Here’s some excerpts from Kevin’s e-mail:
We made it – Wow. It was a very long trip. I’m glad to finally be on the ground again. Very little to report in incidents though. We didn’t lose anyone and didn’t lose any luggage. Tom considers that a success, especially for a first time leader (small victories).
We arrived in Fort Lauderdale ½ hour late, and by the time we got to the hotel, that only left us with 4 hours of sleep. We had an early morning and landed about 10AM here. We got picked up in a 4 vehicle caravan including 3 armed security guards and drove for an hour to the orphanage. (Apparently, the security detail isn’t really necessary anymore, so don’t worry). We only drove 20 km, but it took an hour. We also climbed 1000m over that distance.
The countryside and city are very similar to Guatemala – small block shacks with people everywhere. We are further in the country, but there are still houses everywhere.
There are 160 kids at this orphanage, 90 of them are under 2 years old. It’s an amazing operation, of what we’ve seen so far.
I got through the team orientation ok . . . everyone is very excited and can’t wait to get started. You can pray as I continue to manage the team dynamics and as we grow together as a team.
Overall, I think this is going to be a great week. God is going to stretch a whole bunch of us in all kinds of ways. I’m looking forward to it.