Ansanm Anko

We are finally “Ansanm anko”! It has been wonderful to be “together again” in Haiti after multiple canceled trips or having to travel separately due to many factors the past year.  Elisabeth and I have big smiles on our faces as we travel down our road to our Haiti life and ministry.  All you see and read is accomplished because we have a God who loves and cares and God’s people love, care and invest in people around the world.  It is a blessing and a privilege to partner with you in Haiti and around the world. 

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Reunion Ayiti!

My prayer for this Haiti trip has been that my coming will be an encouragement to our Haitian ministry partners and the few expats and missionary friends still here who are unable to leave. Yet it is I who have been encouraged. Haitian ministry partners who have lived with our family in Haiti, that God gave us the privilege to mentor from young adulthood are now mature leaders ministering in their communities, “steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord their labor is not in vain.” There is much fruit in the ministry because of the way they lead by example and love their neighbors. Our oldest daughter Elita and I have been visiting several Haitian families in our Kofael and school programs and checking on the progress of sponsored children at their various schools. We feel very safe in the area where we are currently but appreciate prayers for traveling mercies and protection as we travel the dangerous road back to and from Port au Prince. Armed gangs are still attempting to run the country of Haiti using fear tactics, violence, kidnappings, and road closures since the lack of government with the President’s assassination last year. We are taking every precaution and trusting our sovereign God as we continue to love and serve the people of Haiti. 

As I look around, I see a lot of new construction even though gas stations and grocery stores have very little on the shelves.Life goes on and families build homes. Haitians first build a strong wall around their property before building the house. I see many new walls going up all over.I think of Psalm 48:13-14 and pray this over Haiti. “Take note of the fortified walls and tour all the citadels, that you may describe them to future generations. For that is what God is like. He is our God forever and ever, and he will guide us until we die. “

Upon arriving in Haiti, I was able to meet with KOFAEL directors Jovanie, Cyntia, and Roselie who live in the Port au Prince area.
Thankful for these three who keep things running and personally minister to the KOFAEL Haiti ladies. I am thankful for the privilege of equipping and encouraging these faithful ministry leaders alongside our (still currently stateside) Haitian leaders Frantz and Julienne.
Roselie traveled home with us as we needed her assistance with a few things and the meeting for the KOFAEL branch in Saint Marc she directs was scheduled for that week. We meet at the home of Figaro and his wife Nancy who assist KOFAEL meetings and facilitate the school sponsored kids program and tutoring center in the neighborhood. I am so thankful for how they serve their neighbors and work as unto the Lord even during the hardest seasons.
KOFAEL women lining up to receive and pay their small business loans at the monthly meeting I was able to attend in March.
Elita had a great time playing with the kids at the schools we were able to visit while checking on our mission’s sponsored kids.
Roseland and Alimonika are sponsored for school through Heart of God Haiti. The majority of kids sponsored for school are thankfully in areas that have been able to stay open this school year. School=HOPE in the midst of continuous hardships.
Elita and I were able to visit many families such as Elphina’s. Three of the families we visited have new additions since the last time I saw them!
While visiting one of the schools to check on sponsored kids, a girl named Marie ran up to me squealing “Madam Eric!” She was very little when Eric helped get her to the hospital for an emergency tonsillectomy after she was brought to our door barely able to breathe. She used to be afraid of me because she thought I was responsible for the pain she felt after surgery when I insisted on bringing her liquid diet restrictions because her family was trying to force spaghetti and bean sauce as that’s all they had. She was all smiles when she saw me this time! Seeing Marie reminded me of the many stories like hers only the God Who Sees could orchestrate like a well full of water appearing in the desert.
Markendale is another of those stories (along with his mom and brother). Because of the relationships built with his family that started with a surgery, we also get to watch little brother David grow up (I was given the privilege of naming him David and did so because he is the 8th boy born in this family)!
Remember Ricardo? Many of our friends have prayed for the children I have shared about over the years who have severe hydrocephalus. Ricardo is a survivor and is now eight years old! It was so wonderful to see Ricardo and his mom Alicia at their home and visit his siblings who are sponsored at their schools.
Then there are the ones that are hearts are heavy for always with groanings too deep for words. She is smiling here because she has a sweet bond with Elita, but please pray with us over precious  “Da-da”. It was an answered prayer for Elita and I to find her home and to spend even a short time letting her know she is loved.
The special highlight of my trip was seeing our god-daughter Elisabeth Erica who ran to me and surprisingly knew me as if I had seen her every day.
My delightfully spunky and very verbal “Sabet Erica” insisted to everyone that she was leaving with me. So she joined the Saint Marc KOFAEL directors and I for lunch at a nearby restaurant. We had a first together when I got to show her how to use an actual flushing toilet and wash her hands with running water. She was very pleased with her herself, her gatorade, and the big meal she mostly saved to take back to her family.
We were able to treat our dear friends Roselie and Genise (and her daughter) each to dinner and a night at a hotel. Since we had the unavoidable expense of booking a hotel for security reasons and covid testing coming in and out of Haiti, we decided to share the gift of fellowship and a good night’s sleep with our Haiti sisters.
It always seems I’m scrounging for metal art to bring back at the last minute and dear O always delivers despite many obstacles and staying up all night to finish my order. He and his amazing artisan business partners have suffered unimaginable traumas and loss this past year. Here he is smiling for the picture but being with him felt like a room full of strangling grief. Perhaps you have a piece of metal art made by his hands? If so please pray for him and his artisan friends whenever you see that metal art. And if anyone wants to help me in encouraging and supporting him further, I still have some metal art I just brought back that I need to sell.
Our friend and ministry partner was so proud to show me the progress on the home he is building for his family and future ministry. If the funding comes to help complete this home, we would eliminate the need for one of the buildings we currently have to renew rent on each year.
I have watched this grandma work so hard for so many years to give future generations a chance. She is understandably weary as each day seems harder than the day before with no end in sight for her many children and grandchildren.
The “kitchen” where several of our school sponsored kids cook their meals outside their one room homes. The rising prices of everything make it difficult to have the means to cook much at all. There is only so much we can do to help with continuous needs that are ever before us. I am thankful to trust the God Who Sees each need and is Our Provider.
Roselie and Elita soaking in Haiti’s beauty after a day sitting with so much broken.
After a long absence away, it was nice to see we are not forgotten.  Even the goats remembered my voice and still wanted to walk with me! Someone recently asked what we do with the goats. Eric answered that I keep them as “trauma therapy” which was thought to be a joke at first. But it is no joke. There is hardly a day one can live in Haiti without acquiring more trauma. Goats in bowties that walk alongside you after a hard Haiti day helps lift the heavy. Those who live nearby tell me how much they look forward to seeing my goats that always bring a smile no matter how hard the day! I keep six special-to- me-goats as “smile” pets. New offspring are sold to keep the herd down to a manageable size and the sales money used to buy food for the pets. The same goes for our many rabbits!
For those of you who follow Kanna-the goat who started it all- she is still kicking and loving life!
Doesn’t seeing sweet Darlin’ make you smile?
Haitian sunsets are the best and I didn’t want this one to end. But Lord willing, I won’t be gone as long this time as Eric and I plan to spend much of the summer in Haiti.
I always look down and pray over the dangerous roads and millions of lives unable to cross to a safer place where there might exist a day without trauma.
We hit the ground running the day after we came back with our Haitian coffee and metal art! Pictured is most of our stateside team at our April mission KOFAEL fundraiser. Now that Covid restrictions are lifting we are hoping to have at least one event or speaking engagement per month when we are not able to be in Haiti.

Thank you to everyone who has supported  and prayed for us and for our dear Haiti. We are not permitted to give our travel details ahead of time and due to the shifting security situation, we have to be very flexible with plans. Therefore, updates will often happen after the fact. Please know that although there is sometimes a lack of public communication, we are still working and privately communicating with supporting churches, donors and sponsors. We love you and the privilege to pray for you too!

By Grace Alone,

Elisabeth

 

God With Us as 2021 comes to an end…

Rejoicing with our friends around the world as we celebrate our Savior’s birth and the start of a new year to serve Him! Jesus came down to earth during a difficult time of government mandates and political turmoil. He had to flee his birth country at a young age due to threats on his life. Families were separated. Life as Joseph and Mary once knew it had been turned upside down. God led a desperate family to a lowly stable where the Son was born to save a desperate world. That first Christmas feels closer to us than ever before. Christmas is not about whether there are gifts under the tree or if family is with us. Christmas is about the Gift of God with Us in the midst of difficult circumstances. This is our Hope and Joy!

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And Let Us Not Grow Weary…

Dear Friends and Family,

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! We trust He is keeping you in perfect peace as your minds are fixed on our Everlasting Rock during this time of shifting sands in this fallen world.
Our hearts hurt for the state of our world. Our adopted country Haiti is constantly in our hearts, prayers, and efforts. Haiti is hurting in every way. When we think things could not possibly get worse, they do. The COVID pandemic has only been a small factor making travel and our work in Haiti more difficult. While we are not currently able to be on the ground in Haiti full time, we are thankful for the six trips our Lord has graciously granted us to make safely in the past year even with the pandemic and a Level 4 “Do not travel” warnings to Haiti regularly sent to our inbox.

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And Then…It’s December 1st!

The end of 2020 is both slowly and swiftly drawing near. When I think about this year, I realize it echoes the way I felt about our first year in Haiti. A collision of strange new experiences, new perspectives on the way we see the world, heartbreakingly sad and hard to stomach moments that turn into months, and yet somehow the sweetest of memories have been made in the midst of it all. Here we are at the beginning of the last month of the year and the masks don’t seem to be coming off anytime soon. I remember when the manifestations started in Haiti a few years ago. Not the typical pop up strikes, riots and natural disasters that Haiti–and eventually we—have become accustomed to. This was different. This wasn’t going away. It changed the way we operated on nearly a daily basis. It changed relationships. It changed the way we saw Haiti. At first, we thought the instability and unrest would last a few weeks at most. Surely, that’s all we could imagine most people could survive on their own, cut off from resources and relationships. And then, another year passed. And another—2020. It seems the rest of the world now echoes many of the same thoughts and feelings we have experienced the past few years.

“…And then, just when everything is bearing down on us to such an extent that we can scarcely withstand it, the Christmas message comes to tell us that all our ideas are wrong, and that what we take to be evil and dark is really good and light because it comes from God. Our eyes are at fault, that is all. God is in the manger, wealth in poverty, light in darkness, succor in abandonment. No evil can befall us; whatever men may do to us, they cannot but serve the God who is secretly revealed as love and rules the world and our lives.”― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas

How wonderful to love and serve the God Who rules this broken world and our lives! To sit with the paradox, to trust that all the things we didn’t see coming and couldn’t imagine are not actually spinning out of control. To hold loosely all that is not eternal. Like our dear friend Eleanor who served in Haiti for over seventy years and recently met Jesus always used to say, “Oh how thankful we are that we don’t hold You but that You hold us!” He holds us still. Looking back, we see how He has prepared us, protected us, loved us, restored us in hope, held us through and through. God is holding little Haiti and the rest of the weary world too. It’s going to be okay.

We are so thankful for all God is doing through this pandemic year both in our hearts and the Kingdom work around the world. We are so thankful for our friends, family, and churches who have continued to support the work of the ministry even during tough times and frugal finances. We are blessed to be able to continue ministering in Haiti and continuing to develop and pursue how to get the gospel to those globally who still have never heard about God with Us.

Although Haiti closed its borders for most of the summer, we have been able to make multiple trips since then. Our daughter Esmée and I made a trip together in August, Eric and my brother Jonathan in October, and Eric and I made a recent trip together in November. The ministries in Haiti continue even when we are not able to be there physically and are going well under the leadership of our Haitian partners whom we communicate with almost daily. This month we won’t be going to Haiti but are looking forward to hosting our Haitian ministry partners for three weeks over the holidays at our Texas home! We are excited to spend time with them in prayer and planning for the new year ahead!

Elisabeth with a new believer in Christ we have been loving on the past five years! She named her daughter “Elisabeth Erica”. The relationships God has built are so precious to us!
KOFAEL ladies receiving school supplies for their kids to give them a little extra help in this season.
One of the school sponsored children learning to write!
The Osier family we are hosting for three weeks in December/January!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for praying for our family. We are all still adjusting to new normal but feel like we are finally coming up for air. Except for Eric who is honestly working way too many side-hustle jobs at the moment in between trips to Haiti. I am very thankful for his willingness to work so hard to support his family (we really needed better insurance for our kid’s medical needs along with the finances it takes to live in two places) and praying he can get more rest soon.

The fluctuating currency exchange rate in Haiti has made everything there much more expensive the past few months making life even more difficult for our Haitian friends and ministries we serve. Our KOFAEL women’s ministry has struggled to continue to pay health insurance and help as many families as possible in the crippling economy, school sponsorships for the most vulnerable children have been raised but are not covering all they used to, rents are due and rising. And when all these things seem overwhelming, we are often presented with new ministry opportunities that tug on our hearts and just need a little financial help to reach many. We would love to share more about the ministries God has blessed us with the burden to serve. Please always feel free to contact us and ask if you have any questions and would like to get involved!

One of the new ministry opportunities!

Today marks the first day of the last month of 2020. This December 1st just happens to be designated Giving Tuesday AND is also my birthday! I would love to be able to finish out the year in hope that we can continue to serve well in the year to come. Here are some of the things on my personal prayer/wish list.

-We really want to make this Christmas special for the Haitian family of four coming from Haiti to celebrate our Savior’s birth with us. We still need $1,000 to cover their trip costs.

-We are currently in the process of trying to secure a new rental building that will serve as a tutoring and Good News Club center for school sponsored kids as well as a regular meeting place for our KOFAEL ladies. The cost for the yearly rent and furnishing/supply items we will need to purchase is $2,000.

-We assist in providing health insurance for the KOFAEL ladies along with the Haitian directors and families and two other rental properties that hold families together and host ministries which are all coming due in January. We need around $4,000 to cover these things.

-And lastly, one other wish is to provide the gift of a special, traditional New Year’s day meal for all those we love and have the privilege to serve in Haiti. Haitian’s always serve Soup Joumou which is their “freedom soup” on January 1st. I would love to be able to give this gift as a reminder and testimony of the freedom we have in Christ that nothing in this broken world can take away!

If you would like to help with any of the year end gifts listed above, there are tax deductible options to donate at: kofael.org

If you would like to help us personally continue to be able to travel and work in Haiti and around the world, there are tax deductible options to donate at: reamteaminternational.org/donate

I also have a limited amount of Haitian hand made metal art Christmas items to sell to help raise money for the needs and wishes listed above. Please let me know if you are interested in purchasing beautiful gifts from Haiti that give back this year!

Grateful for the greatest gift of God With Us! Looking forward with hope to the next “And then…”,

Elisabeth