Being A Missionary …

Let’s face it: sometimes being a Christian is difficult! This truth can be compounded depending on where you live as well. For us it certainly has had its’ moments, especially this year, but from a purely personal and cultural point-of-view. I am amazed to think about all the Christians who spread the love and message of Christ in countries that are much more hostile to the gospel than Haitians. We may have some annoyances here and there with our First World desires in the Third World, but we certainly aren’t threatened for our faith, nor is there any sort of active rebellion happening putting our lives in jeopardy.

A Care Package!!!!

The Discipleship Group …

Looking up for the Jones’ ….

ell we just got back to Haiti from visiting the US about two week ago, because my (Kyle) brother got married. Even though our trip was extremely exhausting for the entire Jones family, we had a really great time spending time with our family and friends and watching my brother and his new wife experience a wonderful moment in both of their lives.

Things are starting to look up for us here in Haiti, or at least this is what we think. In our previous posts we have written about all of our constant struggles with staying healthy and our constant other battles with adjusting in to a new house, new culture, and to a new ministry. I think now, though, we both feel that the tough season that we were going through is about over, and a new one is about to begin, and there is nothing more exciting than this.

As far as ministry is concerned here in Haiti, everything has been going great: the teaching, the ministering to our students, and the relationships with both students and parents are really beginning to blossom. I (Kyle) have been doing a discipleship group with several of my Bible College students for about two months now. We are using the Purpose Driven Life as a book to go through to help develop within these men and women a deep and personal relationship with their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

As far as teaching is concerned, Lorraine is very happy to have back Allison (Mme.Lenny) to help her teach 2nd Grade. Allison and her husband Lenny have been in the US since Christmas, because they had a baby back in January. Lorraine and Allison do a great job teaching together, and so having Allison back is going to make things even better for the rest of the school year. For my Bible College classes, I am in the middle of finals week, and next week we begin a whole new set of classes that will go unto the very end of May. This is very exciting to me, but also a little nerve-racking because I add two new classes that I have never taught before, and so developing these classes is very tough especially in a week. Even though this process is tough, it is also very rewarding and I dare say fun, so please don’t feel sorry for me.

We do ask you all to please pray for us, but to also pray for our ministry and our students. Their are several students whom have recently experience some pretty serious medical problems who need a lot of prayer and their are other students who need a lot of prayer for God’s direction for their life. We would also like you to pray for Simprius and his family. For those of you who read our last newsletter, I did a special story on him in their. Simprius and his family are going through an extremely difficult time now and they have left our city. This has made us all very sad, because we all like them so much, but it is something that can only be solved by prayer. The enemy has obviously been ceaselessly attacking them because of the good work they were doing, and so they need a lot of prayers for peace, protection, provision, guidance, and much more.

As always we can’t thank you all enough for your love and support. Blessings!

A Dinner Invitation …

More and more weeks seem to go by and I am still sick. I am pretty sure that I caught the flu from someone that came into visit a couple of weeks ago. It is truly bizarre, because I started out with a fever and vomiting, and now I have symptoms that resemble a sinus infection and yet still have a fever. My hope is that I am all better by a week and a half for when we journey back to the United States for my brother’s wedding. This seems completely doable, except for the fact that this sickness apparently likes to linger.

We have also been in the midst of about 10 straight days of rain. Honestly, today is the first day without rain that I can remember in the last two weeks, and some of the days in rained a lot. Having all the rain, though, was kind of nice – a change of pace, and a subtle reminder of what it means to be somewhere that the seasons actually change. Probably the worst day of rain that we have had in the last two weeks came on last Saturday night. This was extremely unfortunate considering this was the night that one of my Bible College students invited Lorraine and I over for dinner, because I was unsure whether or not the dinner date would still be on. Fortunately, our dinner plans were still on, but it was just a matter of dressing appropriately.

To be truthful, neither Lorraine nor I knew what to expect with our dinner invitation. This was the first time that either of us had been invited over to a students house. Sonlight Academy students usually invited their teachers over to their house to meet their parents, but this was even different from that because my invitation was from my student, who is a parent. Lorraine and I dressed like we would when teach, so that we made sure that we were not under-dressed for the occasion, and we had ourselves ready to go promptly at 6pm.

As we were being picked up, we came to learn that my Bible College English student has four children that attend Sonlight Academy. I knew Mr. Robinson had at least one child at Sonlight, but I did not realize he had four, and that his oldest is in 8th Grade. He oldest daughter Kewin was with him and his wife and this help to make our conversations go so much better and smoother. Robinson speaks pretty good English, but he does not yet know a lot of vocabulary, and so having Kewin, who has had English for nine years really helped out. Robinson, himself, is a very important man in our city, because he is the Minister of Finance. Besides this important government position, he and his wife also run a professional school that teaches Haitians how to use computers and other things essential for business. Most importantly, though, Robinson and his wife are very strong Christians and they faithfully attend a local Baptist Church in the heart of Port-de-Paix. They are a great family and Lorraine and I had an absolutely wonderful time.

Initially, we thought that the dinner invitation was for us to go to their house and share a meal, but when they arrived they took us to a restaurant. As it turned out, the restaurant that we ended up eating at was owned by one of our Academy student’s parents. Lorraine and I both teach the Freshmen class for different subjects, and it is our student Laurie whose parents own Club Rendez-vous. We had never been to this restaurant before, and so we knew we were in for a treat. The Rendez-vous sat right out on the ocean, which at any other time would have been absolutely gorgeous, but like I said previously, we received torrential winds and rain on Saturday. For dinner there were two options: goat or chicken. Lorraine and I both chose goat, and more specifically fried goat. It came with some fried plantains and was extremely tasty. Going to a restaurant in Haiti, though, is much different from the US, because it make take up to two hours for you to receive your food, and so you kind of have to plan for an all-nighter. This was fine for us because we were enjoying talking and fellowshipping and learning more about each others families.

Before we left, Mr. Robinson found out that Lorraine likes Conch, and so he was determined that we come over for dinner again, so that we can all have Conch. This seemed very nice to both Lorraine and I, and we will eagerly await our next dinner invitiation.

The Jones family has had a “tough year” so far, but that certainly does not mean that the Lord is not using us, or that the Lord has left us. Nights like last Saturday with Mr. Robinson and his family firmly remind us why we are here in Haiti. Blessings!

Lamentations …

Well, it has been a little over a week since I posted last, and so it is definitely time for me to give a Jones Family update.

As the saying says,”When it rains it pours.” It has been raining on us a lot recently. This is both true in the literal and figurative sense, but when I use this phrase now, I use it in the figurative sense. Our previous email “a tough year,” is a slogan that continues to reign true for us day by day. If it is not one thing it is another. If Lorraine is not sick, then Micah is; if Micah is not sick, then Lorraine is; if neither of them are sick that I am. Grrrrrrr! This is in collaboration with all the other difficulties and annoyances of living within another culture, which is far different from the one’s we were raised in. Bear with me a moment while I lament.

Over the last couple of months when all of the sickness first started, there was at least one consistently non-sick person: me. Not so anymore! This last week I have come down with some sort of annoying virus that leaves me with a headache most days, vomiting and diarrhea, and an inconsistent but recurring fever. So now the sickness has found us all. To make matters a little worse, Lorraine has caught some sort of stomach bug herself, which has been effecting her eating and consistent feedings of Micah. Grrrrrr!

With all this frustration out and said, I will say that things have been going great in our classrooms, and we are really starting to form some meaningful relationships with our students. I have started a discipleship group with my Bible College students that has been going really well. My students are really taking their personal spiritual lives seriously and longing to grow and be changed into nature of Christ. Very exciting stuff! It is very hard, though, to not get distracted and focus on the problems and the obstacles that we feel like we have to constantly overcome. The Lord is doing amazing things in and through us, and so we are trying to focus on that reality instead of our trying circumstances.

Luckily, there is an entire book of the Bible dedicated to laments, because over the last couple of weeks lamenting has come much easier than praise.  However, like any good lament or any good Psalm of deliverance there is always an infectious hope that finds its way in and becomes the hinge by which the lament is glued.  Things could be much worse for us, but even so we know that the Lord will see us through it and take us and our ministry here at Sonlight to new exciting heights.  Blessings!

Good News …

After all that we have been through recently, it was definitely relieving to hear some good news.

Yesterday, we got up early and boarded a plane down to Port-au-Prince to have a Neurologist check out Micah and make sure that everything was OK. There were a couple of different possibilities of what happened to Micah on Saturday night, but only one good one – it was a fluke. In order to find this out, though, Micah would have to have an EEG to make sure that all his brain waves and electrical impulses (so to speak) were normal. If they were not normal there was a strong likelihood that he may have something as serious as Epilepsy.

When we arrived at the doctor, we were several hours early for our appointment, but the doctor graciously saw Micah immediately. He did a physical examination, and everything was normal, and for us this seemed true, because Micah acted fully like himself yesterday for the first time in a couple of days. The doctor then had us begin the process of doing the EEG. A lot of the time, they give the babies a light sedative, so that they remain still; but the doctor wanted to try and test Micah without this. This is something we preferred as well, but we just wanted to the test to be done properly and accurately. As the nurse was putting on his electroid-thingies, though, Micah, as normal, decided it was play time, and needless to say had a very tough time remaining still for the test. We could do nothing but laugh and feel a sense of relief, because this was at his best. Eventually, we got Micah settled down enough to get enough charting recorded for the Doctor to analyze.

After his EEG analysis, the Doctor told us that there was nothing unusual or troubling about Micah’s EEG; in fact, he said it looks very good and normal. This was good news! No, great news! It was for sure the news that we were hoping for and everybody had been praying for.

We sincerely appreciate all of your cares, prayers, and concerns, and we know that they made a huge difference.

Blessings!

A Tough Year …

Well I know no other way of saying it except just saying it: it has been a very tough year for the Jones family!

This year so far has been wrought with all sorts of drama, especially medical drama, and yet it has just begun 18 days ago. If you want to know the absolute truth, though, it has been a tough six months or so for us. My surgery in August, Lorraine’s long struggle with breast infections, Lorraine’s recent struggle with her gall bladder (we think), and, most recently a rough night last night with Micah.

Last night, Lorraine and I put Micah down as normal and then relaxed for about an hour before going to bed ourselves. In the process of getting ourselves ready for bed, I heard some weird noises coming from Micah in our room, and so I rushed in to grab and he started vomiting. This is hard enough to have to watch and deal with for us, but then he turned pale and was turning limp. Now this was just plain scary to us! We rushed then to get someone to help us, and thankfully, because of the good and unexpected grace of God, a medical doctor missionary was passing through at the hotel right down the street. We went to see him and he took care of Micah and diagnosed him with having a seizure. Scary stuff for us and him! Micah is doing better today, and doesn’t seem to be showing any scary signs, but we are still going to go to see a Pediatrician here as well as a Neurologist to have an EEG done to clarify Micah’s seizure last night.

As I have said, this year so far has been a tough year for the Jones family, and we simply ask that you pray for us. We can’t help but feel like the enemy is trying to discourage us and confuse, because of all of the good things that have been happening here at Sonlight. Pray that Micah doesn’t have any sort of more serious condition. Pray that Lorraine gets healthier and is healed from her illnesses. Pray that our trip to Port-au-Prince to see the doctor goes well. And pray that we continue to form deep relationships with our students despite any attempts otherwise by the enemy.

Please Pray!

The Jones Family @ the Sonlight Christmas Program (check out Micah in his Tux)

The Best Laid Plans …

Well we just returned to Haiti after a brief Christmas vacation in the United States. We had tons of things that we were planning on doing: updating the blog; finishing our December newsletter; visiting friends and families in VA and NC; going to one of Lorraine’s closest friends weddings; and mostly just relaxing, but it was not to come to pass.

After we got to Virginia, we were able to relax a little bit and spend some time with my family. The only thing that wasn’t completely relaxing was the fact that I asked to preach at my Journey Church in Springfield, VA, where my Dad is currently the Lead Pastor. I had an idea of what I wanted to preach on, and I certainly don’t get as nervous with preaching as I do with other things, but preaching to a new set of people is always intimidating.

Things started to get crazy, though, when Lorraine started feeling ill. Previously, before we went to Haiti and while we were in Haiti, Lorraine had a terrible time with breastfeeding issues and she was constantly in pain and not feeling well. When we went back to the States those issues seemed to clear up, which was awesome, until something else fell into its’ place.

After a couple days of being back, Lorraine started to have some intense pain in her back under her ribs. The pain was so intense that it was waking her up in the middle of the night and preventing her from going back to sleep. Sadly, the pain was also making her extremely nauseous, and just generally leaving her not feeling well. Her pain really came to a head on the Saturday night before I was supposed to preach at about 3:30 in the morning, which needless to say didn’t leave me properly rested for preaching, even though I still did. We decided at that point, though, that something needed to be done and we needed to take her into the doctor or the emergency room, and so we did on Monday evening – the first time. Our trip to the emergency room proved long and fairly non-productive, because we found out nothing; and if anything our trip left us with more questions than answers. The pain never really went away, and so we once again found ourselves at the emergency room at about 4 in the morning on Friday. This once again proved somewhat fruitless, except for the last ER Doctor who gave Lorraine a diagnosis of a kidney stone. It was good to have some kind of answer, however, when we took Micah in before we left to our family Doctor, she diagnosed Lorraine with gall bladder issues, which we had suspected all along. What the issues are we don’t know, but we are taking it on faith that the Lord will keep her healthy and safe while we are here in Haiti.

Appropriately, Micah also had a tough time over our break. Some of it was probably being in a different surrounding, and being surrounded by a lot of other people more regularly; but a lot of it, most likely, was his sensing his mommies pain. Micah kept us up most nights and constantly on our toes and so we definitely at this point feel sleep deprived.

Like I said, there was a bunch of stuff that we wanted to do and that we had planned on doing. For those of you whom regularly support us, we wanted to get you all a special Christmas card from Haiti, but we just ran out of time. It certainly doesn’t mean, though, that we didn’t want to or we didn’t try, or that we don’t think about you, or we don’t regularly pray for you, because all of these things are simply not true. We are truly grateful for all our supporters, because it is with your prayers that we know things were not worse than they were and we know that things will get better by. Things never seem to be normal, straightforward, and easy for Lorraine and I, but we appreciate the lessons we have learned and the growth we have felt because of them. You know what they say (or at least what Steinbeck says), “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”

Blessings!