with one spirit

As we were sitting in chapel today, the student assigned to preach started in on his message. He spent the majority of his 20 minutes building his point. The students were only mildly interested at the beginning of the sermon, but as time went on, this 3rd year student began to drive home his point, and the students were on the edge of their seats.

Matt and I could not be more different than the students we are working with. Our worldview is different, our culture is different. Our language, our dress, our food, our humor and even the way we greet each other is different. But this morning, we found a common ground.

As this student drove home his point, Matt and I felt our spirits respond to affirm the Truths with resounding "YES"s and "AMEN"s. As our spirits were moved, we heard all around us the same words: "AMEN...AMEN."

While we couldn't be more different than these brothers and sisters we have come to love, we are all directed by the SAME Holy Spirit. The Lord moves in all of us with His same character, and despite all of our different views and accents, when His truth is spoken, those who love Him are MOVED.

Just as YOU walk alongside of us through our Father, you walk alongside of these men and women in the only way that truly matters. We all could not be more different, but we have one Spirit that rests within all of us.

Just another reminder that the world is not our home...
He is.

building, shopping, praising

Suddenly it's Monday again, and the weekend just flew! Friday night we spent the night at the new Seminary site with the couple that is building it. Moving out to the
new seminary is going to bring SO MANY changes, to the Seminary and to our lives. The compound is entirely different than our current compound. All of our ministries are located on our compound, so there are people coming and going to and around our house all hours of the day. On this new compound, housing only the seminary, every person, every building, and every visitor will be involved at Emmuas: It will be an exciting way to be more focused on training pastors! (1st picture)

Saturday was the field leader's wife's birthday. She and I went clothes "shopping" while Matt helped her husband at the pool with their 4 kids. All shopping is done right in the middle of town. Stand upon stand of "stuff" is piled into a small area, and you weave here and there, trying to find the "section" that you want. All the shoes are in one section (hand-me downs from the Salvation Army in the US), the "food court" in another, plastic buckets in one area, and women's clothing in another. Obviously, you cannot try anything on, so you rifle through piles of second hand clothing, find something you think might fit you, barter down a price (all the while being woven through by wheelbarrows full of merchandise, animals, and literally hundreds of people.) Add in the fact that you are the only 2 foreigners in the entire open-air market, and you have quite the experience!

Sunday we went to a church that is held on the roof of a school. There were so many children involved at the church! They had a children's singing group, and it was so awesome to hear them sing with one voice praises to OUR Lord. "You can't go to heaven (to heaven!) if you walk with Satan (Satan!) here on the earth (no no no!)"

what God requires...

Being a spouse, a brother, a sister, a friend, a son, a daughter, a grandchild, working in Haiti, being a teacher, being a Christian, doing ministry...All of it can carry so much weight at times. There is so much that is needed!

It's 5 o'clock and guests are coming and we need dinner, dessert, coffee! We're sitting in a meeting and it's going late, everyone is butting heads, and we need patience. Kindness. Wisdom. Our students look up from their papers, asking for guidance, attention, help...we need grace and discernment and Creole! Always more Creole...

It's partly because of all these pressures that we require set-apart time with the Lord each day (or as is frequently the case since moving to Haiti, several time each day!) My (Stacey's) devotional time this morning led me to this verse, which seems to tone down all of my daily expectations for myself.

Micah 6:8...
This is what the Lord requires of you:
that you do what is right,
that you love kindness
and that you walk humbly with your God.

These aren't optional things, but MUSTS. These are what the Lord requires of my life...and they are beautiful things. Things I want to require of my life, too. When I think of people the Lord has brought into my life that emanate these things to me, I think of truly beautiful people. Self-controlled. Patient. Not proud or malicious or gossipy. Not wildly popular people, or even people that are busily and deeply involved in dozens of ministries. Instead they are people that seem to quietly glow of our Maker...people that serve naturally, people that filter characteristics of our God.

Ah, that we might have renewed determination (lined with prayer!) each day to DO what is RIGHT. In all circumstances. To all people. In each moment. May we become people that have practiced kindness so diligently that it becomes something we LOVE. Something we LOVE to do...share...BE. And most of all, might we not only do the right things and share kindness, but do it while walking with our God! Without Him, our just acts and kind hearts are nothing but humanitarian...a mist. May we walk beside Him humbly...listening to His counsel, reveling in His glory and His love for us, soaking in His presence with all humility and joy.

As we seek to do what is right, love kindness, and walk humbly with Our God, we are blessed to find you walking beside us.
Hold firm!

joys

Saturday night, we were extra blessed to go on a triple date with two of our favorite missionary couples. We went to Mont Joli, or Beautiful Mountain, a restaurant/hotel right on the side of a mountain. It was REALLY nice, and a visiting team gave one of the couples enough money for all 6 of us to eat! The food was the same as it is at the other big restaurant in Cap-Haitien (or anywhere in Cap-Haitien, for that matter :), but it was still so nice! Most of all, it was nice to be on a REAL DATE, at a nice place with great people.

Sunday we took 12 visitors to a church in Chaste Noir, Haiti. It was WAY out in the country, but was a really special church. It was beautifully decorated with streamers (toilet paper) and ribbon curls...worshipping with country churches is one of our very favorite things to do. The people hold such a passion for the Lord, and carry such joy.One session at the Seminary ended today, and our three visiting professors leave tomorrow. Tomorrow morning starts another 2 week session. The next session Matt is teaching is at the end of February. Our Hebrew and English classes continue to go really well. Stacey is spending more and more time on marketing, now adding some projects for OMS's "Evangelical Voice of Haiti" radio station. Working with people who are sharing, spreading, teaching, and learning the Word continues to be SUCH a joy for us!

Thank you for all your prayers!

unexpected blessing...

Thursday night, a visiting team from Oregon decided to throw 50's night for the missionaries. They brought costumes. They brought music. They even brought food! At 7:00, we all loaded up in the mission van, drove the 3 minutes to the radio station, and had an awesome night! The whole radio station was decorated, and we played games, then had AMERICAN hamburgers with cheese and bacon and pickles! We had french fries, cokes, and for desert, apple pie! It was such an expected blessing, especially the good food and all the time they clearly put into the evening, long before they even came!
Pictured is the dinner, and Matt in new favorite shirt. It was a Christmas present from good friends, has a guy lifting weights on the front, and says, "I wasn't sure if you could hear me counting." If you know Matt, this is the perfect gift :)

all class love you

It's been a whirlwind since Matt got home! Stacey wasn't the only one waiting for him to get back! He's been quite overloaded with a week of missed work, and with several VERY Happy students :) Whenever he went to class yesterday, his students had written on the board, "Met. Matt, all class love you!" (Met. is a term of respect here.)

We know that you are, but please keep praying for Casey and Laura. Casey is back to work, and Laura is still healing at home. They are both truly struggling with missing their little son, and we are struggling that we can't sit with them, help them, be with them. We are there for them in our prayers and in our hearts, and we know that you are, too. Thank you.We have two visiting teams in right now, which makes for a full compound. Wednesday night we did a presentation about the seminary for 20 visitors, and it went really well. Stacey's English class sang a few songs, one of Matt's students shared an AWESOME testimony about the Lord brining him to Himself, directing him to the seminary, and providing for him to be here. It was a night that really blessed us both...When we get discouraged about some of the nitty-gritty details at the seminary, the students and their testimonies remind us of our main purpose here, and remind of us of His faithfulness.

praise God from whom all blessings FLOW

We are so very blessed by our faithful God! Each time He's asked us to step out, He's come through. Each time we've strayed, He's given us discipline and grace. Each time we've asked, He's answered with His very best. There is nothing better in our lives than simply being His kids!

We are so thankful to be back together, Matt having arrived safely home around 1 o'clock today. We're blessed that he was able to go, and blessed that he's been brought the whole way back safely! We're blessed to have each other, in life and in ministry.

We are thankful for Missionary Flights International, the Christian organization that flies to and from Haiti to provide us with transportation and the things that we need. An MFI pilot picked Matt up at the railway station late last night, took him home to his house, gave him a bed and food, and drove him to the airport this morning...a pilot we've never even met. We're thankful for the 90 DOZEN eggs MFI flew in today for all of the missionaries in Haiti (There is a disease in the Dominican Republic that has made it unsafe to eat eggs or chicken.)

We are thankful for God keeping our fellow missionary and good friend from severe harm and for our missionary doctor. The grinder he was using yesterday detached the blade while he was using it and the flying blade sliced a 4 inch deep, 10 inch long cut in his thigh. It didn't hit any major arteries or muscles, and he was even able to ride his bike to the clinic!

We're thankful for the peace that He is giving Mishlean, in the wake of the loss of her precious daughter. We continue to meet with her, and though she is definitely mourning, she has such peace knowing that her once skeletal, bedridden, and anguished daughter is now dancing around His throne.

We're thankful for Casey and Laura, for their hearts and for their love. We're thankful for little Brody, and thankful that his tubes and bandages have been replaced with "no tears" and "no pain." We're thankful that the Lord weeps with his parents, simply because they are hurting. We're thankful for His healing touch on their lives, and thankful that He promises NEVER to stop touching them. We're thankful Matt could meet Brody, and that he was able to pass such good time with his family.

We're thankful that the Lord provides for us so well. Matt's emergency trip to the States cost $950 dollars. It is unbelievably expensive to fly out and back into Haiti, and we didn't know how we were going to pay for such an expensive trip on a not very lavish salary. We felt that the Lord would have Matt go, so we paid for it and he went. The very last evening Matt was home, a distant second cousin that he hadn't seen for years and that Stacey has never even met talked to him for a few moments about Haiti, and slipped him an envelope...with $1000 dollars in it. Before Matt even returned, the trip was perfectly paid for.

Praise God from whom all blessings FLOW.

His grace. Your prayers.
Thank you!

the hand of God has been upon us all the time

"The hardest problem I have to handle as a Christian," pastor and author Ray C. Stedman once said, "is what to do when God does not do what I have been taught to expect him to do; when God gets out of line and does not act the way I think he ought. What do I do about that?"

Those of you reading this have endured more tragedy and pain than I can even imagine. Some of you have lost children. Some of you are facing a diagnosis you've always dreaded. Some of you have experienced a broken marriage and are facing life alone.
Why? There are no easy answers. The fact is, we may not know the purpose behind our pain until we see Jesus face to face. Even then, we aren't guaranteed any explanations. We are given only a promise: "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the older order of things has passed away" (Rev. 21:4).

Trials are real. Bad thing happen--to good people and bad people alike. And we who are Christians don't escape life, Paul says. We overcome life. "In al these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us" (Romans 8:37).

This promise anchors our all-too-shaky world to his unshakeable kingdom.

Love. That's a dependable anchor. The love Christ has for you is a love you can cling to, for it will hold you.

Today we suffer. Today we don't understand. But someday, in that eternal Tomorrow, that same Savior who weeps with us will wipe every tear from our eyes. He'll unbind our graveclothes of earthly flesh, and we'll be set free. Someday all the scattered, broken pieces will fall into place, and we will suddenly understand the hand of God has been upon us all the time. All the tragedy-all the darkness-will instantly be swallowed up by triumph."

--from Joanna Weaver's book, "Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World."

update...

Thank you for your continued prayers! Brody's funeral was Saturday at 11 am. Matt has been enjoying really good time with his parents, Casey and Laura. Just being there has been such a blessing to him, and we're both so grateful that he was able to go.

School has started well, and the other missionaries have been so good to Stacey...having her over for dinner, to spend the night, etc. We're so grateful for everyone surrounding us with so much love and so many prayers.

The situation also enabled a very intense and interesting conversation in Stacey's English class with 14 of our pastors. We had an in depth discussion about why the Lord sometimes heals and sometimes does not, and how we can help people around us understand the true character of God as a loving and wise God despite hard times. These in-depth looks at God and at Scripture are such a blessing to us, and helping the students question their faith and discuss how they will pastor in a country so full of despair, devastation and desperation is WHY we are here.

Please keep praying, and we promise to have better blogs and photos again soon! Matt will start returning on Monday, and get back to Haiti Tuesday afternoon, Lord willing.

We feel your prayers...thank you.

"Who has measured the waters
in the hollow of His hand,
and marked off the heavens by the span,
and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure,
and weighted the mountains in a balance
and the hills in a pair of scales?

Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord,
or as His counselor has informed Him?
With whom did He consult and
who gave Him understanding?
And who taught Him in the path of justice
and taught Him knowledge
and informed Him of the way of understanding?
Behold, the nations are a drop from a bucket.

Do you know know?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been declared to you from the very beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It is HE who sits above the circle of the earth.

Lift up your eyes on high,
and see who has created these stars,
the one who leads forth their host by number,
He calls them all by name;
Because of the greatness of His might
and the strength of His power,
not ONE of the them is missing.

Though youths grow weary and tired, and
vigorous young men stumble badly,
Those who Wait on the Lord
WILL gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
will run and not get tired
will walk and not become weary."

Isaiah 40

thank you all for your wonderful prayers..

Baby Brody passed away this evening around 8:30, almost 10 hours after Matt got there. He's so thankful that he is there, and asks that you would continue to pray for Casey, Laura, his family, and for him. Your prayers are a constant reminder of His power in our lives, and we are grateful. The service will be on Saturday, and Matt will begin traveling again on Monday.

Matt has arrived safely in Philly, after 2 flights, hitch-hiking with a pilot's son, 2 hotels and a shuttle! He's on his way to the hospital with his parents to get his first look at his little nephew. Please keep praying for them all, and for baby Brody! Thank you for your "traveling" prayers!

Stacey made it through her first night alone in Haiti (there are some WEIRD noises when you're alone in Haiti!:) Second semester has officially started. Matt's students were very disappointed to find him gone. "We've already waited 3 weeks to see him!" they kept saying :) However, the other classes started well. Three of our four professors are visiting professors from the US and Canada this session, so Stacey's been busy getting them what they need and getting all the classes going. She even gave her first Seminary tour to a visiting team today.

Stacey's grandmother also had a rather major surgery yesterday morning, and she is doing well...we have a lot to be so thankful for!

Thank you for your prayers for us both...we are feeling them as the Lord uses all these circumstances to exhibit His great faithfulness. We're grateful for circumstances that allow us to be stretched and grow in Him. Pray that we would continue to become more and more reliant on Him and not on our own strength.

Thanks for "holding our ropes" as we seek to draw close to Him where we are in all that we're doing...we're grateful to be going through a hard time and to find ourselves so surrounded.

more prayers needed...

Brody is continuing to get worse, and Matt is on the flight out of Haiti today and will be in Philly with his family Wednesday morning by 10 am.

Despite everything the doctors are doing, they cannot keep him stabilized.

Please please be praying for his traveling safety, for Baby Brody, for Casey and Laura, for his family, for Matt's time with them and for the Seminary as we start tomorrow without our Director, Academic Dean, and Matt.

Thank you for all of your faithfulness in praying and encouragement...

transcends all understanding

We had a true Sabbath today: sat on a little beach and prayed, talked about the Lord, talked about why we're here, talked and prayed and cried over our little nephew, read the Word, and found a lot of peace, clarity and insight as we sought Him together. As baby Brody fights, as our precious family hurts and prays, as another semester at the Seminary starts Wednesday, as we feel far from where we wish we could be, and yet right where we're supposed to be at the same time, we both settled in with this verse today:

"Do not be anxious about Anything,
but in Everything,
by Prayer and Petition,
with Thanksgiving,
present your requests to God.
And the Peace of God,
which Transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts and minds
in Jesus Christ." Philippians 4:6-7
Anxious about NOTHING, praying about EVERYTHING, and with thankful hearts. We are ready for a new semester to do all that we can to bring this peace of God to a hurting world...Thank you for your continued prayers for Brody and our family. It's amazing how deeply you can love a little one you've never even met. Please keep praying for our students as they return Tuesday and Wednesday for a new semester, and for some, a last semester before they head out to make His mark on this island.

THANK YOU.

prayers...

A lot has happened in the last 24 hours and we need your prayers! Matt's brother and sister-in-law were due April 24th, and Laura went into labor yesterday afternoon. An emergency C-section delivered our 2 pound nephew, Brody Joseph Ayars. He made it through the long night, and starts a long journey with his parents and grandparents today. Please be praying for Brody as he faces so many of life's difficulties so early, and please be praying for Casey and Laura, too...that the Lord would be so near and real to them on this journey. Matt is struggling very much with not being able to be there, and is constantly committing them to our Father.
"Know therefore
that the Lord your God,
He is God,
the faithful God,
who keeps His covenant
and His lovingkindness to a thousand generations
with those who love Him..."
Deuteronomy 7:9

We have also learned that our director is definitely not returning for at least a month due to health issues. Please be praying for the seminary as we begin a new semester without our director and without our academic dean (she will return on the 11th), for us as we scurry to cover classes, and be praying for our director's health

golf, and other new things

For Christmas, Stacey's dad got Matt a golf net so that he could have a little piece of home here in Haiti. Matt's been hitting balls a few times a week (perfect golf weather, all the time:) We had expected that there would be more than a few curious nationals regarding this new practice, but the missionary kids are just as enthralled. "What is he doing?" they keep asking. When we say, "golf", it's followed with "What is that?" While being raised in Haiti has many advantages and exposes the kids to so many important things, they also have missed out on some of the fun things that don't exist in Haiti: golf, McDonald's, snow, DQ ice cream cakes :), parks, seasons, fairs, zoos, etc.

It's fun to share some of these things with them...though none of the kids understand why you would walk all around a big park, hitting little balls into nets :)

We're blessed to be a part of such a diverse field!

We've just learned that our Seminary Director will not be coming back next week for the new semester as planned due to health issues, so the next few days will hold lots of scuttling around and trying to cover courses, meetings and decisions in his unplanned absence. Please be praying for his health!