I am heading down to the health department today to get a few immunizations in preparation for our trip to Haiti in October. Lisa and I (along with Gail, an RN friend) are going to be part of a medical mission team sponsored by LCMS World Relief and Human Care. We’ll be in Poto, a rural community much affected by the earthquake and storms, but far away from where most relief efforts have taken place so far. I get to be a chaplain for the team, as well as providing care and counsel for some of the patients. I am looking forward to seeing firsthand some of the affected people and places I’ve only seen and heard about in the news.

Other than smallpox, polio, and tetanus, I haven’t had many immunizations. I’m old enough to be of the generation that actually had all the diseases we now immunize against. I had measles, chickenpox, rubella, and mumps. I think I had most of them in the first grade. I also broke my ankle that year. It was a rough year, but I survived.

My international travel experience includes three days in Freeport in the Bahamas and one night in Vancouver, British Columbia. Time to expand my horizons a little. While we’re there we hope to see some of the people Lisa met last March when she accompanied a team to Port-au-Prince. Our connections to them via Facebook and email makes the world seem very, very small.