Sak Pase? What’s happening?
We’ve been getting this question a lot lately so figured it is about time we share an update with everyone. We are truly hanging out all over the place and I’m getting over a bad case of jet lag but I’ll do my best to dish out the scoop as it stands.
Where in the World is the Ream Team?
I’m currently writing from Texas where the kids and I have landed for a short stint. We made our way to Texas in shifts around the end of May. Traveling from Haiti, Eric parted with myself, Esmée, Ethan and Evan in Florida to attend our oldest daughter’s Discipleship Training Course ceremony that took place at YWAM Orlando. Elita had just returned from her two month mission in Indonesia. I picked up Elita in Texas the day after her graduation while Eric stayed in Florida to visit and share with those we love at Bethany (one of our supporting churches) there. Eric joined up with our family in Texas and we got to spend four days as a whole family again after not seeing Elita for five months. The enjoyment of our reunion was cut a bit short by all the run around trying to get ready for the next trips, unpacking and repacking and getting the girls set up and off to spend the summer away from us. We are definitely in a season of change and the challenges that come navigating these seasons with all our growing up kids.
Elita and Esmée are both currently working on the summer staff at Alto Frio Camp in Leakey, TX. The girls get room and board included and are enjoying making new friends in a sweet environment where they work really hard earning a paycheck. Esmée had a great experience working there last summer and wanted to sign up again. I’m told they are both loving their summer at Alto Frio and are a huge blessing there! They will finish up and we get the girls back in mid August.
Ethan also scored a summer job starting the day after he turned fifteen! He is now working at Schlitterbahn Water Park and Resort as a lifeguard. He will also be getting his driving permit next week, taking drivers ed classes and catching up on his Algebra lessons the remainder of his summer. The older three kids having jobs and acquiring permits and driving lessons in the state we still have residency are the reason we need to be in Texas a bit this summer. It’s a great excuse to also spend time with family and dear friends here! We haven’t been able to do much of that yet but we are still hoping time doesn’t get away from us to do so!
The boys and I just returned from Israel where we enjoyed ten days with my parents and brother, two Haiti missionary friends and a lifelong ministry friend who Eric worked with in Fiji many years ago. We also loved getting to know and fellowship with the other forty people on our tour bus! My parents have led over one hundred tours to Israel (where I lived as a young child) and we have been blessed to get to join them on a few of these tours. Our goal in going (besides that we just love Israel so much) is to learn the ropes behind the scenes and be of assistance to my aging parents as needed in their ministry which also fits in nicely with ours. We love sharing the World of the Bible and are hoping to be able share Israel with the Haitian pastors Eric has worked with in Haiti over the years. You are always welcome to join us (or just my parents and the World of the Bible group if we can’t be there) next year in Jerusalem! You can check it out here if interested! https://www.worldofthebible.com/israel-tours/
Eric has continued on with my parents tour traveling in Greece. He will head back solo to Israel this week to stay with and be an encouragement to the Messianic Jewish missionaries and their outreach ministries we have worked with in the past affiliated with our mission organization. Eric will be back in Texas for our July 4th family reunion, re-coop from traveling a bit, a speaking engagement at a church and then we head back to Haiti mid July with just our youngest son Evan. Speaking of Evan, he has recently celebrated his thirteenth birthday with a bar mitzvah in Israel and had such a blast being there with his family and the whole tour group. Evan is our social butterfly everywhere who loves everyone and has a heart for ministry at a young age. His eyes are an issue of concern as his eyelids are continuing to droop making it difficult for Evan to see well (aside from appearance issues that are starting to bother him as he hits his teenage years). We are still seeing many different specialist doctors stateside regarding the underlying rare condition/cause and trying to figure out the best way to help Evan. We would appreciate continued prayers in that regard. We go to the geneticist appointment on Monday and that’s the last one on the list for awhile unless another operation needs to happen sooner.
We will only be in Haiti for two weeks before returning to Texas to reunite with our older three kids, connecting with our support team, and preparing to take our first real furlough. We were stateside for five months back in 2014 while waiting on our youngest adopted daughter’s US immigration paperwork and passport to be completed but other than that have only made short, necessary trips back and forth the past eight years. I have personally struggled and fought even the idea of being away from Haiti for a longer period. But we have been praying over this upcoming furlough for a year now and have peace that we really need to take this time. We do not have a home in the USA. Our home is in Haiti and for now the Lord has led us to keep it that way. My parents who have room for us at their home in Lynchburg, Virginia have graciously agreed to let us live with them during our furlough which will take place over the next school year. There are great options for our kids in Lynchburg, a Haitian student community we plan to be involved with and it is really the only affordable option for us at this time since we are trying to keep our home, Haitian staff, ministries and pets alive and running while we are stateside. Haiti is a difficult place to leave and not come back to a disaster within a few weeks of absence. We certainly don’t need things to get any more difficult on the Haiti end. Therefore, Eric and I plan to return to Haiti to check on things and encourage our Haitian leaders (who are capable of doing a great job continuing the ministry) and church family there every few months even while on furlough. Our decision to be in Virginia also has to do with the fact that we can leave our kids with family when we need to travel back and forth from Haiti giving the kids a more stable situation they desperately need in this chapter of their lives.
One of the things preventing us from being able to make a definitive decision sooner is that we were praying for the provision of someone to be able to commit to stay and hold down the fort at our home in Haiti for the long haul of our furlough. This was a big ask considering the past year’s tumultuous situation with countrywide shut downs and a “Do Not Travel” Level 4 security warning issued by the American Embassy. We prayed that perhaps our Haiti home located in a fairly safe area could provide sanctuary for a missionary already in Haiti and continue to be a blessing to others. When we left a month ago we were still waiting on an answer to this prayer. Now, we don’t have just one person but three (including one tiny little girl waiting on a life saving medical visa that could use your prayers)! We are believing in hope that our Haiti home will be an answer to their prayers for provision as well!
What in the World is Happening in Haiti?
Oh Haiti. How can I explain you? I love Haiti so much and my heart is there with your people. I have a tendency to romanticize all the things I love about you because you are so strong and beautiful and you shouldn’t have survived but you have. This is why I love Israel so very much too. Recently being in Israel among her people reminded me that God is always in the process of fulfilling His plan and keeping His promises even when all seems lost and impossible. We get to know God’s plan for Israel by reading the promises He has been faithful to in His Word. But we don’t know what’s in store for the country of Haiti. We just know that right now things are harder than ever. It’s been harder than ever for nearly a year now. Life feels truly impossible for the Haitian people and there is no end in sight. There hasn’t been a recent natural disaster bringing international aid, no outside war coming in. Just Haiti facing Haiti and fighting the failing system that has kept her perpetually broken. It is a deep rooted, centuries long, complicated struggle for daily survival. The political and economic climate continues to deteriorate spirits and hope is declining by the day. I keep thinking about what my Haitian friends always say no matter how impossible life feels, “Tout bagay anfom… ak Jezi!” Everything is alright… with Jesus! This is still true because nothing is impossible with God. I often wonder how the Jews living in impossible concentration camp conditions were able to muster enough hope to keep going. There comes a point of suffering when the only hope you can muster is an eternal hope–if you hold that perspective and conviction. I think this is the point where many in Haiti are right now.
The political situation in Haiti took a turn for the worse last July with country wide shut downs that have continued sporadically throughout the year causing a wave of instability that has kept everyone walking on eggshells and has threatened progress. The month of February was a living nightmare for most of the country. We live in a remote and safer area and yet were unable to leave our immediate neighborhood for nearly three weeks like the majority of the country due to the violent road blocks everywhere. We evacuated our Haitian directors and their children due to the unsafe situation they were experiencing and they spent some time in New York at our mission’s US headquarters. Nearly all of the expats and missionaries we know were airlifted out of Haiti.
We had to assess daily whether it was wise to stay or best for at least the kids and I to leave by boat and then helicopter. We are still so thankful we were able to stay. However, not having any outlets other than a yard full of pets, schoolwork on computers at home, little to no internet, no friendships for our kids, canceled church and other social engagements (because no one could get there) living in constant emergency mode, seeing extremely hard and traumatic things day in and out, dealing with the usual sweaty and physically exhausting demands of daily life in Haiti while trying to keep up and help our Haitian friends through the past year has taken its toll. We are thankful we were in a position to stay but are in need of rest, refueling our spirits and to be honest some professional counseling for our whole family. We have tried to remain fully stocked up on fuel, water sources, and food at all times to be able to stay and share with those in need around us–an expensive necessary precaution. This has taken a big toll on our budget and emergency savings which are now depleted. All of this has taken a big toll on our hearts. One of the most difficult things for us as missionaries and parents is being torn between our dual callings of ministry to others and ministry to our family. Raising healthy young adults who have hopes and dreams and needs that can’t exactly just be explored inside the walls of our Haiti house is a dilemma we have faced more than ever the past year. Our kids love Haiti and love our home there. But they also really want to experience other things. They want to learn to drive on a road that isn’t already trying to kill them. They want to work, earn money and figure out what they are good at besides assisting their parents in our ministry and taking care of goats. They would be happy to work and go to school (or a home school co-op) in Haiti if there were any options toward that end where we live for the older three. There aren’t. They would like to have friends and a church youth group or Bible study would be a real plus. Our oldest three have had NONE of these things and have been sweet and understanding about it. We are hoping and praying this year will be different for our kids sake. Eric and I are doing our best to be faithful to our callings on the mission field and to our family in this crazy season of uncontrollable chaos in Haiti and the confusion that comes with teenage hormones; helping them to adult well and follow God’s leading in their own lives. Our girls are now eighteen and twenty years old. Unless the Lord leads them otherwise between now and then, we don’t think they will be coming back to Haiti with us after furlough. One reason we have been planning and praying to be able to take this furlough even before Haiti took a turn for the worse is simply that we want to be physically present to help our girls through their transitions to living in America–their passport country but they have never actually lived there and don’t actually know how! We have watched several missionary families with Third Culture Kids go through this and have read books and asked those with experience for wisdom as we navigate these new waters with our kids. We gladly accept all the wisdom, support and prayers! Those who support us financially or for those considering, we are praying our furlough time does not drop our financial missions support as we need to be able to replenish emergency savings, keep things running in Haiti (Haitian families we employ for various things depend on this money to feed their families), travel back and forth to Haiti and still take care of our family. If you would like to help us meet some of our current travel and furlough needs with a one time donation or monthly you can do that here:
http://reamteaminternational.org/donate/
A year ago our hopes for Haiti were high. We had seen slow but steady movement in her development over the past five years. Tourism was up. I even led a group on a “Haitian Vacation” and showed them many of the ways Haiti was moving forward and how to support her continued progress. A year later Haiti was no longer taking steps forward but tragically seems to have taken at least one hundred steps back. The Haitian gourde (currency) has dropped more than half its value since when we moved to Haiti–and that was shortly after the fifth most devastating earthquake in recorded history. When we moved to Haiti eight years ago 1,000 gourdes was the equivalent of $25. Today 1,000 gourdes equals $10.75. This has caused prices to go up on almost everything while there are even fewer jobs and for those who find work the meager pay has not met the inflation demands. Most Haitians were living on one meal a day before. Now merely trying to live has become unbearable for the greater majority of the Haitian people. It is hard to remain hopeful. Yet God has continually reminded me that He didn’t send and keep us in Haiti the past eight years just to see progress but to see people. Progress is great. Sustainability is desirable. But these things can always change in a moment anywhere and will pass away eventually no matter what. It is people who are eternal! I’m so thankful He has allowed us to hold hands with the Haitian people during such a time as this. The ministries we have been blessed with to Haitian Pastors, leaders, moms, kids and leading our international church have continued despite the instability all around us. Because these ministries see the people and meet them where they are, just as they are. Like Jesus does. He is our hope and salvation. We will continue to trust Him no matter what happens with Haiti.
One of my jobs in Haiti is helping Haitian families stay together by keeping their kids in school through school sponsorships. Things were thankfully calm enough in Haiti to allow us to complete all the preliminary groundwork before leaving Haiti last month. I am now working on the stateside fundraising part of this job (while there is an abundance of good internet at my fingertips) so that when we return to Haiti in July I can pay the schools directly for the seventy-five kids on our lists to be enrolled another year. I know I’ve said it before but in case you haven’t heard. Did you know the number one reason Haitian children with parents end up in orphanages (that separate them from their families) is simply because families cannot afford schooling for their children? Several of the children we know would have ended up at an orphanage if they had not received help to go to school. One of my greatest hopes is to see the orphanage era end in Haiti. There are many positive changes beginning to unfold toward this end, but there is still a very long road ahead. Haiti has a severe orphanage crisis (not an orphan crisis as many are led to believe) and the devastating cycle will never stop unless preventative measures are taken to protect this generation of kids–meaning people (sadly these “people” are mostly American funding churches) must stop building more orphanages (which is now actually illegal) and kids stop being sent to orphanages who would take a child in for a $300 per month sponsorship when all that child really needed was $200 or less for the whole year to go to school in their own community and be able to stay at home with their family. This week I’ll be finishing up sending out information to those who have sponsored children for school in the past. If you would like to help in some way, please let me know! Haitian families are struggling more than ever in Haiti and there are no free public schools. This is a big way we can help families stay together while opening a door to share the gospel and encourage them. Below is the link to help with student sponsorship. We always need extra funds beyond individual sponsorships to cover tutoring, field trips, after school parties, special considerations for the harder cases, sometimes food and vitamin supplements for struggling students and school supplies.
http://heartofgodhaiti.org/student-scholarships/
Thank you for loving us and caring about our crazy lives that just keep getting crazier! We love you back!
Sending Double Haitian Kisses and a Big Dose of Hope,
Elisabeth