Year Two and a Half Marathon

Friends and Family,

We are quickly approaching our one-year-anniversary of living and serving in Haiti with the Hands & Feet Project.  October 25th marks our first year.  What a year it has been!  We have walked through joys, trials and tragedies with our Hands and Feet family. It has emotionally been a gigantic roller coaster for us, but the Lord has remained the same, and is our rock. We couldn't be more confident that this is where He has placed our family.  I get choked up when I try to explain how much we love our kids and staff; they are truly our extended family.  We're also blessed beyond measure to work for an incredible, integrity-filled organization.  We're excited to head into year two, and all that lies ahead!

As we near the end of our first year, we are raising support to fill in the gap of our upcoming 2012-2013 year.  We are incredibly blessed by those of you who have thus far financially sacrificed to allow us to serve in Haiti with Hands & Feet. We are humbled by your generosity, but more importantly your donations have gone to help the orphaned and abandoned children in Haiti live in a loving, Christ-centered family such as this one.

This is 'Kay Yrmithe' (Yrmithe's house). She(in the lower right corner) is the head house mom, and Rosanie (to the left) is a nanny who lives with them.  The boys in this family include Marvensky, Richnaider, Wadley, Modlaire, Stephane, Cadet, Willcharson, Edmond, Nickenson and Jeziman. They are one of the 7 families on our compound in Jacmel.

There are a couple of ways you can support us for the coming year.  On December 2nd, Stephen is running in the Las Vegas Rock-n-Roll Marathon with team Hands & Feet (along with the new, recently re-launched Audio Adrenaline).  He is running the half marathon. If you would like to make a donation per mile, please click HERE, then scroll down and click on the icon for Stephen Mulligan to fill out the sponsorship.  He's been training each evening when the heat gets *slightly* less intense.  The boys and nannies are cheering him on….they think he's going to win this race, and Stephen is content with letting them think that!  We won't tell them he's just aiming to finish well :)

We are also in need of a few more more monthly donors.  If you feel led to join our monthly team, click HERE.

Please remember that financial contributions are not all that we need.  We covet your prayers!  We would not be in Haiti today if not for all the prayers and encouragement we have received this year.  We feel your prayers each and every day.  The Lord continues to remind us that we cannot do this on our own.  Serving here is so much bigger than us or an organization.  It's about the body of Christ coming together for His purposes and to make him known - to orphans, to Haitians, and the rest of the world.  We are so grateful for all who have joined 'team Mulligan' and those of you will will join us for year two!  None of this would be possible without your support, so on behalf of our family, ALL of our kids, and the Hands & Feet Project: Thank you!

A precious little life

Words can't express the emotions we've gone through in the past month.

We had a precious little boy head to his forever home in Heaven a little over a week ago.  Woodley Pantaléon, born November 18, 2010 was a special little boy loved by many.  He had many health issues that he struggled with on this earth and was in the care of doctors quite often during his short life.  So much so, that we had transferred him to a home with a large medical team on staff that cares for kids with medical problems such as Woodley's. We wanted him to receive the best medical care that he needed, which is hard to find on this side of the island.  A few days later we were informed that after a severe seizure, Woodley went home to be with his Father in Heaven.  This saddened us, his house mama Emilia, and many others who cared for him tremendously.  He was brought back to Jacmel to have a funeral service with his Hands & Feet family on Tuesday.  

It is very difficult to put into words all that has gone on and the roller coaster of emotions, so I will share what my husband spoke at Woodley's funeral:

     Brothers and sisters, all of us are gathered here to celebrate the life of Woodley.  We loved him as our own.

     The God that we serve has bigger plans for us than we can imagine.  He is sovereign and just in those plans.  He knows that every situation and trial is for his glory.  They test and refine our faith.  

     Woodley's short life was a gift to everyone.  He has a special place in the heart of his biological family, Mama Emilia, Magalie, Miss Diane and all the rest of us in his Hands and Feet family. 

     It was a miracle that he survived his first few weeks of life, a miracle that he lived as long as he did, and a miracle that he is now at peace with our eternal father in heaven.  

     His body is no longer suffering.  May we be filled with comfort knowing that he is embraced in the arms of Christ.  Woodley knows the future glory that we can all anticipate described in Romans 8: 18-25. 

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.  The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.  For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.  

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.  Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spriti, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.  For in this hope we were saved.  But hope that is seen is no hope at all.  Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently."

     We love you Woodley, but God loves you more. Welcome home.

si dye vle

Most all of you have heard about the tragedy that happened to our Hands & Feet family last Friday, August 10.   On a weekly beach outing, our precious six-year-old, Junette, was swept out to sea (We did find her body two days later).  I will write/reflect more about the story soon, but I just want to ask for prayers as we're still in the whirlwind of heart-ache, funeral preparations, counseling/loving-on the kiddos and staff, as well as all the social-services/local government meetings that have to be had.  The funeral is tomorrow, August 15th at 3:00pm.  Please continue to pray for our entire family here at Hands & Feet in this time of sorrow....and joy, as we know that Junette was adopted into her forever-family in heaven this week.

In the midst of another struggle and tragedy, I'm constantly reminded of a few things:

1. I have a great God who is in control, sovereign, and loves us

2. I have a pretty spectacular husband. for real.

3. I love my mulligan and hands & feet kids to pieces, and cherish every moment I'm gifted with them.

4. I have to end all of the plans I make for tomorrow and beyond with "Si Dye vle".....a Haitian phrase that is always said meaning, "If God wants/wills." They literally say it after every plan, and it's so true.

Thanks for all the love and support!

                                                   

                    Love you, Junette

summer and a mid-year resolution ;)

It has definitely been a while since we've posted!  The spring and summer have flown by, and we're just a couple months away from our one year mark in Haiti. Crazy!  I want to catch you up to date on what's been going on in the last few months and reveal my 'mid-year' resolution: to have a new blog post each week!  Hopefully this will enable me to tell some of the little stories, big stories, or just funny happenings along the way, without having to have big, long update posts :)  So hold me to it - I'm committed!

Our summer has been full of kids home from school (yes, we have 68 kids + 3 Mulligan's) and many groups volunteering their time to come serve with us!  It takes a lot of extra energy to host groups, but they are also a huge blessing to us at Hands & Feet.  They've added summer time activities for our kids, served our staff, and have put in a lot of hard work in the intense Haitian heat!  We have almost all of our buildings newly painted, new gardens planted, and tons loose ends fixed up around our compound thanks to all these people who decided to spend a week of their summer with us.  We can't thank you enough - not only for your work, but the amazing encouragement you provided our family this summer was priceless. I truly mean it.  I can't forget our volunteer, Natalie, who came down to help us out with our kids this summer.  In the midst of our busy group season, it was a blessing to have an extra set of hands to help us out with our own kids.  It's quite an adjustment moving somewhere with 3 little tots and not having your babysitters anymore - especially on top of a demanding job. We really appreciated having Natalie for close to three months.

Check out Caleb an Bryan from our TVC group from Nashville, going the extra mile to get the second story painted :)

The kids got out of school at the end of June.  They got to enjoy a couple weeks of freedom from schedules with plenty of free time and no school work before we started our 'summer schedule'.  With the summer schedule, they have lessons to review school work each morning from 8:30-10:30.  We've also had extra activities scheduled that the kids have signed up for such as cooking class, gardening, and crafts, along with our usual beach and hiking trips each week.  The lessons and classes have been nice to keep a little structure in our day.  We have a few more weeks, and the kids will be heading back to school.  A lot of them have told me they're already ready to go back!  We're looking forward to the new year ahead!

just hanging out with Melissa

Jameson :)

Some groups come in with some fun stuff!

Book fun

The pool that lasted at least a couple uses before popping!

This summer we also enjoyed our first planned rest-time home!  Let me tell you, it was much needed and wonderful!  We had fun on vacation with my family on Table Rock Lake, and also had some good time to visit the rest of our family and friends in Iowa.  We appreciated being able to *mostly put our stress aside for a couple weeks and catch up on rest!  We miss you all!

cousins!

Ouch! Grady has really learned how to swim well this summer - go buddy!

fishing with Grandpa

The kids always have a great time on Grandpa Ed and Grandma Mary's farm!

Overall, life in Haiti is always interesting to say the least.  There's always a new disaster waiting for us around the corner....whether it's our generator breaking, or some other dramatic happening (think about it - we live in a very small space with close to 100 people, of whom most are under 10!) We embrace those disasters around here as a chance to build character :)  And yes, we have had a lot of those chances.  An interesting verse that was brought to our attention this summer was Proverbs 14:13: "Even in laughter the heart may ache, and rejoicing may end in grief."  It sounds a little depressing, but this accurately describes a lot of what we've gone through this year.  God has taught us a lot about his faithfulness over the last nine months.  It's not that He makes everything work out perfectly, nor has happy endings for every situation.  He does, however, walk along side of us in every circumstance, chips away at what we don't need in our life and builds up the things we do need!  Haiti is an incredibly hard place to do ministry, have a marriage and raise your family.  I definitely picked the best partner ever in this endeavor; Stephen and I celebrated our 7th anniversary last month.  The kids and I are so blessed to have such a great husband and daddy!  There's nothing this guy can't fix, or wouldn't do for us.  Love and appreciate him more and in new ways each day!

Prayer requests:
*Please pray for our family.  As I just talked about the craziness of Haiti life, just pray for unity in our marriage and time to spend as a family.
*Our kids - Haitian and American :) Grady, Ella, and Mikah are doing great here, but they're still in the first-year transition which is a big one.  Pray for our Haitian kids as we're getting ready to start a new devotion series with them....that ultimately they would all come to have a relationship with Christ who is the only person who can fill that hole in their life and heal the wounds of abandonment. Also for the end of summer and their upcoming school year!
*Our staff-we have some Haitian and American staff transitions coming up.  Pray for this to happen smoothly and for God to build up the team he has chosen to serve at Hands & Feet in wisdom and unity.

the silent funeral

An emotional day here in Haiti.  It started a few days ago when IBESR (social services) came to Hands and Feet with a story of a little boy named Toto Leon.  He was a 12 year old boy at an orphanage in Jacmel.  He had epilepsy and was unable to walk for the past two years (for unknown reasons).  He had a seizure in the middle of the night and died.  He was taken to the local hospital St Michel and placed in the morgue.  This was on March 5th!  Now, the 2nd of April, the hospital had called social services and said that no one had come to claim and bury the him.  The orphanage where he was staying didn't have the funds and the hospital was going to dump the body.

It seemed like a far fetched story and without the time to check it all out was reluctant to help out.  We were prompted by the spirit to help out financially and trusted that God would work it out.  The next day, another missionary called with questions about the story and verified that it was true and they were looking for funds to give this abandoned child a dignified burial.  Over the last week, it has been beautiful to watch IBESR gather funds from other Haitians , Damou Ministries and Hands and Feet to complete the preparations for a funeral today.

The visitation was at 2:30 this afternoon.  There were five people there, none of which personally knew or had ever met this child.  The funeral was moderately attended by people who had interacted with him at his local school and some people from the orphanage he lived at.  My heart ached for the life this child had.  Here at his funeral, who really knew and loved him.  I longed for someone to be crying for him, for him to be missed, for a family to be comforted.  There was none of this though.....

It made me question if his death was really an answer to his prayer for a family.  That Christ had gleefully embraced Toto who came running to his true 'forever family' back on March 5th.  As we prepare our hearts for the celebration of the crucifixion of our Savior, let us crave the family that is promised in Christ's death and resurrection.  What a comfort that will be when we are embraced in his loving arms and may we all desire to be with him in our 'forever family'.    ~ SM

"Michael Haiti"

Some days around here are crazy and fun.  Others are sad.  Yesterday was one of the latter days.  It was a busy day of language school all morning, catching up with all the day-to-day work that has to be done on our compound during the afternoon, as well as hosting two different groups of visitors that stopped by throughout the day.  

At one point, we received a phone call from IBESR (Haitian social services) saying that they had a "2-year-old" boy that had been abandoned in a gutter that morning.  They asked if we would take him because they had no place to bring him.  We said to definitely bring him over when we heard he had nowhere to go.

In the afternoon, IBESR arrived with the little boy.  He definitely was not 2-years-old, it was obviously just a guess.  Our best conclusions are that he is around 4-years-old. We noticed right away that he has some serious mental and physical disabilities. His teeth are all rotted out, and he can't talk, stand, or walk - potentially a reason his mother/caretaker abandoned him in a gutter.  IBESR tried tracking down anyone who knew of him for any information, but had no luck.  Without a question we took him in and had temporary custody signed over to us(Hands & Feet) so we could take some time to figure out what is best for him and what his needs are. "Michael Haiti" was the name they wrote down for him on the paperwork as they had nothing to call him.  Let me tell you how much it breaks my heart that we didn't/don't even have a correct name to call this precious child by.

What happened next melted my heart.  I watched about 5 or 6 of our girls take in the child who smelled awful, and change his soiled diaper, bathe him, powder him, put him in some clean clothes, and feed him without being asked. "Li ka dòmi nan kay nou! Li  

                                              

ka dòmi nan kay nou!" (He can sleep in our house, He can sleep in our house!!) is what they kept shouting. I wanted to cry, as our girls saw this boy just as God sees him....not a smelly, useless kid for the gutter.....but truly, truly precious.  Tamara named him, Michael.

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Psalm 139:13-14

We did find him a great home today.  The friends taking him are well-prepared to take on a child with special needs and get him any tests, assessments, and medical care needed to provide him with the best home possible.  So in preparation for them to take on custody, Stephen went into town today and applied and received a birth certificate for him (yes, in the same day!). They also got TB and HIV tests done.  The good news is that he was HIV negative!  Tomorrow, our fellow missionary Matt and I are taking him over to his new family.  Our girls are sad to see him go, but we're confident he is going to be very well-loved!

A thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." - John 10:10

To all our faithful supporters, family, and friends,  I apologize for the lack of updates from us.  We have had an intense and trying first 3 months in Haiti.  A lot has happened, and every time I sat down to write an update, I just couldn't get anything out.  What do I really want to say?  What am I "supposed" to say?

Well, in my last post I stated that the Lord prompted us to send our children home for a while after a string of armed robberies were happening to (mainly) missionaries in our area.  Friends, was I ever thankful for this prompting and protection from God!

We feel that we need to share some details, as to accurately give due credit to the power of God and his protection over our family, friends, and the entire Hands & Feet Project, and what He has delivered us from.

A couple days after I returned to Haiti, my worst fear happened.  At around 1am, a group of 7 armed men broke into our compound.  They started in one of our girls' houses.  It was a house that I happened to be sleeping in that night.  About an hour and a half before that, I went up to sleep with one of our fellow missionaries, Stacie, because I couldn't sleep and I felt it would be a safe house to stay in if anything did happen. After all, the robbers were after money and electronics.....things that weren't really in that house...

It started with a loud crashing noise and Stacie and I flew off our bunk beds and scrambled into the shower where a lot of little girls poured in, and with trembling fear in their eyes, clung to us.  We knew exactly what was happening the moment we heard the crash.  It was our turn.  The next thing we knew, there were 3 armed men, standing there demanding that the "white girls" come with them.   They were leaving the children alone, so we immediately surrendered and with immense fear went where they drug us.

To be honest, the next hour was the scariest hour of my life.  The men took us at gunpoint through our compound, demanding all the money we had, and stole anything else of value in sight.  After us, they broke in and got Stephen.  Later they took 2 very close friends of ours who flew in that day to help us put up additional security on our compound, and finally involved another fellow missionary shortly before leaving.

The scariest part was that everything we gave them never seemed to be enough.  Visions of fellow missionaries' robbery reports flashed across my mind, and I was waiting for gunshots to start firing.  Would it be me, my friends, my husband?

For the last half hour, we were surrounded by the armed men in the middle of our compound, while others were in looking for more money.  Nowhere to go.  Nothing to hide behind. We had never been in such a vulnerable state.  Ever.  Stacie started to get a little panicked at this point as her foot (later we found out was broken) was throbbing from the fall off the bunk, and we were feeling a super defeated and helpless.  We were praying constantly since the first minute, but at this point of desperation, I started to pray out loud.  At one point, I just started whispering Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus is right HERE with us. Jesus.


Let me attest to the power in his name alone. In those moments I felt the presence of God in a way that I can't even describe.  I literally felt this force-field type hug around my group of friends.  Psalm 34:7 says, "The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them."   We all are confident that the Lord sent angels to to "encamp around" us that night in the courtyard.  Eventually the men let Stacie and I go, and we fled up to the girls room as fast as we could.  A few minutes later, Stephen came up to tell us that all the men were gone.  Not a single shot was fired, and not one of us were physically harmed directly from these men.

While I was praying in the middle of the compound that night, the thing that kept going through my mind was, "All we have is the armor of God."  I will never read these verses the same again.

Ephesians 6:10-18  "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.  Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  In addition to all of this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.

Now, don't get me wrong, we were terrified and felt super hopeless at times.  But that night, I feel like God handed each one of us that shield of faith to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Somehow, we each had this peace from God that passed all understanding.  This peace that allowed us to stay calm in such an unfathomable situation.  No matter what the outcome.

Moving forward.....the next day, under the direction of our director and board, we moved all the children off our compound and to our sister site in Grand Goave.  We stayed there for about a month.  Grady, Ella, and Mikah remained in the states with my parents during this time.  Stephen and I got the opportunity to go home for about six days for some counseling and rest during this time period as well.  When we returned, we worked on sprucing up our compound, had an amazing group from Washington come and help re-paint each of our houses and build new lockers for EACH of the 66 kids at Hands & Feet.  We got some full time security, the robberies died off (we've heard positive reports this group has pretty much been caught) and a couple days before Christmas, all our children returned back home, to new houses and Grady, Ella, and Mikah returned with my parents!

Yes, that was the extremely SHORT version of what happened after the robbery :)  It was a difficult process to work through, and we're still working through it, but we have strongly felt the Lord's hand on us throughout ALL that has happened.  He took our children out of the situation, and also protected us and the rest of our staff and children.   In all honesty, we've wanted to run back to perceived safety in the States, but we cannot deny God's presence walking along side us here.  This is where He wants us, and He continues to show us this every day.  We've experienced many arrows thrown at us, but our battle is certainly not against flesh and blood, but against the evil one.  And the Lord has already claimed that victory for us.

So for now....we continue to walk out one day at a time.  God has turned this awful event around and used it for GOOD and his purposes!  More on that to come in a different post!

A HUGE thank you for all you that have continued to walk along side us in prayer and support....even with a lack of updates.

And I promise to keep you all more informed of the every day adventures in our lives and how God is moving at the Hands & Feet Project :)