please be praying!

 As you all know, this is an incredibly stressful and challenging time to be traveling...especially internationally.

So the many friends and family of Haiti accustomed to coming alongside our brothers and sisters there, helping and encouraging, partnering and praying, have been few and far between these past 12 months. The world is feeling it...Haiti is feeling it. Emmaus is feeling it. 

As this semester begins to wrap up at Emmaus, there are dozens of stories waiting to be told.  There is a whole class of men and women preparing to graduate, laden with calls and visions and appointments and burdens they are anxious to share, and anxious for prayer.  There is a class of men and women who graduated in December, waiting the same. The occasional photo, the occasional prayer request filtering through hints of so many events and needs and stories and burdens and praises waiting to be shared. The spirit of so many texts burdens us for the whole story, for the whole heart, burdens us further than an email. 

Like every community in the world today, we are thankful for online technology...and unsatisfied with all the gaps it leaves. We are thankful for every FaceTime with Granny, every zoom meeting with the leadership at Emmaus, every WhatsApp message from Gertha, every video of Yasha taking her first steps.

But we need to mourn with Claudin, and I need to hold Josie's baby.

And to gather the stories, I need to to hear them, and ask questions, poke around, explore the heart of them. To tell the testimonies, I need to look at them, and to partner well and encourage our friends and family at Emmaus, we need to see, we need to hear, we need to hold. We need to pray together. 

We need to be AT Emmaus from time to time to be there FOR Emmaus, all the time.

The last time we tried to come alongside, frankly, I wimped out.

All the added covid hoops, a few negative words, a few continuing, always intimidating issues in Haiti, a few little fights I needed to fight...we had the right chance at the right time with the right people, and I backed out.

If we had stuck with the plan, Matt and I could have travelled to Florida together. The kids and I would have been there when Josie died. We would have been there for the funeral with our Emmaus family.  We would have been there with Aunt Sharon, and she could have helped us travel. We could have been there (instead of here) and missed the completely locked-down seven day ice storm of the South. 

I was not in a good spot, and when I had the chance to step out strong and courageous and faithful to the open doors the Lord had put in front of me, I couldn't even find my feet.

Can't get that back.

But as the Lord seems to be opening some doors again, I'm going to rely on the strength that trial developed.

So family-friends, we need your prayers!

Emmaus's semester ends on April 30th, and their graduation (after a week off to prepare) is May 7th.  Wesley's graduation is May 1st, and Matt is teaching a Master's Class at Emmaus May 10-14th.  

So, as much as we are hating splitting up on this one, we're all heading to Haiti this spring.  The kids and I fly down April 13th and return April 27th (to be back in time for WBS graduation/board meetings and to be at Emmaus when classes are still in full session, everyone is on campus, etc.) and Matt and another professor at WBS fly down May 6th-15th for graduation and to teach Systematic Theology.

Special requests in place: 

      -We all six have to test negative of Covid within three days of departing for Haiti, and again within three days of departing for America. There are a lot of logistics that go with this (including carrying in your own tests to Haiti and getting to a clinic for return testing), and we'd so appreciate your prayers for smooth going. 

     -The kids and I will drive from Jackson to Fort Pierce (12 hours, stopping in the middle with our Niceville people!) where we will travel our faithful Missionary Flights International DC3 plane on April 13th at 6 am. 

     -Matt's travel plans are still pending!

     -Once we get to Haiti, our dear family there (Gertha, Guesica, Granny, Noel, Shayla, Esther etc!) will help with the kiddos (who will be doing reduced schooling and adding two weeks to our school year!) in the mornings while I work interviewing, translating, shooting, and attending classes, chapel services, meetings, etc...and in the afternoons we'll visit friends and family in the village, visit school friends, missionary friends, church friends...work good time into all those continuing relationships we value and miss!  On the two weekends we will visit staff and student churches (and even have a mountain-church climb in the works).  I hope to collect another six months of marketing materials for the advancement of what God's doing at Emmaus from this 2 weeks! 

We would love love your prayers for all these things, and for the next few weeks while we prepare.

The three girls are anxious anxious to get to Haiti, and Matt is so supportive of us all going, and we are so supportive of him then going, and I am so thankful for this joint-hearted peace, calling and ministry in our family.  

I am praying we ALL will have many opportunities to share the grace, love, mercy and encouragement that the Lord is always sharing with us with our friends and family in Haiti...it was a sister coming alongside me a few weeks ago that made all the difference.  

I pray I might be that sister.