Each one of these events deserves its own post and my attempt at backtracking isn’t going to do justice. But since there is pretty much never a dull moment at the Haiti Hospitality House…
During our stateside visit (see Catching Up Part 1) over the Christmas holiday we received a message from our friends, housemates and ministry partners The Carroll Crew back in Haiti. The Carroll’s had been sharing our house since May 2015 as they transitioned their family to a new area, new school and teaching position and sought where God would lead them next. We are happy God has led them to stick around near us! They wrote us to tell us thank you for sharing our house and that while they were looking for a space to rent that would serve as a dental clinic (a ministry that Jennifer Carroll has begun for the children and schools in our village), they also unexpectedly found another house suitable for their family! We were so excited for them and to hear that the house they found for their family is still very close to us! Their new house was still under construction so they were not sure exactly when they would be able to move. However, they thought their new house would be ready by the time our January/February mission teams arrived so the teams could stay with us instead of the somewhat sketchy hotel we had arranged which wasn’t logistically feasible. Our teams were thrilled about this news which would also make their trips more affordable and more money could then go towards ministry. All that is easier said than done however. Moving is a lot of work. When the Carroll’s moved in with six people and a lot of stuff, we had to move all our guest bedroom and guest kitchen items upstairs with us or just get rid of stuff to make space for everyone. So as the Carroll’s moved out the shifting of stuff started all over again. We were still moving stuff over to the Carroll’s new house, shifting furniture and putting together some newly purchased beds the night before the Bethany team of thirteen arrived. The house was ready and the fridge was stocked! Whew!
It feels like we are always trying to catch up. We are a few months behind so will start where we left off. We came back to Haiti in January and hit the ground running. Leaving our family members behind is always hard. It is not just a sacrifice for us. Grandparents, aunties, uncles, and cousins don’t get the time they always dreamed they would have with our children as they grow up. Both sides of our sweet family are very supportive of our missionary lives even though watching us leave is hard on them too.
We are so thankful for each of you that helped us accomplish incredible things in Haiti this year! We have one more week for giving in 2015! We ask that you would prayerfully consider sending a year end donation to help us get closer to meeting our budgeted goals for this year. Any amount helps us reach our personal budget and ministry goals. Thank you to all of our friends, family, and supporting churches that have faithfully supported us through prayer and financial support this year!
Our biggest personal upcoming financial need is the $8,000 yearly rent due on our Haiti Hospitality House. This is due in April. It is difficult to save up this amount when we are not able to meet our minimum budget. We currently are now meeting 68% of our personal family budget to live and serve in Haiti. We are very encouraged as God has brought us many new partners this year! God has always provided what we need and we are blessed to continue to serve with the resources with which we have been entrusted. Thanks again to our ministry partnership team! If you would like to join us in giving as 2015 comes to an end we would love to share our hearts for ministry and answer any questions you may have.
Please read about the ministries you help support by supporting us! You can also listen as our Executive Director of Heart of God Haiti shares in depth about our ministries HERE as well!
The following are ministries we are privileged to work with directly in Haiti. We have included the financial ministry goals that we need to help meet in the upcoming year. If you would like to give toward any of these specific needs you may do so through our mission Heart of God Haiti and write what you are giving towards in the notes/memo section.
(Montrouis International Fellowship)
Eric enjoys serving as one of the elders at MIF.
Our children on a Sunday morning in front of our church building at MIF.
Church building – $2000/year
Gas for generator -$20/month
Maintenance Paint – $500
Total = $2,740/year
El Shaddai Learning Center School
Our four children attend this school where Eric has served as the volunteer principal for 3 years for over 100 students Pre-K through 12th grade. (Eric receives no salary as the school runs on a very low budget, but our children do attend free of charge which helps our budget).Eric sharing ESLC’s theme that God gave Gary Walker (the school’s founder) for this school year, “I am again in pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you (Gal 4:19).A future student who recently trusted Christ as his Savior.God uses us to share Him with others. Recently our daughter Esmée led her schoolmate to Scriptures sharing how she can know Christ as her Savior. Heaven rejoiced as she did!Another girl’s life recently changed for eternity. We praise God for forming Christ in us!
We would like to put an enclosure (safety net) over an open second story to create a playground area (23ft x 36ft x 20ft) as currently the kids have no other space to play at the school.
Total for net is $1,000 + 150 shipping to Haiti ($1,150)
School sponsorships for local Haitian students from poor families ($80 per month/per student to attend ESLC Christian English school)
Several of the Kofael women in front of the new Port au Prince Kofael meeting house with our Haitian directors, their daughter and Elisabeth.Thank you to everyone who came together quickly to help us rent this house when we unexpectedly lost our former Kofael meeting house in August. The new location is home to our Haitian Kofael directors Frantz and Julienne and their baby Jo as well as the interview/meeting/classes location of Port au Prince KOFAEL. We also have a guest room that sleeps 5 set aside for our Kofael partners wishing to visit and help serve!
Kofael House Rent (partial/50% shared responsibility)- $3000/year (due Oct. 2016)
Snacks/drinks for monthly meetings and special events – $250/year
New Office Computer – $250
Printer Ink – $125
Medical Insurance for ladies (50%) – $375/month to help an estimated 75 women in the next year (20 currently enrolled and paying the other 50%)
Part-time Salary for a new KOFAEL group Haitian Director-$150/month
*Kofael loans have already been raised for a new group of 25 women! We are just praying for a godly, trustworthy Haitian director in the new area in order to begin!
Total = $15,925/year
*To read more about this program and/or donate directly to KOFAEL (also tax deductible through Heart of God) just click HERE.
Heart of God Haiti Children’s Center in Godet
Heart of God Haiti sponsored kids at the center
Our mission’s center is located in the rural mountains of Haiti which is a 5-6 hour round trip drive from our home in St. Marc.
Church and Children’s Center
Transportation and lodging for us to commute part time and oversee/accomplish our mission’s current needs for the children and workers (a responsibility we share with our housemates/ministry partners so we often take turns traveling). – $300/month.
Total for our personal travel expenses to work on goals in the best interest of the staff and children on a consistent basis this next year = $3,600/year
New Ministries Currently in Progress
Training Haitian Pastor’s/Planting House Churches
We recently attended a wonderful Leadership Conference for Pastors and Teachers! A big THANK YOU to Louie Constantino and his small group in Kansas who worked hard to send us and our Haitian leaders to this two day/overnight conference!
Literacy Program Supplies- $150/year
Learning to read and write is a luxury in Haiti.
ESL Classes
New Area Kofael Group (need $150/mo. for new Haitian director)
School Sponsorships (helping Haitian families keep kids in school)
We love that many children from our neighborhood love to come play at our house. This has opened doors for us to get to know them and their families and identify/work towards the best ways to help them. These boys were not able to attend school a few weeks ago but are now back in school thanks to sponsors!This is one family we have been getting to know. Mom would like to do community service (in lieu of a handout) so that her kids will see she has contributed to their school fees with dignity. Mom and Aunt are also excited to attend the upcoming literacy classes!8 children including Nahum and his 3 siblings are back in school thanks to willing sponsors! They attend the Baptist School in our neighborhood. We still need a few more sponsors for more children.
We love connecting sponsors personally with kids and families that we know as we watch their lives and understand their needs first hand. This is a great privilege and joy to see how God brings people together across the world to meet the needs of others and answer prayers in many different ways.
One of our friends has sponsored this sweet family from our neighborhood and has researched and found doctors trying to help with a lifesaving surgery for their daughter. Please pray for this family as they face many difficult obstacles. It has been an honor to pray with them and see their daughter smile again.Last year at this time many responded to help Djo’s kids. This year a friend helped with backpacks and school supplies. Djo’s family is doing well and has been able to add on/repair their house more this year!
Thank you for caring! Thank you for helping us serve! Thank you for making a difference and giving hope to Haitian families!
Eric will be a hosting a group for the tour and leading an extension mission trip. If you would like to join us the cost is $4,600/person (partnering with Heart of God Israel and World of the Bible Ministries – 10 day tour with Dr. Randall Price and 2 day extension trip with Heart of God’s ministry to drug addicts and prostitutes). You can join the World of the Bible tour (plug for Dad who leads this awesome tour-and this will be his 100th trip to Israel!) without joining the Heart of God Israel team as well. Here is the link to view the info and itinerary for just the tour. http://www.worldofthebible.com/IsraelTours.htm
If you are interested in the Heart of God Israel extended mission trip led by Eric just ask for details! You will be shocked, encouraged and challenged to pray for Israel and for the freedom of many who are in bondage.
We know our crazy lives are hard to keep up with but thank you for trying! We always want to know how we can pray and serve your family as well! Our family and friends mean the world to us! Please keep in touch in 2016!
The week before last we watched our children share the gospel with their friends and classmates in Haiti and rejoiced with them as some of their friends are beginning to understand the gift of salvation better. One trusted in Jesus Christ alone to save her!
This past week we have been watching our four children make their Christmas gift giving choices after arriving stateside in the land of too many options and after repeatedly promising that this year we would not be helping them purchase their gifts. As a result they are learning that spending their own hard earned money on thoughtful gifts for others is not as easy as they thought (especially when they see how many things the stores have to offer that they could spend on themselves instead). We have heard statements like, “What if they don’t even like it?”, “What if I don’t get anything as nice in return?” Basically, “What’s in it for me?” We felt it necessary to sit down as a family and introduce a movie that would explain why we’ve been calling our children “Scrooges” this past week and search our hearts as to why we are often tempted to hold back when we have been given so much.
The classic movie based on Dickens book, A Christmas Carol, takes Ebenezer Scrooge through his life lived in the past, the present and future. This unique opportunity gave Scrooge a look from the outside in and revolutionized his life and actions from that day forward. His attitude toward giving changed drastically after seeing how his stinginess not only affected his personal life but others as well.
How much are we willing to give? As we give gifts to our loved ones this Christmas let us think about the ultimate gift, the gift of Jesus, that has been given to us. Are we stingy Scrooges with this gift? Do we primarily share Jesus only when we feel secure in our relationships because we don’t want to harm the relationship? Or do we only share with people whom we have no relationship with because we feel it can’t do any harm? Are we more concerned with how sharing and investing in another will affect us or how it will affect another person if we don’t share? Where do you stand? If you know the Messiah are you holding back from sharing him with those who might not know him? You can start now. Don’t wait for a Scrooge like experience to shake you. If you don’t know Jesus Christ personally, there is no better time than today to find out what he has done, is doing, and will do for you if you place your trust in him!
We can learn from Scrooge in many humbling aspects of our lives. Take a moment and reflect on your past. Do you remember the moment you knew you were separated from God and without hope in this world? Do you remember the moment that someone shared the good news of Jesus Christ with you and the immediate hope and confidence that resonated in your heart? Through your trust in Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection on your behalf you now have forgiveness of sin, have received the Holy Spirit and have an eternal home in the presence of Jesus Christ1
Reflect on your present. How are your friends and family, coworkers, neighbors and the world impacted by your life? Are you living and sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with this world? We have a perfect opportunity to share the hope that is within us and offer the best present in the world – Jesus Christ and him crucified, resurrected and coming again!
The gospel future would significantly impact our present if we had a glimpse of the faces we love in their future eternal homes (heaven or hell). Pray today that God will give you an opportunity to share the hope within you with someone who is without hope in this present world. As we reflect on the first Christmas past, how that has changed our present lives and has given us hope for the future, may it revolutionize our life and actions from this day forward.
For a child is born to us, a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His government and its peace
will never end.
He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David
for all eternity.
The passionate commitment of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!
-Isaiah 9:6-7
Thank you for partnering with us and praying with us as we pray for you also to have more opportunities to share the best gift of all-JESUS! Merry Christmas!
*In case you didn’t know the Ream Team is currently traveling stateside in IL, and TX, for the holidays. We are excited to see family and friends, speak at one of our partnering churches and get ready for Elisabeth’s sister’s wedding January 10th! We return to Haiti January 13th!
I used to have a hard time playing the glad game on Sunday. There were a few things I could find to be glad about Sunday but for the most part my feelings would join Pollyanna when she said, “Well at least we can be glad because it will be a whole week before Sunday comes around again!”
Truthfully most of the time I didn’t want Sunday to come around again. I know that sounds awful especially in light of the fact that my family has served in some capacity of ministry in nearly every church I have ever been to in my entire life. Prior to moving to Haiti church had mostly been anything but a Sun-day for me. It was typically a Stress-day for our family. My father served as a pastor from my K-12th grade years. Stressful preparations, stressful people to deal with, stressful (often unreasonable) expectations, stressed parents and stressed kids. We occasionally made time for some fun days but they were not on Sunday and recovery time from Sunday to Sunday usually left room for little else. I had a 4 year break in college when I went to church (most of the time) and enjoyed it because it was totally my free choice to get up and go and worship, learn and fellowship and that was fun. Then I married a pastor and for 12 years prior to moving to Haiti our Sunday’s were always full. Certainly there were fun moments with joyful celebrations of lives changed. Yet typically Sundays were full of stress. Please don’t get me wrong as this is not a bash the church blog. I love the Church. We chose this kind of stress and we loved the reasons for the stress which were the people we love. It was not bad. But it was not always good. Sometimes the things we experienced in church just made us so sad. When you serve in ministry inside a church it is often almost impossible to share the sad part of your own struggles with nearly anyone there. You often have the privilege to help sad and struggling people, but rare are the times you can struggle openly. You know things about many people but very few know many things about you. At least it felt like that to me the majority of my life. Sunday was rarely a family day after marriage and kids. It was hard to find another day that was. I can remember very few times over 12 years that I even got to sit with my husband in church because he was too busy serving others or because I was busy taking care of little ones in the nursery. It is very easy for me to understand why so many people get completely disillusioned with church. Especially those who spend a good deal of time serving. We loved serving and don’t regret it. I just regret that I didn’t find ways to enjoy Sunday much more.
The thing about Haiti is that it is pretty difficult NOT to share your struggles. The struggles are evident. Just getting places is a struggle and the sadness you see along the way is real and heavy and a burden you can’t bear alone. Even though everyone has different stories we all have felt this sadness. Everyone needs a Sun-day and we don’t want to wait a whole week for it to come around!
Sunday is now a day I usually really look forward to each week! I’m so thankful for our sun filled Sundays! We are thankful for the doors that have opened for us to serve the body of Christ in Haiti with Montrouis International Fellowship for the past two years. This fellowship travels from several areas over rocky, sometimes flooded, sometimes hostile area roads to come together on Sundays to be together. We come from several different denominational backgrounds. That is sometimes interesting, sometimes hard, but mostly a refreshing teeny taste of what Heaven will be like. It isn’t about going to church. We have not even formally called ourselves a church. It isn’t perfect. There are still unmet expectations. There are still stressful preparations and people like us that inflict much stress upon ourselves and others. I’m still perpetually late to church even though I love it. I love it because it is just a bunch of broken people getting together in a broken place. We are a hot mess and I haven’t met anyone yet who pretends to have it all together. We just enjoy being a hot mess together. Our stories are different and the same. We have this Hope that brought us to this place and Who we are trusting to get us through another week until our next Sun-day. Sunday should have always been a Son-day. But how often do we not make it about Him, the One Who invented Sunday in the first place, at all?
Do you enjoy Sunday or is it stealing your joy? What can you do differently right where you are to light up your world?
This is what our Montrouis International Fellowship 3rd Sunday beach church communion service looks like. I love it that what you can’t see in this picture are all the little children sitting in the middle beyond those chairs. I know their parents sometimes long for a nursery but I love them being there and just sharing our Sun-day all together! Special thanks to our friends Matt and Sarah Rideout with Chadasha for opening up this property for our 3rd Sun-day (and other times our families need another dose).
