Thankful Hearts

Wow! I can't believe it is December already! We had a great thanksgiving! I cooked thanksgiving dinner and we ate with our male staff. We shared what we were thankful for, and of course our underlying theme was being thankful for a great, powerful, allknowing God, who guides our lives. Our female staff took the day off and spent it with their families. We are so thankful for our staff, and we wanted to give them all the day off to show them how much we appreciate them! No one did any work. I cooked, but to me that is not work; it was just a fun way to say thanks for everything they do! Kessy cut down some bushes, but I think he was having fun too! Haha! We had a great day spent with each other! 

I want to share the things we are thankful for in lieu of thanksgiving:

For a God, who loves me unconditionally (I could go on and on, but for times sake, I will leave it at this)

For Josh, who is selfless to me and everyone around him

For Sharles, who shows me God's love daily

For my family, who, even though they don't like it, support us being here

For our friends, who are serious prayer warriors! Without them, we would not make it on this journey

For our supporters that make our life here happen

For our ladies that cook for us on a daily basis

For our translators that make our life so much easier

For all of our staff and each of their wonderful personalities

For Pastor Jude and Yanick and Pernier Baptist church that help us with so many things

For Chadasha's leadership staff that we can call whenever we need anything

For teams, who join our passion to share God's love to the people of Haiti 

For our American neighbors, who provide some normalcy to our Haitian life

For a secure house, so we don't have to worry

For the tiny room Sharles sleeps in, so we all sleep better

For clean water to drink

For running water that many people here don't have

For hot water because 70 degrees gets cold when you are used to 90 degrees all the time

For electricity that runs our fans, even though it is never constant or consistent

For generators and invertors when we have no electricity

For ac in our room when it is 90 degrees

For a washing machine that saves me so much time

For Internet and FaceTime/Skype, so we can stay connected to our family and friends

For phones, computers and gadgets that make staying connected so much easier

For the ability to love on children and show them Christ's love because they might not otherwise get it

For cars that run to get us to where we need to go

For screens that cover our windows and doors that close to keep the Mosquitos out of our room

For bug spray and malaria medicine. Did I mention I really dislike Mosquitos?

For God's beautiful creation we get to see every morning when we wake up and every night before we go to bed

For planes that fly us from here to there

For hair ties on the really hot days

We are truly thankful for big things and small and to God who provides them all to us! We would love to hear something you are especially thankful for. 

Brittany

God Has Big Plans

Hello friends. This is Josh writing this week.  I hope everyone is doing well. We are doing great. This week was a good week. Two of our staff members returned from the DR this week.  We always enjoy the excitement they bring to the house.

Josue returned after serving for a month there with a Pastor who plants churches. Josue helped the Pastor by leading Bible studies for Haitians living in the DR. I am always encouraged by him because his heart to both serve and to teach the Bible. The man is truly gifted at teaching. We were very happy he got the opportunity to serve for a month, and he came back with a much closer relationship with God.  He is an amazing soldier for Jesus Christ.

A few days later Kessy also returned from the DR.  He was there with 3 of our heart patients who had surgery in October.  Well, one of the patients had some post-op issues so they had to stay longer than expected.  Usually Kessy goes for three weeks, but this time he was there for six weeks. He was very excited to finally get back home.  The heart patients are all doing good now, and we praise God once again for his healing hand on them.  

Daniel, one of our other guys, has also been very busy this week. He is the driver for Yanick, who leads our heart program here in Haiti, and they have been very busy lately.  He has done a lot of driving all over Haiti.  He also is our mechanic, which has kept him very busy also.  With the road conditions in Haiti like they are it takes a toll on the vehicles.  We are very thankful for his diligence with taking care of the cars.  

We are truly blessed to have such an amazing staff who have such servant hearts.  

Also, we have been looking into a new building for the children's home because we have a vision for it that the current building will not hold.  We want to provide housing for orphaned children and also start a free school sometime in the future.  We need a building much bigger than the one we have now.  To be able to rent a bigger building we are going to need some help from supporters.  We need to raise $5000-6000 above what has already been pledged in one time gifts to be able to rent a new building for a year.  If anyone has a passion for orphans and/or for eduction then please pray about supporting our endeavor.  If you have questions or want to support please email either me (joshdyer@chadasha.org) or Brittany (brittanydyer@chadasha.org).   God has given us a big vision that we are super excited about.  Please pray for us.

Two of the big ministries we focus on here in Port au Prince is orphan care (our children's home) and disciple making.  The update on the orphan care is the paragraph above.  Our disciple making is starting to really come along in many different ways.  First of all, in Carradeux, the tent city, we have selected about twelve guys to specifically disciple.  We have almost finished a six week study with them on some of the fundamentals of Christianity. We studied: who God is, what our role is, salvation, prayer and the role of the church.  Next we are going to start a ten book, ten month study. I know, it sounds a little too extensive and boring, but the Haitians have a real eagerness and thirst to learn God's Word.  This study is called the Timothy Intiative.  After the first month, we are going to get each disciple to create their own small group-discipleship group in their local community. Our goal is to train them to train their group, and then for their group to go out and start the process over again.  We want to multiply.  So far our meetings have been great, and we will keep you updated on the progress.  Also, in disciple making, John and Abraham (one of the guys from our classes in Carradeux) have been walking around in our neighborhood talking with people.  Many people have expressed a desire to study the Bible together, so at some point they will start another Bible study. Wow! God is opening up so many opportunities to teach the Bible and isn't that our calling on this Earth, to glorify him and spread the good news?  Thank you Lord for the softened hearts here in Haiti.

Well I could ramble on, but I will end here for this week.  Thank you everyone who support us and who also support Chadasha. You are amazing missionaries for God. We will see many of you in a month.  We come home on December 18th.  We are going to need a lot of layers of clothes.  Brrr.

Healing Hearts

I know I sound like a broken record, but please continue to pray for our heart patients. Much of our ministry here is getting children in need of heart surgeries the life saving surgeries they need. There are many things involved with this, most of the time including getting them across the boarder of the Dominican Republic. This has recently become a huge challenge! Haiti and the Dominican Republic are not friendly with each other to put it mildly. Recently, other political agendas have made it more difficult to get our children the life saving heart surgeries they need. They haven't issued any visas to the Dominican Republic in 2 weeks! We are supposed to be having another round of heart surgeries at the end of November or the beginning of December, at Chadasha's hospital in Jimani, DR, I might add! Please join me in praying for the situations to be resolved for the many kids needing surgeries. 

I have been reading in Matthew 9 recently and it talks a lot about Jesus healing the sick. Performing miracles, bringing the dead to life, making the blind see! We know God can do it, but we must have faith, and we must pray! We know it can happen. Just last month, the DR was not issuing visas to minors, but 3 children got visas last month and had their heart surgeries. We know only God could have accomplished that! So we continue to ask you to pray with us for these surgeries! 

We also have heart surgeries going on here in Haiti this week. Please pray for one of our patients, Christina.  She will not be having surgery this week and may not be able to have surgery during our next round. She is very sick, but she is also one of the most precious little girls. We are, however, hosting 2 patients from a different organization this week, who will be having surgery this week. One is a 6 year old girl and the other is a 4 year old boy, who seems to have some sort of muscular problem as well! He has been here for the last few days. He is so sweet and so full of joy! God continues to remind me of how simple life can be, but joy comes from Him. His mom is such a testimony too! She doesn't have all the fancy technology we do in the states to care for a child with a muscular disorder. In fact, she has none. Only herself. Her selflessness is a testament of what a great mother she is, and I haven't seen her get down not once since they have been here! Plus, she thinks I speak fluent creole! Ha! I just nod my head and respond when I think I know what she says! 

Please continue to pray for Kessy and Charly, who still remain in the DR from our last round of heart surgeries. Charly is still on oxygen, so he has not been able to leave yet. Please pray for healing in his body. Pray for his mom and Kessy as they are all homesick and ready to return to Haiti. Pray for patience and rejuvenation for them. We are hoping they will be able to return next week. 

God is working here in Haiti. He is working through healing, and we can see this in our heart program! It is often hard knowing the children won't get the surgeries they need, but I pray, and I know my God will answer. I know He has a plan for each one of these precious children. Will you join me in prayer? My heart goes out for these children and their families, and all I can do is pray and offer a little love when their paths cross mine. Even when I cant understand them, I can still love them. Isn't that what Jesus would do?

In His Love,

Brittany 

The Call to Orphans

As I think about it being orphan Sunday yesterday, I am reminded how big our God is! Yesterday, I thought a lot about the orphans throughout our world. I thought about the orphans here in Haiti. I thought about the ones in our children's home. I thought about myself. My head spins when I think about all of these things. But there is more, so much more that plays into it all. 

Many of you may not know, but I was an orphan myself. A true orphan by definition. Both of my parents died when I was 7 years old. Thankfully my grandmother took my brother and me in and raised me. Thankfully I didn't have to go into the foster care system or live in an orphanage as many others out there do. Thankfully God had a plan for my life. I wouldn't change any of it. I know that sounds crazy because my parents died tragically, but if things were different, I wouldn't be who I am. I wouldn't have as strong of faith in God. I wouldn't have such a heart for the children at our children's home, but I have experienced, on a small level, of what they are going through. And, ultimately, if I wished things were different, that would mean I didn't trust God. God has a plan for my life, and this is all part of it. I trust Him because He is working things out for His wonderful glory. 

As I think about my own story it makes me hurt for the children here at our children's home. Most of them are not true orphans like myself. But if they are, they cannot be adopted from Haiti. It makes no sense to me. I know God has a plan for them too, even if I cannot see it. But differently from my story is an all too familiar story. Most of the children here in orphanages have parents, but they cannot take care of them. This breaks my heart! It is hard for me to fathom. But. Again, my God can! And I know that is one of the reasons He brought us here to Haiti. He uses His plan for my life to impact other lives He planned out also! Amazing! 

I think about the children throughout this country that live in horrible situations that have no choice, that being extorted, that are being used for so many various reasons. It angers me, and it pains me. When I think about it, I hurt because I cannot help them all, but I know my God can! He reassures me through my friend's organization ONEless. He reminds me that I am only able to help one at a time, but He can help them all, just like He helped me! Then, he reminds me at this time in my life, I am even able to help more than one at a time. What a blessing! 

The numbers of orphans around the world are so overwhelming it makes my head spin, but being reminded that we are only called to help one, two, three or how ever many he calls us to at one time is doable. God doesn't call all of us to adopt, but He does call us to care for the widows and orphans. You can do this by getting connected to local organizations. There are so many ways you can do this! You can pursue adoption or you can sponsor a child. You can be a big brother or big sister or be a foster parent. You can get involved with others who are adopting or help a widow in need in your community. Maybe it is as simple as praying for a specific family adopting or a specific child who needs adopting. I encourage you to do something. It's what God calls us to do, and we can't ignore His calling. 

You never know who you might impact. There are so many people who have impacted my life. You may not even know you are impacting a life as much as you are. I urge you as a sister in Christ to live out your life loving others. Be good stewards of your money and your time and God will show you His plans for you and how maybe an orphan or a widow fits into that plan. 

My mind is still spinning thinking about all the children in the world who are in need of someone to love on them. I am thankful for those who have loved on me along the way. Mostly, I am thankful for Gods gently reminder that I am doing what He called me to do. 

Brittany

Here are a few pictures of our precious kids at the children's home:

Good News

We have had a good week. Michelle Roberts and her son Issac came down to finish his adoption. Praise The Lord it is finished. They are very excited to finally be done with the process.  Greg, her husband, also came in on Friday and spent the weekend with us.  We always really enjoy their company. They are always a great resource to learn from.  

Obviously Sharles loves Isaac! 

John Fitts preached his first sermon Friday night in all creole. That is a big accomplishment. He has been working on his creole a lot lately and this was a good way to test it out. We have also been practicing our creole alot.  We went on Friday to the clothing market without a translator and did fine. We are excited that we are getting closer to being fluent in creole. It allows us to build better relationships with those around us. 

On Saturday two of our heart patients came back from surgery. It was a success. They were all smiles when they came back.  The heart program here at Chadasha is truly amazing. Please continue to pray for Charly as he is still in the Dominican Republic with Kessy after having some difficulty after his surgery. He is doing better now, so we are praying he will come home sometime this week. He will have several surgeries throughout his life, so please continue to pray for him. 

Please pray for our organization as we continue to seek God's will and seek to run a ministry that is pleasing to him.  Please also pray for Josue as he is helping plant churches in the Dominican Republic. He will be over there for a total of about a month. 

We look forward to seeing everyone at Christmas.

Josh

Wonderful One

You thought this post was going to be about our Wonderful God, didn't you? Well it is, but in a round about way! Our beautiful, sweet, full of personality, playful little girl turned 1 last week! I am so thankful that God entrusted her to Josh and I, and my prayer is that we can be Godly examples and raise her to follow hard after Jesus! 

Have I mentioned that she is beautiful? Well we think so, but I know we are biased! She continues to grab attention from Haitians wherever we go. Whether its driving the street and her talking to people out the window or walking in the grocery store, people stop to talk to her wherever we go. There are not many blue eyed blondes around here! My prayer is that we can use the opportunties where people stop us whenever we are out to glorify Jesus! 

She is so loving! She is always giving hugs and kisses to us and to her stuffed animals. She loves to blow kisses too! She is also so full of personality and sometimes sass! She has learned to say "no" and "yes". She can tell you she is "done". She loves finding her "toes" and everyone else's. she likes to "tickle, tickle" other people's toes. She can say and wave "hi" and "bye". And driving down the road she loves to spot "cows", "goats", and "dogs". She loves to laugh and play, especially with other kids. She loves to share her toys so other people can play with her. She has learned to stick her tongue out, but only to play. Thankfully she hasn't learned yet that it can be used in a not so nice way! She is walking like crazy and loves the freedom it gives her. It is also so much easier on josh and I now that she can walk and doesn't have to be carried around everywhere. She also now has 8 teeth! Whoa! She feeds berself for the most part and loves to eat! she eats just about anything we put in front of her, and, thankfully, she loves beans! She is so much fun. She is learning so quickly and is so smart, but she is growing up way too quickly!

For her birthday, we went over to the Children's Home and took a cake. Everyone had fun. It was Barbie themed. She even got a Haitian Barbie for her birthday! Our friends from 2 houses up came over and brought her chocolate cupcakes, which she and her daddy both loved! And on Sunday we spent the day at the pool for her birthday with Michelle and Isaac! She has had a great birthday, but I still can't believe she is already 1. 

Well thank you for listening to my rambling/bragging! We love her so much and, over the last year, she has helped me understand so much more God's love for us! She is truly a precious gift from God!

If you aren't already tired of hearing about her, here are a few pictures too! 

She loves her daddy! 

Golfing 

Family time

Ice cream for daddy's birthday

She is almost too bigl for her pack n play!

She loves music!

Family picture at the lookout

We finally have a ponytail. 

Her shirt says, "my dad is awesome". 

Playing with Karis at the children's home

Birthday girl

Trying to put her shoes on

Mommy painted her toenails while daddy was out!

Birthday pool time with her buddy Isaac! 

I stole this picture from Michelle, but I love it!

Focusing Our Hearts

I often think that if Jesus walked alongside me, I would often get the response, "Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?" Like in Matthew 8, where Jesus calms the storm. When even the smallest of storms comes up in my life, I tend to think, "Why am I here?" "What do I do now?" And then I begin to do things on my own, my way! This way never works out! 

God knows the plans He created for us. This week, we would like for you to pray for us to focus on God's plans for us and the reason He brought us here. It is so easy to get off chasing all kinds of rabbit trails, but we want to focus on God. We put our faith in Him and His plans and need prayer to consistently focus on them amidst all the needs we encounter on a daily basis. We can only do what God calls us to do, and we want to make sure we are following that calling! 

Thank you to each one of you for your continued prayers! We cherish each one of them!

Brittany

A Time of Reflection

I have done some reflecting this week as a team from our home church has arrived. The leader of our first trip to Haiti is leading this trip, and it has me thinking a lot about our first trip here. I think not only about the heartbreak I experienced for this country and the way God moved in my life because he brought me to Haiti on that first trip, but I reminisce about the deep, lifelong friendships that grew out of that trip and the things God has worked in the lives of those that God called on that trip! I am so happy God connected out hearts in such a special way! 

I also know that life as a Christian will not always be easy. We know there will be struggles along every journey we take, but we still must press on. We miss our family and friends more than words can describe, but are thankful we have ways to communicate with them. We miss the normalcy of American life, but are blessed beyond measure in a culture that has nothing. Most importantly, we serve a great God, who will never leave us on this journey! We are humbled He chose us to pursue this journey. We are in awe He chose us as sons and daughters of Him, the King. We truly do not deserve it, but we will accept this call with gratitude, even in the difficult times, even when we miss our family and friends, even when things seem so unusual. 

God has called each of us as Christians to GO and share the Gospel. Not each of us are called to an international lifestyle or even week long trip, but each of us are called to make disciples. We would love to hear your stories and how God is using you, whether it be internationally or within your own nation! Please comment, email or Facebook us with an update and how we can be praying for you. 

Praying to the Protector

Psalm 121

A song of ascents.

¹ I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
    where does my help come from?
² My help comes from the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth.

³ He will not let your foot slip—
    he who watches over you will not slumber;
⁴ indeed, he who watches over Israel
    will neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ The Lord watches over you—
    the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
⁶ the sun will not harm you by day,
    nor the moon by night.

⁷ The Lord will keep you from all harm—
    he will watch over your life;
⁸ the Lord will watch over your coming and going
    both now and forevermore.

We ask for your prayers this week from our great Protector. We know when we ask Him for help He is faithful. We know that He created this world we live in, so we have no reason to fear!  We know He protects us when we go out during the day and while we sleep at night because He does not sleep! We know He protects us from everything from a sunburn to death! We have felt his protection in many ways this week, but we want you to remember to pray for God to protect us as well. 

Pray for God to help us understand the culture and the language, so that we can more effectively interact with everyone we come into contact with. Pray for God to protect our house from the enemy, so that we can work together to glorify him. Pray for protection for us as we drive on these crazy streets! Pray for God to give us wisdom in every area and person we come into contact with, so that we can be good stewards of the time and resources he has given us. Pray that we use the time He has given us for His glory and not our personal gain. Pray that God will protect our marriage, so that nothing can come between it. We are also not naive that we live in a 3rd world country so your prayers for physical protection and health are important too! 

We ask for your prayers, not because we have experienced theses things, but because we know satan attacks us when we are trying to glorify God, so we need each of our prayer warriors to lift us up in prayer for God protection of this spiritual battle we are fighting for Him. We are asking you to pray for us and would love to know how we can pray for you as well. Please comment, email or Facebook either one of us! 

Also, please pray for Rutherchy, he was one of our former heart patients and now lives at our children's home. Josh and I just found out he has sickle cell anemia, and he just spent a week in the hospital. He is doing so much better now, but we would like to ask you for prayers for him. God is a great Healer, so we would like to ask for you to pray for healing for him. He spends time in the hospital every couple of months and we would just like to see him be freed from this burden and from his discomfort. Please pray for Rutherchy! We know the power of prayer works! 

And for those that care, here are a few pics!

Making Disciples

We are excited about the plans for the future. We have decided to start a Discipleship Class in Carradeux! 

God has laid a big vision on our heart, and we are following His plan! The big vision is to make disciples all over Haiti, but in order to do this, we need to start at home. God has given us Carradeux, and we plan to use it to glorify Him! We are picking 8-12 men from our English and Bible classes from Carradeux to begin a Discipleship Class. We will teach these men how to disciple others, and then we will send them out to start their own Bible Studies! We will lead them along the way, but our class is ready to take the next step and through much prayer, we believe this is the next step! 

Our goal is that these students will go into their communities and neighborhoods and share the word and their students would do the same, which would ripple across Haiti. I know our vision is big, but our God is bigger and our vision comes from Him! 

Please continue to pray for us as we prepare to begin this class in the next few weeks and for those who will be asked to join this class. Please also be in prayer for those who are not yet ready to take this next step. Our goal is not to hurt anyone, but we simply cannot have everyone in our current classes join this class! Please join us in prayer for all of Carradeux as we plan on doing some amazing things for God there within the next year! 

A Great Week

Family and Friends,

Well it has been a great week here in Haiti.  Even though it has been crazy hot, like our bedroom at night has been 90 degrees hot, we have had a great week.  John came back from his pastors' conference safely and had a great experience.  Starting on Tuesday morning we began to discuss what God was leading us to accomplish here in Port au Prince.  There are so many needs and ministry opportunities here that sometimes it is easy to get lost in what you are doing.  We do not want that to happen.  We want God to give us His vision and goals to accomplish for his Kingdom.  Our discussions this week have been great.  We each have been describing individually what God has put on our hearts for us to do.  Kind of a brainstorming time.  Once we had all the ideas God has given each of us down on paper, we then started to formulate what our vision is as team. This next week, we will be laying out the specific steps to reach the goals God has given us.  This is where we need you to pray for us to be able to see God's path for us and for us to follow it.  We hope to have a vision, goals and a plan down on paper this week.  We will announce what that vision is once we discuss it with Chadasha, and we decide as a ministry what we are going to be about.  I have been really encouraged by our meetings and the incredible ideas God has given us.  He is a very big and mighty God, and we want him to use us in big ways to make a big impact for him.  Please continue to pray for us that we will have wisdom and direction from our amazing Father.

On a personal note Brittany and I have had a good week.  We have been busy with the children's home this week along with trying to get some documents from our bank.   It is always fun going to the children's home and investing in their lives. On the other hand, the bank is never fun.  Oh yeah, and on Saturday we were able to watch the UT football game online.  AMAZING.  I know it does not seem like that big of deal, but entertainment is hard to come by down here.  Plus all they watch down here is futbol so we were ready for some manly american tackle football.  Today we enjoyed church as always and then we went and had a Haitian cheeseburger, which was very good.  Sharles has taken 5 steps twice this week so that has been fun.  She is so much fun.  What a gift from God she has been.  Well anyways enough about us.  Let us know what is going on in your lives.

Thank you for the prayers, support and love.  This is a very difficult journey and we could not do it without our family and friends.  Let us know if any of you want to facetime or skype.

Love you guys,

Josh, Brittany and Sharles

Seeking Wisdom and Vision

We would like to ask you to join us in prayer for the next 2 weeks.  

We are praying for God's will to be revealed to us in Haiti. Our entire staff has committed the next 2 weeks to praying for God's vision and purpose for us here in Port au Prince. 

Please pray specifically for us to follow God's plan for us in Caradeux, the tent city where we currently hold English and Bible classes. Also, for God's vision for our Children's Home. Also, pray for us and our staff and for God's specific purpose for each of us here. 

Josh and I have committed the next 2 weeks to truly seeking God's ministry while we are in Haiti and ask you to join us in prayer as well. 

And just a few pictures for those who care!

Healing Hearts

We wanted to update you on on heart patients. You may not know, but Chadasha was originally founded by a heart surgeon, who had a heart for filling a need of providing heart surgeries for children in Haiti. Every quarter we partner with the International Childrens Heart Foundation and send about 7 children to the Dominican Republic for heart surgeries. We just sent 7 children to the DR for surgery. 5 of the 7 were able to have surgery and are doing well! 4 of them had open heart surgery and one had a cath procedure to correct his heart problem. We have had 4 of the 7 patients return home already and are praying the other 3 will get to come home this week! Please continue for the ones who had surgery to heal and especially for those that did not. Please pray for them to make it until they are able to have their life altering surgery. Josh and I were able to meet each of the kids having surgery and they are all so sweet! 

Myrlanda is so sweet. She just returned home yesterday with the biggest smile on her face!

Jonathan had surgery, but has not be released to come home yet. Please pray for continued healing for him. 

George returned home yesterday and was full of energy. We played peek a boo and sharles loved trying to play with him! 

Hopefully Wilgens will have a follow up appointment tomorrow and be released to come home. He had some trouble right after his surgery keeping his food down, so they will make sure he will be ready to come home. He is staying in our children's home for the time being, so he is especially close to my heart as I have gotten to know his sweet personality. Please pray for healing for him as well.