Meet Jorgia!

Since the formatting is wacky on my blog when I repost Stacey's sponsorship updates, I figured it would be easiest to just send you straight to her blog! 

These students have some incredible testimonies and background stories that led them to where they are today: Emmaus Biblical Seminary! Please take the time to pray for these students. They are doing GREAT things in God's name here in Haiti, but they need help! Pray about whether or not God is calling you to sponsor one of these students. 

Meet Jorgia!

Catch Up

Alright, it's been a while...

I've started typing numerous posts over the past month and for some reason I just haven't been able to finish them. I can't seem to find the words to express some of our experiences here and unfortunately that has left me silent for a while.

But - just to clarify - we are doing great! We've been building relationships and improving in the language and making lots of memories along the way.

For the sake of not knowing where to start, I should have at least been posting pictures of what we've been up to! Thankfully there is Facebook for that and I've been trying to add some photos here and there. :)

Sadly, the Aberle family left Haiti on April 8th. We are all so excited for them to be back in the states with family and friends but sad to see them go. Ryan and I had only been here for just over a month before they left, but it already feels weird for us that they aren't here. Just yesterday I was positive that I heard Biga and Azi playing outside! My imagination must be a sign of missing those little cuties. :)

We can't wait to hear what God has planned for this sweet family next! They are easily the most easy-going, go-with-the-flow, follow-wherever-God-leads-them family I've met. It was a real blessing to get to know them and be a part of their lives, even for such a short amount of time. Whether they know it or not, they taught me many lessons about truly putting my trust in the Lord and just being okay with not knowing what's going to happen next. And Cammie - bless her heart - opened my eyes to the realization that we might never feel ready to do certain things. But most of the time you just have to take that big leap of faith and lean on the Lord to provide you with what you need - whether that be knowledge, wisdom, or confidence in Him and in yourself!

So definitely keep the Aberle family in your prayers as they continue pray about where God will lead them next. We miss you guys!

Now that it's officially getting HOT here in Haiti (wait, did I say getting? it already IS hot!),  we've been spending much of our free time during the weekends at the pool or the beach.

Can I just say that, aside from the heat, living in the tropics is about as amazing as you can imagine? Minus the obvious downsides to living in a 5th world country, it is still so easy for me to see all of God's absolutely beautiful creation that surrounds us. I am so thankful that God gives me this beautiful vision of Haiti and its people  - because to many this is a country they could never imagine living in.... yet I feel so blessed to be here!

Aside from feeling blessed by the the scenery and tropical weather each time I look outside, I'm also continually being blessed by the people of Emmaus Biblical Seminary. That includes the students, staff and of course the other missionary families!

EBS had a weeklong break leading up to Easter Sunday. The Ayars took advantage of the break by flying to Florida for the week and us and the Heckman family spent a few days soaking up some sun and feeling sand beneath our toes. :)

The Ayars returned on Saturday and we spent Easter Sunday together as an EBS family. I'm so thankful to have Matt, Stacey, Phil, Emily, and the kids as our family here when we have left so much family back in the states. It's especially hard to be away for the holidays, but having each other makes things much easier.

This was the first Easter away from the states for both us and the Heckmans and its safe to say that we ended up spending it much differently than we would have back with our families. One thing did remain the same, though -

we made sure that we dyed Easter eggs!

We started off Easter morning by going to Granny's church, which was special because that was the first church Ryan and I went to when we arrived in February!

Then we headed straight to the pool for hamburgers and swimming. Yum!

And we ended the day by praising the Lord in song and spending time in devotion before eating a DELICIOUS dinner made up of salad, scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole (yum!), rolls, cheesecake and tropical fruit pizza - not to mention the very special Easter ham that Matt managed smuggled to Haiti in his suitcase. :) My stomach is growling just thinking about how delicious that dinner was.

Yep! We've been busy and I've been blog-silent for quite a while - but we have adapted really well and are loving it here. We've got an even crazier month coming up with end of the semester, visitors, board meetings and graduation. I must say that I'm really looking forward to being involved in the crazy this year! I'm also really looking forward to the familiar Kansas faces that I'll see in May for graduation. Can't wait to see you all!

Lastly... we recently found out exciting news that my big brother (Correy) is getting married! Him and his fiancé have set the date for August 2 - which means we have a very unexpected trip back to Kansas/Nebraska at the end of the summer!

It wasn't in our plans to come home until possibly December, however, due to the wedding we are going to come home for a few weeks. This is an exciting (yet sad) reminder that life definitely goes on with everyone we know and love whether we are in the same country as them or not. I guess this adds to the learning curve of being flexible and deciding which of the many family events we unfortunately have to miss and deciding which events we just wouldn't feel right if we weren't there. Including the unity of marriage for my big brother!

So, while the unexpected trip put a pretty expensive loophole in our plans, we are really excited to go back and visit our family and friends for a few weeks before starting the new year at Emmaus.

Thank you all so much for your support. Hearing from our loved ones makes it easier in the moments when we look around and realize that we are thousands of miles from our normal. Don't hesitate to drop an email or Facebook message letting us know what you are up to, or maybe just a note of encouragement every once and a while! We aren't ever too busy to communicate with you and would love hearing from you more than you know! A little normal and familiar does us good every once in a while in a whole new world of different. So really - feel free to email either of us. Even if its just a line or two just to let us know you're thinking of us. :) Our contact info is under Contact Us on our blog!

Sending lots of love your way from Haiti!

Meet Samuel! (blog repost)

22 April 2Blog Repost from The Ayars Affairs: April 2014014

find the original post HERE (sorry about the formatting!)

Meet Samuel!

Bernard is sponsored, Aldy is sponsored.  We are so thankful!  It's such a joy to joining some of you with some of our students!  We've still got a long ways to go!

Keep praying for EBS, and....meet Samuel!


Samuel's story is very unique in that I can see the hand of God redeeming his heartbreaking childhood and turning it into His heart, His passion--in and through Samuel.

"I was born in Port-au-Prince not long after my father died.  My mom got remarried right away, and had three more sons right after me by that man.  As I grew, my step-father greatly resented me and treated me terribly, while my brothers, his sons, were treated well.  I couldn't do anything right, he was always antagonizing me, and my mother was unable to defend me.  Finally, around the time I was almost 10, I felt I didn't want to live any longer, because life had become so oppressive for me.  

My mother didn't know what to do, and becoming very concerned, she sent me hours away to Cap-Haitian to live with grandparents and an aunt I had never met.

I was so happy to get out from under my step-father, and found myself quickly immersed in a deeply Christian home in Pillatre, a zone about five minutes from the Seminary.

They put me in a Christian school (sidenote: the same school where Lily goes now!) , the first time I had been allowed to go to school, and we were in church almost every day, and very quickly upon being immersed in His love through them, I came to accept Jesus as my Savior.  My grandparents loved me so well, and I wanted to be like Christ in them.

When I was little, still with my mother, I had always heard my mother secretly say that she prayed every day that one of her four sons would be a pastor someday.  After I became a Christian, I wondered if that was what God was calling me to.  

Because I started school so late, it took me a long time to finish, and when I did finish, I started teaching Sunday school at the Vaudreil church and loved it.  I wanted to help my grandparents and Aunt, and so I went to the University of Cap Haitian and got a 2 year degree in accounting, but the whole time I was there, I kept hearing people mention Emmaus Biblical Seminary at every turn, and I was always remembering that secret prayer of my mother. 

Within six months of each other, my grandparents passed away, and I was so sad, and missed them so much that I started a visitation program at my church, always going and visiting elderly people who had no one.

You wouldn't believe some of the situations some elderly people are in.  One woman's son and husband have died, and she sleeps on a mat on the ground in a tiny shack, and rarely has food.  Every time I visit people like this, I am greatly touched by their physical needs and by their great desire to be loved on and to be family. 

I have become the grandson of so many, and I love this ministry.  It breaks my heart.  I love to visit these people and pray with them, sit with them, be their grandson and encourage them in the Lord.

It was one of these visits where someone called me, "Dear Pastor", and when I told them I wasn't a pastor, I saw that they were surprised.  "But why?" they asked me.  "I see your great heart for others and I have heard your passion and gifting in teaching.  You should become a pastor."

And I felt that it was time.  I was 30, my grandparents gave me Jesus, and I want to learn better how to give Him back to many grandparents. I love to find ways to practically help people, and I guess God has given me a special heart for older people who feel they have no hope, no help, no family. 

I came to Emmaus Biblical Seminary in August of 2013 and I love it.  I like the intensive courses, I like the classes, I like to work hard, and I want to keep close to Him.  I have always been a very disciplined and serious person, and studying His Word intentionally is giving me such joy.  The seminary helps keep me close to God and helps me get what I need to do what I am doing, as He leads.  

Please pray for Samuel with us, and if you feel led to join him in ministry here in Haiti or to join Emmaus in helping him...

Join SAMUEL now

(with 365686 SAMUEL as your project)

Email me and let me know if you or your family or church have committed to aligning with Samuel...and we'll move on to the next student!  Praise the Lord!

Meet Bernard (blog repost)

Blog Repost from The Ayars Affairs: April 2014

meet Bernard!

Bernard is very intelligent, speaks Creole, French, Spanish and English, and pops in my office every single morning just to see how I am.  He's bold, easy to talk to, a natural leader, excels in his classes...and says he wishes he hadn't spent so much of his life trying to direct it himself.

All he really wants to do is share Christ, and a "different way of life" with the children of Haiti...But I'll let him tell himself.

Bernard's story as he has shared it with me...

I am married to Mirose and have one son, Samuel, who just turned one last month.  We live in the Cite-du-Peuple in Cap-Haitian, but I was born in a zone called Au Bois.  (side note: this is where we went to church Sunday!)

I wasn’t born into a Christian family, and as I was growing up my parents raised us up in Voudou.  They were farmers, and there were 8 of us children.  The only way were able to go to school was because my uncle had a school and he let us all go to his school for free.  When I was only 9 years old, my father died. 

I always thought to myself that I didn’t want to live and die in his beliefs, and that one day I would be a Haitian Catholic or a Christian.

My grandfather was an assistant to a priest, and I always watched him and listened to how he talked about God, and I always thought I would rather do that than follow in Voudou.

When I was 22, I was in Port-du-Pere, and I was always having a chance to listen to Evangelism through churches and on the radio, and people were always talking to me about God, though I was more in the Haitian Catholic tradition.  I wanted to be a good Catholic, and started reading the Bible, and started reading about how God wanted us to live, which wasn’t really how the Catholic Church in Haiti was telling us to live, especially as they were worshipping idols, and that was a problem in my spirit.

When I finished with my high school at the age of 22, I went to Cap-Haitian because I wanted to go to university to be a doctor, and I went to a big church called the Tabernacle, and I joined the youth group there.  I finally asked them how to be a Christian, and by now my mom had moved to Port-au-Prince and had also decided to leave Voudou and become a Christian, and so I began to follow Jesus with her blessing.  That was in 2006.

I still wanted to go into medicine, but couldn’t find a way, and headed to the Dominican Republic to try to find work.  I had a friend there that I hoped would help me.  I did some work for this friend, and then the earthquake happened in Port-au-Prince, and I was still in the Dominican. 

When I heard about the earthquake, and started to see pictures on the news, and I couldn’t get ahold of any of my family, and finally a few days after the earthquake, I left the DR and headed for Port-au-Prince, where my mom was living at the time.  When I finally arrived, I found my family was ok, praise the Lord. 

After I ensured they were fine, I returned to Cap-Haitian and to my church in the Tabernacle.  This was the time that I met my wife and married. 

Now, I was married and thinking and thinking about what in the world I was to do.  I had tried many times over the years to sign up to many different universities, but nothing ever worked out.  I started to get frustrated and asking God what to do, and I felt like He was telling me that I’ve looked lots of places, leaving God behind me, but that it was time to be behind God…close to God and asking GOD what HE wanted to do with my life.

He brought my family to my mind, most of whom still did not know God, and showed me that they were victims…not just of the earthquake, but they were victims because they were without God, without hope, without means. 

I felt it was time to take my life further.  I gave it to God truly, along with my wife, and we started looking for a school where I could learn the Bible and learn how to serve Him fully…for my family, and for my Haitian community.  I sensed good leaders and preachers was badly needed. Everyone is suffering spiritually.

I took this idea to my pastor at the Temple, and he started searching with me for a place.   He told me to head for Emmaus.  In 2013 he told me I should come here, and so that is what I did.  I came and got more information, and went with all that information to find my pastor, who found it good and promised to help me. 

I constantly feel a desire to lift God up for people.  I want to be available for God to use me to serve the Haitian people, and I especially have a strong desire to help with kids…I want to help these kids have a DIFFERENT orientation than Haiti has given them.  I feel the kids on my heart, and I think the hope for Haiti growing in Christ is in our children raised in Christ.  I want them to have a Biblical orientation, and now I am working with the kids at the Tabernacle church and hope to continue to do so.

I wish I hadn’t taken so much of my life waiting to get here…waiting to give Him my life and let HIM do with it what He wills.  Now, I come and go from the seminary each day so that I can continue to work in my church and help my wife and son.  I praise the Lord for the chance to be at Emmaus, and will continue to dwell right behind God.

Please pray for Bernard with us, and if you feel led to join him in ministry here in Haiti or to join Emmaus in helping him...

Join BERNARD now

(with 365684 BERNARD as your project)

Email me and let me know if you or your family or church have committed to aligning with Bernard...and we'll move on to the next student!  Praise the Lord!

Passion and Need (blog repost)

Blog repost from The Ayars Affairs.

passion and need

This post comes from both overwhelming passion and overwhelming need.

Spending the last two weekends out with students and alumni in the crazy places God has called them to has been so eye-opening, so humbling, so inspiring.

Their stories, the little glimpses that I have lived and attempted to help you live are so God-soaked that it is all Matt and I can do but to be passionately excited about the future of Haiti in His hands.  We are excited about the future and we are excited about the NOW of Haiti.  We are excited every time we see glimpses of how God is using Emmaus, the classroom, our staff, our students, to transform.

And man alive, we need help.  I hate asking for help.  You probably hate me asking for help.  You probably don't need someone else asking for help.

But it's where we're at.  Despite the overwhelming passion, EBS is at a place of overwhelming need to carry on. 

We could not believe more in what we see God doing through Emmaus Biblical Seminary.  As we've given Him our lives, our girls, our youth, our gifts, our talents, our all, He has continually called us to and poured us out at EBS. 

We have men and women going through EBS right now who daily bless, humble, and inspire Matt and I.  Their hearts are right.  Their efforts are tireless.  They are not only studying the Word...they are working in their churches.  They are not just working tirelessly in their churches, but are working sacrificially in their communities.  

They're not focused on them.  They're not focused on Haiti.  They are focused on Him, and called and passionate about what He's doing and wanting deeply to be part of it.  They're giving it all to Him, and He's brought them here.

Just like last year, the funds raised over the summer for Emmaus made us until the end of February...but we need HELP getting through the rest of this school year.  We need HELP feeding and teaching and equipping and sending our students. 

I can't lie...realizing last month that Emmaus badly needed financial help came as a big discouragement to Matt and I.  When we are seeing and experiencing all the things we are seeing and experiencing, you'd think we could be feeding 70 people a day on passion-fumes alone!    

But the reality?  We need help.

We try to freely share our stories because they aren't OUR stories...they are His to do with what He will.  We try to freely share our gifts because they aren't OUR gifts...His, to do with what He will.  And we want to freely share the chance to be INVOLVED at Emmaus because it's not ours.  It's His.

We have 12 students in this year's first year class (all students with one semester or less under their belts), and not ONE of them has one penny of sponsorship.  An entirely unsponsored first year class means that our funding runs out the end of February.  Ran out the end of February.

Most devastatingly, this means that there are NO families or churches or small groups outside of Haiti committed to praying for and daily lifting up each of these young men and women as they work and live and minister.

There is no one writing them encouragement.  There is no one helping us care for them and support them and teach them and SEND them out.  

I can't stand it.  It can't be like that.  

My little family represents the prayers and help and support and love of so many.  And THESE men and women are my family, too.  And as badly as we have needed and appreciated and been blessed by the partnership of many, Jorgia and Aldy need it, too.  

So, I'm taking our blog hostage :)

We HAVE to get these men and women partnered.  If you're new here, this is what that means:

It costs Emmaus $2600 a year to feed, house, teach, train, and send out each students at Emmaus.  Each student raises their own funds of $600 from their families and churches and communities.  

 Then, we work to find the supplemental $2000 for each student.  "Sponsoring a student" means selecting, committing to pray for, writing to, receiving letters from, and supporting that student for that $2000 a year.  For one year, for four years, whatever.

Some of our other students are adopted by a Sunday School class.  Some of our churches "have" a student.  Some families have committed to a student.  However, whatever.

Every single Tuesday, until we have this class fully adopted, supported and prayed for, we will be featuring one student on our blog, on EBS's website, on FB, on other people's blogs...everywhere we know how, until we have that student covered.  Once he or she is, we will move on to the next.

I know $2000 is a lot of money.  And Matt and I would personally support every single one of these men and women if we could.  

We can't.  And I truly believe that that would be robbing YOU of a chance to be in an ongoing relationship with these brothers and sisters.  To have Joane on your fridge.  To write Roudeline a family letter.  To pray for Moliere during your devotional time.  To share what God is doing through Telemarque with your children.  To lift up Louis-Jaque with your small group.

To be a part of what God is doing here in Haiti.

If your church sent a team and Haiti is close to your heart, commit to growing that heart through a relationship with one of these family.  

If your Sunday School class prays for Haiti, grab a jar and make a student your outreach project this year.

If your family is looking for a way to gain His global perspective, I'll mail you a photo of a man or woman you can write to, hear from, grow with.

If despite everything else in your life right now, you pray for Emmaus, for our students, for us, for Haiti, and feel led to do something, please DO.

Because we Trust Him.  Because stepping out on that trust brings such sweetness.

And because our dear family here needs more family!

To help EBS generally now...

 Give here today through EBS

  Give here today through OMS

(with 300300 EBS Haiti as your project)

To support a specific student in the first year class, Bernard is up tomorrow.  I can't wait to introduce him to you...

Pray for each student with me, will you?  

Sponsor a Student

Emmaus Biblical Seminary is in serious need of help to sponsor our students. 

As missionaries of EBS who have countless families praying over us and supporting us to be here, we are asking to spread the word about financial support so that our first year students are able to continue their Biblical education here and be sent out from EBS.

The seminary  is running out has run out of funds and there are many students who are in desperate need of a sponsor. They need sponsors who are not only willing to financially support them throughout their educational time at EBS, but also sponsors who will be praying for them, communicating with them, lifting them up, encouraging them, and sharing with others about the great things they are doing in God's name right now here in Haiti.

I am going to be reposting Stacey Ayars' weekly blog posts about each student. She will be write one sponsorship post for each student and post them once a week until every first year student is fully funded for next year's tuition (which is a sponsorship total of $2000). You can read more about her family's missionary life, EBS and the students on her blog: The Ayars Affairs.

We hate to use these personal blogs as a way to ask for support, but we pray that by doing so the men and women here at Emmaus Biblical Seminary will be blessed with the opportunity to continue their education here.

Be sure to read Stacey's following posts concerning the sponsorship of each student:

1. passion and need

Please help these students out by sharing Stacey's blog posts each week! And if you feel led to help sponsor the students in general or if you feel led to sponsor a specific student you can:

Give HERE today through EBS

Give HERE today through OMS

(with 300300 EBS Haiti as your project)