O Canada

Our 6 weeks in Northern Ireland are over and last Tuesday (11th) we travelled from Dublin to Canada.  We had a brilliant trip to NI.  We had great family times, great friend time, great church times and great times at prayer groups.

Sam apparently wants to be a vet!

The purpose of this trip was mainly to raise awareness and support for EBS and BMC and we got lots of opportunities to share how God is working in both ministries. Over the 6 weeks we were able to raise just over £7000.  We also received a gift from an OMS charity shop in Portglenone of £5000 which is going towards the new physio project at BMC, which really brings the total to over £12000 for which we give God all the glory.

Construction has started on our new physio building

One thing which stood out to me over our time at home was that people are really the same all over the world….no matter what their background, their skin colour, whether they are rich or poor…etc.  When you live in somewhere like Haiti it’s easy to think that life in Haiti is so much harder than anywhere in the western world, that people at home have no problems and that living in poverty is so awful (which it is) that people in the western world don’t even have the right to complain about anything.  However no matter what country we are in, we will find pain, sickness, death, sadness, grief, hunger, lying, fighting, jealousy, hatred and all of these are a result of sin.  And this sin not only separates us from God but it destroys.  It destroys relationships and it destroys lives.   And we know the only way for us to be forgiven from our sin is to put our trust and our faith in Jesus.

Over the past 6 weeks many people asked me how do you think Haiti is ever going to change? How long will the people of Haiti have to keep suffering?  I believe the only way and the only answer is as people turn to God and start living for him rather than Satan or themselves only then will Haiti change.  And I believe the same thing for Northern Ireland.  Our wee country has many problems too, different to Haiti but still problems and still people are suffering.  But at the end of the day it really all boils down to sin. Look at these cute little faces, yet anyone with kids (especially toddlers) know that sin controls their lives, they argue, they scream, they fight and they generally only think about themselves.  We have to teach them to share, to be nice to each other, to be kind, to say please, to say thank you etc etc!!! It's just another way of us seeing that we all born with that sin nature. But how great it is to know we can be forgiven and we can have victory over this sin nature through Jesus death on the cross taking our punishment for sin. 

Throughout our time in NI many people said to us what your doing is unbelievable, I could never do that, it’s amazing how God is working in Haiti…and it is. But I want to encourage you too, we are serving the same God as you, God can do unbelievable things through you and do amazing things in Northern Ireland.  We just have to be willing to let God use us where he has placed us for such a time as this. For us right now that is Haiti and for you…well that’s wherever your reading from.  Let God use you, let God speak through you and let God do unbelievable things with your life.

Now were in Youngstown, Alberta Canada.  We have just spent the weekend in Glagow Montana sharing at the Evangelical church there where Bill’s mum grew up.  This Saturday is a big Edler family reunion with about 80 people coming and a chance for us to share about Haiti with family as well as meet lots of aunts, uncles, cousins etc who I have never met before. 

Please continue to pray for us, we are tired, (mostly our fault as we didn’t want to waste a second in NI not spending time with people) although we are getting a chance to relax with the slower pace of life out on the farm.  Pray for the boys, they have been great travelling and meeting new people but Sam especially is exhausted and he doesn’t know how to stop and rest so exhaustion turns into bad temper which well if you have had a toddler you will understand!!Pray too that our time in Canada would be fruitful not only financially but that we would find people who will commit to praying and giving to EBS and BMC long term.