Tracy Robinson Reports on Recent Trip

I had the honor of visiting Haiti for the 5^th time in the past 2 ½ years last week. My decision to go on this particular trip was based on my discussions with Kerry about the condition of the country following the recent devastation, caused by four hurricanes in three weeks. Immediately, God spoke to me with these words, “If your biological brother’s house was destroyed by floods, how long would it take you to go help him? It should be no different when it is your spiritual brother.” Having formed real relationships with the Haitian people over the past few years, I have no doubt that they would rush to my aid if they could.

The main point of going is not feeding starving people. It is much more about bringing hope. The food we delivered will only meet physical needs for a couple weeks. However, the message that Jesus loves you so much that He is choosing people to come to your rescue, to meet your needs, and to answer your prayers, has an eternal effect on the people. Haiti is a place of hopelessness. It is a place where people truly believe that their condition cannot improve because things have always been this way, they seem to be getting worse, and no one seems to care. The simple fact that Americans would leave the greatest country on earth to travel to the least country on earth (which has recently gotten worse) blows the mind of the average Haitian. They want to know why we would do such a thing. So, we tell them. It’s not about us at all. Left to my own, I would much rather lay on the couch and watch football. But when I consider the grace of Jesus Christ that has been freely offered to me in spite of my sin and pride, how can I not get out of my comfort zone and share that grace with others? It is not even a choice. It is simple obedience to Christ’s command.

I cannot pinpoint one event from this trip to highlight. Instead, the week was another fresh reminder of how blessed we are in America, and how much we take our blessings for granted. I am convinced that it is almost impossible for the average American to love the Lord with all his heart because all the other things that we love so much get in the way. How much grief do we go through when our 401k loses money, or when our car stops running, or when the cable TV is out for a day, or if the A/C doesn’t work right, or the water faucet leaks? My frustration over these things is an indicator of my lack of complete reliance on my God. My typical attitude is usually, “I totally trust Jesus as long as my income level is stable, nothing needs to be fixed, and no one is sick.” We live in a money and comfort saturated society, and whether we admit it or not, money controls us.

But for a Haitian, life is completely opposite. The day begins with a search for water. Virtually no one has a well or city water supply. Around 5:00 am, you begin to see Haitian men and women walking with buckets on their heads to find the nearest water supply. Usually, this water comes from a contaminated creek or stream where clothes-washing, bathing, and animal-watering take place upstream. There is no way to sterilize this water, and therefore sickness abounds. Afterward, most people begin to make their way to the streets or markets to sell something. It may be fruit, bread, shoes, old tires, charcoal, contaminated goat meat, or whatever else they may have that could potentially produce some income. They use this meager amount of money to buy food for the family for the day, which typically amounts to one meal of rice and beans. Those who own land may use the rest of the day to cultivate the soil by hand. Then evening comes, and they start over again.

This endless routine of utter survival allows Satan to “steal, kill, and destroy”, eventually causing the people to just give up. I am so excited that Jesus has allowed me to be His hands and feet in Saint-Marc these few years, and has used me to partner with Kerry, Joy, and many others to share the truth that Jesus can bring abundant life even to the darkest corner of the earth. The more we go to Haiti, the more I see hope in the eyes of the pastors and teachers whom we encounter. They are beginning to actually believe that God is interested in providing their needs, and that there may really be hope for their children in Haiti. Most of all, the fact that Kerry and Joy are moving to Haiti brings assurance that we are in this for the long haul.

What they do not totally realize is that they are more of a blessing to us than we could ever be to them. I have learned the majority of what I know about joy, kindness, patience, worship, and faith in the past 2 ½ years. Americans really do not understand what it means to have faith. When I open the cabinet and discover that I have no food, I don’t pray about it. I simply leave my nice house, ride in my nice car, and go to the store to buy food. If a Haitian runs out of food, he typically has no option but to trust that God will sustain him for another day somehow, and then he waits to see the method which God will use, while patiently comforting his hungry family. Scripture tells us that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen. In other words, it is absolute assurance that He will take care of all my needs when I cannot see any possible way out. I must admit that I struggle to open my clenched fist and to give God control.

The opposite of faith is stress. Which do you feel more of these days?

Upcoming Hurricane Relief Trip

We are planning to be in Haiti October 8-13 to deliver over 500 pounds of clothing and pots along with over 5 tons of rice and beans we will be buying once we arrive. Haiti is still in a state of emergency as they try to recover from the devastating flooding that took place there almost a month ago. We will be delivering rice and beans, clothing, soap, and household items to over 1000 families in and around the St. Marc area.

The 8 churches we work with were spared in the storms with only minimal damage but many members of the congregations and the schools lost everything. We will be working with the churches to evaluate the need and the possibilities to administer help for rebuilding over the months to come.

Please be in prayer for us. Many roads, including one of the main bridges between St. Marc and PAP, are still not passable. Be praying for our traveling as well as safety as we try to distribute food in desperate situations without any type of formal oversight from a police force or the like.

We will also be stopping by House of Bread to visit with the boys and the staff there. I am looking forward to the other guys on the team seeing our future home. Fortunately, pastor Jim and Mrs. Gayle Durham are here in the states and doing well. They will be returning to House of Bread in a few more weeks.

Thank you so much for all of you that have donated to make this trip and the distributions possible. It is always sweet to see people allowing God to use them to demonstrate His love.

I will post pictures and give a full report when we return.

Be praying for Joy as she continues to take care of the kids. Our 4 month old that we are trying to adopt spent a couple of days in the hospital this week with respiratory problems. He is doing better but needs your prayers. Joy also needs your prayers as she has not had a peaceful night of sleep in months due to his special needs. We also want everyone to pray that God will allow the adoptions to be completed quickly. We can see God's hand moving in that area so clearly.

Anyone that wants to donate for the upcoming trip can still do so by mailing a check to the address in the previous post or by donating online by clicking the link to the right.

A Desperate Situation in Haiti

As most of you have heard, Haiti was hit really hard by 4 consecutive hurricanes. For a nation that is already desperate, the hit of extreme flooding and mudslides is catastrophic.

Haiti only has 10% of the rivers that it had just 20 years ago. The other 90% have been filled in by silt due to erosion from cutting down all of the trees on the mountains. That means that just a handfull of rivers have to drain the entire nation. So when the hurricanes continued to dump rain for weeks, the rivers became torrents ripping through villages and destroying everything in their paths.

There are reports from missionaries we know there of having to pull the bodies of babies and children from the mud of the rivers as the water receeds. These babies have been washed down from other villages and will have to have mass memorial services because they do not know who the children belong to. It is a very sad and tragic time. It is estimated that almost 1 million people's homes have been flooded.

We are planning a trip in 3 weeks to take clothes, pots and pans, and rice to distribute to the people in the St. Marc area. Anyone that wishes to contribute can send a donation to:

New Vision Ministries

6941 Bakers Mountain Rd.

Hickory, NC 28602

We leave on October 8 so any donations need to be recieved prior to that so they can be used for the materials. 100% of all money given will go directly to buy rice or pay for the transport of the clothes and utensils.

Thank you so much for your help in this urgent matter. We know God will bless you for your support.

(the pictures provided by a missionary from MAF of the village of Hinche)

Reeves family update:

We have had pastor Cesar with us this week from Haiti. It has been a huge blessing as always. He reported to us that the 8 churches and schools we work with have made it through the storms but he will not know the extent of the damage until he gets back to Haiti.

House of Bread orphanage made it through and all of the children as well as the workers are okay.

We are still waiting on the adoption process. We wish we were there to minister to the people during this tough time. I am grateful to get to make this trip in a few weeks to deliver aide and let the people know that we love them.

Please keep us and all of Haiti in your prayers.

Kerry

What a Great Trip to Haiti

What a GREAT trip! We had a great trip to Haiti. It was just Joy and I. Bob and Shelley Benfield and their family split the time with my sister and her family house and baby sitting for us. THANKS a million you guys. We could not have made this trip without you! It is a shame too because they all looked forward to enjoying the kids playing in the pool but about an hour before we left to go we had a flood and it filled the pool with mud, debris, lawn furniture, mulch, and leaves. It was overflowing and looked like a pond. The flood caused the drainage ditch from the pasture to overflow and it is a total mess. Even after a week it is not very much better. So needless to say the house sitters did not get to even swim... so we doubled their pay!

It was great to get to the orphanage and meet the Durhams and the boys and Rochelle. The picture above is of the boys and Rochelle. The home is beautiful and a great set up. Our apartment which is the penthouse suite is perfect for our family. We are sectioning off the living room to make the girls a room and the boys will use our closet/storage room for their bedroom. It is going to be a perfect cozy setup for us. God has really opened up doors and blessed us already more than we would have imagined to begin with.

There are also 6 rooms with 2 twin beds each for missions teams to come down and stay in. We also have a place right there for the eye clinic and there is a fully equipped wood shop to train Haitians in woodworking. It is really going to be great. We will have the sheets turned down and a little mint on the pillow waiting for many of you to come down and work with us.

The boys and Rochelle (the only girl in the home) all speak English, French, and creole. That is perfect so teams can come down and minister to them and not even need translators.

Trip Details

When the Durham's picked us up at the airport they took us to a great little restaurant in Port au Prince. That was the first time we had been anywhere like that because we are usually in a hurry to get out of the city as soon as we land. The meal was great and it was the first time we had goat in a while. We actually got to have goat three times on this trip which really is great because it is usually just for special occasions. It was a great blessing to meet Pastor Jim and Madame pastor Jim (aka. Mrs. Gayle) in person. We had communicated through email but we had never met. They really made us feel right at home from the start.

Our first night back in Haiti was...hot! Summer time is really hot and humid there especially at night. No cuddling going on I can tell you that. But with the fan going it really was comfortable and we slept well.

When we got to Haiti the bag that contained our glasses along with the gifts for the boys and Pastor Jim's beef jerky did not make it. I made a return trip to Port au Prince the next morning and it still was not there. That meant we had to do the clinic on Saturday without the glasses...and without the beef jerky! The clinic went great and we saw about 95 people. I gave them cards with the power they needed in the glasses and Mrs. Gayle arranged for them to return today to get their glasses. I pray that went well! The clinic was for the members of Pastor Andre's church which House of Bread (the orphanage) partners with.

On Sunday we went to a great service at Pastor Andre's church in the morning and then to Pastor Cesar came and got us in the afternoon. We arrived at his house to the smell of a traditional Haitian meal with shallots, plantains, fish, rice, and bean sauce. It really was great. It was so good to see Pastor and his entire family. That night we went back to church for a hot 3 hour prayer meeting. The worship was great and Joy and I really got to do some praying and seeking God.

Pastor also showed us the progress being made on the church in St. Marc. It really is going to be a great place of worship, school, and ministry.

The next day we spent with pastor and his family before the big prayer service marking the end of 30 days of prayer. The service was 5 hours of prayer, worship, singing, and preaching. It was spirit filled and wonderful. We even had electricity so we could run the fans and that made a huge difference. The picture here is of a woman praying almost an hour BEFORE the service even began. We need to learn to be desperate for God!

The next morning (Tuesday) we returned to House of Bread and then to the airport in the afternoon for our return home. A short but blessed trip.

The Financial Need

We have several needs that we will need to fill before we go. Our biggest cost going in will be setting up electricity for our apartment. The system will consist of 12 deep cell batteries that are charged by solar panels and a generator. The system is controlled by an inverter that Pastor Jim is giving to us. The batteries, solar panels, rack, and generator will cost us about $3500-4000 USD to set up. The good thing is though that we will be totally self contained and not have a need for expensive but very intermittent and unreliable government electricity. We also have to build the wall to separate the girls' room and we do not have a bathroom vanity with sinks or any interior doors at the moment. That will cost us $1200-1500 to get ready. That will pretty much get our apartment ready for inhabiting. Not too bad considering any other alternative we considered going in would be much more costly. The picture is from our roof showing the Caribbean Sea in the distance. How great is our God!

We are also going to begin collecting donations for a shipping container. We found a Mennonite ministry that will ship a container for us for a fraction of what a commercial shipping company charges. For about $2500-3000 USD we will be able to ship a container with all of the equipment necessary for the eye clinic as well as our personal goods including beds and mattresses and everything.

The other costs to begin ministry will be for a vehicle, phone service, health insurance, and the cost to live at House of Bread including the skyrocketing price of food many of you have been reading about lately. So pray about how God would have you give and we will begin to tackle each of these projects as God supplies the money.

Email us anytime or leave a comment here with questions or suggestions. Don't forget to pray for us when God brings us to your mind. We are so grateful for the friends God has given us to make this opportunity possible in our lives.

The WHOLE family!

We finally got all of the family together for a picture. What a great God we serve! We are so blessed with how God is working in our family. Megan and Logan have both registered for college and are getting ready to start in a couple of weeks. Joy and I are studying James right now and it is encouraging to see what the epistle says about patience. We are waiting for God to accomplish the things necessary for us to be able to make the transition to Haiti full time. We know his timing is perfect and we do not want to rush it. We want to learn everything that God wants to teach us during this time in our lives.

God has already shown us so many things about searching for Him and allowing him to guide us along the path he has designed for us. He has taken away fears in our lives. He has given us peace about things that in the natural we know we could never have peace about. Even this past Sunday in church we sang "I Surrender All" and God spoke to us about some things and attitudes that we had not totally surrendered to him. We were still holding on to selfish desires and pridefull thoughts concerning our family and what we expected God to do. We want to simply trust him.

We have not had any serious leads on the house or the property we have to sell but we are not concerned. People have told me that there are not many people looking for houses right now and I just tell them that is okay because we only need one! So we are waiting for God to send that one.

The pool that experienced the flood and landslide that left it full of mud and looking like a fish pond is finally beginning to clear up. I have spent every evening working on it and I can finally see the bottom in the shallow end! I pray we can have that fixed by the weekend so if we have someone look at the house it will be ready.

There is nothing new in the foster care cases. We are simply in wait mode to see what happens. The little guy turned 2 months old today. He is such a sweetey. It is great how God delivered him from the obstacles of being born with cocaine in his system. You would never know it by seeing him today. God is so good!

Thank you for your prayers. The previous post listed some specific needs and prayer requests. Please email us anytime with comments or questions. We look forward to hearing from you all.

Visiting "Home" for the 1st time

Joy and I leave Thursday for Haiti. We are excited about this trip because no kids are going :) Just kidding... well not really, but we are also excited because we will be visiting the orphanage where we plan to be living. We have never seen it in person and have never met the precious missionary couple that started it. We were led to them through the internet and found out about the opportunity for us to live there after we surrendered to full time following our last visit.

We will be doing eye exams on the kids in the home and having an eye clinic as an outreach for the church that they work with in Montrouis. We will also be looking at the feasability of opening the eye clinic there on the compound and I will be seeing what the wood working shop is equipped with. Lord willing, I will be doing some training in wood working for the boys in the home as they get older.

We will also spend a couple of days with pastor Cesar doing planning for the ministry. Monday night is the last night of a 30 day long prayer meeting at St. Marc church. We will get to go to that prayer meeting. The church there has been praying for money to complete the church and school before more problems arise with the Minister of Education over the setup of the school building. We also have acquired audio players that are preprogrammed with the New Testament in Creole. Since many of the people can't read, I wanted a way for them to hear the word. We have a player for each of the eight churches and we will be training the pastors how to use them and setting up a weekly meeting for them to come and hear the word and discuss it.

The reality of the opportunity and move have really set in and we are more ready than ever. Talking to the missionary couple that is there now has really helped us to understand even better what God is calling us to. I asked them what things we could bring them when we come and he simply asked for one pack of beef jerky and she wanted a pack of granola bars- peanut butter flavor. We take for granted that we go to the grocery store at least 4 times per week and can get whatever we have a craving for. We don't have things that we really want or look forward to but can't go and get. It really is a whole different world.

Family Update

Some of you may find it surprising but we have not added any new kids since the last post! We are holding strong at just 7!

Thank you to everyone that has continued to pray for us and the things that need to happen before we can move. The house still needs to sell as does the farm land I own with a partner. We also need to find out what is going to happen with our little guys.

Judah's case is caught up in appeals before we can proceed with the adoption. He is doing great though. We have really seen God work in his life as well as ours through him. I have never had such a need for patience as I have needed with this little guy. God has really helped Joy and I learn to love even through intense frustration and discouragement. Now he is really showing huge strides and although we still have bad days, we know God is doing a work. We were at the beach over the 4th and he could not believe it. He was so fun to watch and to play with. He really is a special child and we praise God for letting us get him.

The baby, Jaxon Kooper as he is known around our house, is simply a foster child at the moment. Things could change and he could be returned to the mother at any time. We are just waiting on social services and the courts to decide his little fate (but we know that God is in total control). If he becomes available for adoption, we want to adopt him so that he can grow up with Judah. We know that the Lord is in charge.

Jacy Klaire, Josie Kate, Luke, Megan, and Logan are all doing good. We are just seeking God's direction for Megan and Logan as far as school/work/whatever other options may be available! Luke is enjoying his summer and Jacy and Josie are as sweet and precious as ever. Jacy is looking forward to being home schooled. We will start that even before we make the move to Haiti.

We will be posting some pictures of the kids at the beach soon.

Prayer Needs

Keep us in your prayers. We will be in Haiti 7/10 - 7/16. Pray for our family while we are gone. The Benfield family (Bob and Shelley et al) will be covering the first couple of days and then my sister and her family are coming in from GA to house/baby/horse sit. Don't tell them but they have NO idea what they are getting into! Pray for hurricane Bertha to continue into the North Atlantic and not turn and hit Haiti. We don't do hurricanes yet.

Thank you all and we will have plenty of pictures and video when we get back from the beautiful caribbean islands!

Our Quiver is Filling Quickly!

Psalms 127:3-5
Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

Our son Logan graduated this weekend from Maiden High School. Our daughter Megan graduated 2 weeks ago and on the day before she graduated I recieved a phone call from social services.

As background, on Christmas Eve 2006 one of our best friends brought a 3 month old baby into the Sunday School class we were teaching. The baby was a foster child that had been rescued from a bad situation. Joy held the tiny baby through Sunday School and church, and by the end of the service she felt we were supposed to adopt the baby!

I had NOT heard from God at that point so I did not see that happening. I was very content with the 4 kids we already had! But...I told her that we would take the classes and if it was God's plan then we would get her...believing that there was no way!

In spite of all the obstacles, including social services saying that there was NO WAY we would ever get that baby...we completed her adoption the day before her 1st birthday in September of 2007.

One month later social services called and asked if we could keep a little 2 year old boy for 5 days while his foster family went out of town. Sure...what's 5 days...9 months later here we are with his case caught up in court but we intend to adopt him as well if court issues can be resolved.

That leads us to the phone call we recieved 3 weeks ago. Social services called me at work to tell me that our little boy's biological mother had a baby and it tested positive for drugs so it could not go home with the mother. They asked if we could take him until things were sorted out. With an open heart and full of compassion I said..."NO...thanks but we are full..."

Within an hour God convicted me and asked me how I knew the answer was no so easily without praying about it. How did I know the answer was no for this baby but it was not no for the other two he had given us as a blessing?

So I called Joy and told her the social worker had called. I told Joy to call her back and tell her we would pray about it and we would let her know the next morning. So we did pray and felt that God was leading us to take him in as a foster child since he was our little guys's full brother. We felt that if they must be away from their natural parents that it would be best if they could at least be together. So 3 weeks ago we went to the hospital and picked up a 1 day old baby boy.

He is a little cutie. He has had only minimal reaction to the withdrawal from the drugs and has not had to have any morphine through the process which is a blessing from God. Other than the fact that he does not like sleeping AT ALL in the night... he is doing great.

We have no idea what the future holds for him but he has a court date at the end of June. We will go from there. We do not know how all of this fits into the time frame for the move to Haiti but God does. We know that His timing is perfect and He could move us there immediately if he so chose to. Our current plan is to be there by the first of the year. I have to get everything closed out business wise and we have to get the adoption process completed. It could take longer than that but we know God is in control.

Please continue to pray. All we want is to be obedient and see God glorified. We admit that we do not have all of the answers and we can't always see how things are going to work out. But we trust God. I have learned that things do not have to make sense in my mind for it to be the will of God. How does it make sense to get small babies before we go to a poverty stricken country with minimal health care for the babies? I don't know, but God does. We are simply following His lead and trusting that He will make things clear to us in His time and not in ours.

We wish we were in Haiti today. We wish we could there with the people right now and sharing the love of Christ with them...But we are learning to be content in waiting on the Lord. It is so sweet to rest in his providence!