EBS fundraising concert

The seminary just had a big fundraising concert in the states. Our friend Matt & Stacey who work at EBS have been planning and organising for months and the whole thing was last weekend. Here is Stacey's blog about the concert.

redeemed

Twenty-four hours before taking this picture, I thought I'd made a huge mistake.  I was feeling tired, the girls were emotional about being apart from Matt again, traveling again, and I felt sick to my stomach over the hugeness of the next day...Matt preaching both services at Seeds of Greatness (like, over 1000 people), standing in front of all these people looking like I had a baby a week ago, then nerves over the hundreds of details for the big concert the same night and having NO IDEA how this whole uncharted-waters plan was going to go, then trying to help Matt prepare for board meetings all day today (Monday).  

I was wishing very much so that I had stayed home in Ohio hiding in my pajamas. 

I am so. so. so. so. so thankful I did not.

What an opportunity, in all of that weak weakness, for the Lord to show up and to redeem.

And He did.

First, He redeemed it through my girls.  

In the midst of the craziness of the day, I had so many sweet moments with all three girls that we never would have had otherwise, and the joy of sharing them with so much dear family.  Seeing Aunt Lori and Brenda and Dodo with Nora, seeing Lily and Sofie playing with lots of friends from Haiti, watching them run to Junior, play with Ethan, dancing with them, watching them enjoy some last moments with Aunt Lisa, playing in the pool with Uncle Adam...it was a GOOD Mommy day, by His grace.

Second, He (massively) redeemed it through our time of worship Sunday morning at Seeds of Greatness.  I simply LOVE worshipping there.  I'm NOT a cool person, so I'm sure this isn't how you describe it, but the worship was off the HINGE.  Just Awesome.  

Add in that we got to worship with lots of friends old and new, that Galen and Linda and the Sleasemans and my sister's family and Junior, being with Pastor Jerome and Lisa again, catching up with so many people who have prayed for and supported us over the years...it was a GIFT.

He redeemed the day through listening to Matt and Junior preach together...something I've done many times, but never in America, never both in English.  Matt shared an awesome message on forming and filling, and Junior shared bits of his testimony, a story I've been graced to be a part of the last 12 years.  

He shared the heartbreak of separation and loss that following Christ has brought into his life, and shared how God redeemed it, formed and filled him. As He talked about how God took that separation, and has replaced it with a family bigger than he could imagine, my soul welled up with hallelujahs and amens alike, and then when Junior grabbed Matt in a huge hug and said, "like my brother"...oh man.  

Those were my tears for the day.  What a gift to be their sister, what a joy to be reminded of the many ways God continually turns sadness and loneliness, loss and disappointment in our own lives into grace and family and fullness of Him.  Redeemed.

Yet another way the Lord redeemed the day was through our SoG family.  Throughout the morning, I was greeted and encouraged by SO many men and women who just humbled and loved us by knowing who we are, remembering details of our lives, and sharing Words of encouragement.  

You can TELL when a person is a praying person.  You can TELL when a church is a praying church.  And when person after person comes up to you, tells you the details of your lives that they are praying for, share that you are lifted up by name in their prayer service every single Wednesday, man.  

It is so humbling, so inspiring, and makes me want to live worthy of their prayers and be a more diligent person of prayer. 

By the time church was over, all my worries of the night before were gone...simply because I was so powerfully reminded of who He is and how He loves.

From 2-4 we jetted over to Don and Brenda's to give the girls some down time and friend time, and got to catch up with Brent and Julie, Mark and Melissa, Lisa and Adam, Don and Brenda, and eat something.  Don and Brenda gracious hosting us all like 48 hours after their daughter's wedding was so...Don and Brenda.

Then we were back at it.  

When we pulled into the church 90 minutes before the concert, and the parking lot was full...I knew it was a good sign.  

The whole EBS board, from as far away as Kansas, flew in, some with their families and spouses, people drove in from as far away as Illinois and even Canada.  There were lots of people from area churches, lots of old friends, and lots and lots of people who none of us knew...which was awesome!  

With tons of people from area churches and Seeds of Greatness volunteering, everything came together so well, and Sidewalk Prophets?  They were just lovely.

Just really nice men who were an honor to do ministry with...and who SOUNDED just awesome.

And then there it was.   My moment in the back, taking it all in...

my heart full of His praise, my mind full of all of the men and women that these moments were helping to feed and train and teach and disciple and house and equip and form, my eyes full of all these brothers and sisters, a world away, worshipping that same God and working for one kingdom...His.

Watching MY family.  

Singin' "How Great Thou Art"...

Holding my Big Event in my arms.

yeah.

It was a great night.  

His presence was keenly felt (which changes things.  Changes everything.), Emmaus is better equipped to start the year, and there was no send-off that could have been more encouraging as we all head home to get back at it. 

Thank you.  

For coming.  For your many prayers and for being a praying family.  For all of your support and your love, for all your help with our family, all your help with Emmaus, just for reading our blog and being a family who knows.

glory to God.

sacred

I am too drop-dead weary to share much, and still too excited about tonight to not share anything.

If you weren't there, I wish you had been, truly.  If you were there, I'm so incredibly grateful for the chance to have worshipped with you and met so many of you and to have been surrounded by such family.

I'll share lots tomorrow, but for now...

Pretty surreal that the four of ours, "wouldn't it be cool to do a benefit concert?" dream over breakfast before Christmas last year HAPPENED tonight.

It was a lot of work and frankly, a little crazy that I was there.  But it was a sacred night, and I was SO incredibly blessed just to stand in the back with a tiny baby girl and watch my children dance and listen to my husband share and watch my family worship and listen to Sidewalk Prophets bring it home!

And one for Dodo and Bubba, who drove NINE HOURS to be with us tonight!

the whole story...tomorrow

Oh Canada

We just spent all of June in Canada doing some support raising. First we flew to Toronto to stay with some friends, John & Dorothy then Kelly & Barry who were both missionaries in Haiti when I was there. We got a chance to meet with John & Dorothy's small group who have been praying for us. Bill preached and shared in St Johns church in Hamilton ( Kelly& Barry's home church).





We also got a day's holiday to Niagra Falls and to meet another OMS missionary Kate who Julie lived with in Haiti.

From Toronto we flew to Calgary and traveled out to Bill's family farm in Youngstown. We shared in Bill's home church, Youngstown Gospel Chapel and held an event called 'A taste of Haiti' out at the farm. We had a taste of some Haitian food, had lots of information out about Haiti and about what God has called us to do there. We also had a quiz about Haiti along with some challenges!

Friday afternoon we took the 5 hour drive to Saskatoon to stay with one of Bill's friends and run our taste of Haiti event at his house with some friends that Bill went to Bible college with. It was good for Bill to catch up with his friends and to be able to share with them. Sam also enjoyed playing with the other kids in the sand pit and at one point we found him dipping crisps in the sand and eating them!!

We headed back to the farm for a couple of days rest then drove down to Montana to spend some time with Bill's mum's side of the family and share in the church which she grew up in. We enjoyed seeing this side of the family which Julie had only met once, at our wedding. The church was very receptive to us and after church we had a little taster of rice & beans, Haitian spaghetti and pikiliz (a spicy Haitian coleslaw).





Our last weekend was spent in Calgary with Bill's brother and sister in law and we were able to share at their church on Sunday. When we weren't travelling we were meeting up with different people from the Youngstown church and spending time with family.As you can see it was a busy trip with a lot of travelling. Thankfully Bill's parent's had a DVD player in their car which kept Sam amused over the many hours in the car! Although by the end of the month we had heard the Curious George DVD so many times we could recite the whole thing!

We had been praying and asked you to pray for our time in Canada and God answered our prayers. We raised a good bit of support and were able to build relationships with both churches and supporters out there. As you can imagine this wasn't particularly easy with an 18 month old, but Sam was brilliant the whole time we were away. He loved being on the plane, loved meeting lots of new people and playing with his cousins.

Our plans have also changed for when we hope to go to Haiti. Julie is expecting our second baby at the end of January so we now plan to go to Haiti around May/June time. This will give us a couple of months to settle in and begin to adapt to living in Haiti. Bill will spend this time to do language study and prepare for beginning to teach at the end of August. In the meantime we will continue to work, Bill will start back to to French class in September and we will also work on raising the rest of our support which we need to go to Haiti.

A Taste of Haiti

We would like to invite you to our Haiti morning 'A taste of Haiti'. It will take place on Saturday 28th March at 10 am in Bethany Baptist Church in Bangor.

The aim of this morning is to give you more information about what we are going to do, where we will be living and what life will be like for us in Haiti (much more than we can fit into a church presentation!). There will be some information about what Haiti is like, a chance to sample some Haitian food and try a few Haitian challenges.

There will also be a chance to sign up to our prayer emails and monthly support if you wish to do so.

Bill and I will be about to answer any questions you may have so come along anytime between 10am - 12pm.......... hope to see you there.

Why go?

So why have we decided to go to Haiti? A number of reasons really. It is not because Haiti is in the Caribbean (although this is attractive for me...not so much for Bill who does not like being hot). Making the decision has been a bit of a journey and a hard decision to make. Bill and I met at missionary training, we were both interested and involved in missions from a young age. From the time we got married in 2011 we have been open to going overseas to serve God.

Bill has been to bible college in Canada and when he moved to Northern Ireland he went to  bible college to do a masters degree in Theology. When it came to writing his dissertation he decided to write  paper on finding God's will for your life. After a few months of studying and writing his paper, Bill came to the conclusion God's plan is already written for us in the bible particularly in Matthew ch 28 v 10 which says 

'And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.'

There are many ways in which we can do this, by teaching sunday school, by going to work and telling others what God has done for them, by going overseas. All of these ways are obeying God's command. One of the books which Bill used  asked this question ' What is the best way I can serve God?' not what is the least I can get away with, or how can that other person serve God but 'what is the best way I can serve God?'

As we thought about the future and prayed about it, we came to the conclusion that the best way we can serve God with the gifts he has given us is to go overseas. Bill has good theological education, something many people have both in Canada and Northern Ireland. I am a physiotherapist and there are so many physio's in Northern Ireland that there aren't enough jobs for everyone. So we began to look for opportunities within OMS as this was the mission organisation we had both been involved in before. One of the places which needed both a seminary teacher and a physiotherapist was Haiti. 

That was a long story cut short. Now we are in the process of getting ready to go towards the end of this year. This process involves getting  a team of people from home who will commit to praying for us and supporting us financially. If you would like to be part of that team please get in touch with me. 

I came across this video today which I made along with my friend when were in Haiti in 2010, this is the clinic I am going to work in. 

You can stop the video after 4 mins...its just blank after that!!

Going

I've lived in Haiti  twice before, Bill has spent a year in Spain and some short term trips in Haiti. Now we believe that God has called us to go and serve him in Haiti. Bill will be teaching in Emmaus Biblical Seminary and I will be working part time in Bethesda Medical Center as a physiotherapist. At the minute we are in the process of raising support. This means we are  visiting different churches and prayer meetings explaining what were going to do and why. We hope to find people who will support us both financially and in prayer for when we go.


Our plans are to go late 2015, have a couple of months to settle in, for Bill to take language study and then start teaching in January 2016.


If you would be interested in having us come and share with your church or prayer meeting just drop me and email (julieedler@hotmail.co.uk).

To find out more about who we are, what were going to do, where were speaking...come back again!

This is us with our baby, Sam who is alot bigger now!

Rodney and Vedane in Canada

I have decided to start ‘blogging’ again really just to keep up to date with what Dr Rodney is doing. Last time  Dr Rodney was in Canada on his first trip. A lot has happened since then, he is still working in Bethesda medical centre. He is currently the medical director and has done a great job. I took a trip back to Haiti last September and the clinic looks great. There is a new pharmacy, the place where people pay is expanded, the price list has changed (for  the better!), there is a fixed price so people know exactly how much they will have to pay when then come no matter how much medicine they need. The clinic looks really well.

One of Dr Rodneys aims was to open a medical training centre, to train people up in nursing, pharmacy, lab tech and Xray tech. The school opened last October, he is renting out a building close to the clinic and actually was way oversubscribed so had to rent other buildings of OMS for class aswell. They currently have over 100 students and are at about full capacity! The vision for the school is that people will come from rural areas where there is no medical care at all, do their training and then go back to their village and provide healthcare and advice. Perhaps not all of them will go back but if a percentage do then they will be achieving the goal. The next aim would be as the school gets up and running that they would be able to provide scholarships for these people from remote areas. The majority of these villages would be extremely poor and people just would not be able to afford to come to the school.

The mobile clinics are going well, empower global has sent down a vehicle to Haiti, one which is able to drive on the roads and Dr Rodney along with a team of people are now running mobile clinics when they can.

Right now Rodney and Vedane (his wife) have arrived in Toronto, Canada for three weeks. Over the next three weeks Dr Rodney will be speaking, raising awareness of the project to different groups such as church groups, school groups and medical groups. The aim of the trip is to raise awareness and to fundraise. There will be a few fundraising events over the next three weeks which I will keep you up to date with as I am here (well nearly now in newark airport!).

I am here just for a week and I cannot wait to see what they think of Canada. Dr Rodney has been once before, Vedane on the other hand has only ever travelled between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. This is her first time on a plane, first time seeing a big city, first time being cold and seeing snow!!

Here is a short 3 minute video of Rodney which we put together in September. 

Dr Rodney interview

Family Love

My closest friends in Haiti are a wee family which I am sure you have heard me talk about, Dr Rodney his wife Vedane and their 3 kids, Wood, Ollie and Alisha. Dr Rodney works in our clinic and they live on a wee house on the compound which is how I got so close to them. Dr Rodney has an amazing testimoney which I will share a little with you.

Dr Rodney grew up in Vaudrieul, and was very involved in his local church, so much so that people started to call him Pastor Rodney before he even left school!!When he was still at high schooll with his family struggling to pay the fee's for high school Rodney got a part time job translating at Bethesda medical clinic for visiting doctors and nurses. It was during this time he felt God calling him to be a doctor. However he came from a poor family and had no means of getting to university.

However Rodney with the strong faith that he has, and still has today, had saved up all his money each week from translating in the clinic and used it to get his passport and visa to go to the Dominican republic to talk to the people in the university there. The language is spanish in the dominican and the univeristy advised three months of language before staring university especially as the entrance exam is in spanish. Due to some circumstances Rodney couldn't attend language school he also couldn't attend the only day the exam was on. However by a miracle the university agreed to let Rodney sit the exam at a different time.


Remember at this point, Rodney has not been to language school or does he know one single word of spanish. He passed the exam and was accepted to study medicine in Univeristy in the Dominican Republic. During his first term he found another Haitian student who could translate the lectures from Spanish into Creole or French for him. However in saying this Dr Rodney's best marks throughout his 7 years at university were in his first year.

Rodney has many many stories of God's faithfulness and provision to him over his 7 years at university. There were many times when he had not a single penny left to eat, to wash his clothes, to pay for electricity and to pay his university fees. During those times he would go into his room and close the door and praise the Lord for how He had saved him and what he had done for him. Every single time over those 7 years God provided all that he needed, he would get a phone call from western union or somewhere else saying someone had transfered him money through. He told me he had just one pair of trousers and one pair of shoes through the whole 7 years and each day when he came home he washed his one pair of trousers and I even think he has that one pair of shoes!!! Just one example each month someone from the states sent Rodney $100, Dr still even today doesn't know who sent the money but they sent it faithfully every month. One Rodney's last month at university the person sent a message with the transfer saying their financial situation had changed and they were unable to send money anymore. What the person didn't know was that this was Rodney last month at uni and he would no longer need the money for rent. 

Dr Rodney and his wife left a 'nice' life in the DR to come back to Haiti.With no where to live and a baby they lived with Rodney's mum. Since then Dr Rodney has been working at Bethesda Medical Clinic at OMS. Rodney and Vedane now have three children, 2 boys of their own and one adopted (a baby which was abandon at the clinic).

 Rodney believes God has called him back to work among his people, his heart is for his own Haitian people. One day he wants to open a hospital providing a high standard of quality healthcare and showing God's love to people who come.

Right now Rodney is in Canada, his first time off the island of Haiti. He is working with a Canadian organisation called empower global (http://www.empowerglobal.org/). He is working on fundraising and speaking about their project. The project is three fold, firstly to open a medical clinic with affordable, quality healthcare. There are many clinics in and around Cap Haitian, however many of them are expensive, others are run by 'doctors' who have never been to medical school, others are just a money making scheme which do not help patients. Secondly to run mobile clinics out into areas where there is no doctor, where people die from simple illnesses, many of these places will also have never heard the gospel. For pictures of the vehicle to be used for mobile clinics click this link https://www.empowerglobal.org/initiative/124/. The vehicle is fully equipped to drive over Haiti's pot hole covered roads and even has oxygen in it ( It is difficult to find oxygen even in hospitals!!!). Thirdly to provide education on healthcare and prevent the same diseases occurring over and over again. This will happen by providing education to schools, educational institutions and communities.

If you look back at Rodney's life you would never imagine he would be where he is today. It is exciting to see how God has led him and has used many different people along the way. Please pray for this stage of the project which is fundraising.

I will keep updating as I find out what is going on.