Sept/Oct Update (Reporting on the Summer)

Hello to all of you, my dear friends and family members!

As we enter the fall months, I have been thinking that it was time for a Haiti update, so here it is!

Since I last wrote you, some good ground has been covered in working towards Haiti. I recently was released to begin Partnership Development (PD). PD is the phase of my preparations where I can raise support. Naturally, prayer and relationship building goes hand in hand in the whole process.

So I hope I can still count on you all to pray!

I will be networking to forge new relationships as I figure out what this all will look like, and some other ideas are coming down the pike as well. I am excited for this season of my life, but I am intimidated by it on several levels.

I just want to be a good steward of what I am given, and to be faithful to God's call. But that is a little more difficult in practice I guess, than in theory.

Other than this exciting news, not too much has been new over the summer. I have just been working a lot, and trying to bloom where I am planted, learning all that I can, from work, friendships, and life. I am still hanging out in Forward, the post college gathering of ACCESS218, and at CrossRoad Church.

I am very thankful for new friendships which have grown over the summer with some of the Forward folks. It has been great to have people who are in the same season of life to do life with! They have been more of a God-send than they probably even know.

The summer was not empty of challenges, but God used them to draw me closer to Him, and to make me grow up more. God challenged me in some areas to take new risks, and I was obedient. For one example, God challenged me to open myself up to growing my relationship with my step-family. He asked me to do specific things along the way, which weren't so significant in themselves, but they were HUGE steps of faith and trust for me. And God was faithful; I have no regrets.

Thank you again for your willingness to pray for and with me as I take this journey (both to Haiti, and the longer one of life). I would like to update you on the prayer requests in my last email and share some answers to prayer, as well as share some new prayer requests. Please let me know, too, how I can pray for you! Also, for those of you I don't see that regularly, I'd love to hear how you are doing, and what is new in your life!

Updates on prayer requests:

I am still trying to figure out a job solution...I will go more into this in new prayer requests.

It looks like I will be able to stick with my current living situation (as far as I know). That was uncertain before. Yay God!

Prayer requests:

I am still working at Kumon (tutoring) and subbing, but I am unsure if I should try to pursue anything full time (I have had trouble finding anything). But I may have a new part-time job that will be more consistent than subbing. I will find out in the next week. It would be good for the consistency, but I would be working 2 jobs 5 days a week, and working still at Kumon on Saturday. So pray that I can figure out what is best, so that I can take care of myself, too.

Please continue to pray for spiritual protection. It is amazing what weaknesses you realize you have when working to grow in faith. God is faithful and merciful, but stumbling blocks can come at any time. So please just pray that I would be able to keep relying on God's strength as I run the race before us all. :-)

Pray that, as I begin raising support, that God would lead me to the right places and people at the right time, and that it would help all involved to continue to learn how to be the hands and feet of Jesus on the Earth.

Lastly, please pray for focus as I tackle all of the aspects of this process, and for calmness as I try to keep it in small chunks (not looking at it as an insurmountable mountain). I know that God will give me what I need to do what needs to be done each day. I just need to do my part consistently. So please pray that I can do that.

Praises:

God growing me in Him this summer.

Getting to start Partnership Development.

Growing closer to my family in recent months.

Great friends, new and old!

Again, thank you sooooooooo much for partnering with me in prayer! I value your prayers more than you know! And I hope to, in one form or another, hear from you soon!

Blessings!

Update June 2009

Hi friends and family!

Sorry for the lateness of this update. As you know, we went to Haiti at the end of May. Promptly upon our return, I had some interesting challenges to come around. I am just now finally getting into a routine again (because my job situation shifted as soon as we returned) and I am working on a number of things to get them moving forward.

So the Haiti trip was amazing, as many of you have heard. Here are links to my pictures on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2141139&id=25102982&l=e8b61c5607;

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2141476&id=25102982&l=f79ef3a969

The first one is from our time together as a team, and the second is when I was on my own in Les Cayes (and it was more just fun downtime pictures).

Our time together as the team visiting our sister church in the fishing village of Tiburon was very sweet. We have been visiting once a year since 2002, so it is like visiting family each time we go. I was so glad I was there as we were present for the dedication of the new church sanctuary, and the historic moments as our Pastor Gee, and the Haitian Pastor Lundy, stood together, praying together, before the church, and it felt like our churches were one church with two locations (and they are, as we are all the body of Christ!)

We had good times meeting together with the children, young adults, women, and deacons. We also helped as the Haitian church did two outreach meetings during our time there.

Bringing the message to the ladies went okay for me, even though I was very nervous. I had a great translator, Savana Moses, one of the missionary kids. She is fifteen and very intelligent, talented, and just great to be around. She was a great asset to our team, and felt like one of us.

The team all did such a great job in the areas they were responsible for. All of the meetings went so well. There was also good cohesiveness in the team, and we all worked together well. We all got along well, too. Praise God for unity!

I wanted to especially mention the youth meetings, which Derrick Scott (leader of Access218) had with the young adults, and subsequent meetings with just the leadership. Just seeing the hope that was awakened in these young people as a result of these meetings was worth the whole trip to me. I am excited to see what God does as a result of the seeds planted during our days in Haiti.

Near the close of our trip, I split off from the team for a day to meet with World Team people. I met some great people, and had a meeting with the President of MEBSH, the church organization for the south of Haiti that most of the missionaries do some work with (all of the sister churches are MEBSH churches). He was a kind man, encouraging, yet had worthwhile challenging thoughts he wished to share with me about working in Haiti. When he found out I was from Florida though, he said something along the lines of, "Well the same sun shines on both Florida and Haiti," and I think he is somewhat right about saying the heat is the same, but not comparing Jax to down there...

I had the opportunity to meet with several long term missionaries who have been in Haiti a while, and they were all ever so helpful. I got to ask lots of practical questions, and got really good answers. (And if you know me well, you know that meant more than anything else!) I got a lot of information that I really needed in order to logistically plan to move to Haiti. I also got to hang out at the school with the other teachers, and we were able to brainstorm ideas and otherwise talk shop. I really enjoyed that time with them, and that we were able to be productive, too.

Everyone I met was so welcoming, and I really felt at home. I did get to see Cite Lumiere (the mission center in Les Cayes, where I will be living) as it is more from the insider's view. I was able to begin to discern where I will run into challenges acclimating culturally, which was very interesting for me. But I look forward to the challenge and making the adjustments that must come.

Thank you all, as always, for praying. Once we returned home, one of our team members, Anna, contracted Malaria, but she is doing much better now, thanks to God. The evidence of your prayers was there as we went through the trip.

For this update, here are some current prayer requests and praises:

Praises:

Good productive time in Haiti! (I can't say it enough!)

Jesus has been teaching me a lot lately, and I have been listening. It has been hard, but awesome.

I got a sitting job to supplement Kumon for the summer, and we get along very well.

Finances have been manageable since my return. (That was a huge prayer request before...)

Prayer Requests:

I am trying to discern still whether to seek a teaching job, or just full time office work, for this time before Haiti. There are a lot of factors involved in that, so just pray for wisdom and direction for me in figuring that out.

Please also pray for my living situation. My current place was agreed upon only through August, so I may be looking for new accomodations soon. Pray that I can get some good notice, and that God would work that out if I do have to find a place to live.

Pray for focus and prioritization. There are a lot of little things that I need to do, but they add up and tend to be overwhelming.

Pray for spiritual protection. I have had to deal with a variety of very interesting stuff lately. It has not all been inherently bad, but the timing was strategic enough to make me question whether it was the enemy trying to shake things up. And there have been other things (like my car the day we got back, really?) that were just, come on?! (That one really didn't get to me more than just being annoying, but you get the point.)

Lastly, please just pray that I would be able to work toward all of this, while also being present in serving where I am right now. It is very easy to get sucked into one or the other, and I need to be able to be faithful where I am now, while working toward this other future reality.

Again, again, again, thank you soooooooo much for praying!!!!!! Merci, merci, merci!!!!!!

Please let me know anything that I can be praying for you about. I would be honored to do it!

Here we GO!

Hi friends!

We leave for Haiti tomorrow!!!!

Please pray for our team, and all those we will be with in Haiti...as well as the following....

1. That the rain will STOP and the rivers go down.

2. Good health for the team (at least one still fighting off junk).

3. Travel mercies (including motion sickness...).

4. Friday night, pray for the village of Tiburon (there may be voodoo ceremonies).

5. Pray for each of our meetings...one for Youth/young adults, Ladies, children, deacons, 2 outreaches, Sunday morning.

6. On the ladies meeting, please pray that it allllll comes together. (You can pray that for the others, too, but I am still trying to get ironed out what I am saying at the ladies meeting...)

7. Also, on Wed night and Thurs, please pray for me as I meet many new people in the Cayes missionary community, and have meetings with some of the WorldTeam folks.

You all ROCK! :-) Thank you thank you thank you for all of your prayers!!!!!

Please be praying for our team as we get ready to go...

So we are going to Haiti the 20-29. Here are the team members:

me.

Greg Stritch.

Anna Frederick. 

Derrick Scott.

Matt Landschoot.

Don Cheetam.

Josh Sizemore.

Ashley Tippins.

Perri Bevan.

Debbie Bevan.

Marcus Stouffer.

and Gee Sprague.

PLEASE pray that all stay well. Some have already or are currently fighting off a variety of junk. Just pray for us in general, from now til we get back. Thanks. :-)

Update for April 2009

This whole journey is amazing, and crazy, and humbling, but you might have already figured that... each of our journeys is so. And our great God knows how to lead each of us in a way so that we will follow, and lean on Him.

Here are some Praises and Prayer Requests!


Praises:
I have received my certification from ACSI (Association of Christian Schools Intl)! This was needed so that I could teach in the school in Cayes. It also means that I can teach in any Christian school who accepts their certification...

Things sometimes work a little backwards, but I received my official invite to join WorldTeam's Haiti field. I knew I would be going there, but it is official now. :-)

Thanks to all of you who are willing to pray, I have over 50 prayer supporters now! (WorldTeam had asked me to let them know when I hit that mark, hence its significance.) But considering that I started even asking folks about a month ago, I think that is pretty awesome, and a testament to God's provision for all things!


Prayer Requests:
I will be looking for full time work since it will be about a year until I move to Haiti. And we all know what the job market looks like right now... but working two jobs (though I am thankful for them) has been physically hard to keep up with (to stay well in the process). I would love to use that teaching certificate I now have if God wills it, but I'd be happy in an office job, too. Just please pray that God will lead me right to where I need to be.

Most of you know that I am planning to go to Haiti with CrossRoad Church in May for about a week. This trip will also, near its close, function as what WorldTeam calls my Vision Trip, where I meet with the team members there, and I will also hopefully get to spend some time in my future classroom. Normally I would have to take a separate trip, but thanks to God, the circumstances are such that I will save that extra money and time off from work! (That is a Praise, too!)
However, here is the prayer request. We leave for Haiti May 20, a mere three weeks from today. As of Monday, I had 10% of my support in for the trip. So please pray that God will provide. I know his timing is perfect: never early, never late, always just in time. At the same time, I hate that the status of my account is probably stressing some people out... But God hears our prayers, so please pray that God will work it out! And if you would like to help, great! Let me know! For those of you who are not able to help, I am only asking you to pray, and I thank you for your prayers! And for those of you who have already helped along this journey, all I can say is thank you for sowing into the Kingdom!

Well folks, I hope to see many of you soon (some I know I will see sooner than others...). Blessings, and thank you again for your prayers!
Also, please let me know how I can pray for you! Some of you have already shared some things with me, and I am praying for you. It is the very least that I can do to serve you, and I am honored to do it.