Thanks, Debbie. (a reminder on living)

Posted on 01. Sep, 2010 by Brett.

Imagine you could touch and see all the nuggets of wisdom from the last decade of your life. Imagine you could gather them together, one-by-one, and pour them into a giant distillery of wisdom. Imagine then that the machine slowly awakes from its sleep, creaking to life. Gears begin to grind, steam shoots from aluminum pipes, whistles blow, conveyor belts begin to glide along. And on the other end of this giant wisdom machine is a spigot and out from that spigot gushes the juicy nectar of A Big Truth.

If all that learning could be distilled into one summarizing truth, what would it be?

I know what mine would be.

The grand, sticky sweet truth of my 20s could be summarized in three words: Live life intentionally.

It’s as if God rented a billboard in the background of every scene of my 20s, and they all say a different version of the same truth…

Live

life

intentionally.

Live life on purpose, Brett.

Brett, don’t coast.

Brett, don’t just float along and react.

Don’t let 2 hours-a-night of primetime TV steal your days, Trapp.

Don’t let a life hard-wired for rich adventure be shorted out by an influx of passivity.

Plan.

Live.

Thrive.

Are you listening, Brett?

I think a lot of people think God has given them a life like a rock. I think He’s given me a life like play-dough. And the play-dough is ours to make a work of art or a little pile of play-dough poop. And though I believe he is directing our hands in some weird way, He affords us a million little choices, a million little right or lefts, a million little ups or downs. And every little choice links together to form a life.

The story is His, but for some insane reason he hands us the pen and let’s our chubby little kid-hands write a bit.

Yikes.

Scary thought–that we’ve been given one shot to make this life count for something. There was a start…and there will be a finish. There is no opt-out option for death.

I’ve faced death only a few times in my life. When my dad died when I was 19 was one of them.

But I faced it this week again–first time in a while.

I have a good friend here in Atlanta named Matt. On Saturday night Matt’s mom, Debbie, was out shopping with his sister. She sat down for a minute, slumped over, and never woke up. A brain hemorrhage had suddenly and unexpectedly ended her life.

Sunday morning a few of us went over to Matt’s house. We sat in silence mostly. We tried our best to be some comfort in an ocean of grief. I broke down once, thinking again about that day ten years ago when my own parent had passed on.

And we listened to Matt tell of his mom, Debbie. He told how that week she had sent he and his brother and sister long text messages, telling them how much she loved them. One of Matt’s buddies from college told how his mom once brought tons of furniture and rugs and spent all day decorating their college pad. Later that day, some friends set up a Facebook page where countless people told stories of how she lived life…

intentionally.

I left Matt’s and called my mom. Just needed to hear her voice.

I’m going to Debbie’s funeral in a few minutes. Hoping the call to live life intentionally becomes a little more real, because I know I’m not there yet.

Thanks, Debbie. We miss ya already.

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And the winner is…

Posted on 01. Jul, 2010 by Brett.

All right, here it is! Last week I set out to raise $2200 in 22 hrs to help bring clean water to people in Kenya. You guys stepped up, and we did it! Well I won an ipad for my efforts, and I said I’d give it away randomly to someone who gave at least $22. So I rounded up a few friends to help out with the drawing (see video below). Couple of notes…

• I entered everyone who gave at least $22 within the 22 hr window one time
• The winner needs to email me at iamtrappstr at gmail dot com
  

Again, thanks so much for your help! We really made a difference to some special people that God really cares about.

-Brett

(If you can’t see the video, click here.)

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22 in 22! Give Water / Win an ipad!

Posted on 25. Jun, 2010 by Brett.

If you’ve been listening lately, you’ve heard me talking up the Water for Kenya 5K. This is an event the company I work for is hosting and sponsoring. The 5k is happening in downtown Norcross, Georgia, tomorrow, Saturday, June 26, at 8:00am. We’re partnering with an incredible non-profit here in Atlanta, Kenya Medical Outreach. KMO does tons of good work in Kenya, but this event is all about clean water. There is a true crisis in Kenya. People there hike for hours to gather toxic, contaminated water every day.

Of the many complex world crises–wars, crumbling economies, earthquakes–this is the easiest to solve. Digging a simple well provides clean water for life.

But it takes money.

A small team of us has been organizing this event for months, and we can’t wait to see it all come together Saturday morning. If you’re going to be in Atlanta on Saturday, WE’D LOVE TO SEE YOU THERE! Even if you’re not a runner, come out and just walk. Online registration is now closed, but you can still register the morning of the event (registration opens at 7am).

If you can’t make the run, YOU CAN STILL HELP! At the time of this post (midnight on Thursday night), I’m kicking off a personal fundraising campaign called 22 in 22!

I’m trying to raise $2200 in the next 22 hrs to help dig a well in Kenya. I’m asking 100 people to give $22 to help save lives. $2200 will provide clean water for life for more than 85 people!

Those that know me well know that I’m all about the number 22. It was my dad’s high school basketball number, and–for whatever reason–it’s taken on a lot of meaning since he passed away on New Year’s Eve of 2000. My dad was a pastor for many years, and those of you who knew him, knew he was a man of God. This is something he would support. If you knew my dad, I’m asking you to make a gift in his honor.

I have a personal fundraising page at http://firstgiving.com/BrettTrapp where you can securely pay by credit/debit card.

Oh! And one more thing. A bunch of people in my company are raising money for water as well. A generous donor has donated an ipad to be given to the top fundraiser in our company. Right now, the leader has collected $1450 so far, so anyone could win it! And if I win it, I’ll do a random drawing from everyone who gave $22 and give it to that person!

Give Water / Win an ipad

$2200 in 22 hours (100 people giving $22…of course you can always give more:)

22 in 22!

GIVE NOW and THANK YOU FOR MAKING A DIFFERENCE!

–Brett

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Picking and Choosing in Conference Royale

Posted on 03. May, 2010 by Brett.

My job has taken me to some great conferences in the last few months. I’ve been to Catalyst, Catalyst West, Adopted for Life, LifeWork 2.0, and the Q Conference. Each experience has been rich, opening my eyes to the dark places and introducing me to great new people.

However, I find myself feeling buried, buried under the weight of so many heavy issues.

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”   – Romans 12:21

All these Christian leaders have their thing–a flare to shoot into the darkened Christian stratosphere, warning us of some great injustice in some forgotten corner of the world. And those lights seem to be multiplying in the night sky:

• Creation care
• Fatherlessness/mentoring
• Modern slavery
• Domestic evangelism
• International missions
• Sex trade/child trafficking
• Adoption/orphan care
• Poverty
• Pornography
• Hunger
• Disaster relief
• Homelessness
• War/violence
• Micro-finance
• Clean water
• Nuclear disarmament

And this is just the start. There are so many worthy options (which isn’t always a good thing).

Is it just me or did it used to be easier? Seems like the church of the 80s/90s played a pretty simple game–abortion, homosexuality, and secular music on the flop; alcohol on the turn; and R-rated movies on the river. Jerry and James and the SBC dealt the cards, and they mobilized players around the table. They played this game long into the night and well into the end of the century. Same cards, same script.

But things have changed…

Now there is myriad hot button issues, and I’m left feeling swamped. Conference leaders have constructed this gigantic Roulette Wheel of World-Change. Every few months they gather us in, call for bets, then give that sucker a whirl.

I have two bets: my time and my money. God’s given these in limited supply–this is what I have to play with–and I can’t go back to the ATM machine.

To say yes to one issue is to shun another. To embrace one is to damn the other. Do I save God’s creation or petition the government about Congolese violence? Do I mentor a child in downtown Atlanta or do I help child slaves in Haiti? Is it better to finance water projects or feed the hungry? Furthermore, does God look at that list and prioritize one item over another? And if so, should all of Christendom rush to those few issues and place their bets there?

I’m thankful for conferences. I think God uses them–in a small way–as vehicles of his will. I’m thankful they’ve raised the flag on these issues because sometimes churches forget to. I just have no idea where to begin. I’m not looking for some legalistic checklist or grid to give me a false sense of righteousness. But I do want to maximize my life, my time, my resources. I want to be strategic.

I have some thoughts, but honestly, I’m pretty clueless.

What do you think? I’m listening…

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Book Review: Green Like God by Jonathan Merritt

Posted on 28. Apr, 2010 by Brett.

I was privileged to get an advance release copy of Jonathan Merritt’s brand new book “Green Like God.” If you grew up in Southern Baptist life like I did, you might recognize Jonathan’s last name from his father James, who was president of the Convention in the early 2000s. Jonathan has already cut out a name for himself in SBC ranks at the age of 27. Several years ago he drafted a “theologically centered response to environmental problems.” In asking denominational leaders to sign it he caused quite a stir and drew the ire of some of the SBC elite.

This incident propelled Merritt squarely in the middle of the “creation care” debate. Creation care is the nouveau term for Christian environmentalism.

I began this book skeptically. I grew up in a very traditional, Southern Baptist church where the Bible, morality, and hot button issues like abortion garnered a lot of attention. Environmentalism, on the other hand, was looked at as a tenet of the liberal manifesto. My only green influence came from Captain Planet.

Let me be clear; I am a capitalist. I believe in business and growth and that humans are the crown jewel of God’s creation. But I’m also insulted at most Christians’ attitudes toward the environment. I could stomach the sleepy ambivalence, but the aggressive stance I see some Christians taking against the environment is embarrassing. So no, I’m not deep “green.” But I’m turning a little limier these days, so I guess this book was written for people like me.

Green Like God is filled with alarming stats. Some of the more interesting ones:

• About half of Earth’s tropical and temperate forests have already been destroyed.
• Americans produce 63,000 garbage trucks of waste per day.
• America consumes more than 20.6 million barrels of oil daily.
• 77 percent of evangelical pastors speak to their church about creation “rarely” or “never.”
• About 30 percent of American’s purchase Christmas presents for their pets; only 11 percent buy them for their neighbors.

Overall, Green Like God is a solid look at the Christian’s response to the green debate. Merritt is reasonable and measured. He does a lot of credibility-building early on displaying his commitment to the core tenets of conservative evangelicalism–centrality of the Gospel, inerrancy of Scripture, etc. I’m one of you, he communicates early on, which I think is a wise move. This ought to help him reach out to the Falwellian old-guard who think any talk of saving the planet is a new age plot of west coast whale-kissers. He helps his cause by summoning a few big time Christian personas, living and dead–John Stott, Francis Schaeffer, Alister McGrath, Billy Graham, Charles Colson, Albert Mohler, et al. He peppers his prose with their creation-friendly quotes, and it lends some real muscle to his arguments.

Merritt spends the first few chapters on passages in Scripture that reference creation. He notes Genesis 2:15 when God–speaking of the garden–tells Adam to “work it and take care of it.” He then contrasts that with Genesis 1:28, “Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over ever living creature that moves on the ground.” He notes of the latter verse, “When this verse is overemphasized at the exclusion of the rest of Scripture, as it often was in the twentieth century, it can lead us to an imbalanced and human-centered ethic.” He then says, “I must understand both as one harmonious command from a consistent God.”

In regards to Genesis 1:28, Merritt goes on to explain how “rule over” from Hebrew was consistent with the power of kings to rule over their subjects–a “monarch-like role.” But, he says, historically God would punish Israelite rulers when they got greedy or abused their power. He talks about man as “benevolent monarch” over the environment. I have to agree with Merritt when he says we should “understand dominion as stewardship of God’s handiwork rather than man-centered domination.”

In chapter 7, “Skeptics, Cynics, and NYT Bestsellers,” Merritt provides the most compelling dialogue in the book. He tells of a conversation he had with his agnostic friend, Don. Don is speaking of the hypocrisy of the church in their indifference towards the environment. Don then asks, “Wouldn’t that be like destroying the playhouse your dad built for you?” Hmmm…what a thought. I imagined my dad in Texas in the early 80’s lovingly building a fort in the living room and then inviting me to come play. I stomp into the room, tear up his creation, and stomp out. That’s a pretty profound context.

Merritt tells another startling story when he cites a recent National Geographic article “Poor Haitians Resort to Eating Dirt.” Merritt goes on to explain, “Charlene Dumas is a typical 16-year-old pregnant woman living in Cite’ Soleil, Haiti, who is so desperately hungry that she has resorted to eating cakes made of vegetable shortening and dirt.” (Note: I’ve been to Haiti and it truly is an environmental disaster. Haiti shares an island with the Dominican Republic. I drove and flew across both countries and the difference is dramatic as the green lush DR landscape turns into a dusty brown Haitian one. Most experts attribute this change to hundreds of years of soil erosion from French and Haitian land abuse.)

There are a few points in Merritt’s book that I take exception with. At one point he attributes some environmental issues to “greedy developers looking to make a buck.” I’ve always had a problem with environmentalists demonizing businessmen, judging them as “greedy” when they’re probably just trying to grow their business. Capitalism is the signature of progress, and while I agree there has to be checks and balances, it works.

Merritt also walks a tenuous line when he mentions swelling populations. He hints at the problems that may cause, but he doesn’t really decry it. So it’s tough to tell where he stands here.

One of the things I respect most about this book is that Merritt never swings the green hammer. He never condemns the Christian community for its apathy towards the environment. In fact he admits several times that he doesn’t have this issue completely figured out, and that if you inspected his life you would find some eco-hypocrisy. He never provides a checklist of do’s and dont’s “because it would fill one of the most unholy longings inside us all: the hunger for rules.” I absolutely love that grace-based approach to this issue, but also to all of life.

There are some whose humanistic ideology forces them to pursue environmental protection with religious fervor. After all, if there is no heaven or hell, and this is all we get, then we better preserve it! There are others–many Christians–who also have a man-centered ideology that puts our economic progress above all else. But I have to agree with Merritt in that there is another path for believers where creation is valued, because ultimately God created it for his glory and not our own.

Do yourself a favor and go pick up a copy of Green Like God. Highly recommended!

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Dads

Posted on 25. Mar, 2010 by Brett.

I talked to a dad this week who has a couple of young daughters.

He told me he tells them three things about a dozen times every single day…

1. You’re beautiful.
   
2. You’re daddy’s girl.
   
3. Mommy, daddy, and Jesus love you.
   

He speaks to appearance, identity, and worth…

Every.

Single.

Day.

A daddy’s words are like hot bullets. And bullets always do damage. Just depends on which direction the gun is aimed.

Daily, my friend puts a couple dozen bullets in the foreheads of those unseen forces–cultural and spiritual–that are racing towards his little girls.

Every dad’s a bodyguard or an assassin…not really a middle ground.

Just thought you needed to hear that.

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Haiti Trip Final Update: A fistful of onions and a waterproof tent

Posted on 25. Feb, 2010 by Brett.

Our last day in Haiti we made the trek into downtown Port-au-Prince. Our hotel was on the edge of the city in Petionville, so this was our first time inside the epicenter of the damage zone.

The little damage we had seen on the outskirts multiplied tenfold in the city. The destruction was unfathomable. Imagine shoving a three story building into a giant paper shredder. That’s what the buildings look like. Imagine shaking, so violent that it dissolves homes and businesses into mini-mountains of rock and metal and plastic. People wander through smoldering piles of trash in the streets and brown water gushes from busted water mains.

We drove through blocks of destruction. The street blocks turned into miles. It seemed like everyone was on the streets. Everyone. But no one was resting. Everyone was busy heading in one direction or the other. People were selling or bartering anything they could find. One street vendor was selling metal scraps. Another was selling electrical components, strips of dirty wires with frayed ends. Food seemed plentiful. Of course it all comes with a price, which is a problem for most Haitians now.

From my window I saw food vendors of all kinds, but then something caught my eye. A little girl. Maybe seven years old, dusty and wearing what could only be described as rags. She is squatting on the sidewalk, amongst the older women selling food. In her left hand is a fistful of onions. Not the pretty fat round onions you buy at the grocery store in America. These are puny onions, pulled out of the ground. The long green tops are still attached but drooping, wilted from the heat. She sits alone. Maybe her mom is around. Maybe she died in the earthquake and this is all she has, a feeble hope to make a little money selling dirty onions. The light turned green, and we drove away.

God works in my life in themes–times when He gently kneads together Scripture and real life experiences. I’ve lived themes of OBEDIENCE. And themes of GRACE. For the last six months, this has been my theme:

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” – James 1:27 NIV

How much “looking after orphans and widows” have I done in my 10,324 days on this earth? Truth be told, I’ve spent more time sniff-testing deodorants in the aisles of Wal-Mart.

And that’s not right.

At all.

I’ve thought a lot about what to do when the destruction is so vast, when the damage is so deep, and when the bad is so big. I admit; it overwhelms me. But I can do something. I can pray, and I can give.

This trip wasn’t about some touristy Haitian adventure with my buddies. If it doesn’t result in some good being done, then it was a waste of my time and money.

So here’s the deal. The rainy season begins in Haiti in 3 days. That means countless people–little babies to frail grandmothers–living in bedsheet cities will get soaked. Imagine having no job, no reliable source of food and living in a ramshackle shanty that gets flooded every night with rivers of mud. That’s the reality.

Aid agencies are working to build permanent dwellings, but it isn’t fast enough. The rains are coming. Thankfully, someone is doing something now. Courageous Church here in Atlanta has set up a website called A Home in Haiti . Go there and you can buy a tent for a homeless family or you can donate any amount of money which will help purchase waterproof tents. This is an urgent need, friends. I’ve seen it myself. My estimate was that only about 10-20% of the people were actually living in a waterproof tent. Everyone else was living in homes made of garbage.

I want to challenge every single person reading this to go give something. And would you do us a favor? Post a comment and let us know you gave. Or you can just shoot me an email.

Thanks for following along on this journey. Let’s make a difference.

www.AHomeinHaiti.org

P.S. I uploaded some pictures from our trip. You can see them by clicking HERE.

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Haiti Update 2: Handing out supplies in a bedsheet city

Posted on 22. Feb, 2010 by Brett.

One of our guys, Matt, came to Haiti several times in high school and has a friend here, Bienami, who runs two orphanages and a medical clinic. We jumped in his jeep and headed to his orphanages, both completely destroyed in the quake. We got off the main roads and onto gravel streets where cinder block walls had tipped and spilled into the roads. Walls are everywhere in Haiti. High walls. After awhile we came to a dead end. He stopped, looked at us and said, “This is where I was.” We knew what he meant.

We got out, hopped over a broken metal gate and into a courtyard. We stared at a boys’ orphanage and a girls’ orphanage, both leveled. Massive grey concrete slabs—the roofs—crunched up and sloping towards the ground. One of Bienami’s friends grabbed a broom and knocked a papaya out of a tree. Behind him, Bienami’s truck sat, crushed and permanently entombed in the garage. He was in the girls’ orphanage with 30 children when the quake hit. He felt the shaking and said that God told him to shout, “Everybody out!”. The roof collapsed, but miraculously everyone survived. Only two children had minor injuries.

After we left we told Bienami we needed to find a place to distribute some of our supplies. Our company, Booster, donated some shirts, small backpacks, and some flashlights. Bienami knew right where to go. We found a very small bedsheet city (different from a tent city) of about 100 people. Bienami hopped out first. We knew we needed him to help us get organized, because gun-slinging relief supplies can turn into total chaos. As soon as we stepped out of the car, we were swarmed. Little kids, teenagers, and grandmas—desperate hands tugging and tapping on your shoulders to your ankles. Lots of yelling. My heart rate picked up a bit. Somebody barked out some orders in Creole, and everyone hurried back into the camp where we set up our distribution spot. Bienami pushed through the crowd, leaned in and said, “They want to know if you have anything for a newborn baby.” My heart sank.

I made trips back and forth from the Jeep as we continued to hand out supplies. Anyone could have opened the back of that car, grabbed our boxes and gotten away. Never happened. I was amazed at the politeness of the people. Even as they were pressing in for help, they weren’t overly aggressive, just desperate. And there’s a difference between desperate and aggressive. Not one time was I pushed or shoved. I never felt threatened. No one got angry when we ran out of supplies. And we ran out, quickly. It’s a terrible feeling to give out that last item. We pushed through the crowd towards the Jeep. They followed us. Bienami cranked the car and we slowly pulled away.

Down the road I asked Bienami if he was ever scared. He laughed and said no.

“They are very desperate people,” he said. “They just knew this might be their only chance to get something.”

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Haiti day one update

Posted on 20. Feb, 2010 by Brett.

I’m sitting in a little dining room on the 2^nd floor of the Hotel Paradis in Petionville, Haiti. One of the few hotels unaffected by the earthquake and home to tons of aid workers. It’s a sunny, warm day here. There is a door open to a little courtyard area and a balcony. A breeze is blowing in and a rooster just crowed. An aid worker who helps orphanages is sitting on the balcony, on her laptop, and listening to Tim McGraw’s “Live Like you Were Dying.” In the distance you can hear the sound of hammers and electric saws.

We crossed the Haitian border last night around 6pm after 28 hours of travel from Atlanta. 7 hours earlier we had jumped on a little rental bus with a group of 12 Mormon men from Idaho at the airport in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. We wove through downtown Santo Domingo where locals walk through the middle of the streets selling everything from roasted corn to large colorful posters showing multiplication tables. We eventually got out of the city and into the countryside.

DR is a semi-tropical paradise with ridiculous agriculture. We passed massive banana groves and vast red fields dotted with women picking tomatoes. And there were fields of some plant that we all swore was marijuana (but were assured it wasn’t). Street vendors sold their produce—bananas, tomatoes, plantains, onions, oranges, tangerines. We stopped off for food at a little market in a mountain town. Everyone got a kick out of the guy in the bathroom, standing at a urinal, holding a rooster. I saw him later in the market. He was proud of that bird.

The drive into Haiti was long (about 18 hours) and uncomfortable (18 people and way too much luggage for a bus not built to hold such), but it was fascinating. We had several kids come up to our windows waving and rubbing their bellies. We saw a little boy walking down a dusty road holding a line of fish he had caught. We saw lots of goats and pigs, big pigs. Pigs-like-hippos-pigs.

We finally crossed into Haiti. Lots of activity at the border—guys with guns, street vendors. Never realized that the vast majority of Haiti was untouched by the earthquake. After an hour or so we got to the border of Port-au-prince where the damage really started. It was dusk, but the streets were absolutely packed with people. Didn’t seem like anyone was in their homes. I was told that was partially a cultural thing and partially due to the fact people are terrified of another earthquake. Commerce is definitely alive and well on the streets. This is a country full of entrepreneurs. Once the dark had fully set in, I remember seeing an old lady—probably 65—sitting on the sidewalk with a small table of things to sell. There was one lone candle, pencil-thin, sitting in the middle of the table. This was her world.

We finally made it to the LDS church in Petionville where our Mormon friends were staying. We weren’t exactly sure where our hotel was so I summoned the help of the Twitter-verse which, of course, came through with flying colors (thank you @Weddressproject, Kyle, Brad, Anna, Ben, Michael, and Rachel). We found a lady at the church who said she knew that address and that she’d take us. 30 minutes later her friend arrived who she said would take us. He wanted $30 to drive us 15 minutes. I offered $25. He said $30. Deal. (#bargainingfail). Well, that 15 minute drive in a rickety Honda Civic turned into 30 minute fiasco through the darkened streets of Petionville. We stopped and got gas. We stopped and asked for directions. Twice. On the lost scale, I’d say we were an easy 7.5. Our driver didn’t speak English so we couldn’t communicate anything to him. Of course, this would be the same time that my cell phone died. So here we were, 3 white guys and an African American driving through the ghostly streets of Haiti with a total stranger and no contact with the outside world—redefining youthful American naivety, haha. But God knew where we were, and we made it safely to our hotel. Our friend Chris was there to meet us. I was a bit relieved (#hugeunderstatement).

Got some much needed sleep last night. Heading out into Port-au-Prince in a few minutes. Not sure what to expect. Thanks for your prayers so far, guys. Please keep sending them our way. I’ll update as much as possible. Love you all.

Brett

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I’m going to Haiti

Posted on 16. Feb, 2010 by Brett.

Every now and then life gift wraps a monumental opportunity and sneaks it under the tree. That’s what happened this past weekend.

My friend Chris has been in Haiti since shortly after the earthquake on January 12. He’s been there working with an organization called Employ Haiti. EH goes into disaster areas immediately after the event to help build businesses and give people work. They’ve had tremendous success doing this in post-war Iraq and after Hurricane Katrina as well. So I’ll be heading into Port-au-Prince this weekend with Chris and three other good friends. We’ll be flying into the Dominican Republic and then making the 6-9 hour drive into Port-au-Prince. We’ll be there Friday to Monday.

What will we be doing? Well, that’s yet to be determined. We’re hoping to make our way into some of the tent cities and offer help if possible. I’m not going with delusions of rescuing babies from the rubble and being an American Superman. But hopefully we can offer some help, however small.

Several of you have already asked how you can help:

1. PRAY – I know. I know. This is the first thing people ask for when they go on a trip like this, and sometimes I think they’re just pre-conditioned to say it but not really mean it. But I could not be more sincere when I say that I want and need your prayers. This is a highly unstable region right now with the possibility of more earthquakes and other things that will keep my mom up at night. I’m not a fearful person. God is sovereign. He is in control. Amidst the greatest chaos and suffering, my life sits quietly in his hands. But please pray for our group–Chris, Collin, Thomas, Matt, and Brett.

2. GIVE – I’ve been researching online and reaching out to people who are on the ground in Haiti to try and determine the greatest needs. Lots of different opinions–food, clothing, shoes, tents. We’ll be limited with what we can bring in, but I’m hoping to pack my bags to the brim. I’m funding this trip personally, but if you’d like to help out with some of these needs, just shoot me an email at iamtrappstratgmaildotcom.

I’ll be tweeting, facebooking, and updating TRAPPSTR.com as much as possible. You can follow along on Twitter here and facebook here. We’ll be videoing and taking lots of pictures along the way as well.

I’ll let you know more as we get closer to leaving. Thanks, friends.

P.S. Can you do me a favor? Pass the link to this post along to everyone you know and ask them to pray. That would mean a lot. Here’s the link: http://TRAPPSTR.com/?p=885

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