Two Weeks Out

Two weeks from tonight, we'll be settling down for our first night as new residents in Vaudreuil, Haiti!  (Let's not forget the "God willing" part, of course.)

It's been a crazy couple of days since our commissioning at One Mission Society headquarters last Friday.  I didn't get any pictures of the actual service, but here's a group shot of our fellow missionaries (and now dear friends) from our three weeks in Greenwood, Indiana:

We were blessed to have my mother, Kris (one of Melissa's former co-workers) and Kate and Storly (just back from a summer spent in Haiti) in attendance for our commissioning.  It was a great and meaningful service, and if I had more energy, I would tell you more about it. There were plenty of hugs and goodbyes to go around after the service - and then everyone rushed off to the four corners of the globe!

The kids had their own commissioning service - and their own share of goodbyes.

Melissa is going to miss her new Kiwi friend, Carolyn. I've always wanted to visit New Zealand, and now I would gladly go there just to visit Carolyn and Chuni - assuming they were back from the mission field at the time...

Sarah and a couple of her new friends - who are now safely in Spain -  Photobombed by Phil Heckman!  Real mature, Phil. ;-) 

Upon returning home, Melissa got to work on having the kids write up lists of things they'd like to do/people they'd like to see before we leave.  Pizza from Mancino's was on the top of Samuel's list.  Grandma Trudy joined us.

Sunday morning I had the chance to share at my home church, Shelbyville First United Methodist.  My sermon went long, but that didn't stop the congregation from giving us a very warm, gracious and supportive welcome! Service was followed by a great lunch at my brother Russ' house.

Sunday evening was the second of Kate Michel's two birthday parties we got to enjoy. Storly got into the party spirit!

The kids couldn't wait for cake and ice cream!

And then last night we were blessed to be a part of the opening of VBS at West Morris Street Free Methodist Church in Indy.  They have decided to make our kids the focus of their VBS mission giving; they hope to raise enough money to buy bikes for our kids once we arrive in Haiti.  So sweet!  And so much fun to be a part of the evening's festivities.  I don't think I have ever been a part of a church that loved its neighborhood more than WEMO does.

Coming up: The packing continues and we continue to whittle away at the To Do list.  I weighed what we have already packed and we are at 2,000 pounds!  BUT 1,500 lbs of that total is school supplies.  We have reserved 3,000 lbs on the flight from Fort Pierce, Florida.  Our flight is Tuesday, August 13th, but part of what I am trying to work out this week is a plan to get our family down to Florida a few days early to enjoy a bit of stress-free transition time as a family.  It should be quite a challenge, considering our extremely limited budget!  But if we can swing it, we'd like to pull out of Indiana a week from tomorrow.  Time is flying.

Tomorrow the house gets listed again in the local paper as a rental at a new, lower price - a bit lower than we can technically afford, in fact!  We hope to get some phone calls and get this situation settled.  We continue to pray for God's guidance and provision and we thank all of you who have been praying about this on our behalf.  We'll keep you posted!

Questioning

Our three weeks of Cross Training ended yesterday with a meaningful commissioning service at headquarters.  We were blessed to have several friends and my mom there to join in the celebration.  Afterwards we cleaned out our living quarters, packed the van and drove back to Columbus to join our friends Kate and Storly to celebrate Kate's 40th birthday and to catch up - their family spent the last two months in Haiti, working with the radio station and hosting numerous short term teams from the U.S. and the U.K.

We didn't get home until after 10:00 PM. and we begged the kids to SLEEP IN come morning.  So good to be back in familiar beds.  Now it is morning and the weather is perfect: dark and rainy.  But MY body decides to get me up at 5:30! 

The funny thing is that I didn't wake up all stressed out over our extensive To Do List (17 days until our flight to Cap Haitien!).  No, my first thoughts were over my major 'take away' from Cross Training.  It's another one of those basic Christian beliefs that is belatedly making it's way from my head to my heart, so I am almost embarrassed to write about this.

Plus, I am  still processing this - and I haven't had enough sleep - and it's 8:15 and kids are starting to trickle out of bed - so I will keep this brief.  For three weeks now I have been chewing on a basic question: Do I really TRUST God? 

Do I trust in His goodness?  Do I trust in His love?  Do I trust in His righteousness to cover me? Do I trust that He can bring good out of even the worst circumstances?  Do I trust Him with the safety of my family?  Do I really trust?

Or do I hedge my bets?  Do I create contingency plans in case God lets me down?  Do I question my standing before God?  Do I wonder how - or if - He can love ME?  Do I fear that God won't come through in my time of need?

There's a chasm between saying I trust in God (while actually harboring fears and doubts) and truly having a heart at peace and at rest in the Lord's love and provision.  The latter is akin to Adam and Eve walking in the garden with God and is the very relationship we were created to enjoy.  The former is akin to Adam's response to God after the Fall: "I heard you coming so I hid."  We acknowledge God's existence but we just know He's got it in for us!

Early in our Cross Training experience, one of our speakers pointed out that the Genesis account of the Fall makes clear that Adam and Eve's distrust of God is the original sin.  God said, "All this paradise is yours, just don't eat the fruit from this one tree." And the serpent said to Eve, "Did God really say...?" And then he went on to contradict God: "You shall not surely die." And Eve gave in to this questioning of God's goodness and God's motives.

So it boils down to this: when we harbor doubts of God's love, intentions, and provision, is that closer to the mind of Christ or to the mind of Satan? 

And what are we going to do about it?

Running

Tomorrow we finish our three weeks of what OMS calls Cross Training.  We have been living in an apartment on the campus of the OMS headquarters in Greenwood, Indiana and spending each weekday in class with over twenty other folks heading to various mission fields.  Our class represented not just America, but Northern Ireland and New Zealand and our fields stretch from Haiti to Spain to India and beyond.  Our teachers have covered everything from spiritual gifts to cultural sensitivity, mental health to holiness, and on-the-field security issues to conflict management.  Our kids have been in classes too, and enjoyed several field trips, along with 11 other missionary-kids-to-be. 

 Between classes, we have enjoyed coffee and cookies, walks around campus, wading in the creek, and a picnic about every other night. We've heard each other's testimonies and calls to fields of service and we have worshipped and studied the Bible together.  It's been so very refreshing... and tiring!

The girls (and the rest of us) enjoyed having a bit more space than we have been used to during the last two years at Grandma's house.  Our apartment had two bathrooms!  Wahoo!

At the midway point in our three weeks, there was an all-afternoon carnival.  That's Hannah in the dunk tank, about to go down.

Fellow classmate, Mike, took full advantage of the face painting during the carnival.  I believe that's an angry bird on his cheek.



Like all the other kids, Samuel got plenty of use out of the inflatable slip-n-slide that day, and his little buddy, Luke, did too.

 

Every now and then - when there wasn't a picnic or a dinner invitation from a local missionary - we got to cook our own dinner in the apartment.

One of the greatest blessings of our three weeks was getting to know the Heckmans, a family also heading to Haiti.  They'll be just down the road from us by the end of August, working full-time on the campus of Emmaus Biblical Seminary.  One evening last week we had the chance to show them a bit of downtown Indy, which was fun for us since they hail from New Jersey. (Emily stresses the fact that their home is in SOUTH Jersey, not the reality-TV-show part of the state!)



Sunday morning worship at Southland with the Heckmans and the Hills.  I loved how Luke Hill wanted to hold Sammy's hand on the way to the front doors.

Sarah practiced her coconut tree climbing skills in her spare time. 

The Heckmans sharing their testimonies in chapel - as each of us had the opportunity to do.  All of the folks working at headquarters gather each Tuesday and Thursday morning for chapel, so there were a lot more people in attendance than this photo would imply - even missionaries won't sit in the front row during a worship service!

Plenty of food on hand at every break!



One evening we had a special visit from our friends from Columbus, the Combs.  It was a great opportunity for our kids to introduce old friends to new and vice versa!

Four square on the tennis court.

Today the kids found a baby bird that had fallen out of a nest. Sarah couldn't wait to show all her little friends.  She cried tonight at the thought of leaving them all tomorrow!



We took lots of walks around campus in a vain attempt to drop some of the calories we were consuming day by day. Good exercise and good conversation - can't beat that!

I'll close with a word picture that came to mind a week ago that seems fitting for this summer, especially as Cross Training ends:
I pictured myself running, running, running.  Sweat is pouring off my forehead.  My side is hurting.  Both legs feel wobbly. I start thinking, "I'm not gonna make it. I need water."  I am on the verge of giving up, but then someone yells encouragement at me:

"Keep going!  Don't stop now...

you're almost to the STARTING line!"

Cross Training has been that refreshing water we needed to keep going.  It ends tomorrow with a  special commissioning service in the afternoon and then we'll all head our separate ways.  I'm sure it will be bittersweet.

Now for the final warm-ups and stretching.  The starting line is fast approaching: Tuesday, August 13th!


P.S.  If you are willing to pray for us, our most pressing concern right now is the house.  Yes ... STILL!  No buyer or renter lined up yet!  Time grows short.  We are trusting that God has an awesome solution in the works already.

Things Lost and Things Gained

Last time I wrote about watching our kids experience grief in this move to Haiti our family is preparing for. That has been – and will be – tough.  But I’ve been caught off guard by my own grief as well. 

A few days ago I had to finish up a chore at our old house in preparation for it being rented again … or sold … or whatever God’s plan is.  A section of the outside garage wall had become water damaged and was simply crumbling away.  I had to rip away all the old wood and replace it with new and it took ALL day.  Before I left that evening, though, there was a second, unrelated job to do that I had been putting off.

The pool needed to be drained of about 8 inches of stagnant water.  This was the first summer in seven years that I had not cleaned out that pool and filled it with fresh water.  Even last summer, between renters, I had done pool duty.  It was always an ugly job – ridding that thing of all the decaying leaves and the gallons upon gallons of mucky, stinky brown water.  It always took hours to finish.

But as soon as it was all cleaned out and the garden hose started pumping fresh, clear water into the pool, the kids would put on their swim suits and start splashing around in the puddles forming in the bottom of the pool, slipping and sliding this way and that.  THAT was the pay off.

2012

This year, though, I decided the liner was too old and there was simply no good reason to fill that pool; nobody was going to use it and we couldn’t afford to run the pump or buy the chlorine anyway.  And rather than tearing the liner out completely, which would only result in a perfectly round, enclosed weed garden, I decided to puncture a hole in the liner at the lowest spot and let gravity drain the mosquito nest.

So at the end of the day, I took off my shoes, lowered myself into the pool and waded into the ankle deep muck with a utility knife in hand. 

And I stabbed that pool in the heart.

I went back into the house to wash up, stood at the kitchen sink looking out over the deck at the pool ... and just lost it.  The flood of emotion completely caught me off guard and I cried – harder than I have cried in a very long time. 

The feeling was something akin to taking an old, loyal dog to the veterinarian to be put to sleep.  You’ve told yourself that it has to be done, it’s for the best, there’s no avoiding it … but that moment of finality tears at your heart.

But here’s the honest-to-goodness truth: even if it were possible to go back, I would not.  Recently, I have found myself drawn time and again to Paul's letter to the Philippians.  Chapter 3 is especially resonating with me:  "But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."  (Phil 3:7-11)

I am certainly not putting myself in Paul’s spiritual league, only saying that I find myself more and more wanting nothing – not even good things – to stand in the way of my willingness to follow God’s call on my life and on the life of my family.  Letting go of things can be difficult, especially when the future is impossible to see. 

(And pretty soon we'll be saying goodbye to PEOPLE and not just things:  Grandmas.  Aunts and uncles. Cousins. Best friends.  We're going to need some serious prayer!) 

To use a well-worn cliché: It's not going to be easy, but it will be worth it.  God is faithful and we know that nothing compares to being in the center of His will.  And sometimes that involves moving away from the comfortable and familiar...



P.S.  We leave Florida for Haiti on August 13th, but we are still short in our financial support.  If you have not yet joined our support team, would you consider doing it today?  Just go to onemissionsociety.org to start the process.

Leaving Houses ... and Beds

One afternoon early last week during our cross cultural training we took the time to discuss transitioning from home to the mission field.  The seminar leader had a useful diagram to help us envision this emotionally charged period: a bridge from the known to the unknown.  The water below the bridge was labeled “CHAOS”! 

Spot on!
 

The kids’ programming sometimes mirrors the adults’ and so we weren’t surprised last Thursday night when, an hour after the kids had been put to bed, Melissa and I found Samuel … happy-go-lucky, monkey-boy Sammy … quietly crying on the couch upon our return from a quiet walk around the OMS campus. 

He was unable to sleep because he was thinking about his bed … the one in our old house.  The house where we haven’t lived for two years now.  That bed was special to him because I built it.

(Caleb slept on the upper platform
and Samuel slept on the lower.)

 And watching those tears roll down his cheeks, it was all I could do to not join him in crying.

So the three of us talked about how that bed and hundreds of other good memories were a blessing from God. That God had been so very gracious to us in the past and would undoubtedly continue to be into the future.  We noted that the good part of leaving friends behind is that you get to keep those friends AND add new ones that you would have never met if you had stayed put.

 

Melissa recently reminded us of Christ's words and a sweet and precious promise:

"Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life."            (Mark 10:29-30)

That's a promise we're going to stand on!

 

Cross Training

A week ago, as Melissa and I drove to Greenwood, Indiana to begin Cross Training, we had a little conversation about what was to come:

     "Why in the world would OMS require three weeks of training before we head to the field?"
     "I know.  Surely they could boil all the relevant info down to two weeks.  We have so much to do at home to prepare to leave.  I bet they could cover the important stuff in a WEEK if they tried."
     "Didn't they talk about doing this online in the future?  THAT would be a good idea."
     "At least we are only 45 minutes from home so we can get things done in the evenings and on the weekends..."

Now? It's one week later ... and after spending two quick days at home over the weekend, we are RARING to go back to training (even though the To Do List has not grown significantly smaller).  Major league flip-flop in attitude.

For a couple of reasons:

1)  We met another family bound for Haiti, the Heckmans, of whose existence (I have to admit) I was only vaguely aware beforehand.  They will be living and working on the campus of Emmaus Biblical Seminary - where I hope to do some English tutoring and, eventually, English classroom instruction. 

Phil will be helping with maintenance around the campus and Emily will be focused on teaching youth ministry courses and developing a student life program.  They have two great kids: Ethan just turned 13 (not quite a year older than Caleb) and Haylie is 11 (just like Hannah!).

Our boys enjoying some frozen yogurt with Ethan

Emily keeps a blog and described what a blessing it has been for us adults and the kids to get to know each other this week, and she said it so well that I can take the easy way out and simply link to her blog right HERE.  ;-)

2) By and large, the classroom time has been very worthwhile and important stuff.  And it's plenty compacted already.  It feels like information is flying at us at high speed, so I would hate to see what would happen to my head if the leadership condensed the material down to two weeks!  We've talked through material from personality assessments to spiritual warfare to tropical diseases.

3) And finally, it is just good and refreshing to our spirits to be with like-minded people in college campus-like surroundings while processing this big, big move coming up for our family.  Plus, it's like a big prayer bath for these three weeks- and you can't beat that!

A beautiful basket of goodies waiting for us in our apartment - from our prayer partners for the week, the Dragons! 

A sign on the wall at OMS headquarters...

 

Speaking of prayer, we know many of you are praying for us as well and we appreciate it so very much!  A couple of prayer requests if you are willing to lift us before the Lord:
* In about an hour I go to show our house to a prospective renter.  We STILL do not have the house issue sorted  out and we leave in less than a month!
* Our kids need extra prayer as the next few weeks will hold some tough, tough realities for them.
* We are still far from being fully funded.  While we have enough to get us on the field, we have some fears about how far our monthly budget will stretch once we are there. 

If you have not yet joined our support team, but you've felt God's nudging, NOW would be an awesome time to let us know!  The One Mission Society website can walk you through the process RIGHT HERE.  We would be eternally grateful to partner with you for the sake of Christ's Kingdom in Haiti!

Pennsylvania Highlights - Pittsburgh

Time marches on - we're now in Greenwood for three weeks of cross cultural training at OMS headquarters - so our trip to Pennsylvania is already starting to seem like a distant memory.  But it is such a PLEASANT memory that I can't move one without at least posting a few pictures from the conclusion of that trip and giving a shout out to my cousin Jennifer and her family for hosting us at their home south of Pittsburgh for a couple of nights.

Jennifer was an outstanding tour guide and host - at a less-than-convenient time in their summer schedule.  She and Michael were marking their 19th anniversary and the whole family was packing for their own trip out West - and still she fed and housed us and showed us around the area.  Their kids were great, too, in playing with our kids, who really needed some play time after spending the previous three days almost exclusively in the company of adults.

So, thank you, Kuenzels, for the hospitality and for capping off our trip with some fun time with family!

Dinner with second cousins David and Anna

A night in the camper

A day at the Pittsburgh Zoo

Anna's so excited to pet a snake!

The Zoo includes a top-notch aquarium exhibit

After spending so much time on this trip looking for deer, Sarah finally had the chance to get up close and personal with one!

And then there are the inevitable goodbyes...

The Days are Full

The things keeping us busy lately ... in no particular order:

1) Until yesterday, our basement looked like a garage sale threw up down there.  Eventually, we cut a few paths through the mess.  Last night entire swaths of open floor re-appeared.  It's been truly horrible and has seemed a daunting, nearly impossible task - sorting through piles of items, some bound for Haiti, some left over from Melissa's classroom clean out, some needing to go into long term storage, lots of toys, and plenty of odds and ends with no clear purpose or destination. 

I would share a picture but Melissa would die of embarrassment.

It is unconscionable to imagine leaving this mess behind for my mother-in-law to live with for the next year, so the job HAD to be done.  Just getting a good start feels mighty good.  Sometimes the act of starting really is the hardest part.

2) Other items on our To Do List got crossed off yesterday!  All of us got a dental visit in the morning.  All four kids also got haircuts and then a doctor visit.  For four of us (including me) the "highlight" of that visit was vaccinations.  I still needed a third round of Hepatitis A/B.  Some of the kids needed Tetanus and other shots.  Poor Hannah got three!  Only Melissa and Sarah escaped unscathed.

3)  Last Saturday we got to spend the day with our missionary to the Philippines, Beka!  We had assumed we wouldn't be seeing her for a couple of years when she left in January, but she decided to come home for a cousin's wedding and we were fortunate enough to be on her itinerary. 

She came bearing gifts.  Most significantly, she brought pearl earrings for the Drama Queen and the Drama Princess - having forgotten that their ears were not pierced.  Well, the females all decided that this was the perfect excuse to get ears pierced that afternoon.

Hannah and Sarah were both brave troopers - neither shed a tear... or so I hear.  I really couldn't bring myself to tag along on the trip to the mall.  I think it was because I knew watching the girls get pierced ears would be like witnessing a jump in the usually invisible process of growing up. 

4) Our remaining Sundays are getting booked for various church visits, so this past Sunday we took the opportunity to worship with the fine folks of West Morris Street Free Methodist Church in Indianapolis.  It is such a sweet congregation and we were blessed to be prayed for by them in the course of the service.

Afterwards, we went out to lunch with a few old friends and had the chance to say some goodbyes.

5) We've had other goodbyes as well.  We got to spend some time with the Dovers and their 3 kids over some ice cream.

And we got to spend an evening with the Riggles and their adorable twins.  They had our kids wrapped around their pinkies.

6) One of the highest highlights from the past week was definitely picking up Caleb from camp last week.  Our family dynamics were all just thrown off by his absence for 12 days, so everyone was glad for his return - even though it meant sitting through two and a half hours of closing ceremonies!  It was kinda cute to see how the siblings all showed their affection for their brother once we had him back in our possession:

Samuel voluntarily shared his Coke with Caleb at dinner time. (It was his bottle left over from our drive back from Pennsylvania so it was old and flat and had Sammy's backwash in it.  Caleb drank it anyway.)

Once we pulled into our driveway, Hannah couldn't wait to get out of the minivan so she could show her big brother her new bike riding skills. (We had all been sworn to secrecy about the fact that she had finally learned how to ride a bike.  We couldn't just TELL him, she had to SHOW him.)

And Sarah - when we stopped at the mall before returning home - didn't want to let go of Caleb's hand.