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: