So much has been happening in our household. Nikolas celebrated his 12th adoption day and his 13th birthday all in one week!
Christmas was a busy time but we had some quiet family moments in there as well! Looking forward to spending new years with good friends! Hard to believe it is almost 2010 already.
As you all know, we are going to be spending 10 weeks in Haiti this summer. A lot of you have already seen this on facebook, but Heather wants to let everyone know that if she raises $750 dollars she will cut at least 10 inches off of her hair. She plans on donating the hair to Locks of Love or another organization of her choosing. She is learning sacrifice as that is what it will be for her to do this but she feels God calling her to do this and is willing to obey!
If anyone would like to help her out and donate to you can make a check out to Lighthouse Mission Mobilization and just write Yonker/Haiti in the memo line. You can send money to
Heather Y 7364 Forestview Dr Hudsonville, Mi 49426
Thank you so much!!
Any questions please email us at telltheworld5@gmail.com
I know some of you have gotten it already and some of you will get yours on Sunday!
What an amazing year it has been for us. In January, Nate and I, traveled to Petit Goave, Haiti to look at some property that we were praying could be used for a new mission called Ebenezer Discipleship Training Center. This mission will be used to equip the Haitians to go out and claim Haiti for Christ. What we found when we arrived was a wonderful house that had more than enough room to house the mission and we were also given the use of a large church that can hold over 1000 people and have plenty of room to use for classrooms. What was also amazing is that we were given all of this to use for FREE! It has been amazing to watch God work out all the details!! If you would like more info on Ebenezer please go to www.ebenezerdtc.org. Ebenezer is a 3 step process. Teaching the Haitian Pastors to read and write in Kreyol. We just had our first class graduate this past summer! The 2nd step is to teach the pastors about Discipleship using the Curriculum, Discipleship Essentials by Greg Ogden. The third step is a 2 year missionary training school to send out the Haitians to share Christ as Native Missionaries. Now a little update on our family:
Caleb, turned 8 in February. He is a 2nd grader at Bauer Elementary. He is doing very well and is getting good grades. He loves anything to do with sports and never seems to stop moving.
Hannah, turned 9 in June. She is also in the 2nd grade this year at Bauer Elementary and has been in our home for 3 ½ years. We cannot believe how fast the time has flown but she continues to do very well in school.
Katie, turned 11 in June. She is really enjoying school this year and really progressing well. She is in the 5th grade at Bauer Elementary.
Heather, turned 11 in November. She is almost as tall as her mom and seems to be growing faster and faster everyday. She is doing so well in school and is also in the 5th grade at Bauer. She loves to read and write stories. Hard to believe that I will have 3 kids in middle school next year.
Nikolas, will be 13 in December. He is in choir and also made the honor roll for the first time! He was so excited about this accomplishment. He is in the 7th grade at Baldwin street Middle school.
Nate is still a plumber at Godwin plumbing. He just had his 15th anniversary there this past November. He also leads around 2 trips a year to Haiti and has enjoyed watching the members of his teams grow excited about reaching the lost for the Lord! He has been working hard to get Ebenezer up and going and we are excited about where God is leading in this endeavor. He is also the head of our Mission Mobilization team at church.
I am still a stay at home mom. I have been selling Avon now for 6 years and I really enjoy it. I also am a part of the Children's ministry at our church and mostly make all the copies for our Sunday school program.
This past June we also added a new addition to the family. We now have a beautiful puppy, named Ella. She is a Boston Terrier and has been an absolute joy to have in our home. She is around 6 months old! The kids were beyond thrilled when we told them we were getting a puppy.
We also have some other huge news to share with you all! After much prayer and discernment we have heard God's call to spend 10 weeks in Haiti this summer with our family. Nate has been asked to train the leaders in the Discipleship portion at the training center in Haiti. We will be leaving around the first week of June and will be traveling back around the 2nd week of August.
We are asking for prayers from you, our family and friends. We are hoping to be able to email and blog about our experience while down there. We will be raising support for our time away, and if you feel led to help us you can send checks to Lighthouse Mission Mobilization. But, Please do not feel obligated. Prayers are what we desire as God is leading and providing. You can send it to our address and we can make sure you get a tax letter. Our main goal is to share the exciting things that are happening in our family and want to share what God has been doing in our lives. We are very excited to be following the path God has asked us to take.
I cannot believe I have not written anything since Oct 13th. Where has the time gone.
We have been discerning going to Haiti for 10 weeks this summer for Nate to teach a course to the Haitian trainers at Ebenezer called, Discipleship Essentials by Greg Ogden. I highly recommend this study. It is incredible! These Haitian Trainers will then be teaching this course to the people of Haiti.
On Dec 8, Nate was supposed to meet with some people from a foundation that is located in Midland, Mi. This was going to make our decision for us whether or not we go to Haiti with the whole family. A few weeks back we found out that the meeting has been postponed to February and that made us take a few steps back and we were a little disheartened. However, we have learned in the past that a lot of the time God will ask you to take a big step out in faith even when you do not know where the money is going to come from. We did this with Hannah and every penny was provided for her adoption. So we know without a doubt if God calls you to do something He will provide for it.
Nate, the kids, and I spent the last week really praying about what to do. What we have heard is God asking us do we trust Him?! Wow, how do you say no to that. So with a great peace we are moving forward. We have also learned that it is okay that the foundation changed the meeting to February. They had a bunch of board members that could not make it to the meeting and they want Nate to be able as much time as he can to present Ebenezer to them. So instead of telling him to come for only a few minutes in December they are allowing him all the time he needs in February and that shows that they are really interested in what he has to say and what Ebenezer is all about!
We are thinking of doing a few fundraiser Dinners and some different things to raise some money too as we will also have to pay our bills back here. Like I said though God will provide what is needed to the very penny! I love watching Him do this!
There are two major downsides for me in this.
One of them is leaving my friends for that long. However I know that they will be praying for us every step of the way and that gives me such a huge comfort.
The second one is we have to leave our puppy behind. We have a Boston Terrier and they are in the snub-nosed breed classification. This means the airlines will not fly them into hot countries.
This means we will need someone to move into our house for the summer to take care of her and to take care of things around here. We really want Ella to stay in our home as that way it is familiar to her. Any takers? We have had one person in mind and I have actually talked to her so if YOU are still interested let us know! :) You know who you are!
Please pray for us, pray for the finances and pray for everything to fall into place. One really big bright spot for us is that there will be a Haiti team that will be flying down around the 2nd week of August. This will include some of my very close friends that I will be MORE than excited to see by that time.
One other bright spot for me is that our friend, Tiffany, will also be flying to Haiti with us to help me out with the kids, and anything else that the mission needs. We hope to get the kids involved and doing some things around the mission and what ever else God has in store for us!
On our recent trip to Haiti we spent a couple nights in a guest house in PAP. We were able to meet other missionaries there with many stories and reasons to be there. One group I met was there to look for land to start a mission on. He was dejected as the only thing he could find was between $300,000 and $400,000. This is typical for desirable land in Haiti. When we felt certain that God was calling us to start this mission we looked for facilities to purchase that would be able to sustain the kind of usage that would be needed. We found one place in particular that we thought would be perfect. The cost? $250,000.
What seemed to be our biggest mountain, God turned into the greatest victory and testimony. The thought of raising that kind of money for facilities was overwhelming. At this point was when Gladys first talked to Troy about the need for well trained pastors. She mentioned the possibility of a place that we would be able to use.
In February Troy and I met with Gladys in the house that she was offering us to use. It was perfect. We then went a couple blocks up the street where she showed us a church that is the biggest church I have ever seen in Haiti. She offered this to use as well. When asked about the cost she said, "no cost". Wow! In a couple short months we went from wondering how we could ever start to having perfect facilities in place.
The house is set up perfect to start the mission. On the second level there are 3 smaller bedrooms, one large bedroom, two bathrooms, and a large deck. Downstairs is a large foyer, dining room, bedroom suite, and a huge room that is being used for classes. There is also a kitchen, (charcoal grills) outdoor atrium, and a large storage room. There is also a house in the yard that was damaged in the hurricane last year and has since collapsed. The house is on the ocean and has a large yard. Electricity is on 24 hours a day without batteries or a generator, so no diesel to buy or expensive generators to maintain.
For now the plan is to increase the yard size by about 1/3 by walling in the total area owned by Gladys. We will then build Pastor Marc a house to live in as he is commuting 5 hours right now to work at Ebenezer. (He stays at the mission while his family is at home) We also want to build dorms with bathrooms over the large room with rooftop access for a gathering place, as well as a outdoor gazebo for prayer.
The house sat vacant for a while so it needs some TLC but could not be more perfect for Ebenezer. We are also able to stay there with teams, so we have been blessed twice by this facility.
The church is very large. At one time they worshiped there with over 1000 people. Now they are at around 250. Still that gives you an idea of how big the building is. It was damaged by Gustov last year and desperately needs some roof work and a beam fixed. In the rear of the church is a big wing that we plan on turning into 6-8 big classrooms. The goal is to have the house be lodging and the church be where classes are held.
All this will take some time of course, but the great thing is that we are still well enough equipped to handle the first two phases of Ebenezer. The other great thing about this is that we do not have to fund facility costs. Besides the cost of power and other minor upkeep, we do not need to invest major money into facilities. We give God all the honor and glory for this and praise Him for His great provision. Please take a look at the photos of the ground to get a better idea of what has been given.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Nate wrote up a new post today on the Ebenezer page on Facebook and I wanted to share it here for those that are not on facebook or are not a member of the group page.
If you are interested in getting updates you can search for the Ebenezer discipleship training center page on facebook and join the group.
Well, it is hard to believe the trip is already behind us. I have so much information to share that it will take a few emails to get everything out. Being able to spend a week in Petit Goave, build relationships with the pastors and congregations of Ebenezer, and getting to know the staff at Ebenezer dtc was a huge blessing. What I came away with most is the excitement that is buzzing around the area because of the training center. Wherever we went there were meetings with the pastors and elders over what is going on with this new mission. The pastors would come out all smiles as they heard the vision that was cast. The first thing that happened was a meeting with the national committee of Ebenezer where Troy and I shared what we saw God doing with this mission, and how our goal was to see the Haiti changed from within through Christian leadership. You could see the light in their eyes as they processed this information and realized that this is completely contrary to what they have heard in the past. There are 3 aspects of the mission that are in full swing right now, including, the training, team trips, and facilities. For now I want to give you a little information on the training.
The first group of pastors are now into their second month of training. I will post pictures soon. They are excited to have the opportunity to read for the first time and are working hard to achieve this goal. There are 5 employees at this time including Pastor Marc Sorel who is the head trainer and overseer of the mission. Pastor Jacob is the second trainer and also worked hard with us the week we were there. There are 2 cooks, Esther and Ruth, and a groundskeeper who's name keeps escaping me. All are hardworking, humble servants who are laying a great foundation of leadership.
Instead of giving you specifics of how the training is going, I want to share with you a story of our first "graduate". Again, I was not given his name yet, but I will have a name and picture soon.
This pastor's life long dream was to be able to read the Bible for himself, and then preach from what he had read. For his whole life he would have his kids read the Bible to him, and then he would preach from what he heard. Two weeks ago we sent Bibles down that were donated by the Haitian church here in Grand Rapids. When the Bibles arrived they had a celebration at Ebenezer giving thanks for God's provision for opening the mission, and for giving the pastors the opportunity to read. At the conclusion of the event the pastors were given their new Bibles. When they went in to eat supper, this pastor opened his new Bible and started to read it out loud, and as he read he started to preach to the other pastors around the table. As he was preaching he slumped over and died.
This may seem like a sad story, but it has energized the pastors as they are thankful to God that this brother was able to recognize his dream before God called him home. He has become a catalyst to the other pastors who are currently training and those that will follow. God's ways are higher than ours and we praise him for this brother and the testimony that has come from his life.
You see what I mean, there is so much to share. I will end here as to not overwhelm you. I thank you all for your support this far, and covet your support in the future. We currently have a $1000 matching donation. If you would like to help us reach that goal please let me know or go to the World Wide Village web site. They have made it much easier to donate.
I will update more on team trips and facilities soon. God bless!
For those of you that may be new to this blog I thought I would give you a little run down on Ebenezer.
Later in the summer of 2009, the Ebenezer Discipleship Training Center, located in Petit Goave, will open in Haiti. This exciting new ministry is intended to serve thousands of Haitian pastors, many of whom struggle to fulfill the directive given in Matthew 28:19. They have had little, if any, formal training, and many are also shamed by illiteracy.
The goal of the Ebenezer Center is to equip and energize native Haitian pastors as they seek to fulfill God’s calling in their lives – delivering the message of salvation to the Haitian people.
The Ebenezer Center’s two-step approach to training is to first teach basic literacy, preparing pastors to read and understand God’s holy word. After completing the literacy course, pastors will be enrolled in training sessions where they will learn the fundamentals of Christian faith and discipleship training. Upon successful completion, certificates will be awarded and well-equipped pastors will be commissioned to shepherd their congregations.
Global statistics show that effective evangelism is achieved by transferring knowledge from one person to another. Phase II of the Ebenezer Center will be for newly trained pastors to identify leaders in their churches who are “on fire” for Christ and His Kingdom. The selected leaders will receive community based discipleship training. The resulting army of native missionaries will be sent out to win and build up the people of Haiti for God’s glory.
Empowerment of the Haitian leaders will be achieved by engaging only native Haitians as trainers, teachers, and staff at the Ebenezer Discipleship Training Center. The estimated cost for each pastor is only $200 USD, including the training, lodging, food, and paying the pastor’s salary while attending the training.
Please join the growing team of supporters to raise up well-trained, well-educated Biblical pastors who are equipped to fulfill God’s Great Commission. For questions email: ebenezer@worldwidevillage.org.
We had a very generous individual offer to do a matching fundraiser for the Ebenezer Discipleship training center. This person has offered us $1,000 if we can raise $1,000
If you have a blog we would so appreciate it if you would put this on your blog and pass this on to anyone that you know. Especially those that have a heart for sharing the Gospel in Haiti. You can use this link to post on your blog. http://www.chipin.com/mywidgets/id/b6a454f679f902ea
When we were at the training center we could feel the excitement from the people in the area that Haitians would be discipling Haitians and that they would be the ones that would be spreading the Gospel. Our teams go down to encourage them and help with what ever is needed but the Haitians are the ones that will be doing the training and working with the Haitian pastors! It truly is exciting to see where God is leading.
We arrived home from Haiti on Friday at about 3:30am. We flew into Detroit, Mi and then had about a 3 hour drive home. We did not have internet down there so I could not update my blog at all. I am still processing what went on but I can tell you that it was my favorite trip to Haiti so far!! God is awesome, the team was awesome, Ebenezer Discipleship training center is awesome!!! We were able to meet the pastors that are going through the literacy program right now and they are a wonderful group of guys. We will begin updating the webpage soon so please check back often. www.ebenezerdtc.org
VBS went very well. We went up into the mountains twice. The views and the people are worth what it takes to get up there. Nate drove the truck up a VERY STEEP and WINDING path and he did an awesome job. Hard to look over the edge sometimes but what a wonderful feeling to know that God was taking care of all of us. Even if something happened what an awesome feeling to know that we would have been with Him in that instant.
The men The View from the top of the mountain My two favorite palm trees The whole team plus our translators in front of the Ebenezer church
I do not have my pictures uploaded yet so thanks to those that let me borrow these few.
Hope to update more later. Thanks for the prayers that you all gave us! They were very much felt!!
This is our July 2009 Haiti team!! We have a great bunch of people going. In this picture is also our drivers. Please pray for them as they are going to be getting picking us up at 1:00am to bring us to Detroit. They will then come back next Thursday to bring us home. Also in this picture is our wonderful prayer warrior!! We are so blessed to have her!!!!
Please pray for those going on this trip. They are: John and Bobby Hays, Lance Gates, Tiffany Gates, Karry Mills, Mike, Diane and Tori Westrick, Marg Kidd, Mari Goebel (her parents are driving us) and Nate and Brenda Yonker. We are so excited to see what God is going to be doing with us in the next week!!!!
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!!!! :)
