{"id":32,"date":"2010-02-12T11:42:53","date_gmt":"2010-02-12T17:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paulstanley.org\/blog\/?p=32"},"modified":"2010-02-12T11:42:53","modified_gmt":"2010-02-12T17:42:53","slug":"mission-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paulstanley.org\/blog\/2010\/02\/12\/mission-possible\/","title":{"rendered":"Mission Possible\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

This was my first mission trip. So many of my close friends have shared stories of their wonderful experiences from Africa, China, Mexico and other places where Christ love is so needed.\u00a0 One friend in particular was concerned about me making this trip.\u00a0 The past twelve months have been without question, the most difficult in my life.\u00a0 With having to deal with so much, they wanted to make sure I was going to be able to handle seeing the devastation I was about to encounter after dealing with so many devastating issues in my own life.\u00a0 I appreciated their concern; I knew it was genuine.\u00a0 However, I knew God had prepared me for this trip and I was anxious to go and help in whatever little way I could.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve come to appreciate the phrase, \u201cBe careful what you ask for because you just might get it\u201d.\u00a0 Just 18 days ago I was sitting in my home in Tennessee watching CNN broadcast the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti.\u00a0 I wanted to go here but didn\u2019t know what in the world I would do.\u00a0 I\u2019m not a doctor, nurse or trained medical professional.\u00a0 What value could a former politician and financial advisor bring to a country ravished by an earthquake that had taken everything from a country that had little of nothing in the first place.\u00a0 God certainly granted my request, answered my prayer and blessed my life tremendously.\u00a0 By now you\u2019ve seen the pictures and footage on the newscast, hopefully seen the wonderful pictures taken by Dustin in our group and read our blogs.<\/p>\n

What all of us a amateur writers have difficulty capturing is the many looks on the thousands of faces we encountered.\u00a0 Yes, some were of hopelessness and despair.\u00a0 I can\u2019t help but think I would have a similar expression if I had lost everything the same way the Haitian people had.\u00a0 But in the middle of this devastation and destruction their were faces of joy, appreciation and love.\u00a0 The most telling expressions were those from children.\u00a0 Their wasn\u2019t a single shack, tent compound or orphanage we visited that the kids we\u2019re smiling and glad to see us.\u00a0 They especially liked us taking pictures of them and then seeing the picture on our digital cameras.\u00a0 On a couple of visits I had my I Pod on and was listening to music.\u00a0 I walked up to a little girl and placed one of the earpieces in her ear.\u00a0 I think I was listening to \u201cSweet Home Alabama\u201d, by Leonard Skynyrd.\u00a0 You should have seen the look on her face!\u00a0 I bet she\u2019s a fan forever.\u00a0 But the imagine I will remember most is the kids just wanting someone to touch them.\u00a0 I hit me that there is little difference between those of us in the developed world and those little kids.\u00a0 We all wanted to be touched in a manner that is significant to us.\u00a0 It might be through physical touch, an emotional touch or the feeling in our heart when God gently touches our inner soul.<\/p>\n

Looking back over the last year I felt as if I had lost everything.\u00a0 I lost my wife, two careers, the home I shared with my family, people who I thought were friends and some material items I had coveted.\u00a0 While my year was challenging, it wasn\u2019t nearly as bad as millions in Haiti who would still love to have two loving children and a family and friends who love me more than I can understand. So what was my role in Haiti?\u00a0 I may not have the answer to that question for some time. I have much to return home to later this week and no amount of money in the world can buy that.\u00a0 I hope my touch made a difference in the life of at least one child.\u00a0 I know their touch made a difference in mine.
\n\u00a0
\nPaul Stanley
\n\u00a0
\nFor other blog post from our Haiti trip, please visit www.globaleffectministry.org<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was my first mission trip. So many of my close friends have shared stories of their wonderful experiences from Africa, China, Mexico and other places where Christ love is so needed.\u00a0 One friend in particular was concerned about me making this trip.\u00a0 The past twelve months have been without question, the most difficult in my life.\u00a0 With having to deal with so much, they wanted to make sure I was going to be able to handle seeing the devastation I was about to encounter after dealing with so many devastating issues in my own life.\u00a0 I appreciated their concern; I knew it was genuine.\u00a0 However, I knew God had prepared me for this trip and I was anxious to go and help in whatever little way I could.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[126,282,283,327],"class_list":["post-32","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-paul","tag-earthquake","tag-mission","tag-haiti","tag-paul-stanley"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nMission Possible\u2026 - Paul Stanley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.paulstanley.org\/blog\/2010\/02\/12\/mission-possible\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mission Possible\u2026 - Paul Stanley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This was my first mission trip. 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