By Associate Coordinator, Terri Byrd

Traveling 1395 miles in three days can be exhausting, full of adventure, and incredibly humbling.  Early in February, some of the churches who partner with Alabama CBF had collected enough medical supplies for Haiti Relief to fill a 12 ft cargo van.  We also learned that Covenant Community Church had been in touch with our medical missionaries on the ground in Haiti, Steve and Nancy James, and they were in desperate need of the birthing kits that Covenant has been putting together for months as part of their mission efforts.  So, on Sunday afternoon, I began stopping by churches in the Birmingham area to pick up the supplies they had collected.

On Monday morning, I arrived in Elba, AL and we loaded the 800 birthing kits into the back of the cargo van to join the rest of the medical supplies.  The doors to the cargo van just barely closed and the supplies were stacked to the top of the van.  I drove through Florida in the pouring rain and arrived in Tampa late that evening.

On Tuesday morning, I was on the road again heading to Venice, Florida to the airport hanger for Agape Flights International who would deliver the birthing kits to Dr. Steve James and his wife, Nancy, a nurse, in Haiti.  When I arrived, our van was second in line behind another van dropping off supplies and there were two cars behind our van.  I was humbled and amazed when I looked into the hanger to see a warehouse full of donated supplies.  As the boxes full of birthing kits were unloaded, I spoke with Kevin Hander, one of Agape's cargo managers about the response to the Haiti crisis.  He said, "We have been overwhelmed with the generosity of churches to send supplies to Haiti.  Our greatest hope is that they don't forget the people of Haiti after their first donation ... they will need help for a long time."

After leaving Venice, I drove across the state of Florida to the east coast location of Missionary Flights International in Fort Pierce.  In Fort Pierce, I met with Tommy Deal from Florida CBF and we drove together to the airport hanger.  Dozens of volunteers were there to unload the rest of our medical supplies, go through all the supplies being given, divide them into categories, and repack them.  Planes were waiting to have supplies loaded to fly to Haiti.

As I headed home to Alabama the next day, I was tired but completely aware that, together, our efforts are meaningful to the lives of real people who suffer.  Several people said to me, "We just have a few supplies."  When we combined all our supplies, we had over 3000 pounds of supplies donated to Haiti Relief that joined the thousands of pounds of other donations given by other churches and organizations.

We will continue to give, to join together the churches of AlabamaCBF, to be a part of the kingdom of God in the place God has called us, and to love our neighbors.  It's the right thing to do.