Meeting of the Minds: Our Next Move

Encouraging. Inspiring. Affirming. Lovely. Like a big team hug...over Skype. As the elderly gentleman with a crackin' northern Irish accent, said, 'A meeting of the minds...and hearts.'

That's what comes to mind when we think back on an interview we had earlier this month.

'Interview?' Not the kind we're used to...we do plenty of media interviews talking about the radio ministry in Haiti. But this was an interview with the leaders of One Mission Society in the UK. As part of our application process to become fully-fledged missionaries with One Mission Society.

'But aren't you kind of like that already?' you might be asking...

Well, no. Between us, we've served as staff members with Radio 4VEH for more than 18 years, (Storly, since 1998 with a 4 year gap; and me, since 2008). And yes, Radio 4VEH is a ministry of One Mission Society. But that doesn't make us part of One Mission Society, which is a 'society', a faith mission of missionaries. Technically, Storly is a national worker (ie serving his own country), and there's just no category for me. (No suggestions needed, thank you!)

Our ‘status’ as staff of a ministry of OMS but not OMS has always been weird, both for us as we live it, and as we’re presenting our family and ministry to others, especially in churches that are very familiar with supporting OMS missionaries. For a long time, we didn't feel like there was really a place for us within OMS. But over the last year or so, a few key people have spoken into our lives, encouraging us and confirming that we're on the right path.

So without wanting to confuse you any more, let's just say we've felt the Lord leading us over the last year or so to join the OMS family. Think of it as going from being a consultant to being an employee, only better.

Our visit to the UK last summer—meeting with the OMS UK leadership and staff, and representing Radio 4VEH in various churches—as well as our recent time in Haiti, has been a great encouragement and confirmation to us that God has us in the roles He’s prepared us for. So after praying, getting advice and listening to those wiser than us, we’ve applied and been interviewed by Donald Coulter, Executive Director of One Mission Society UK, and team. They're excited about having us as part of their team, and we're excited about being part of their team. We're hoping our application will be approved in early September (which is next week!). Read more about One Mission Society UK. 

We enjoyed our time with Donald and staff at the OMS office in Manchester (there's a strong contingent in Northern Ireland too), and out among the supporters of OMS global missions work in churches in South Wales. OMS Representative in that area is Chris Palmer, and we had a great time with him, his wife Jayne and son Thomas, as he arranged meetings for us to go and speak in several churches (without much notice, either!).

 

And how amazing that one of those churches that supports OMS global missions is my first, original, home church, Lodge Farm Church, Caerleon. Yep, the converted farmhouse at the top of the hill. Where I first remember hearing who Jesus really is and how much He loved me, after friends from school invited me to Y.P. - the Young People's group meeting every Thursday night. Lodge Farm is the place where the people have loved on me, and my family, for 25 years. Including through some of the hardest times. Where I slipped on my way down into the little pool before being baptised in 1990. Lodge Farm, where I learned a thousand lessons from those who've gone before me in the faith (and I am eternally grateful...)

Anyway, we're excited about building stronger connections with people and churches in the UK and elsewhere.

So, are you moving?

No, we're not moving. At this point, we’re not seeing an imminent relocation to Haiti, but will continue to be based here in Columbus, Indiana, with trips to Haiti, and to the UK. So our next move is not a literal one! 

Unlike others who become OMS missionaries, (like the Gross family who just moved to Haiti, after spending the last year or two in preparation and raising the needed funds to be able to start their ministry), we're already doing our ministry, and have been for a long time. But we will need to transition from getting a salary through the station to raising funds for our family's support (salary, and other stuff). More on that at a later point, but this will be a challenge for us (I'm sure it is for anyone). We've said we couldn't raise funds for the radio ministry and for our family, it's too confusing. It's like competing... Well, turns out that that's what we'll be doing. Ha ha, funny how God can turn those things around. Both in the circumstances and in how we feel about it! 

What will change then? 

A few things. We'll have an avenue to welcome people to join our family in our work by praying for us regularly and/or supporting us financially. At the moment, there's no structure for that. We'll be able to share updates, prayer requests and praises, challenges. 

We hope it will help our ministry to be more effective. Watch this space for how that'll pan out. 

We hope that coming into the OMS family will better support our family. Sometimes what we're doing on a day-to-day basis is a major struggle, and we grow weary and exhausted. We need support. 

And we do hope and pray that this change will bring God glory, and will serve OMS well.  

Thank You, Mèsi, Merci!

Many of you have been linking arms with us in our ministry for a long time, not officially through an organization perhaps, but in real, super helpful, encouraging, building us up, praying for us, blessing us with stuff we could use, bringing-tears-to-our-eyes and even, yes, giving-us-a-home kinds of ways. We don't say thank you enough, but we could not do what we do without you. 

May the Lord show you kindness...as you have shown kindness to us. 

(see Ruth 1:8)

So, that's the story of our next move, God willing. Hopefully next week, we'll know for sure. We do hope you'll pray with us as we go through this transition, however it works out. 

--

There's just 10 minutes left of the live Summer Youth programs on Radio 4VEH, and I'm listening to Rwoody, Jerry, Lyne as they greet us - Pastor Storly, Kate, Hannah (Anna) & Esther (Estair) - on the air. If they knew the names of all of you who've supported us, they'd want to greet you too. So, consider yourself greeted from the guys at Radio 4VEH, and from us in Indiana as we get ready for a long weekend (day off on Monday for Labor Day). Bless you!

Best Bits: Being Home in Haiti

We've been back in Indiana about a month now, after spending June and July in Haiti. Time to share some of our best bits from our trip.

Home

If you've been around us very long, you may have noticed that we talk about home in a whole bunch of ways. For 14 of the last 15 years, I've lived in a country other than my country of birth (Wales/UK, actually for a lot longer if you think of England as a foreign country to Wales, but that's a whole other discussion!).

You'd think I would know by now how to answer the question 'Where are you from?' Nope, every time someone asks, whether it's the checkout lady in our local Walmart, a fellow traveler on a plane to Haiti, or someone in a church congregation where we're presenting the radio ministry, I stumble every time I answer. Do they really mean 'Where are you from?' or do they mean 'Where is home?'

Home is where the heart is. Cheesy, maybe, but so true. But I love this perspective, too, from American poet Robert Frost:

"Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in." 

And we're so grateful for all 'our people' in different places who would take us in!

Now to Haiti. One of the best bits of our time there this summer, besides all the awesome ministry stuff and many God-moments was quite simply the blessing of being home. In Cap-Haitien. At Radio 4VEH. At home.

Memories

You see, part of our hearts....and the memories of early years of married life and new babies....are in our house, our home, in Lory, just outside Cap-Haitien. When I first saw the place, just a couple of weeks after moving to Haiti in 2003, it was a piece of land enclosed by a wall, with two huge mango trees and not much else. Storly tried to explain his plans for our soon-to-be home for our soon-to-be united-in-holy-matrimony family. And I had no idea how to picture what it would be like.

The foundations of our home in 2003. Loved the fact there's a banana tree there. 
It's not there anymore, just in case you were wondering.
 But we have others in the garden - bananas and plantains.  

When we moved in four months after our wedding, it was concrete block walls inside and out, and it stayed that way for quite some time, until we were able to get the walls plastered and painted. Building a house in Haiti depends on having cash available (no mortgages here). So, it's usually a long process for the few who can actually afford to start building their own house. Many never finish. (We haven't finished ours yet, either).

But it was home for four years. Our refuge. My refuge. The place where I had a little bit of control (in a country where I didn't speak Creole, the heart language, at least not very well at the beginning). The place where I planted sticks in the ground and watched them grow into gorgeous hibiscus bushes.

These hibiscus flowers would later inspire a new creative venture for me, 
after Hannah was born, of Haiti-inspired photo art - greeting cards, etc. 
One of the cards even has a poem I wrote about a peach hibiscus that I just loved.
After sitting in the garden in those early days of being a new mum, 
I marveled at those flowers. New every morning. Just like God's mercies. 

It's the place I came home to after a week's work at the World Vision office in Port-au-Prince. The place I had to leave every other Monday morning, to catch a tiny plane bumping through the clouds back to the capital city.

The place where we made a little palm tree into our Christmas tree. Where I recovered from dengue fever. And from a car accident. Where we enjoyed the delights of pregnancy (morning sickness when there's no 'honey, run to the store and get me ....'; complete and utter exhaustion in the never-ending heat; and 'did you feel the baby kick then?'). Ahhh, LOTS of precious memories.

First Time Back

But Hannah was 2, and Esther 6 months old, when we unexpectedly left our home in Lory. And this summer was our first time back there together.

Though we were staying at the OMS mission compound a couple of miles away (so we could be close to the teams we were hosting), we got to spend a couple of days and nights at our house and we had a BLAST!

Though we had no water (we're getting the well drilled again, so hoping we'll have clean water instead of muddy brown stuff we lived with for 4 years, and the few families who have rented our house since had to live with too), we got soaked in the outdoor shower (yeh, in the rain, ...'quick, go and get the soap!' oh yeh...).

It's pretty hard to find a shower with great water pressure here.
But the rainwater just shoots off the roof.

Most of us got soaked, and the other one just enjoyed taking photos :)

Coconut trees that were planted when we first moved in now have plenty of coconuts. 

There's nothing like fresh coconut - especially from your own garden. 

One of the many pleasures of Haiti!

The girls loved seeing that coconuts come from real trees.
And that you need a machete to get into one, thanks to Romain, our caretaker.

Yum!

The way to our house, over Haut-du-Cap bridge, which played a strategic role
in Haiti's battle for Independence a couple of hundred years ago. 

These Flamboyant (Flame trees) flower around May/June every year,
and remind me of when I first moved to Haiti. Storly bought me this (now huge) tree
one year for my birthday. It's now so big he says it needs to be cut down :(
I say, just a trim please. 

Going through our belongings, especially for Hannah & Esther, was like a treasure hunt, 
discovering their old teddies, birthday cards (and some junk that they thought were treasures!)

This was taken just a week before we left Haiti, in 2008.

And look at them now, five years later. 

Our life story is quite a journey. And He is faithful. Thank God. And thank you for joining us as the journey continues.

“Great is Thy faithfulness!” “Great is Thy faithfulness!“

  Morning by morning new mercies I see;

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—

    “Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!

I Will Not Give Something...

A few Sundays ago (21 July), we sat up on the podium at Église Baptiste de la Foi (in Cité Chauvel) while several choirs performed special songs and Storly preached a top sermon on giving. It was the church's annual Moisson (special Harvest service of thanksgiving), and the church was decked out in colorful paper-chains and fabric, and the congregation, choirs and all had obviously made a special effort to 'doll-up' (Haitians always dress up for church, so Moisson service is even more so...).   

View from the podium

One of several visiting choirs, wearing traditional choir garb

Hot (but no, I'm not asleep)

I've sat on many a podium in a Haitian church as Storly has preached. It's not a place I can go unnoticed. On this day, it was really hot and I was constantly fanning a sweaty 5-year-old who wriggled on my lap for 2 1/2 hours (while Hannah took pictures of us, and herself...). An old lady who was sat in the singing group next to us even lent me a photo she kept in her Bible, to reinforce the cooling power of my piece-of-paper fan. 

One of the songs this singing group sang struck me as soon as I heard it (though of course, now I want to tell you about it, I can't remember the exact words). 

"Si ou vle Ayiti vin pli bel, 

se pou tout ayisyen ap suiv Jezi...nan plas Satan

pou chak moun nan nasyon sa a 

rekonnet Bondye kom seul Met la" 

Rough translation is this: 

"The only way for Haiti to become more beautiful 

is for every Haitian to follow Jesus...instead of Satan

...for every person in this country to claim God as their only Master."

Have you ever heard a song like that sung in your church or in your country? I LOVE this about the way Haitians talk and sing out their faith. 

The ONLY way for Haiti to become more beautiful. Not one of the ways. 

For EVERY Haitian to follow Jesus. Not just a few, while the others go the other way. 

To follow JESUS...instead of Satan. Not instead of any religion you'd like to choose or make up as you go along. It's Jesus or the enemy, no middle ground. 

For every person to claim God as their ONLY Master. Not one master among many. 

Powerful stuff.  

Storly also preached a brilliant sermon about giving. I was wishing I had been able to take notes (though my note-taking from his animated preaching in Creole wouldn't be easy to write, or read). Brilliant because of the scope of his message (from 'who owns it all anyway', to 'condition of our hearts when we give to the Lord', from 'contributing to rebuild the Temple' to 'building ourselves, temples of the Holy Spirit'). And brilliant because he challenged us. All of us.  

Now, I work in fundraising,right. So,I've spent  over the years, I've spent quite a bit of time looking at what the Bible says about money, about giving, and raising funds. And I still find it mind-blowing. 

Like 1 Chronicles 29: 1-20, where David (after giving about $6 billion worth of gold of his personal wealth, then a load more in silver to rebuild the Temple) challenges the church leaders to give, and then the congregation follows. Read the whole passage, and notice words like "rejoicing", "they gave freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord". 

In verse 14, David gives the bottom line:

"Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand."

Like Matt 6: 19-21, about treasuring the right things:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, 

and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, 

where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Like in the middle of giving Moses the Ten Commandments (important stuff from God to His people), God gives instructions for His people to bring Him an offering..."from each man whose heart prompts him to give." Ah, it's a heart issue. What - or Who - we love is where we'll want to give our money (and our time, our attention, and everything else). 

Then when the Apostle Paul writes to the wealthy Corinthian church, he talks to them about the actions of the poor Macedonian church, (2 Corinthians 8) saying: 

In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty 

welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, 

and even beyond their ability. 

Their attitudes - Overflowing joy 

Their life situation - In the middle of a very severe trial and living in extreme poverty

Their impact - Rich generosity

Wow. That's what I want. Overflowing joy in whatever my financial circumstances (perhaps not extreme poverty, but we've had moments of not knowing how we were going to pay bills, or buy food, or have somewhere to live) to result in RICH generosity. 

And then the verse that really sticks in my mind from Storly's sermon. From 2 Samuel 24, where David needs to make an offering to the Lord, and is offered something for free. His response: "I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God something that cost me nothing." 

I will not give to the Lord my God something that cost me nothing. I don't want to give back to God - through giving to the local body of believers we're a part of, to those in ministry we're partnering with, to help those in need, giving because of the urge to show our love to God and to people - something that I'm not going to miss, our extras, the stuff, the money we can easily live without. I want to make an effort. That's part of the process. Part of the devotion. 

I will not give to the Lord my God something that cost me nothing.

I'm going to keep chewing over that statement. It's a bit of a challenge, isn't it? 


P.S. Here are a couple of great books if you're interested in reading more about what God says about money, how we handle our finances, giving and raising funds. The Treasure Principle is more general, lots of great principles in here. 

But if fundraising is your profession, if you raise funds for your own support and ministry, if you're a leader of a group that needs to raise funds, then If God Will Provide by Rick Dunham is a must-read. 

  

Back to...

After two months in Cap-Haitien, Haiti, we're back in the USA. (But we're not done with sharing stories from our summer there, so watch this space...)

1. Back to...Recording

As Storly admitted, there was no way he was going to get any recording (of his regular daily Thru The Bible/Atrave labib programs) done while we were in Haiti, though he was in the studios doing plenty of live shows and his Sunday morning devotional program called Cascade. But his studio (in our basement) needed a good clean before he gets back in there for several hours every day. 

Cleaning/bleaching/de-molding the studio's acoustic foam

Storly's the Haitian Creole voice of J. Vernon McGee for Thru The Bible, and for the last 4 years, he's been working his way through the Bible, and is now in Jeremiah in the Old Testament

 and 2 Thessalonians in the New Testament. Click here to listen - and share these resources with any Haitians you know. This is one of the only systematic Bible studies available in Creole ie. book-by-book, chapter-by-chapter complete Bible study. These programs are broadcast every weekday on Radio 4VEH in northern Haiti and on Radio Lumière in Port-au-Prince.

2. Back to...school!

At least, Hannah & Esther WILL be back to school on Monday. Yep, early, I know (especially for Brits who've only just broken up from school.) But we're all glad they'll be back at school (and Esther starting proper school, instead of pre-school). At the school's Open House yesterday, both girls got to meet their teachers (though we know them both already) and see their classrooms. And we're so thankful to have a great school close by, and to know both teachers from our church (oh, and the headmaster, I mean 'principal' is too). They're going to have a great year!

3. Back to...focus on fundraising

And telling donors/supporters of all the great things that are happening in people's lives in Haiti through their support - and how they can help even more. Already we've had a strategy meeting with colleagues at (One Mission Society) headquarters to plan out how to share current fundraising needs (for Radio 4VEH operations; major Petite Anse construction project; and Resounding Hope solar radios outreach).

Headquarters - One Mission Society in Greenwood, about 40 minutes away. I'm usually there a couple of times a month, sometimes with Storly. (Photo from One Mission Society Facebook page) 

 4. Back to...say goodbye to the Gross family

This one is bittersweet! Our good friends Steve & Melissa Gross, and their four kids Caleb, Hannah, Samuel and Sarah, have been a solid, awesome part of our lives since we moved to Columbus five years ago. And we've been honored to be part of their lives, including taking them to Haiti (Melissa with me in June 2010/Steve with Storly in Oct 2010)...sending text messages letting them know OMS had a need for teachers...and watching as God called them to move to Haiti as missionaries and serve at OMS' Cowman International School (they're both teachers). An amazing journey over the last three years through their initial questions ('do you think we're crazy to consider moving our family to Haiti?'  -- uh, nope!), their application process, them raising funds to support their family (salary, living expenses, travel etc) for the next five years. And now, they leave in just a few days - and we will miss them :(  - though we're really excited for them too! 

We were able to be part of a moving 'commissioning service' held at OMS headquarters last week for the Gross family and several other missionary families, as they are officially sent to various parts of the world (was good to see Robin from Northern Ireland whose team we had hosted in Haiti a month before). Do check out the Gross family's blog here. They are still in need of friends to join their monthly financial and prayer support team. We're part of their team - will you consider supporting them too? Their blog will tell you how to get started. 

5. And back to...celebrate my 40th birthday!

Oh yeh! A birthday-eve dinner with Wayne & Barb, birthday night dinner with the Grosses, and another night celebration with gorgeously good friends. 

Gorgeous flowers - thanks, Mum & Ruthie!

Cake with Wayne & Barb

Ice-cream, more cake and Happy Birthday tiaras
with Mandy, Melissa, Kellie & Jamie and families

Spot the "I am 40" badge that H & E bought for me (press it, and it'll sing...).
Oh, and yes, that is a Chuck E. Cheese's happy birthday hat I'm wearing.

Nice, Storly!