Detours Along the Journey

 God, in His infinite wisdom, has allowed a couple detours to come up on our journey. Our original plan was to fly back to Haiti on January 14th, Lord willing. Well, it is abundantly clear to us that it is not yet God's timing for us to return. We are very thankful that He has brought to light some medical issues with two of our children while we are here in the States. Our oldest, Rebecca, has been struggling with swollen tonsils and infections since the beginning of November. She has been on several different rounds of antibiotics, which have failed to make her better. We had an appointment with an Ear, Nose, & Throat specialist today and it has been decided to completely remove her tonsils and adenoids next Friday. She will have a recovery period of at least 2 weeks before she can travel. We feel like this will be a huge help to her with her allergies and other issues and are thankful that she will get relief. :o)
  As you all know, one of our main reasons for returning was to find out what is going on with our youngest child, Caleb. He was diagnosed with having a rare nerve disease called neurofibromatosis. This is a degenerative disease that can worsen with age. Basically, he has several light colored spots on his body that may develop into tumors as he gets older.(This disease literally affects 1-2 people in 3,000 nationwide.) He has the milder form called NF1 and seems to be doing good at this point. He had an MRI done and we have received the results back. There are definitely NF1 spots on his brain that we will need to monitor. Thankfully, there are no tumors. The concern is that the scan showed abnormalities in his pituitary gland. We have another appt. scheduled with an Endocrinologist at Riley for the 22nd. We are somewhat relieved that this has come to light as he is under-weight for his age and short. He weighs 35 lbs at 5 1/2 years old and has a poor appetite. Pieces of this puzzle are beginning to come together and we are hoping for more answers as we go to his next appointment.
 
  The 3 amazing facts I blogged about in our last post remain! God is the same God! He is in control! We can FULLY trust Him for His perfect timing for our return to Haiti! We are so thankful that many of you understand that we continue to need your prayers and financial support as we live each month by faith. Living here in the States is quite a bit more expensive that it was in Haiti and we appreciate each and everyone of you who continue to faithfully send in your monthly gifts! THANK-YOU!

 I will leave you with 2 more urgent prayer requests. We needed $30,000 to build our house in Haiti and God was so faithful to supply. However, due to the rising costs of some of the materials as often happens during building projects, we are about $6,000 short of having enough to finish out the house. There is a work team going in to GR January 10th with the main purpose of re-doing the kitchen in the mission house below our house. There is a possibility of Danny going along and working some more on our house. To do this we need the finances to take care of his plane ticket there and to finish out the kitchen. Would you help us pray that God will supply this need in His time? We also have the need of the new water pump for the orphanage. Some money has come in toward this and we continue to trust God to bring in the rest. God is an awesome God and we praise Him for seeing the big picture and working all things out for our good and His glory!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Dear Family & Friends~

  Christmas greetings from our family to yours! We are so thankful for 3 amazing facts this Christmas season:

#1. God is Who HE says He is and we can know Him and love Him!

#2. He is in CONTROL of every part of our lives, no matter how things may look!

#3. We can fully trust and follow Him wherever He leads us, knowing that He will NEVER fail us!

As most of you know, our family has been in full TRUST mode since He called us to move to Hobe Sound, Fl. 3 yrs ago. There have been many times when we did not know how we were going to pay a certain bill or even buy groceries or gas, BUT God came thru every time! He trained us to begin to rely on Him during these times AND as He has called us to serve and minister in Grande Riviere du Nord, Haiti. He brought us thru 9 months of Deputation and almost 5 months of living in Carrefoure, Haiti for language school.  This past summer we went thru the scariest moments of our lives when Caleb fell and suffered a concussion. We really thought we were going to lose him. But God touched him and his accident lead us to discover that he has a rare nerve disease called, neurofibromitosis. (You can read the full story on our blog: www.flowersbloomingforjesus.blogspot.com (July 2013)

God’s peace, grace and strength have been available and evident throughout this whole ordeal and we give Him praise and glory for all He has done!  We thank each of you for your prayers and support! You will never know how much it has meant!

 Lord willing, we plan to move to Haiti this next month to began ministering at our orphanage/church/school in Grande Riviere. God has helped us to re-new our children’s passports and worked it out for another team to do more work on our house (Our house is not finished but it is coming along. Pray that God will supply the needed funds to get it finished out. Thank-you!)

 We look at this fresh, new year, realizing, that many challenges and blessings are waiting for us as we learn to live in Haiti. Because of the 3 amazing facts we shared at the beginning of this letter we know that we can boldly go where God is leading our family! He is already there and He has all the grace, help and strength we will need and we choose to continue fully trusting Him. The best part is that every one of His children can claim and carry these amazing facts into 2014!  We challenge you to choose to trust, obey and follow Him in this coming year!  You will never regret it!

Merry Christmas Blessings!

 

 

Water Pump Down and Christmas Presents All in the Same Day!

 As most of you know, Danny and Frank Vaughn, our Regional Director, have been in Haiti all week with a wonderful Missions Helps team. They have been doing a wonderful job on our house and you can see some of what they have been doing on our FB page: Dannynliz Hirschy Flowers.  I talked with Danny this am and found out that our only water pump at the orphanage has quit working. This means that they have to go out into the street to get water for bathing and cooking. It is not always clean and safe water. This is a SERIOUS need and the ox was definitely in the ditch today so the men dug up the pump and were able to temporarily replace it with an older pump. This is VERY temporary and will not last long. Thankful that for the moment they have clean, safe water!  This pump needs to be replaced ASAP! The orphanage needs $1,500 or more to get a new pump. They are checking into whether it will be better to buy it in Haiti or ship it over, keeping in mind that shipping it over will cost $1.50 per pound as well as customs fees. Please help us pray about this situation for wisdom and for God to supply a new pump however He sees fit. Anyone wanting to help with this need can click on our donate now button and mark your gift : Water pump for Haiti. Or you can send it in to Hope International Missions PO Box 1065 Hobe Sound, FL 33475 
  Thank-you for praying! Thank-you for giving!
Today our children at the compound were given their Christmas gifts. A HUGE thank-you to Mrs. B.'s Missions Practicum class for putting together backpacks, to friends in NC and PA for sending in toys, t-shirts and other fun things, and to everyone who gave toward buying new shoes! There were lots of happy faces today as they opened their treasures! (Wish I had been there!) I enjoyed seeing the sweet pictures my husband posted and I think you will too! These kids do not get regular school supplies like our kids here do and to get their own backpacks filled with school stuff, toys, new shoes and fun snacks made this a very big day for them! Thank-you for blessing our kids this Christmas!

Answered Prayer!

 This is going to be just a short up-date to let you know that God has answered #3 on our list of needs about needing finances for our airfare and shipping our stuff to Haiti! He continues to CONFIRM that this is His will for our lives and we are more than content to follow His leading. We excitedly await to see HOW and WHO He will use to meet the rest of our needs!  A quote I just saw comes to mind...God IS good...but sometimes He is VERY, VERY good! Satisfied serving Him!



         Hope you all are enjoying this beautiful Christmas season! We sure are!
Enjoy this picture of our kiddos at a sweet, little candle shop we discovered along our travels :o)