Before we begin to share our journey and experiences the past few months, we would like to thank you all for your prayers, your support, and all of the encouragement you have provided to our family.
Many of you know that our family traveled to the U.S. in March. The kids went to visit grandparents and Chris and Tracy went with our church to Mexico on a mission trip. It was an amazing time with close friends serving in a different country building a home for a sweet family. On Thursday of that week, Chris and Tracy received a letter from the organization by email that contained the following information:
“Respire Haiti did not find fault in your family or in your actions, and this is in no way connected to performance or expectations. Ultimately, we have determined after seeking much prayer and counsel that this is just not a good fit for our organization.”
Our hearts were shocked and we truly felt confused and unsure of what was happening. We contacted the person that was listed on the letter to try and understand where this feeling of us not being a good fit was coming from. He had no further information. He assured us that we had done nothing “wrong”, but our personalities were just not a good fit for the ministry.
So, we did all we knew to do…..pray and seek wise counsel. Our family, close friends, and home church have been rock solid for us when our hearts felt like crumbling. Our God has continued to use you all, His word, and His spirit to lift us up throughout this time. With the small time frame to pack and move out of our house in Haiti (by April 7th), we were not immediately able to find another place to live in Haiti. Our missions pastor and his family at FBC Midlothian welcomed us into their home in Midlothian to live until God gave us some direction as to what was next for our family. We arrived in the U.S. on April 11th.
Since we have been back to the U.S., we have felt and experienced the outpouring of God’s love and grace in amazing ways. We had not planned on this trial, and we certainly had not planned to leave Haiti. But, God is good all the time and His mercy endures. You may be wondering like we have wondered over the past six weeks or so…what is next for our family?
Listening, seeking, reading, praying, and resting in God’s love for our family has been the theme of our time in the states thus far. Over time, we began to see that only a couple of doors were opened. We felt a peace and believe that the Lord is leading us into both new and old places to experience His new plan for our family. Those that know and love our family know how much we love being both a missionary family and a coaching family. It looks like God is providing the way for that to happen.
After several conversations with a very well established organization in Haiti, we are really excited to be partnering with the Baptist Haiti Mission in ministry. The Baptist Haiti Mission is affiliated with over 300 schools containing a total of over 68,000 students. Each of these students needs to be sponsored in order to attend school and pay for school supplies. As of right now, only 1,700 of these 68,000 are sponsored. This is obviously an area of huge need. Our hearts were filled with passion and desire to help with child sponsorship. Tracy will be working stateside in this role…speaking to churches, service organizations, moms’ groups, and other groups, working toward getting all 68,000 children sponsored in school. Through this ministry opportunity with the Baptist Haiti Mission, she will still travel back to Haiti several times per year to update child profiles, love on kids, and deliver needed supplies. Our family is very excited about this opportunity to continue mission work in Haiti, albeit from the stateside home base.
Another great opportunity for our family came along a couple of weeks ago as well. Many of you know that Chris has incredible gifts and talents in leadership and coaching. A dear friend that Chris has worked with in the past has taken the Head Football Coach position in Dripping Springs, TX and has offered Chris a position to come aboard the coaching staff. Our family traveled to Dripping Springs for Chris’s interview and met some really kind people. Our prayer was that God would close this door completely if our family was not supposed to go to Dripping Springs. Instead, God has affirmed this decision in many ways. We are humbled and excited that God would give our family the opportunity to be a part of two things that we truly love….the ministries of coaching and Haiti!!!
As we continue to serve the wonderful country of Haiti, your support is needed. Many of you have been very gracious in your financial support of our ministry. Some may be wondering what this looks like going forward. While Chris will be receiving a salary for coaching/teaching, Tracy’s position will continue to be self-funded as a full time missionary. FBC Midlothian will continue to be our sending agent and will still hold our missions account. Therefore, all donations will continue to be received there. FBC Midlothian will also continue to monitor this account and hold us accountable through reports to the mission team. We have been very blessed over the past 2 years with generous people that have allowed us to minister to a country that has so many needs, and we look forward to partnering with you in the future as well. We thank you for allowing us to give the people of Haiti a glimpse of hope through Jesus. As always, your prayers, love, communication, and encouragement are tremendously valuable as well. We love you all so much and appreciate you walking this journey with us. Blessings to each of you…we hope to hear from you soon!