Report from Haiti trip, Our Commissioning and...Fire!

 Hello Friends!

 This past month has been FULL for our family! Last I up-dated we were enjoying being in Hobe Sound getting re-aquainted with our many friends there and loving the warm, ocean breezes and the sunshine :o)

 The last week of January, a team of 6 men flew to our compound to work on our mission house in Grande Rivierre du Nord. The men who went were Danny, Frank Vaughn, Rob Loper, Joe Hurst, Matt Hirschy and Josh Capps. God put together a great team as they all did a wonderful job using their skills to get the roof on while they were there. They enjoyed intereacting with the children there in the compound and Danny was able to hand out some of the fun glow sticks, Hot Wheels and etc that we have had donated. A HUGE thank-you to Frankfort Bible Holiness Jr. Church and Living Water United for collecting these great items! You helped bring huge smiles to the children's faces!

   The men got to go up to the Citadel and took some beautiful pictures. We used a picture of the Citadel on our new prayer card :o) And God answered a prayer request of our families that we have been personally praying about! We have been looking for a bathtub for our house in Haiti and have not been having much success. We were told that none of the businesses in Cape Haitian carried bathtubs and shipping one in was going to be costly. Our family feels that due to my bad back issues and the younger ones not caring for a shower all the time that a bathtub is vital. We took this need to our Heavenly Father and He agreed that we needed one also! On the team's last day as they were driving to the airport in Cape Haitian, they stopped by a business to check on some other building materials and found out that this guy NOW CARRIES BATHTUBS!! The cost will be around $250 to purchase one from him and we know God will supply the money to buy it since He provided it for us :o) When Danny came home and shared this with us, we were so happy and thankful and thanked Jesus for answering this prayer request for our family! What a great faith builder for our children!

    We were so happy to have our husband and daddy safely back from Haiti as we missed him very much! A sweet, generous young lady who graduated last year when Danny did and has become a good friend of our families, offered to watch our younger children so Danny and I could have a date night :o) And we spent some time together as a family too :o) We enjoyed being there for the entire 2 week Seabreeze Campmeeting. Bro. Stetler and Bro. Mark Sankey preached good, spirit-filled messages that had altars lined in the evening services. Rebecca enjoyed being back with her friends and participating in all the fun youth activities and the other three loved the children's services with Sister Christina Black and Roanna, who do a great job!

  February 12th was Missions Day and a very special day for our family. In the am service, Danny spoke briefly about going to Haiti and the children sang the song that they have wrote about us going to Haiti as missionaries. Then in the evening service, Bro. Reiff was able to raise over $30,000 for missions in a very unique way! It was exciting to watch how God worked and be a part of it all! Right after that, our family, along with the Rob Loper family was called forward and commissioned. The Lopers to Grand Turk and us to Haiti. It was very special as we had known this moment was coming and yet it had seemed so far off. We have been following God's footsteps, waiting on His timing and going through doors as He has opened them and our commissioning was just one more step closer to moving to Haiti :o) We are very excited and ready to go! If you missed the service and would like to see it you can go to www.hobesoundbiblechurch.com and find the Feb 12th service in their archives.

   After camp ended we went up to Pensacola, FL and enjoyed 4 days with Danny's parents, visiting and relaxing. We went to the Pensacola Air Museum, took the kids to fly kites at a park and celebrated Ben's 11th birthday that was on the 14th during camp.( We had a very small birthday party for him one night after church at camp with his friends.) His grandparents wanted to have a little party for him too so they bought him a cake and let him pick out some Hot Wheels and we had a fun little celebration one night. 

 

 

      We had a Godthing that happened while we were at the park flying kites. I was doing a headcount of our kids making sure I knew where they all were and  I did not notice a spot where the cement had a small incline. Next thing I knew I was on the hard concrete on my hands and knees. I scraped and bloodied up my knees and palms of my hands where I had tried to catch myself. I was embarrassed and my knees and palms were stinging so I sat there on the ground for a few seconds when I heard someone ask if I was ok. Realizing I had been seen, I answered that I was. A group of moms were sitting nearby while their children played and they offered some water to pour on my stinging palms and knees. Then one of the ladies said she had a first aid kit and went to get it in her car. We made small talk while they were pouring bottled water on my wounds and found out that they were a homeschool group. I told them that we homeschooled as well and that we were missionaries to Haiti on deputation. They were excited to hear about that and asked all kinds of questions. The lady came back and bandaged me up with gauze and Princess band-aids :o) Then one of the ladies said that her son had a school project  where he needed to find a missionary and pray for them on a daily basis and that he had been PRAYING to meet a missionary! She asked for a prayer card and the other ladies wanted one also. I went back to the van, told Danny about my fall and how they had helped me and wanted prayer cards. We walked back over and took them each one and the lady who's son had the project remarked that God does hear the prayers of a seven year old boy and that I must have fallen for a reason! Wow! It often amazes us the people that God puts in our path as we travel! I would appreciate prayer for my right knee as it is badly bruised and hurting worse each day since I fell last week. I am concerned that I may need to get it x-rayed when we get back to IN in a few days.

    We are now in Pell City, AL and are staying at the Bible Methodist Campground. We had a huge scare that could have been a lot worse than it was and we so thankful for God's protection! After arriving and getting settled in the cute little apt. they have us in, Danny ran into town to pick up some sandwiches for our supper. On his way back he suddenly realized that our rear passenger tire was on fire! He quickly stopped the vehicle and grabbed out our little fire extinguisher, that his mom had bought us several years ago, and was able to completely put out the fire. He called me and I called the local pastor who came out and helped him get it back here. The Don Shirk family are caretakers here on the grounds and were very nice to lend us an extra van that they have and we were able to us eit for the weekend until Danny had a chance to check out the extent of the damage. We were so thankful that it had just been him in the van and that he was able to put it out for if he had not had the fire extinguisher, we would have lost our van! We had been traveling for several hours all day and God kept us safe and allowed the fire to happen once we had arrived and were out of the vehicle.
   We did not know how bad the damage was or how it was going to be fixed or what the cost was going to be. Yet, Danny and I both felt a COMPLETE peace about it and were not worried! We knew that God had allowed it in the best of circumstances and that He has a plan. And He did! The church we spoke at, Pell City Bible Methodist, took up a love offering for us and gave us a good amount to put toward repairs. On Monday Danny took it apart and using the mechanical knowledge that he has was able to discern the problem. Basically, the wheel axle had came out of its housing and caused the fire. Once it was all bought and fixed by Danny, the whole problem only cost us a little over $100! We thank God for His protection, help and provision throughout this mini-crisis! It was a beautiful realization that God has brought us to the place that when things went wrong that we did not worry but trusted Him! He has brought us a looooong way and we are very thankful! And we KNOW that some of you were probably praying for us on February 23rd when the fire occurred and we say a huge THANK-YOU! Please keep praying for us! We VALUE your prayers!

A work trip to Haiti and deputation schedule

Hello Friends!
  As I type this, we are back in  Hobe Sound, Florida and it feels like coming home! It has been wonderful to see friends that we made while living here for two years and we are enjoying the warm ocean breezes and the sunshine once again ;o)
  This coming Tuesday, Danny and 5 other men will be flying to Haiti to continue the work on our new house! They will be working on the roof, rafters and inside walls. We are very excited and we ask for your prayers for protection and that much will be accomplished while they are there. Thank-you!

Here is our speaking schedule:

Feb. 3-Grace Holiness in Harkers Island,NC-am
          -open-pm
Feb. 6-Faith Chapel in Thomasville,NC
Feb. 7-17 -Seabreeze Camp-Our Commissioning Day will be the 12th @ 7 pm
Feb. 24-open-am
           --open-pm

Feb. 27-Tarrant Bible Methodist in Tarrant, AL

March 3-open-am
             -open-pm
March 5-7-Planning on attending the Bus Convention in Camby, In

March 10-Warren Bible Methodist in Warren, OH-am
               -Calvary Chapel Bible Methodist in Coshocton, OH-pm
March 13-open

March 17-Community Bible in Osterburg, PA
               -open-pm
March 20-open

March 24-Bristolwood Pilgrim Nazarene in Walker, MI-am
               -Greenville Bible Methodist in Greenville, MI-pm

If you would like to have us come and share, please contact us as we have a few openings. 772.485.0149

As most of you know, we need to raise 150 shares to go to Haiti to serve for two years. We have around 60 at this point.We are trusting in God to supply the needed 90 shares of $20 a month. God is doing and wants to do great things in Haiti and we are excited and honored to be a part of it! Would you would like to get involved by pledging to help cover a share of $10 or $20 a month? We know that God will greatly bless you as you invest in His kingdom!  Thank-you for your support, continued prayers and financial investment! Your prayers keep us going as He gives us the strength and grace to keep following His footsteps on our pathway. Blessings to you all!

Support Address: Hope International Missions
                            c/o Flowers support
                             PO Box 1065
                             Hobe Sound, FL 33475

                                     Standing in front of the HIM orphanage where we will be serving for two years.

      
                                           Our display that we set up for our services.

Dear Family and Friends,                                                                        

 Merry Christmas greetings to you and your families! We hope this letter finds you all happy, healthy and counting your blessings! Our family certainly has been thanking God for how good He has been to us this year! We have been through many changes as we have continued to follow His footsteps in our pathway. As many of you know, God has put the country of Haiti on our hearts and has called us to move and minister in Grande Riviere du Nord, Haiti. Hope International Missions out of Hobe Sound, Fl. accepted our family as full-time missionaries in February. We have been traveling all over Indiana, Ohio, Michigan , North & South Carolina and even spent a weekend speaking in Chicago. Lord willing, we plan to continue sharing about going to Haiti until the end of March. We will then move to Northern Haiti in the spring for two years to work in HIM’s orphanage where we will mentor, teach and train.  We are excited at what God wants to do through us in Haiti and continue to ask for His direction as we prepare to go.

  God has confirmed His plans for our lives and has given us a peace and calm in the middle of the stress and challenges of traveling around with a large family. We have stayed in many kind people’s homes and made some wonderful true friends. We thank each and every one of you who have had a part in hosting our family in some way whether it was making us a sack lunch after a service or having us for a meal or an overnight in your home or maybe you slipped us a “green handshake” as we were leaving your church. We want you to know that we have truly appreciated everything that has been done for our family! Your on-going support and prayers are essential to our ministry! Thank-you!

This summer we received the news that God had provided most of the needed $30,000 that we were working on raising to build our house in Haiti! This has been such a blessing! In October the walls were laid and progress is underway. Danny, Frank Vaughn, and a team of men plan to go to Grande Riviere in late January to put up the rafters, interior walls and roof. Please pray for them that much will be accomplished!

We want to challenge you this Christmas season to remember that Christ is truly the reason! Celebrate Him this Christmas!

 Home Address: 2458 NW St. Apt. 1 PO Box 62 Craigville, In 46731   c. 772.485.0149

 Support Address: Flowers Support PO Box 1065 Hobe Sound, Fl 33475

Satisfied In His Service!

Danny, Liz, Becca, Ben, Abby & Caleb

 

 

                                 
                                         Merry Christmas from the Flowers Family!

 

Happy New Year!

Hello everyone!

  We want to take a moment to up-date this blog and let you know that we are all doing good. We have spoken 34 times as of last night and God has been soo faithful! We have a goal to raise 150 shares of  $20 each to cover a year of our support while in Haiti. We currently have around 50 some and have a goal to have 75 shares in by Christmas. If you feel that you would like to get involved in this vision that God is giving us for Grande Riviere du Nord, Haiti then jump right in! There are MANY blessings and victories ahead as we continue to follow God's footsteps on our pathway! It is exciting to be His child and in His service!
  We have been thoroughly enjoying the last couple months traveling and speaking in Ohio, North Carolina and South Carolina. We have seen beautiful Fall scenery and are enjoying it very much!
We really missed the gold, orange and red leaves while living in Florida for the past two years and we praise our Creator for His handiwork!
  Some of you may have not heard the awesome news that God has provided the ENTIRE $30,000 needed to build and furnish our house in Haiti! We are thrilled at the way that God continues to provide and DAILY confirm this exciting path for us! Most of the walls have been laid and Danny will be taking a work team to Haiti in January to continue building our house :o)
  We have been thrilled with the wonderful response to our Children's Toy Project that we have introduced to many of you. We know of one children's group that has been collecting items and are getting ready to send it to us to take to Haiti when we go. So exciting to see children jumping in to help those who are less fortunate than themselves! May God richly bless them and all of you for your generosity to put a big smile on a child's face :o)
  We have finished here in SC and will be heading back to Hoosier country in the next few days. This weekend we head off to the Windy City of Chicago to sight see and share at a church there. As always, your PRAYERS keep us going...THANK-YOU!!  There are a few specific ways we would appreciate prayer right now: 1) I would appreciate prayer for myself physically. I have had a LOT of teeth/ear/sinus issues and been in some pain. I am currently fighting a chest cold and could use God's touch as we continue with our traveling plans.
 2) Please pray that we can reach our goal of 75 shares by Christmas.
 3) We need prayer covering as we travel many, many miles for safety on the roads.

Thank-you for caring! Thank-you for giving! Thank-you for praying!

Deputation Thoughts

 We have been on Deputation since July 27th. We have spoke in 8 churches so far and we have 19 more scheduled and several more pending. When we first set out from what has been our home for two years in Hobe Sound and came back to our original 'home' here in Indiana, we were not sure what to expect from this thing called "Deputation." We approached this new journey with a mixture of excitement, anxiety and a little fear of the 'un-known'. As a mother of four, my fears ran toward hoping that our children would behave themselves and that they would not get bored or resent the fact that we were taking them to a different church each week. I know that Satan had a hand in my worries as he will try to discourage and concern us as much as he possibly can when we set out to do God's will. I said all this to say that deputation has been a WONDERFUL experience for our family! And we praise God for that! We have truly enjoyed meeting pastors and their families and being treated like royalty in their homes. We have met some godly, Christlike brothers and sisters in Christ in the different churches that we have visited whose hearts beat like ours to reach out to the lost. God has helped us to 'connect' and make lots of new friends who we KNOW will be praying for us as we are in Haiti and pray for us even now as we are on deputation.

  We were blessed to spend a few weeks at Athens Camp in MI. We met some very sweet people and  thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We got to listen to challenging messages given by Clair Sams and inspiring singing by the Orvis's each night. Our children got to be involved in the children and youth classes. Becca and Ben learned how to shoot a bow and arrow and were able to make their own to take home. They were also taught Biblical, character skills as they learned archery from the Shermans. It was an awesome program and we were thrilled that they got to be part of it! Abby and Caleb enjoyed the children's classes taught by Sis. Shrier and sang the cute songs she taught them about keeping our lives clean. Danny and I enjoyed helping in the kitchen and chatting with Sis. Orvis and Lisa :o) We fell in love with the camp and plan to attend every year we are in the States! We had a few services cancel that we had scheduled and feel that it was all part of God's plan for us to relax and get fed before going out to minister ourselves. Thank-you Athens Camp family for accepting and allowing us to spend a few weeks with you all there :o)

    It has been refreshing to see the churches that have a heart for missions and are reaching out to their communities where God has planted them. We have seen some wonderful results of their efforts and can see that God is truly blessing them for their labour. A few examples come to mind: I told you about Pastor and Sally Voss who pastor Lower Light Mission in Petersburg, MI a few posts back. They are a beautiful example of  true servants fulfilling the Great Commission. Pastor Voss is heavily involved in Prison Ministry Outreach and every sunday afternoon he spends his time at the prison while his wife cooks a big sunday dinner with their new converts and whoever else has came that sunday. They are both well-loved and respected! Half of their congregation is comprised of converts who were addicted to drugs, alcohol and other bondages of sin. They have given their lives to Christ and it is beautiful to see their shining faces! They have new life as a direct result of the Voss's living their godly lives before them and just shining Jesus:o)  We were challenged and encouraged after visiting their church!
  There is another church we visited this past week that also challenged and encouraged us. Dunkirk Friends church in Winchester, In has a thriving Bus ministry and it was easy to see that the congregation loves pastor Edwards and his sweet family. Pastor Edwards loves the children and they love him! After sunday school, he leads the children in 4-5 children's songs just for them and they love it! The church was packed when we were there and are in the process of re-modeling as God has blessed their outreach. I posted Pastor Edwards family picture that I took and in less than an hour there were over 30 likes and quite a few favorable comments. That tells you a lot about this dear family that we were blessed to spend sunday afternoon in their home. Angie Edwards fixed us a delicious dinner and we enjoyed our afternoon with them. Truly God has great plans for this little church that is reaching out and making a difference in their community!
   There have been other churches that we have visited that I will not mention for lack of space and time that have been so wonderful to us. They have just opened their arms, loved and prayed for us and made lasting impressions on our hearts! We have many more to visit and we are looking forward to what God is going to do through us and through them as we all continue to fullfill His Great Commission whether it be here in our homeland or on foreign soil.

Our Deputation Schedule

 The following is our deputation schedule starting this sunday until the end of October. Note the 'Open' dates and give us a call if you would like us to speak at your church or you know a church close to where we will be. Please pray for us as we continue to share the calling and vision that God has given us for Grande Rivierre du Nord, Haiti. Thank-you! We VALUE your prayers!

September
 2-am-Dunkirk Friends church in Winchester, In
   pm-Fort Wayne Pilgrim Holiness in Fort Wayne,In

 9-am-Salem Community Church in Monroe, In
  -pm-Eighteenth Street Wesleyan in Muncie, In
 
11-Frankfort Bible Holiness in Frankfort, In

12-open

16-am-open
  -pm-Twin Oaks Holiness in Petersburg,In

19-open

23-am-Grace Fellowship Missions Conference in Decatur, In
  -pm-same place

26-open

30-am-open
  -pm-Ironwood Bible Methodist in Anderson, In

October

3-Union Tabernacle in Zanesville, Oh

7-am-Unionridge Pilgrim Holiness in Zaleski, OH
 -pm-Logan church in Logan, Oh

10-Community Holiness in New Covington,Oh

14-am-open
  -pm-Pilgrim Holiness in Kokomo,In

17-open

21-am-open
  -pm-open

24-open

28-am-open
  -pm-New life Christian in Bluffton,In

31-open

Great and Mighty things He hath done!

   This post is to update everyone on what God has been doing in our lives since our last post. And I am so excited to tell you all that He has been doing GREAT and MIGHTY things!  We were privileged to speak at one of our home churches, HSBC, on July 15th and they gave us a very generous offering! We needed around $2,500 to have enough to move and begin deputation. The total offering and gifts we recieved almost doubled that! God is so good!

   We left HS on July 21st, 2012, this date is significant to us because it was exactly two years ago on July 21st, 2010 that we moved there! God helped Danny to finish his degree and helped us to become DEBT-FREE in just two years! We give Him ALL the GLORY and PRAISE!  We arrived back home in IN the 23rd and headed out for MI just a few days later.
   We thoroughly enjoyed our time in the beautiful state of MI!  We met some wonderful people and made some lasting friendships. Our family fell in love with Athens Camp and plan to attend it every year that we are in the States. We spoke at the camp and recieved an offering from them. Danny and I enjoyed helping in the kitchen and just being a part of the camp experience. We traveled to Petersburg the first weekend and enjoyed staying at the Lower Light Mission's campground. We also enjoyed meeting Rev. David and Sally Voss. They have 4  grown children and are in the process of adopting 4 more little ones that they foster. Bro. Voss is deeply involved in prison ministry. God has blessed his efforts as a large part of their congregation are new converts! It was very refreshing to see this missions minded church and to witness them reaching out in their community. We were blessed to see it in action!  Bro. Voss usually preaches in the am on Sun. and them goes to the prison for the afternoon to minister. He gives up a hot sit down sunday afternoon meal for a sandwich. That is dedication and servanthood and God has blessed it! Please pray for the Voss's as they minister in their community. Satan fights them hard and just before we came they had their van stolen by one of the men they had been working with. Sis. Voss also gives tirelessly to their people and they are both loved and respected. Remember these precious people and their church in your prayers.
  Sunday evening we drove over to Melvindale, which is right outside Detriot, and spoke at another Lower Light church.  We enjoyed meeting Pastor and Sis. Kennedy. They have pstored there for many years and are well-loved by their congregation. Very nice people there and Danny and I even met our twins! Their is a couple there who are named Danny and Elizabeth and they have a son named Caleb!  We had to take a picture of course and had fun chatting with them.  Their church gave us another generous offering and we enjoyed worshipping with them in their beautiful church that has an interesting history. Henry Ford actually helped build and fund it!

Back to Athens camp for the next week. The youth workers were the Shermans from SD. They have an amazing ministry teaching youth archery along with good Biblical character skills. Becca and Ben enjoyed the archery program! They each got to learn how to shoot a bow and got to make and keep their own bow and arrow. They even got a certificate for finishing the course!  Very cool! And they are both quite accomplished archers now :o)

  The following Sunday evening we spoke at the Evart Bible Methodist church in Evart. The people were very warm and friendly there too and treated us very well. We appreciated all the school supplies they gave us to take to Haiti as well as a very nice offering.  We are enjoying meeting more of our brothers and sisters in Christ and our Facebook friends list is growing!
  We have been back in In since the 6th. We are blessed to be staying in my parents rental apt. and are working on getting more settled in.

 I have saved the Best news until last....we have 3 things we are raising money for: 1. $30,000 for our house in Haiti.  2. $27,000 for our vehicle. 3. $72,000 for 2 yrs of support. We have broken this down into shares of $20 a month for a year. God is helping us as we have about 10 shares now.
 All of this is a LOT of money when you really look at it and in our humanness we think 'how in the world are we ever going to raise ALL that money?!' And then God steps in and reminds us that He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and His bank account is not empty! We just found out that most of the $30,000 has been pledged to cover the building and furnishing of our house! WOW!  Is God awesome or what!?!  He never fails to amaze us with the way He provides for us whether it be $30,000 for our house or a dear brother and/or sister in Christ giving us some money that we needed that week to help with living expenses. He always knows WHAT and WHEN we need and He provides! We are so satisfied serving Him and would not want to live our life any other way!  And to add the icing on the cake as the yummy saying goes, God just answered another one of our prayers on our 'wish list' for Haiti! We love to read and were trying to figure out how much books to take with us to Haiti as we have to pay $1.50 per pound. That does not leave much room for books when you figure ALL the neccessities we need to take! So, we have been looking at Kindles, Tablets and such. Well, yesterday, we were handed an Acer Ionica Tab A500 as a GIFT! :o) :o) :o)  The three smiles tell you how HAPPY we were to recieve such a useful, needed gift! God has given us a camera and now a Tablet in just the past few months! He gives such good gifts to His children!