I have tried 3 times to write this. Every time it comes out sounding mad, and that is not what I want. I guess on some levels that’s what I still feel, but I have no right to feel that way.

For those of you who don’t yet know, Lori and I have left NWHCM and have decided to not go back on a full time basis. The last four months have been very difficult for us, lots of things that have frustrated us and anger issues for me. I apologize once again for my lack of writing to this blog, but I couldn’t see myself using the blog as a place to vent those feelings. Couldn’t find anything good to say, so I said nothing.

What has transpired over the last four months I will not be specific about. That is what makes me sound angry, like I am blaming others or the situation. The truth of the matter is I allowed my circumstances to shift God from the center of my focus. I fear that that failure may have tragic and eternal repercussions. If God’s purpose for calling us to Haiti was to return the presence of the Holy Spirit to Saint Louis du Nord, I failed Him. Many people who have visited the campus over the past few months have shared with me their belief that they do not feel the presence of the Holy Spirit at the NWHCM compound. Some are there for the first time, some have been there several times. I personally have not felt His presence the whole time we have been there on a fulltime basis. It is my hope that God’s purpose for us being there was to grow us for future work, and that others are or will be called to restore NWHCM to the soldier it once was for His army.

What I can to do about this now is for Lori and I to step back and regroup. Our relationship, which has always been strong, was the first and most effective tool the enemy had to use against us. We will be returning to the work force, and spending our time reconnecting with God and each other. There is much we can learn from the last 4 months, and I personally am still convinced that God has a place for us in the mission field. My prayer for us is that we learn and grow in our faith through this season of our lives. I would ask those who have been praying for us in Haiti to continue to pray for us as we move forward and grow in our walk with Christ.

My further prayer is that we are not the only ones to learn from our time at NWHCM. Please keep them in your prayers as they are struggling through a grave battle, and they are losing. I fear that they don’t even see it, but the evidence is there if they look for it. Again, I will not share details, but I will tell you that I am not the only one to see it.

Thank you for all who have prayed for us and supported us during this time, and again, please continue to pray for us as we move forward.

October Surgery Team

I can not believe it has been almost a month again since I posted last. I am so sorry for not keeping up.

It has been an extremely busy time for us. After out "Vacation" we had to get down to the final touches getting ready for the surgical teams arrival. There was a major construction project that was supposed to happen while we were out at the Mole, but flight cancelations caused it to not happen. Then it was decided to do it the weekend before the teams arrived which put Lori and I even further behind. They did install autoclaves and OR lights, which was very nice to have.

We worked very hard and long hours the following week, and managed to have everything presentable for the team. They were very happy to not have to clean up the place when they arrived. We have been able to keep the supplies coming even though we have yet to straighten out the supply rooms the way we wanted to.

The surgical team that was here for the first week feels they have done some great work for a lot of people and the evangelism team is getting time to speak to all of the patients and most of the families. The second week of the team is going well too. Lori and I have never worked with a urologist here before and we were a little apprehensive about finding what was needed. We didn't need to be, and the prostate surgeries are going very well. The doctor has been very helpful making sure we know what he needs in advance so we have time to find it. There is also a group of maxilofacial surgeons who have been removing facial tumors and making a big impact on people's lives. It is there first trip here to NWHCM, but they have been to Haiti before. I hope they return, the people in this area will be extremely grateful.

Caribbean Vacation

“Caribbean Vacation” might not be the words you would use to describe our last 6 days, but I’m going to use them anyway. We left last Friday to go to Mole Saint Nicholas, Haiti. The Costello family has started a new campus there for NWHCM. It is a beautiful, sleepy little ocean front town on the very west end of northern Haiti. It has what is most likely the most beautiful public beach in Haiti (one of the cruise lines now owns part of Haiti east of here and has built up its own private beach).


I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ve mentioned before that I like roller coasters. Well, we left Friday morning on a six hour old wooden roller coaster with no safety bars, belts, or straps, with 8 others and our luggage. Also known as a Haitian tap tap (the back of an S10 pick-up truck). I know some of you reading this have been on longer, rougher tap tap rides, but it was my first of its kind, and it’s my blog. The “road” is horrendous. Ruts as deep as the truck bed, the crew stopping at some that still had water in them to scoop it out and cool the breaks and fill the radiator. We stopped at Billy Joe Jim Bob’s Garage and Coffin Designs to fill a tire using a bicycle pump so that we could make it to the real repair shop/road side restaurant, where they melted part of an old tire on to our leaking tire (It is a “garage” because it had an air compressor). One of our crew didn’t bother to mention his 100+ degree temperature which only rose in the 100+ degree temperature since he didn’t bother to drink water either. Thought we had our first case of heat stroke. After 6 days we took the return ride, which was a little more exciting after a couple days of rain storms to fill the ruts and make getting stuck a real possibility. I threatened to get out our snorkeling gear, but Lori wouldn’t let me.

That brings up the “Caribbean Vacation” part. We had nothing scheduled Saturday, and managed 2 other times during the week to get in the water. The snorkeling wasn’t great, some fish and huge conch shells. The water and the down time were fantastic. We also took Cinnamon swimming. Not sure still if she liked it or not. I know she didn’t like it when daddy accidentally dropped her down-side up in the water and she got a snoot full of salt water. You know that look a child can give you that screams “you can’t be that stupid”? Dogs have it too.

This trip was first and foremost to help with a medical clinic being offered to the people of “The Mole” by some very good PA students and instructors, which is why I would do it again today, even if it meant getting back on the roller coaster. The clinics were very successful and well attended. The students got great experience, but more importantly got great exposure to the human interactions necessary to be good practitioners. They were very good about sharing their motivations for coming to Haiti, both at the clinics and VBSs. You can never have enough, nor do enough at these things, so you do what you can and pray that God takes care of the rest.

Sorry, I don't have a good internet connection right now, I'll add pictures later.

Latest from Haiti

Sorry it has been a while since I have blogged. Lori and I took a quick trip to the states. We had a meeting with the Surgery Committee from NWHCM in Atlanta last weekend and spent a couple days in Myrtle Beach with friends relaxing. We were not planning on going to the meeting because we didn’t want to spend the money, but we eventually decided it was necessary. Turned out we really needed a break too. Of course it turned out travel wise to be one of the longest transits. We were supposed to be in Atlanta by 9:00PM but got to our hotel around 3:00AM Saturday and had the meeting all day Saturday starting at 8:00 (we didn’t get there until 9:00). Coming back into Haiti we were supposed to be in Port au Prince Friday by 10:00 AM local. After waiting in the Miami airport until 3:00PM we rebooked for the Saturday 6:55 flight. Our original flight canceled an hour later and everybody started scrambling for flights, but we already had ours. In Port au Prince the next morning we waited 5 hours for someone from the mission to pick us up, but they didn’t know we were coming (we are buying a cell phone today that will work here in Haiti so we can call for help when we need). We finally ran into someone from the airport that helps the mission a lot, and he got us booked on Tortuga Air to Port au Paix and someone there got us to the mission after calling one of the Haitians in charge of the mission (we were the only Americans there until Sunday, and nobody knew we were coming in).

Other than the travel problems the trip was very relaxing and much needed. Sorry we couldn’t visit everyone, just wasn’t time. We will be out November 20(ish) for at least 6 weeks and we will try to get around to see everyone.

Since we have been back we have grown by one family member. Duke is a black lab who lives here. I have said several times down here about Courtney that the cat Peter IS HERS, even though she denies her (yes, Peter is a girl), because she houses and feeds her. I am declaring here and now that Duke is not ours even though he has decided to sleep in our apartment while nobody else is here. There was a thunderstorm the first night we were back and big Duke is a chicken. He pushed our door open, we threw him out, he pushed our door open again, and I caved. He slept in our shower and ate Cinnamon’s food. He has slept there every night since too. But HE IS NOT OURS!!!!!

I’ve also had my first driving experience here. No one hurt or killed. No damage to the truck. We were flagged down after leaving by one of the mission employees. He chased us down on a motorcycle to tell us there was no brake fluid in the truck. We misunderstood him to say there was no oil. We checked the oil while he went back to the mission to get, we thought oil. There was very little oil in the truck. When he came back with brake fluid we had a laugh, filled the brake fluid, bought oil from a road side vender, and went about our tasks with no incidents. Lori says I did fine driving, but thought I might have been going too fast at times. Judging from the number of people that passed me, I think she is wrong about that!

So I have learned to drive a forklift here, and driven on the “roads” without any problems. Starting to feel at home!!!

So Much Still To Do

I saw Jesus the other day. Several mornings I heard a bell ringing on or near the compound. I even joked about it being a fire alarm (there is no fire department). Then the other day Lori and I realized that it was always at 10:00 AM. Every other time I have been here, at 10:00 AM everybody on campus would stop and pray for the mission and the people here. Even in the O.R., we would stop and pray if we could. If we couldn’t stop, someone would pray as we listened and continued with the surgery. That hadn’t been mentioned at the twice-a-day meetings we have…..and we had been here over a month at the time. The bell was the Haitian staff calling everybody to prayer in the compound. They had continued the practice even though the American missionaries had stopped for some reason I am not aware of.

Jesus is doing a great work in these people.


I heard the devil yesterday. A rumor has been going around town. One which I believe to be true. Someone has been practicing a voodoo ritual that involves things I don't care to mention. Lori and I know that this sort of thing happens, but some readers might not and I don't want to shock or scare them. I actually wrote this draft, with the details, a couple days ago, but I have been struggling with the decision to post the details.

A mob of people, convinced they had found the people responsible, took the law into their own hands. They took the lives of two people in a horrific way. The results of the mobs actions were witnessed by several of our missionaries.

I am more concerned about the actions of the mob. I knew we were stepping onto the battle field with the devil, I guess I under estimated how many he had such control over.

There is so much work here God still has to do. Use us God, as you will.

Echo

I would like to echo Lori's thoughts. It has been such a blessing to be able to put a smile on the prisoner's faces. Again, with the experience I got in the Navy, and Nursing, we are able to help some of them medically, or get them to a doctor if they need. More important, we can show them a little respect and love, and, for a time at least, they feel some self worth. It's not an easy life and we have all made mistakes in our lives (it's not my first time in a prison).

Blessings At Prison

Mathew 25:36


“I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

Dennis and I were blessed today with getting to go to the prison in Port Au Paix and run a clinic for the men and women housed in the facility. I prayed all morning that God would get the right people to see us today. I also prayed that we would not get in “over our heads” with illnesses we had no idea how to treat. Our first patient had us concerned and fear began to creep in. We had told the guards we would see 50 patients today and it took us 25 minutes to see the first one, and we’re still not sure what is going on with him. We’re going to try to get him in to the clinic here to see our doctor. Anyway, the rest of the day went more smoothly. We had a wonderful interpreter with us who handled all the communication for us and we were able to see about 42 patients. There are still so many to be seen and we need to take back some medications with us that we did not have today. We gave out lots of Ibuprofen for “waist pain” (which we understood to be low back pain) and Benadryl for itching.

It was an awesome day and we are happy that we will be returning tomorrow. Please be praying as we hope to be able to visit the prison each week and do follow-up care with the patients we are seeing. Sometimes it’s just the little things we can do, such as smile, or stumbling over the language and letting someone have a good laugh that allow us to heal the hearts of the broken that God puts in our hands. We pray that He will continue to bless us as we grow and learn, laugh and cry and try to be His hands and feet.

Lori

Flash Back/Splash Back

I don’t remember if I have shared this yet, but the US armed forces are here on a humanitarian mission. Apparently it is an annual event, but it is the first time that they have been to the northwest region of Haiti. The will go to several (I think 8) countries in the Caribbean and South America. Haiti was the first this year. The USS Iwo Jima is off the coast of Port au Paix. About 45 minutes west of us. They are doing health screenings on shore, and taking some of the patients on our waiting list out to the ship for surgery. The Seabee’s are on our compound doing construction projects, including creating a men’s and a woman’s restroom in our surgical ward. 2 commodes and 2 shower stalls each. That will help greatly with getting patients ready for surgery and taking care of them after.


Their being here has reminded me a lot of my time in the Navy. For those who don’t know, I trained as a surgical tech in the Navy and spent 9 ½ years serving. I was particularly reminded today of my time on the USS America. Lori and I were folding linens and I remembered the other surgical tech and I doing what we called “The Sheet Dance” (a little embarrassing I know, but I do have a point to make). Then all of a sudden, I recalled a great deal of my time on the America. I was the senior tech of 2, so I was in charge of the operating room. When we weren’t busy there we worked in the ER or sick call, or helped out the supply department.

Have I mentioned what Lori and I are doing in Haiti these days? We will be coordinating the surgery teams and the operating rooms. To do so we have to organize the supply system. The only time we are not doing those things are when one of the short term or full time missionaries is sick and needs taken care of. They come to us and we handle it if we can or ask one of the Haitian doctors for help if we need to.

The more Lori and I think about our pasts, the more we realize how long God has been preparing us for this very season of our lives. And He reminds me of that at just the right times too. I’d like to tell you that everything has gone smoothly our first month here, however I can tell you that it’s nothing I haven’t seen before, and nothing God can’t handle.

“The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world”. 1st John 4:4

Our Typical Day in Haiti...Warning, this is a long boring read

I just realized that I have not really shared much about what Lori and I are doing in Haiti.


A typical day starts at 6:15 in the morning. Unless there is a group of short term missionaries leaving that day, than it starts between 3:15 and 4:15, depending on when they need to catch their flights. We get up and say good bye to them then go back to bed until 6:15. We start by walking Cinnamon. She has been kind enough to decide that the garbage dump is a good place to, well, dump. That way we don’t have to clean up after her.

Morning Devotions are ate 6:45 followed by breakfast at 7:00. 8:00 or so we start our day, but the generators don’t start until 9:00. We have been spending most of our time sorting through supplies for outdated or damaged material. There is a lot of it. We have been blessed for years with many donated medical supplies. Unfortunately, with nobody medical here full time, there has never been a first in first out supply system. Things in the bottom of storage been have been here for years, collecting mold and mildew, or the expiration dates passes while items on top which don’t expire for years are used when short term teams come in to do surgery. My group has done it too. When the short term team I led got here we had one day to get ready for full OR schedules, so when we found something we could use we quit looking for other items that should have been used first. We have been getting a lot of help from short term missionaries (especially when they find out the medical facilities are air conditioned).

Lunch is at 12:00. All are meals are prepared by Haitians employed by the mission. Lunch is my favorite because it’s something Haitian. Beans and rice mostly but they prepare different sauces every day. Today was actually Haitian spaghetti which is spaghetti with little sauce and hotdogs. Not very Haitian, but I like it.

After lunch it is back to sorting through the supply room until 4:00ish. Now I know that SOUNDS boring and tedious, and it really is. It is also necessary, and once we get it done we will be able to maintain a much more efficient system and when the surgical teams come in things should go very smoothly and we won’t have as many supplies that need thrown out.

4:00 we go back to our room to read the bible and catch up on email, blogs etc. 6:00 is diner, which is something American made with canned meat. We actually eat well here considering the supply issues of getting most of it from the states. Chicken we get locally, and we get a lot of that. We are supposed to be setting up a hydroponics plant soon to grow fresh fruits and vegetables. Looking forward to that.

Evening devotions are at 7:00. After that is time with each other or watching a movie with other missionaries, or group bible studies.

Bed by 9:00 or 10:00.

Doesn’t sound like much work for God’s Kingdom. Currently we are sowing seeds for later harvesting. The real work comes when we start seeing surgical teams come in.

Throughout the day we also take care of any staff or short term missionaries that need help. Mostly dehydration or “Montezuma’s Revenge”. Got to keep them healthy because they are out doing VBS or sports camps. There is always people here doing outreach projects, and we keep them going when they get sick.

I knew I would be stretch here, but....

I knew we would be stretched becoming missionaries to Haiti. I knew we would have to do without things we had become accustomed to, and do things we had never done before. We planned for some of those things. We bought battery operated fans for the hot nights with no air conditioning. We bought Lori’s Nook because we knew we would have trouble finding books. We shipped Cinnamon’s dog food so she wouldn’t have to settle for Haitian dog food if there even is such a thing. Some things would stretch us that we couldn’t prepare for, like leading VBS or evangelizing.

While I have never been stretch quite like I was today, even though we saw it coming and did what we could to prepare. I still wasn’t ready for the stress of what I was called to do today. It was probably the scariest thing I’ve done on the mission field, or anywhere else for that matter. I cut my wife’s hair. I’ve never cut hair in my life. Not even my own. Her beautician let me watch her the last two times she cut it and talked me through what she was doing. I guess we could have bought a wig and practiced first, but my first time cutting hair was on my wife as she’s telling me how difficult her hair is to cut for a skilled beautician. I don’t know what we were thinking when we planned this part of our time here. I could only imagine God up in Heaven telling Peter to “Get the popcorn, this is going to be funny”.

Everything worked out though, glory to God. I chickened out on her bangs and made her do her own in a mirror, but we got through the rest, and I think she is beautiful!!!!

An “Unfortunate Incident”

I had a wonderful opportunity today to go out to a local church about 20 minutes from here with a doctor who is only here because of an “unfortunate incident” at the mission he was supposed to go to in Port au Prince. They were unable to take the team and asked if they could come to NWHCM. He has been to many third world countries doing this very thing, and he was very good at it. He had people with him from his group and a couple nurses that just happened to be here, lots of medical supplies already divided into little zip lock baggies so non-medical people could hand them out after the nurse or doctor decided what they needed. They also had several bags full of cloths to be given out to everybody as well. What a blessing he was to that small community. How much more respect will the pastor who set the clinic up get from the people he serves.


Though we were not able to keep count of the patients seen, I would think a fair guess would be about 200-250. Most really didn’t need much if anything, other than to know that someone cared about them. I think that is the most important thing we can do here, give hope. A good number had some small complaints that back in America you could have just gotten a bottle of Motrin at Wal-Mart and been fine. Some we found to have needed antibiotics or blood pressure medicine, and we could help them and hope that they follow-up with the clinic for more blood pressure medicine. If they don’t they don’t, but at least for today, they know somebody cared.

July 9 update

God has such a great sense of humor. I was all prepared to post a note an hour ago, but my internet link was acting up. Now the internet is working and I can’t find the post I saved. Wondering if I’m Supposed to be doing something else right now, but I can’t think of anything. God has been guiding this journey for a long time. I was thinking today how different it looks from what I expected, but when God’s in control I’m just along for the ride. When I’m in control God just laughs at me and comes along to protect me.


Things are moving faster than I thought they would and it’s mostly due to great help from the short term missionaries. Lori and keep getting distracted by sick missionaries. That’s a blessing too though because we get to talk with them and learn about their lives, and seem genuinely interested in our lives and God’s/our plans and hopes for the medical department here.

We are adjusting very well to life here in Haiti. Cinnamon too as you can see.

Thanks so much for all your love and support. We are trying to be God’s hands and feet, but it is you, the body of Christ that make us move.

July 5th update

Things are going well the first couple days. We arrived Friday early afternoon with only a few minor glitches. We were delighted to find that we were getting a room instead of living in our tent. We like the tent because it is cooler at night than the rooms, but the room has it’s own bathroom. The fans we brought do a good job keeping us cool at night when the power goes out, and not having to walk to the common restrooms in the middle of the night is well worth having to rely on fans for a breeze.


We spent the rest of Friday and most of Saturday moving in and getting acclimated to the weather. I’m thinking that will take another couple days (NOT). Sunday was church services and rest. Today we hit it hard. Lots of new supplies to find a place for and cleaning. That should take us another couple days and then we are going to organize the supply rooms.

We were told when we got here that the US Navy was going to be sending a surgical team on a humanitarian mission the end of the month which was putting a time crunch on us. We met with them today and it now appears that they want to fly the patients to a naval ship off the coast to do the surgeries and only need us to supply the patients and help with the logistics. Lori and I have asked if the surgical team could use some help and we might fly out to the ship and help with the surgery.

Cinnamon is adjusting well to her new home. She knows the way to our room when we say we are going home, and she is not starving for attention with 110 people plus staff on campus.

Thanks for your continued prayers and support. Love to all.

The rollercoaster ride of life

Lori and I feel like we are sitting in the last row of a rollercoaster train on a rollercoaster that we can’t see, and we have climbed the first large hill. The front of the train is hanging over the edge of the hill, we are about to be pulled through God knows what kind of ride, and there is no way off the train. Not sure if we are excited beyond belief, scared out of our wits, or any of the massive emotions in between. We do know that we would never get off the train even if we could, because at the end of the ride, we will be glad we did it. Each emotion will have its time in front of the others, and we will go through them all over and over again. We will go through the entire ride with our hands lifted high, and not hold on to the safety straps provided. Lucky for us the train sits three across, and the architect of the ride is sitting between us, holding our hands with us in the air, never leaving our side. He knows every inch of the tack ahead, and He whispers in our ears “Don’t be afraid, I got this”. At the end we will be drained, emotionally and physically, and we will say “Thank you God for the ride of our lives”.

The auction is today, by noon tomorrow all of our possessions will have been sold off and taken from our house. We will pack our cloths, our battery operated fans, and the dog, and Thursday morning we leave for Miami than Haiti on Friday.

In Loving Memory

Tic-Toc Tic-Toc. So much to do!!!

We had a great visit with my brother Mike. He treated us to lots of golf, lots of laughs (mostly related to the golf), and we had some tears too.

After we got back from visiting both families, we found our beloved Nutmeg was not eating. We took both dogs to the vet for travel certificates and dental work. Nutmeg’s liver, kidney, and thyroid labs were way out of whack. We hoped it was due to not eating because of her bad teeth but she did not start eating after removing the teeth. We tried force feeding her to get food and medicine in her, but discovered she was just throwing it back up, and that she had blood in her stools. She was also spending all her time alone behind the shed, like she had given up and wanted to pass alone. We decided Saturday to stop force feeding her except to get pain medication in her, and see if she would start eating on her own, and that we would put her down Tuesday after Mike left if she didn’t get better. We returned from golf Monday to find her behind the shed. Nutmeg always loved digging holes in our back yard, now she’s digging holes in God’s garden…and not getting yelled at. I have felt for years that God would take our dogs from us before we move to Haiti, and He has taken 2 of the 3. I never felt sure that Lexy (our Huskey that died 4 years ago), nor Nutmeg would do very well in Haiti with the heat and lots and lots of people and noise.

We have plans every day and every night until we leave next Thursday, all of them good. Now that neither of us are working we seem to have soo much more to do.

We have been laughing about ourselves a lot the last couple weeks. We always have to tell new people that join our short term mission that they have to be “rubber bands” to deal with the changes that come with mission work (If you want to make God laugh, make plans of your own). Our rubber bands are being stretched every which way. The only thing we know for sure is that we are leaving for Florida next Thursday.

Grand Strand Community Church Fundraiser

After returning from visiting family, Grand Strand Community Church blessed us with a wonderful fundraiser. It was organized by one of the girls Lori works with, Gina Dewalt, and her husband CJ. They did a terrific job, got all the food donated, built a stage, organized bands, and much much more. They got a lot of help from the many volunteers from the congregations of GSCC and Carolina Forest Community Church, pastoral staffs, and staff members from Waccamaw Community Hospital. A good time was had by all who attended and they were able to make a very generous donation to our mission.

We are so blessed to have such good people taking such an invaluable part in our effort to help the Haitian people. Thank you to all who helped, and all who came and enjoyed the festivities.

Be Still

Lori and I are spending some time visiting family before we go to Haiti July 2nd. It has been a wonderful blessing, but my heart wants to be home making the final preparations for are move.

Our fund raising is moving along at God’s pace, and as usual, I wish He would hurry up. It has been a struggle for me to wait on Him. This morning I read Hebrews 1 for a bible study one of the fulltime staff is leading. It reminded me not only of Jesus’ authority, but God’s sovereignty. I will be patient, and wait on Him. I know in my heart He has called us to Haiti, and He will provide all that we need.

“Let nothing perturb you, nothing frighten you. All things pass, God does not change. Patience achieves everything.” Mother Teresa

Family Fun

We have been on the road since last Friday. First we spent an awesome weekend in the Pocono's with the Volk side of the family. We celebrated Dennis's parents 50th wedding anniversary while we were there. So amazing to be surrounded by people who believe and live the "til death do us part" vow. So easy now a days to just run away and not work on the marriage. We left on Monday for Ohio and are now spending time with the Goepferich side of the family. Went to see the replica of the Wright B Flyer that Dad helps to work on and maintain. Spent yesterday at the "Creation Museum" in Kentucky. We found it quite wonderful. So good to be surrounded by displays of God's works and glory. Spending a day at home today catching up on email, fixing cars, and resting. Tomorrow Dad is going to take us on a tour of Dayton in one of the antique cars. Didn't realize that Dennis had never ridden in one while we were here before. Spending the weekend in Columbus on Saturday and in Vandalia on Sunday. Keep us in yours prayers for safe travels. As soon as we get home, we have the festival to attend and work. Pray for a great turn-out and wonderful weather for that. Love to all.

In His Service,
Lori and Dennis

The Calling

Lori and I have been going on short term missions to Northwest Haiti Christian Mission for almost a decade now. It has been our desire for the last 5 or 6 years to become full time missionaries there, but we have always felt that it was our timing and not God's. We were able to afford to go twice this year after the earthquake thanks almost entirely to the generosity of the congregation at Carolina Forest Community Church and some very dear friends. While there in March we felt like God’s timing was soon upon us, and decided to get some information about becoming full time missionaries. We asked the CEO of NWHCM what we needed to start doing to “get down here” in a year or so. His reply was “what do I need to do to get you done here in 3 months”. Lori and I both felt an immediate release from God. It was now His time.

That is actually the short version, because as we prepare to move to Haiti (July 2nd) it has become increasingly clear to us how much, and how long God has been preparing us for this calling. 30 + years of God moving in our lives leading up to this very moment. Lori started working as an operating room nurse because she wanted 8 hour days instead of 12 hour days. She had no desire to work in surgery, yet it is those skills that make her uniquely qualified for this mission. I started nursing school twice before, but never got through the first class. I didn’t want to be a nurse, I was happy being an operating room tech. I graduated nursing school December 2009 only because I knew God was calling us to work on the mission field in Haiti. I was trained as an operating room tech in the navy 23 years ago, not my first choice, but the only advanced training available at that particular time.

God is so amazing! And He is so in control of our lives right now, as He has been all along, we just didn’t know it. Now we give all the glory to Him.