Author: To Haiti We Go

June Haiti Update!

To Haiti We Go

HAVE YOU HEARD THE BIG NEWS?

If you haven’t heard the good news yet, we are in contract with the sale of our home. Praising God for His guidance in this. Please continue to pray for things to go well during the inspections & appraisal & some other things we need to get done before closing on the 8th of July. Thank you all so much for praying for the sale of our home.

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WE’RE LEAVING ON A JET PLANE…

We wanted to share some dates with you all and some details so you can be praying for those specific things for our family. Thanks so much!

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June 17th – We will be heading down to RMI US office in Florida for a few days of Haiti prep & doing our budget.

July 8th – Closing date for our home. Please pray for all to go well & smooth so that our home will be officially sold on July 8th.

July 13th- Jim & a friend will be driving the U-Haul truck down to Florida for all of our belongings to be put on the shipping container that will arrive closely around the same time as we will in Haiti.

End of August – We fly out of Ohio and head to Ft. Lauderdale for a night layover and then head out in the morning to Haiti.
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OUR NEW HOME!
Praising God we have a home in Haiti. We are grateful for our home that was the previous Field Directors home for the past 9 years and we are thankful to be able to now make memories in it with our family. There are 3 bedrooms just like our current home so the older two will stick together in their bunk beds like they are now and Zeke will get the smaller room all for himself. My prayer I had been praying for our home was that wherever we were, it would have a yard for our boys to play in and this one does, which we are so grateful for.
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WANT A PIECE OF THE PUZZLE?
To put it simply, we are not fully funded yet and even though we are moving down August 22nd, we still need monthly supporters. Would you consider helping us by joining our monthly support team? We will be doing our final budget for Haiti on the 18th and so if you have been thinking about joining our team, we would greatly appreciate it if you can join by the 18th. Thank you so much! Pick a puzzle piece below that you would love for yourself or family to donate towards our family each month, to help us serve in Haiti. To donate go to http://www.toHaitiwego.com/donate
The Starkey Family (1)
AMAZON TO THE RESCUE! 
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We have had many of you ask how you can help or what items we need etc so we were encouraged by other missionaries to make a wish list on Amazon of things we still need to get and bring with us, as many of these items would be very expensive to ship in once there. If you’d like to donate any of these items towards our move, we would greatly appreciate it. We will need to have any item donations given to us by the 13th as that is when Jim takes the moving truck down to Florida to put it on the shipping container.

AMAZON WISH LIST LINK:
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2SUXO4KXGWL0L?ref_=wl_share

HOW YOU CAN PRAY FOR US:

1. For the sale of our home to go through well with no issues.
2. For strength & wisdom for us as we pack everything up securely to ship over to Haiti.
3. For the rest of the monthly support that we need.
4. For us to finish well on this side, with spending time, making memories with family & friends.
5. Transition for the boys and us as we move and as the boys start school there. For Jim & April as they dive into language studies and acclimate to life in Haiti.
6. We would love prayer that God would help the boys find a good friend or more, to do life with in Haiti.
7. For speaking opportunities to share this summer, at churches/small groups.

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! YOU WILL NEVER KNOW HOW MUCH IT MEANS TO US TO HAVE YOUR SUPPORT & PRAYERS!
Love,
The Starkeys

 

Thankful for the scars!

To Haiti We Go

Today our sweet daughter Annabelle would be turning 8 years old. Her due date wasn’t for a few more months but she came early and went straight from the love she felt and knew in my womb to opening her eyes for the first time, in the presence of her Savior.

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8 years later the tears are less, the moments that are hard are fewer but she is still missed along with our other 6 sweet ones we lost in the first trimester, with a depth that is not able to be explained.

We had sweet moments from her ultrasounds, even an hour before delivering her, of seeing her sweet little body moving around inside of me. I had the privilege of feeling her sweet little movements and the absolute honor of delivering her into this world. Those moments will never fade. That day changed our lives forever. At that time, we felt we were stuck, we were frozen in time and would never move again.

 

8 years later, I am thankful for the scars I have from it. It changed me yes, but what the enemy meant to destroy us…God redeemed! The person I was 8 years ago is not the person I am today and I praise God for that. My brokenness brought me to God during that time. In the hardest time of my life when I only breathed because my body automatically did it, He used it to draw me to Him, to show me His faithfulness and grow and prepare me for the plans He had for me.

He would go on to use her life & death for SO MUCH GOOD not just in our lives but in others. Moments like the mother/daughter tea lunch at my parents church bring some hard moments still as I imagined her sitting beside me in a sweet little dress, hair all done up, sipping her tea cup with her mamaw, mommy and aunt. However, I don’t grieve like those without hope. Oh praise Him…I WILL SEE HER AGAIN! The day when I see Him face to face….oh my heart I can’t even imagine…and then get to hug all 7 of my sweet ones, now THAT will be a day! The way He has shaped me through the past 8 years, I will forever praise Him for.

 

So today I honor Annabelle Cherrea Starkey. I remember her sweet little toe gap just like her daddy’s. I remember her sweet little button nose just like mine. I remember holding her sweet little body and singing to her. Today I am thankful for her and I am thankful for what God has done these past 8 years. HE IS SO GOOD! This song captures EXACTLY how I feel about our journey from loss to where we are now, living in joy. Please read the words & listen to the song and be encouraged that whatever you are or have gone through…oh the good He can redeem through it and bring through it.

Waking up to a new sunrise
Looking back from the other side
I can see now with open eyes
Darkest water and deepest pain
I wouldn’t trade it for anything
‘Cause my brokenness brought me to you
And these wounds are a story you’ll use
So I’m thankful for the scars
‘Cause without them I wouldn’t know your heart
And I know they’ll always tell of who You are
So forever I am thankful for the scars
Now I’m standing in confidence
With the strength of Your faithfulness
And I’m not who I was before
No, I don’t have to fear anymore

I can see, I can see

How You delivered me
In your hands, in your feet
I found my victory

Happy 8th Birthday in heaven baby girl! We love you so much!

Love,

April 

A piece of the puzzle!

To Haiti We Go

Life has been moving as fast as a roller coaster here lately and we are sure it will only be speeding up these last 3 months even more before we move. We wanted to do a simple quick post to share a BIG need of ours. We have $750 more in MONTHLY SUPPORT that we need to have coming in on a monthly basis from various people, before we move to Haiti. We are so close from where we started and we praise God for that.

So we wanted to do something fun & unique…A PUZZLE GRID! When we get all these boxes filled up, we will have the $750 we need! Check out the image below and see if one of the boxes is something you and your family could commit to giving to us each month, to help support us as we actively serve in Haiti. We will be sharing this on social media as well as on here and as we get new monthly supporters in each of the boxes, we will reveal a part of the puzzle below until it is all revealed!

IT’S VERY EASY! All you need to do is pick a box of which amount you want to commit to each month and let us know which row/color/box you are picking.  Then click HERE to create your online profile on our organizations website and set up your automatic monthly payment. You can even pick the start date and how often you want it to come out, in case you are one of those that like to do annually instead! If you have any questions, please feel free contact us. Here is a short simple video that shows how to set up your support too: Video on setting up support

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! We are so excited to see how God brings in this last little bit we need each month.

The Starkey Family (1)

Love,

The Starkeys