Transition is a weird thing. You are trained on it, you read about it, you hear about it from countless others and yet until you actually go through it, you can’t fully understand and process what all comes with TRANSITION! Moving to Haiti was a BIG event, a big life change for our family and transition has been the process of us adjusting to that.
The first several months, including the holidays, had some tough moments for our family as we missed everyone and everything we held dear back where we lived all of our lives up until this point.
It has been so REFRESHING this past month, in January, to feel like we have taken a new step in our transition. We still have our moments for sure, and I am sure we have many to come but oh the beauty we have found in this month.
We feel like we are finding our FEET here, our groove 😉 We are slowly building our circle more here, which helps us feel more connected. It will never take away from the family & friends we miss and love dearly back in the states but we praise God for the brothers & sisters we have here that we get to work with daily.
We were both able to serve with teams in January. Jim helped the first team of the year, who stayed local in our area to help build a home for a very deserving momma of 6 children. April went out a few weeks later with a church from Nebraska to Policard, which is high up in the mountains here in Haiti. We get to help be the “bridge” between both cultures & languages. We are praising God for two people that came to know the Lord in Policard! Countless lives have been encouraged, changed for eternity and given hope this month through the three teams we had that came here.
When not out with teams Jim helps with any welding projects, other projects they give him around the office and depot and is the one that helps fix the community internet issues when things go wrong. He also is taking language lessons and helping teach April how to drive in Haiti. He also helps with the boys homework after school and other family happenings in the evenings. He also drives to the local airport almost weekly to help pick up our community mail from Agape Missionary pilots.
While not out with teams, April spends half days at the office working with the Hope for Kidz team, taking pictures of the day to day happenings with RMI to share on social media and occasionally going out on day trips where teams are, to capture with photography what they are doing. She is focusing on learning the language and learning how to drive here in Haiti as well. The second half involves helping the boys with homework, playing with Zeke and just being a momma!
The boys are so loved here by the RMI staff. The teams have been so kind with them too and there are usually a few from each of the teams that really love spending time playing with the boys and helping them. Our boys talk about it and really appreciate it, they can tell when adults are “kid people”. One lady was a momma of 4 or 5 boys and she let them talk her leg off one lunch, about sea creatures, Wild Kratts & Coyote Peterson. She became famous in their eyes when she shared she knew all those things too and that one of her sons was on an episode of Coyote Peterson!
On non-team weeks, during the week days we get up around 6:30 and get the boys to school by 8 and we head to the RMI office for morning devotions before we start our day. We pick up the boys at 1pm from school and have lunch outside with our house staff. One of the things we love is holding hands together and praying before we eat lunch. The rest of the day consists of homework, and other community events we may be a part of and family time. Team weeks, it looks a LOT different and is a lot busier but we love it!
We are so grateful that our solar system is all installed and has been providing electric for us beautifully. This came at the perfect time because of some things here where we live and the house we live in and so we thank God so much for providing us with solar system. What a blessing it has already been to our family.
We PRAISE God that we are in contract again with our home. We are praying it goes through this time on the buyers end and all works out so our home can be sold!!! Please pray with us for the complete sale of our home. Thank you so much!
We praise God for the language we have learned in the past almost 6 months. We have a long ways to go but it’s so neat to see where we have come. When April was out with the team a week ago, she teared up one time as they were singing and she realized she knew enough of the words to understand what the song was about.
We have so much to be thankful for. He has shown us so many things along this journey here in Haiti and our lives are forever changed because of it.
We love you all & will never be able to share with you enough, how much it means to us that you are praying for us!
Love,
The Starkeys
To Haiti We Go 