We made it

With no big delays, no lost suitcases and absolutely no questions at immigration we arrived!The boys were great travelling, all three of them slept on the 9 hour flight and only Sam was awake for the second flight.

Today started with sleeping in, I woke all the boys up at 11am this morning.  Most people tell me that jet lag makes their kids wake up in the middle of the night but in our experience it just makes the boys more tired which works out pretty well actually!

The rest of the day has been unpacking and seeing family.  By far wee Jack is the most excited to have us home.  He was crying seeing Sam and Joel at the airport and had us all crying!

The boys are off to bed at a more normal time tonight and Bill & I won't be too far behind them! We are looking forward to going to our own church tomorrow and between the dentist, doctor and optician this week is full of appointments and catching up with more friends.

Thank you for your prayers, God answered and brought us here safely and smoothly.

Home

The word home has taken on a new meaning in our lives over the past few years and more so in this past year.  We call three places home now, Canada, Northern Ireland and Haiti. But not all those places really feel like home.

For me, my home is in Bangor Northern Ireland where I grew up and have spent most of my life except for the times I've lived in Haiti.  Since Bill was 18 he hasn't lived anywhere longer than 5 years so Youngstown, where he grew up still feels like home to him.  And for Sam & Joel Haiti really feels like home to them. You can imagine when people here have been asking us where we are from its been a little tricky to answer. 

On Thursday we leave Bills home to go to my home which I am pretty excited about.  Its been a year and the longest I have been away from home and I am ready to go!  We are so thankful we have been able to visit NI both last summer and this summer.  Because most of the ministries in Haiti are teaching, things shut down for the summer so instead of taking a one year furlough every 4 years most of the missionaries go 'home' every summer.  Although most of this time is spent raising support and sharing in churches we feel so thankful to be able to spend time with family and friends.

So home for us is all over the place and sometimes we get frustrated and just want to be in one place and never leave which is never going to happen given that we are from two different countries! But when we feel like that we look back at the experiences we have had, the places we have been, the people we have met and the ways we have seen God work and are thankful for the travelling around knowing God is using this time to grow His Kingdom. 

From the hot mountains of Haiti 

To the cold prairies of Alberta!

We have often sat down to have a meal with each person at the table being a different nationality yet we are part of the same family of Christ.  One of my favourites was in Haiti with two of the visiting professors eating at our house (their wives were at home).  The first man was from Nigeria, he was married to a girl from Kenya but they lived in the states, the second man was from Haiti, married to a Russian girl again living in the states, Bill from Canada and me from Northern Ireland.  As we shared visa and immigration stories, whats its like to be married to someone from a different culture and how we all managed to be in Haiti at the same time It got me thinking about the family of God.  Isn't it amazing how we, as Christians can go almost anywhere in the world and meet people that we will spend eternity with in Heaven!

Anyway one of our supporters sent me these verses and it so true...

Philippians 3v20 ' But our citizenship is in heaven.  And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.'

Hebrews 13 v14 ' For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.'

Our earthly 'home' may change but our heavenly home always remains the same and how much better will it be than this earth! Something to focus on when times are difficult, when we don't want to get on another flight or when we want to have a more 'permanent' home.

But for now we keep getting on the flights and living somewhere that might not feel like home until God calls us somewhere else.

Some things to pray for as we leave Canada and head for NI.

Pray for a safe flight and that the boys would travel well and adjust well.
Pray that we could have no problems at immigration in London.  We are all travelling on a British passport except Jacob who will travel on his Canadian passport, which our sister in law picked up today. (Praise the Lord it was ready in time!)
Pray for all our speaking engagements that more people would get involved in the work in Haiti.
Pray too for the provision of a car, currently we will be sharing with my mum and sister.  If anyone had one that we (or my mum so we can take hers!) can drive please get in touch.

For those of you in Norn Iron were looking forward to seeing you!

Summer Schedule

If you would like to hear us share in August then come along to one of the following places, if you can't make it and would like to catch up then email me (julieedler@hotmail.co.uk) and we will arrange a time to see you. 

Sunday 12th - Glenarm Baptist Church 11am and 6.30pm

Wed 15th -   Upper Clonaneese Presbyterian 7.30pm

Sunday 19th  - Ballychrochan Baptist Church 11am

                          Straid Congregational Church 6.30pm   

Wed 22nd  - Millisle Baptist church 8pm

Sunday 26th - St Andrews Presbyterian 11am 

                         Bethany Baptist Church 6.30pm

                         Bangor worldwide 8pm  You can read more about Bangor worldwide here

Thursday 30th - Bangorworldwide Satellite in Magherafelt Union Road Presbyterian Church 7,45pm

Saturday 1st September - leave NI for Haiti!

I was sharing at a MFM golf tournament last week as they were raising money to buy medicine for Bethesda and while I was thanking them for their support it really struck me (yet again) how many people it takes in order for us to live in Haiti.  

We cannot do it without your financial and prayer support and we do like coming back and telling you the stories of what God is doing in Haiti because you are part of those stories too.  I love that God uses so many different people, so many links in the chain to bring people to himself.  So when your £20 comes out of your bank each month and when you pray for us when you see our picture on your fridge (which is still weird to me!) remember you are part of what God is doing in Haiti. 

This past year....hellos & goodbyes, coming & going

Everytime we leave somewhere its so bittersweet,  we say goodbye to family to go and see more family in a different place then move on to the place where we believe God has called us to serve.  Now in the next month we have more goodbyes coming up, we leave Youngstown on 19th July to head back to Northern Ireland arriving on 20th.  This is the longest time Bill has been home since 2011 and its going to be hard for him to leave.  The boys have loved seeing their cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents yet they are moving onto a place with more cousins, aunts & uncles and grandparents which they are excited about too.

 

No matter where we live we feel guilty about not being in a different place.  We felt guilty leaving Haiti when we did with such short notice, now we feel guilty about leaving Bill's family, then those same feelings will rear their ugly head again when we say goodbye in Northern Ireland. 

This past year we have been in Northern Ireland, Canada, Haiti, Florida and the Dominican Republic, on paper the excitement of being able to visit so many places looks great but the reality of doing it with two, now three small children is just not quite as much fun.  I don't even want to count up how many different beds the Sam & Joel have slept in in the past 12 months.  We are so thankful they travel well and will sleep anywhere as long as teddy & big doggy (for Sam) and blanky and dummy (for Joel) are along for the ride!

This past year we also had lots of visitors come and see us in Haiti.  My dad, Bill's sister, my sister and Bill's friend Brian. Even though these visitors make us say more hellos and goodbyes we love having them.  So count this as an open invitation, if you want to come and visit us in Haiti please do! We will show you where we work, where Sam goes to school, the local community, church and of course a Caribbean beach!

 Please pray for us as we prepare to leave Canada and move onto the next place we call home.  We will be in Northern Ireland until 1st September and arrive back to yet another home on 2nd.  We will go to Calgary this week to apply for Jacob's passport.  In order to get an express passport you have to show proof of travel so we went ahead and booked our flights, pray that the passport application goes smoothly. Today is Canada day so I had to be culturally appropriate and dress the kids in maple leaf clothing! Happy Canada Day! 

Joel is very patriotic!

We were speaking in Bethel missionary church in Hanna and then went to their town celebrations with BBQ, bouncy castles, face paints and ice cream!The boys had so much fun Sam wanted to know when the next Canada Day was!

 

In just a year...up and downs

This picture came up on my facebook feed from a year ago and it got me thinking about how much has happened in this past year, so much of which we could not have expected.

This time last year we had just arrived back in Northern Ireland for a very full summer of speaking engagements, appointments, more travelling and seeing family, friends and supporters.  We had a great but very busy time both in Northern Ireland and Canada.  We arrived back in Haiti in August ready to get stuck back into working.  Little did we know how much things would change.

This past year has been a year of ups & downs,
 coming & going and hellos & goodbyes. 

I was so excited to have the new therapy building open in January, it was amazing to see how God provided the funds, a team at the exact right time and Altidor, my PT tech.  It was the highlight of my time in Haiti so far, to see how everything came together and being able to work in this new facility.  I was (and still am) so thankful for the people who invested in this project. But now with Bethesda having to move premises (if you don't receive my prayer updates you can read the letter from the board about what has been going on) its been difficult to get my head around why it had to happen at this time.  What was the high point of my time in Haiti is turning into the lowest point.  I know that we have been able to help hundreds of people with this new building but it still feels somewhat like a waste.  Things just don't always work out the way we have them planned do they, but I am praying in time I will understand why things have worked out they way they have.

I have to remember His ways are higher than ours.  I know this is true because I have experienced this before in my life.  In between Sam & Joel I had a miscarriage and lost my baby at 12 weeks.  It was awful.  The reason I got pregnant so quickly after Sam (who was just 11 months when we found out) is because we were anxious to get to Haiti.  We knew this is where God had called us and we were ready to go and be involved in ministry.  The time between knowing we were going and actually going felt like we were just putting in time.  Bill was working in a minimum wage job and ready to use his qualifications to start teaching.  

We were ready to go but it wasn't the right time and its only looking back I can see why.  Maybe we lost our baby because God was asking us to wait, maybe it was so we could share our experience with other people who have been through the same thing or maybe we will never know exactly why it happened.  But it was during that time I learnt a lot about living each day well, where you are rather than being restless and always waiting for the next thing.  There are so many things I could be involved in at home in Northern Ireland which are still serving God but I was too busy thinking about leaving.

Then almost exactly one year after we lost the baby I gave birth to Joel.  Wee Joely who has been the easiest little....ok really big baby and is now the happiest, most content and loving little boy we could ask for.   So I know God has this situation with Bethesda under control and that he has a plan and that's what I am trusting in.

Then there is Jacob, definitely a big up from this year.  When we first began discussing adopting Jacob, I just knew it was the right thing to do but we had no idea how we would work it out.  We didn't even know if it was legally possible given that I am not a Canadian citizen. We got a bit of legal advice and it didn't seem to be a problem so we procedeed.  However moving to rural Alberta in the middle of winter was not easy.  As you know the boys are used to shorts, t shirts, bare feet and playing outside for 12 hours a day, they went from that to indoors pretty much 24 hours a day.  Looking back that time of being inside with a 4yr old, 2yr old and this new baby who I was trying to get to know and who was trying to get to know us was hard. The days were long and lonely.

The lane to our house, yes its rural!

 However it didn't take long for Jacob to settle and relax and really become part of our family, it did take a little longer for the snow to melt and the spring to come though...thanks Canada! Now we can't imagine life without Jacob, its funny how he just fits in with the boys even down to the blonde hair and blue eyes! Someone even told me a few weeks ago how he had the round irish face.  Again Gods ways are higher then ours.  Adoption is not something that we had been considering before Jacob and now I am so glad we did.  To have the opportunity to give this little baby a home and a family for the rest of his life and be able to show him the gospel is a gift.

Well I've written and shared more than I planned so I'll leave coming & going and hellos & goodbyes for a different post.

So much can change in a year, maybe your in a place of waiting, maybe in a place of pain or maybe even in a place of despair.  Look to God for the future, know that He is in control and He has a plan for you if you are willing to follow him.

Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths. Proverbs 3 v 5&6

Its official

We were a little disappointed after not hearing anything regarding Jacobs adoption last month but today we got a phone call from the court clerk saying the adoption order was granted today!  The judge was in court for a trial and got a chance to read over our papers.  We are so thankful Jacob is now legally part of our family.  Its been kind of a strange situation to be in, to be caring for this beautiful little baby but not 100% knowing if he will actually be yours and wondering when that will happen.

I felt more relief than anything which I wasn't expecting actually.  But we are all, the boys included delighted that Jacob has joined our family forever. 

Over the past few months we have got to know Jacob better and better, he is very sociable and loves to be talked to and smiles at everyone.  He loves to eat and sleep and laugh! But his absolute favourite thing in the world is Sam, no one can make him laugh the way Sam does. 

There were so many unknowns coming into this year, would we adopt Jacob, how could we leave Haiti for a few months, how would we afford it, how would we go from summer to Canadian winter...etc

But God knew and he had it under control and here we are just a few months later with the process complete.  We are so thankful to all who have prayed for us and those who have continued to support us.

When it became apparent adoption was Jacobs only option and we were told we had two weeks to get to Canada we started to talk about the practical details and I shared at prayer meeting and said ‘It almost seems impossible.’  To which one of the other missionaries responded ‘Nothing is impossible with God.’ 

How right he was. 

graduation

I am little behind but EBS graduation took place on 11th May at our new outdoor space which was finished off last summer.  This year we saw 19 men and women graduate from their 4 years at Emmaus.  Some of them are already pastoring churches they have planted, some are associate pastors, three are worship leaders and a few are teachers and administrators in Haitian schools.  Either way they are all now better equipped to go out into Haiti to preach the gospel and make disciples.

Bill was looking forward to graduation and not only because he is dying to wear his robes! But we were in Canada and not able to be there so I will leave you with some photos which Stacey took. (Thanks Stacey!)

We have had nothing in the post this week regarding Jacobs adoption so we think it is more than likely our papers were not given to the judge and it will be 25th June before a decision is made.  So were out in the country for a couple more months.  We have speaking engagements in August in Northern Ireland so we would really need to be back there by the beginning of August. If you think of it pray for Sam, he asks almost daily when we are going back to Haiti. He struggles the most with all the moving and changing and this is the 3rd county he has lived in in his short 4 years. 

Last week we enjoyed a visit to Bills sister, Melissa, in British Colombia.  It was a 15 hour drive to get there but we stopped of at some cool places along the way to break up the journey and even got to see a real bear by the side of the road! 

We had a great time and the boys really enjoyed playing with their cousins. 

A frozen Lake Louise....yes this is Canada at the end of May!

It proved impossible to get a picture of all 5 kids together, little Ella was the only one who sat still. The difference between girls and boys!