Overseas has been
appearing in our lives for several years but for a while we never knew in what
capacity. Yesterday I was reminiscing about where we have come over the last
few years. About eight years ago I had a tug on my heart for overseas. Haiti
held a great interest but I wasn’t sure what it all meant. I started praying
that if God truly meant for my family and I to pack up and move to a third
world country He was going to need to make it crystal clear. If it was to serve
in another capacity to also make that obvious. We had several conversations
with many people, as at the time we were also trying to determine if Bruce was
supposed to become a youth pastor, if we should do foster care or if we were
supposed to do mission work state side. Our search slowly became narrowed as
some doors closed and yet others opened.
There are many ways God spoke to us but I would like to
share a few as God never ceases to amaze me. About four years ago Bruce and I
had been tossing around the idea of taking the family on a mission trip. We
started talking about it more when, on a Wednesday night, our small group Bible study was talking about discipling during biblical times. We went home that
night and just for kicks started looking up mission agencies that allow
children. As soon as we started looking at Adventures in Missions (AIM) the
song, “Send Me Out” by Fee played on Pandora (we had never heard the song
before). The following evening we had conferences and Bri’s teacher was talking
about her personality and said “Wouldn’t it be neat if she became a missionary
some day?” If she only knew what we were trying to figure out! That night we
looked at other mission agencies and immediately Pandora played “Here I am” by
Downhere. We ended up deciding to go with AIM but there was a hurdle. We
figured if we were supposed to be going, AIM would allow an exception for Riley
to go at age 5 as the minimum age was 6. They answered with a YES! We went to Washington DC that first year and
then to Chicago the following year. God and I had another conversation in
Chicago. “Lord, if we are supposed to go into the mission field please let
someone call me a missionary as I surely don’t feel like one (whatever that
feels like J ).
The last day in Chicago a little girl
came up to me and said, “Thank you missionary”. Be still my heart!
But yet the doubting Thomas I am….” Lord, surely you don’t
mean overseas. Maybe you mean staying in the states and helping internationally
in some capacity.” While we enjoy serving in the states there was no deep peace
even with sponsoring two children through Compassion International and assisting
a refugee family. “Okay Lord, maybe you want me to take a new job?” I evaluated my strengths, passions, and overseas
and came up with the assistant to the president for Women At Risk (WAR). So, I
went onto Ada Bible’s job board (like that specific position would be there,
sarcasm intended) and it was! Well, I guess I better apply. I went in for the
interview and it required a good full 40 hours a week and on call 24/7. That door shut as the expectations were more than I would be able to
meet.
As Haiti continued pressing on my heart my friend and I
decided to plan a mission trip to Haiti as we had been discussing it for a few
years. She ended up not being able to go so I asked Bruce if he would want to
come as I really did not want to navigate O’Hare’s airport alone (I was okay
with going to Haiti by myself). I was positive we were supposed to be going to
Haiti so I bought the plane tickets. A month prior AIM cancelled the trip as
not enough people signed up. “Well, Lord, if we are supposed to be going you
will open a door.” Our Missions pastor was overseas and unreachable, Starfysh
was booked until 2015, another organization was in the states fundraising and
another never responded. When we reached out to Haiti Foundation Against
Poverty (HFAP) I explained that my husband has a medical background and I love
working with kids and we have plane tickets for this specific week. They
responded, “This is totally a God thing”, they have room for us and it was
their medical kids week! We were on our way. When we landed in Haiti we both
felt like we had arrived home even though we had never been there before. Many
people told me that I would want to take a baby home but my heart broke and all
I wanted to do was make things better so the mommas and poppas could take care
of their kids and not feel like they needed to set them up for adoption. Bruce
could easily see how his paramedic experience could help in Haiti. During our
visit it was mentioned to us that HFAP was looking for missionaries. We
followed this lead and we brought the girls with us to HFAP in October. As we
continued praying for guidance it became clear and as difficult as it was we
needed to end this path.
On our way to church one Saturday night, I had another
conversation with God. “Lord, are you SURE you want us going to Haiti?” I asked
God to give me a sign. At church, friends of ours who had moved to Battle Creek,
happened to be visiting. Once the service began, she reached over and handed me
a check to be used for our mission work in Haiti. Got it Lord!
A mutual friend introduced us to Steve Edmondson, the
president of Starfysh, as we were interested in hearing what his experiences have been in Haiti. During our conversation Steve asked Bruce and
I what we do, both times his response was “I could use you”. I didn’t think
much of it as we were still looking at HFAP. Once we received confirmation from
God not to continue with HFAP, Steve’s comments had still stuck with me. We
reached out to him to find out exactly what he meant by, “I could use you”. We discussed
this at length at a local coffee shop last January. From there we continued to
pray over it and ended up going to the island of La Gonave with our family in
June to see the projects Starfysh are involved in and to meet the board. As the
saying goes, the rest is history. Our new journey begins!
