The Polson Family Adventure: Jungle village trek

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Jungle village trek

Tomorrow I am going to take a trip to a village in the southern most part of Belize. I am going with a group of guys with Laugh Out Loud Ministries (lolministry.com). The trip has a two fold purpose, to assess the area for a new well and to provide medical care all in the name of Jesus. The village is so remote that there is no access to medical care. We will drive 2 hours and then hike 2 hours into the deep of the jungle to get to the small village. Everything you need has to be carried in on your back (and my backpack is packed to the brim)! I am bringing much needed medicines and I will go house to house providing any care that is needed.

We will bathe in a creek and sleep in small tents. They tell me that the howler monkeys keep you up all night and wild pigs eat your camp fire coals! It ought to be fun!!!

We will leave at 5:30am in the morning and will return Saturday evening if all goes as planned. Please pray for our safety and for peace of mind for Hannah and the kids. This will be the first time she has been alone here. The earthquake this morning has not helped her anxieties either!! I will take plenty of pics and let you know how it goes when I return.

2 comments:

Betty Hodge said...: Wow Thats ALOT to take in!! YOu are a Brave Soul but I KNOW THE MAN THAT HAS YOUR BACK!!!
I know your heart will pour out to these people that are living with who knows what wrong with them with NO medical care til now!
I will be praying day and night for you and your group and that Gods work will be done.
I will be praying for your family too! Both you and Hannah are so brave!!!
Cant wait to hear the goodnews of your trip!!; May 28, 2009 at 7:53 PM
Anonymous said...: This adventure sounds fun and scary at the same time - for both of you, James and Hannah! I will be praying.; May 30, 2009 at 9:28 AM

Post a Comment

Where do we start...

For those of you who are not familiar with our family's life, let me quickly catch you up. Hannah and I have been married for 8 wonderful years. We met as teenagers and quickly became best friends. Love blossomed and the rest is history. We both had plans on entering nursing as a profession and dreamed of medical missions prior to us even knowing each other. I finished my undergraduate work just days before we were married in December 2001 and Hannah finished the following May. We both worked as RN's at the Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children. We had plans on making the BIG BUCKS as travel nurses before starting our "family" but God had other plans. For on May 23, 2003, our beautiful Lilyan Rain (we call her Lily) was born. She absolutely changed our life.

During all this we were very active in a growing local church (Restoration Church), where we led a cell group and I led our worship team. Life moved on and things were good. I felt that I needed to further my education, but was unsure how we would balance family, church, work, grad school. Plus, we were very interested in adding a new little one to our family, so we decided that I would entered Graduate school part time. And on July 13, 2005, God blessed us again with our angel Aidan Nathanael.

Despite our wonderful life, in a home that we loved, great family and friends, a good supportive church, good jobs etc., we began to feel God pulling us away, changing our hearts, and still felt the He was telling us that we should pursue the dream of medical missions. So we continued to pray, and we started to plan. I finished graduate school in May of 2007 as a Family Nurse Practitioner and quickly started a job at a local primary care clinic. The strong pull of God to foreign soil persisted, and even strengthened over the next few months of 2007. We battled doubt, fears. We particularly battled leaving a church family and worship team that we had given so much of our life to. We learned some tough lessons about following the move of God on our heart, even if it meant leaving the "familiar"ities of life. This was a very hard time for us. I liken it to the desert with no sign of green or water. After much prayer, talk and tears, we decided to "step out of the boat". In early 2008, we notified the church and my job that we were leaving. "Tearing ourselves away" from the church was one of the hardest things we have ever done. At times it felt like it would easier to rip my own heart out but God is faithful and He gave us a peace that we had not experienced before. Pursuing the dream of God placed in our heart most definitely includes medical missions, but we also know God has even greater plans for us IF we will follow His voice.

Some amazing things have happened since. We sold our house within 7 days of it being on the market (unbelievable in the current housing market). God has opened up so many doors to opportunities for medical missions. I wish I could say that it all has been easy but I can't. But we are trusting God to make our paths straight.

One thing I can say... life in the past months has been anything but normal. Some of it has been exciting, some hard, some even really painful, but all good in the light of God's grace.

We look forward to sharing our life with you here. Please keep us in your prayers.

j/h/l/a

The Polson Family Adventure

Facebook Badge

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Jungle village trek

2 comments:

Contact info

Where we are now

Our family

Blog Archive

Weather where we are

Lyrics that speak life

How rich are U?

Followers

Fav links

Where do we start...