IMG00139-20100628-1711.jpg

Heather and boss. We realized last night that heather is now taller than me.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

IMG00141-20100628-1712.jpg

Nikolas and teodore. Teodore asked nik to help him learn more English. He already knows quite a bit.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

IMG00147-20100628-1831.jpg

Our good friend Aaron. We had a great time with him in Haiti.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

IMG00149-20100629-0813.jpg

My good friend Eli. (pronounced Ellie). Eli, his wife and baby are getting a Paige house.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

IMG00150-20100629-0813.jpg

Boss is quite the comic. We had a small sewage problem and this is boss after checking it out.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Third week

Hard to believe we are on our third week here. Sorry that I have not written more. It has been hard to blog using the phones Little keyboard. It has been great having the teams here. They have done tons of work. We have really built some good relationships with a few people and can see it will be hard to leave them. tomorrow night is kids club again. This has been tons of fun. Thanks for the prayers. We can feel them surrounding us.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Helping

The Kidd have been taking turns doing dishes.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Soccer

Fun to watch the kids come in and play soccer once the sun goes down. Caleb is right in there with them. Thursday we are planning starting a kids club for 1 hour, twice a week. Looking forward to see how God uses this to reach the kids.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

IMG00040-20100609-1226.jpg

What we do when it rains. My mom bought us the monopoly card game and we love it. We asked pastor mark to play and we were so happy he joined in. He does not speak much english so boss translated for him. We were all laughing so hard. Yesterday we went to a really beautiful white sand beach for hannah's 10th birthday. You have to take a boat, but unlike last time, this is a really nice one. The beach was very clean and my new happy place! Last night we walked tp the park and played with the kids and talked to the adults and boss talked tp the kids and they all want to know more about Jesus! A few of the girls who came to Christ on Tuesday, want to come to church bit said they do not have the right clothes. That is so sad. Jesus wants us, not pie clothes. We decided we are going to try to so some services the park for them. The kids are doing great. They are all so happy they came and making good friends. the relationships are being built and its fun serving others. Days go so fast and I am sorry that this my first blog post. Will try to post more later.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Sitting in MIA waiting for our flight. Was able to meet with @shellystammis and pray with her. Please pray for her today to be able to get to a meeting today about her adoption. What happens will depend on when one of her children will come home. Had a good night last night. Hotel was beautiful with a nice pool. Will write more as I can.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Hannah and her friend last day of school.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Packed and ready

Everything is packed. I cannot believe we got everything in our bags. I really am married to a master packer. Good thing we have 5 teams coming in case I forget anything.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

1 1/2 days til our summer adventure begins!

Sunday around 1pm we leave for Detroit! I cannot believe the time is almost here to us to leave for Haiti. The hardest part will be leaving family and friends. This morning, I thought about the time we spent 6 weeks in Russia away from everyone when we adopted Katie. It was tough being away but the time went so fast. This is this is the first time we have been able to go anywhere with our kids and what a huge blessing that is!

Thank you to all of you for the prayers, financial gifts and just being there for our family! God has put SO many wonderful people in our lives and we could not do this without all of you! God has called us all to play different parts but we are all missionaries!! Our prayer is that we take every bit of ourselves out of this and just let God show us what He wants and not what we may want!

These last few days have been crazy. Trying to fit in last minute visits with family and friends.

Caleb was able to spend Tuesday night with his best friend, Ryan! I love this picture!
The only reason that Caleb is doing so well with leaving Ryan behind is because Ryan goes away camping for the whole summer so they will both be gone!

















Last night was my mom's birthday so we had a fun hot dog cook out with my family. The weather was perfect and we were able to have one last campfire!!

Tonight, Nate's family will be coming for another cook out (may end up inside with these storms coming). I also promised that the kids could have their best friends over tonight for one last sleep over before we go! Call me crazy, but I am looking forward to this!! My kids have some AWESOME friends and I love each of these kids dearly!

We have been planning this mission trip to Haiti since November. I cannot believe it is almost here. I know that the time will go fast there. I pray that each day is used to Glorify the Lord!

We are super excited that we have 5 teams traveling down to be with us. We have people we have never met coming down and we have some close friends coming down and it makes me giddy!! :)

I hope to be able to post to the blog from my phone. They may not be huge posts but I hope to be able to write something.

Nate put this in our church bulletin but I wanted to add it here as well. These are just a few prayer requests for the summer.

We know and appreciate that you will keep us in your prayers while we are gone. We will do our best to keep you updated. If you want to send us an email, we would love that, and will do our best to respond back. Our email is telltheworld5@gmail.com Here are a few specific prayer requests:

• That the curriculum that is taught will take root and that the new Christians will receive the foundation of faith that is so desperately needed.
• That Haiti would be spared from hurricanes this summer.
• That our children will adapt quickly and be bold witnesses for Christ.
• That we would be spared from sickness and harm.
• That the teams that come would be strong ambassadors for Jesus Christ and that they can share hope to those who have none.
• That we would be open to God's leading in all situations and that we see His power displayed in and through us.

We will arrive back home on August 19 with many testimonies and stories to share. Thank you for your prayers and support.

Stories from the Shepherd's heart fundraiser

My Mother in law has written a wonderful book called Stories from the Shepherd's heart. She has finally had it published and we are all excited about it. She tells life lessons that she has learned from her sheep. It is from a Christian perspective.

She wants to badly to do a fundraiser for us. She has given us 10 copies to give away to anyone who donates $50 or more towards are fundraiser.

Checks can be made out to Lighthouse Mission Mobilization with Yonker Haiti trip in the memo line and sent to

Lighthouse Mission Mobilization
5947 Lake Michigan Drive
Allendale, MI 49401

You will get a tax donation letter if you send it this way.

Any questions please email telltheworld5@gmail.com

Where has the time gone

I cannot believe I have not posted anything since January 20th. Time if flying and I can hardly keep up!

In 59 days We leave for Haiti. I can hardly believe how fast this is coming up. Parts of me are ready, parts of me are nowhere near ready to go. However we are thrilled that God has called us to this new adventure with our family and, with our friend, Tiffany. The building you see in the picture is just like the one that was built this last week on the grounds of Ebenezer. In a few weeks a 2nd building will be placed near it. One of them will house our family for the summer and the 2nd one will be used for training. We also received word yesterday that an engineer was hired to look at the mission house on the grounds and we were told that it will be able to stay up. It just needs some big repairs. It seems daunting but I know that God will provide. He has never failed to provide yet and we have no reason to doubt Him.

I have one other HUGE prayer request. One thing that is desperately needed for Ebenezer is a vehicle. I have no doubt again that God will provide us just what we need at the moment we need it.

I am praying that I will be able to blog while down in Haiti. It was hard to know what the trip was going to look like before the earthquake. Now I know even less what it will look like but I cannot wait to see what God does and how he uses each and everyone of us. For those of you who have already donated towards are trip. I cannot say THANK YOU enough!! Thank you for believing in what we are doing and for being excited about Ebenezer! This is God's mission not ours! We just want to continue to be humble servants and to be open to His calling.

No time for blogging

I cannot believe that its been a week since the earthquake hit. My thoughts and feelings are so jumbled but we are leaning on our heavenly Father! I have had so little time to even think about blogging. Every minute is spent on things for Haiti and the kids. Pretty much everything we find out we put on facebook as it seems so much easier right now.

It looks like Nate and a team of medical people will be leaving possibly as early as Monday to try to head down to Petit Goave. There are many many options right now. God already knows what they will be doing and how they will get there. I have seen God work in ways that are incredible. I have seem people come together for a country that is smaller than the state of Maryland. God is our rock and we are resting in Him. Please keep praying for those on the ground already. Troy and Tara, John and Beth, their team of doctors there right now. Pray for my friend Cheryl VanderWell who is in Haiti right now as a nurse at God's littlest Angels orphanage. Pray for the orphans, Pray for the Ebenezer churches. Pray for Nate, Lynda and the team of doctors and nurses, Pray for Lori, Lecia and Zach in Cazale, Pray for all those waiting to bring their children home.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all the support you all have given to our family. It means so much to us!!

Ebenezer is not a building it is the people. Ebenezer will go on! It will look a little bit different but the mission has not changed even if the landscape has.

Heather is learning what Sacrifice means!

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

Merry Christmas from the Yonker

This is my card and letter this year!

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 2^nd 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 2^nd 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 2^nd 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 5^th 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 5^th 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 7^th grade at Baldwin street Middle school.

Nate is still a plumber at Godwin plumbing. He just had his 15^th 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 2^nd 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.

7364 Forestview Dr Hudsonville Mi 49426

Love, The Yonkers

Big things coming!

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!

This is all exciting and scary at the same time.

Casting Crowns - Sing until the whole world hears!