What an amazing outpour of love & encouragement we’ve received via comments, messages and in person as well, since we announced last week about us moving to Haiti into the mission field. Already many of you have asked some GREAT questions that I thought I could answer in this blog to help clarify some things. We are an open book so feel free to reach out anytime with questions about our journey.
When are you moving down there?
Our organization’s goal is to have us down there by the end of 2018. There is much to do and we are very needed there. Our goal and hope is to have our funds 100% raised by this time next year! We will live there 100% fully dependent on individuals, families and churches who decide to partner with us and sponsor us monthly, quarterly or annually.
Where do we donate and when do we start doing so?
Our organization has a great website where you can set up your monthly recurring payments on there so you don’t have to worry about it once you do it the first time. You can go HERE to donate online or if you’d rather mail in a check you can send it with a note sharing it is for Jim & April Starkey, to Reciprocal Ministries International 5475 Lee St. Ste. 301 Lehigh Acres, FL 33971
If you feel led to become a part of our ministry family and partner with us by donating monthly to us, we would greatly appreciate it if you can start the support IMMEDIATELY because we don’t get to go until our support is coming in 100%. As monthly support comes in now, while we are here in the states raising support, it will help build up our one time moving costs funds that we need before we move.
So what’s next?
So we are in the deputation stage, which is just a fancy way of saying that we are in the waiting period of the missionary journey where we are seeking God about who He will use to be the hands to send us to Haiti! We will be connecting with churches that we know or have connections with from people we know who go there, to see about either speaking at the church and/or getting support from the church. We will be connecting with individuals and families as well, as God leads, to share our calling and story with them and financial needs and see how God might use them to help us go to Haiti. Within the next week we will be sending out close to 300 prayer cards (picture of our family) and newsletters to people that help explain our journey a bit more and how they can support us! (If you’d like one and haven’t let us know yet, please do so soon)
To be honest, saying YES to obey when you don’t see the whole picture or even how it’s going to happen is quite scary. We immediately thought, could we raise the funds needed to support us in Haiti? The answer was simple…NO we couldn’t….not by ourselves. However, God has been showing us how He is using this part of the journey to grow our faith in huge ways. We may not be able to raise all the funds we need, but He sure can. He has shown Himself faithful to us time and again so we have no doubt He will not fail us now. He is reminding us that HE may be the one who can “send the water” (story of elisha and the 3 kings) but He wants US to “dig the ditch” first. Meaning that He will provide, He will stir in people’s hearts and lead the people He has chosen, to be the hands to send us BUT He doesn’t want us to sit back and do nothing or sit back in fear and worry constantly either. He wants us to STEP OUT IN FAITH, work hard, share our calling, our story and what He is wanting us to do. As we step out in Faith and action, trusting Him, He will provide the funds we need at the time He decides, for us to move to Haiti!
We want to leave you with 3 things for now!
1. Would you please be praying for us during this journey? We would love to have prayer warriors on our side praying for us.
2. Would you please pray this week about yourself or family partnering with us and being one of our monthly supporters, whatever the amount would be. We need the support to start NOW so we can get the thermometer moving up and get 100% funded so we can move down there to start helping. If you’d like to hear our calling and what all we will be doing and how we are needed down there, please let us know. We would love to share!
3. Listen to THIS song today. These words have moved me in a mighty way. God doesn’t need us, but yet He still wants us! That is mind blowing y’all! Oh how He LOVES us and somehow that FREES US to take our hands off of our life and the way it should go and give Him control.
Our plans, our dreams, our intentions, our obsessions…we lay them down at God’s feet. We know that no matter what we had planned for our life, God’s plans are SO MUCH BETTER and worth it. We step out now, we know God has called us to Haiti, and we know God could use anyone. We are NOTHING without Him. We want to make Him known. We want to help bring freedom to people that can only be found in Him. We step out, we may quiver and even shake at times but we trust Him because He’s never failed us.
Love,
The Starkeys
To Haiti We Go 