Ya know that Button on the right hand side of our page?
The heart with Ha*ti cut out of it?
That image was created by the talented Todd Kavanaugh over a year ago, in response to what God was doing in hearts,
ours included
when they thought of Ha*ti.
This developed into the ministry, Ha*tiLove.
You can click on the heart button to go to the site and read more in depth about what exactly Ha*tiLove does.
I suggest you do :)
But I have not been as clear as I could be about what OUR family's role is in the work of Ha*tiLove.
So as our family begins transitioning to full-time Hai*tiLove work,I want to strive to share much more about this work on the blog.
I thought I'd begin with OUR families story and where we are in the missionary process.
(this is an actual letter we send out to possible supporters, and it explains it best)
It goes a little something like this....
In January 2010, The Joyner’s, a small family living in a small town in North Carolina, gathered their three young boys around them in the living room and watched the television screen, stunned at the images before them, never having given much thought to this small Caribbean island an hours flight from Miami.
Bad things happen in a bad world every day. We watch the news. Our hearts ache. But for some reason, this ache, this time, led us to pray. It led us to ask God. And so, with tiny hands clasped in with Mom and Dad hands, we gathered around and asked “What can we do, God?” We prayed for the children and for the brokenness. We prayed that God would do what He does so well. We prayed He would take death and produce life. And God answered.
3 months after the earthquake, Noah accompanied friends and family to Ouanaminthe, Ha*ti. While there, he met a pastor and 45 children and a community broken and a church lost. And everything changed. And as our pastor reminds us, “Love is action.” Over the past year this love has compelled us into ministry in Ouanaminthe, Ha*ti . In the past 18 months, Noah has led teams on over 7 trips, with a handful more still to come this year.
Along the way we have started a ministry at our church called Ha*tiLove.
It has become clear over the past 6 months that for Ha*tiLove to successfully minister in Ha*ti, someone needs to give their full attention to this ministry. Our church has encouraged Noah to take on this role. This position is well suited for Noah seeing that it encompasses missions, teaching, and pastoral leadership. We also see God doing great things through us in Ha*ti.
Ha*ti has long faced natural disasters, political unrest, poverty, famine, voodoo, and corruption, and we want to help.
So we are readying ourselves for the road ahead. And we are asking for your support. We believe that for Ha*tiLove to grow as we think God desires, our family will need to raise financial support as non-resident missionaries to Ha*ti. This will make it possible for Noah to function as the Director of Ha*tiLove. Noah will continue to travel to Ha*ti about every 6 weeks, he will actively seek to involve more churches in partnership with Ha*tiLove and he will continue to oversee ministry to Ha*ti at North Wake Church.
Will you join with us? First, will you pray? We work in a country filled with evil and suffering. The work we do is so much greater than our abilities to do it. Second, will you give? Our work will not continue apart from your generosity. Third, will you help us connect? Please help us to connect with people in your network; your church, friends, and family. We would love to come and speak with you and your friends about what God is doing in Ha*ti.
I pray this clarifies what role OUR family and OUR gifts play in the work of Ha*tiLove.
Again, to get a more detailed explanation of what Ha*tilove does, feel free to visit the site at www.haitilove.net or simply click the heart on the top right of my sidebar.
So, that's it....
We are prayerfully starting our engines of missionary support raising!!!
I will share more about this in the next couple of days.
I actually have a blog post I wrote after spending a day in prayer about this and other financial hurdles facing our family.
But I wanted to start you out with some basic information first.
Please feel free to post any questions you have!
More to come!
So grateful that you all will be walking with us in our need to see God work in mighty ways!
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