June 7 2010

I have to go back a long way. How I wish I could have done this in Haiti.

We went to Lighthouse in the morning. Nate preached his sermon on Isaiah 6. I love this sermon. I really makes things make sense!

After saying some hard goodbyes, we loaded up in the van to head to Detroit for a 1:30 flight. Thank you Mike, Diane and Tori for bringing us!

This was the first time we had flown Spirit Airlines. The flight was very smooth but of course no drinks. The kids hated that but the flight was cheap so we could not complain! We flew in Ft. Lauderdale on time and knew we had to spend the night on the airport floor. Not a fun time but we made it through just fine. The next morning our flight was to take off around 7am. We were at our gate and they started boarding the plane. A few minutes later we heard that there was a delay. We then heard there was another delay. After awhile they took off the passengers that had already boarded and told us the flight was now canceled because of the pilot. We thought that was kind of strange but no more info. We gathered our things and went to change our tickets. Wow! The Haitians were causing a riot. It was scary and they had to call in security. The kids were a little nervous to say the least. We just told them we were going to remain calm and that God would take care of us. It was our turn at the window and we gave them our info. They gave us some food vouchers, a hotel voucher and a taxi voucher but told us they did not know our flight situation yet. It could be that day or two days from now. After a few hours they called Nate back up to the window and they told them they could get some of us out that day and some of us out the next day. They had all but Nikolas on one flight. Needless to say that was not going to happen. I was not about the send Nikolas off alone. Finally they had Nate, Wilson and Heather on Insul air and the rest of us on American. We flew into Haiti one hour apart. It was not my first choice but again God took great care of us. We were able to spend a great day at a very nice hotel in Ft. Lauderdale. Kids were able to go swimming and we ate some good food. The next morning early we took 3 different cabs to Miami Airport and then separated ways. I kept saying a little prayer that an angel would be on the otherside of passport in Port-au-prince to help with our luggage and the kids. I knew we could do it but I was not sure about customs and how it was working at that time. We flew in and went through passport control just fine. The only glitch is that the passport guy took my customs form and told me to go on Tiffanys. Needless to say I was not sure how that would work as mine claimed 6 of us and hers claimed 0. He told us no problem. I trusted God would make it okay. The most wonderful thing is on the other side of passport control I could see Nate's head gathering our suitcases. There was a young man at the airport, Alexei, who was able to get Nate into the secure area to help us. How I thanked the Lord over and over for my angel and my protection! We went through customs no questions asked and were on our way to Petiti Goave. It was a long, long ride and every mile devestated my heart further and we saw more and more destruction.

Haiti

I am trying to get the pictures off of my phone but so far my phone and my computer are not cooperating. Hopefully I can share our journey soon.

This summer was truly watching God at work. He taught our family so much. Some of it looked just like it does here at home. I still had to be a mom and a wife. I still had to do laundry, clean, make sure the children behaved and make sure that I was everything God would want me to be while I was in Haiti.

I needed to be respectful of my surroundings and let nothing that I did effect the mission. We knew that no matter what the mission had to come first. Not our comforts or what we wanted in the flesh, but what was important to the mission. At times we had to make decisions that would not make others happy but it had to be done because of the mission that was going on around us. Satan wanted to try everything to break this mission down and he knew that the kingdom was advancing there and wanted it to end.

One of the things I want to write about in my first blog post was about something called Integrity. It has become something very important to me.

The definition of Integrity is this:

integrity

in·teg·ri·ty

 /ɪnˈtɛgrɪti/ Show Spelled[in-teg-ri-tee]

–noun

1.

adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.

One tough thing about being on the mission field for longer than a week is you really get to know people and those you are serving. Some of what we saw brought us great sadness. Some of what we saw brought us great joy.

I have learned that I value honesty so much. I value people who are willing to admit to having problems and are willing to submit to those in Authority and work through those problems not just bury them. If you cannot have that you have to look hard at yourself and who you are as a christian. This is what Christ asks us to do. We ALL need to be refined. It is a process. However a huge thing is being able to admit it when you do something wrong and you work on fixing the problems. Some of the pastors we were working with did not have integrity. We had to sit them down and talk to them. What we found encouraged us. After wards they showed us great respect and even called us as we were leaving crying very hard because we had to go home. They were willing to admit to their sins and work on what was wrong. God called us to make some tough decisions and they HURT! They HURT bad. It is hard to do the right thing.

We all have problems. Certainly I do to. It is how we act with those problems and what we do with them that shows our character.

My kids learned this this summer as well. This summer was a huge learning experience for them. We grew so close as a family. Now that we are home they do not want to lose that closeness. We are probably going to step back somewhat from some things we are doing and spend time as a family.

Now you might think that our summer was not good. It was the opposite! It was an awesome summer. We went down specifically to do the discipleship training. We did get that done. We at first did it with 5 of us and because of time issues it ended up with just Pastor Marc and Nate.

What else was wonderful is that thanks to Paige and the Livesay family, we were able to put up 26 houses plus build one more house for John McHoul, for a family through Heartline ministries.

We were able to hire 10 people. 5 on a construction crew and 5 that worked on putting in the cement floors. They grew to form great friendships and a lot of laughter is occurring while they are putting up these houses. We may have the opportunity to put up some more. If you want to know how to be involved with the school or housing please email us. telltheworld5@gmail.com

Nate and I had the honor of standing up in the wedding of Jean Rene. He became a Christian during the first part of our summer and soon became our head construction guy and a great friend.

We were able to visit many tent cities and bring bibles and proclaimers. We saw the Haitian pastors lead many people to Christ and we knew follow up is going on and they are being discipled. Praise God.

We also were able to host 6 teams. It was not easy. There was no privacy. We enjoyed most of the people that came through and it made us realize why teams are a part of the mission and how important they can be. It made us realize just how short a week was. It also gave us a GREAT RESPECT for missionaries that are on the field all the time. We get them now. We understand why they do things the way they do. We understand why at times they have to be hard. We love how they are REAL! Troy and Tara you are real. We love your family and what you are doing with all our hearts. You understand what needs to be done and why its not always easy do it.

The hardest thing we struggled with was a vehicle. There were times we had something to drive but most time we spend a ton of money on tap taps and things like that to get us around. If a team was not there at times we were stuck at the mission.

We know someone that has a vehicle fund started for us so if interested in learning how to donate to that again please email us.

This summer was huge in learning how to do thing and learning how not to do things. We had to do some things that were not popular but Christ does not ask us to do things that are popular. He just asks us to be obedient to him and follow him only. We can say 100% that we did that.

We do not know what the future holds at this point. We only know we want to continue to be obedient.

Thanks for all the prayers, all the financial support and all the love. We cannot do any of this without all of you!! A huge thanks to Melissa for her time at our house and with our dog. We could NOT have done this without you!!

It was great having friends at the end to help us come home. They understood how hard it was for us to leave and also understood the excitement we also felt in knowing we were coming home. It felt twisted. I think it will always feel that way. With God in the lead it will be OKAY!