The Region received this communique from Kimberly Bentrott, 1/2 of our new Global Missions partner team. We wanted to share it with you:
Hello!
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you and your faith communities for agreeing to sponsor Patrick and I as we leave for Haiti. It has been our honor and our privilege to start relationships with various faith communities around the country. Making the decision to work for the next four years in Haiti was very difficult for both Patrick and I as fear and the unknown clouded our call. However the knowledge that we do not go to Haiti alone, that we are supported and prayed for by your faith communities, that we take YOU with us to Haiti gives us tremendous courage. THANK YOU for that.
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves formally to you all. Some of you have heard our story and can disregard, or file. :) But often we are asked, "why Haiti." The answer, of course, is never so simple.
I am originally from a small town in Kansas. I grew up on a farm raised by my father (a farmer) and my mother (a high school English teacher). Patrick grew up in Maquoketa, Iowa--a small town as well. His father has worked in the banking industry, and his mom stayed at home to nurture her 3 boys. Patrick grew up in the UCC, and first learned about the world outside of Maquoketa through mission trips arranged by his pastor. These were very formidable experiences for him. I grew up in the United Methodist Church and truly felt the presence of a Church Family there. We have always been so grateful for our beginnings--they formed the foundation of our life's journey.
I completed my undergraduate degree at William Jewel College in Liberty Missouri. Part of my undergrad education was spent at Oxford University, England--my first venture overseas! During this experience, I discovered the awe and joy of travel and living in a different culture. Patrick likes to joke that he attended most schools east of the Mississippi as he sought out his life's path. He started in Illinois State Univ. as an English major and did an exchange program to the University of Rhode Island. When he realized he was not sure of the direction to take his life, he took a year out of school to do a year of volunteer work.
After college, I moved to Washington D.C. for a year as a full time volunteer through Americorps. It was there that I met my handsome husband. We worked together at a medical facility for the Homeless of D.C. called Christ House--an outreach mission that grew out of the Church of the Savior. Patrick was the activities coordinator (taking the homeless of D.C. to such venues as the Opera and baseball games), and I was the medical assistant. Our year in D.C. was a powerful one. It changed the way we saw our country and how we interpreted our Christianity. We also discovered the incredible joy that comes through service. The friendships we found with such unlikely folks whose life experiences were so drastically different from our own were the most powerful part of that year. It was in D.C. that our path in life was better defined. I knew I wanted to dedicate my medical career to the under-served populations of our country and world, and Patrick felt the call to turn his studies to theology and how Christ asks us to be active participants in the world.
I returned to Kansas City to get my medical education at the University of Kansas, School of Medicine. During my time at KU, I was able spend several months in Guatemala on a Spanish emersion and medical mission rotation. Patrick moved to Chicago to finish his undergrad education at Elmhurst College. During his senior year, he spent a semester in Calcutta, India learning about Hinduism and about the Indian culture while serving in Mother Teresa's school for street children and in the home for the destitute and dying. As many of you know, traveling to developing nations has a way of completely wiping your eyes clean and changing your world view completely. The disparities in lifestyle in our world is shocking. Yet the experience of making connections with people of a different culture is overwhelming and intensely spiritual. Despite the differences that define cultures and populations, our simple humanity unites us. And the glue in that interaction is God. So in these experiences, Patrick and my passion for overseas mission was ignited.
The last 3 years of our life has been spent in Denver where Patrick has finished his Masters of Divinity at Iliff School of Theology and I finished my family practice residency. We had no idea that we'd be leaving the country so soon. Like many young Americans, we had collected a healthy dose of school loans. So our "plan" was to get jobs, start a family, hopefully sprinkle our lives with travel here and there, and put off our dream of living and working overseas until retirement. In January, as I was about to accept a job offer in Denver, Patrick called Global Ministries in search of a summer volunteer opportunity to do before we started our "real jobs." Instead, Julia Brown Karimu asked, "Well, how about being full-time missionaries in Haiti?"
Haiti. Wow. I'll never forget the day Patrick called me with the proposition. Even though there were a ton of questions to ask, even more research to do... I was overwhelmed with the feeling that our lives were to be forever changed. The decision to go to Haiti was not an easy one. Haiti is a severe country with frequent upheavals and volatility that rise out of its extreme poverty. Kidnappings, riots, hurricanes, environmental despair, starvation, disease. When it comes to Haiti, there are a lot of reasons to get scared. But God challenges us in ways that often that asks us to get really uncomfortable. Despite our fears, things started falling in place. We both felt a little "haunted" with events and interactions with people that lead us closer and closer to Haiti. And meeting with the Global Ministries Board in April convinced us that this opportunity was a must, something we had to try, had to commit to.
And now here we are.
Our jobs in Haiti are loosely defined. We will be working with CONASPEH--the spiritual organization of 4800 protestant churches in Haiti that is working to raise up the voices of these faith communities and instigate change. Patrick has been asked to be a consultant to the seminary sponsored by CONASPEH and teach a little. His main job will be networking with the many church partners of CONASPEH, allowing them to be better connected and better heard. I've been asked to be a advisor to the nursing school, teach public health in the communities we visit, and work in the medical clinics sponsored by CONASPEH. We will need to learn Creole, and we have a lot of learning to do about the culture, but the challenge excites us.
We leave for Haiti on October 28th after our week-long missionary training. The last few months have been spent moving out of our apartment, selling most of our belongings, traveling to churches and visiting family. We are energized by the faces and letters of people pledging their love, prayers and support.
So thank you, thank you for your relationship. Patrick and I welcome you to the mission we all are embarking on together. We are honored to be your eyes and ears in Haiti, to represent your congregation there. Together we are opening ourselves to the transformation that Christ has instore for us, and we all pledge our lives to the service of people in desperate need.
We welcome e-mail and letters. We'll be sending out a quarterly newsletter, but also will keep a more frequent "log" of our experiences on our blog (see below). Warning: I tend describe things honestly, from my vantage point... and from whatever state of human emotion I find myself in. You are welcome to pass our e-mail or our blog to people you think might enjoy the interaction.
Blessings to you and your communities. We look forward to getting to know you all better and to forging a friendship over the next 4 years.
Sincerely,
Kim and Patrick
For postings on musings and events in our life, check out our blog at www.kimandpatrick.blogspot.com
Dare to be the change you wish to see in the world.
