Work & Play on Wednesday

On Wednesday, we had a productive morning of work on the house and then took off to do some touring in the afternoon.

We visited the Cancer Redemption Project where we visited the children and saw the progress on the new church/school building. The next stop was SEED Ministeries where we learned about the start of SEED and toured the student garden patches. From there we visited Centre Lumiere where ladies are trained in sewing to provide for their families. The team enjoyed purchasing some of the handmade items to take home. We made a quick stop at the home of Tim and Joan Reinhard to pick up Aaron Luthi's luggage that finally made it's way to Les Cayes. (His bag did not make our flight from Atlanta to Port Au Prince). Our final stop was supper at Hot Spot, a restaurant in Les Cayes. The food was fast food type stuff like Hamburgers, Pizza, Chicken Wings as well as some typical Haitian food. While the food was not fast, it was pretty good.

It was a very busy day and we were all rather tired by the time we arrived home. Rick drove one of our vehicles and had his first experience with night driving in Haiti.

A few pictures are included below. I will label here as I am not able to label individually when posting from my phone.

1. A little boy at CRP
2. The progress on the church/school that Randy Meyer is building at CRP
3. Hot Spot Restaurant
4. Hamburger and French Fries at Hot Spot

Another Great Day of Progress

Day 2 was another great day and all of the teams felt like they made good progress. A few pictures are posted below:

1. Mara & Selah's bedroom with a fresh coat of paint.

2. Painted closet in the master bedroom.

3. Kitchen with fresh paint, lower cabinets and a new ceiling fan.

4. Singing at the hospital in the evening.

5. The guys getting a lesson on tying knots from Steve Fischer.

There are many more things that were accomplished, but I am a bit weary and will skip all the details this evening. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Renovations Begin

After a Sunday of rest and renewal, we had a great start to renovations on Monday.

To back up a bit, Sunday was a day of fellowship and rest. The rest was needful for the physical body after two days of traveling and the worship of our Lord and fellowship with believers was food for our souls.

Because of a gift from Rockville AC church, we were able to use listening devices (ear bud connected to a transmitter) and hear the sermon in the MBESH church through a translator. It was so meaningful to be able to understand the service. We had the opportunity to share with the congregation by singing Blessed Assurance. Because the Haitians also sing this song in Creole, the pastor asked the congregation to sing each verse and after each of the verses in Creole, we sang the verse in English. It was a touching song!

In the afternoon, we were able to use audio streaming and listened to the service in Sabetha in real time. The missionaries that live here in Haiti got a kick out of hearing an announcement for our farewell potluck and singing that will be held in a couple of weeks.

Rick's cousin, LaNae and her husband Randy came up and worshipped with us on Sunday. Randy is leading a crew that is building church at The Cancer Redemption Project.

Sunday was a wonderful day!


On Monday the team started off strong. We have three teams within our team: woodworking, electrical and painting. Each team found their groove early and work began. There was a team of Haitians working with us as well and we enjoyed the interaction with them. At our team meeting this evening, each team felt they had made some good progress and we are prepared for another productive day tomorrow.

I will post some pictures, but I am posting from my iphone and I haven't figured out how to label them.

Work Team Heads to Haiti

As we head to Haiti with the work team that will work on our home in Bonne Fin, we continue to be humbled and amazed at the provision of our almighty God.

When we started to assemble this team, we were uncertain whether or not we would be able to get enough people to even take a team. Rick and I committed to make the effort and if we were able to find at least six other people to join our team, we would go.

Our team left for Bonne Fin on Friday, May 3rd with a total of 13 people, many of whom are very skilled in the areas needed for this project.

Here are several pictures of our team at the airport in Atlanta.

Team Members:

Wilfred Strahm, Stuart Kilgus, Harriet Strahm, Adrian Strahm, Komari Aberle, Rick Aberle, Ulista Banwart, Scott Aberle, Courtney Schupbach, Matt Schupbach, Aaron Luthi, Jesse Hartter, James Hartter

The second picture shows the line we encountered before entering the security cue. This is the line to get to the roped off cue line. It was the most impressive (longest line) for security that most of us had ever seen. Fortunately, it was moving well and we were only in line for about 30 minutes.

Our flights went well and our trip from Port Au Prince was smooth and efficient - about 4.5 hours.

Trip to Bonne Fin with Mara & Krae

I will begin this post with a few pictures of our trip to visit Bonne Fin with Mara and Krae.  Since the last post told some of the details from the early part of the trip, I will go right to the pictures and finish up with a few details from the end of the trip.

The van that drove us from Port Au Prince to Cavillion.
Sheila Moser picked us up in Cavillion for  the trip up the mountain road to Bonne Fin.

 Children that spoke some English and made friends with Mara and Krae

Little girls that received dresses when we drove up the mountain to distribute dresses and candy

Mara handing out candy to a family in front of their home.  This is up the mountain road from Bonne Fin.

The beach at Port Salut    Beautiful!!

Krae playing with Silas and Conrad at the beach

The restaurant on the beach where we had delicious lobster and  some live music

On Sunday, we attended the Haitian church in the AM and then had an AC service in the afternoon.  Once per month the missionaries from Bonne Fin and Les Cayes gather together in either Bonne Fin or Les Cayes for a service and fellowship.  This was the week for the combined service, so we enjoyed being together.  This gathering was a bit larger than some of our small churches in the states!  We traveled to Les Cayes with some of the group on Sunday evening so that we could be picked up on Monday for our van ride back to Port Au Prince.

On Monday, we spent some time with Tim & Joan Reinhard and with Lee & Desma Klopfenstein.  We were able to show the children the apartment that we will live in when we make the initial move to Haiti.  The apartment is part of the Reinhard's home and is very nice.  The Klopfenstein family is currently living in the apartment while they do their cultural and language training.  The current plan is for our family to spend about 1 month in Les Cayes doing the same training.  

Monday afternoon, we made the long drive back to Port Au Prince and stayed at a nice guest house before catching our flight home on Tuesday.  After making the drive between Port Au Prince and Bonne Fin two times in five days, I added flight service to Les Cayes to my prayer list.  Anyone who has made this trip will understand!!

We have been back home now for a little over a week and it seems like our preparations have geared up to overdrive.  There is a For Sale sign in the yard now, I spent a couple of days in KC at a Home School Conference purchasing curriculum for the school we will have for the missionary children and I need to make preparations to co-host our traveling potluck in two weeks and serve lunch at church in three weeks.  Then it will be May and time to travel to Haiti with the work team to work on our home.  I do enjoy the challenge of project planning and then seeing the plan through, so I cannot say that I am over-stressed, but each of us in the Aberle family has moments of being overwhelmed.  We are thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who knows His plans for us and will guide us each step of the way.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.    Jeremiah 29:11

Lists, Piles & Trips

It seems that the last few weeks have been filled with making lists, piles and plans for trips. I have too many lists going to mention them all so I won't go into detail on that point. My Haiti pile is growing as is the garage sale pile. The list that is my timeline is coming together and just when I thought I had every weekend planned, Rick returns from his Feb. trip to Haiti with the ideas of taking Mara and Krae to visit in March and leading a construction work team to HL in May. Yep - more lists and piles!

Currently, we are in Haiti with Mara and Krae. This time frame worked well for those here and coincided with Spring break so we decided to come. We left Selah home with Grandma and Grandpa this time and they tell us she is doing well. We arrived on the 20th and plan to return home on the 26th.

We have had a good few days here after a long trip that was a bit rough on our kids. (and Mom too) Mara was a bit overspent on Thursday evening after we arrived, but she got some good rest that night and was her normal self on Friday.

On Friday, Mara and I were able to join some nurses from the medical team on a trip further up the mountain to deliver dresses and candy to some of the children. It was a great excursion and I was moved to tears watching Mara give to the children who have so little. I think seeing the living conditions and how little these families have made an impression on her. During this time, Krae played Lego with Miss Norma (Norma Luginbuhl). She is a practiced grandma and I had a hard time getting him to leave.

Friday afternoon, I had the opportunity to meet with the other missionary moms and plan schooling for our children next year. Sis. Desma Klopfenstein has agreed to be the teacher for the children. She has some organized and exciting plans for the children. I am so thankful for her willing heart as having a teacher for the children is an answer to many prayers. Krae and Mara spent the afternoon with the Pfister children and seemed to really enjoy them.

Most of Friday, Rick was up at the hospital.

Today is Saturday and we spent the morning going through our future home with Bro. Daryl Luginbuhl and making some decisions and plans. This afternoon we went to a beach at Port Salut and had a wonderful afternoon.

We have lots of pictures, but I am posting from an iPad and it is more tedious to transfer pictures so we will wait to post them until we get home.

At Home??? in Haiti

Greetings in Christs name,

As you may know, I've been at Hospital Lumiere in Bonne Fin, Haiti this past week.  It seems very strange at times to know that soon we will call this place 'home.'   But God's presence has been with me in my activities this week...and so I know that while there will be trials and tests for our family in the coming months with preparations, moving, settling, learning etc. we will be 'home' where ever we are.

Short update:  This week has been (for me) about meeting, learning and beginning to know our missionary team here at HL.  I've been blessed to spend time with Bro. Rich Pfister, our Director of Operations, Bro. Daryl Luginbuhl, Director of Facilities, Bro. Lee Klopfenstien, (Future) Medical Director, Sis. Sheila Moser, Campus Support Manager, Eric Hartzler, Patient Care Manager, and Bro. Bob Beebe, Interim Administrator, as well as the Pfister, Hartzler, and Luginbuhl families.

The team that I traveled with consists of Don and Ada Plattner (non-medical and Nurse), Claudia Strahm (Nurse), Mellisa Mangers (Nurse), Linda Hodel (PTA), Margaret Hundley (Nurse), Dr. Kerry Glynn (my families GP) and Max and Judy Reimchisel (non-medical).

The last 2 1/2 days, Dr. Glynn and the majority of the nurses have been operating a cervical cancer screening clinic for the local population.  There have been many many participants (all women thankfully)....first 1/2 day there were about 40 patients, yesterday, about 90!!!! and today close to 100.  Over 200 patients served in such a short time.  Dr. Glynn has a wonderful servant heart as do the nurses.

We also had some sad news while here.  Steve Fischer, Bluffton, IN, who has spent much time and energy here at the Hospital assisting Daryl with facilities remodeling and maintenance, received news early this week that his father-in-law had passed away.  Steve was planning to stay for 3 more weeks to continue working here (and beginning on the Klopfenstiens house renovation), but of course headed home after receiving the news.  This left Daryl with a bit of a void in his plans....However, God provides for our every need!  God laid this need on the hearts of Max and Judy Reimchisel, and they decided that if Daryl and the Missionary families there would desire, they would be willing to stay for another 2 week!!!! I'm thankful for their stage in life where they can be so flexible, as well as the sacrifice of their family back home in Wichita.  May God bless their time at HL over the next two weeks.

I've benefited greatly from my time with our future missionary partners here at HL.  I've been able to spend several quiet conversations with each of my future fellow employees and am grateful at feeling God's hand with each of those conversations.

Also spent time in participating in some preparations for moving!  Komari (to this point) has really been shouldering the main burden here.....Hopefully this get's me engaged to help her!!!

Below is a picture of our future home!  lots of ideas about how to make it "home".....we're going to be looking for volunteers to participate in a work team in May...likely dates are May 4-11 (check your calendars if your of a heart to go???).  This work team will be tasked to work on the house we'll call home in Haiti.

On Wednesday, we took a short trip to visit the Cancer Redemption Project.  (www.cancerredemption.com).  This site is near the Hospital at Bonne Fin (down the mountain, a short 20 miles and 1 hour drive away!!!).  I wasn't going to go, due to other demands on time, but I learned that my dear cousins, Randy and LaNae Meyer, were there at CRP working!  So, I had the privilege of connecting with my cousin from Chicago in Haiti!

LaNae Meyer, me and Sheila Moser

I'll close this post with a request for continued prayer....Pray for the work here in Haiti.  Pray that we as a family can be used instruments in that work by God's Grace.

P.S.  Update from our trip back to Port-au-Prince.....recent months have shown a rise in some frustrations in the general population of Haiti.   There have been some mild protests recently, and one way this is done is by blocking the main road in Haiti.  This happened (for several reasons) on the Friday night/Saturday morning of our trip from Bonne Fin to Port-au-Prince.  So, we left the Hospital around 4.45 AM and our driver wasn't at Cavillion (9 miles from hospital) to meet us, because he had been stopped since 2.00 AM by a roadblock at Miragoane (halfway point, about 50 miles from the Hospital).  We reach the roadblock around 7.30 AM. We ran into another missionary family and work team that had been stopped there since 4.00 AM.  Our driver, while a mere 1.5 miles from us, might as well been in Miami.....So, our driver took a taxi (motorcyle) to meet us and after some discussion, we decided we (8 team members and the driver) would take 9 taxi's and all of our luggage on taxi's (motorcycles) to our bus....this would require us to go through the roadblocks (by this time the protesters were gone, but broken glass, remains of 4 debris road blocks and two very large vehicle (semi and bus) road blocks remained.  Candidly, this was pretty much on the edge of "wise" and stretched the comfort level of many of our team from a safety standpoint (we learned some info later about the reason of the roadblock that may have changed our decision to go).

That's me on the taxi

 However, after a 5 minute ride with luggage in hand, we arrived at our bus and by 9.00 we were on our way again.  We arrived without further incident at Port-au-Prince Airport and caught our flight home.  Again, thankful for God's protection.

Preparations Begin

After the bustle of the Holidays, the month of January gave us a bit more time to focus  our minds on our upcoming move to Haiti and the transition into mission service.  

While Rick stayed busy with work and travel for work, I began making preparations to put our home on the market.  These preparations mostly involved  cleaning and organizing and I am quite thankful for the help of my in-laws, LaVonne and Lori and my good friends Selena and Joni.  These kind ladies spent a day helping me with some deep cleaning and their help was much appreciated!!  If possible, we prefer to sell our home in Sabetha, but we will see what the Lord has planned for this possession that He has entrusted to us.  We are starting to show our home to some interested couples, and will list it officially with Rick's parents (they are real estate agents) if nothing developed in the next few weeks.  

Rick and I were able to set some dates on our moving timeline and this has helped the planner in me to set some goals and organize my action steps leading up to the move.  Obviously, we need to remain flexible to changes, but I do find comfort in having a plan in place.  At this point, we plan to move to Haiti in June.  Hopefully, we will still be able to spend some time in Les Cayes doing some language and cultural training; however, needs at the hospital in Bonne Fin may shorten this time.   

We are already into the second half of February and I can hardly believe how fast the time is going.  We had plans to travel to Illinois last weekend (Feb. 7th - 10th) for some missionary counseling at Apostolic Christian Counseling and Family Services (ACCFS), but Krae became ill the night before we were to leave.  He tested positive for Influenza A so we stayed home.  I think Rick probably had it too while he was traveling for work that week and Selah ran a fever for a few days as well.  Thankfully, rest and a bit of Tamiflu kept the little ones from being too sick; they just had fevers and slept a lot. 

At this writing Rick is in Haiti and spending some time at Hospital Lumiere.  He will be there from Feb. 16th - Feb 23rd and will arrive back home on the 24th.  During his time there, he hopes to learn as much as possible about the hospital and start to build relationships with the management team and staff.  Prayers for this time are needed and appreciated!!  We hope to travel down at least one more time before we move and take Mara and Krae with us.

Looking ahead, Rick will spend some time at Regional Medical Center in Manchester, IA in the month of March.  He will spend time with Lon Butikofer who is the Chief Operating Executive there.  Lon also serves on the Hospital Lumiere Governance Board.  We also plan to travel to Illinois for our re-scheduled day of counseling at ACCFS.  Along with our other activities for church and school, it will be a busy month.


I wish that I could say that the last few weeks have gone by without any doubts or anxiety regarding our transition into mission service.  Satan continues to work on us, but we are quick to see the signs and turn our focus back to God.  A few weeks ago, I was struggling with the financial changes that we will face with this move.  By the standards of the society we live in, this change in our lives will be costly to our financial situation.  Rick is leaving a position with KSi that he enjoys during the years of his life that have the most potential earning power.  My plans and thoughts of remodeling our kitchen or even building a new home will probably not be realized.  These are the thoughts that Satan was using to disturb my peace.  Fortunately, I have a beautiful relationship with God and He is so very faithful.  On a day when I was feeling weighed down by my doubts, God brought just the right scriptures to me:

Each morning on the way to school, I share a verse with our children.  I use a daily verse app on my phone and the verse for that day was: 

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also    Matthew 6:21

Needless to say, I felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit regarding the thoughts I had allowed to distract me.

Later in the morning, I sat down to do my personal daily devotion and it was focused on the 6th chapter in Matthew as well.  These verses were the central point:

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.  Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.  Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.  Matthew 6:33-34

Once again, reading this chapter was so very timely and encouraging to me.

That afternoon, Rick forwarded a devotional that he had received from a good friend of ours that put me in tears and really helped me to re-focus my heart and mind on the will of God.  The devotional was written by David Platt as he is referencing John Piper and  is entitled Risk or Retreat.  I will insert a small bit of it that spoke to my heart:


We can retreat into a wilderness of wasted opportunity. We can rest content in casual, convenient, cozy, comfortable Christian lives as we cling to the safety and security this world offers. We can coast through a cultural landscape marked by materialism, characterized by consumerism, and engulfed in individualism. We can assent to the spirit of this age and choose to spend our lives seeking worldly pleasures, acquiring worldly possessions, and pursuing worldly ambitions — all under the banner of cultural Christianity.

Or we can decide that Jesus is worth more than this. We can recognize that he has created us, saved us, and called us for a much greater purpose than anything this world could ever offer us. We can die to ourselves, our hopes, our dreams, our ambitions, our priorities, and our plans. We can do all of this because we believe that the person and the plan of Christ bring reward that makes any risk more than worth it.

Are you in tears yet?  

I have been convicted for several years that I need to follow God's leading and His will with joy in my heart for the opportunity to serve Him.  My first inclination is to serve Him, but to do so grudgingly.  I will close this post with a verse and ask that you join me in prayer, asking for joyful hearts in service to Him.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.    Matthew 13:44

Happy New Year!

2013

We know it will be a year of change, a year of God stretching us and a year that we will need to take one day at a time while following in the footsteps of Jesus!

If you are reading this blog for the first time (since we just made it public), scroll down to the bottom to start the story of our call to mission service at the beginning.  It is a long story, so I broke it up into segments that are reflected in the different posts.  

From this point, I hope to post at least once a month while we are stateside and preparing for our move.  Once we move and are living in Haiti, I will try to post once every week or two.  

If you would like to receive email notifications when we post new information, enter your email address where indicated above and click submit.


As we move into this new year, we ask for your prayers as we continue to pray for each of you, our family and friends.  I love to read Paul's epistle to the Colossians and consider his words when I pray for others.  I encourage you to read this passage and pray for us in the same way.

For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 

That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;

Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 
                                                                                                    Colossians 1:9-12

Dad is Called Home

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.    Isaiah 55:8-9

I start this post with this verse because it states what I know to be true in my heart, but my worrisome mind seems to forget.  

As I have said in earlier posts, one of my greatest concerns with going out into the mission field was my Dad.  I knew he would be very upset about such a move and I felt the responsibility to be here for him.  These concerns grew when Dad was diagnosed with gastric/esophageal cancer during the summer of 2012.  

Dad started chemo/radiation treatments to shrink the tumor before surgery in July. He had just finished up the scheduled treatments when we traveled to Haiti for our survey trip at the end of August.  He took a month to let his body recover and we met with his surgeon in early October regarding surgery to remove the tumor.  For various reasons, his surgery was not scheduled until November 17th.  

At a follow-up appointment with his oncologist on Tuesday, November 13th, his CEA (Carcinoembryonic antigen) levels were extremely high which indicated a progression of his cancer.  The oncologist ordered a CT scan to be done on Wednesday.  On Friday, November 16, (the day before his scheduled surgery) we learned that the cancer had progressed significantly throughout all of his lower abdomen.  At this point, surgery was no longer an option and his doctors were recommending hospice care.  


Interestingly, we learned the seriousness of his condition on the same day that our plans for mission service were announced.  What a mix of emotions!  It was sad to learn that Dad's time on this earth was short, yet our prayer was that he could go quickly and would not have to suffer a long and painful decline.  

I traveled the 200 miles down to Moundridge to be with Dad to meet with hospice on November 20th.  While I was there, Dad wanted to go to the funeral home and make some of the arrangements; it seemed to give him some peace of mind to have this done.  His pastor visited us that day as well and I was encouraged when she shared Psalms 121 with us as this chapter had been an inspiration and comfort to me throughout the last few months.  During my time with Dad, he expressed to me several times that he was ready to go.  I appreciated and was thankful for the peace that was evident in his heart. 

I came back home that evening, but in conversations with the hospice nurse the next day, it was determined that Dad would need round the clock care ASAP.  Unfortunately, it was the day before Thanksgiving and we were not able to arrange anything until Friday, November 23th.  Dad had some wonderful and loving neighbors that stayed with him all day and overnight on Wednesday.  On Thursday(Thanksgiving), Steve and Sue Towns were planning to visit Dad and they stayed with him all day and overnight.  Sue's parents had been like second parents to Dad when he was student at KSU and worked for them during the summers.  Dad had always thought of Sue as his sister.

I planned to travel back down on Friday and we had an appointment set-up with in-home care service providers and I planned to investigate the skilled-care nursing facilities in Moundridge as well.  My plan was to stay with Dad until we made arrangements for his care and Rick was bringing our children to see him on Saturday.  In the early morning hours of Friday, November 23rd, Steve called to tell me that Dad had passed away.  In His divine mercy, God called him home quickly.

It had only been a week since we learned of the progression of cancer so it seemed that he had gone very quickly.  Dad had expressed to me earlier in the month that he thought the cancer was changing and that his time was short.  I guess he knew what was happening with his body and he had more time to prepare than I did.  Yes, I do wish he could have seen our children again before he died, yet I learned that he was asking for Jesus to come and take him in the hours before he died.  How wonderful to go and see Jesus!  I thank God for His mercy, for His love and for His comfort.

In retrospect, I see God's hand continuing to work in our lives.  God knew my concerns and fears before He asked us to follow Him and He knew how to orchestrate the timing of lives to allow us to serve Him.  I have felt all along that God would provide for my Dad if He asked us to move to Haiti; I guess I worried most about how He would provide and I stewed with my own lack of understanding.  His ways are so much higher than my ways and His thoughts than my thoughts...