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

BIG news

There it is, Bethesda's big news.....we're moving!!

This is an exciting time for Bethesda. Dr Rodney and our board are actively searching for land to purchase, building plans will be made and construction will start this year.  We will remain in our current location until May 2021 and move once our new build is complete.

If you would like to be in involved in any way, whether that is praying for us, giving financially, being on our board, fundraising, construction or getting others involved then please get in touch and I'll point you in the right direction. 

Our board will be sending our regular prayer updates and if you would like to be added to that email list then send me an email and I will make sure you are on the list. 

One week later

We made it to Dublin last Monday at lunch time where they were some very happy cousins waiting for the boys.  Thank you for your prayers, the boys were great during all of the travel.  Jacob slept on both flights but was a little unsettled on the second flight, wriggling around during his sleep but once we lay him down on the floor at our feet he was fast asleep for the rest of the flight.

Sam takes flying very seriously.

Its funny the things that have been standing out to us since being home, here are just a few of them..... the water from the tap is so cold, smooth roads, blending in, the variety of food, how simple driving feels,  the fruit is so good as is the chocolate, no mosquitoes,  the smell of the laundry, the easiness of lunchtime and putting hoodies and jeans on your kids makes them look at least a year older.

It is even more interesting to listen to the boys talk and then have answer so many questions!

Bangor has a lot of neighbours.
Why are the roads smooth in Bangor? Who looks after the roads?
Why does the government of Haiti not look after the roads, do they just sit around on their chairs all day doing nothing?
What is a speed limit? Why does Haiti not have speed limits? Are you driving the speed limit?
A green light! I love green lights, I love this hill, I love this bridge.......that's Joel he loves everything!
Is it always cold in Bangor?
What are the lines on the side of the road?
Why is it still bright at bed time?
I see its morning time outside. (it was 4.30am)
Mummy I see it says slow on the road but why did you go zooming by (I was doing 30 mph!)

They are really enjoying seeing their cousins and friends and playing at the park, especially Jacob who has been on a slide and a roundabout for his first time and doesn't want to get off.

My best friend has three boys just about the same age as my boys,
add in cousins (both boys) its pretty wild when they are altogether!

We are so thankful to have a house to stay in which is right across the road from a park and our town library where Bill has been working. He is starting on preparation for next semester as well as working on his registrar duties.

We left Haiti one week ago and it feels a million miles away, life is just so different and just so hard.  And if its hard for us who do have running water, electricity, food, clothes and are able to send our boys to school then it is a million times harder for most people in Haiti.  And things are particularly difficult right now.

Protests started again yesterday to try to get the president to step down, these protests continued into today and are rumoured to continue the rest of the week.  I just spoke with Altidor tonight and she told me that food continues to get more and more expensive, that many people are going hungry.  The value of the Haitian gourde continues to fall against the American dollar and life is just getting more and more difficult.

There were protests in Cap Haitian today and some of our clinic staff could not get to work.  So once again we're asking you to pray for Haiti.  The problems are sometimes so overwhelming that we're not even sure what to pray for.

Here are a few requests:

Pray for the political situation to become stable.
Pray that the value of the gourde would stabilise.
Pray for wisdom for Haiti's leaders and government.
Pray for safety for our clinic staff and Emmaus staff as they attempt to get to and from work.
Pray for Christians to be salt and light in these very difficult circumstances.

More travel

Travelling alone turned out to be very interesting with delays in flights both on the way there and the way home.  I spent a night in Miami on the way to Missouri and a night in Dallas airport on the way home and miraculously managed to get on an early morning flight to Miami even with 36 other people on stand by!

Turns out when you travel alone you have a lot of time...I managed to read a whole book (and a half), prepare and practice my talks, sort out hundreds of photos, reply to emails and watch a movie.  All things I haven't been able to do in a long time.  I was thankful for the time to catch up on some of the things I had needed to get done.

My trip to Missouri was brilliant and really helped to continue to build on the relationship our therapy department has with the Southwest Baptist University.  I got to share with the 1st &2nd year students a little bit about my life and how God led me to Haiti to use PT to serve him.  Its sort of strange for me to look back, seeing who I was as a teenager, not ever wanting to leave Northern Ireland to being in Haiti and being in situations I never thought that I would be able to cope with.  It almost feels like I am talking about someone else.

I had some great conversations with a few of the students about using physio in missions and what that looks like.  I got some good time with the PT professors giving me advice and treatment options for some of our patients at Bethesda, it is really great for Altidor and I to have that support network.  I then had some more great time with Sarah (the pediatric PT) teaching me more so I can treat our kids better here in Haiti.  And then of course the main reason why I went,  I spoke at the graduation reception on Friday afternoon.  I was pretty nervous but I think it went well.  I am praying God will use something I said to challenge the graduates to use physiotherapy in fulfilling the great commission around the world.

The boys did great while I was gone and the first thing Joel asked was 'Where is my prize?' Unfortunately I didn't get my bags until Thursday so the boys had to wait to get their 'prizes'!

We leave Haiti this Sunday to travel to Northern Ireland.  This week is busy getting ready to go, saying goodbye for the summer, tidying up what we need to at Emmaus and Bethesda and just to make things a little more crazy we are packing up our whole house as were swapping with our neighbours, and they will move into our house while were gone.

Please pray that we will get everything done we need to get done, pray for safety in travel and for 3 calm boys on the plane.  Say a special prayer for Jacob, the two things Jacob loves most are being outside and moving...being on a plane for 9 hours is the opposite of both those things.

The boys trying on their plane clothes!

Our time in Northern Ireland is mostly to take a step back and rest a little before coming back to Haiti for another two year term.  Between busyness, political unrest, uncertainty about the future of the clinic, ongoing fuel shortages and having a lot of sickness in our house, this year has been a lot.  Were so thankful God has given us the strength we needed to get through and trusting in him for the future.

Which leads me to my last prayer request which is for Haiti, the political instability is ongoing and it doesn't seem like its getting any better which then leads to economic instability.  The value of the Haitian gourde continues to drop which means life continues to get more and more expensive.  Sometimes there is fuel but a lot of the time there is not so the fuel crisis is not over yet either.  We hear of more violence with one of our security guards at Bethesda shot 3 times last Monday at 5am in the morning, close to his home simply for his motorbike.  Thankfully he is ok but our clinic staff were pretty shaken up last week.

Time and time again I am convinced the only thing that will help change Haiti is the gospel.  Pray for the gospel to go forth across the country of Haiti, pray for God to bring people to himself and that through the Holy Spirit changing one person at a time then Haiti will truly transform.

Travelling alone

Over the past 5 years we have flown a lot but today is the first time in a long time I'm doing it with out a baby on my back or nappies in my bag.  My snack bag is considerably smaller and I can actually sit down while were waiting to board! It feels weird.  A big thank you to Grandpa and Grandma for coming to Haiti to help with the boys over the next 5 days.  

I will arrive in Missouri tonight just before midnight then the next couple of days are full with different events and on Friday I will speak at the graduation reception for the PT graduates before leaving on Saturday evening and arriving back in Haiti on Sunday. 

Please pray for this trip, it is a wonderful opportunity to speak to students about using PT in missions. 

Pray as I continue to build relationship with the South West Baptist University who have committed to ongoing education for our Haitian PT's 

Pray for the boys, that they will be well settled (and well behaved!) as I'm gone.