A Mom's Answered Prayer

Whenever anyone asks us what our biggest prayer request or concern is during this transition time there is no hesitation. The hardest part of our calling is the fact that our older children will not be going with us initially- so it seems at the moment. One night as Joy and I were getting ready for bed, we were praying and talking and God revealed to us that if we knew exactly how it was going to work out with the kids or if we thought WE could take care of it, we would not be trusting Him. We decided then that we would leave it in God's hands and believe by faith that by the time He had us leave here, the situation with each of our children would be EXACTLY what God wanted it to be and that it would be the very BEST for each of them. Faith is living like it's SO, when it ain't SO, because God said SO! That's not good grammar but it's good theology! We surrendered our expectations to the Lord and have had peace believing He would align things in His due time.

In the last week we have seen God really working to make that come to pass. A few weeks ago I started a Bible study with Logan (our 18 year old who has been struggling to find direction)and Phillip(a young guy that has joined our family during the last year as we try to help him find God's plan for his life) and several of their friends. The study is on God's purpose for our lives and why it is important to find it.


This past week God opened the door for a tremendous opportunity for Logan and Phillip both. They are applying to go to Discipleship Training School (DTS) with Youth With a Mission (YWAM) International. If accepted, they will spend 3 months in California learning about how to hear from God and find His desire for their lives. They will also learn about missions worldwide and how they fit in to what God is doing. They will then spend 2 months abroad using what they have learned to minister on the mission field.

YWAM uses a young person's passions and interests to help draw them into a deeper walk with God and reach a specific people group or culture. Logan and Phillip are both into board sports (skateboarding, surfing, snowboarding) and YWAM uses those passions to reach others with the same passions. On their DTS they will learn how to reach surfers and the those in the surf culture around the world for Christ.

It is a great opportunity and something they are both very excited about. We are very excited as well because it will help them to see why we are so sold out to missions as they grow in an understanding of God's heart for the world. YWAM has one of the most effective ministries in all of Haiti and we will hopefully have many opportunities in the years to come to work with them. It is awesome how God works.

Joy is almost as excited as Logan and Phillip about the opportunity. There is nothing a Christian parent wants more than to see their children growing in Christ. There is really nothing we want more as missionaries than to see our children developing a heart for missions.

We ask that you please pray for their acceptance into the program. The classes start January 4th and so we would have to get them there and that is just around the corner. Also pray because they have to raise $3500 for the 3 months of school, which includes all living expenses, and then about $3000 for the 2 months on the mission field. That seems impossible in just 5 weeks but with prayer we know if it is God's plan for them to go it will not be an issue. We are all looking at what else we have to sell to go towards it too. If you need a Kabota tractor let me know LOL!

Thank you all so much for your love. Any of you that know Joy know that this is the most important issue in her heart at the moment. We believe God opened this door and will arrange all circumstances necessary to make it happen.

You can check out the school at the following sites. We will keep you updated.

http://www.ywamdts.org/
http://ywampismobeach.org/dts/Welcome.html

A Thanksgiving Thought

This is the picture of the day on USA Today's website. It is of a 4 year old little girl in Haiti that is being weighed at a Doctors Without Borders medical clinic. Click Here to read the entire story.

The article tells about the condition of many in Haiti since the flooding and now the food shortages in some areas. Doctors Without Borders says that in the clinic in PAP where this child is, they have had 2 dozen children die in the last 2 weeks of malnutrition.

In a season of Thanksgiving feasting it seems that somehow we should be more broken over the people that will eat less this month than most of us will eat on Thanksgiving Day alone. We really do have more to be thankful for than we could ever imagine. Maybe this Christmas some of you could choose to do what Joy and I did 2 years ago. In December of 2006 I took a trip to Haiti right before Christmas. We met with a family that has 4 children living in the home and the father had left to go to the DR to try to find work. That left the mom alone to try to provide for her family. The children were extremely malnourished and unhealthy. I could not come back and spend hundreds of dollars on stuff that we do not need and will probably seldom ever use. Joy and I decided to not give each other anything for Christmas and instead use the money we would have spent and support that family every month.

The next time I went to see the family, you could see a marked difference in the kids. Their hair was growing in better, their bellies were not as distended and misshapen. You could see the health in their eyes. The mother cried as she thanked me for saving their family and helping during that tough time. We have supported that family ever since and we plan to continue supporting them. There is nothing I need or even want that can compare to the food we are able to buy every month and the hope we are able to give through such a small gift.

Bob Benfield Reports on Latest Trip

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I want to start by saying that this update to Kerry's BLOG has been a long time coming. I am just getting back to the routine of life as we know it in America. I still dream about the people in Haiti and how they are struggling to survive every single day. The sights, sounds, and smells are still fresh in my mind as I often close my eyes and am right back there. This was my first trip to Haiti, but I can promise you, just as I promised the men, women, and children in each church I spoke in, this will NOT be my last trip.
From 1979 to 1986 I had the opportunity to travel all over the world as a Medical Diver in the United States Navy. Prior to this trip, I had been to 32 foreign countries. Haiti made 33. I can honestly tell you, I have never seen poverty to the extent that I saw during this trip.
One thing that truly amazes me, is the love that I felt with the men I went with. Kerry, Tracy, and Toby constantly showed genuine Christ like love and compassion not only towards me but to everyone they came in contact with. When I look at Pastor Caesar, an awesome man of God, I think of 1 Chronicles 4:10, "And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested." As Pastor Caesar and Kerry stood in Kerry's living room watching the TV in horror, as the hurricanes ripped through Haiti leaving thousands dead and hundreds of thousands homeless, the Lord spoke to them in a mighty way. Again the faith of these two men astound me. 1 Chronicles 4:10 shows where Pastor Caesar's heart was. He was seeking Gods face in hopes that God would still bless him and bring more Haitian people to trust Him as their Lord and Savior, to enlarge his coast. To Pastor Caesar and Kerry, it wasn't a matter of asking God if they could help, it was a matter of getting out of Gods way so He could help and get the details worked out. It was awesome to watch God at work providing more than anyone could have ever expected or even imagined. To God be the glory because He is worthy.
When Kerry called me and asked if it was possible for me to take off from work and go with them, I can't tell you the honor and pride I felt when I asked my wife Shelly what she thought about me going to Haiti. She said "you mean your bags aren't packed yet?" I knew that work would not be a problem either. My boss, Clayton Todd is a wonderful man of God who loves the Lord in a way that makes me envious. His response was much like Shelly's. So it was set. I was on the list to go. Then through the endless giving of so many of you, God was evident once again.
After we had all of the bags packed, our human nature kicked in and Satan tried to tell us it couldn't be done... but we were bathed in prayer by people all over the world, and let me tell you about the power of prayer. We went through customs and had our bags checked without even so much as second glance from the authorities here in the US or in Haiti. Again. praise His holy name.
Getting off the plane in Miami to catch another plane to take us to Porta Prince, so many things could and probably should have gone wrong. But He had everything under control. Micah 7:7 tells us "Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me." It still blows my mind to see how we have blinders on and see tunnel vision when God see the big picture from the beginning. I love the last part of the verse, my God will hear me...
Once we arrived in Haiti, God was just getting warmed up. We met with our driver from the House of Bread who took us by there first and then on to Saint Marc to Pastor Caesar's house. We didn't waste any time... We started packing the bags for distribution because we were going to give food to two separate churches the next morning. I want to say to you reading this BLOG, I know that you yourself couldn't go, but you were there through us. We were able to provide TO them through your generous gifts and prayers. You were a huge part of this trip. In Matthew 6:19-20, Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: Every life we touched was a prayer answered and YOU who gave by giving money or who gave by being on your knees and keeping us in continuous prayer, had just as much in this trip as we did.
The distributions went great and we were able to give the Haitian people food for their stomachs as well as spiritual food for their hearts. It was said that we provided a "Blessing from the Blesser" I just want to say for the record, I was the one who was Blessed. Words that I am typing now cannot express the true feeling of how I felt.
On the last day of our stay at Pastor Caesar's house, our bags were packed and we were just about ready to leave to go back to the House of Bread to spend the last night before going to the airport the next morning. As we were standing in the court yard at Pastor Caesar's, A young girl that works for Pastor, came over to where I was standing, she had a small bowel of water and a small brush. She got on her hands and knees and began scrubbing my tennis shoes. Shortly after that, she was joined by yet another girl who had some type powder that looked to be similar to AJAX or Comet. The second girl would sprinkle the powder over my shoes as the first girl would scrub them with a brush. How selfish am I? That was TRUE SERVANTHOOD
displayed before my very eyes. I am so unworthy. God truly broke my prideful heart that day in the courtyard of Pastor Caesar's', by working through two beautiful souls that had NO OTHER desire but to serve Him with all of their hearts. As I stood there with uncontrollable tears pouring down my face, while these two young ladies cleaned my dirty, worn out shoes, I thought of the parallel, isn't that just like Jesus Christ... only He can take an old dirty worn out soul and make it clean and new. Lesson learned...
If you have never had the opportunity to go on a mission trip, I urge you to get your passport ready. Your life will NEVER be the same.

In His grip,

Bob Benfield
Titus 3:5

Boy Was I Wrong!

Have you ever thought you understood something or had a stance on an issue only to find out later that you were totally off base? Well that is what happened to me recently.

When Joy and I accepted the call to full time missions, I thought that we were making 'quite a sacrifice' and that because of that, we would be really pleasing to God. I thought that since I considered the house we had just moved into 'better' than the house we moved out of, that giving up this house to go to the mission field would be a more pleasing sacrifice to God than the house we had sold a year earlier. After all, this house had land and a pool and more bedrooms and we liked it more. So because of that, if we agreed to give it up, God would some how be even more blessed by the whole deal.

Boy was I wrong. Three times in the last couple of months God has brought I Samual 15 into my life. In that passage we learn that God does not want sacrifice. That sacrifice is not what pleases God. It turns out that I easily found 12 other passages that clearly state the same thing. That sacrifices are not what please God. I do not know how I missed it before. It all started even with Cain and Able. Why did Abel please God and not Cain? It was not the sacrifice of Abel that pleased God it was the OBEDIENCE. Abel had done what God had commanded and Cain had not.

In the passage in 1 Samuel God says that sacrifices do not please him. Obedience pleases him. The size of the sacrifice is a measurement for us to see our level of committment but it is not a leveraging tool to please God. God is only pleased by obedience.

God told us to go to Haiti and serve the Haitian people and we would be pleasing to Him. We will be pleasing because of obedience. Not because of the acts or ministry we perform. We will be pleasing because we will be obedient. If we go to Haiti and do everything in the world to help people and even preach the good news and see souls saved, we will still not be pleasing to God if we do not serve the people as servants because that is what God called us to do. He is pleased by obedience.

What is it in your life today that God has told you to do that will please Him. It does not matter how many good things you are doing, if you are not doing what God told you to do, you are not pleasing Him.

We don't like that. We want to call the shots and do what we want to for God and Him accept it and be pleased with us. So many Christians spend their entire lives burning themselves out in ministry that is UN-pleasing to God because it is not what God told them to do! Don't fall for it. Don't get caught in the cycle. Seek God. Pursue after Him and allow Him to tell you what it is that YOU can do to be pleasing to Him. He wants to show you. You just have to let him.

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