Hello everyone! I have been thinking and thinking about this update and have been having a hard time finding the words. After praying I have decided to really start back at the beginning of this journey….
This is a family update but since I (Angie ) am writing this I want to tell MY Personal story as well as our family story….
Many of you I have known for years, maybe even since childhood. Some of you I have never met in person but have become friends with through social media or missions so I will begin where I believe MY Journey began. When I was a teenager I was invited to church by a friend. This tiny little church in Harmony Grove, Arkansas was Warner Spur Assembly of God. There I met a young pastor & his wife that were on FIRE for God. Brother Rusty Blann & his wife Dorinda would begin a mentorship in my life that continues to this day…. They were and are THE REAL DEAL! They walked out their Faith that was preached from the pulpit and taught in Youth…..not to mention they LOVED with a Love that was different. I wanted what I saw in them…..that Love, Peace, & Joy! I gave my heart & life to Jesus then & my life was changed forever. Thankfully I got to spend almost the next two years with them in my life almost on a daily basis. Like so many, after I moved off to college I struggled with living for Jesus like I knew I should. I was away from my home church, my mentors in life, my family & made many wrong choices in life. I found myself 26 years old and divorced. To me it was as if my life was over. I was still young and I will admit immature. I moved to Alabama where my family lived and slowly began to try to keep going. Along the way, I met a true southern gentleman. I didn’t think that men actually still opened doors for you, took their hat off at the table, took time to stop wherever they were and speak to elderly people they grew up respecting. I was blown away that he NEVER raised his voice, he worked hard, truly LOVED his family, and grew up in a Christian home. We married in December 2000 & it seemed life was awesome. We had 2 daughters, built a new home, drove nice new cars, and had great jobs. Weird how we had all of those things & I still found myself back in a place that was not pretty!!! I was so unhappy and when I truly thought about it I didn’t know why. I blamed EVERYONE…..yes even my husband. We found ourselves all but divorced because of it & this is when GOD changed everything!!! Through a series of events I began to realize the emptiness I felt…..the huge void in my life was that we were not serving God like we both knew we should. We called our amazing pastor Mike Lynn of Robertsdale First Assembly & he met with us. That day we committed to give our lives to Christ. We got down on our knees in our Pastors office & prayed that God would save our marriage and family. We promised that we would serve Him with 100%. I will be truly honest……we had absolutely NO IDEA what was coming! As we began to serve God & serve in our church for the next year or two God made our marriage stronger than I could have ever imagined. He then began to lay adoption on our Hearts. Most thought we were nuts but WE KNEW exactly what God was telling us to do. A lot of this story is in my blog history so I will leave out some details but God led us to Haiti to adopt. God then gave us a miracle & our adoption of a sibling group of three from Haiti only lasted 3 months!!!! We flew to Haiti & spent a little over 2 weeks. While in Haiti God gave us a Love & Passion for Haiti and the Haitian people like we never knew could exist. We spent the next 3 years leading in missions teams to Haiti and loving every minute of it!! We prayed & prayed as we felt God calling us to Haiti to serve full time. In May of 2013 we committed to serve as Full Time Missionaries with AIM (Assisting International Missions) our main focus would be at Hope Vision Ministry in Haiti, the children's home our kids had come from. We quit our full time jobs, sold almost all of our possessions and headed out on this God sized adventure! I can’t tell you the number of times I was asked “How long will you be in Haiti?” Our answer was & is always, “until God gives us new direction and tells us to do something else!” Personally when we all (YES….ALL 9 OF US) boarded that first plane I truly thought we would be in Haiti at least 5 years, if not longer. Obviously, that was Angie’s plan and not God’s!! First let me say that we have LOVED our time in Haiti. I know some of you find that hard to believe and yet others might understand……but I didn’t say it has always easy. I said we truly love it!! In the past almost two years God has taught us so much about LOVE, about ourselves, and about serving others. I personally have an understanding of things I have prayed about for years. God has peeled so many layers from my eyes and I clearly see the world different than I did less than 2 years ago. Our family has grown by one and we are truly THANKFUL that God blessed our family with Edril, he is an Orphan no more!!! Our family has grown closer to each other than ever before. Our time spent with the kids at the children's home, our fellow missionaries, our neighbors and friends here in Haiti has been something I would not trade for ANYTHING in this world!! Our two oldest daughters have grown up so much and matured into Beautiful young Christian ladies. Just this week my SarahBeth heard someone say that they strive for Righteousness and she later told me that that was not true for Christians…..she said that if you are a christian and God lives in you then you are righteous. God makes you righteous. You don’t have to try to be “good enough”, He loves you just the way you are!! - As a mom who struggled with not feeling “good enough” every time I made a mistake in life whether it was Big or small….it BLEW me away!! I cried my eyes out!! What a LIFE lesson she has learned at 15 years old!!! She went on to tell me so much more she has been learning in Mr. Brad Hammonds bible class at Sonlight Ministries. WOW! I am so thankful God gave my kids an opportunity to be here & learn so much in a third world culture and still get ALL OF THAT!!! With all of that I will say that for the last few weeks Gordon and I have felt God begin to call us in a different direction. Honestly, at first as we began to actually speak about it, I would walk down the road & the smallest thing would cause me to just start crying. I tried so hard to hold it in. I realized that God has been opening doors & pointing things in this direction for a few months now. We just didn’t realize the “God things” at times…..until now. At times God lets you get to the end of “self” so you FINALLY stop & listen. Over the past few weeks I had been sick and had LOTS of time to think and pray…….to REALLY seek GOD! To BE STILL and listen. Gordon has as well. It really surprised me at first. This year I am teaching during the day at Sonlight and LOVING it!! The kids are doing Great in school, our creole is getting much better and we are in a routine. My mom bought her ticket to Haiti and is coming to visit in January! We have five mission teams scheduled at HVM from next week until the end of the year and two in February so when we started to feel that “tug” I was really surprised, honestly we both were!! Once again we had to PRAY, PRAY, PRAY….and NO we do not have all the answers you might think we do! Here is what we do know……. God is leading us back to Alabama. We have decided after much discussion and prayer that we will exit after all the scheduled missions teams for the spring are completed. This will be at the beginning of March. I will finish substitute teaching in mid December and this will give us time to adjust to the idea of leaving. I have accepted that God has another plan but my heart still hurts at the thought of not being here & missing so much that I have grown to love. Both Gordon and I still have HUGE hearts for missions and will definitely still be involved somehow, maybe even still with AIM but nothing is mapped out at this time. I would LOVE LOVE if you guys would help us pray for a few things……
Pray for all of us as we go through this HUGE transition
Pray for God’s will, wisdom and discernment especially for Gordon and myself as we seek exactly what God has for us upon our return in March.
Pray we have the support/finances until we exit Haiti and upon re-entry into life in America
We are so thankful that God sent our family to Haiti!!! We are thankful that although we didn’t have all the answers, HE gave us the Faith to step out and Obey! We are so thankful for all the people we have met along the way. Those that have supported us financially, lifted us up in prayer and walked this amazing journey with us. As I type this my heart breaks into many pieces but it is also filled with HOPE. I know who holds tomorrow and I know WHO leads Our Family. We may not have ALL of the answers but HE knows and that is enough for us today. I admit I am also a little nervous excited…..God’s plans ALWAYS far exceed anything I can or have dreamed up EVER!! Adopt 3 kids when you already have four. WHAT?? Sell all your things and move to Haiti!!! WHAT??? Adopt another son! What What??? After doing all those things….come back to the states after only 20months in Haiti. HUH? - All we can say is - YES LORD!
THANK YOU FOR PRAYING WITH US!
