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| The Ream Team Summer 2012 |
Many of you pray on a consistent basis and it has been amazing to see God open doors of ministry inside and outside our school this semester. Thank you for doing your part and praying for us. Please keep praying. We truly believe the best is yet to come.
Some of you are faithfully supporting us financially and enabling us to eat and have a roof over our heads. We are very blessed to have seen God take care of our basic needs this year. I truly mean this. A couple of times we have wondered where our next meal was going to come from and a couple of you made a deposit into our account and we praised God for you and for Him providing through you. Thank you for being that role player. May God continue to bless you as you are obedient to Him.
One man outside of our gate at school has worked in the same spot for 7 years. We invited him and his friend over for a meal. He told me that was the first time anyone in 7 years had invited him inside the gate, not to mention to their home for a meal. We have enjoyed building these relationships and could because of YOU, our teammates, in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
A number of college age and young adult men and women have sought us out over the last couple of months. It started with sharing the gospel with 12 guys. Some of these have continued to seek out a relationship with us and visit our house each week. This has opened the door not only for discipleship but also to speak at a language school close to our home and share the gospel with about 40 students at a time. Please pray for wisdom and direction for what God could be beginning through this open door.
We are continuing to work on Creole so we can have the deeper conversations of faith and life with so many more people who do not have a clear understanding of the gospel. I worked with 70 plus students in getting them to think about the gospel. The students have written down at least one person they know who needs to hear the gospel. Now we are all praying and preparing to share our God story with our one. Please pray for the students as they are continuing to be challenged with the gospel and its eternal impact on them, their family, friends, country and world. Thank you for being a part of OUR team in Haiti.
My favorite of many more opportunities to share the gospel came at the end of this school year. One of my stated goals before coming to Haiti was to be able to share the gospel completely in Creole before the end of the year. That opportunity came and we are so excited to see God become everything to this young man. He has a heart for people to know how they can have eternal life. Yesterday he asked two people very dear to him if they had a relationship with Jesus Christ. They knew the Savior and that brought much joy to him. His parents both died in the earthquake and he has been separated from his siblings. He was unsure if his parents knew the Lord and this was one of his first questions to those who knew his parents. Yesterday he told me that he wanted to make sure the young people in his country know that Jesus Christ is the way to have eternal life…it does not get much better than this folks!
We love that many of you have partnered with us in a variety of ways for the sake of the gospel in Haiti and around the world. I hope this has brought a smile and tears of joy to know God is using YOU in Haiti. There will be Haitians in heaven coming to thank you for feeding them, giving them a drink, praying for them and helping the Ream family to live, teach, and be faithful to share the gospel in Haiti.
We had originally hoped to return to the states for the summer months with our entire family. We had previously planned on this because we thought surely our girls would have their passports and visas by now and the break from school would allow us to leave work in Haiti for the summer. We left a lot of loose ends back in Texas because the doors opened for us to come to Haiti so quickly. Renters have moved out of our house, new renters moved in (but we are not sure how long they will be staying because we thought we were coming back and had that arrangement), family members had to move into a much smaller space and relocate our personal stuff we were storing there, 2011 taxes have not been accomplished, financial support needed to live in Haiti has not yet been raised for 2012...those kind of loose ends. Those were the things we were planning to tackle when we returned for the summer months. But those are not the things we were looking forward to. Longing for the day we would reunite with all our loved ones in Texas and Illinois is what we were mostly excited about this summer. When it became clear that our hopeful plans were not to be, we asked the Lord what other plans He had in mind and that we would be just as excited about staying in Haiti for the summer. We know the loose ends will continue to unravel but we are trusting the Lord's timing and provision and doing all we can from this end. We dearly miss our family and friends but our hearts have been so encouraged because of all those who we have been able to see in Haiti!
Just because school is out for the summer doesn't mean there is nothing to do around here. We are excited about this time to get to know our neighbors better, work on Creole, visit churches in our community so that we will have a better knowlege of churches we can recommend to students/families (our little missionary fellowship house church is taking a break for the summer because most everyone else is traveling), spend time with our family, work on all those loose ends, prepare to teach upcoming classes, continue to work toward passports and visas for our Haitian girls, hang out with seasoned missionaries, hosting teams, encouraging adoptive families, assisting in various children's ministries, womens ministries (KOFAEL), along with all the Haiti craziness that presents itself daily!
Because we are unable to come to the U.S. this summer to raise prayer and financial support for all that God has us doing in Haiti, we ask that you would consider a one time gift, or become a monthly support partner with us in Haiti. We are excited to watch and see how God will provide for us as He has faithfully done in the past. The truth of the situation is this, we are under budget by $1500/month for our basic essentials (meaning that is the bare minimum we must raise very soon). This does not include insurance, ministry expenses, or a vehicle. We would love to be able to travel more and accept offers we have had to serve in remote areas of Haiti, but we have not been able to afford the expenses to do so. One thing we really need is a reliable vehicle and the support to keep it reliable (Haiti roads are hard on vehicles). Access to rent a vehicle is not always easy nor is it inexpensive for our family of six and our many regular visitors. We would like to purchase a vehicle soon. Please pray and ask God if He would have you partner with us!
Here are some recent family pics we took in May at the beach. We were blessed to take some friends and their adoptive kids along with us and stay in a dear friends beachside apartment. The Lord provides in many ways! We are lovin' our summer in Haiti!
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| Ethan and Evan |
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| Daddy and his girls |
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| Mommy and her girls |
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| The boys had no interest in taking any more family pictures! |
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| Our beach beauties |
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| Elita Marguerite and Esmée |
