pictures of Petit Guave

I finally have most of the pictures from yesterday uploaded. That day was surreal. It was an amazing, exciting, exhausting day!! To watch God work the details is probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I have seen it before with our adoption of Hannah and even other times but to be a witness to it again just leaves my mind spinning. I was able to sit in the room with Troy, Nate and Gladys. I know you read about that yesterday and I will not go into those details again. I just wanted to share my thoughts on the day. Gladys shared what was on her heart and the heart of her mother and father (who passed away in 2004). I am pretty glad a camera was not in the room because my mouth was probably open the whole time in awe of what I was witnessing. Purely God speaking. I have chills thinking about it right now. It was like having an out of body experience. It makes my heart hurt that there are people out there that have NEVER experienced this. I saw how God truly loves US. I could FEEL the love in the room. I wish all of you who love Haiti like I do could have experienced this. I had tears many times. It is hard to put into words. I saw truly what having faith in what God will do and provide come to life. It makes my hurt heart when I see people or friends say they feel called but just cannot afford what they think God is asking them to do. That is a shame. If it truly is coming from God, HE will provide EVERYTHING!!! If you feel God has called you to something or you feel very strongly that the Lord is talking to you then do it. Don't sit around and wonder, do it!! 1 1/2 half ago this vision of Haiti was given to Nate. Did we want to go ahead and jump on it and do it right then? Of course, we did!! Look how much better it is NOW THAT WE WAITED ON THE LORD!! The glory would have gone to man, but THE GLORY IS ALL GOD'S! We did nothing. The words be prepared came to me at the same time this vision came to Nate. I NOW understand what God was talking about. He meant BE PREPARED MY CHILD FOR WHAT I AM GOING TO SHOW YOU! FOR WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO WITNESS ME DOING AND FOR WHAT I AM GOING TO HAVE YOUR FAMILY DO FOR ME. I saw yesterday the vision of the people of Haiti becoming united for Christ. I saw white missionaries becoming united to take Haiti for Jesus!!! Will we have struggles? You bet we will but God will prevail!!! God wants his children to come home to him and we get to watch that happen!!! Awesome!!!!

One other thing I have learned is that faith is trusting and following God no matter what. Even if NOTHING ever happens with what we are doing. If we followe Him and did what He asked then that is all that matters. Not even one person may come to Christ but that is NOT what we worry about. We just need make sure that we follow His leading. Everything else is up to Him. So all of you at home remember that too. I know some of you have been struggeling but just do the work God has for you and leave everything else to HIM!!!

I am tired, so tired, of people complaining about things back home. I am tired of people making up false things and trying to divide others. We NEED to be ONE in CHRIST.

Okay off my soapbox. This week has been incredible for me. I guess you can tell that from what I wrote above!!! Today I want you all to pray that God shows YOU what he is calling you to do!! You will be amazed and I know you will want to "BE PREPARED" for what He has in store!!!




Newly painted bus!!!

above and below. Scenes of the street by the church in

Petit Guave.

Below are pictures of the church

Below are pictures of the house in Petit Guave.

Gladys lived here for 7 years.

THE day

Today was a great day. It was day that left us dazed and amazed. It was a day to sit back and just marvel at the way God works, and then lift up our hands to give Him all the praise. Before I explain what happened, I should back up a little and share what has been going on for the last year and a half for those of you who don't know.
Since I started to lead teams to Haiti I noticed that there was a problem in Haiti. It seemed as if even though there were missionaries everywhere, the missions for the most part were ineffective in Kingdom advancement. After I read the book Reveloution in world missions (which if you have not read, I highly recommend you order your free copy from gfa.com ) I understood the problem. Instead of relying on missionaries from America to spread the gospel, we should be raising up missionaries from within Haiti itself. God gave me a vision of training centers to train Haitians to be missionaries to their own people.
A couple months later I shared this vision with Troy Livesay, the missionaries we have been working with in Haiti for some time. I was not sure what he would think as he is a missionary in Haiti. To make a long story short he is completly sold out on the idea, so we started to pray and discern if this was truly the path God wanted us to go. After this summer we had no doubts this was God's will.
So where do we start? The thought of even starting a mission like this is overwhelming. We would need lots of start up money. We would need to find land and build the center and dorms. Where would we do this. Who would run it? How long would it even take to get started? To even think about all this is overwhelming, let alone knowing where to start. Still, we knew this was God's leading so we gave it over to Him.
In October Troy was meeting with Gladys from Caanan. Those of you who have been there with me know it to be an amazing place and Gladys to be a powerful servant of God. In the course of the meeting Gladys told Troy that her dad had started a chain of churches called Ebenezer and that they had the idea of starting a training program for missionaries and pastors, but that it had never taken off, and were now looking for someone with a passion for this to try to start up a training program. Troy had never mentioned our vision to her before, so when he told her we were praying over that exact idea she about fell over and it was obvious it was a God ordained connection.
A few months went by and nothing happened so we were both sort of wondering what was going on, but then a couple of weeks ago Gladys was married to Henri (also from Cannan ) and invited Troy and Tara. Because the family was here for the wedding they decided to go look at the property a few days later. The property is in Petit Guave, about 1 hour south of PAP. Troy called me that night overwhelmed at how awesome the property was. There were still some questions whether the family would allow us to use the property, what they would let us use it for if they did, and many other questions. Still, it was amazing to see things seemingly unfold before our eyes.
We set up a meeting for today to go look at the property again with Gladys so we could look at it, and also sit down with her and talk about the vision, and see what she was thinking. I took a lot of pictures and will have Brenda put them up tommorrow. The property, though, is perfect. The "house" could not be set up better for dorms, but also can easily be used for a team house. It is steps from the ocean on a quiet street. There is an awesome gathering place that will be perfect for worship services and group meetings. It has a large yard with plenty of places to pray and meditate.
After looking at the house, we sat down with Gladys to talk about the plans. We were not sure what she was thinking, and did not want to "steamroll" our vision to her. Within 30 seconds though we knew, again, that it was a Holy Spirit meeting as she started sharing what she would like to see happen with the place, which was EXACTLY what the vision was that God gave us. We just kept shaking our heads at how God was orchestrating all of this. Our passion is to see people sold out for Jesus Christ, forsaking all for Him, with a passion for the lost. People that are not concerned about material things, but seeing the Kingdom of God advanced in Haiti, who are self supporting, relying on God for their needs, and not the white missionary.
When the question was asked how much money will be needed to use the property, the answer was, " I don't think any of us are thinking about charging". Also we were given permission to take stay there with teams, and Gladys even offered to have her kids from cannan interpert for us!
After we left the house we went over to the church. The place is HUGE. To give you an idea they used to worship there with 1000 people. Again, a perfect place for a training center. Also, perfect for VBS. The town is beautiful. The people walk by and don't stare, the kids say hi and walk on. It is clean and peaceful. Absolutly amazing.
So Gladys is having a meeting with her board on Saturday where she is presenting this to them, but she said she is basicly in charge, so let's go! She wants to know when we can start, and the sooner the better! Here is one more cool thing. Yesterday Troy and I sat down to talk about team trips and do some visioning for the mission. We were not planning on doing this, but we ended up coming up with a questionaire for pastors. So at the meeting Gladys said " you know if you had a questionaire I could show the board Saturday that would be great". Well, we just happen to. God is SO great.
Okay, I know this is a book already, and I have left SO much out, but what I really want to enphasize is this. It does not matter if you know what you are doing, if you have the funding, or the ability to accomplish a task. What does matter is knowing that God has called you to it. Be sure of what God wants you to do, then trust that HE will provide the means to accomplish it. Faith is not knowing how something will be accomplished. Faith is knowing God is calling you to something that you cannot do without Him, and moving forward in that knowledge so that HE recieved the glory when HE accomplishes it. I would like to take this opportunity to praise Him, because ONLY He is worthy. He is mighty in deed. All glory to His holy name!!

Nate's day

Nate and Troy spent some of the morning doing some plumbing and they also looked at a possible mission house/ ministry center house today that is for sale. Needs a lot of work but we thought it might be awesome to rent/buy a house for the mission needs in Port instead of giving the money elsewhere.

They spent a good part of the day getting things planned out and discussing what will need to be done. I believe it went really, really well.

As you know Mari is our prayer warrior this week (I should say one of many, but she was actually asked to pray specifically for our trip for the whole week) She emailed us at one point and asked what we had done that day around 9:20-9:30am. She said she had the urge that she needed to pray right then and had a few things that came to mind. Well we pieced it together and that was EXACTLY the same time that they were looking at the training center/ministry center!!! How cool is that! I love how the Lord works!!

It has been a really good day. We had a lot of fun just playing with the kids tonight and hanging out this evening! Jeronne makes the best beans and rice EVER!! Troy has also introduced us to the bread store right across the street. We have had that for lunch. I have had a LOT of bread in my lifetime and this is the BEST (I MEAN BEST) I have ever had!!! Okay to Amy, Diane, Tori and Tammy - I have not done my best since finding this bread but I guess its only for a week!!! LOL

Heartline Woman's ministry

http://heartlineministries.org
Today I was able to go with Tara to help out at Heartline Woman's ministry! It was a fun day. On Tuesday they work with the new moms. Today we did Hemoglobin tests on the woman and that it was I helped with. They also have a really neat sewing program and they sew purse that you can purchase. The purses are beautiful!!! On Thursday's they work with the woman that are pregnant and do check ups. I believe that I will get to help out that day as well. This ministry is run by John and Beth Mchoul. I had heard a lot about them through Troy and Tara and it was joy to get to meet them this trip and spend time with Beth.

This little baby was only 3#.

Today in Haiti

Just some fun pictures from the day!!!!

This is Jeronne!! She is so sweet!!!!

Nate took this picture last night. Too funny!! We don't talk we just facebook each other while sitting at the same table!!!

This is where I usually sit and do my blogging!!

Tipap for Tiffany

Here is your video.

Methodist mission house

This is 2nd house we looked at. This is the methodist mission house.
For some reason Nate did not take as many pictures here.

Pictures of Wall's mission house

This was the first mission house that we visited.

day one accomplishments

Hi everyone- This will be one of the rare times that I will post on this blog. Brenda wanted me to share what is going on from my perspective so I will, but I am going to write it more as a jounal for me so I can keep track of things when we return.
Our two objectives for this trip were to 1. plan for future team trips and 2. figure out logistics for "inside out" the GFA type mission we hope to see started here in the near future. It already seems though that these two objectives are linked closely together. I'll exlplain later.
First we visited heartline ministries, which I am very impressed with. There is a lot of team type stuff we could do there and I may even start integrateing teams together so we can put peple to work that want to do physical things, and others doing the evangelism stuff that so many are excited about. On our walk back from heartline we walked with a girl who is here for adoption. She came to Haiti when she was in school and it changed her life. Last year she went to Lifelines on a team trip and ended up in the adoption process. On the walk she was asking me about leading team trips. She said she has a lot of people asking about coming here so she is thinking about leading trips. Here is why this is cool. Recently, God has been bringing people together with this passion. They want to lead trips not only to help people here, but to wake up the chruch at home. One of my frustrations of leading trips is that we spend a week here and then go home. The next week another team might come with totaly different ideas and perspectives so there is no continuity with the teams. My hope would be to link teams up with the same vision and beliefs and build on each others trips and relationships so that we are all working together. I am starting to see how this is all starting to fall into place. Longterm would be the possibility of renting a full time team house together as a "base".
We also spent some time looking at guest houses. I felt like I was in the middle of an episode of "house hunters" The first place we looked at was in the middle of town, in a very busy, loud area. There were three buildings. The pool house, main house, and the villa. This place is $30 per night, they have great common areas, including a rooftop area with great views of the city and mountains. The bedrooms were nice, but a little dirty, and the whole place had more of a hotel feel.
The second place we went to was the methodist guest house. This is a place recommended by Lynda varner, another great "team" person God had brought into our lives recently. I actually have this place booked for this summer. This place is down an alley so is much quieter. It has a nice pool and a nice common area outside and in. The sleeping quaters are not as nice though, more beds per room, and they are bunk beds so less comfortable. This place is $50 a night, but with three meals a day instead of 2. The positive of this place is that it is run by a
GREAT lady named Donnette who is bubbly and very likable. They pride in making it a family atmosphere, which will be nice for those of us who have been spoiled by the Lifeline accomodations. There are no views here though and it is more money, so I have some praying to do.
Here is the part where it all comes together though. Wednsday we will be traveling to Petit Guave to look at the facilities where we hope to start "inside out". I saw on the website that this place had a house there so I asked Donnette about it. She kind of hesitated, then laughed and said, " well they do, but I have a house there as well that I would like to rent out that might interest you". So as we talked more we found out it is walking distance from the facilities. It sounds like a perfect set up. "God type perfect" actually. So Wednsday we will be looking at these facilities as well. Already things are falling into place. Very exciting.

I hope this was not all random. If it does not make sense, you'll have to wait until we get home and I'm sure we will have much more to share. I'll have Brenda put some pictures up of the houses. We agree which way we are leaning, but things might change after Wed. sooooooo keep praying and we'll see what God has in store!

Pictures of our day!!

This was really neat but I forgot to change the picture.

This is Kim and Frankie! I had been reading Kim's blog for awhile now and I was able to meet her yesterday and today!!! That was pretty cool!!!

Today we visited two baby homes called that is affiliated with Heartline missions.

They are beautiful and very well run. The kids are wonderful and very well taken care of. The homes were clean and even smelled good!!!

I have lots more pictures to upload but for it is taking so long so I will have to do this in shifts or I will be on the computer more than anything else while here!!

I think I will have Nate write about seeing the mission houses today.

Getting a little tired.

Tori and Tiffany - Tipap says hello. I took a video of him today that I will try to upload soon.

Hi kids!! Love you!! Write us!!! Loved seeing the pictures of you on Tiffany's blog!!!

500th post from Haiti!!!!

After a fitful night we flew into Port-au-Prince at 12:30pm! It was a very smooth flight and was only 1 1/2 hours long. It went by so fast!!

Troy and Tara picked us up at the airport and we went right to John and Beth Mchoul's for a wonderful lunch!! I also met two adoptive mom's whose blogs I read. That was really neat for me. The kids they are adopting are adorable. If you read Lori and Lecia's blog from Cazale we were able to meet their dad Zach. He is a very nice guy and a little crazy!! Troy will be putting up a video on his blog soon of something he did while we were at Heartline!

Right now we are hanging out and relaxing. I will try to post what we do each day. We do not have a set schedule and I have not taken any pictures yet. Hopefully that will start tomorrow!

Nate is feeling okay off and on. Its hard for me to explain what is happening but its his stomach.

Praying tonight for a good nights sleep!!!

Thanks for the prayers! We are really feeling them.

The weather here is awesome!! It is so beautiful. Nice breeze. I cannot hardly imagine snow back home!!

Nikolas, Katie, Heather, Hannah and Caleb we love you! I wish I could take this warm weather back to you guys!! Be good!

Tiffany its crazy for me to be here and you not be here with me!!!

I just found out that Issac does not like certain words! If you want me to explain it to you then email me!! LOL


Until later!!!

Spending the night in the Miami Airport.

I knew that spending the night in the Miami airport would be tough. I didn't realize just how tough it would REALLY be. It was freezing, the floor is really hard, nothing is open, the tv's were blaring really loudly and could not be turned down and the cleaning people were yelling and talking in spanish. Not a lot of sleep for me. I have my diet coke now (caffinated) so that is helping!

Keep Nate in your prayers. He has not been feeling good since Friday. He took a couple of tylenol pm last night and slept on the hard floor but I know that was not good for him. Why do hotel rooms have to cost so much! :) we are keeping him medicated. Hard to say if its physical or spirtual so please pray against both!! :)

Our next flight leaves at 10:30am and we should arrive in Haiti at 12:30pm.

Kim, this laptop has been a LIFESAVER to me!! Thank you for letting me take it. I seriously do not know what I would have done without it last night. I watched the amazing race, and found some older shows from my past that I had fun watching!! WIFI was my best friend last night!!

They have a smoking area here in the middle of the airport that is actually an atrium outside. Its kind of cool when no one is smoking out there. We went out there this morning and I couldn't believe that I was actually outside. It was pretty nice. Cool but not winter cold.

I will write more later.

At the aiport

I LOVE WIFI!!!

Nathan and I are sitting at the airport waiting for our Chicago flight! It is 2:55pm.

I figured the airport would be busier today but its not busy at all. Kind of nice.

Hi Tiffany, Nikolas, Ekaterina, Heather, Hannah and Caleb! I miss you guys already!!!

I will check in again later!!!

Tomorrow -Haiti

I cannot believe that tomorrow we will be leaving for Haiti!! I am SO excited for this trip and to see what God does while we are there!!! Thank you all for the prayers! They are VERY much appreciated and I know will be felt!!!

This week!

Sunday was an awesome day for Nate and I!! Not only were we commissioned for our upcoming trip to Haiti, our good friend, Diane, helped arranged it so a bunch of our really good friends from the Haitian church in Grand Rapids were there to surprise us!! It was SO awesome!! To be able to worship with them and our home church was just incredible!!! Like a little taste of Heaven!!!!

I thought I would post our flights here as I know some of you like to be able to put in the flight numbers too see if we have landed yet or not or if we are delayed.

Jan 24th

4194
Leave GR at 4:40pm
Arrive Chicago at 4:50pm

1940
Leave Chicago at 8:05pm
Arrive Miami at 11:59pm

Jan 25th
1291
Leave Miami at 10:20am
Arrive PAP at 12:20pm

Jan 31st
1908
Leave PAP at 5:10pm
Arrive Miami at 7:20pm

1724
Leave Miami at 9:15pm
Arrive Dallas at 11:25pm

Feb 1st
3693
Leave Dallas 11:40am
Arrive GR at 3:05pm

As you can see we have some good layovers!! I have a laptop that I am bringing that has WIFI so I should be able to post things from the airport!

I will be posting about our trip on Facebook and on this blog!!!

We also found out last night that our really good friend from Church, Mari, is going to be our trip prayer warrior!!! She will specifically be praying for our mission trip while we are gone!!! This is SO awesome!!! Thank you, Mari!!!

Please pray for our trip, our children, and Tiffany (she will be staying with our kids)!

Hard to believe that we are only about 3 1/2 days away from going. There seems to be so much to do! Thanks to all of you who volunteered your help this week with my kids in case they need something!!

My Great Nephew Kellen Tasker

Grandpa Ed , Kellen and London








Carrie, Brandon and Kellen

Happy De-Lurking week!

I heard from my friend Mari That is is Happy de-lurking week!! So come out and say hi this week! I would LOVE to hear from you!!!

On another great note we are only 8 days from warmer weather!!! After all the snow last night I can say I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!

Remodel

As you know we had some water damage in our great room that we are getting fixed. It is amazing how that always turns into doing the next room and the next and so one!! It took us about 1 1/2 weeks to get all the wallpaper off the dining room and the hallway. A few of the kids had a lot of fun taking the wallpaper off.





(above) Nate starting to paint. (above) This is the red that we chose.
(below) This is the finished wall!! I love it!! It turned out so good!! We chose a coffee color for the hallway and the rest of the dining room.
This turned out really well too. These rooms looks so different and so
much better!
.It did not show up so good so I guess you will all just have to come visit and see the real thing!!

Weight Loss

Most of you that know me know I want to lose weight very badly. Our church has started a Biggest loser group at church. I think that is an awesome idea but I am not able to make those meetings so our wonderful homegroup is starting something too to help keep us accountable!! We have great accountability and one of the ladies in our group has come up with a cool point system to keep us even more accountable!!! The coolest thing is that this will be kept Christ centered. I can only do this through Christ so it would make sense that we would give all the Glory where it due!!

I started on Wednesday (I waited until the day after my birthday) and as of this morning I am down 3.5 pounds! Yeah!! The cool thing this time around is I do not feel hungry! That in itself is a huge blessing!!

I am insulin resistant so I need to cut out sugar and other carbs. The first few days are the worst and then you do not crave it anymore!! The hardest part is when I usually have to bring my own food when I go to people's house. So if I am at your house and you make something please do NOT feel offended if I do not eat it. I do not mean to make you feel bad it just I might not be able to eat it!! Its NOT a diet it the way I have to eat.

I am writing this here so that all of YOU can help to keep me accountable too!! There will be a few exceptions as when I am in Haiti I am not sure how to eat but I figure I will walk more there and sweat it off!! LOL However I will do my best and God will help me there too!!!

What happened the year I was born!! 38 years ago today!! January 6th!!

I thought this was cute! I found it on Mari's blog.

In 1971 (the year you were born)

Richard Nixon is president of the US Charles Manson and 3 of his followers are convicted of multiple counts of first-degree murder An earthquake in California's San Fernando Valley kills 64 people New York Times begins publication of classified Pentagon papers on US involvement in Vietnam The $70 million Kennedy Center opens in Washington, DC A four day revolt at New York's Attica state prison ends after being stormed by 1000 state troopers A new stock-market index called the Nasdaq debuts Walt Disney World opens Intel releases world's first microprocessor, the 4004 Ray Tomlinson sends the first e-mail Libertarian party established in USA Kid Rock, Denise Richards, Sean Astin, Winona Ryder, and Ricky Martin are born Pittsburgh Pirates win the World Series Baltimore Colts win Superbowl V Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is published The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour premieres on television "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon & Garfunkel wins Grammy for song of the year All in the Family premieres

What Happened the Year You Were Born?