Transitions

Twenty-three-plus years ago, Carol and I were attending one of those classes expectant parents attend to calm their nerves and give them something to do while they await the presence of their first child.  Our instructor routinely used words generally reserved for hushed conversations as she told us detail after detail of the birth experience, right down to a discussion about what most couples do with the placenta - that rich mass of nutrients essential during pregnancy and useless afterward.

It was in this class that I became familiar with the word:  transition.  While the goal of pregnancy is the baby, there seemed to be one last battle to be won, one last Jordan or Rubicon to cross, one more travail to endure:  transition.  Transition was that time when the baby's  delivery was soon and very soon.  Though extremely hard on the birth mother, it was simultaneously a moment of exhilaration and anxiety.  And it would be worth it:  new birth, new life, and all that entails.

Five kids later, transition is taking on a new meaning.  It was over a year ago that my mentor, Ben, mentioned the book, "Managing Transitions: Making the Most out of Change" by William and Susan Bridges.  Ben was helping me work through the changes in my life -- ending ten years in Cambridge, moving to Haiti for one year, preparing for life after Haiti -- and he helped me see that we don't really move directly from one thing to another but instead we have a time between the two things where our attention to the former is starting to wane and our attention to the latter is continually growing.  In other words, there was a place between Cambridge and Haiti called transition and there would be a place between Haiti and "whatever is next" called transition.

Transition is life partly in the old and partly in the new and actually not fully in either.  It is also a place of great inner growth, when we allow it.  The Biblical narrative shows God's people in transition almost always.  In the Old Testament we saw them on the move, toward the promised land, and even when they physically arrived, they weren't fully 'there.'  Even the New Testament story, with the coming of Jesus is described as a time of "already, but not yet."

The season our family officially kicked off on Friday is the season of transition.  Meghan and Kristin returned to Ontario then and Erin will move back on Thursday of this week.  The rest of us return June 5th.  It has been an incredible year, but it is time for transition.

Carol and I are both having conversations with employers in Ontario - actual and potential - and much of our thoughts are simultaneously consumed with the shaping of life to come while continually giving good attention to the life, ministry, and opportunities that lay in front of us here.  While I speak, Carol and Erin are planning a seminar they are leading on Tuesday.  Tomorrow I will be in front of a class of pastors teaching the difference between hermeneutics and homiletics (yes, it matters!).

I'm sure that in future blogs we'll be able to share more about our life to come and we look forward to doing that, but for now it is important for us to park in the transition, to take this time seriously for the lessons to be learned in it, and to enjoy the presence and leading of God for TODAY.  In a sense, we are like babies in the womb, and while the "nutrients of this placenta" might not be useful for the life to come, it is intensely life-giving to simply pay attention to and feed on now.

If you are in a transition, I get that you are either mourning what was (looking back) or eager for what will be (looking ahead), but let me urge you to while you mourn or anticipate to be sure you give lots of attention to simply BE.  Live in the day that God is giving you, today.  Notice the people who ARE around you, rather than focussing on the people of the past you are missing or the people of the future who are unknown to you.  Notice the way your stretching in so many ways is actually creating a new you now.  

Developing Pastors

One of the greatest joys I have had throughout my years of ministry so far -- whether as a youth pastor, a pastor, or now a missionary -- has been to be involved in the growth of others.  Whether it is watching someone begin a new relationship with God, develop their gifts for serving others, or simply plumb the mysteries of God's love, grace, and majesty, being part of these conversations -- which are really conversations between them and the Holy Spirit -- is something I would call a blast.

I'm a whistler.  I usually don't realize when I am whistling.  You can imagine what it can be like for people to share an office with me, their peace and quiet irregularly interrupted by a shrill sound from across the room.  But my whistling isn't always an annoyance.  Sometimes it is a signal to those around me that I am in a good mood.  Over the past few months, my family has gotten used to me coming home Mondays and Fridays around 5:30 whistling a happy tune.

On Monday and Friday afternoons since December, I have been teaching at SKDE, which is an evangelical seminary here in Port-au-Prince.  I have been teaching two courses to pastors from around the area as part of their three-year program.  Pastors travel as much as 2 hours one-way to come and develop their minds and skills so that they can serve their communities effectively.

One course was Eschatology - the study of last things.  While sometimes Christian conversation around the end of time often centers only around the book of Revelation and can therefore devolve into disagreements about the nature and timing of the rapture and millenium, we have had focussed conversation about the whole sweep of Scripture pointing to Jesus' return.  We have been able to focus on the big things that all Christians can hold in common -- that God wins, that Jesus will return, that the Holy Spirit assures us of our citizenship in heaven, and that our certain comfort and hope of these things combined with our love for the rest of the world can drive us to live passionately missional lives until Jesus returns.  As I mark the exams they just did (all in French, so it is taking me a little time to translate and mark them!), it is inspiring to hear their personal faith shine through in the answers they give.

The other course was Spiritual Formation.  In addition to talking about the pastor's personal need for a close walk with God through Scripture reading and prayer, we talked about accountability, worship, mission, disciplines, disciple-making, and a host of other things.  In the context of our class, these developing pastors shared stories of the people God has used to shape them and the ways that God has called and continually calls them to ministry.  Again, they just finished their exams as well and reading their responses is giving me great hope for the congregations and disciples God will develop through their service.

Our shaded rooftop classroom provides an ideal place to develop our capacities to serve the church against the backdrop of the sounds of the city and people we are called to serve.  Here, the 'Spiritual Formation For Pastors' students are writing their final exam.

In this week of marking exams, I am also preparing to teach one more course yet before we return to Canada in June.  We will be studying "Biblical Interpretation" or "Hermeneutics".  I anticipate that there will be lively discussion and deepening skill as we talk about the origin of the Bible, translations, Exegesis vs Eisegesis, Hermeneutics vs Homiletics, Observation, Interpretation, Correlation, and Application.  And if a few words in that paragraph blew by you, that just means you are normal, but believe it or not, it will be an exciting time for me and the pastors.  I anticipate much whistling on Monday and Friday afternoons.

As you remember my work with them here, please pray for them by name:  Junior Frantz Abellard, John Enock, Patrice Vilaire, Louis James, Noel Melius, Luxama Velony, Lero Obed, Bellune Lucnel, Cliford Chery, Paul Amos, Sandro Edzer, Norelia Robinson, Domingue Striplet, Pierre Paul Wisnel, Cambrone Pierre Kersaint, Djef Rosalva, Garcon Benito, and Augustin Joseph Walner.  Pray for their families, their churches, their teaching, their pastoral care, their leading in mission, and their personal walk of faith in this place where religion is everywhere and yet each sign of the Gospels work is a new miracle, a miracle which makes not just a seminary professor, but our Lord himself, whistle!  

Haiti 49 -- A Streutker Story

Their names are Clare and Sandy Streutker.  They inspire us.  Let me tell you why.

Clare and Sandy Streutker standing at the door to our home in Haiti.

 Before I start, I should tell you that Clare and Sandy are good friends of ours.  Very good friends.  So I am biased and could be looking through rose-coloured glasses.  But I think not.  You be the judge.

For the past 49 days our lives have included this couple living here in Haiti.  They came to help out, using their specific God-given, work-honed skills to make a tangible difference in the lives of others.

Clare and Sandy have a construction company back home -- SKC Construction -- and through the years have gotten pretty decent at building large buildings -- churches, schools, commercial buildings --and all the things that go along with that.  They also have a faith that helps them see much bigger than the construction they do at home, to the building God is doing inside them and the calling to help lead teams of volunteers to build at a leadership training centre here in Haiti.  Here are some things I saw them do in these past seven wonderful weeks:

First, they came.  Coming to Haiti isn't free, and they also brought funds for the construction they were doing, and so just getting themselves here was an investment.  They had lots of good reasons to stay home -- their business, their family, their having just moved into a smaller home and not having sold their older larger home yet, their creature comforts -- you name it.  They had all the same reasons for not coming that all of us have, and more, and yet they came.  When someone comes to Haiti from another place, it is encouraging to Haitian people.  Many Haitians understand their country to be low on the list of places people want to go and so when people do come it is a boost to the locals.

Second, they built.  When Clare stepped onto the plane to come on January 4th, the site where they were going to work was literally a hole in the ground, or a series of trench-like holes.  Though some excavation (read: shovels) had been done, nothing had been built.  Starting with the back-breaking work of laying out and tying off rebar in the trenches with the Brampton team, then adding some block and concrete with the Maranatha team, then pouring a floor and adding more block with the Woodland and Woodland Alumni teams and finally getting the walls high enough to frame and pour the concrete ceiling beams with the Rochester and Maranatha Youth teams, today, February 23rd, the old hole in the ground looks a lot like what we hoped it would.  It is exciting to think about how this building will be used to train hundreds if not thousands of leaders in the years to come, leaders who will be trained to use their skills to aid communities in using their own assets for the betterment of those communities.

Team work to get the pails of cement from the mixer up the ladder to pour beams for the roof

Leading by Example

 Third, they led.  Clare and Sandy's leading started way before they got here.  They encouraged others to come, recruiting a number of people.  They hosted those teams for dinners, introducing them to Haitian food and orienting them to mission work, Haitian culture and history, and a few Creole phrases.  Their leading didn't stop once they got here.  They led at a pace that invited others along in so many healthy ways.  Regularly, they were doing the hardest and dirtiest work (our laundry lady can attest to that :)).  With each team, they not only helped them know WHAT to do on the jobsite but also HOW to do it:  humbly, relationally, and with learners' curiosity.  They brought just the right gift mix - construction, people skills, missions know-how - to effectively set a pace for the learning and serving that others did.

Fourth, they laughed.  For many of the days they were in Haiti, they lived in our home.  While with us, they played games and that was part of the laughter, but even bigger they added laughter to much of what they did.  For our son Stephen, Clare was like the little brother he never had (and yes, Stephen is only 8).  One day before church, they played in the dirt together outside our gate creating a path from my neighbours door to the road.  There was regular banter between Clare and all of our children.  Laughter was often heard on the job-site as Clare and Sandy and their new-found friends, whether the mission teams or the Haitian workers, joked and grinned and generally had a good time.  Though they all worked hard, many of the volunteers who came commented on how much they enjoyed the work that they did.

Stephen and his 'little' brother, Clare (Stephen is the one in the red shirt)

Fifth, they impacted.   It's funny, often people going on their first mission trip go with the express purpose of "making an impact."  As Clare and Sandy had been on and organized mission trips for others in the past, they knew the truth:  that mission teams actually get impacted more than they make an impact.  Fact is, other than a handful of Haitian workers, the names Clare and Sandy Streutker will be forgotten here.  It is doubtful that any history book of this nation could include as much as a whisper about their work.  So their impact isn't measured in terms of what they did for Haiti, but what they did for the people they interacted with.  As teams have come and go, people connected with Clare and with Sandy, creating bonds they now continue through prayers and conversations on Facebook.  Here's a glimpse of all those folks.

Immanuel, Brampton:  Carol Vanderstoep, John Vanderstoep, Iona Stewart-Buisman, Al Bloemendal, Renee VanderKooy, Erick Schuringa, Ruth Ann Schuringa, Anna Afful, Clare Streutker

Maranatha, Cambridge:  Joe Kool, Meghan Vanderstoep, Sandy Streutker, Greg Paultre, Simon Prince, James Bultje, Tammy Prince, Mitch Ball, Holly Prince, Clare Streutker, Brad Prince, Sasha Prince, Charles VanLingen, Stephen, Nathan, John, Carol, Erin, and Kristin Vanderstoep 

Woodland High School (Breslau): Meghan Vanderstoep, Matthew Feenstra, Oliver Chen, Niek Los, Jake Pasma, Steven Shantz, Sarah Kooy, Tristan Verstraeten, Ethan DenBak, Bethany VanPelt, Clare Streutker, John VanPelt, Marjorie Pasma, Gregory Paultre, Lisa Krygsman, John and Carol Vanderstoep

Woodland Alumni:  Sandy Streutker, Jordan VanderVeen, Clare Streutker, Bethany Streutker, Jon Streutker, Anthony Foster, Rob Scholtens, Pieter Wilting, Katie Deen, Nick Jovanovic, Jordan Mohle

Maranatha Youth:  George Geerts, Mackenzie Streutker, Sandy Streutker, Alex Streutker, Clare Streutker, (photobomb cameo by Meghan Vanderstoep), Brian Kloet, Carol and John Vanderstoep

Rochester Team (not all pictured):  Emily and Kevin Smith, Ron, Katie, and Sarah Cok, Kelly and Faith Fasoldt, Sue and Cindy Sapienza, and Tim and Sydney Frelier

 Today, is Day One without Clare and Sandy and the teams they led with us in Haiti.  Today is supposed to be a day of relief, of catching our collective breath after the fullness and activity of all that has transpired in the past seven weeks.  After that long of not having time off on the weekends, after that long of hosting people to not only eat countless meals in our home but in some cases to also live with us, it would be normal for me to have been looking forward to today and for today to have been somewhat celebratory.  But it's not.  Today is instead a melancholy day, a day not unlike the first day back for those who came here on mission teams, a day for collecting our thoughts, reflecting on the past, and knowing that we have been deeply impacted.

Thanks Clare and Sandy, for responding to God's call on your life to be here and for inspiring so many others to do the same.  May God bless you as richly as you have blessed many.

Poverty Crisis?

What is poverty?

This seems like the kind of question any school child could answer.  Poverty, one might think, is when a person or family can't afford the basic necessities of life.  Using similar definitions to this, countries determine for themselves at what annual income rate a person is or is not 'below the poverty line.'

I wonder though, if measuring poverty strictly in terms of economics is an accurate way of measuring something as complex as poverty.  We put the question out to the Woodland High School (Breslau, Ontario) team when they were here, and asked them, "What is poverty?"  Their responses were thoughtful:  a lack of a basic need, a lack of a home, limited natural resources, a lack of knowledge, spiritual or emotional lack, no access to health care or education, no vernacular Bible, and a lack of community.  Their responses definitely included the material but extended to non-material poverty:  knowledge, spiritual, relational.

We then talked about where we see poverty in Haiti.  They listed a number of things:

Where do we see poverty in Haiti?

Though we had just defined poverty as being more than the material or monetary side, the students couldn't help but notice that so much of the poverty they could see was material.  But when we got to talking about 'poverty at home' the expanded definition of poverty helped us see our own culture a little more clearly:

It was great seeing the conversation begin with the "out there" issues of poverty at home -- ie: shelters and homelessness -- but then quickly shift to the poverties which we who are 'wealthy' have.  While there weren't any personal stories of such poverties, I got a real sense that the teens were reflecting on their own culture and therefore on themselves.  I was reminded of the quote from the book, "When Helping Hurts" that "until we embrace our own mutual brokenness, our work with low-income people is likely to do more harm than good."  As I listened to the students talk, I felt like I was being taught.
Getting to a point of admitting our own brokenness, though, is a place of vulnerability, and doesn't feel like a place of strength.  Even though the apostle Paul instructs, in 2 Corinthians 12:10, that "when I am weak, then I am strong," we who are Christians are still reluctant to follow our Lord's example (Philippians 2:5-11) of emptying ourselves of our strength.  And so we face a 'crisis.'  One of the Woodland students, Tsung Chen, aka Oliver, was able to share some Mandarin Chinese (below).

CRISIS = risky danger + opportunity

While admitting our brokenness and poverty may seem like a vulnerability, it is also an opportunity.  As I have seen teams embrace this aspect of their own poverty, I have seen the ways they have noticed some of the assets the Haitian people and nation have.

For example, one participant noted that the Haitians are the happiest people he has ever met.  Another looked at the chaos that is the sea of street-side petty vendors and noticed a healthy spirit of entrepreneurship.  Another, looking at the imbalance in some Haitian families where there is only one income earner, sometimes a son or brother, who brings in all the income, and noticed a healthy sense of identity within the context of family.

All that to say that by embracing our own poverty, we can notice another's assets.  And only in noticing and working with the assets of the host country population and culture can we hope to help support anything life-giving and sustainable.  In church work back home, such as when Maranatha Church did their Visioning work a few years back, we looked at assets using a discipline called Appreciative Inquiry.  This tool is used here, too, in a place where traditional poverty is obvious, to discover what the building blocks for renewal might be.

So, what is poverty?  It is a lack.  But if we acknowledge our own poverty and commit to a humble stance because of it, appreciating the assets of the other, we may just find ourselves taking the kind of Christ-like posture advocated in 2 Corinthians 8:9 "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich."

Then, we will lack nothing.

Blocks and Mental Blocks

Every Friday afternoon, I head a little closer to downtown Port-au-Prince, find my way through some now-familiar streets and arrive at SKDE, a seminary where I am teaching a course on Eschatology to twelve pastors who come from as far as three hours away to develop their theological skill.

Eschatology, for those who might have thought it was some kind of medical term, is the study of "last things" or "end times."  Since none of us have been to the end times and been able to report back, all of what we know about end times comes from the Bible and some of that comes in literature that is not always straightforward, talking about bowls of wrath and lampstands and four horsemen and sheep and goats.   You might wonder, in a land where people are desperately poor, why a course in these things would matter.  You might wonder if I might be better spending my time teaching them pastoral care for people who mourn the death of loved ones or deacon training for how to help people care for those without the means to care for themselves.

However, eschatology is a thoroughly relevant course.  A healthy perspective on the end times can help a person in a land that may not always seem hopeful to yet hold a hopeful posture.  A reaffirmation that "God wins" and "Jesus will return" can simultaneously give us peace for ourselves personally and an urgency born of love for others.  And because the new heaven and the new earth are the perfected versions of life now, anticipating the hope of heaven can motivate us to make earth just a little more heavenly now.  In fact, 16th Century reformer, Martin Luther, when asked what he would do if he knew Christ was returning tomorrow said, "I will plant an apple tree." (Actually he said something like, "werde ich einen Apfelbaum pflanzen" because he was German).

So, it is with that "this matters" perspective that I head down to SKDE, filling my head with the inspirational belief that I am equipping these pastors and that I am making a tangible difference not just in their lives but in their whole congregation, and by extension their community, and by extension again every descendant every person in their congregation and community might ever have or come in contact with (you get the picture, I like to coach myself with extremely positive messages :).

Having said that, to be honest there are times when I truly wonder if "this matters."  Like last week Friday when I was teaching a unit on Apocryphal literature.  Different sections of the Bible are written with different genre of literature and this needs to be considered during Biblical interpretation.  For example, in the historical books, such as 1st Samuel, words are straightforward.  When David is described as a shepherd, it is because he literally is a shepherd.  But in poetic books, like Psalms, words are not used literally, such as Psalm 23 where God is said to be a shepherd, not a literal one, but in the poetic sense one who is like a shepherd, the ultimate care-giving protector.

In preparation for helping them interpret the book of Revelation where numbers are used symbolically (such as 1000 years, 144,000 sealed from the tribe of Israel), I was reaching back to the beginning of the Bible and wondering aloud with them whether the first chapters of Genesis might have some symbolic language such as the "days" of creation.  I wondered with them whether it makes sense to see the "days" as 24-hour, sunrise/sunset events when the sun itself wasn't created until the fourth day.  We then spent the next two hours discussing the many wonderful and wonder-inspiring elements of apocalyptic literature, particularly as it is found in the book of Revelation.

Though the class had run past the allotted two hours, there was plenty of discussion and questions.  As a teacher, I was thrilled with the engagement, really feeling like we were getting somewhere, like "this matters!"  Then, I got a unique question:  "Have you ever been to Germany?  And if so, what time does the sun go down in Germany?"  Not the question I was expecting.  None of my teaching preparation touched on this.  I told the class, some of whom had never heard of the concept or experienced it with their living closer to the equator, that though I didn't know much about sunset and sunrise times in Germany, I imagined it to be similar to Canada where the sunset in the summer is late, like after 9pm, but in the summer is early, sometimes before 5pm.

The questioner smiled.  Then he pointed out that perhaps the first three days of creation were more like the days of summer in Canada and Germany and therefore longer and that somehow, perhaps, this might explain the length of the first three days of creation........um......yeah.....he really was arguing this.  As he did, I made sure that my facial expression didn't betray what I was thinking, that is, 'this may be the most convoluted argument for a literalistic interpretation of Genesis 1 I have ever heard.'  My mouth though, remembered the phrase my friend Caroline Payne taught me when we were learning to teach the Alpha Course years back, and I said, "That's very interesting.  I have never heard that before."  I really didn't know how to reply beyond that.  I was stymied.  Mental block.

As I drove home from class, I did start to wonder, if this was the nature of the questions I could be asked, whether I was really making any headway at all, whether all my preparation and teaching and marking homework, in French, was really all worth it.  I wondered if I was building anything or just laying down the lessons and hoping it would amount to something.

Then I thought about what we've been putting our work teams through. How the Brampton team -- Renee, Ruth Ann, Anna, Iona, Al, and Erick were doing back-breaking work in trenches laying out re-bar and tying it off; how the Maranatha/Chatham team -- Sandy, Charles, Mitch, James, and Joe had lain foundation, lugged concrete and fill; and how the Woodland team -- Ethan, Tristan, Sarah, Lisa, Bethany, Niek, Steve, Oliver, Matt, Marjorie, Jake, and John -- had placed block upon block and hauled pail after pail of concrete.  I wondered, as they tied re-bar, hauled fill, and placed block upon block if they had wondered the same thing.

I remember years ago, hearing a story, probably fictional, about two bricklayers working on the Empire State Building.  One drudgingly slapping muck and heavy brick after heavy brick, the other, doing the exact same job, but whistling.  The whistler asked the muck-slapper, "Why the long face?" to which he received the simple reply, "'Cuz I'm stuck here slapping muck while all these suits make their way to their air-conditioned offices" (assume New York accent).  "Not me," responded the whistler, "I'm building a sky-scraper!"

Same lesson for the work teams:  not just tying rebar, hauling fill or laying block but building a building that will build leaders that will build a community.  Same lesson for me in the seminary, not just answering questions (or not being able to find any answer to them) or marking homework or preparing and presenting lessons, but building pastoral capacity for a number of churches.

Reminds me of some of the brilliance of Jesus.  Arguing for the inclusion of the little things that add up to the big things.  Children inherit the kingdom, mustard-seed-like faith is enough, two simple beams change the world one afternoon at Calvary.

That gives me hope.  Not just that my seminary teaching matters or that the mission team's work on the training centre matters but that every little thing we do matters.  Every little act of kindness, goodness, gentleness or service for another has the potential to add up to much more.  Each time a parent digs a bit deeper to help a child, each time a friend forgives an unintended wrong, each time a family opens their door to a stranger; all of these, added together, have the potential to do amazing things.  And the best part, "he who began a good work in me will be faithful to carry it to completion."

Mental block, gone.

Maranatha - worth the wait!

Maranatha is strange word.  In the Greek New Testament, it stands alone as an Aramaic word used by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 16:22.  Paul used it as a play on words, having just penned the word "anathema" in Greek to describe those who do not submit to Christ, he then employs the similar-sounding word to express the opposite, a hope in the return of Christ.  Even though scholars debate the exact meaning of the word, the church has generally interpreted the word to mean, "Come quickly, Lord," referring to the second and final return of Christ.

In Haiti, a place where focussing on the present can be depressing and looking ahead to a bright future is a necessary posture of hope, many things are called Maranatha.  Not just congregations, but lottery stops, beauty salons, and of course, water trucks.  Seeing these around town brings a smile to my face as I think about the meaning of the word and of a congregation I used to call home.

In the rest of North America, many congregations, eager to name themselves after a posture of faith in the return of Jesus, and perhaps more with an eye to sounding spiritual than sounding relevant (there were many times in Cambridge I was asked why we were called Marathon Church), this word became the name of many congregations.  There is a great congregation of Christ-followers in Cambridge, Ontario called "Maranatha."  I had the privilege of serving them as pastor for the past decade and many of my closest friends join me in calling the Maranatha family, their family.  Check them out at www.maranathacrc.com

Maranatha is our sending church as missionaries to Haiti.  While there are a number of other congregations who have invested time, money, and prayer into our work here, Maranatha is the one whose members raised a full 25% of our funding and who held the commissioning service to send us here.  Though our years together as pastor and congregation are over, our affection for and support of one another continues.  This is a deep blessing to me and to our family as we follow God's leading while no longer being a part of Maranatha's daily life.

Given all of these "warm fuzzies" you can imagine our delight that a large part of these two months -- January and February -- involves working with short-term missionaries from Maranatha who come and join us in the work here.  Let me tell you about this:

On January 5th, Clare Streutker joined us (wow! It is hard to believe he has been here nearly three weeks already!).  Clare, who owns and manages SKC Construction in Cambridge, has taken nearly two months off from work and come here to Haiti to oversee work teams and manage the construction project of building a significant and strategic addition to the leadership training center used by "Ministry of Christian Development" to train pastors and church leaders around Haiti to do practical, transformative, community-building work.  The first two weeks that Clare was here we had the privilege of hosting him in the apartment attached to our home and having him be a part of our daily life as he prepared for and then led the team from Immanuel Brampton at the work site.  It was a personal joy and ministry to me to have a good friend from Maranatha here with me as I showed him around and oriented him and as he connected with and joked around with my children.

Last week Saturday, the 17th, when the team from Maranatha came, Clare, who was then joined by his wife Sandra, moved to the Ministry Center Guest House to be with the Maranatha team and to make space in the apartment here for the Prince family, also of Maranatha.  While it was sad to see Clare move from our apartment to the Ministry Center Guest House, it was a new joy to have the Prince family stay with us.  You might think that having another family stay with you for ten days would be taxing but our time with the Princes, too, has been a great time of joy as we show them around Haiti.  While the rest of the Maranatha team is here for the work project, the Prince family with their three children aged 14, 12, and 11, are here on a "Look, Listen, Learn" trip spending each day with a particular focus -- history, children, poverty, education, markets -- learning about Haiti.

Some of our days are spent together with the two teams, like this past Wednesday when we all went to Restavek Freedom (www.restavekfreedom.org) to learn about the 300,000 child slaves in Haiti, and the afternoon when we toured the facilities of The Apparent Project (www.apparentproject.org) where the lives of 250 families are being changed as garbage is being turned into artwork and sold around the globe.  This coming Sunday we will travel into the mountains south of Port-au-Prince to see the work "Ministry of Christian Development" as they partner with a congregation and community in Badyo.  Next Monday, the Princes, Charles VanLingen, and the rest of the team return to Canada while Clare and Sandy head off to the Dominican Republic for three days of work there.  By Friday the 30th, we will have Clare back in our apartment hosting a team of 12 people from Woodland Christian High School.  These days are moving by rather quickly.

Despite the extra work of meals, laundry, shuttling, and lack of sleep all this extra activity brings, it has been deeply valuable to us as a family and we look forward with joy to the second wave of folks coming in February including the Woodland High group, a group of young adults led by Jon and Bethany Streutker, and a team including three young adults from Maranatha.  Mere words cannot communicate how encouraging it is to have all of these friends among us.  Like the return of Jesus, it has been worth the wait!  

Immanuel Brampton

For months, I have been looking forward to the team from Immanuel in Brampton to be with us.  They have a special place in our hearts for three reasons, now four.  First, our friends, Erick and Ruth Ann Schuringa serve them as pastor and worship director.  Since Erick and Ruth Ann were coming as part of the team, we were simply looking forward to spending time with them;  Second, Immanuel's Ministry Director, Lesley Toussaint, was a part of the Sous Espwa team during her years in Haiti and so they came with a special connection to Haiti; Third, Immanuel is one of our supporting congregations.  Not only have they taken a number of offerings for us, but they regularly send us notes of encouragement and remember us in prayer, an exemplary way of engaging missionaries.

The fourth reasons they have a special place in our hearts is because of the way God used our week with them to deepen an already meaningful relationship.  Let me tell you how.

Our week with them began with a weekend trip to Jacmel, about three hours from Port-au-Prince.  On the drive there and back, we had a chance to have conversation and to hear there hopes for what God would do in them through this trip.  Some of them had been to Haiti before -- Al Bloemendal, Renee VanderKooy, and Anna Afful -- but Iona Buisman and Erick and Ruth Ann had not.  We listened as they adjusted to the driving conditions in Haiti, trying to resist coaching the driver with words like "watch out", "yikes", and "everybody lean to the left as we go around this corner."  But more, we listened to their hopes for the way this trip might change them, and by extension, shape the congregation they serve and love to serve and love the community back home in Brampton.

In Jacmel, we enjoyed seeing the natural beauty of Bassin Bleu where we swam, the picturesque cove on the Caribbean Sea where our hotel was for the Saturday night, and the deeper beauty of the movement of the Spirit in a Creole worship service at the Christian Reformed Church in Jacmel where Erick delivered (with the help of an interpreter) a solid and meaningful message.

Throughout the week, our times with the team from Immanuel were occasions of joy, whether at the work site or touring around Port-au-Prince, or in our home sharing dinner and conversation.  Throughout the week, one of the things the Immanuel team was burdened with was deciding where to spend some money given them by an individual back home.  This gift provided them with a real way of wrestling through the issues of providing meaningful support to ministries in Haiti and thinking through their and Immanuel's longer-term commitment to ministry in Haiti.

Over the first four months of our being here, our oldest and youngest daughters - Erin and Meghan - have been volunteering in two different Christian schools -- Adoration (www.adoration.net) and Maison de Lumiere (www.childhope.org).  On Thursday the 15th while they were at our home, they asked the girls to tell them more about these schools, listening to their stories and seeing a video presentation Meghan had put together a few months ago.  On the Saturday afternoon over lunch, the Immanuel Team shared with Carol and I that while their congregation's longer term commitment with Haiti would be in an area more directly related to the work of the CRC in Haiti, they felt called to give the money they had with them to be divided equally among the two schools Erin and Meghan are serving and for Erin and Meghan to determine how best to invest the funds.

As you can imagine, this was an incredible encouragement to us as parents.  When we first voiced the possibility of coming to Haiti over a year ago, Erin and Meghan were quick to commit a year of their lives to this serving and growth opportunity.  Like us, they have experienced the challenge of doing ministry in a country with broken infrastructure and diminished expectations.  Like us, they have wondered if their work was making any difference at all.  For them to have the Immanuel Team recognize the value of their work and to back that up with meaningful support that helps our daughters dream bigger, this was an incredible gift.  It is also the fourth reason the Immanuel Team has a special place in our hearts.

Though we were looking forward to the 17th because that would be the arrival of the team from our home congregation of Maranatha, Cambridge, we were also sad that the 18th would come and our friends from Immanuel would be on their way home.  They left behind a family deeply encouraged because of their words, their actions, and simply their presence.  If you are part of Immanuel, give a hug to any from the team -- Renee, Anna, Iona, Al, Ruth Ann, or Erick -- and tell them they left a little piece of themselves here in Haiti, in our hearts.