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!

Home and trusting in His Provisions and Grace

 We arrived safely home from Haiti late thursday evening, thankful for God's help and protection. It was no small task to maneuver 4 children through crowded airports while making sure we kept our luggage, carry-ons and etc. close by so it would not be stolen! Our Caribbean Director and friend, Frank Vaughn, along with another dear couple, the Clouses, picked up our tired, yet happy gang from the airport. We were so happy to be home back in the States. We were treated to Burger King on the way home and it truly was a treat after not eating hamburgers and french fries for a month :o) Exhaustion began to set in on the way home and stayed with us the next few days. Thankfully, we were able to rest and re-cuperate over the weekend. Danny got sick and ran a fever and the rest of us are still dealing with allergies and sinus issues that are no doubt a result of Haiti's dust. We are all doing much better today though and we even sent Rebecca off to her first youth camp. Hobe Sound took a bus full of kids to North Carolina for the Carolina Christian Youth Camp. We were not sure if it was going to work out for Becca to go but God provided and we felt clear to allow her to attend. We are praying that it will be a spiritual milestone for her. Looking forward to hearing what God does this week at CCYC for our youth!
   We have a LOT going on this week! We are packing, working on our deputation schedule, paperwork stuff that has to be done when you move and preparing for our first service. We will be speaking in the HIM Spotlight at our Hobe Sound Bible Church next sunday evening. We have many needs that we are trusting God to provide for. We plan on leaving HS and heading to Indiana next wed. or Thur. We will be at my parents house for a week and then we head to Michigan to begin Deputation. Below is a list of the needs that we are praying for God to provide:

*$$$ to get us started on deutation to cover gas, food and lodging.

* $$$ to buy the kids school curriculum. Also in need of 3 personal dvd players as we will be using the Abecca DVD Program.

* LOTS of Prayer support!

If you feel led to help with any of these needs, you can send your tax deductible gift to:
 Hope International Missions
 c/o Flowers Family
P.O. Box 1065
Hobe Sound, Fl 33455

This is not our work but God's and we are honored that He has called us to be a part of the work in Grande Rivierre, Haiti! Thank-you for coming along side us with your support and prayer!

If you would like to have us come and speak at your church in the next 6 months, send an email to flowersinhaiti@gmail.com. We have lots of pictures and stories to tell of our time in Haiti :o)

Satisfied Serving Jesus!

Checking in from Haiti

Hello! We have been in Haiti since June 5th. We are staying in Carrefour with Don Mobley, who is a missionary with God's Missionary church. He has been a wonderful host by helping us with culture, customs and the language. He has 40 different boys that live off and on with him who attend the college here on the compound. We have gotten to know Escotte, Menal and a few others. They are all very good cooks and we have enjoyed the food we have been served. Lots of rice and beans and beans and rice! Thankfully, we like beans and rice :o)
  We flew in Tues. and stayed a few days before driving 11 hours one way to Grande Riviere du Nord. A very bumpy, hot, long, yet scenic drive! We had very primitive accomodations at GR such as little electricity, no comfy soft furniture, seldom had COLD water to drink and HUGE spiders, cockroaches, ants and mosquitos. Despite the less than ideal circumstances, God really helped us to connect with our future Haitian family! We taught each other English and Creole alike. They put us girl's hair in corn rows and taught us how to handwash our clothes. I shared my Southern Living magazines with them and they were thrilled! We sang a special in church on sunday with a few of our Haitian sisters and was able to read to a couple groups of children from a Creole book. God is good and gave us the grace, help and strength we needed to deal with the culture shock. We also experienced extreme temps in excess of 105 a couple of the days we were there. Pastor Dominique and his wife, Madamne Dominique are the caretakers of the orphanage and have 3 children of their own. We will be co-laborers with them when we move to GR. Looking forward to working with them!  Danny helped to build a house for Escotte. He will be moving back there once he finishes college in Carrefour. We stayed about a week in Grande Riviere before heading back to Carrefour. We stopped at La Croix and spent the night with another sweet mennonite missionary couple that we met. The Martins are wonderful hosts and their house with 24/7 electricity, fans and comfortable furniture plus COLD water with ICE was a refreshing haven to our weary souls! Mrs. Martin fixed us an American meal of Spaghetti, salad, garlic bread and cupcakes..what a treat! We thoroughly enjoyed our stay with them!
   We arrived back in Carrefour on Thur. and have been relaxing and resting for a few days. We have been helping with cleaning and handy man projects around the compound here. We have come and go electricity, you never know when you will have it. Amazingly, we have had it today all day long! Very rare! We have been able to get all of our laundry done using Don's old wringer washer and the 3 boys have gotten haircuts from Escotte. We are enjoying the fans and being on the pc most of the day :o) Thankful for this blessing! We have been having a hard time with culture shock and this day is a breathe of fresh air! God knows just what we need does'nt He!?
 Enjoy the pics and thank-you for your continued prayers!

                                               Our kiddos at the airport early in the morning.

                                           

                                              

                                                  Mommy's side of the plane

                                                    

                                                  Daddy's side of the plane.

                                            
                                          Our family with Pastor Dominique's family

 

                                            Our family standing where God has called us!

 

 I wanted to post a lot more pics but it takes FOREVER to upload here so feel free to visit our page on Fb to see all the pics I have posted. There are lots! Friend us at Dannynliz Hirschy Flowers.

 When we get back to the states I will try to upload more photos on here.

 

A Junior High Banquet, A Birthday Party and a Graduation!

 These past few days have been chock full for our family! The fun began with Danny's parents coming in for a 3 day visit. We really enjoyed having them here and were glad that they were able to come. Thursday morning, Becca had her 7th/8th Grade Banquet. The theme was a Presidential Gala and Becca went as the Prime Minister of Paris, France.  She looked so grown up and us adults were a little emotional as we took pictures of her. Seems only yesterday she was a little toddler in pigtails!

           

 Posing pretty with G-pa & G-ma Dunn

 Kori and Rebecca are great friends. Kori went as the 

Princess of Iceland.

Becca wore the boots that I wore at our wedding..very special!

Loved that she wanted to wear them!

 Rebecca Grace before her Banquet.

 

    Thursday, the 24th, was also Abigail's 8th birthday. We had a combined party with one of her good friends, Katy Barr. Katy turns 8 on June 9th but we will be in Haiti and she wanted Abby to come to her party so we just had their parties together. There is a really nice park close by that we had their party at and the weather was perfect. We decorated with a Hawiaan theme, and lots of color. We had around 30-40 people attend. Hotdogs, cheese puffs, Doritos and potato salad were served. The kids enjoyed playing with our Candy Claw Machine to win treats, having their face painted, a water balloon toss and decorating their own cupcakes! Of course, Abby and Katy opened their presents and recieved lots of art and travel stuff :o) It was a fun time and we were glad that G-pa & G-ma Dunn were here to celebrate with us :o)

Our Hawaiin themed birthday party

  The cute birthday girls with their leis and matching outfits.

 Mrs. Brown is was the girl's 1st grade teacher.

They love her and she loves them!

                                     
                                        

 Happy party guests taking turns with the Candy Claw Machine.

 Abby posing with just one of the MANY gifts she recieved!

  Friday was a very busy day. I have a cleaning job with a sweet older couple and it was my last day to clean for them. It was also the kids last day of school and they had a half day. So, after I got home, we had some shopping to do to get stuff for Danny's graduation table. Then we went out with G-pa & G-ma for supper. Rushed back here and got ready for the Graduation. It was a wonderful night celebrating a huge accomplishment! We give God all the honor and glory for His help! Graduation has seemed to be soo far off and now it has come and gone. We know that we are ready to move on to the next phase that God is leading us into. It is exciting, scary and over-whelming at times yet he gives us a calming peace that assures us of His leading and will. Onward to Haiti!

 Walking down the aisle to recieve his long-awaited diploma!

Danny Flowers...2012 College Graduate! So proud of him!

Family picture time!

 Danny's Graduation table. My mother-in-law,

Becca and I enjoyed decorating it for him :o)

                                 
                                 

So proud of my man! <3 <3 <3 Love him!

Danny standing behind his table.

He greeted guests for a few hours.

 Mrs. B. has been his biggest cheerleader! We love her!

                                     

Dealing with our first broken bone

 We should probably feel blessed that for the first time in almost 13 yrs with 4 children that we are just now experiencing a child with a broken bone. Amazing, considering that our kids are very active and can be quite the daredevils at times! Rebeca, our oldest, was riding her scooter home from band and took a spill. She tried to catch herself with her left hand and according to the ER reports she bent and cracked her left wrist bone. You can see in the above picture how her wrist is bent. This happened thur. evening and they put a temporary cast on at the ER. We filled prescriptions for IBP and Tylenol 3 with codeine. I tried to make a friday appt. for her at the Orthopedic Surgeon but they don't have friday hours around here. So, she is going in first thing monday. She has been in considerable pain. Becca tried to go to school twice friday and ended up coming home in too much pain. We are trying to keep her as comfortable as possible and are curious if the Orthopedics report will match the ER's? Will up-date soon..thanks for your prayers!

Observations of the Haitian Church

 We have been privileged to be able to attend a wonderful Haitian church in West Palm Beach off and on for a month now. The people are so sweet, open and friendly toward us! They are so happy that we are going to THEIR country to tell THEIR people about Jesus! They have 'adopted' us as their missionaries. They have let us know over and over again that they are praying for us and today they took up a large love offering for us to put toward our trip that is coming up in June. I will tell you more about that in a minute.
   Watching the Haitians worship is a beautiful experience! I love how free they are....un-concerned about what other's are thinking of them. Swaying, they throw their hands up, raise their voices, close their eyes and worship their Saviour! The creole and sometimes french words they sing are simple yet have such a profound message to them. They repeat phrases frequently as they sing and God's presence can be felt through-out the room. It is glorious!  As they were singing today, God spoke to me and said, "These are the people I have called you to, they will be your people now."  Our response is, "Yes, Lord, teach us and show us your will in Haiti."
  They have been so kind to have translators come and sit beside us to help us understand the service better. This has been very helpful and we are beginning to pick up some creole words. We know around 20-30 from memory now :o) Their preacher, Pastor Lamour, has been giving us weekly creole lessons and that is also helping. Pastor Lamour is a good preacher, he speaks the Biblical truth to his congregation. He does not skirt around issues but talks directly about them and in a passionate way. It is obvious that he loves God and his congregation. We really appreciate him and his church and are truly beginning to feel a part of them. We are very thankful for the opportunities we have had and will have to worship with them.

Now to tell you about our up-coming trip:
 We are going to Carrefour, Haiti to stay with a long-time missionary who's name is Don Mobley.  Carrefour is a few hours away from Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. When we move to Haiti, possibly next Spring, we will be living in Grande Rivierre du Nord which is in Northern Haiti. It is a six hour drive from Carrefour and we will be going up to the Grande Rivierre to visit the orphanage. We will be serving in the HIM orphanage by helping with the orphan's care, both physically and spiritually. Danny will be doing lots of maintenance and hopes to teach the orphan boys mechanical skills. There are many other roles we will be filling and we won't fully know what we will be involved in until we get there. Needless to say, we are very excited to visit the orphanage and get to know the boys and Pastor Dominique and his family. Danny went to the orphanage 2 years ago and met all of them. The kids and I are looking forward to meeting them for the first time :o)
 We will be taking LOTS of pictures!
   The reason we are going on this trip is two-fold: First reason is to complete Danny's Internship for his degree. Secondly, so we can learn more creole from Mr. Mobley and get to know their culture and customs. We are trusting God to supply the $3,000 that we need for this trip to help cover airfare, food and transportation. God has already began to bring in the needed funds and we praise Him for His provision! Being a missionary is exciting! Thank-you for your continued prayers as we follow God's path for our family!

This is a common sight in our house these days! We change it each week, adding new words as we learn them :o)

May Happenings

  May is speeding by so fast and the end of May is jam packed for us! Last night Rebecca had her Band Concert performance. Becca plays the Clarinet and really enjoys playing in band. Today she went with her band class to Bush Gardens for an all day band trip. We are waiting for her to get home and I am sure she will have all kinds of fun stories to share about what she did and saw :o) Glad she was able to have this opportunity!
  Next week Danny will be taking his finals for the LAST time!! Praise the Lord! Keep him in your prayers! His graduation is May 25th. Rebecca has her 7th-8th grade Banquet on the 24th. They are dressing formal and she is very excited. May 24th is also Abigail's 8th birthday! So, we are going to try and have a little birthday party for her that night. We are also looking forward to Danny's stepdad and mother coming to visit for a few days during graduation. I will be taking lots of pictures and will be posting them soon :o)

      This is Caleb's new funny face that he came up with all by himself. His brother and sisters think it is hilarious and ask him to show it to them all the time!  Never a dull moment around here! ;o)
  

Confirmation!

I am so thankful that when God calls us to go a certain path that He is faithful to confirm it to our hearts!  When we moved here in the summer of 2010 it was a complete step of faith for our family. We had numerous yard sales to get rid of most of our larger items and gave away what we could not sell. We then packed everything we owned into a 15 passenger van and an enclosed trailer. We literally came with one soft chair, a set of bunk beds, two end tables, my curio cabinet and my cedar chest. Almost everything else was small enough to fit in boxes, which we had around 30. God was faithful to provide all our appliances, furniture and everything else we needed. He also provided jobs that I talked about in the previous post.
  Unfortunately, when we moved here, we brought a good-sized amount of business debt from the lawncare and landscaping business we ran in Indiana. We paid off small amounts as we could but really was not seeing it disappear as quickly as we had hoped. Anyone that lives or has lived in South Florida knows that the cost of living is pretty high. We had many times when we did not know how we were going to buy groceries/gas and other needs and EVERYTIME God was faithful to provide and meet that need! We have no complaints or sad stories, God has really helped us to learn what it means to totally depend on Him!
   Last November we went through HIM New Missionary Orientation and went before the board to discuss our recent application. We have always had two goals to reach before going to the mission field. One is for Danny to graduate with an AA in Missions and the second is for us to be debt free. We let the board know these goals and told them that we had $20,000 in debt that we planed to pay off in the next 2 yrs. They understood, yet wanted us to be debt-free before they accepted us. We completely understood and to be honest were a little discouraged wondering how in the world we were going to be able to pay off our debt. Our Caribbean Director, Frank Vaughn, and Danny and I began to pray and ask God to send us more jobs. At that time our income was pretty low and the mountain looked HUGE!  Then God began to work!
   To make a long story short, we had 2 anonymous donations from Christian people who told Bro. Vaughn that God had told them to help us. We were given a total of $8,000! And then God helped us to take a good amount of our tax return and apply another $5,000! Yes, that totals around $13,000.  Before calling our creditors to pay these bills, we prayed for God to soften their hearts and most of them settled for half or even less than the original amount owed! So dear friends, as I type this, we can now say that by the grace and help of our Lord Jesus Christ that we are DEBT FREE!!!!!
  As they say in creole..Bondye se bon! (God is good!)

And that is just one of the ways that God has CONFIRMED that this is His will for our lives and we joyfully answer His call!

Welcome back!

  Hello readers, we are back into blogging world! Our other blog has been majorly neglected for so long that we just gave up on it and started a new one. A lot has happened in our family in the past two years and we will attempt to share some of it with you in the next few or several (depending on how many it takes!) posts.
   God is so good and He shows us His love, protection and leading everyday! We have been Floridians for 18 months now and enjoy living in the sunny south. Danny has filled the maintenance position for the college and school and it keeps him busy as a bee. He also is a full-time student and is in the middle of his last semester of college :o) God has given him a talent to do handy-man work including laying carpet. He has had many side jobs that have come his way and we have been thankful for the extra income that many times came just when we needed it. God is so good to provide for our needs!
   I have had a few job transitions since moving here. I started out working part-time for FEA in the housekeeping dpt. I also filled the head cook's position on sunday evenings in the cafeteria as well as cleaned the high school each night. Looking back on how much I did last year, I am not sure how I made it with out dropping from pure exhaustion! Last spring, I changed from the housekeeping position to working in the Thrift Store that FEA owns and operates. I enjoyed the customer inter-action but I had a hard time finding childcare for Caleb while I was working. So, I quit working for FEA and began babysitting in our home. I have watched several children and really enjoy it. I now watch 4 on a regular basis and am very thankful to be able to be at home with Caleb and make money too. I do still clean the high school and I have one cleaning job once a week for a sweet, older couple who treat me well :o) I also started selling Pampered Chef and have enjoyed all the benefits that come with it! Last summer I was asked to teach a 3-5 yr olds sunday school class for a few months until they could find a permanent teacher. I am still teaching it and love it! Since then, I have an assistant teacher who helps and we take turns each sunday. Teaching little ones about Jesus has so many rewards!
   Rebecca is now 12 and almost a teenager! Hard to believe at times and Danny and I are learning and experiencing all the new milestones that come with adolescense. Rebecca is turning into a sweet young lady who loves Jesus and is not afraid to stand up for what is right. We are proud of her and her desire to obey and follow Jesus. Becca has enjoyed being in band and has learned how to play the clarinet. She also takes piano lessons and we have realized that God has given her a beautiful gift for playing the piano as well as a love for music. Becca also helps me teach ss class and has a gift for teaching. Rebecca recently answered God's call on her heart to be a missionary!
    Benjamin just turned 10 and is our family comedian. He can and does crack a joke out of almost anything! Ben has a gift for drawing and loves to fill up pages of cartoons, monster trucks and sports cars. He enjoys playing softball weekly and can often be found fishing or in the middle of air soft gun wars with all his buddies. Ben likes to take things apart to see how they work and then try to fix them much to his father's dismay! We are proud of him and how well he does in school....almost a straight A student!
   Abigail is 7 and our little song bird. She is almost always humming or singing something. I have even had to tell her to be quiet when she was humming under her breath during church! Abby loves to make crafts and is always mis-placing the tape, scissors, etc. Abby truly has a gift for helping and loves to help me clean the high school. She is eager to please and gets her feelings hurt easily. Abby has a very tender heart and loves to sing for Jesus. She also is a good speller and earned a spot this school year to compete in a regional spelling bee!
   Caleb James, our baby, is turning 4 this July. He is a smart, independent little stinker who keeps me hopping! His favorite color is blue and he loves CARS, Veggie Tales and Blues Clues. He loves that he has playmates all day from the kids I babysit. Wotheels (Hotwheels), legos, playdough and playing in the backyard fill his days. He is a sweet little boy who makes our family complete!
   I did not intend to have our first post be a book.ha! So there you have a brief idea of what we are all up to at this time in our lives. I will post more later about what God has been doing in our lives...its exciting!