In truth, I love it. I love the winter, with its cold air, beautiful snow, and long nights. I have always, even as a child, encountered the Lord uniquely in the middle of the night. And I was made to minister to the heart of the Creator through the watches of the night. My heart is settled in this invitation from my God. As my soul aches with longing for the dawn of new creation and resurrection life, I was made to stand by night in the house of the Lord. Even from the day of my birth, the Lord had already begun crafting that invitation.

I was born on December 22nd, the longest night of the year. My life began on the longest of nights, at the start of the darkest and coldest season of the year. (Stuart Greaves, Mr. NightWatch, was also born on December 22nd.)

As much as I love the night and and much as I love the winter, I must admit that this season of long nights is very difficult. No one enjoys the wave of sickness that floods over our community. And the absence of the sun is felt both emotionally and physically in the frame of every NightWatch intercessor.

I sometimes talk as if I hate the sun. Usually, this happens in the summer, when my unconditioned eyes are overwhelmed by its blazing light and my body is wearied by its excess of heat. And yet, the truth remains. I love the sun. At least in moderation. And it is presetly so moderated that I cannot get enough of it! I have hardly seen the sun for weeks.

And so the title of my blog stands true through this season, in its most literal of interpretations. I am, in fact, missing the sun.

For Matthias

One of my favorite people is celebrating his birthday today. Matthias A. Bryson.

Matthias sincerely loves God. And our conversations (among the most amazing and thought-provoking conversations that I have ever been a part of) always seem to make me grow in my own love for God.

Matthias is an incredible friend who loves well.  Our friendship has faced many challenges and obstacles of staggering intensity. Thus, the mere fact that we are still friends shows his amazing perseverance and steadfastness. In Matthias, I have found one of the greatest friends that I think the human race could possibly offer.

Matthias has taught me to enjoy life more fully. He has helped me to wholeheartedly embrace some of the odd and seemingly “unacceptable” qualities that make me the (let’s face it, delightful) person that I am. He has shown me how to unashamedly love the simple and often ridiculous things that can make me happy in ways that I cannot possibly account for.

One of my favorite things about Matthias is his love for absurdity. Not only is it vastly entertaining, but his affection for the absurd has been quite liberating for me. At it’s core, I believe that this love is actually a surpassing appreciation for holiness. Much of Matthias’ nonsense turns out to make more sense than anything the masses would foolishly label as truth or logic. His love of the absurd is often a love of the profound… which we have tragically mislabeled. Of course… sometimes it is just plain silly (i.e., really enjoyable).

Do you have a friend who would bring his stuffed animals out to a public place to have coffee with you and your stuffed animals? I do. Do you have a friend who will wholeheartedly support you in an endeavor to forever change the name of the number 7 to “singer”? I do. Do you have a friend who will giggle with you about delightful little numbers like “singerty-singer” or sentences like “I met a Maciej”? I do. And I thank the Lord for him.

Having determined with absolute resolve that I will never sing Matthias a love song (it cost me several points in a game of Quelf), I am doing the closest (and most absurd) thing that I could think of. I have written a poem. I have written a poem that rhymes. I have written a poem that rhymes and follows an anapest meter (‘Twas the night before Christmas…). I have written a poem that rhymes and follows an anapest meter and I am publishing it on my blog.

Let us note that I am not a poet. I had to do a little verbing to make it work and there are points where I am probably fudging a bit on the meter. But with deep affection, I present my silly little poem (… in public… where it can be read). And I mean it in whole. Definitely not in half.

Happy Birthday, Matthias.

For the Love
For the love of absurdity, ever you stray
From the dull, well-established “acceptable” way.
All the things that most people might think of and laugh,
You see through to completion, in whole, not in half.
With great joy, you’re determined to seize and embrace
The ideas that most others dismiss and erase.
And it seems that your life is much fuller and blest
For you’ve often discovered the things that are best.
Now your love of absurdity quickens in me
The great joy of embracing such “folly” with glee.
I am ever-so-grateful and could not repay
The uncountable pleasures you’ve taught me to yea.
So I thank you, Matthias, and bless your odd love.
I’m inclined to believe that it came from Above.

Wedding

My dad is getting married on Sunday.

Courtney and I are leaving at noon (in NightWatch time, this is absurdly early) to drive to Indiana for the wedding.

Prayers are appreciated.

I would write more, but I need to pack and get to sleep… with a quickness.

CRI – Drastic Sameness

Everything is changing. But nothing is changing.

Anyone who has really talked to me since I returned from training can bear witness to this fact: I have a lot to say about those four days.

My first impressions about CRI were correct. Sean Malone was articulating the vision that was actively abiding within my own heart. I was hearing an answer to questions I had been asking for years.

As it turns out, though… CRI was answering a lot more questions than I had initially perceived.