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.
The Family
Justice, Logan, Jacy Klaire, Joy, Josie Kate, Luke, Megan, Judah, Kerry, Jaxon
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
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
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
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.
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!
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.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
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!
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!
Monday, June 9, 2008
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!
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!
Monday, May 12, 2008
Not What I Thought it Would Be
If you're like me, you have always been a little afraid to just give in completely to God because you always just KNEW He would call you to do something like being a crazy missionary in some hostile, poverty stricken county! You always keep just enough distance so that you can stay comfortable with the life path you have chosen.
Three years ago Joy and I decided we were tired of mediocre Christianity and we wanted everything that God had for us. Mostly because we began to understand that our ultimate goal and objective in life is to glorify God. But the cool thing about it is that the more we did to bring Him glory, the more fulfilled we found ourselves. The more we surrendered, the more we could see God working around us. The more we allowed Him to work, the greater the satisfaction we found in Him and a desire to bring Him even more glory.
That led us to the mission trip to the Philippines and then to Haiti. The more we surrendered and allowed God to direct us, the more complete we felt and the more meaning our lives seemed to have.
Then came little Josie Kate. She was a miracle baby that God brought into our lives. We thought we were through raising babies. But we had no idea how much sweeter God's plan was than our plan! I will let Joy share that whole story another day but suffice it to say that although our lives are not easier with Josie, our lives are much greater! Things are often times more complicated and more hectic, but at the same time they are more joyful and impacting. As God showed us that, we began to ask what other areas could we submit to him that we were currently following our own plan instead of His plan.
The key is understanding that God loves us so much that He only wants the best, most awesome, most fulfilling, most satisfying, most impacting, and most eternally preparing life possible. The more satisfied and overjoyed we are in Him, the more glorified He is in us. As we began to realize that, we saw that we did not have to 'fear' or dread anything that God would bring our way. We could look forward to it with excitement and peace. If God that created the world is willing to reveal 'The Perfect Plan' for my life (Jer. 29:11) to me instead of me trying to find my own route, I find that exciting. It turns out, God is smarter than me! He sees a little different perspective than I do. I want to live the life that He says is the most awesome life for me, not the plan that my little mind thinks is best.
So that gets us to here. The ironic thing is that for US, full surrender does mean a life in a deprived land with few amenities and extra perils. But it also means we have the opportunity to share the love of Christ with people that are hungry to hear. We can also minister to pastors that labor faithfully for the Lord as they watch their own children suffer from starvation and disease.
God is giving us the desire of our hearts! God is not calling us to something we do not want to do! God is calling us to the one thing in life we are longing to do right now! I know it seems unreasonable, but that is how God works. I just cry every time I sit and think about how He is opening this door to allow us to do this. God is so good!
You don't have to worry. Full surrender to God means he will make it possible to do exactly what it is you want to do! As you surrender, God changes your heart to where what He made you for is exactly what you want! It does not mean He is going to drag you into the jungle where you dread going. He is going to allow you to experience the life you were made for. The life He created you for from the beginning of time. Don't let it slip away. Don't let fear and misconceptions of God rob you of what you could experience and also steal away the opportunity for you to bring God ultimate glory with your life. The fully surrendered life is best you can have now, and for all of eternity.
For us, things are moving right along. Several people have looked at the house. Here is the link for that. http://www.realestatebook.com/homes/listing/101-537874267/28602-NC-USA/350000-400000-price/101-537082728--101-537191104--101-537664348--101-536866583--101-537875082--101-537874267-ls/6-t
We have also had several people look at the land we are selling. http://www.myprivatelake.com/. We are just waiting on God's perfect time.
In the mean time, we are continuing our Creole lessons with Ti Tant. She is coming over tonight for a lesson and to fry us up some plantains- creole style. The railing is being added to our little apartment on the orphanage there in Haiti. Joy and I are planning to take a trip down in July to continue the planning process. We can't wait!
Please feel free to leave comments here and ask any questions.
Three years ago Joy and I decided we were tired of mediocre Christianity and we wanted everything that God had for us. Mostly because we began to understand that our ultimate goal and objective in life is to glorify God. But the cool thing about it is that the more we did to bring Him glory, the more fulfilled we found ourselves. The more we surrendered, the more we could see God working around us. The more we allowed Him to work, the greater the satisfaction we found in Him and a desire to bring Him even more glory.
That led us to the mission trip to the Philippines and then to Haiti. The more we surrendered and allowed God to direct us, the more complete we felt and the more meaning our lives seemed to have.
Then came little Josie Kate. She was a miracle baby that God brought into our lives. We thought we were through raising babies. But we had no idea how much sweeter God's plan was than our plan! I will let Joy share that whole story another day but suffice it to say that although our lives are not easier with Josie, our lives are much greater! Things are often times more complicated and more hectic, but at the same time they are more joyful and impacting. As God showed us that, we began to ask what other areas could we submit to him that we were currently following our own plan instead of His plan.
The key is understanding that God loves us so much that He only wants the best, most awesome, most fulfilling, most satisfying, most impacting, and most eternally preparing life possible. The more satisfied and overjoyed we are in Him, the more glorified He is in us. As we began to realize that, we saw that we did not have to 'fear' or dread anything that God would bring our way. We could look forward to it with excitement and peace. If God that created the world is willing to reveal 'The Perfect Plan' for my life (Jer. 29:11) to me instead of me trying to find my own route, I find that exciting. It turns out, God is smarter than me! He sees a little different perspective than I do. I want to live the life that He says is the most awesome life for me, not the plan that my little mind thinks is best.
So that gets us to here. The ironic thing is that for US, full surrender does mean a life in a deprived land with few amenities and extra perils. But it also means we have the opportunity to share the love of Christ with people that are hungry to hear. We can also minister to pastors that labor faithfully for the Lord as they watch their own children suffer from starvation and disease.
God is giving us the desire of our hearts! God is not calling us to something we do not want to do! God is calling us to the one thing in life we are longing to do right now! I know it seems unreasonable, but that is how God works. I just cry every time I sit and think about how He is opening this door to allow us to do this. God is so good!
You don't have to worry. Full surrender to God means he will make it possible to do exactly what it is you want to do! As you surrender, God changes your heart to where what He made you for is exactly what you want! It does not mean He is going to drag you into the jungle where you dread going. He is going to allow you to experience the life you were made for. The life He created you for from the beginning of time. Don't let it slip away. Don't let fear and misconceptions of God rob you of what you could experience and also steal away the opportunity for you to bring God ultimate glory with your life. The fully surrendered life is best you can have now, and for all of eternity.
For us, things are moving right along. Several people have looked at the house. Here is the link for that. http://www.realestatebook.com/homes/listing/101-537874267/28602-NC-USA/350000-400000-price/101-537082728--101-537191104--101-537664348--101-536866583--101-537875082--101-537874267-ls/6-t
We have also had several people look at the land we are selling. http://www.myprivatelake.com/. We are just waiting on God's perfect time.
In the mean time, we are continuing our Creole lessons with Ti Tant. She is coming over tonight for a lesson and to fry us up some plantains- creole style. The railing is being added to our little apartment on the orphanage there in Haiti. Joy and I are planning to take a trip down in July to continue the planning process. We can't wait!
Please feel free to leave comments here and ask any questions.
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