Getting prepared

We have had a good trip here to Canada, the boys have loved being on the farm and spending time with their cousins, we visited and spoke in some great churches and had some good family time.  I even had time to get some things done which have been on my to do list for a long time.

But its time to start thinking about going back to Haiti. Part of that process is making sure we have everything we need that we can't get in Haiti, part of it is saying goodbye, part of it is packing and weighing, packing and weighing and making sure we use every ounce of weight allowance we have and then part of it is preparing your heart and mind for the reality of life in Haiti.

Going back after a little time away is seeing the poverty and suffering with fresh eyes, and its shocking every time.  It's not something you get used to or ever should.

Everyday we meet people in need, people who are hungry, people who are sick, people who need money for school, for their homes and the list could go on.  Its one of my biggest struggles living in Haiti is knowing who to help, when to help, how much to give, is it ok to give money, should I do something else, how can I possibly do nothing?

David Platt says explains those feelings exactly in his most recent article.  I don't know what the answer is but we need a lot of wisdom and discernment to make those decisions almost everyday.

There is also a lot to do when we get back, were moving next door and right now this is where our stuff is...

We are however thankful to have neighbours & friends who will order us some groceries before we return, and have our house in a little bit of order so were not arriving into complete chaos!

We are spending the weekend with Bill's brother and his family and doing what Sam has been wanting to do all summer.....go to the zoo! Its going to be a long journey back, we leave Calgary on Monday afternoon, stay over night in Dallas to catch the 5am flight to Miami then down to Haiti.  Please pray for the journey back, I am not looking forward to it at all.  Our boys are all good sleepers and will not appreciate being woken up at 3am to head to the airport.  The only positive of that is they will more than likely sleep on the next two flights!

A couple more prayer points....Dr Rodney is in negotiations regarding a piece of property for Bethesda.  The property is a very reasonable price and in a very good location, we ask for your prayers for all of the legal paperwork to be taken care of smoothly and quickly.  IF the property is finalised then EMI (engineers ministries international) have agreed to send a team down to Haiti in September to survey the land and being drawing up building plans.  Having this team from EMI would really be a huge blessing and put us right on our timeline.  Please pray the property would be finalised and all the legal paperwork completed very soon.  Pray that EMI would be able to recruit the team and all the logistics would come together for the team to come in September.  Pray also for the funding of this project, that God would provide all that Bethesda needs over the next two years.

Bethesda will be sending out regular prayer updates and needs and ways for people to be involved if you would like to be added to this list please email me (julieedler@hotmail.co.uk) your email address and I will make sure that you are added to the list.

Answered prayer

Thank you for praying for our journey to Canada....after 22 hours of travel we made it to Calgary.  Lets just say it was a very long day.  The boys did really well on the flights....but by the time we got off the flight in Calgary they were done.

I asked for specific prayer for Jacob, well out of the 3 boys Jacob was the easiest the whole day.  Jacob had a pretty heavy cold from Monday and by Wednesday he was really snotty, coughing, wheezy and short of breath so I took him to the doctor on Wednesday afternoon.  The doctor told me he had a viral respiratory infection and put him on inhalers he also said I would advise that you do not travel with him tomorrow.

Now we know you don't mess about with respiratory infections, having Jacob short of breath and wheezy half way across the Atlantic was not something I position we wanted to be in.  I went home and talked to Bill, trying to think what we could possibly do.  We thought about a couple of scenarios but really we were just coming to the conclusion we had to travel tomorrow.

We started Jacob on the inhalers and I quickly contacted our missionary team in Haiti on whatsapp asking them to pray for Jacob.  On Wednesday night Jacob slept all night, he woke up on Thursday morning much better, there was no wheezing, no snot, his breathing was back to normal and he had a little bit of a cough.  Throughout the day Jacob was in good form and I didn't clean his nose once.

Whats interesting to me is that starting Friday morning, Jacob's nose was streaming again, he was coughing and even this morning was a little wheezy.

Sometimes we pray maybe not even really expecting God to answer.  But he does.

There have been so many times we have felt your prayers over this past three years.  Travelling is a great example.  We have taken way too many transatlantic flights with too many small boys and yet have never had a problem.  We have never had any of the boys lose it on a flight.  That doesn't happen by chance, that is God's hand on our travels.

We spent the weekend at Bills brother's house, enjoying more time with cousins and celebrating his mum's birthday.  Then I spoke in a church in Carstairs giving them an update on the clinic.  On Sunday the boys and I traveled out to the farm and Bill headed back to Calgary and onto Winnipeg to spend a few days with his friend.

The boys all have colds and coughs and are pretty tired so were glad to be out in the country for a bit and enjoy easy going farm life. I am taking advantage of not really having anywhere to go and trying to work through my list of things to do before we head back to Haiti in 3 weeks.

The hardest part

Packing and saying goodbye.  Two things I really dislike about missionary life.  Everytime we pack it feels like we're packing up a whole house rather than just packing for a trip.  We were able to get most of the packing done yesterday (thankfully!) so today we can spend most of the day with family before we leave tomorrow morning.

Which leads to the hardest bit...saying goodbye.  It doesn't ever get any easier.  Even in a time when communication is easy, when I can pick up my phone and facetime with anyone, its just not ever the same as actually being there.

Hearing Sam's friend asking for Sam to come over next week but he can't because he will have already left say 'but Sam is my favourite friend.' is hard to hear.
Knowing wee Jack is sad when we leave because he loves his cousins, is difficult.
Saying goodbye to my 92 year old granny, not knowing if she will still be here next time were home is not easy.

And I could go on and on.

But we have comfort and peace in knowing that returning to Haiti is exactly what God has for us. We are also really thankful to have had this much needed time in Northern Ireland. We have had some great times with family & friends, the boys have been to what feels like every playground in Bangor and we have enjoyed spending a few weeks in our home church.

So please pray for us today as we say goodbye, pray for the boys as they spend their last day in Bangor with their cousins.  Say a special prayer for Jacob, who has a really heavy cold and is pretty miserable.  I was up with him about 4 or 5 times (I'm not sure, its all a blur!) last night and to add insult to injury he had to get a travel vaccine yesterday.  Pray that he will feel better tomorrow and be well settled on the plane.  We will be leaving home at 8.30am and arriving in Calgary at 10.30pm which is actually 5.30am UK time, so its a long day.

As always thank you for your prayers and support.

Here are a few photos from our trip