Author: To Haiti We Go

There’s been a few specific things that have been very heavy on my heart lately. These have been my prayers to God as we make this transition in the mission field.

Be with us God. Go before us, prepare and show us the way.

Help us to not worry so much about how “productive” we are, but how close we are to You, the vine. Knowing that if we stay connected to You, You will provide and show us everything we need and what we need to do. When we are overwhelmed, You are not!

That we would do Kingdom work, not mens work. That we would be aware of the Holy Spirit more everyday so that in every situation, we would sense His leading in what to do or say.

That our agenda would come from You. That we would seek You first each day, before we try and figure something out on our own.

HOW YOU CAN PRAY FOR OUR FAMILY:

1. Pray for us as a family to consistently and faithfully stay close to Jesus, the Vine. To seek Him above our work and ministry. Knowing that HE is the whole reason we are doing what we do.

2. For language learning. For us to do what we need to do, learning the language is crucial. Please pray for us to learn Spanish and continue getting better in Creole.

3. For our health. Praying for good health for us all so we can focus on making our home, community and ministry there.

4. For our family to find its new rhythms and times together in the DR, to grow as a family together and in the Lord. We both feel very strongly that the most important work we can do is in our own home. We don’t want to ever neglect our family who God has given us for the sake of ministry.

5. For Zeke to love his new school and teacher. For his teacher to be a wonderful fit for him, that would be exactly who he needs.

6. For the last half of our extra monthly support we need to come in, in the next 45 days before we move to the DR.

7. For Agape to be able to fix their broken plane in Haiti and find more pilots. For our items to be able to arrive before or right when we move to Santiago, Lord willing.

8. As we venture out into the unknown, creating as we go, to help get this field for RMI up and running on the ground. There is so much work to be done, so many people to help and only our family so far to do it. So please be praying for our strength, energy and wisdom on starting this ministry in the DR. Pray for future staff and missionary families/individuals to come join us in the DR as part of this ministry as well.

Prayer is so powerful. Prayer changes things. Thank you for praying for our family and this ministry God has led us to. You are doing AMAZING things for His kingdom!

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THANK YOU FRIENDS!

Love,

The Starkeys

This week Jim and Micaiah went down to Haiti, to pack up our house there and say goodbye. I held down the fort here with the other 3 kids.

It has been a busy week and an emotionally hard week. Jim and Micaiah shed many tears throughout the week, especially at the end as they said goodbye to some of the staff we had at our house who became family to us and then saying goodbye to the home we’ve known since 2019.

As they walked me around the house via video, I cried as well thinking about all the memories we made in that home. Thinking about all the fun, all the crazy, all the good and even all the hard moments we had. I especially remember the hard because I now look back on those moments and see Gods faithfulness all over it and how He deepened our faith in Him and drew us closer to Him.

This room above was a little side room behind our bedroom and this is where I homeschooled the boys. This is where it really hit me because I have some of the sweetest moments, deepest talks and wonderful times in this room with my family. Memories I will always cherish. The room looks bare and stripped down now but in my mind I see it how it was when we were doing school.

Remembering some of the post it notes we did on each side of one of our sons bed, when he was dealing with different fears and such. These verses and quotes were there for him to look at and read at night to remind himself to the truths before he went to bed.

Jim spoke this morning at devotions. He shared with me how he couldn’t share much and he had to keep his sunglasses on because he kept crying so much. Working with the RMI Haiti staff was such a joy for Jim. He became so close with many of them, some of them are his dearest friends and brothers in the Lord. It was an emotional time this morning as he officially said goodbye.

Although we are still working for the same mission organization, we will be in a different country and will not get to see our brothers and sisters there in Haiti as much and so its a “see you for now”, praying that we will get to see them again one day soon!

Throughout this week, sweet Carline and Meritha came in everyday to help pack up our house and cook amazing food for the boys. We will miss eating lunch with them everyday.

I wish these last photos were including our whole family but for various reasons, we all could not be there. These ladies, wow, they hold such dear places and will always hold dear places in our hearts.

We could not have survived living in Haiti without them. They brought us so much joy. They encouraged us in our walks with the Lord. They loved our family fiercely. I will miss hearing them hum or sing as they went about their day. I will miss all of the laughter we’d share together over things the boys did.

Carline and her twin daughters (top picture) are family. They will forever be family. Carline has been Zeke’s best friend and he has been her sous-chef. She is not only the most amazing cook in the entire planet and we were so blessed to have her, but her faith in God inspired us. The way she prayed for our family and took care of us was so beautiful. She showed Jesus’ love to us every day!

Her daughters have been such a huge help since we have been back stateside. They go over daily and take care of Reesie our dog and take her on walks etc and make sure she is fed and ok. We are so grateful for them.

Meritha who is in the last photo above, was the lady who helped clean and take care of Zeke when I was schooling the bigger boys. She could handle Zeke well. She was the most thorough cleaner who did it so well and efficiently. Such a hard worker in all that she did! She was amazing with Zeke.

To say we will miss them, there are not enough words. We are forever grateful to God that he placed them in our lives. We still stay in touch with them and they us, almost weekly.

Now we are on to the next season in our life. Transitioning out of one country and into another. We just got the call this past week that the delivery guys from the appliance store in the DR delivered our appliances that we had to buy for our home there in Santiago.

We leave rural Haiti, with a huge yard, country life, walking around the village, riding our ATV, and having chickens and animals to city life in Santiago. I will look out my window and see a barbed wire wall and we have a strip of grass instead of a yard. We won’t be able to have chickens there as well.

However, even though it may take some getting use to city life for us country folk people haha, we are so grateful for the home that God blessed us with there. We are so grateful for that strip of grass and plan on making the most of it and I already have hopes of finding someone to paint a small mural on the wall area where I look out and see from my kitchen window. We are grateful we get to bring our dog Reesie as well, which is such a blessing.

Honestly, it’s all how you look at it. We close one chapter and we open another. We had no clue what laid before us 5 years ago when we moved to Haiti. Now we again have no clue what lays before us as we move to Santiago. We are confident in the Lord though, knowing He will not fail us!

Stay tuned! More details coming soon. 1 1/2 months until the move, Lord willing!

I was thinking today how we have just under 3 months left before we, Lord willing, will be moving our belongings and family from Haiti to the Dominican Republic.

It’s getting exciting and very real for us, especially as we hear more and more about the needs of the people spiritually and physically there, both Haitian and Dominican.

To be with Haitian and Dominican communities, sitting with the people, hearing their hearts and stories and asking the Holy Spirit for guidance on what to do.

To be with teams when they come down, helping them prepare their hearts and being that bridge between the two cultures and languages during their trip.

Our hearts are wanting to help the people there so much. I’ve been finding myself praying for God to show us daily when there, where He wants us each day, leading us to the people He wants us to pour into. Whether it be spiritually or physically or both.

We have a big task ahead of us and we are excited. Being back here stateside during the high-risk pregnancy with Amelia, God has not taken missions out of our hearts and has only made it stronger. We are ready and excited for this next step!