Wonderful work in the Countryside

Imagine living in a country where it rains a couple times a week and your roof keeps out only 75% of the rain....
and, imagine having a dirt floor, no door, no windows.

For the vast majority of us, this is nearly impossible to grasp.

We have concrete floors, solid roofs, doors, windows, etc.  

This family, and thousands like them, have a hard time grasping what it would be like to live in a home with a solid concrete foundation, a roof that keeps out 100% of the rain, and doors and windows that keep the critters out.

Well we have had the privilege of blessing this family and two others like them with new homes!  

Nick and Dez have begun leading the charge with choosing to finance and coordinate the building of these homes, with the hopes of doing many more.

What a beautiful site!!! A solid, elevated foundation

They used to sleep on the floor, but now these families are receiving new comfy beds to sleep on.

Hooray!!!  Two done, now only one to go!!! 

It's called "Feeding Faith"

The Children's Hospital:

Normally you feel a sense of comfort once you get to the hospital...that's where the trained professionals are.  Even in a third world country you can often find very qualified doctors that have the means to administer any necessary treatment.  At times, you may actually find even better treatment than you would in the states; believe it or not.  

Unfortunately, adequate resources is not the story with our local children's hospital.  Children seldom get the love, care, and attention that they need.

The children spend their time in an over-crowded room, often getting infected with other children's sicknesses and, sadly, we have seen several children die over the past 2 months.

Many of the children's parents spend little to no time with them, leaving them to sit on their beds all alone. 

But there are some parents that stick by their children's sides.

Recently, this sad place has been transformed by love.  

Every morning Anissa leads the charge with an outreach she calls "feeding faith".  

Its simple: she brings a basket of bananas, two bags of cookies, and an infinite amount of hugs and love to the children's unit.   

Normally, these children may eat one meal in the day and it's almost certain that they won't get love and affection.  So this is where we step in.  Each child and parent receive a banana and crackers and lots of affection and playtime.

Over the past two months we have built so many sweet friendships with the families and their children.

It's always bittersweet when the children are well enough to go home.

This place immediately grips your heart with intense sadness for their helplessness and compassion that moves you to do something.

Fortunately, Anissa and the team have made dramatic differences here and they plan on continuing to visit every morning. 

And just think, it only costs $10 a day for food to radically change these peoples lives!!!  Incredible.  

We have plenty of opportunity for those of you that want to get involved.  If you're interested or have any questions just email me at ryan.haggerty@therocksandiego.org.

Worth it All

"At that moment the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, "Abraham Abraham! Do not lay a hand on the boy!  Do no hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God.  You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son." " Genesis 22:12

This last week during our morning devotional a friend shared this story with our group.   While we went through the story it was as if it was directly speaking to me.  "Robin, Robin, I now know that you truly fear God.  You have not withheld from me your only child."  

Upon discovering that I was pregnant, just three weeks prior to our initial departure date, a whole new meaning came to the word "sacrifice".  Like Abraham in the story in Genesis I had to count the cost of walking in obedience to the Lord.


So we left our home, jobs, family and friends. Then we faced various health risks like malaria and cholera, lack of medical care, limited access to properly prepared food, along with all the other discomforts of living in a third world country. But, I trusted that God would sustain me through all of the potential struggles I would encounter and that He would be enough.

Ultrasound at 17 weeks.  I can barley see the screen!

I can now truly say that HE is sufficient!  That He is trustworthy!  And that through all of the discouragement, discomforts, and obstacles that I have encountered here I can say, "For You are my lamp, O Lord;  The Lord shall enlighten my darkness.  For by You I can run against a troop;  By my God I can leap over a wall... For who is God except our Lord?  And who is a rock, except our God?  God is my strength and power, And He makes my way perfect.  He makes my feet like the feet of deer,  and sets me on my high places.  He teaches my hands to make war so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze." 2 Samuel 22:29-35

As Ryan and I discussed and prayed over the last week we decided it would be best for me to come home earlier than we had planed.  I will be coming home this Monday, the 17th, while Ryan finishes the season here in Jeremie.  We have grown so much during this time and are grateful to God for all that He has done in me here!

We're now in the swing of things!

Here is a quick update on just some of the great things that are happening here...


Well, we've been here now for 4 weeks and have fully settled into our new home.  The weather is a warm 90 degrees and there is plenty of humidity.  Escape is impossible so we have found that sprawling out in front of the fans at the end of the day is a good break.

This is a view of the town from a fisherman's jetty

This is the road we travel everyday to town

...and this is how he rolls!

Our first 3 weeks were spent visiting old friends, making new ones, and getting acquainted with the town. 

Jacob, our local Haitian brother, was one of the first of our friends that welcomed us with a huge smile and many hugs!

The slower pace of life here is great, just will take a while to get used to…everything takes a LONG time to get accomplished.  We have to set aside a whole afternoon just to go to the bank.

We found that if you leave more than an inch of space between you and the person in front of you in any line someone will cut in front of you...it's quite comical.

Robin and the baby are doing great.  We went into a local, American run, health clinic to check out there facilities in case Robin needed any care.  The place is great and we asked if we could hear the baby's heartbeat.  They grabbed the machine and 5 minutes later we heard the beautiful heartbeat!  The doctor looked at us with a smile and said it sounds very healthy...so good to hear!

I began a men's Bible study last week and it's going very well.  The guys are eager to learn and have many questions.

Kervens, Maya, Jacob, & Junior are four of the young, up-and-coming leaders in this community that attend the study.

Robin and Melissa got mobbed when they began to share a short story with some children in the countryside.

Robin and the girls started their children's ministry where they teach stories from the Bible and then teach them how they can tell the stories...this helps with remembering and spreading the stories

This little girl was the first to retell the story of creation...it went great!

Afterwards, they just had fun singing and dancing.

The second water well is underway.  Prior to the digging, the community gathered to thank God for providing water and to sing Him a song.  It was very touching.

The well should be finished next week, depending on the rain.  We will then build a housing facility around it to protect the generator and storage tank.  Before we know it, we'll be pumping 3-5000 gallons of fresh drinking water into a community that currently has to walk quite a distance for contaminated water.  

Its great to be moving forward with all that God has pressed on our hearts for this community.  We pray that we are able to genuinely express the love of Jesus as we are engaging each person that we meet through these various activities.  Thanks for your prayers!

Our New Home

The whole gang, minus us, waiting in the Port-Au-Prince airport.

Boarding the small 19 passenger plane.

We made it safe to Jeremie, dirt landing & all.  

Front gate to our house.

Our new home.  Notice the laundry drying on the third floor :)

Our room.

We made it!

We could not believe it that all the electicity in San Diego county went out just 5 minutes after we left our house to the airport!  With traffic, little gas, and no electricty to pump gas, we still were able to make it to LAX with time to spare.

We have now arrived in Port-Au-Prince and staying the night before boarding a flight tomorrow morning to our final destination, Jeremie.

Our Hotel in Port-au-Prince

Thank you for all your prayers! 

Our Little One: Due March 25. 2012

We got the wonderful opportunity to see our little one just days before we left. Here is a video Ryan put together! Enjoy!

We can't hold it in any longer!!!

We discovered the wonderful news a few weeks past that WE ARE PREGNANT!!

What can we say other than this was clearly not in our plans or timing of events, but we trust it is God's perfect timing.

A friend once told me, "It's always a good time to have a baby, because it will never seem like a good time to have a baby."

We have thus moved our departure date to September the 8th.  My Dr. said she would feel more comfortable with me leaving past the first trimester at 3 months.  We did the math and that day turned out to be September 7th, one day before the teams tickets had already been purchased!

So we are still moving forward.  Plans have changed sightly in that I will be returning earlier than planned, December, so that I can receive my OB care in San Diego.  Ryan too will come home in the last month to be here when all the fun begins!

Our due date is March 21, 2012.  We covet your prayers for my health while we are gone.

At this point our motto is, just one day at a time! Seriously! :) 

An Extraordinary Gift!

Robin phoned me last week with this one...I'll try and paint the picture for you...

...two Decembers ago, while I was working at Nordstrom, we were two weeks away from receiving medical insurance when we had to rush Robin off to emergency surgery.  Robin was pregnant and was loosing major amounts of blood; nearly 1/3 drained into her abdomen.  It was horrible.

Fortunately, I was able to walk away with my beautiful wife, but unfortunately we lost the baby and walked away with a bill for $37,000. 
Looking back, I remember the morning after her surgery, by the hospital bed, she looked at me and said with a smile, “Don’t worry, God will take care of this.”

Over the next year and a half we were able to pay 6 of the 7 outstanding bills, leaving us with the giant...$29,000.

Now she and I are confident that God has called us to work in Haiti and we also know that neglecting our debt while in Haiti isn’t honorable…but how in the world could we pay this huge bill before we go?  No chance, I’m thinking. 

So, last week Robin called the hospital for another attempt to negotiate some sort of realistic plan to reconcile the debt; which up to this point all attempts have been unsuccessful. 

The lady answered the phone asking, “What do you want?”  Robin replied, “To try and take care of our debt.”  She answered, “Why?  This debt has been approved for charity...it’s been paid.”

“WHAT?” “We didn’t even apply, how could it be “approved”?”  “Impossible!”

“…but Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  Matt 19:26 

You can say that again!

It's Official!!!

Who ever said that unemployment isn't exciting? 

Last Friday was my last day as the "Director of Communications" for the missions department at Rock Church!

Robin and I saying goodbye to Rock staff

My previous role definitely sounds exciting...and was, but I am much more excited to embrace my new role..."MISSIONARY".  

Wow, I never thought that I would be saying that.  I always thought of missionaries as weird, super spiritual nomads that just wander around the earth.

  

Well, fear not friends.  Robin and I are not going to wander the globe aimlessly.  As you all know, we are embarking on a journey to one of the most needy parts of the world, Haiti, and I wanted to let you all in on what we plan to do.

On August 23rd we will be heading down to a town called Jeremie for an exciting 16-month assignment, where we will be learning the Haitian culture and language (Creole) and providing leadership to 12 other missionaries.  Our vision is pretty simple; to see people's lives transformed by the love of God.

For our first 6 months the team will focus on teaching orphans and street children the truth of God's word, mentoring youth within the local churches, and drilling water-wells throughout the community. 

Inside of our first water distribution facility

The well produces over 3000 gallons of fresh drinking water per day

Long-term, Robin and I hope to establish an international training center for new missionaries, teaching them how to assimilate into a new culture while being exposed to relevant, cross-cultural ministry. 

Very exciting stuff and impossible without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and the support of our friends and family; which is why we are so glad to have you come along with us.

So, there it is. The adventure begins!


-ryan