I have been gone way to long from the blog. I kind of took a break as I was not taking many pictures and just was having writers block.
I figured I would first start with these pictures. Nate had his 40th birthday on June 14th. Some friends decided to drop by while we were gone and decorate our bedroom!!! They did a nice job!! They are the SAME friends who decorated our house in the past!!!! Its nice to have good friends!!!!
June 20th was Katie's 11th birthday!! Happy Birthday Katie!!! This picture is really behind!! These were flowers that I received for Mother's day this year!! The carnations and the bouquet in the middle were flowers that I received from the Haitian church we go to quite a bit. They were doing a fundraiser so Nate bought flowers this year from them!!! They were SO beautiful!!!
Happy 9th birthday sweetheart!! Hard to believe you have only been with us 3 years. You have grown and changed so much in that short time and we just want you to know how much we love you and are so blessed to have you as our daughter!!! This is also your gotcha month. June 13th is the day that your adoption was final and so we want to wish you a big happy Gotcha day as well!!!!
I know its seems as this info has been plastered everywhere lately but this training center is so awesome and we are so excited for it to open. It looks like the the literacy part will be opening on July 1!! That is VERY exciting. I know lots of you have been praying for this and we thank you very much. God has been moving mountains to get this up and going and it is amazing to be a part to it!! I want to include the flier for the fundraiser event that is happening on June 13th. I know a lot of you will not be able to come but if you could keep this night in your prayers we would really appreciate it. Ebenezer is also on the world wide village website and you can see it here.
We also have our own email ebenezer@worldwidevillage.org
We will be posting more about the opening and what is happening in the future! thank you for all your support. Please email us at the address above with any questions!!
Troy and Tara are good friend of ours that live in Haiti and this is such a worthwhile cause!!
They are raising funds for Medika Mumba. I actually was able to try it when I was in Haiti last summer. It is really, really good!!
This is what Troy wrote about it:
We are excited about a current project being funded by World Wide Village . Through WWV, funds have been made available to purchase 'Medika Mamba' - an energy dense peanut butter, significantly fortified with protein and nutritional supplements. The name Medika Mamba means “peanut butter medicine” in Creole. It is produced by an organization called Meds & Food For Kids - you can learn more about them on their website at www.medsanfoodforkids.org.
We have seen firsthand that this product is culturally accepted, very effective, and in our opinion truly amazing. The Medika Mamba is also locally produced, which helps Haiti even more by providing many jobs in production and bolsters the economy and encourages agricultural development.
Worldwide Village is partnering with MFK and Real Hope for Haiti (the Zachary's clinic and rescue center) to provide Medika Mamba for malnourished children in the village of Cazale, near Cabaret. We hope to expand the capacity and number of locations very soon. There are two other clinics currently being considered for Medika Mamba locations as soon as funds are available.
The pilot project in Cazale has been very successful - out of the ten children who started the program three 'graduated' in less than one month and five more have been added. One of the children currently in the program is HIV positive, and one of the original 10 children died last week due to complications from HIV. His name was Max Wildy. He was and is an angel. His story will be told in a later blog post.
As you all know I am going to Haiti on July 29th with a group of 14 people and we will putting on about 5 or 6 different VBS for the kids in several different areas. We usually have between 100-200 kids at a time so we are raising money not only for us to go but for all the supplies and things that we will need on the trip.
I need to raise about $850 between Nate and I. by June 14th.
I have decided to do an Avon fundraiser for this trip
30% off every order will be put in a fund for this trip. I can also get you a tax donation letter from our church.
Avon orders are due on Wednesday May 13th. I can still take email orders on May 14th until about 11:30.
You can order from www.youravon.com/byonker at anytime. (you can also order from this link for the fundraiser)
This is for all of you not on facebook! I got a call yesterday from my neighbor below that curious as to why my phone was busy. My phone should never be busy. ( have call waiting and DSL) We knew that the water levels were getting VERY high in our neighborhood so we had been preparing for the worst. Well the worst came yesterday. We blew a breaker in our basement while I was gone and I came home to what you see below. So far we lost our carpet and a couch for sure. Our treadmill and Freezer most likely are shot. Everything on my treadmil works except for the track. Anyone know if these have a fuse on them that could have blown. The motor part was really not that wet when we got it out of there but it was plugged in.
Something weird is going on because until about 3 years ago our sub pump NEVER ran. Maybe for a little bit if we got a huge rainstorm. The last 3 years it has run every spring and now this this year it has been running non-stop since February. Every year it is getting worse. Yesterday alone I believe 4 basements in our neighbor hood flooded.
Thank you Terri, Maryanne and Amy K for coming to help us!! You guys rock!!
Thankfully ALL of our kids toys are up in a huge play area that is about a 5 foot storage area. We had no worries about their stuff and for that I was greatful!!!
We have declared Saturday as a family day. A few weeks ago we went to Cabela's in Indiana. A week ago Saturday we went to a place called Hemlock Crossings and had a wonderful day on the trails and then went to Muskegon to show the kids the submarine that is docked there called Silversides. They loved that. (I should say all except Heather)
These pictures are from the day at Hemlock crossings.
This past weekend we went to a town called Saugutuck. We went through some stores and then spent a bunch of time on the sand dunes and playing on the beach! What a fun relaxing day. We then stopped for dinner on the way. The kids are loving this and I love spending the day with the family!!!
I am SO way behind in posting to my blog. I just have not been in the mood to blog for some reason.
Last month Heather invited me to go with her on their class trip to Lansing. I was excited because you know she is getting into that pre-teen area where she does not always want me along! I of course jumped at the chance to go with her!!! The hard part was not being able to go with both girls that day. We went to the Capitol and to the museum near there. It was a really nice day and we had a lot of fun. Heather took a ton of crazy pictures at the museum but I will not bore you with a ton.
Nate bought a new CD this past weekend that I just love. I never was much into rap but this CD has such an awesome message. The band is Lecrae. Tonight we were messing around on youtube and Nate came across this video. The song is called Send me I will go. If you ever wonder why we go on mission trips this song answers it. Please listen closely to the whole song. Even if you do not like rap please listen to the whole thing. The words to the song are listed below video:
Lyrics to Send Me : Send me I'll go, send me I'll go, send me I'll go, lemme go lemme go! (repeat x4)
i seen it with my own two, there's no way i can show you a perfectly poverty stricken people with no view. And i bet you can't believe this, they never heard of jesus. Heard young butler, lil wayne, and young jeezy.
No one's signing up to go on missions this summa. Rather sit at home and watch exibit pimp in a humma while a nine year old is shot down. No one's screaming 'stop now!' no bridge illustrations for criminals who on lock down.
People deep in africa looking for an answer bra'. In china man, they're dieing man, until they know who died for sins. So look what grace did. Not for us to stay here inside our comfort zones at home in mama's basement.
Get out on the grind y'all. Ain't no better time doll. I know y'all read the great commission. Let me just remind y'all: make disciples of the nations. Teach'm to obey the lord. Have to lead someone to christ before i face the lord.
Send me I'll go, send me I'll go, send me I'll go, lemme go lemme go! (repeat x4)
hey! After, 1,000 years in the west and the churches get'n bigger daily without understand'n worship. (say what?) Some regenerate but a lot ain't saved. You walk outside and be surprised cuz the block ain't changed. And the numbers they be get'n me. Something just ain't hit'n them. America ain't christian they practice'n the ritual. That's why we should be mission though. Hey, what you think i'm spit'n for? The united states is die'n and in the east is looking pitiful.
Some places if they catch you they'll arrest you. They'll serve you, but they still need the word too. The gospel should be heard too. We claim we ain't ashamed, but we ain't hit the block up. Were in our christian bubble, while our brotha's get'n locked up. Lord i wanna stock up, pack a bag and walk up in a country where my faith may get me shot up anywhere i go, whether my city or far abroad, i just wanna show' christ the risen holy god.
Send me I'll go, send me I'll go, send me I'll go, lemme go lemme go! (repeat x4)
i know they're die'n in the streets over in the middle east. Some kids sink in piece others hold'n up a piece. If the violence doesn't cease, then at least the deceased might know jesus as their savior as their bodies hit the streets. And i know this is a graphic view. And i pray that it's attack'n you. Track'n you to act and do what you see in the back illusion. Mathew twenty-four and fourteen. We should read it twice before we think that life is just a battle see we free in christ! Look dawg! Life is more than church work and football! What if you were dead and seen that christians overlooked y'all! This is why we leave the couch and leave the comforts of our house to show a die'n world a god they'll probably never read about.
The great commission says make disciples of all nations. Have we even made them in our own nation? Come on christians! Missions exist because worship doesn't. People don't worship the god who made them. We're ambassadors. Let's go!
Send me I'll go, send me I'll go, send me I'll go, lemme go lemme go! (repeat x4)
With the help of some wonderful people we now have our Ebenezer Discipleship Training center flier is now done. Our hopes are to get this out to the different churches for prayer and fundraising possibilities.
I am having issues with getting it uploaded into my blog but I would Love to share it with.
If you would be willing to show it to your churches and to your family and friends we would really appreciate it! We want to get to the word out to as many people as possible!! Let them know they can contact us anytime with more questions and we would be very happy to talk to them about it!!
If you would like to see a copy please email me at telltheworld5@gmail.com
Thanks for all the prayers you guys have been giving this new training center!!
al At the end of July we will once again travel to Haiti. This year will be a little bit different as we head to another part of Haiti called Petite Guave. It is in the southern part of Haiti. This is the location of the new training center that God has shown us will be opening soon. The name is Ebenezer discipleship training center. The plan is that part of the team will be doing a short training session with some of the pastors in Ti Guave and the rest of the team will put on VBS for the kids of those churches.
We also will travel to Luly, La Digue, and do VBS with these groups of kids combined with kids from Bwa Dom. One of the highlights is that we will be showing the Jesus film in each village that go to and we will be going on prayer walks in those villages as well. This is always a highlight and last year a village witch doctor was converted. That is a great story! Just ask us about it sometime!!
The tough part is I again have to raise my own funds. However, I truly feel God has called me to go on this mission trip and I have NO doubt He will provide every penny that I need!! I know this has been a tough economic time for a lot of you so I completely understand if you are NOT able to give. Any money that I receive above and beyond I plan to donate right into the training center to be used to the train the pastors and the native missionaries that the center will be training. The amount that I need is around $1100.00. and I need to raise it by the first part of May. It is tax deductible . Checks should be made payable to Lighthouse Mission Mobilization and can be sent to:
Brenda Yonker 7364 Forestview Drive Hudsonville Michigan 49426
You can also donate via the paypal button on the right hand side of my blog. This is also tax deductible.
We are also asking for prayers for this new mission, and for this mission trip. God is doing amazing things! Please join us as we continue to be His hands and feet!!!
Email me if you have any questions. telltheworld5@gmail.com
you can also read about our trip this past January on the blog. http://journeyforhannah.blogspot.com Just scroll down.
We would also love anyone on of you to someday come down on a mission trip!! Your life will NOT be the same!!
I have not had a ton to blog about lately. I have had a heavy heart for awhile and have been doing lots of praying. Nothing really specific to share just different things that have been placed on my heart.
However this song reminds me that the enemy has BEEN defeated already! No matter what we are going through it is of this world. This world will be destroyed and God will remain and we will be with him!! That is cause for praise.
Resurrection day is coming and that is a HUGE cause for praise!!!! Death could not hold Jesus down and as followers of Christ it will NOT hold us down either!!!!
When I was in Haiti on this last trip I was able to work at an amazing program at Heartline Ministries. They have an AWESOME woman's program. They work with the pregnant women and the new moms and really try to keep them healthy.
One of the programs they have is the woman's sewing program. I was in awe of what they are doing to help these woman. Please check out this new website that was just launched. I have seen these purses first hand and was able to meet some of the women that are sewing them. This program really does help these women to have a much better life and they have it set up so that each women even has a bank account.
So Please check it out and pass it on to your friends. You can even have purse parties. It is really neat! Click on the Link below!
We are now in the fund raising stage for the Ebenezer discipleship training center. The center will be doing 1 month training sessions for pastors. Because these pastors have other jobs in order to feed their families, along with being a pastor, It will cost approximately $200 to attend these training sessions. We now have a 501c3 in place so people can start giving anytime. Church groups are welcome to get involved with this as well. Their are so many ways churches can become involved. Bakes sales have been really good. If anyone would like to help us fund raise for this or would like more info please email us at telltheworld5@gmail.com
Please feel free to pass this along to those you think would be interested in partnering with us to train Haitian pastors and to raise up and train Native Haitian missionaries. We want the pastors to know the truth of who Jesus is and to be able to pass that along to everyone they come into contact with. So many pastors cannot even read the bible in their own language and one of the things that the center plans to do is teach them how to read! If you are new to our blog you can go back to the January posts to read up on what God is doing in Haiti.
1) Which of your kids is the most bossy or ummm... the best leader?
This is a great question. I would say Katie will probably be the best leader. She is NOT a follower at all. We just pray that she will be a GOOD leader.
2) You mentioned (or Nate did) about so many different mission trips going to Haiti, but that if trips and projects could be coordinated so much more could be accomplished with each trip... is this something that you guys are actively working on?
Our main purpose in the different trips is to continue to build relationships. This is SO important. Each time we do a VBS trip we focus on a different topic. Last year it was that in Christ we are ALL one body. This year it will be focusing on showing the children that they are disciples too and can spread the gospel. Also it is to make new contacts and visit different places so that we can further Christ's kingdom. Haiti has a lot of missionaries but A LOT of them focus on the Social justice and not on Christ. We know from experience you have to do both. Also on having different mission trips it is so that different people can come down. It not only changes things in country but it changes the person forever and they come back ready to share Jesus with their own friends, families and co-workers. It has been amazing to watch how people change upon coming home. Now with the new Ebenezer training center most likely it will require more trips so that we can bring local Haitians down to help train the Haitians pastors. We have wondered even about moving down their for a short time but we truly feel God calling us to continue to lead the short terms trip for this time.
Great Question! I hope this helps explain it. If not let me know!
3) Things are really tight ($) with us right now, but we would like to help out for your next mission trip. Is there anything that you could use/take with you that we might be able to send you?
The thing that is really needed in Haiti is Bibles in Creole. They are hard to find in the states and are pretty cheap in Haiti. What some of the kids here do is have bake sales and donate the money for bibles and things we can buy for the Haitians in country. That has turned out so well. We had a couple special young people raise almost $200 just doing bake sales. We then wrote down the name of each person that got a bible so that they could pray for that person or family. It was really neat. Clothes and shoes are tough to bring down to Haiti. It is hard to carry as we can only each have 1 suitcase now because of space issues. It is a possibility we may need some VBS items. I will sit down with Nate and see what else he thinks!
4) Do you plan to be in the Alabama area anytime this year? :) You do not know how much I would LOVE to travel down to see you guys. I would LOVE to see Hanna and meet Riley.
5) What country will your next child come from?
Funny! :) When and if God tells me I will let you know!! :)
(Sorry I just couldn't resist that last one and I am totally cracking myself up right now - this is loving teasing ya know :))
ok this is honestly the first thing that came to my mind when i read that. ready for this?? ok.
My Favorite soup is Cheese Broccoli! Yum!!!
2. Terry Do you think there are any more kids in your future...? Only God knows the answer to that question. We are VERY happy and satisfied with how many kids we have at this time. I love how they are all getting older and its getting to be a little bit easier. However that is usually when God shakes things up again! :)
Can I ask more than one? Of course you can ask more than one!!
What's your favorite local restuarant? My favorite restaurant is On the Border. Best fajitas hands down!! :)
4. Mari What is your favorite thing to do as a family? The biggest thing we love to do the most as a family is go camping. We have so much fun together. We have a really nice 30ft trailer and its very comfortable. Now that the kids are older camping is SO much easier and less stressful. Can all hang out and relax with eachother. We love to go swimming, hiking, sit by the campfire, hang out on the beach.
that was really fun!! Keep the questions coming!! I enjoyed that!!
I have a bad case of writers block. I have enjoyed in the past when blogger's would just tell everyone to ask them any question that they want. I figured I might as well do that here!!
So feel free to ask me anything.
Don't worry I will post my updated pictures of my room soon.
We were in the world market store the other day to look for palm trees and there was some musci playing. Caleb goes "hey mom, Dad look this is great music to cha cha too"! We laughed so hard! I asked him to recreate it for me last night!!
Last night we celebrated Caleb's 8th birthday with my parents. We had a fun night. It is so hard for me to believe that Caleb can 8 already. Where has the time gone. He is my youngest child. Caleb you are SO much fun to be around. You can be a little spitfire but you probably get that from me! :) We love you so much buddy!! You have such a soft heart for those around that are hurting. Your teacher always tells me how you very quietly watch your surroundings to make sure everyone is okay and you want to make sure that if someone needs help you are right there! I love that about you!! We never know what we are going to get from minute to minute with you!! We just know it will be something funny!
As of yesterday our new tile floor is finished! We just have one more thing to do and we can really put the furniture back where we want it and call it good! I LOVE it!!! The room is so bright and cheery now!!!! We are now in the look out for our 2 palm trees. We have a certain one in mind and we may end up having to order it on the internet. If any of you have seen palm trees anywhere please let us know! I should say that these will be fake palm trees! Michigan is not too good for real ones! LOL
My friend Sara gave me this wonderful award! Thank you so much!!
The way it works: let your readers know where you received the award, then pass it on to your favorite "lovely" bloggers. Have fun!
Now add this text:
“These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”
On our last day in Haiti, as we were on our way to Port-Au-Prince fellowship church, Troy told us about this great song he had heard and played it for us as we were driving through the streets of Port. It was called God of this city. It was written by another band but Chris Tomlin did a cover of it. I cannot get this song out of my mind. I was sitting in the back of Troy's truck and listening and looking at my surroundings and it brought me to tears that GOD is the GOD of every city. It was really powerful realizing that the people I was watching needed God desperately. I then realized people in cities every where need Jesus desperately. They need the truth. We can give them that truth!!! Not just in Haiti, everywhere! Please join me in praying for the lost and that God will open their eyes. I know we cannot open their eyes but we can plant a seed!
Thanks to everyone that has been praying for the mission training center in Haiti. God has really been doing a mighty work there!!! It is moving much faster than we ever dreamed it would. It looks like we will have our first training session during our mission trip in July! It looks to be an exciting time!!
The past few months have been crazy in our house. We did NOT plan a ton of remodeling this year but we had some water damage and we got money from insurance to get this fixed. We knew we would have to paint and get some new french doors. We knew that some day we wanted to turn our great room into a Caribbean room! We figured that would be WAY in the future. These are before pictures.
This is how my old computer desk looked like just a few days ago. The picture above is AFTER we had the water damage fixed and Nate and a our friend Jason put in new can lights. We were just planning on repainting and getting our new doors put in.
However as we were waiting we ended up painting our dining room and our hallways. Plus we put new can lights in our dining room. I posted about that awhile back.
We decided we did NOT want to paint the walls white again and needed some color for a change. We figured we might as well pick out the colors we would want for our Caribbean room. We picked out a color called Island shores. It is kind of a salmon color. We also were out shopping one night and decided to look at tile and we found some VERY cheap. We could hardly believe it!! We have a good friend that knows how to tile and Nate and Brett trade work quite a bit so we figured we would also able to put our tile in this year too. Now that is a miracle because we thought we would be waiting a year to do that! The picture below is after painting. We do not have our tile in yet but everything is purchased. We hope to have that start this Saturday.
The tin art that you see was ALL purchased in Haiti. We went to a village that specializes in this we were able to watch them make these items and purchase them from the artists themselves. I was VERY impressed. For those of you that are going on our next Haiti trip this is going to be one of the places we go to before heading to Ti Guave!!
The picture below I am VERY excited about!! I have a new home office!!! As you can see our built in computer desk is history! I really never liked it because it was an eye sore in the the room and never looked right.
One of the items that we would really like in our Haiti room is a couple of palm trees. We have been looking all over but they are really hard to find. The one place we had not looked at yet was Pier 1 imports. Nate and I had never been there before. We went in looking for palm trees and came out with what you see above!! :)
They had some awesome sales and the desk above was Originally $500 but we were able to get it for just over $100!!! The wicker basket storage set was on sale as well. We had also been wanting a new printer but figured we were just fine with what we had even though it was not working great. Because of the way we have our desk now our old printer did not reach the computer tower. As you know Circuit city is going out of business and so off we went searching for a wireless printer!!! We got the last one!!! It was on sale for $69!! I was SO excited!!! It even does 2 sided printing!! This was probably the best valentine's gift I could have gotten!!!! :)
Ebenezer is also on the world wide village website and you can see it here.
This is one of Heather's best friends.
We are now in the fund raising stage for the Ebenezer discipleship training center. The center will be doing 1 month training sessions for pastors. Because these pastors have other jobs in order to feed their families, along with being a pastor, It will cost approximately $200 to attend these training sessions. We now have a 501c3 in place so people can start giving anytime. Church groups are welcome to get involved with this as well. Their are so many ways churches can become involved. Bakes sales have been really good. If anyone would like to help us fund raise for this or would like more info please email us at telltheworld5@gmail.com
This is how my old computer desk looked like just a few days ago.
The picture above is AFTER we had the water damage fixed and Nate and a our friend Jason put in new can lights. We were just planning on repainting and getting our new doors put in.
This was probably the best valentine's gift I could have gotten!!!! :)
