Here we are...

“My abundance and your emptiness are a perfect match.

I designed you to have no sufficiency of your own.”

                                       (Sarah Young, JESUS CALLING)

And there you go……

If that’s not a kick off to a Happy New Year then what is?! 

Sarcasm aside, this devotional was a great reminder for me today.  Our emptiness is a perfect match for God’s abundance.  As we experience the close of one year and anticipate the start of a new year we know full-well we proceed not in our own sufficiency. 

2 years ago we were gathering last minute things and relishing in extended family time, preparing to leave the familiar to start a new journey in the unknown.  A journey to Haiti. 

Our first year was supposed to be our ‘adjustment period’ and a time for building relationships and laying the ground work for great things God placed on our hearts to share.  We didn’t come bringing answers or remedies for current issues in this, our new environment, but solely a hope and love for this place we soon called home.

This time last year we were celebrating a hard but good first year in Haiti and looking forward to tackling fresh goals and growing with the community we had adopted as family.   3 days into the new year, however, our world came crashing down and our hopes were shattered.  With news that we had 2 months to find a new place to live, we immediately started unraveling.

We tried to make sense out of what just didn’t make sense.  Not only did we lose funding, we lost friends we considered to be family and we lost our church community.   Our happy new year wasn’t exactly happy and just like that, 
                                            a whole new adjustment period began. 

With faith that could barely be called such, we begged for direction.  Without answers, we let go and set out into the unknown...again.  We wrestled, we questioned, we doubted, we screamed, we cried, we pleaded.  We trembled with fear and we approached the throne, but with less boldness than before. 

After visiting 9 places and sleeping in 5 different locations during the first month of our search for the “next”, we were relieved to find a spot that could house us for more than a week at a time.  The staff and people of Heartline loved on us and helped restore our belief in the church as it’s meant to be but while we fought for a reignited passion, I argued repeatedly that I had nothing left to give.  It was during my weakness that God quickly reminded me that I never did.  

An incredible couple passed the baton to John and me as we took on the role of Guesthouse managers and once again our emptiness was a platform for His abundance. 

As we continue to grow (and argue about our limits some days) (still begging for a house of our own), we praise God that we are being restored, for GREAT is His faithfulness!

If you are empty, I hope you can take hope in knowing that it's ok to show up bringing your nothing.  God has enough sufficiency for us both to have abundance!

“Be strong. Take courage. Don’t be intimidated…Because God, your God, is striding ahead of you.  He’s right there with you.  He won’t let you down; He won’t leave you.” 

Deuteronomy 31:6

We wish you and your family a very happy NEW YEAR as we enter into 2015....

Christmas Joy

The only thing falling from the sky this Christmas was the occasional mango bomb.  Our Christmas tree lights went up in smoke a couple of times (go Haitian wiring!) but trash was the only thing that actually roasted on the open fires in the village.  We didn't have matching pj's and our stockings were buried somewhere in Mississippi but OH..WHAT..JOY.... I loved spending the holiday with friends and THIS crew!

We are well and safe and so, so full - thanks to God!

What greater blessing to give thanks for at a family gathering than the family and the gathering. ~Robert Brault

Y

Home for Christmas

Home is a word that we've been redefining for almost 2 years.  Recently I left "home" to go back "home" to try and figure out some medical things before planning to come back "home"---all the while praying earnestly for a "home" that would be solely for us, our family of 6.

As we continue to fight consuming thoughts regarding walls to create a space we can call our own home, I am comforted to remember that walls don't actually create a home.  Nor does geography.  

"God, it seems you've been our home forever;

long before the mountains were born,

Long before you brought earth itself to birth,

from 'once upon a time' to

'kingdom come'-

You are God."

Psalm 90:1-2

*Quote from Alicia Bruxvoort taken from Proverbs 31 Ministries article.*



Wherever you will be this Christmas holiday, we pray you will be blessed and feel at home regardless of the address!  <><

Working Together

Several of you have asked us recently how to make an end of year donation or a financial commitment to help support our family and the work we do here in Haiti so we are including the list of ways here.  As self-supported missionaries, we greatly appreciate your involvement through giving!

***If you are interested in sending a gift to our family via check, you can mail it (along with a note in the memo line stating it is for Chappelear Family Support) to:

       Heartline Ministries 

     - Chappelear Family -

       P.O. Box 898

       Sunnyside, WA 98944

OR to:

       McHenry First Baptist Church

            Chappelear Haiti Fund

       1476 W. McHenry Road

       McHenry, MS  39561

***If you would like to give an end of year one time gift or sign up to give a monthly gift to help cover our family's ongoing costs of living in Haiti, you can click here.

***If you would like to set up an auto deduction gift you can fill out the form located here.  

AND ***if you would like to give to the Heartline Ministries- Haiti General Fund, you can make a donation here: General Fund. 

All monetary gifts are tax-deductable.

“We have been challenged 

by the unprecedented opening of doors 

for evangelism.  Working together, we can seize

the opportunities 

that God keeps placing before us.”