The Adventures of the Yonker Family

A new way of thinking...... Part 3

2011-09-14T15:57:00.001-04:00

Sand Castles Vs. Madam Maxo

Last weekend my family went for a couple of much needed days of camping on beautiful Lake Michigan. We spent a couple afternoons sitting by the beach playing in the sand and swimming. As I watched my kids build sand castles, my thoughts traveled back to this “new thinking”series of blog posts.

My kids would spend hours filling buckets with sand, shaping them to look like castles. They would build moats, walls, tunnels and all kinds of intricate things out of sand. When they were done, they looked great, and they were so proud, wanting to show everyone what they had built. The next day, when we would go to the same spot, everything was gone. There was not even a trace of all the hard work put in just the day before.

Does this sound familiar? Before starting Ebenezer, I spent an amazing amount of time, energy, and resources leading mission trips to Haiti. We would do all kinds of things for all kinds of people, yet, whey returning with the next team, often these people were no better off than the last time we were there. Money, clothes, food, and all kinds of things given, yet a few months later, the people were still in just as much of need as before. I started to think about this, and try to understand why. The conclusion I came to is not an easy one to share, and it may be taken wrong by some, but I pray not. What I realized, as I was honest with myself, was that a lot of what was being done was not as much to help the people, but to have the perfect photo shot of us helping someone, or a great story / testimony to share with those back home. These, unfortunately, are sand castles. They are the result of a lot of effort, and are beautiful to see, yet, within days there is no evidence that anything ever took place, except in pictures and stories. So, I will ask, is this really helping, or making us feel good? Now, before I go on, I am not saying that doing the short term helping stuff is bad, or that we need to stop. That is not where I am going. What I AM saying is that we need to have a long term solution to go along with the short term help. There HAS to be a way. Let me give an example...

The church was instituted by Christ to be His physical presence on earth in the day of salvation, which we are in now. The church, as they selflessly help others draw the world in by their love for each other, especially to the “least of these”. As Paul traveled planting churches, notice something. He raised up leadership within areas, and let THEM be the local church. This is our core belief at Ebenezer. The local Haitian church needs to start ministering to their own people instead of depending on others. If this happens it will be a huge step towards independence.

Before my family left this summer, someone from the local Haitian community gave me some money, telling me to give it to whoever needs it. That morning I had received an email that a dear friend of mine, Maxo, had died of Cholera. We had built him a house the summer before. His wife was hurt badly in the earthquake, and one of their 4 children were killed. I knew immediately that the money was for her. Upon arriving in Haiti, I shared with Pastor Marc that I had the money, and that I thought it should go to her. He agreed and said I could give it to her. I laughed and told him he knew that I don’t give it, but told him that she needed to know it came from the church. Then, instead of Marc giving her the money, he gave it to someone she did not know. He gave it to her, and said it was for her, from the church.

A few weeks later, a couple from the local Haitian church here in Michigan came to visit us in Haiti. I brought them to see Madam Maxo, so they could share with the donor where her money went. I told them not to mention the money, but just to say we were there to visit. During the visit, Madam Maxo was asked how she was getting by with her husband gone. Here is her answer... “ It is very hard. I am struggling to provide for my family. But, God did an amazing thing and provided a miracle in my life. He provided for us in a way I did not expect, so I took the money and started a market. Now I am able to provide for my family from the money I make selling things.”

See the difference? Because the money came from church, without the fanfare of pictures, GOD receives the glory, and the money has a lasting impact. Now, every time I pass Madam Maxo’s house, I smile as I see her market, neatly arranged, clean, and a big smile on her face.

This is just one example we have seen of a lasting impact that can happen when relief is brought through the church. With the economy situation, and so many other things that are wearing on the churches outreach, we need to start asking ourselves if we want to continue to build sand castles, or houses built on the rock, that will last for a lifetime, and eternity.

I need to get back to a few house stories, but I will continue this series soon. Thanks for the comments some of you have given me. I am open for your thoughts. Let’s continue to learn together!
Nate Yonker

Reilly Concert

2011-09-14T07:58:00.004-04:00

October 29 6:45pm You will not want to miss this!!

Tickets are only $10.00

3 bands

Ceglarek Fine Arts Center, Allendale Mi
10760 68th Avenue, Allendale, MI 49401

To order your tickets online go to www.ebenezerdtc.org and click on the Reilly picture.

To send check or cash:

telltheworld5@gmail.com

We hope to see the place filled!! Come out and listen to some great bands!!! We are looking for people to help us spread the word about this concert. If you would be willing to put some posters up for us and contact different churches please email me at the address above. I can send you a cool poster and other details!

Thank you for all your support!!!

A new way of thinking...... Part 2

2011-09-10T16:32:00.001-04:00

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Philippians 2:3-4 NKJ

As my family waited in line Monday to enter the airport, we were surrounded by a mass of people trying to get inside. Many, I am assuming, trying to get out before Irene came into Haiti. The line was long and tensions were high. Amidst all this chaos, I saw a small, frail woman walking down the line, holding the usual necklaces and paintings that so many try to sell to people leaving. As I watched her come down the line, my attention was drawn to the people that she tried to sell to. For the first time I really paid attention to the reactions people had as she tried to sell her wares. Rude was the only way I could describe it. Short and angry retorts, angry looks, and physically turning away without a word. As she approached my family, I smiled at her and told her the things she was selling were beautiful. She looked at me surprised and said. “your not angry?” to which I replied “or course not, why would I be?”

This started a long conversation with her. We explained why we were there, how hard it was to leave, and how much we love the country and how much we appreciate her willingness to work, even in this tough situation. She proudly told us that she has four children, two boys and two girls, and she was selling to provide for them. After a while we parted with “God bless you’s” as a parting. As she walked away smiling, my eyes went back to the groups she had been to before. They were all looking our way with puzzled looks on their faces. Although it was obvious they did not understand the conversation, they saw the happiness of the lady after sharing a little love with her. I wondered where they came from and what their purpose was. If it was to be the “hands, feet, and mouth” of Jesus, they just failed miserably. Imagine what this lady must think of Americans if this is the way she is treated every day, then multiply that times....

For those of you who have been with Ebenezer since the beginning, you know why it was started. After years of seeing things done the wrong way, God moved in a group of us to do something.... different. With the model of mission powerhouse Gospel for Asia, and using Revolution in World Missions and Come let’s reach the world, two books I highly recommend, we implemented these principles in mission heavy Haiti. Sure, this works well in areas where the name of Jesus is not known, but how about a country where missionaries abound?

Over the summer we had some teams come with members who had been to Ebenezer last year, and then came back this year. All of them marveled at how different things were. Never, never, did we expect to see results like this SO quickly. People in the Ti Goave area and beyond have embraced this new concept with open arms, and even those who resisted at first are now totally on board and excited about what they are seeing. God is doing amazing things as you have seen. I have many more stories to tell.

God continues to show us things, helping us learn. Our purpose is not to say we know it all, or have all the answers. We don’t. What we do want to do is help educate from what we have learned. We believe we are on to something and hope that this spreads for the good of the people, and more importantly, the good of the Kingdom.

Many in the mission community are seeing things in new ways. Admitting that the status quo is just not working, so we need to adjust, change our thinking so that we can actually do some good. This relates to long term AND short term missions. As in the opening story, there are many things that happen, often without our knowledge, that actually do more harm than good to the country we are trying to help. There are many discussions on what to do about this, and some plans in the works. Just like Ebenezer has helped the indigenous people of Haiti think in a new way for the good of the people, we hope that Ebenezer can help Americans think in a new way for the good of the people they want to serve. Posts not to make people feel guilty. Trust me, I have screwed up MANY times. Instead to say that we CAN do a better job if we acknowledge that there are thing we are doing wrong. I believe with all my heart that it is a new day in missions. Not just Haiti, but wherever we are called. Will you join us in this learning adventure?
Nate Yonker

Reilly Concert

2011-08-29T16:59:00.005-04:00

The Reilly concert is October 29, 6:45. Opening will be the Haitian praise band from GRW and Altar*d Life. General admission tickets are $10. VIP tickets are $20 and include a private acoustic set from Reilly, autographed posters, and front row seats. These seats are limited and only 32 are left. We hope to sell out and tickets are first come first serve. Please contact me if you want to reserve tickets, and how many.

The Concert will be at the Ceglarek Fine Arts Center. 10760 68th Ave. Allendale, MI 49401

For those of you who have never heard Reilly click on the video below

We are also looking for people available to help that day. If you are interested let us know and we will add you to the list. telltheworld5@gmail.com

A new way of thinking.....

2011-08-27T12:40:00.002-04:00

(Nate is posting these on the Ebenezer page on facebook but I know someone you are not on that page so I plan on reposting these here.)

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Philippians 2:3-4 NKJ

As my family waited in line Monday to enter the airport, we were surrounded by a mass of people trying to get inside. Many, I am assuming, trying to get out before Irene came into Haiti. The line was long and tensions were high. Amidst all this chaos, I saw a small, frail woman walking down the line, holding the usual necklaces and paintings that so many try to sell to people leaving. As I watched her come down the line, my attention was drawn to the people that she tried to sell to. For the first time I really paid attention to the reactions people had as she tried to sell her wares. Rude was the only way I could describe it. Short and angry retorts, angry looks, and physically turning away without a word. As she approached my family, I smiled at her and told her the things she was selling were beautiful. She looked at me surprised and said. “your not angry?” to which I replied “or course not, why would I be?”

This started a long conversation with her. We explained why we were there, how hard it was to leave, and how much we love the country and how much we appreciate her willingness to work, even in this tough situation. She proudly told us that she has four children, two boys and two girls, and she was selling to provide for them. After a while we parted with “God bless you’s” as a parting. As she walked away smiling, my eyes went back to the groups she had been to before. They were all looking our way with puzzled looks on their faces. Although it was obvious they did not understand the conversation, they saw the happiness of the lady after sharing a little love with her. I wondered where they came from and what their purpose was. If it was to be the “hands, feet, and mouth” of Jesus, they just failed miserably. Imagine what this lady must think of Americans if this is the way she is treated every day, then multiply that times....

For those of you who have been with Ebenezer since the beginning, you know why it was started. After years of seeing things done the wrong way, God moved in a group of us to do something.... different. With the model of mission powerhouse Gospel for Asia, and using Revolution in World Missions and Come let’s reach the world, two books I highly recommend, we implemented these principles in mission heavy Haiti. Sure, this works well in areas where the name of Jesus is not known, but how about a country where missionaries abound?

Over the summer we had some teams come with members who had been to Ebenezer last year, and then came back this year. All of them marveled at how different things were. Never, never, did we expect to see results like this SO quickly. People in the Ti Goave area and beyond have embraced this new concept with open arms, and even those who resisted at first are now totally on board and excited about what they are seeing. God is doing amazing things as you have seen. I have many more stories to tell.

God continues to show us things, helping us learn. Our purpose is not to say we know it all, or have all the answers. We don’t. What we do want to do is help educate from what we have learned. We believe we are on to something and hope that this spreads for the good of the people, and more importantly, the good of the Kingdom.

Many in the mission community are seeing things in new ways. Admitting that the status quo is just not working, so we need to adjust, change our thinking so that we can actually do some good. This relates to long term AND short term missions. As in the opening story, there are many things that happen, often without our knowledge, that actually do more harm than good to the country we are trying to help. There are many discussions on what to do about this, and some plans in the works. Just like Ebenezer has helped the indigenous people of Haiti think in a new way for the good of the people, we hope that Ebenezer can help Americans think in a new way for the good of the people they want to serve. Posts not to make people feel guilty. Trust me, I have screwed up MANY times. Instead to say that we CAN do a better job if we acknowledge that there are thing we are doing wrong. I believe with all my heart that it is a new day in missions. Not just Haiti, but wherever we are called. Will you join us in this learning adventure?
Nate Yonker

Home......

2011-08-26T14:21:00.003-04:00

We arrived home on Tuesday evening. I was really hoping to be able to blog while I was there but for some reason blogger would always delete every I would write. I even tried to copy and paste and finally gave up. We were gone for almost 7 weeks. It was an amazing time. We did have some ups and downs but that is to be expected. We watched homes being put up, people coming to Christ, we had another graduation party for the discipleship and literacy class and we even were able to get to know the discipleship class that has been going on for the last 3 weeks. We were able to further relationships and to build new ones. We were able to further relationships with other mission groups and business in Haiti that we prays will turn into something very cool!! No details yet. We had a few teams come down and hang out with us and we enjoyed those times. My hope is that in the next few weeks I will write more about what we did and to have some pictures and videos to show. Thank you for all your prayers and for your support. It is so appreciated. It at times can get very lonley on the mission field and we thank you for the emails that we did get while we were gone. They mean so much.

Every morning for breakfast we would have bananas, fresh pineapple, fresh squeezed juice, bread, peanut butter and Jelly. We would then also either have oatmeal or this egg dish that was amazing! On Saturdays we would have pancakes and on Sundays we would have Cereal. We liked the give the cooks the weekends off to spend with their families. We are very spoiled with our cooks! They are amazing and always have a smile on their faces. They are fun to tease and they tease right back!!

This is Hannah and one of my favorite kids. His name is Christopher and he is 4 years old.
Heather took this picture of Detroit from the air.
Nikolas at the Banaya beach. He is going to be a freshman this year and was such a huge help to us this summer he has a heart of gold and an amazing compassionate heart!! God really blessed our family when he led us to Russia to adopt him.

This was the start of our kitchen, dining area and apartment. I have more pictures that I will share soon of the progress that was made while we were there. This will also be used for classes, eating, weddings and anything else that the community will need.

That is all for today. Do not forget to save Saturday, October 29th for the Riley/Altar*d Life concert. It is going to be and awesome night and we are so grateful to each of them for helping us put on this fundraiser. More details to come as we figure out tickets and other details.

We are praying that Gladys and Henri from Haiti will be able to join us for that evening!!!

We will need people to help us that night so if you are interested please email us at telltheworld5@gmail.com. We are working on making this night affordable for families to attend.

Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser

2011-03-28T16:56:00.003-04:00

Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser
for Yonker Family's summer in Haiti

When: Saturday April 30th 7:30 -10:00am
Lighthouse community church – Allendale Mi

Or

Saturday, May 14th 7:30 – 10:30am
Byron Center First Reformed Church – (at the Rock) Byron Center, Mi

Featuring Nate's “world famous” pancakes made with Haitian Vanilla and
Cinnamon, regular pancakes, Sausage, scrambled eggs, juice and Coffee.

ALL YOU CAN EAT!

Free will donation at the door. Any donations of $100 or more are tax deductible. Make checks out to Ebenezer dtc.

The Yonkers will be spending July and August in Haiti. Their main jobs will be meeting the requirements for the grants received for houses, hosting teams, relationship building and working on future plans for Ebenezer.

If you cannot make it but would still like to donate please email telltheworld5@gmail.com and we can send you the address of where to send checks! Thank you!!!!

Tear down the walls

2011-03-01T09:18:00.003-05:00

We bought a new Hillsong United a few weeks ago. I had not really listened to it very much or really listened to the words until just recently. I forgot how much I love Hillsong and their passion. Their passion is contagious. A few songs have stuck out to me. This is one of them.

These words are where my heart is. It is so hard to go through every day and watch people who seem to just want to get by in this life. There is SO much more than this out there in the world. Where is our passion? What is your passion? God gives EVERYONE a passion. What are you doing with yours? God has given us a passion, at this time, for Haiti. He has given us a love for the people there. He has given us a passion to tear down the walls there. We have just purchase our tickets for this summer. The 7 of us will be leaving July 7th for 6 weeks. We have a few teams that will be coming again this summer. If you are interested in possibly coming on a trip email us at telltheworld5@gmail.com. We would love to have you join us!!

Tear Down The Walls lyrics

Tear down the walls see the world
Is there something we have missed
Turn from ourselves
Look beyond
There is so much more than this

And I don’t need to see it to believe it
I don’t need to see it to believe it
Cause I can’t shake this
Fire deep inside my heart

Look to the skies hope arise
See His majesty revealed
More than this life there is love
There is hope and this is real

Cause I don’t need to see it to believe it
I don’t need to see it to believe it
Cause I can’t shake this fire burning
Deep inside my heart

This life is Yours and hope is rising
As Your glory floods our hearts
Let love tear down these walls
That all creation would
Come back to You
It’s all for You

Your Name is glorious
Glorious
Your love is changing us
Calling us
To worship in spirit and in truth
As all creation returns to You

Oh for all the sons and daughters
Who are walking in the darkness
You are calling us to lead them back to You
We will see Your spirit rising
As the lost come out of hiding
Every heart will see this hope we have in You

Cause I don’t need to see it to believe it
I don’t need to see it to believe it
Cause I can’t shake this fire burning
Deep inside my heart

This life is Yours and hope is rising
As Your glory floods our hearts
Let love tear down these walls
That all creation would
Come back to You
It’s all for You

Your Name is glorious
Glorious
Your love is changing us
Calling us
To worship in spirit and in truth
As all creation returns to You

Home 5 days

2011-02-11T10:13:00.004-05:00

Overlooking Port-Au-Prince
Overlooking the bay in Petit Goave
Jimmy
August and his daughter (they are getting a house)
(Destin - He and his family are getting a house)

I have been home from Haiti now for 5 days. A lot of people ask me if I am happy to be home. Yes, I am happy to be in my house in the states with my kids. I love being with my friends and my family. However 3/4 of my heart is in the country where God has asked us to serve at this time. When we go back we are asked all the time, "where have you been, we watched for you to come every day". I feel alive in Haiti, It feels right. At this time God has not called us to move to Haiti full time. He has asked us to do extended stays. We are thankful that Nate has a job where his bosses let him off and understand what is happening. We are thankful that we have children who are just as excited to serve in Haiti as we are.

Will God call us to move to Haiti? Maybe... We are constantly discerning this. We have been asked by several families that we love and trust in Haiti "when are you moving?" They are praying for us to hear clearly either way.

There are days I want nothing more than to move there. Every day I feel God there and know what he wants us to do. Some days here I feel like it is a struggle. I feel free there. For those of you who have been on mission trips you understand what that feels like.

We know God will make it clear and we just have to be obedient. The waiting is the hard part. We just want God to use us where ever he has us.

My kids have a teacher at school that is a wonderful Christian man. He has helped my kids so much through hard times. Yesterday, Heather, told him that her brother says Hi. He asked who her brother was and she said "Nikolas". He says I did not know he was your brother. He then told Heather what a Godly young man he is and was excited to find out they were related. He then asked Heather to pray for a friend of his who was to lead a team to Haiti and found out his daughter has Leukemia. What made me smile is that he knows he can come to my children to ask for prayer! :) Thank you, Jesus for children who love you and are willing for the children and teachers to all know just how much you love their Lord!

I feel like I am rambling today. I have so many emotions going through me right now and so unsure of how to put them in order. Each time we go to Haiti and come back it gets harder to adjust back into this life. I probably feel a little more emotion as today I am going to the funeral of a wonderful 94 year old woman who was such an inspiration to me. She also loved Haiti with all her heart and I would love to just sit down and spend time with her. She also "GOT IT".

Thanks to all of you who are supporting Ebenezer with your time, prayers and finances. We cannot even begin to tell you how appreciative we are of all of you!

Update from Ebenezer

2011-01-18T21:09:00.002-05:00

I know I have not written anything here in a very long time. However today I wanted to share with you something that Nate wrote. He is in Haiti right now and sent this update:

This is a first! Praise God we have working internet at Ebenezer now so I can update while we are here. Just another example of the way God is providing.

I have so much to share. So many amazing things going on. I could share about how your generosity has provided many needed things through the catalog. I could share how house fundraisers have been, and will be, a blessing to those here who are in such great need. I could share how things are progressing here, as they are, ever so slowly, yet progressing. I could share with you the amaing way Jimmy is teaching the pastors and people in tents things like cholera. He is an amazing blessing from God.

Instead, today I want to share about the school. After all, that is what Ebenezer DTC is. A school to train existing pastors, and raise up new Christian leaders so that these leaders will change Haiti from the inside out. Today, I had the amazing privilage to witness a vision of God become reality. When God laid this on my heart years ago, it seemed impossible. Today, as I listened to what these students shared, I had to leave the meeting for a short time as I was in tears. God is doing something here, something big. The men shared how they realize that for Haiti to change for the better, it needs to start with them. They shared that God is the one who will provide the means and stregth for that change, and that it would not come fast, but will come, one person at a time.
As pastor Marc shared with the men, he told them that it was not just the words they spoke, but the actions that they showed that would make the biggest impact. He exhorted the men to do the lowest of jobs, not to wait to be served, but to be the first to serve. He explained the example of Jesus, how He gave up all in order to serve us, and give us eternal life. The men agreed and promised they would carry out this. The men are on fire for the Lord and can't wait to take what they have learned to thier villages.

The men in literacy class warmed my heart. One elderly man shared how he had no parents to raise him, and that he never went to school because he had to help support the family. He was so overjoyed that we were able to help him read for the first time in his life. Another man shared how excited he was to be able to write his name, and recongnize names as they are written. Another shared how for the first time he could read the words of life from the Bible.

The stories and testimonies went on for hours. You can imagine how overwhelming this was. God is so good, and I am so excited to share with you what is happening here. We have only Him to be thankful for. Thank you Father for your vision of Ebenezer. Thank you for the miraculous way you have brought your vision to reality. May we be good stewards of this vision and bring you glory through it. May all praise and glory be yours, for you alone are worthy. Amen, and amen.

God is doing amazing things and thank you also to all of you for helping us to make this all happen!!

Thanksgiving

2010-11-24T09:58:00.005-05:00

This has been the strangest year. I can honestly say that this is one year that I would NEVER want to repeat. However, I am also very thankful for this year because God has showed up in amazing ways. One of the things I am VERY thankful for is God is Sovereign. He knows all and even when we do not understand He knew things would happen the way they would and we just have to trust that He knows what He is doing. I am thankful that I can rest in that.

I am SO very thankful for friends that stick through thick and thin. We screw up! Imagine that. Thankful for your Grace and for the Grace of God and that we have a God that forgives us and then does NOT remember that we screwed up! Wow! That is awesome!!

I am thankful for family that loves us. God has brought our family on a crazy path and sometimes even when they do not understand they still love us and pray for us and are there for us. They support us. How we love them for that.

I am VERY thankful that God sent us to Haiti for 10 weeks. I would not trade that experience for anything. Our family grew so much. We felt our kids slipping away and we were able to restore what we were losing and grow closer for it. It was not always easy dealing with issues that came up. We learned that Integrity is so important. We learned, again, that missions is not about us but about the God we serve and furthering His kingdom. We learned that we have to completely take what we want out of it and let God fill us with what He wants. There were times this summer that it felt very stressful but that was Satan and work and we learned just how hard he tries to break relationships. We worked hard at fighting that battle. Satan cannot win and will not win. We are very thankful for the teams that came down this summer. We are SO thankful for all they did for the mission and for the people of Haiti. They accomplished so much.

We learned how much we love the Haitian people. We love the relationships that were built. We love watching God use them to be missionaries in their own country.

We are thankful for all of you who are supporting Ebenezer! Through finances, prayers, mission trips. Each one of you are a huge part of what Ebenezer is and we could NOT do this without all of you.

We have had some things that have happened this year that we totally did not see happening. It makes us sad, sometimes even angry, but we know God has a plan. Just remember that in relationships God does not tear apart. Satan does. Jesus asks us to meet and try to figure out what happened and what went wrong. I am thankful I can say that I have tried. I can now leave it in God's hands and feel confident that someday it will be made right.

Things have not be easy this year but we are thankful that God continues to use us in big ways. We do stop and wonder and how He chose our family so long ago for this task but we realize we only need to be Obedient to Him and he will continue to show us the way!

Happy Thanksgiving to ALL of you!!

Nate, Brenda, Nikolas, Ekaterina, Heather, Hannah and Caleb

New pictures!

2010-11-02T08:34:00.004-04:00

Lots of prayers needed

2010-09-30T09:00:00.004-04:00

We are coming to all of you to ask for prayers.

We are asking for prayers for Ebenezer Discipleship training center. Please continue to pray for the Staff.

Pastor Marc - Pastor and Director
Ruth - cook
Esther - cook
Jimmy - Take the Jesus film around
Jeile - Groundskeeper

Please pray for the two classes that are going on.

We currently have 11 pastors in the Discipleship portion and over 60 that are on the waiting list. (this is just from the first area that we have spoken with - We know there will be so many more as the training center stays open)

We just found out too a few days ago that the literacy program is up and running again too. We do not have a total number yet on that.

We also would love to continue with the house building project and any other needs that the community has (we we know are HUGE)

We have a 4 man construction crew to build the houses and we have a 6 man cement crew to put in the foundations and floors. What a joy and a privilege to be able to give these men a job so they can provide for their families.

We are asking for prayers for all of this and for funding to come in. We KNOW God will continue to provide. However He has also put us in place to help advocate for these people.

If God moves your heart to donate please go to www.ebenezerdtc.org. We know that the website needs to be updated and God has this past weekend provided someone to make that happen. Keep checking back often. We have watched God provide many miracles this past summer on our time in Haiti. If you have questions about this mission or if you would be willing to help us advocate for these dear people please email us at telltheworld5@gmail.com. If you would like us to come speak at your church we are more than willing to do that as well. If you would like to call us please send us an email and we will give your our phone number.

Thank you to all of you who have donated in the past and are already praying for these people. As of right now we have enough funding to go through November. Again we know God will provide but we also know that God loves to hear our prayers!!

Hard time blogging

2010-09-16T11:44:00.003-04:00

I have been having a hard time blogging about this summer. I have a lot of emotions right now and I just cannot seem to put my thoughts together.

We put together a video for our church testimony night and thought I would share it here as well.

I will try to put up more pictures of the summer and maybe post some stuff that way.

June 7 2010

2010-08-26T13:56:00.000-04:00

I have to go back a long way. How I wish I could have done this in Haiti.

We went to Lighthouse in the morning. Nate preached his sermon on Isaiah 6. I love this sermon. I really makes things make sense!

After saying some hard goodbyes, we loaded up in the van to head to Detroit for a 1:30 flight. Thank you Mike, Diane and Tori for bringing us!

This was the first time we had flown Spirit Airlines. The flight was very smooth but of course no drinks. The kids hated that but the flight was cheap so we could not complain! We flew in Ft. Lauderdale on time and knew we had to spend the night on the airport floor. Not a fun time but we made it through just fine. The next morning our flight was to take off around 7am. We were at our gate and they started boarding the plane. A few minutes later we heard that there was a delay. We then heard there was another delay. After awhile they took off the passengers that had already boarded and told us the flight was now canceled because of the pilot. We thought that was kind of strange but no more info. We gathered our things and went to change our tickets. Wow! The Haitians were causing a riot. It was scary and they had to call in security. The kids were a little nervous to say the least. We just told them we were going to remain calm and that God would take care of us. It was our turn at the window and we gave them our info. They gave us some food vouchers, a hotel voucher and a taxi voucher but told us they did not know our flight situation yet. It could be that day or two days from now. After a few hours they called Nate back up to the window and they told them they could get some of us out that day and some of us out the next day. They had all but Nikolas on one flight. Needless to say that was not going to happen. I was not about the send Nikolas off alone. Finally they had Nate, Wilson and Heather on Insul air and the rest of us on American. We flew into Haiti one hour apart. It was not my first choice but again God took great care of us. We were able to spend a great day at a very nice hotel in Ft. Lauderdale. Kids were able to go swimming and we ate some good food. The next morning early we took 3 different cabs to Miami Airport and then separated ways. I kept saying a little prayer that an angel would be on the otherside of passport in Port-au-prince to help with our luggage and the kids. I knew we could do it but I was not sure about customs and how it was working at that time. We flew in and went through passport control just fine. The only glitch is that the passport guy took my customs form and told me to go on Tiffanys. Needless to say I was not sure how that would work as mine claimed 6 of us and hers claimed 0. He told us no problem. I trusted God would make it okay. The most wonderful thing is on the other side of passport control I could see Nate's head gathering our suitcases. There was a young man at the airport, Alexei, who was able to get Nate into the secure area to help us. How I thanked the Lord over and over for my angel and my protection! We went through customs no questions asked and were on our way to Petiti Goave. It was a long, long ride and every mile devestated my heart further and we saw more and more destruction.

Haiti

2010-08-22T16:22:00.002-04:00

I am trying to get the pictures off of my phone but so far my phone and my computer are not cooperating. Hopefully I can share our journey soon.

This summer was truly watching God at work. He taught our family so much. Some of it looked just like it does here at home. I still had to be a mom and a wife. I still had to do laundry, clean, make sure the children behaved and make sure that I was everything God would want me to be while I was in Haiti.

I needed to be respectful of my surroundings and let nothing that I did effect the mission. We knew that no matter what the mission had to come first. Not our comforts or what we wanted in the flesh, but what was important to the mission. At times we had to make decisions that would not make others happy but it had to be done because of the mission that was going on around us. Satan wanted to try everything to break this mission down and he knew that the kingdom was advancing there and wanted it to end.

One of the things I want to write about in my first blog post was about something called Integrity. It has become something very important to me.

The definition of Integrity is this:

integrity

–noun

adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.

One tough thing about being on the mission field for longer than a week is you really get to know people and those you are serving. Some of what we saw brought us great sadness. Some of what we saw brought us great joy.

I have learned that I value honesty so much. I value people who are willing to admit to having problems and are willing to submit to those in Authority and work through those problems not just bury them. If you cannot have that you have to look hard at yourself and who you are as a christian. This is what Christ asks us to do. We ALL need to be refined. It is a process. However a huge thing is being able to admit it when you do something wrong and you work on fixing the problems. Some of the pastors we were working with did not have integrity. We had to sit them down and talk to them. What we found encouraged us. After wards they showed us great respect and even called us as we were leaving crying very hard because we had to go home. They were willing to admit to their sins and work on what was wrong. God called us to make some tough decisions and they HURT! They HURT bad. It is hard to do the right thing.

We all have problems. Certainly I do to. It is how we act with those problems and what we do with them that shows our character.

My kids learned this this summer as well. This summer was a huge learning experience for them. We grew so close as a family. Now that we are home they do not want to lose that closeness. We are probably going to step back somewhat from some things we are doing and spend time as a family.

Now you might think that our summer was not good. It was the opposite! It was an awesome summer. We went down specifically to do the discipleship training. We did get that done. We at first did it with 5 of us and because of time issues it ended up with just Pastor Marc and Nate.

What else was wonderful is that thanks to Paige and the Livesay family, we were able to put up 26 houses plus build one more house for John McHoul, for a family through Heartline ministries.

We were able to hire 10 people. 5 on a construction crew and 5 that worked on putting in the cement floors. They grew to form great friendships and a lot of laughter is occurring while they are putting up these houses. We may have the opportunity to put up some more. If you want to know how to be involved with the school or housing please email us. telltheworld5@gmail.com

Nate and I had the honor of standing up in the wedding of Jean Rene. He became a Christian during the first part of our summer and soon became our head construction guy and a great friend.

We were able to visit many tent cities and bring bibles and proclaimers. We saw the Haitian pastors lead many people to Christ and we knew follow up is going on and they are being discipled. Praise God.

We also were able to host 6 teams. It was not easy. There was no privacy. We enjoyed most of the people that came through and it made us realize why teams are a part of the mission and how important they can be. It made us realize just how short a week was. It also gave us a GREAT RESPECT for missionaries that are on the field all the time. We get them now. We understand why they do things the way they do. We understand why at times they have to be hard. We love how they are REAL! Troy and Tara you are real. We love your family and what you are doing with all our hearts. You understand what needs to be done and why its not always easy do it.

The hardest thing we struggled with was a vehicle. There were times we had something to drive but most time we spend a ton of money on tap taps and things like that to get us around. If a team was not there at times we were stuck at the mission.

We know someone that has a vehicle fund started for us so if interested in learning how to donate to that again please email us.

This summer was huge in learning how to do thing and learning how not to do things. We had to do some things that were not popular but Christ does not ask us to do things that are popular. He just asks us to be obedient to him and follow him only. We can say 100% that we did that.

We do not know what the future holds at this point. We only know we want to continue to be obedient.

Thanks for all the prayers, all the financial support and all the love. We cannot do any of this without all of you!! A huge thanks to Melissa for her time at our house and with our dog. We could NOT have done this without you!!

It was great having friends at the end to help us come home. They understood how hard it was for us to leave and also understood the excitement we also felt in knowing we were coming home. It felt twisted. I think it will always feel that way. With God in the lead it will be OKAY!

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2010-08-11T14:47:00.000-04:00

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2010-07-30T17:20:00.000-04:00

Caleb asked Pastor Mark for a real job today. He worked hard all day.
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For Judy Holmes

2010-07-27T05:41:00.000-04:00

Hi Judy. The second family we chose to use the other $50 with is very special to us. His name is Eli. He is married and has a daughter named julisa. We bought her a bed with the money. She did not have one.

A little background on this family. Last summer Eli's father was in the literacy class at ebenezer. His dream was to be able to read the bible on his own and to preach from it. His Kids would always read scripture to him before and he would preach from that. At the celebration dinner, the father, was given a bible. He was so excited as he began to read and then began to preach. The Lord then chose that moment to take him home. The other pastors were sad but very encouraged that the Lord gave this man his dream. When we got here this summer we found out pastor Marc was taking care of Eli and his brothers (nevil and joseu). we were able to giv Eli and his family a house and a job (building house) and his family is finally able to live together. Their daughter, Julisa, is adorable. She is around 9 months old and needed a bed. Thank you again Judy and boys for allowing God to use you in helping another family.
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2010-07-27T05:24:00.000-04:00

Caleb, kiki, Christopher.
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2010-07-27T05:23:00.000-04:00

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2010-07-20T16:28:00.000-04:00

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2010-07-20T16:26:00.000-04:00

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Thank you Judy and boys.

2010-07-20T13:50:00.000-04:00

I just want to give a big thank you to Judy Holmes and her wonderful boys.

As you all know we have two children adopted from Irkutsk, Russia. Judy also has two boys from Irkutsk. Her boys raised money on their own to help the children of Haiti.

Right after the earthquake, Nate met a family with a very young boy. He was just a few months old. His mother was killed in the earthquake. We have been praying and wondering how to use this money. This morning we were still discussing how to use this money. Right at that moment the father walked in with the baby. Instantly we knew the first person to help. We were able to provide them with a proclaimer, (bible in kreyol that uses crank and solar power) food and clothing and a toy. This baby had nothing and through the heart and compassion of two boys, who listened to God, this baby is now clothed and fed. We have a little girl named, Julisa, who we hope to use the rest. When we figure out her needs we will share her story.
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Foods

2010-07-11T08:54:00.000-04:00

I thought I would do a post on foods we do eat. We do not miss much at this point. I know we will the closer we get to coming home.

We do not have much of a variety and its our job to let the cooks know what to make.

We always have rice and beans in some Form and usually some sort of sauce to go with it. Usually a beans sauce or red sauce.

Several times we will have fried plantains.

We will have different veggies. We brought canned corn and brand with us. The cooks take tje beans and add carrots, onions and some other items and it is so good.

For meats we have beef, goat, or chicken. The beef is made a little bit like we do at home. The goat is fried or cooked like the beef. Tje chicken is one of 3 ways. Fried, bbq (using a ketchup mixture and then baked) or fried using a mixture of butter, flour, mayonnaise and mustard. All of them are very good. Sometimes we will have a good pasta salad with supper too. We addre in mashed potatoes every now and then.

For breakfast we will rotate eggs or oatmeal, lots of fruit and fresh juice and bread. We will make a potatoe dish some mornings. One morning we had something called pate. Looks like a fried pasty with meat and veggies in it. It is one of the best things I have tasted in awhile.

For lunch we have fruit, avacado, bread with peanut butter or cheese.

On the weekends we give the cooks off. We a lot of times will make soup and the other night Haitian spaghetti. We make a huge pot of shell noodles and then add hot dogs, onion, garlic, peppers, hot peppers, green onion, and chicken bullion and cook that in oil. You eat it plain or with ketchup. So good.

We drink coke, sprite, 7-up, tampico juice (you can buy in the states) or another kind of Caribbean brand orange or fruit punch that is very good.

Not much for snacks here. Sometimes we will get packaged cookies that are good.

I am sure I am missing something. But this will give you a basic idea.
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2010-07-07T14:28:00.000-04:00

Heather with eli's little girl.
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Pictures of our room

2010-07-06T06:59:00.000-04:00

This where we sleep. We do not spend ton of time in this room. Its very rustic and simple but its been very comfortable.
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The way we do things.

2010-07-06T06:53:00.000-04:00

Showers: using a bucket of water and a small bowl.

Flushing the toilet: bucket of water.

Laundry: one tub for washing, 2 for rinsing. We use and old washboard my mom had. We are thankful for that. (I miss my washing machine the most)

Refrigeration: we have a small camping size refrigerator but use the freezer for everything else.

Vehicle: we have a small car here (thank you Wilson) but if its close we walk. Yesterday we had 10 people in a car that is meant for 5. We had some fun times.

Shopping: mostly go to the markets. Its an everyday experience. Usually the cooks or one of the boys go. The best store here (where my caffeine free diet coke was found) is located in a gas station.

Electricity: usually on from 6PM-6AM. Unless there is a soccer game on. Then they short us a night. Would rather have power at night.

anything else you want to know let us know!

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2010-07-06T06:40:00.000-04:00

Pastor George, joseu', boss and Caleb singing and drumming.
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2010-07-04T05:56:00.000-04:00

Isn't this picture beautiful?

I have been asked a few times what my days look like. They are not all the same but for the most here it is in a nutshell.

We get up anywhere between 5 and 7, depending on when the fan goes off. Once the fan is off its hard to sleep. Plus its already daylight. We eat breakfast around 8am. If we do not have a team here the kids do the dishes . The next few things are thrown in through out the day. Every other day we have discipleship essentials. This usually goes for 2-3 hours. On the other days we do laundry. It is very time consuming. Especially after a team leaves and we have the extra towels and sheets. On Tuesday and Thursday we have kid's club. It is isually from 7-8. The Kids sing, do memory verses and other fun stuff. We had over 30 Kids last week so it is growing. A lot of afternoons the Kidd come into the yard and play soccer or to play with the other balls. It is fun to go outside the gate and hear the Kids all yelling our names. Cool relationships being built. We eat dinner around 5PM. It gets dark so early here so right after we go for walks to different places to witness and to play with the Kids. Last night we drove to a tent city we found along side of the road. Found out they have had no help. 3 new people accepted Christ! We also prayed over other Christians there. It was a peaceful place. They are all in tents. Not very good ones either. They were from the mountains and there are over 450 people. They are tents made out of sticks, sheets and very old tarps. Not very good. They are still praising the Lord. No toilets there. We are going to help them with that project amd anything else the Lord provides us with. Some nights we hang out by the water and the kids come running. This week, at the park, there had been a revival of some sort. We have been hanging out there and listening to the music. Last night they did God of this city In creole. Awesome! Nate has lots of meetings during the day with the pastors. We do have some down time as well. The Kids are doing well. If you have any specific questions for us email us at. telltheworld5@gmail.com.

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2010-07-04T05:25:00.000-04:00

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2010-07-04T05:24:00.001-04:00

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2010-07-04T05:24:00.000-04:00

Lake mirragon.
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2010-07-01T17:12:00.000-04:00

My two new Brazil fans.
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2010-07-01T17:06:00.000-04:00

Caleb and Joe.
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2010-06-30T06:17:00.001-04:00

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2010-06-30T06:17:00.000-04:00

Yes we are that tired. You know when Caleb puts himself to bed he is tired.
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2010-06-30T06:15:00.000-04:00

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2010-06-30T06:14:00.001-04:00

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2010-06-30T06:14:00.000-04:00

A very sweet lady wanting to show us how to do laundry.
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2010-06-30T06:13:00.000-04:00

Heather and boss. We realized last night that heather is now taller than me.
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2010-06-30T06:11:00.000-04:00

Nikolas and teodore. Teodore asked nik to help him learn more English. He already knows quite a bit.
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2010-06-30T06:10:00.000-04:00

Our good friend Aaron. We had a great time with him in Haiti.
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2010-06-30T06:08:00.000-04:00

My good friend Eli. (pronounced Ellie). Eli, his wife and baby are getting a Paige house.
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2010-06-30T06:06:00.000-04:00

Boss is quite the comic. We had a small sewage problem and this is boss after checking it out.
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Third week

2010-06-21T11:23:00.000-04:00

Hard to believe we are on our third week here. Sorry that I have not written more. It has been hard to blog using the phones Little keyboard. It has been great having the teams here. They have done tons of work. We have really built some good relationships with a few people and can see it will be hard to leave them. tomorrow night is kids club again. This has been tons of fun. Thanks for the prayers. We can feel them surrounding us.
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Helping

2010-06-15T05:33:00.000-04:00

The Kidd have been taking turns doing dishes.
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Soccer

2010-06-15T05:32:00.000-04:00

Fun to watch the kids come in and play soccer once the sun goes down. Caleb is right in there with them. Thursday we are planning starting a kids club for 1 hour, twice a week. Looking forward to see how God uses this to reach the kids.
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2010-06-11T08:26:00.000-04:00

What we do when it rains. My mom bought us the monopoly card game and we love it. We asked pastor mark to play and we were so happy he joined in. He does not speak much english so boss translated for him. We were all laughing so hard. Yesterday we went to a really beautiful white sand beach for hannah's 10th birthday. You have to take a boat, but unlike last time, this is a really nice one. The beach was very clean and my new happy place! Last night we walked tp the park and played with the kids and talked to the adults and boss talked tp the kids and they all want to know more about Jesus! A few of the girls who came to Christ on Tuesday, want to come to church bit said they do not have the right clothes. That is so sad. Jesus wants us, not pie clothes. We decided we are going to try to so some services the park for them. The kids are doing great. They are all so happy they came and making good friends. the relationships are being built and its fun serving others. Days go so fast and I am sorry that this my first blog post. Will try to post more later.
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2010-06-08T07:31:00.001-04:00

Sitting in MIA waiting for our flight. Was able to meet with @shellystammis and pray with her. Please pray for her today to be able to get to a meeting today about her adoption. What happens will depend on when one of her children will come home. Had a good night last night. Hotel was beautiful with a nice pool. Will write more as I can.
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Hannah and her friend last day of school.

2010-06-05T14:31:00.000-04:00

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Packed and ready

2010-06-05T14:14:00.000-04:00

Everything is packed. I cannot believe we got everything in our bags. I really am married to a master packer. Good thing we have 5 teams coming in case I forget anything.
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1 1/2 days til our summer adventure begins!

2010-06-04T06:58:00.002-04:00

Sunday around 1pm we leave for Detroit! I cannot believe the time is almost here to us to leave for Haiti. The hardest part will be leaving family and friends. This morning, I thought about the time we spent 6 weeks in Russia away from everyone when we adopted Katie. It was tough being away but the time went so fast. This is this is the first time we have been able to go anywhere with our kids and what a huge blessing that is!

Thank you to all of you for the prayers, financial gifts and just being there for our family! God has put SO many wonderful people in our lives and we could not do this without all of you! God has called us all to play different parts but we are all missionaries!! Our prayer is that we take every bit of ourselves out of this and just let God show us what He wants and not what we may want!

These last few days have been crazy. Trying to fit in last minute visits with family and friends.

Caleb was able to spend Tuesday night with his best friend, Ryan! I love this picture!
The only reason that Caleb is doing so well with leaving Ryan behind is because Ryan goes away camping for the whole summer so they will both be gone!

Last night was my mom's birthday so we had a fun hot dog cook out with my family. The weather was perfect and we were able to have one last campfire!!

Tonight, Nate's family will be coming for another cook out (may end up inside with these storms coming). I also promised that the kids could have their best friends over tonight for one last sleep over before we go! Call me crazy, but I am looking forward to this!! My kids have some AWESOME friends and I love each of these kids dearly!

We have been planning this mission trip to Haiti since November. I cannot believe it is almost here. I know that the time will go fast there. I pray that each day is used to Glorify the Lord!

We are super excited that we have 5 teams traveling down to be with us. We have people we have never met coming down and we have some close friends coming down and it makes me giddy!! :)

I hope to be able to post to the blog from my phone. They may not be huge posts but I hope to be able to write something.

Nate put this in our church bulletin but I wanted to add it here as well. These are just a few prayer requests for the summer.

We know and appreciate that you will keep us in your prayers while we are gone. We will do our best to keep you updated. If you want to send us an email, we would love that, and will do our best to respond back. Our email is telltheworld5@gmail.com Here are a few specific prayer requests:

That the curriculum that is taught will take root and that the new Christians will receive the foundation of faith that is so desperately needed.
That Haiti would be spared from hurricanes this summer.
That our children will adapt quickly and be bold witnesses for Christ.
That we would be spared from sickness and harm.
That the teams that come would be strong ambassadors for Jesus Christ and that they can share hope to those who have none.
That we would be open to God's leading in all situations and that we see His power displayed in and through us.

We will arrive back home on August 19 with many testimonies and stories to share. Thank you for your prayers and support.

Stories from the Shepherd's heart fundraiser

2010-04-08T11:48:00.004-04:00

My Mother in law has written a wonderful book called Stories from the Shepherd's heart. She has finally had it published and we are all excited about it. She tells life lessons that she has learned from her sheep. It is from a Christian perspective.

She wants to badly to do a fundraiser for us. She has given us 10 copies to give away to anyone who donates $50 or more towards are fundraiser.

Checks can be made out to Lighthouse Mission Mobilization with Yonker Haiti trip in the memo line and sent to

Lighthouse Mission Mobilization
5947 Lake Michigan Drive
Allendale, MI 49401

You will get a tax donation letter if you send it this way.

Any questions please email telltheworld5@gmail.com

Where has the time gone

2010-04-08T08:26:00.003-04:00

I cannot believe I have not posted anything since January 20th. Time if flying and I can hardly keep up!

In 59 days We leave for Haiti. I can hardly believe how fast this is coming up. Parts of me are ready, parts of me are nowhere near ready to go. However we are thrilled that God has called us to this new adventure with our family and, with our friend, Tiffany. The building you see in the picture is just like the one that was built this last week on the grounds of Ebenezer. In a few weeks a 2nd building will be placed near it. One of them will house our family for the summer and the 2nd one will be used for training. We also received word yesterday that an engineer was hired to look at the mission house on the grounds and we were told that it will be able to stay up. It just needs some big repairs. It seems daunting but I know that God will provide. He has never failed to provide yet and we have no reason to doubt Him.

I have one other HUGE prayer request. One thing that is desperately needed for Ebenezer is a vehicle. I have no doubt again that God will provide us just what we need at the moment we need it.

I am praying that I will be able to blog while down in Haiti. It was hard to know what the trip was going to look like before the earthquake. Now I know even less what it will look like but I cannot wait to see what God does and how he uses each and everyone of us. For those of you who have already donated towards are trip. I cannot say THANK YOU enough!! Thank you for believing in what we are doing and for being excited about Ebenezer! This is God's mission not ours! We just want to continue to be humble servants and to be open to His calling.

No time for blogging

2010-01-20T15:24:00.002-05:00

I cannot believe that its been a week since the earthquake hit. My thoughts and feelings are so jumbled but we are leaning on our heavenly Father! I have had so little time to even think about blogging. Every minute is spent on things for Haiti and the kids. Pretty much everything we find out we put on facebook as it seems so much easier right now.

It looks like Nate and a team of medical people will be leaving possibly as early as Monday to try to head down to Petit Goave. There are many many options right now. God already knows what they will be doing and how they will get there. I have seen God work in ways that are incredible. I have seem people come together for a country that is smaller than the state of Maryland. God is our rock and we are resting in Him. Please keep praying for those on the ground already. Troy and Tara, John and Beth, their team of doctors there right now. Pray for my friend Cheryl VanderWell who is in Haiti right now as a nurse at God's littlest Angels orphanage. Pray for the orphans, Pray for the Ebenezer churches. Pray for Nate, Lynda and the team of doctors and nurses, Pray for Lori, Lecia and Zach in Cazale, Pray for all those waiting to bring their children home.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all the support you all have given to our family. It means so much to us!!

Ebenezer is not a building it is the people. Ebenezer will go on! It will look a little bit different but the mission has not changed even if the landscape has.

Heather is learning what Sacrifice means!

2009-12-28T06:35:00.003-05:00

So much has been happening in our household. Nikolas celebrated his 12th adoption day and his 13th birthday all in one week!

Christmas was a busy time but we had some quiet family moments in there as well! Looking forward to spending new years with good friends! Hard to believe it is almost 2010 already.

As you all know, we are going to be spending 10 weeks in Haiti this summer. A lot of you have already seen this on facebook, but Heather wants to let everyone know that if she raises $750 dollars she will cut at least 10 inches off of her hair. She plans on donating the hair to Locks of Love or another organization of her choosing. She is learning sacrifice as that is what it will be for her to do this but she feels God calling her to do this and is willing to obey!

If anyone would like to help her out and donate to you can make a check out to Lighthouse Mission Mobilization and just write Yonker/Haiti in the memo line. You can send money to

Heather Y
7364 Forestview Dr
Hudsonville, Mi 49426

Thank you so much!!

Any questions please email us at telltheworld5@gmail.com

Merry Christmas from the Yonker

2009-12-10T11:58:00.003-05:00

This is my card and letter this year!

I know some of you have gotten it already and some of you will get yours on Sunday!

What an amazing year it has been for us. In January, Nate and I, traveled to Petit Goave, Haiti to look at some property that we were praying could be used for a new mission called Ebenezer Discipleship Training Center. This mission will be used to equip the Haitians to go out and claim Haiti for Christ. What we found when we arrived was a wonderful house that had more than enough room to house the mission and we were also given the use of a large church that can hold over 1000 people and have plenty of room to use for classrooms. What was also amazing is that we were given all of this to use for FREE! It has been amazing to watch God work out all the details!! If you would like more info on Ebenezer please go to www.ebenezerdtc.org. Ebenezer is a 3 step process. Teaching the Haitian Pastors to read and write in Kreyol. We just had our first class graduate this past summer! The 2^nd step is to teach the pastors about Discipleship using the Curriculum, Discipleship Essentials by Greg Ogden. The third step is a 2 year missionary training school to send out the Haitians to share Christ as Native Missionaries. Now a little update on our family:

Caleb, turned 8 in February. He is a 2^nd grader at Bauer Elementary. He is doing very well and is getting good grades. He loves anything to do with sports and never seems to stop moving.

Hannah, turned 9 in June. She is also in the 2^nd grade this year at Bauer Elementary and has been in our home for 3 ½ years. We cannot believe how fast the time has flown but she continues to do very well in school.

Katie, turned 11 in June. She is really enjoying school this year and really progressing well. She is in the 5^th grade at Bauer Elementary.

Heather, turned 11 in November. She is almost as tall as her mom and seems to be growing faster and faster everyday. She is doing so well in school and is also in the 5^th grade at Bauer. She loves to read and write stories. Hard to believe that I will have 3 kids in middle school next year.

Nikolas, will be 13 in December. He is in choir and also made the honor roll for the first time! He was so excited about this accomplishment. He is in the 7^th grade at Baldwin street Middle school.

Nate is still a plumber at Godwin plumbing. He just had his 15^th anniversary there this past November. He also leads around 2 trips a year to Haiti and has enjoyed watching the members of his teams grow excited about reaching the lost for the Lord! He has been working hard to get Ebenezer up and going and we are excited about where God is leading in this endeavor. He is also the head of our Mission Mobilization team at church.

I am still a stay at home mom. I have been selling Avon now for 6 years and I really enjoy it. I also am a part of the Children's ministry at our church and mostly make all the copies for our Sunday school program.

This past June we also added a new addition to the family. We now have a beautiful puppy, named Ella. She is a Boston Terrier and has been an absolute joy to have in our home. She is around 6 months old! The kids were beyond thrilled when we told them we were getting a puppy.

We also have some other huge news to share with you all! After much prayer and discernment we have heard God's call to spend 10 weeks in Haiti this summer with our family. Nate has been asked to train the leaders in the Discipleship portion at the training center in Haiti. We will be leaving around the first week of June and will be traveling back around the 2^nd week of August.

We are asking for prayers from you, our family and friends. We are hoping to be able to email and blog about our experience while down there. We will be raising support for our time away, and if you feel led to help us you can send checks to Lighthouse Mission Mobilization. But, Please do not feel obligated. Prayers are what we desire as God is leading and providing. You can send it to our address and we can make sure you get a tax letter. Our main goal is to share the exciting things that are happening in our family and want to share what God has been doing in our lives. We are very excited to be following the path God has asked us to take.

7364 Forestview Dr Hudsonville Mi 49426

Love, The Yonkers

Big things coming!

2009-12-01T07:50:00.003-05:00

I cannot believe I have not written anything since Oct 13th. Where has the time gone.

We have been discerning going to Haiti for 10 weeks this summer for Nate to teach a course to the Haitian trainers at Ebenezer called, Discipleship Essentials by Greg Ogden. I highly recommend this study. It is incredible! These Haitian Trainers will then be teaching this course to the people of Haiti.

On Dec 8, Nate was supposed to meet with some people from a foundation that is located in Midland, Mi. This was going to make our decision for us whether or not we go to Haiti with the whole family. A few weeks back we found out that the meeting has been postponed to February and that made us take a few steps back and we were a little disheartened. However, we have learned in the past that a lot of the time God will ask you to take a big step out in faith even when you do not know where the money is going to come from. We did this with Hannah and every penny was provided for her adoption. So we know without a doubt if God calls you to do something He will provide for it.

Nate, the kids, and I spent the last week really praying about what to do. What we have heard is God asking us do we trust Him?! Wow, how do you say no to that. So with a great peace we are moving forward. We have also learned that it is okay that the foundation changed the meeting to February. They had a bunch of board members that could not make it to the meeting and they want Nate to be able as much time as he can to present Ebenezer to them. So instead of telling him to come for only a few minutes in December they are allowing him all the time he needs in February and that shows that they are really interested in what he has to say and what Ebenezer is all about!

We are thinking of doing a few fundraiser Dinners and some different things to raise some money too as we will also have to pay our bills back here. Like I said though God will provide what is needed to the very penny! I love watching Him do this!

There are two major downsides for me in this.

One of them is leaving my friends for that long. However I know that they will be praying for us every step of the way and that gives me such a huge comfort.

The second one is we have to leave our puppy behind. We have a Boston Terrier and they are in the snub-nosed breed classification. This means the airlines will not fly them into hot countries.

This means we will need someone to move into our house for the summer to take care of her and to take care of things around here. We really want Ella to stay in our home as that way it is familiar to her. Any takers? We have had one person in mind and I have actually talked to her so if YOU are still interested let us know! :) You know who you are!

Please pray for us, pray for the finances and pray for everything to fall into place. One really big bright spot for us is that there will be a Haiti team that will be flying down around the 2nd week of August. This will include some of my very close friends that I will be MORE than excited to see by that time.

One other bright spot for me is that our friend, Tiffany, will also be flying to Haiti with us to help me out with the kids, and anything else that the mission needs. We hope to get the kids involved and doing some things around the mission and what ever else God has in store for us!

This is all exciting and scary at the same time.

Casting Crowns - Sing until the whole world hears!

2009-10-13T08:04:00.001-04:00

Huge Praise!!

2009-09-09T12:21:00.000-04:00

Huge Praise!!

As you all know we had a wonderful person offer us a $1000 matching grant for Ebenezer!!

Today we got an awesome donation that by passed that by quite a bit!!!

Lord, we are so thankful!!!

More on Ebenezer

2009-09-08T09:52:00.001-04:00

Written by Nate.

On our recent trip to Haiti we spent a couple nights in a guest house in PAP. We were able to meet other missionaries there with many stories and reasons to be there. One group I met was there to look for land to start a mission on. He was dejected as the only thing he could find was between $300,000 and $400,000.
This is typical for desirable land in Haiti. When we felt certain that God was calling us to start this mission we looked for facilities to purchase that would be able to sustain the kind of usage that would be needed. We found one place in particular that we thought would be perfect. The cost? $250,000.

What seemed to be our biggest mountain, God turned into the greatest victory and testimony. The thought of raising that kind of money for facilities was overwhelming. At this point was when Gladys first talked to Troy about the need for well trained pastors. She mentioned the possibility of a place that we would be able to use.

In February Troy and I met with Gladys in the house that she was offering us to use. It was perfect. We then went a couple blocks up the street where she showed us a church that is the biggest church I have ever seen in Haiti. She offered this to use as well. When asked about the cost she said, "no cost". Wow! In a couple short months we went from wondering how we could ever start to having perfect facilities in place.

The house is set up perfect to start the mission. On the second level there are 3 smaller bedrooms, one large bedroom, two bathrooms, and a large deck. Downstairs is a large foyer, dining room, bedroom suite, and a huge room that is being used for classes. There is also a kitchen, (charcoal grills) outdoor atrium, and a large storage room. There is also a house in the yard that was damaged in the hurricane last year and has since collapsed. The house is on the ocean and has a large yard. Electricity is on 24 hours a day without batteries or a generator, so no diesel to buy or expensive generators to maintain.

For now the plan is to increase the yard size by about 1/3 by walling in the total area owned by Gladys. We will then build Pastor Marc a house to live in as he is commuting 5 hours right now to work at Ebenezer. (He stays at the mission while his family is at home) We also want to build dorms with bathrooms over the large room with rooftop access for a gathering place, as well as a outdoor gazebo for prayer.

The house sat vacant for a while so it needs some TLC but could not be more perfect for Ebenezer. We are also able to stay there with teams, so we have been blessed twice by this facility.

The church is very large. At one time they worshiped there with over 1000 people. Now they are at around 250. Still that gives you an idea of how big the building is. It was damaged by Gustov last year and desperately needs some roof work and a beam fixed. In the rear of the church is a big wing that we plan on turning into 6-8 big classrooms. The goal is to have the house be lodging and the church be where classes are held.

All this will take some time of course, but the great thing is that we are still well enough equipped to handle the first two phases of Ebenezer. The other great thing about this is that we do not have to fund facility costs. Besides the cost of power and other minor upkeep, we do not need to invest major money into facilities. We give God all the honor and glory for this and praise Him for His great provision. Please take a look at the photos of the ground to get a better idea of what has been given.

2009-08-10T20:28:00.003-04:00

Nate wrote up a new post today on the Ebenezer page on Facebook and I wanted to share it here for those that are not on facebook or are not a member of the group page.

If you are interested in getting updates you can search for the Ebenezer discipleship training center page on facebook and join the group.

Well, it is hard to believe the trip is already behind us. I have so much information to share that it will take a few emails to get everything out.
Being able to spend a week in Petit Goave, build relationships with the pastors and congregations of Ebenezer, and getting to know the staff at Ebenezer dtc was a huge blessing. What I came away with most is the excitement that is buzzing around the area because of the training center. Wherever we went there were meetings with the pastors and elders over what is going on with this new mission. The pastors would come out all smiles as they heard the vision that was cast.
The first thing that happened was a meeting with the national committee of Ebenezer where Troy and I shared what we saw God doing with this mission, and how our goal was to see the Haiti changed from within through Christian leadership. You could see the light in their eyes as they processed this information and realized that this is completely contrary to what they have heard in the past.
There are 3 aspects of the mission that are in full swing right now, including, the training, team trips, and facilities. For now I want to give you a little information on the training.

The first group of pastors are now into their second month of training. I will post pictures soon. They are excited to have the opportunity to read for the first time and are working hard to achieve this goal. There are 5 employees at this time including Pastor Marc Sorel who is the head trainer and overseer of the mission. Pastor Jacob is the second trainer and also worked hard with us the week we were there. There are 2 cooks, Esther and Ruth, and a groundskeeper who's name keeps escaping me. All are hardworking, humble servants who are laying a great foundation of leadership.

Instead of giving you specifics of how the training is going, I want to share with you a story of our first "graduate". Again, I was not given his name yet, but I will have a name and picture soon.

This pastor's life long dream was to be able to read the Bible for himself, and then preach from what he had read. For his whole life he would have his kids read the Bible to him, and then he would preach from what he heard. Two weeks ago we sent Bibles down that were donated by the Haitian church here in Grand Rapids. When the Bibles arrived they had a celebration at Ebenezer giving thanks for God's provision for opening the mission, and for giving the pastors the opportunity to read. At the conclusion of the event the pastors were given their new Bibles. When they went in to eat supper, this pastor opened his new Bible and started to read it out loud, and as he read he started to preach to the other pastors around the table. As he was preaching he slumped over and died.

This may seem like a sad story, but it has energized the pastors as they are thankful to God that this brother was able to recognize his dream before God called him home. He has become a catalyst to the other pastors who are currently training and those that will follow. God's ways are higher than ours and we praise him for this brother and the testimony that has come from his life.

You see what I mean, there is so much to share. I will end here as to not overwhelm you. I thank you all for your support this far, and covet your support in the future. We currently have a $1000 matching donation. If you would like to help us reach that goal please let me know or go to the World Wide Village web site. They have made it much easier to donate.

I will update more on team trips and facilities soon. God bless!

More on Ebenezer

2009-08-10T11:25:00.003-04:00

For those of you that may be new to this blog I thought I would give you a little run down on Ebenezer.

Later in the summer of 2009, the Ebenezer Discipleship Training Center, located in Petit Goave, will open in Haiti. This exciting new ministry is intended to serve thousands of Haitian pastors, many of whom struggle to fulfill the directive given in Matthew 28:19. They have had little, if any, formal training, and many are also shamed by illiteracy.

The goal of the Ebenezer Center is to equip and energize native Haitian pastors as they seek to fulfill God’s calling in their lives – delivering the message of salvation to the Haitian people.

The Ebenezer Center’s two-step approach to training is to first teach basic literacy, preparing pastors to read and understand God’s holy word. After completing the literacy course, pastors will be enrolled in training sessions where they will learn the fundamentals of Christian faith and discipleship training. Upon successful completion, certificates will be awarded and well-equipped pastors will be commissioned to shepherd their congregations.

Global statistics show that effective evangelism is achieved by transferring knowledge from one person to another. Phase II of the Ebenezer Center will be for newly trained pastors to identify leaders in their churches who are “on fire” for Christ and His Kingdom. The selected leaders will receive community based discipleship training. The resulting army of native missionaries will be sent out to win and build up the people of Haiti for God’s glory.

Empowerment of the Haitian leaders will be achieved by engaging only native Haitians as trainers, teachers, and staff at the Ebenezer Discipleship Training Center. The estimated cost for each pastor is only $200 USD, including the training, lodging, food, and paying the pastor’s salary while attending the training.

Please join the growing team of supporters to raise up well-trained, well-educated Biblical pastors who are equipped to fulfill God’s Great Commission. For questions email: ebenezer@worldwidevillage.org.

Matching donation fundraiser

2009-08-09T15:29:00.004-04:00

We had a very generous individual offer to do a matching fundraiser for the Ebenezer Discipleship training center. This person has offered us $1,000 if we can raise $1,000

If you have a blog we would so appreciate it if you would put this on your blog and pass this on to anyone that you know. Especially those that have a heart for sharing the Gospel in Haiti. You can use this link to post on your blog. http://www.chipin.com/mywidgets/id/b6a454f679f902ea

When we were at the training center we could feel the excitement from the people in the area that Haitians would be discipling Haitians and that they would be the ones that would be spreading the Gospel. Our teams go down to encourage them and help with what ever is needed but the Haitians are the ones that will be doing the training and working with the Haitian pastors! It truly is exciting to see where God is leading.

Back from Haiti

2009-08-08T15:52:00.003-04:00

We arrived home from Haiti on Friday at about 3:30am. We flew into Detroit, Mi and then had about a 3 hour drive home. We did not have internet down there so I could not update my blog at all. I am still processing what went on but I can tell you that it was my favorite trip to Haiti so far!! God is awesome, the team was awesome, Ebenezer Discipleship training center is awesome!!! We were able to meet the pastors that are going through the literacy program right now and they are a wonderful group of guys. We will begin updating the webpage soon so please check back often. www.ebenezerdtc.org

VBS went very well. We went up into the mountains twice. The views and the people are worth what it takes to get up there. Nate drove the truck up a VERY STEEP and WINDING path and he did an awesome job. Hard to look over the edge sometimes but what a wonderful feeling to know that God was taking care of all of us. Even if something happened what an awesome feeling to know that we would have been with Him in that instant.

The men
The View from the top of the mountain
My two favorite palm trees
The whole team plus our translators in front of
the Ebenezer church

I do not have my pictures uploaded yet so thanks to those that let me borrow these few.

Hope to update more later. Thanks for the prayers that you all gave us! They were very much felt!!

July 2009 Haiti team

2009-07-27T10:35:00.000-04:00

This is our July 2009 Haiti team!! We have a great bunch of people going. In this picture is also our drivers. Please pray for them as they are going to be getting picking us up at 1:00am to bring us to Detroit. They will then come back next Thursday to bring us home. Also in this picture is our wonderful prayer warrior!! We are so blessed to have her!!!!

Please pray for those going on this trip. They are:
John and Bobby Hays, Lance Gates, Tiffany Gates, Karry Mills, Mike, Diane and Tori Westrick, Marg Kidd, Mari Goebel (her parents are driving us) and Nate and Brenda Yonker. We are so excited to see what God is going to be doing with us in the next week!!!!

Nate's birthday

2009-06-28T15:55:00.000-04:00

I have been gone way to long from the blog. I kind of took a break as I was not taking many pictures and just was having writers block.

I figured I would first start with these pictures. Nate had his 40th birthday on June 14th. Some friends decided to drop by while we were gone and decorate our bedroom!!! They did a nice job!! They are the SAME friends who decorated our house in the past!!!! Its nice to have good friends!!!!

Gone for TOO long!!

2009-06-28T15:48:00.004-04:00

June 20th was Katie's 11th birthday!! Happy Birthday Katie!!!

This picture is really behind!! These were flowers that I received for Mother's day this year!!
The carnations and the bouquet in the middle were flowers that I received from the Haitian church we go to quite a bit. They were doing a fundraiser so Nate bought flowers this year from them!!! They were SO beautiful!!!

Happy 9th birthday

2009-06-10T12:06:00.000-04:00

Happy 9th birthday sweetheart!! Hard to believe you have only been with us 3 years. You have grown and changed so much in that short time and we just want you to know how much we love you and are so blessed to have you as our daughter!!! This is also your gotcha month. June 13th is the day that your adoption was final and so we want to wish you a big happy Gotcha day as well!!!!

Fundraiser

2009-06-04T15:02:00.003-04:00

I know its seems as this info has been plastered everywhere lately but this training center is so awesome and we are so excited for it to open. It looks like the the literacy part will be opening on July 1!! That is VERY exciting. I know lots of you have been praying for this and we thank you very much. God has been moving mountains to get this up and going and it is amazing to be a part to it!! I want to include the flier for the fundraiser event that is happening on June 13th. I know a lot of you will not be able to come but if you could keep this night in your prayers we would really appreciate it. Ebenezer is also on the world wide village website and you can see it here.

We also have our own email ebenezer@worldwidevillage.org

We will be posting more about the opening and what is happening in the future! thank you for all your support. Please email us at the address above with any questions!!

Check out link

2009-05-29T11:12:00.002-04:00

Please check out this link.

Marathon for Haiti

Troy and Tara are good friend of ours that live in Haiti and this is such a worthwhile cause!!

They are raising funds for Medika Mumba. I actually was able to try it when I was in Haiti last summer. It is really, really good!!

This is what Troy wrote about it:

We are excited about a current project being funded by World Wide Village . Through WWV, funds have been made available to purchase 'Medika Mamba' - an energy dense peanut butter, significantly fortified with protein and nutritional supplements. The name Medika Mamba means “peanut butter medicine” in Creole. It is produced by an organization called Meds & Food For Kids - you can learn more about them on their website at www.medsanfoodforkids.org.

We have seen firsthand that this product is culturally accepted, very effective, and in our opinion truly amazing. The Medika Mamba is also locally produced, which helps Haiti even more by providing many jobs in production and bolsters the economy and encourages agricultural development.

Worldwide Village is partnering with MFK and Real Hope for Haiti (the Zachary's clinic and rescue center) to provide Medika Mamba for malnourished children in the village of Cazale, near Cabaret. We hope to expand the capacity and number of locations very soon. There are two other clinics currently being considered for Medika Mamba locations as soon as funds are available.

The pilot project in Cazale has been very successful - out of the ten children who started the program three 'graduated' in less than one month and five more have been added. One of the children currently in the program is HIV positive, and one of the original 10 children died last week due to complications from HIV. His name was Max Wildy. He was and is an angel. His story will be told in a later blog post.

Fundraisers!!

2009-05-11T15:51:00.001-04:00

As you all know I am going to Haiti on July 29th with a group of 14 people and we will putting on about 5 or 6 different VBS for the kids in several different areas. We usually have between 100-200 kids at a time so we are raising money not only for us to go but for all the supplies and things that we will need on the trip.

I need to raise about $850 between Nate and I. by June 14th.

I have decided to do an Avon fundraiser for this trip

30% off every order will be put in a fund for this trip. I can also get you a tax donation letter from our church.

Avon orders are due on Wednesday May 13th. I can still take email orders on May 14th until about 11:30.

You can order from www.youravon.com/byonker at anytime. (you can also order from this link for the fundraiser)

You can order from these catalogs:

C11 Notice in the campaign you can win a Wii!!

http://youravon.com/static/catalog/2009/11/en/index.html

C10

http://youravon.com/static/catalog/2009/10/en/index.html

http://youravon.com/static/catalog/2009/09/en/index.html

You can also donate directly of my blog.

On the right had side their is a paypal donation button or checks can be made out to lighthouse mission mobilization and sent to:

7364 Forestview Drive

Hudsonville Michigan 49426

Or another friend of mine is also doing a fundrasier for me with Usborne books.

Here is the link for that.

www.ubah.com/AFF11203

Thank for the many prayers I know you will be lifting up for our team!!!

Great flood of 2009

2009-05-01T12:28:00.003-04:00

This is for all of you not on facebook! I got a call yesterday from my neighbor below that curious as to why my phone was busy. My phone should never be busy. ( have call waiting and DSL) We knew that the water levels were getting VERY high in our neighborhood so we had been preparing for the worst. Well the worst came yesterday. We blew a breaker in our basement while I was gone and I came home to what you see below. So far we lost our carpet and a couch for sure. Our treadmill and Freezer most likely are shot. Everything on my treadmil works except for the track. Anyone know if these have a fuse on them that could have blown. The motor part was really not that wet when we got it out of there but it was plugged in.

Something weird is going on because until about 3 years ago our sub pump NEVER ran. Maybe for a little bit if we got a huge rainstorm. The last 3 years it has run every spring and now this this year it has been running non-stop since February. Every year it is getting worse. Yesterday alone I believe 4 basements in our neighbor hood flooded.

Thank you Terri, Maryanne and Amy K for coming to help us!! You guys rock!!

Thankfully ALL of our kids toys are up in a huge play area that is about a 5 foot storage area. We had no worries about their stuff and for that I was greatful!!!

Fun weekends!!!

2009-04-20T13:22:00.004-04:00

We have declared Saturday as a family day. A few weeks ago we went to Cabela's in Indiana. A week ago Saturday we went to a place called Hemlock Crossings and had a wonderful day on the trails and then went to Muskegon to show the kids the submarine that is docked there called Silversides. They loved that. (I should say all except Heather)

These pictures are from the day at Hemlock crossings.

This past weekend we went to a town called Saugutuck. We went through some stores and then spent a bunch of time on the sand dunes and playing on the beach! What a fun relaxing day. We then stopped for dinner on the way. The kids are loving this and I love spending the day with the family!!!

Cannot wait to see what is up for next Saturday!!

WAY BEHIND!!

2009-04-16T16:49:00.004-04:00

I am SO way behind in posting to my blog. I just have not been in the mood to blog for some reason.

Last month Heather invited me to go with her on their class trip to Lansing. I was excited because you know she is getting into that pre-teen area where she does not always want me along! I of course jumped at the chance to go with her!!! The hard part was not being able to go with both girls that day. We went to the Capitol and to the museum near there. It was a really nice day and we had a lot of fun. Heather took a ton of crazy pictures at the museum but I will not bore you with a ton.

This is one of Heather's best friends.

Where my heart is.......

2009-04-08T22:04:00.003-04:00

Nate bought a new CD this past weekend that I just love. I never was much into rap but this CD has such an awesome message. The band is Lecrae. Tonight we were messing around on youtube and Nate came across this video. The song is called Send me I will go. If you ever wonder why we go on mission trips this song answers it. Please listen closely to the whole song. Even if you do not like rap please listen to the whole thing. The words to the song are listed below video:

Lyrics to Send Me :
Send me I'll go,
send me I'll go,
send me I'll go,
lemme go lemme go!
(repeat x4)

i seen it with my own two,
there's no way i can show you
a perfectly poverty stricken people with no view.
And i bet you can't believe this,
they never heard of jesus.
Heard young butler, lil wayne, and young jeezy.

No one's signing up to go on missions this summa.
Rather sit at home and watch exibit pimp in a humma
while a nine year old is shot down.
No one's screaming 'stop now!'
no bridge illustrations for criminals who on lock down.

People deep in africa
looking for an answer bra'.
In china man,
they're dieing man,
until they know who died for sins.
So look what grace did.
Not for us to stay here
inside our comfort zones
at home in mama's basement.

Get out on the grind y'all.
Ain't no better time doll.
I know y'all read the great commission.
Let me just remind y'all:
make disciples of the nations.
Teach'm to obey the lord.
Have to lead someone to christ before i face the lord.

Send me I'll go,
send me I'll go,
send me I'll go,
lemme go lemme go!
(repeat x4)

hey! After, 1,000 years in the west and the churches
get'n bigger daily without understand'n worship. (say what?)
Some regenerate but a lot ain't saved.
You walk outside and be surprised cuz the block ain't changed.
And the numbers they be get'n me.
Something just ain't hit'n them.
America ain't christian they practice'n the ritual.
That's why we should be mission though.
Hey, what you think i'm spit'n for?
The united states is die'n
and in the east is looking pitiful.

Some places if they catch you
they'll arrest you.
They'll serve you,
but they still need the word too.
The gospel should be heard too.
We claim we ain't ashamed,
but we ain't hit the block up.
Were in our christian bubble,
while our brotha's get'n locked up.
Lord i wanna stock up,
pack a bag and walk up
in a country where my faith may get me shot up
anywhere i go, whether my city or far abroad,
i just wanna show' christ the risen holy god.

Send me I'll go,
send me I'll go,
send me I'll go,
lemme go lemme go!
(repeat x4)

i know they're die'n in the streets over in the middle east.
Some kids sink in piece
others hold'n up a piece.
If the violence doesn't cease,
then at least the deceased
might know jesus as their savior as their bodies hit the streets.
And i know this is a graphic view.
And i pray that it's attack'n you.
Track'n you to act and do
what you see in the back illusion.
Mathew twenty-four and fourteen.
We should read it twice
before we think that life is just a battle
see we free in christ!
Look dawg! Life is more than church work and football!
What if you were dead and seen that christians overlooked y'all!
This is why we leave the couch
and leave the comforts of our house
to show a die'n world a god they'll probably never read about.

The great commission says make disciples of all nations.
Have we even made them in our own nation?
Come on christians!
Missions exist because worship doesn't.
People don't worship the god who made them.
We're ambassadors.
Let's go!

Send me I'll go,
send me I'll go,
send me I'll go,
lemme go lemme go!
(repeat x4)

Ebenezer discipleship training center flyer!!

2009-03-27T10:32:00.002-04:00

With the help of some wonderful people we now have our Ebenezer Discipleship Training center flier is now done. Our hopes are to get this out to the different churches for prayer and fundraising possibilities.

I am having issues with getting it uploaded into my blog but I would Love to share it with.

If you would be willing to show it to your churches and to your family and friends we would really appreciate it! We want to get to the word out to as many people as possible!! Let them know they can contact us anytime with more questions and we would be very happy to talk to them about it!!

If you would like to see a copy please email me at telltheworld5@gmail.com

Thanks for all the prayers you guys have been giving this new training center!!

My next mission trip

2009-03-25T10:16:00.002-04:00

al
At the end of July we will once again travel to Haiti. This year will be a little bit different as we head to another part of Haiti called Petite Guave. It is in the southern part of Haiti. This is the location of the new training center that God has shown us will be opening soon. The name is Ebenezer discipleship training center. The plan is that part of the team will be doing a short training session with some of the pastors in Ti Guave and the rest of the team will put on VBS for the kids of those churches.

We also will travel to Luly, La Digue, and do VBS with these groups of kids combined with kids from Bwa Dom. One of the highlights is that we will be showing the Jesus film in each village that go to and we will be going on prayer walks in those villages as well. This is always a highlight and last year a village witch doctor was converted. That is a great story! Just ask us about it sometime!!

The tough part is I again have to raise my own funds. However, I truly feel God has called me to go on this mission trip and I have NO doubt He will provide every penny that I need!! I know this has been a tough economic time for a lot of you so I completely understand if you are NOT able to give. Any money that I receive above and beyond I plan to donate right into the training center to be used to the train the pastors and the native missionaries that the center will be training. The amount that I need is around $1100.00. and I need to raise it by the first part of May. It is tax deductible . Checks should be made payable to Lighthouse Mission Mobilization and can be sent to:

Brenda Yonker
7364 Forestview Drive
Hudsonville Michigan 49426

You can also donate via the paypal button on the right hand side of my blog. This is also tax deductible.

We are also asking for prayers for this new mission, and for this mission trip. God is doing amazing things! Please join us as we continue to be His hands and feet!!!

Email me if you have any questions. telltheworld5@gmail.com

you can also read about our trip this past January on the blog. http://journeyforhannah.blogspot.com Just scroll down.

We would also love anyone on of you to someday come down on a mission trip!! Your life will NOT be the same!!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!!

Shout out to God - The enemies been defeated

2009-03-24T14:14:00.003-04:00

I have not had a ton to blog about lately. I have had a heavy heart for awhile and have been doing lots of praying. Nothing really specific to share just different things that have been placed on my heart.

However this song reminds me that the enemy has BEEN defeated already! No matter what we are going through it is of this world. This world will be destroyed and God will remain and we will be with him!! That is cause for praise.

Resurrection day is coming and that is a HUGE cause for praise!!!! Death could not hold Jesus down and as followers of Christ it will NOT hold us down either!!!!

New website launching!!!

2009-03-11T08:11:00.002-04:00

When I was in Haiti on this last trip I was able to work at an amazing program at Heartline Ministries. They have an AWESOME woman's program. They work with the pregnant women and the new moms and really try to keep them healthy.

One of the programs they have is the woman's sewing program. I was in awe of what they are doing to help these woman. Please check out this new website that was just launched. I have seen these purses first hand and was able to meet some of the women that are sewing them. This program really does help these women to have a much better life and they have it set up so that each women even has a bank account.

So Please check it out and pass it on to your friends. You can even have purse parties. It is really neat! Click on the Link below!

Haiti Purses

Ebenezer discipleship training center

2009-03-04T16:43:00.003-05:00

We are now in the fund raising stage for the Ebenezer discipleship training center. The center will be doing 1 month training sessions for pastors. Because these pastors have other jobs in order to feed their families, along with being a pastor, It will cost approximately $200 to attend these training sessions. We now have a 501c3 in place so people can start giving anytime. Church groups are welcome to get involved with this as well. Their are so many ways churches can become involved. Bakes sales have been really good. If anyone would like to help us fund raise for this or would like more info please email us at telltheworld5@gmail.com

Please feel free to pass this along to those you think would be interested in partnering with us to train Haitian pastors and to raise up and train Native Haitian missionaries. We want the pastors to know the truth of who Jesus is and to be able to pass that along to everyone they come into contact with. So many pastors cannot even read the bible in their own language and one of the things that the center plans to do is teach them how to read! If you are new to our blog you can go back to the January posts to read up on what God is doing in Haiti.

Questions I was asked.

2009-03-04T12:34:00.002-05:00

1. Tori

ok this is honestly the first thing that came to my mind when i read that. ready for this?? ok.

My Favorite soup is Cheese Broccoli! Yum!!!

2. Terry
Do you think there are any more kids in your future...?
Only God knows the answer to that question. We are VERY happy and satisfied with how many kids we have at this time. I love how they are all getting older and its getting to be a little bit easier. However that is usually when God shakes things up again! :)

Can I ask more than one?
Of course you can ask more than one!!

3. Dawn

What's your favorite local restuarant?
My favorite restaurant is On the Border. Best fajitas hands down!! :)

4. Mari
What is your favorite thing to do as a family?

The biggest thing we love to do the most as a family is go camping. We have so much fun together. We have a really nice 30ft trailer and its very comfortable. Now that the kids are older camping is SO much easier and less stressful. Can all hang out and relax with eachother. We love to go swimming, hiking, sit by the campfire, hang out on the beach.

that was really fun!! Keep the questions coming!! I enjoyed that!!

Writer's block

2009-03-03T13:13:00.000-05:00

I have a bad case of writers block. I have enjoyed in the past when blogger's would just tell everyone to ask them any question that they want. I figured I might as well do that here!!

So feel free to ask me anything.

Don't worry I will post my updated pictures of my room soon.

Caleb dancing

2009-02-24T13:53:00.003-05:00

We were in the world market store the other day to look for palm trees and there was some musci playing. Caleb goes "hey mom, Dad look this is great music to cha cha too"! We laughed so hard! I asked him to recreate it for me last night!!

Caleb's 8th birthday!

2009-02-24T13:42:00.002-05:00

Last night we celebrated Caleb's 8th birthday with my parents. We had a fun night.
It is so hard for me to believe that Caleb can 8 already. Where has the time gone. He is
my youngest child. Caleb you are SO much fun to be around. You can be a little spitfire but you probably get that from me! :) We love you so much buddy!! You have such a soft heart for those around that are hurting. Your teacher always tells me how you very quietly watch your surroundings to make sure everyone is okay and you want to make sure that if someone needs help you are right there! I love that about you!! We never know what we are going to get from minute to minute with you!! We just know it will be something funny!

My new tile floor

2009-02-24T09:45:00.004-05:00

As of yesterday our new tile floor is finished! We just have one more thing to do and we can really put the furniture back where we want it and call it good! I LOVE it!!! The room is so bright and cheery now!!!! We are now in the look out for our 2 palm trees. We have a certain one in mind and we may end up having to order it on the internet. If any of you have seen palm trees anywhere please let us know! I should say that these will be fake palm trees! Michigan is not too good for real ones! LOL

Lovely Blogger award

2009-02-23T11:26:00.003-05:00

My friend Sara gave me this wonderful award! Thank you so much!!

The way it works: let your readers know where you received the award, then pass it on to your favorite "lovely" bloggers. Have fun!

Now add this text:

“These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

1. Tara Livesay

2. Cheri Battjes

3. Tammy Berghorst

4. Diane Westrick

5. Mari Bruins

6. Kim VanderHelm

7. Jamie Ivey

8. Kathy Friend

Chris Tomlin - God of this city

2009-02-20T12:28:00.003-05:00

On our last day in Haiti, as we were on our way to Port-Au-Prince fellowship church, Troy told us about this great song he had heard and played it for us as we were driving through the streets of Port. It was called God of this city. It was written by another band but Chris Tomlin did a cover of it. I cannot get this song out of my mind. I was sitting in the back of Troy's truck and listening and looking at my surroundings and it brought me to tears that GOD is the GOD of every city. It was really powerful realizing that the people I was watching needed God desperately. I then realized people in cities every where need Jesus desperately. They need the truth. We can give them that truth!!! Not just in Haiti, everywhere! Please join me in praying for the lost and that God will open their eyes. I know we cannot open their eyes but we can plant a seed!

Thanks to everyone that has been praying for the mission training center in Haiti. God has really been doing a mighty work there!!! It is moving much faster than we ever dreamed it would. It looks like we will have our first training session during our mission trip in July! It looks to be an exciting time!!

Avon

2009-02-19T10:13:00.002-05:00

I do not usually use my blog about Avon but I thought what a great tool this could be.

I have my own personal website. www.youravon.com/byonker and you can get free shipping direct to your house.

You can also see the books with theselinks.
http://youravon.com/static/catalog/2009/04/en/index.html
http://youravon.com/static/catalog/2009/05/en/index.html
http://youravon.com/static/catalog/2009/03/en/index.html

If you want to see an item up close you just click on that item and it will make the picture bigger.

Thanks for taking a look!!!

Room remodeling

2009-02-16T14:13:00.005-05:00

The past few months have been crazy in our house. We did NOT plan a ton of remodeling this year but we had some water damage and we got money from insurance to get this fixed. We knew we would have to paint and get some new french doors. We knew that some day we wanted to turn our great room into a Caribbean room! We figured that would be WAY in the future. These are before pictures.

This is how my old computer desk looked like just a few days ago.
The picture above is AFTER we had the water damage fixed and Nate and a our friend Jason put in new can lights. We were just planning on repainting and getting our new doors put in.

However as we were waiting we ended up painting our dining room and our hallways. Plus we put new can lights in our dining room. I posted about that awhile back.

We decided we did NOT want to paint the walls white again and needed some color for a change. We figured we might as well pick out the colors we would want for our Caribbean room. We picked out a color called Island shores. It is kind of a salmon color. We also were out shopping one night and decided to look at tile and we found some VERY cheap. We could hardly believe it!! We have a good friend that knows how to tile and Nate and Brett trade work quite a bit so we figured we would also able to put our tile in this year too. Now that is a miracle because we thought we would be waiting a year to do that! The picture below is after painting. We do not have our tile in yet but everything is purchased. We hope to have that start this Saturday.

The tin art that you see was ALL purchased in Haiti. We went to a village that specializes in this we were able to watch them make these items and purchase them from the artists themselves. I was VERY impressed. For those of you that are going on our next Haiti trip this is going to be one of the places we go to before heading to Ti Guave!!

The picture below I am VERY excited about!! I have a new home office!!! As you can see our built in computer desk is history! I really never liked it because it was an eye sore in the the room and never looked right.

One of the items that we would really like in our Haiti room is a couple of palm trees. We have been looking all over but they are really hard to find. The one place we had not looked at yet was Pier 1 imports. Nate and I had never been there before. We went in looking for palm trees and came out with what you see above!! :)

They had some awesome sales and the desk above was Originally $500 but we were able to get it for just over $100!!! The wicker basket storage set was on sale as well. We had also been wanting a new printer but figured we were just fine with what we had even though it was not working great. Because of the way we have our desk now our old printer did not reach the computer tower. As you know Circuit city is going out of business and so off we went searching for a wireless printer!!! We got the last one!!! It was on sale for $69!! I was SO excited!!! It even does 2 sided printing!! This was probably the best valentine's gift I could have gotten!!!! :)

Great Wolf Lodge

2009-02-12T15:47:00.004-05:00

Last Thursday we went to Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City, Michigan with some good friends. We had so much fun!! This was the kid's Christmas present this year. If you have a hard time with what to get your kids for christmas this is the way to go!!! They loved it!!!
Nikolas and Jared

Nate on the stairs.

Hannah and Lauren
Chad, Lauren and Hannah. Swimming next to the big water snake.
Not my favorite part of the water park.
Mikayla and Heather on the lily pads. YES I TRIED THIS 4 times!!! LOL

I could not get any pictures of them on the water slides. It was just too dark. The kids Did really well the whole weekend!!

Valentines Day survey

2009-02-12T08:09:00.002-05:00

I saw this on my friend Melissa's blog. I figured I would do it right now.

♥ How long have you been together? Almost 22 years.
♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating? 1 months
♥ Who asked who out? I think it was Nate but it was more of a mutual thing as we started out as really good friends and just evolved into something more.
♥ How old are each of you? Nate is 39 and I am 38
♥ Whose siblings do/ did you see the most? His
♥ Do you have any children together? 3 girls and 2 boys.
♥ What about pets? No
♥ Are you from the same home town? We are now! :) Nate grew up in Allendale and I lived in Byron Center.
♥ Who is the smartest? Nate is MUCH smarter than I am but we both have a lot of common sense.
♥ Who is the most sensitive?Not sure.
♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple? Chinese
♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? Russia (Siberia) and China
♥ Who has the worst temper? I do.
♥ Who does the cooking? I do, but Nate does like to cook.
♥ Who is more social? Both of us are the same now.
♥Who is the neat freak? Neither of us are neat freaks
♥ Who is the more stubborn? We both are very stubborn.
♥ Where was your first date? I cannot remember actually as we never had what would be called a "real" first date. We just did things together and did not really have one special moment.
♥ Who has the bigger family?Nate does.
♥ Do you get flowers often? No but that is okay as they die quickly.
♥ How do you spend the holidays? We divide it up between our families
♥ How long did it take to get serious? Probably about 6 months
♥ Who eats more? Nate
♥ Who’s better with the computer? I am but Nate is learning quickly.
♥ Who drives when you are together? Nate

Chris Tomlin "I will rise"

2009-02-10T10:11:00.001-05:00

Just before we headed to Haiti I heard this song on the radio for the first time and it actually made me cry! I was in the car! What a sight that must have been!!

After we got back from Haiti, our praise team, did this song!!! They did an incredible job!!!

We are home!

2009-02-03T11:12:00.002-05:00

We actually arrived home on Sunday afternoon. We had some good friends that met us at the airport! That was so much fun to see!! Thank you!!

We then headed to get something to eat as Nate and I realized is had been since about 3:30pm since the day before that we had eaten! Troy, we got our 12 hour fast in!! LOL

Am I happy that I am back? I have to be honest. I am happy to see the kids but I am not all that happy to be back. I LOVED our time in Haiti so much. Seeing friends, Seeing God work in amazing ways. How can you not love that. Maybe if the weather would warm up I would feel better to be home!! :)

Thanks to all of you who prayed for us while we wer gone! We felt them in so many ways.
One fun thing about being home is we are working on our Haiti room or Caribbean room. It is in the process of being painted right now and we bought some cool things in Haiti to add to our walls. I will take some pictures soon of it. Nate and his friend are heading out tonight to get tile for this room. It is going to be awesome!!

I found this fun thing on a friends blog. It is to see how many people in the US have your same name.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are
5
people with my name in the U.S.A.

http://howmanyofme.com">How many have your name?

I wonder what they are like, who they are? What a riot!!

My kids

2009-01-29T10:28:00.001-05:00

I wanted to post this link really quick to Tiffany's blog My family can be really crazy but I thought that maybe it was time for the whole world to see our fun!! Enjoy!! I do miss them terribly!!!

pictures of Petit Guave

2009-01-29T07:57:00.007-05:00

I finally have most of the pictures from yesterday uploaded. That day was surreal. It was an amazing, exciting, exhausting day!! To watch God work the details is probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I have seen it before with our adoption of Hannah and even other times but to be a witness to it again just leaves my mind spinning. I was able to sit in the room with Troy, Nate and Gladys. I know you read about that yesterday and I will not go into those details again. I just wanted to share my thoughts on the day. Gladys shared what was on her heart and the heart of her mother and father (who passed away in 2004). I am pretty glad a camera was not in the room because my mouth was probably open the whole time in awe of what I was witnessing. Purely God speaking. I have chills thinking about it right now. It was like having an out of body experience. It makes my heart hurt that there are people out there that have NEVER experienced this. I saw how God truly loves US. I could FEEL the love in the room. I wish all of you who love Haiti like I do could have experienced this. I had tears many times. It is hard to put into words. I saw truly what having faith in what God will do and provide come to life. It makes my hurt heart when I see people or friends say they feel called but just cannot afford what they think God is asking them to do. That is a shame. If it truly is coming from God, HE will provide EVERYTHING!!! If you feel God has called you to something or you feel very strongly that the Lord is talking to you then do it. Don't sit around and wonder, do it!! 1 1/2 half ago this vision of Haiti was given to Nate. Did we want to go ahead and jump on it and do it right then? Of course, we did!! Look how much better it is NOW THAT WE WAITED ON THE LORD!! The glory would have gone to man, but THE GLORY IS ALL GOD'S! We did nothing. The words be prepared came to me at the same time this vision came to Nate. I NOW understand what God was talking about. He meant BE PREPARED MY CHILD FOR WHAT I AM GOING TO SHOW YOU! FOR WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO WITNESS ME DOING AND FOR WHAT I AM GOING TO HAVE YOUR FAMILY DO FOR ME. I saw yesterday the vision of the people of Haiti becoming united for Christ. I saw white missionaries becoming united to take Haiti for Jesus!!! Will we have struggles? You bet we will but God will prevail!!! God wants his children to come home to him and we get to watch that happen!!! Awesome!!!!

One other thing I have learned is that faith is trusting and following God no matter what. Even if NOTHING ever happens with what we are doing. If we followe Him and did what He asked then that is all that matters. Not even one person may come to Christ but that is NOT what we worry about. We just need make sure that we follow His leading. Everything else is up to Him. So all of you at home remember that too. I know some of you have been struggeling but just do the work God has for you and leave everything else to HIM!!!

I am tired, so tired, of people complaining about things back home. I am tired of people making up false things and trying to divide others. We NEED to be ONE in CHRIST.

Okay off my soapbox. This week has been incredible for me. I guess you can tell that from what I wrote above!!! Today I want you all to pray that God shows YOU what he is calling you to do!! You will be amazed and I know you will want to "BE PREPARED" for what He has in store!!!

Newly painted bus!!!

above and below. Scenes of the street by the church in

Petit Guave.

Below are pictures of the church

Below are pictures of the house in Petit Guave.

Gladys lived here for 7 years.

THE day

2009-01-28T20:53:00.002-05:00

Today was a great day. It was day that left us dazed and amazed. It was a day to sit back and just marvel at the way God works, and then lift up our hands to give Him all the praise. Before I explain what happened, I should back up a little and share what has been going on for the last year and a half for those of you who don't know.
Since I started to lead teams to Haiti I noticed that there was a problem in Haiti. It seemed as if even though there were missionaries everywhere, the missions for the most part were ineffective in Kingdom advancement. After I read the book Reveloution in world missions (which if you have not read, I highly recommend you order your free copy from gfa.com ) I understood the problem. Instead of relying on missionaries from America to spread the gospel, we should be raising up missionaries from within Haiti itself. God gave me a vision of training centers to train Haitians to be missionaries to their own people.
A couple months later I shared this vision with Troy Livesay, the missionaries we have been working with in Haiti for some time. I was not sure what he would think as he is a missionary in Haiti. To make a long story short he is completly sold out on the idea, so we started to pray and discern if this was truly the path God wanted us to go. After this summer we had no doubts this was God's will.
So where do we start? The thought of even starting a mission like this is overwhelming. We would need lots of start up money. We would need to find land and build the center and dorms. Where would we do this. Who would run it? How long would it even take to get started? To even think about all this is overwhelming, let alone knowing where to start. Still, we knew this was God's leading so we gave it over to Him.
In October Troy was meeting with Gladys from Caanan. Those of you who have been there with me know it to be an amazing place and Gladys to be a powerful servant of God. In the course of the meeting Gladys told Troy that her dad had started a chain of churches called Ebenezer and that they had the idea of starting a training program for missionaries and pastors, but that it had never taken off, and were now looking for someone with a passion for this to try to start up a training program. Troy had never mentioned our vision to her before, so when he told her we were praying over that exact idea she about fell over and it was obvious it was a God ordained connection.
A few months went by and nothing happened so we were both sort of wondering what was going on, but then a couple of weeks ago Gladys was married to Henri (also from Cannan ) and invited Troy and Tara. Because the family was here for the wedding they decided to go look at the property a few days later. The property is in Petit Guave, about 1 hour south of PAP. Troy called me that night overwhelmed at how awesome the property was. There were still some questions whether the family would allow us to use the property, what they would let us use it for if they did, and many other questions. Still, it was amazing to see things seemingly unfold before our eyes.
We set up a meeting for today to go look at the property again with Gladys so we could look at it, and also sit down with her and talk about the vision, and see what she was thinking. I took a lot of pictures and will have Brenda put them up tommorrow. The property, though, is perfect. The "house" could not be set up better for dorms, but also can easily be used for a team house. It is steps from the ocean on a quiet street. There is an awesome gathering place that will be perfect for worship services and group meetings. It has a large yard with plenty of places to pray and meditate.
After looking at the house, we sat down with Gladys to talk about the plans. We were not sure what she was thinking, and did not want to "steamroll" our vision to her. Within 30 seconds though we knew, again, that it was a Holy Spirit meeting as she started sharing what she would like to see happen with the place, which was EXACTLY what the vision was that God gave us. We just kept shaking our heads at how God was orchestrating all of this. Our passion is to see people sold out for Jesus Christ, forsaking all for Him, with a passion for the lost. People that are not concerned about material things, but seeing the Kingdom of God advanced in Haiti, who are self supporting, relying on God for their needs, and not the white missionary.
When the question was asked how much money will be needed to use the property, the answer was, " I don't think any of us are thinking about charging". Also we were given permission to take stay there with teams, and Gladys even offered to have her kids from cannan interpert for us!
After we left the house we went over to the church. The place is HUGE. To give you an idea they used to worship there with 1000 people. Again, a perfect place for a training center. Also, perfect for VBS. The town is beautiful. The people walk by and don't stare, the kids say hi and walk on. It is clean and peaceful. Absolutly amazing.
So Gladys is having a meeting with her board on Saturday where she is presenting this to them, but she said she is basicly in charge, so let's go! She wants to know when we can start, and the sooner the better! Here is one more cool thing. Yesterday Troy and I sat down to talk about team trips and do some visioning for the mission. We were not planning on doing this, but we ended up coming up with a questionaire for pastors. So at the meeting Gladys said " you know if you had a questionaire I could show the board Saturday that would be great". Well, we just happen to. God is SO great.
Okay, I know this is a book already, and I have left SO much out, but what I really want to enphasize is this. It does not matter if you know what you are doing, if you have the funding, or the ability to accomplish a task. What does matter is knowing that God has called you to it. Be sure of what God wants you to do, then trust that HE will provide the means to accomplish it. Faith is not knowing how something will be accomplished. Faith is knowing God is calling you to something that you cannot do without Him, and moving forward in that knowledge so that HE recieved the glory when HE accomplishes it. I would like to take this opportunity to praise Him, because ONLY He is worthy. He is mighty in deed. All glory to His holy name!!

Nate's day

2009-01-27T19:14:00.002-05:00

Nate and Troy spent some of the morning doing some plumbing and they also looked at a possible mission house/ ministry center house today that is for sale. Needs a lot of work but we thought it might be awesome to rent/buy a house for the mission needs in Port instead of giving the money elsewhere.

They spent a good part of the day getting things planned out and discussing what will need to be done. I believe it went really, really well.

As you know Mari is our prayer warrior this week (I should say one of many, but she was actually asked to pray specifically for our trip for the whole week) She emailed us at one point and asked what we had done that day around 9:20-9:30am. She said she had the urge that she needed to pray right then and had a few things that came to mind. Well we pieced it together and that was EXACTLY the same time that they were looking at the training center/ministry center!!! How cool is that! I love how the Lord works!!

It has been a really good day. We had a lot of fun just playing with the kids tonight and hanging out this evening! Jeronne makes the best beans and rice EVER!! Troy has also introduced us to the bread store right across the street. We have had that for lunch. I have had a LOT of bread in my lifetime and this is the BEST (I MEAN BEST) I have ever had!!! Okay to Amy, Diane, Tori and Tammy - I have not done my best since finding this bread but I guess its only for a week!!! LOL

The Adventures of the Yonker Family

A new way of thinking...... Part 3

Reilly Concert

A new way of thinking...... Part 2

Reilly Concert

A new way of thinking.....

Home......

Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser

Tear down the walls

Home 5 days

Update from Ebenezer

Thanksgiving

New pictures!

Lots of prayers needed

Hard time blogging

June 7 2010

Haiti

integrity

in·teg·ri·ty

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For Judy Holmes

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Thank you Judy and boys.

Foods

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Pictures of our room

The way we do things.

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Third week

Helping

Soccer

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Hannah and her friend last day of school.

Packed and ready

1 1/2 days til our summer adventure begins!

Stories from the Shepherd's heart fundraiser

Where has the time gone

No time for blogging

Heather is learning what Sacrifice means!

Merry Christmas from the Yonker

Big things coming!

Casting Crowns - Sing until the whole world hears!

Huge Praise!!

More on Ebenezer

More on Ebenezer

Matching donation fundraiser

Back from Haiti

July 2009 Haiti team

Nate's birthday

Gone for TOO long!!

Happy 9th birthday

Fundraiser

Check out link

Fundraisers!!

Great flood of 2009

Fun weekends!!!

WAY BEHIND!!

Where my heart is.......

Ebenezer discipleship training center flyer!!

My next mission trip