Our Christmas in Haiti

As I sit here writing this blog, me fighting the bugs (even in a screened room) and Nicky fighting the ants in his cereal, I am finding it hard to sum up what we have done in the past week. So instead of writing a lot I will just post pictures with captions, I think you will enjoy the pics more.

Hope everyone had a blessed Christmas Day! Jwaye Nowel! (Merry Christmas in creole)

The kids riding with Grandma Judy.

Packing up backpacks to give out for Christmas.

Don't you just love these glasses?

Me and Xander playing with this little boy.  He has a really bad burn all up his right leg.

Handing out Christmas presents in the schools

Playing with the kids



Xander is always ready to help.

Nicky and the team getting a wall ready to pour with cement.

This is how they mix the cement, on the ground, and haul it with a tractor.

Look at the excitement of getting a gift on his face.

This is one of the t-shirt dresses that First Baptist Hendersonville made.

The Joys of Christmas

This week has been such a blessing.  Our last team left on Saturday.  Before they left they got to help us pack up Christmas bags for our school kids, over 300 bags filled with a few toys, soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, a hat, a comb or brush and some candy. On Friday we took them to our schools.  The kids were so excited to get these gifts.  Most American kids would think you were crazy if you gave them a bag of what we call everyday necessities.

Tuesday were headed out early to meet up with a pastor friend and his wife from our hometown.  On the way we saw a guy selling bicycles.  Nicky checked them out and after some rough creole/ english communication he bought the kids their Christmas presents.  They have been riding them non-stop. 
We picked up the Hunnicutt's, Luke and Kristen who have been serving in the Northwest with Steve Revis for a month, and headed up to the Haiti Baptist Mission.  I can usually read a map pretty good but not knowing exactly where I was headed it was hard to read, plus it was in Creole.  We stopped at a look off that Nicky knew of that has an awesome view.  Boy did it ever!  You could see for miles.
We got to the Mission and met a great missionary couple that have only been in Haiti 3 months.  Chelsea gave us a very thorough tour of the mission, then we had lunch.  The high mountains of Haiti have such a different look from the rest of Haiti.

On the way back down the mountain we were going to look for a grocery store, but all of a sudden the brakes lost pressure and we started praying!  Glad we had 4x4 low to keep us slow in the '92  F150 we were using.  The Lord saw us through and we did get to a grocery store, then headed home. 

Wednesday we took gifts to two more schools,  we handed out  t-shirt dresses (that First Baptist Hendersonville made) to a school up the mountain.  Again the kids were so excited to be getting gifts.  The looks on their faces was priceless. The only down side to this was seeing the 10 or so kids that were standing at the gate trying to peer in through any hole they could and get a glimpse of what was being handed out and knowing that we didn't have enough gifts for them.

Thank you for your prayers and support.  We are so excited to be Christ's hands and feet here in Haiti.

Hope everyone has a blessed Christmas!!   Jwaye Nowel! (Merry Christmas)

We will be posting pictures soon, hopefully tomorrow.

December 2011

    We have officially moved out of our house in Hendersonville, NC and are now waiting for God to provide renters.  After taking our last load of furniture and stuff to SC ( I am going to have a lot of unpacking to do when I get back) we drove down to St. Augustine, FL to visit family and  their church, what a blessing.  God is so Good!!  After a few days there we headed down to Miami. 
     

     We allowed an extra day just in case the van broke down, but praise the Lord we didn’t have any problems.  We flew out of Miami on Dec. 9th and arrived in Haiti safely.  Everyone was so excited to see us.  As soon as we got to the compound the work began.  We feel like this is the place we belong  and it feels like home.  We brought down most of the dresses that First Baptist Hendersonville made and can’t wait to see the faces of the little girls when we hand them out.

    As soon as we got to the compound we could see how we are needed “ASAP” . They are asking us to just stay and not go back, this is home now.  I have seen many come and go from Haiti because of a lack of support being over whelmed  by ministry,  and can’t afford to do it because they didn't finish raising monthly support, because raising it is so hard.  Thanks to all who have and are supporting us.  You guys are how we are able to return to Haiti and further God’s kingdom . We want to thank everyone for your prayers,  we need them more than ever while we are down here.  

      Since the earthquake more and more people are moving out toward our compound.  With that comes dispute over land and who thinks they can give it out.  These disputes causes problems like protests, closing the roads, and robberies. God is great, seeing and hearing of many more transformed lives here is what it is about. You make this possible. I hope over the next few years many of you can come down and experience Haiti.

   Our first few days back have definitely been busy.  We arrived Friday and started helping get ready for a big cookout ( which is very rare ) we were having with our neighboring ministry (CAM - Christian Aid Ministries).  It is always great to get to know other missionaries.  

   Saturday we headed into town to get supplies.  You think running to the grocery store is such a simple task, but here in Haiti it literally takes all day!  We did get to eat at the only franchise restaurant in Haiti, Dominoes Pizza.  I have a better appreciation of them now.

   Sunday it's off to church at 6:45am till about 10:30am.   Hopefully it will get easier to sit that long when we can understand what they are saying.  We did get to hear the children's choir sing and quote scripture and the books of the bible.

    Monday Kristie and kids helped with Gran Moun ( old people), visited the burn clinic, unwrapped French Bible and put them in their covers, and did home school all before lunch. 

Xander and Ellie putting French Bibles in covers.

     

Gran Moun - we hand out food to 62 elderly - some walk many miles to get here.

It still amazes me how they carry stuff on their head.

Busy!!

Most everyone knows that we are going to Haiti, but we need everyone to understand why we are going to Haiti.  We are not going to start a brand new ministry.  The Lord has called us to help ensure that a proven, successful,godly ministry continues to meet the most basic needs of the Haitian people and leading them to Christ.  The compound where we are serving was started 28 yrs ago by a couple who gave up a thriving business and a comfortable home, left their college age children and moved to a very unfamiliar place, only because they want to serve the Lord wholeheartedly.  You can say they sacrificed a lot, which they did, but being credited for dieing to self and furthering God's kingdom, what greater blessing is there, what an act of unselfishness.  I want God to say to me in Heaven "well done good and faithful servant". 
  We just received an email of the greatest urgency.  Right now the head missionaries for the Global compound are in Ecuador, encouraging missionaries there.  That leaves 2 couples on the compound until yesterday.  One couple has to fly out today because of a death in the family, leaving one couple to run all the ministries that Global provides to the Haitian people. 
  They are pleading with us to come as soon as we can. We want to be there helping run things.  But we can't even think to set a date for going back full time until we start getting funds coming in.  We are at about 20% funded right now.  Please pray about what you can do in Haiti.  When you support us you are supporting well drilling, the kids in the schools, the burn clinic, church planting, conference center, etc.  We are not going down to live in a tropical island and go to the beach everyday.  We are going because we have been blessed beyond measure and we want to obey the Lord and give back.  No amount is too small, it is individuals giving $50 - $100 (some give less and some are able to give more)  a month that will allow us to get to Haiti full time and ensure that these most basic needs are met in Haiti, things we take for granted everyday.  Please pray about supporting us.  We know God will get us there.  We feel He is calling all of us to further His kingdom in one way or another.

We didn't have it stacked to the top but it was pretty full.

     I can't decide if this last month has been a blur or tipping the scales as overwhelming.  We have been in the process of cleaning our house here in NC to get it ready to rent.  We moved the kids out of their rooms, so they are sharing a dresser and their beds are in the living room floor.  Nicky and I are sharing a dresser and the only thing left in our room is the bed.  We had placed our stuff, quickly becoming junk, in piles one for Haiti, one for our SC trailer  (where we will live when we are in the States), and one for Goodwill/ give away.  After a few days of this I realized how the stuff that had had meaning to me was becoming "just junk", you begin to realize how much money you waste over the years.  We were trying to figure out what to do with our Haiti stuff and discover we could take it to Nashville, TN for storage, to be shipped on the next container.  We found this out last Monday at about 5pm.  So Nicky rented a Penske truck for the next day.  With the help of some really good friends and their teenage sons we filled the truck.  We had things stuck in the drawers of the dressers, anywhere we could stuff things.  The company that we are shipping through requires you to inventory each item that is being shipped, including picture frames, books, dishes, cups (ie. 6 large red cups).  I am so thankful for my friends that helped me do all this.  Before they got there I was standing there wondering what to do, I couldn't decide where to start.  Praise the Lord for someone else to look outside of my box and get started.

We had many friends to help load the truck, well after dark.

The kids were really excited to ride in the truck

 So Wednesday morning we started out to Nashville.  We dropped off our stuff at a warehouse then headed to Tupelo, MS.  We arrived Thursday morning at the house of a wonderful Godly couple.  They were such a blessing.  The next two days were filled with meetings and food.  Both were great.  We got to meet missionaries that were new to the field, some that had been on the field for years and some who were in the fundraising mode like us.  It was such an encouragement to see God using ordinary people to further His kingdom.

The kids are worn out!

   Friday night we attended the Missions Conference, open to the public. It was so awesome, the theme was China through the Ages.  Thursday and Friday about 1400 school children got to go through the exhibit and have Christ shared with them.  They learned about the music, food, industry, language and customs of China.  Definitely counted Friday as a school day!  Thank you to all the volunteers that made the conference possible.

We display the flag of each country that Global has missionaries in.

 We set up a table next to Dave and Judy Heady, the couple that started Global 28 yrs ago.  What a great evening!  We got to talk with lots of different people and made many new contacts.

When we returned home we continued to slowly whittle away at the accumulation of stuff.  I am happy to say that we are ready to start painting.  We are praying for a miracle, that God will have someone ready to rent our house before we go back to Haiti the first week in December.  We have faith that God will provide.  That will be a huge step in our journey to moving to Haiti full time.

We still have a lot of fundraising to do, we are at about 20%.  Please pray that God will put it upon the hearts of many to support us.  We know that we need prayer most of all but without support we can not go.

Getting the rooms cleaned out and ready to paint.

Xander and Ellie love sleeping in the living room.  Their beds can be right next to each other.

We are living on very little, and it is in the living room.

Dresses for Haiti

   Many young girls lost all or most of what little they had during the 2010 earthquake that struck Haiti.  We got the idea to start making dresses for these young girls out of pillowcases and t-shirts.  The quilting ministry at our church got together on a Saturday and made over 115 of the t-shirt dresses.  They got inexpensive t-shirts and just added fabric to the bottom of them, making them longer and decorating them.  This past Wednesday some of the ladies from our quilting ministry got together with about 6 young ladies to teach them how to make these dresses.  This is going to be such a blessing.  Older ladies mentoring and teaching younger girls, giving these young girls a way to help change the lives of other young girls in Haiti.  We are hoping to introduce this ministry to other churches.
We will be taking these dresses that are made to Haiti in December, they think they will have about 150.

Something so simple is going to make such an impact.

I am happy to report that we now have 30 people committed to giving monthly (that's about 15% of our goal), Praise the Lord. When we get discouraged, He always shows us that this is what we are called to do.

We are in the process of getting our house ready to rent. We hope to get it rented by December. We are praying for someone to donate a 40 foot insulated tractor trailer, so we can store the furniture and supplies we are collecting for our move to Haiti.

We are still driving the old church van, besides the low gas mileage it continues to run. I am confident that if the Lord sees fit for us to have a better vehicle, He will provide it.

We will be spending the month of December in Haiti. We are leading a team from three different churches down so they can experience the vision we have. The team will only be there a week but we will stay for awhile to help out at the compound.

Since we have so many prayer requests I will make a list. If anyone can help with these needs please  email us, nrunk16@gmail.com.

Prayer List:

More opportunities to speak
Vehicle for in the states(dependable to drive on trips)
Supporters to come to us
40 ft insulated trailer
Good, long term renters for our house
Batteries and inverters, for house in Haiti
Solar power
Wind turbines
Vehicles to purchase here and ship down or buy in Haiti (includes ATV and UTV, for getting around compound and in mountains to save wear and tear on main vehical)

We are also in the process of writing letters to companies to see if they will donate supplies.

The Lord continues to show us that we can't do this on our own and that we need to rely on him daily.

Nicky went last month to New Bern, NC for disaster relief work, after hurricane Irene. There was a total of 27 from our church that went, Praise the Lord!! for those who served.

Summer

We started fundraising the end of June.  This has been keeping us super busy, along with canning and freezing the veggies from our garden, homeschooling, and trying to keep our vehicles running.

Our Sunday mornings are spent speaking.  We have been able to speak at some of the Bible fellowship classes at First Baptist Hendersonville.  This past Sunday we spoke at two Methodist churches, one at 9:30 and the other at 11:00.  Then on Sunday evening we were, unexpectedly asked to speak at King's Grove Baptist. This Sunday morning we will speak at Northside Baptist in Laurens, SC.
 What a blessing!

Monday night we were speaking at another group at First Baptist, in the middle of showing our pictures the power went out.  Satan certainly isn't happy with us speaking.

Most of our support comes from individuals giving monthly, not churches.  We are beginning to make appointments to share with individuals the vision God has given us.

Breaking beans.

Our car situation hasn't changed since the last time we wrote.  We have put time and money into it, now realizing it is beyond repair.  It has been an awesome car.  We got it when we came back from Haiti in 2002, it was used then.  We have gotten 225,000 good miles out of it.  I loved that car. Today Nicky is taking it to a scrap yard.  It is really sad, but we are stepping out in faith that God will provide another.  Right now we are relying on the 15 passenger van we bought from our church a couple of years ago, it was broke down when we bought it then.  Not sure what the Lord has in store for us but we are learning to rely on Him daily.





Ellie's first deer with a bow. (It was just a 3-D target)

God is stretching us in so many ways.  We are relying on the Lord for everything, I mean everything.  This has been really tough since we are used to providing for ourselves through our jobs and hard work.  We know God has called us and He will provide the means and the way through individuals like you.  I want to thank those who have been giving since last year and those who have started this year.  Your support will allow us to buy supplies, tools, items we need to ship to Haiti. We will need to purchase (we are praying that someone will donate one) an 18 wheeler container to ship furniture and supplies in and to store supplies in at the compound.  We have to get a vehicle in Haiti.  We are anxious to return, the need is so great,  but we will not be able to go back to Haiti until we have 100% of our monthly support coming in for at least 2 months to allow us to go and stay in Haiti. We are at 15% on monthly support and 10% inital move down cost.  Thanks to everyone for your continued prayers and support.

Getting it togather

In June we will begin to build our support team.  We are finishing our information to let our supporters know of our mission. Please pray those who can, will help us finish this in the next 2 weeks. 
  This week we had a great meeting finalizing our brochure and on the way home the transmission in our car went out.  Nicky found another transmission at Tonys salvage yard, turns out this is a christian business in Spartunburg, SC.  This may be the Lord opening the door for a new contact for getting parts to send to Haiti.  These things happen for a reason.
  Seems like everthing we have is wearing out (vehicles, atv, tools, and welder).  This does give Nicky more practice fixing different things.  There is always machinery to fix in Haiti.
   Last week we got our garden planted. We will can (preserve) as much as we can and send to Haiti in our container this winter.

My once clean carport is now a mechanics shop. 

Our Garden.

Our Future

  Being a missionary is so exhausting.  I had no idea!  You think it just means being willing to move or help people.  There is a lot of  work that goes on behind the scenes besides the hard work that goes into doing your ministry.
   We finished Missionary Orientation Training (MOT) Feb. 11th.  The past few weeks have been frustrating and humbling.  We are working on getting our brochures, prayer magnets, business cards (with our contact info), power point presentation ready.  I thought I was pretty good with a computer but I realize how much I don't know. 
  The Lord has to remind me several times a day that I don't need to relie on myself for this.  I need to do more giving my problems to the Lord.
   We are anxious to get back to Haiti. We can't go back until we raise funds to move down and 100% of our monthly support coming in for the first few months.  We want to be as effective for the Lord as we can.  Although the work is hard and never ending we miss being a crucial part of Global Outreach in Haiti.  Ellie says she misses giving out the food on Monday mornings and Xander misses working in the shop with Nicky.
  Please continue to pray for us to not get discouraged in doing all this technical computer stuff (I know this will help in telling as many people as we can about what God is doing in Haiti through Global Outreach), and that God will touch the hearts of the people that will give to God's ministry.

Arriving Home

  We flew out of Haiti on Tues. Feb. 1st.  We were really sad to leave but also were glad to be coming home.  We flew to Ft. Lauderdale then to Charlotte then Asheville.  That made such a long day.  The kids were excited at first to go on an airplane, but after the second flight they had had enough.
  The first thing we did was eat at Chili's in the airport.  Not that we starved in Haiti, I think I gained a few pounds, but it was great to be able to eat out, especially french fries.  After we ate we thought we might get some ice cream but we decided to wait until we got to the Charlotte airport because we had a longer lay over.  All Ellie wanted was ice cream.  As soon as we got on the plane to go to Charlotte she was asking for ice cream.  Well about 4 1/2 hours later and after constant asking, we finally got to get her some ice cream.  So I need to remember not to mention something like that until we are ready to do it. 
  We knew that it was going to be cold when we got back home but it hit us like a ton of bricks. To get on the plane to go to Asheville we had to go outside of the Charlotte airport.  It was cold and rainy.  We thought we were going to freeze!!!  We had been used to 95 degree weather. 
  We finally got to Asheville and had a warm welcome from our families and then went home to go to bed.  We arrived to the house only to find out our furnace wasn't working.  Nicky worked on it.  The best he could but it would only go up to 68 degrees.  So we went through 2 more nights of this before we got someone to come look at it and tell us that the computer was messed up and that we would need another one.  The guy that came out told us that he would check around  to see what the price would be.  Come to find out it would be about $190 to fix it and that he would have to order it.  This would be okay since we were leaving on Friday to head to Mississippi for Missionary Orientation Traing with Global Outreach. 
  Nicky and I finally got ourselves packed up to go to Mississippi.  The kids had already been picked up early by our set of adoptive grandparents.  They have loved our kids since they were born and have loved keeping them anytime we needed them to or they will call just to see if they can come get them. We are so blessed.  The biggest thing we will miss in Haiti is not having grandparents there, but we are thankful the Headys can be grandparents to them.
  We drove to Commerce, GA for the first night.  We got to relax a lot and we got to turn up the heat in our room as high as we wanted.  The next day we went to Bass Pro Shops in Atlanta. On Saturday we decided to find a friend's church in Gainesville, GA.  Nicky texted him to find out where the church was and they told us we could stay with them that night.  Well at their church they introduced us to both of the services and told us they would love to have us back to speak and have teams come down in the future.  God has it all worked out!!!  All we were thinking about was coming to church.  After seeing the many ways God has blessed us,  we just keep being encouraged that this is what God has for us to do.  If anyone has a place for us to speak we would like to work it out in the future.
  So we finally arrived in Tupelo, MS on Sunday evening.  It is just as cold here as at home.  We are expecting snow tomorrow ( 1-4 inches).  After being in training for 2 days my mind is fried.  They talked to us about so many different aspects of being a missionary wether it is coming up with your budget, having teams visit us, being prepared for spiritual warfare, and insurance are just a few.  We still have three more days.  They said it would be intense and it is. I'm glad they gave us a notebook that has all the info in it because I won't remember it.  And of course we eat! 
  We have met so many other missionaries that are going through this training also.  Some are going to Ecquador, others to Uganda, Phillipines, South Africa, Zambia, and Romania.  Everbody here has a story of how God is working in their lives.  God is so much bigger than anything we could ever imagine.
  Please be praying that we seek God's counsel on all our decisions and not try to do this on our own.  We have to sit down and try to figure out our budget including how much we will need to live in Haiti, wether to buy a vehicle here and ship it down or buy a new one in Haiti, how much it will cost for us to take to do our ministry in Haiti.  We believe so strongly in what Global Outreach is doing in Haiti that we feel called to support Global financialy.  
  After this week of training we feel that it will take some praying and fasting to figure out our budget and things we need to take down with us and whether we will buy a vehicle here to ship down or buy new in Haiti.  Global is encourageing us to buy new in Haiti as there are not used car lots in Haiti because import taxes are so high. Then we will be ready to speak at churhes all around the US.  For me this is the scariest part.  Nicky has to keep reminding me that God has all the money in the world and that we don't have to do this alone.

Now why can't I get Xander to work like this for me!

When the team first arrived on Saturday night Xander was helping them with their luggage and showing them where they were staying.  So the next day all he wanted to do was work with team.  They were building walls around our fuel tank for the generator house.  We finally got the tank set in place a couple of days before the team arrived.

Xander and Ellie were both jumping right in and helping the team.  The team was so excited about them helping and just fell in love with them.

Nicky and a couple of the team members set out to work on fixing the leaks on the tanker.  Global bought a huge fuel tanker so they are able to store more gas and diesel.  You wouldn't believe how much fuel it takes to run such a large ministry.

This is the generator house.  It houses several different sizes of generators.  One of the biggest jobs Nicky has is servicing the generators.  We don't run all of them at the same time.  The generators that are being used changes every 5 days.  This ucoming week there is a team of 5 that are going to help us switch out to a new bigger generator.  This should help conserve some fuel not having so many smaller ones running.