Update on Hurricane Efforts in Haiti

Many of the posts were on Facebook, but I'll try to begin to add to the blog and attach. Some people do not have FB and have asked me to post on the blog instead. 

This is the Thursday after the hurricane Matthew hit Haiti:

Ron spent most of the day seeking out access to supplies and cost of supplies. Time moves slowly here and most of the warehouses to get supplies are on the other side of Port au Prince near the airport (which is a long ways from us in the mountains). It does appear that stock of supplies for the most part will not be an issue. We are still trying to find sheet metal for the roofing and we have not purchased building supplies yet. We did purchase a chainsaw in order to help get into some of the areas we have not been able to reach. In Belot even, it is hard to access many of the people's homes. Nouvelle Terrain is even harder to access. We have purchased bags of rice also made food arrangement to transport rice and beans to the village. We're now working on gathering a scouting crew to hike into the more remote area and assess damage.

The church in Nouvelle Terrain

Unfortunately, that will probably not happen until Saturday or Sunday. We are though in touch with Pastor Saint Pierre. He says the church has collapsed, so they could not use the church to house people that lost their homes. The "church" was actually very much just an open area with a roof. It was not ever entirely enclosed. This is where we set up our tents when we hike in with medical teams and also when we hike in without teams and do education training and VBS.

Ron is making calculations to have a better idea of cost of repairing each home in Belot and then we will do the same in the other village. We have only touched the surface so far in Belot and have yet to do a complete assessment of the other village. It is not a simple process. These are remote areas that are hard to access even in good conditions. We have been in contact with Operation Blessing and hope that they may be able to provide some materials. Any help for these areas is greatly appreciated! Praise God for the cooperation of other ministries. Approval for these types of things in larger organizations tends to be more complicated, so pray that details can be reduced and organizations can work together to help those in need. Thank you to all that have helped and continue to help. Supplies of food and medications are being purchased so far.

Billy helping in Belot

Billy's family in Les Cayes: no news yet. Reports that I see in that area are not good. Destruction was vast. Many are without homes, food, water, etc. Crops destroyed and livestock killed. Billy's family are very poor farmers and in fact the reason he ended up in an orphanage years ago had to do with a drought one year that took out their means of living. Their children were starving and Billy was a younger child that was not able to work and help support himself and the family. He was placed in an orphanage so that he would have food. This is a very complicated problem that people should consider when they are "helping" in a time of need.

When the tsunami and earthquake hit the Indian Ocean in 2004, I worked for an adoption agency. Many people called the agency wanting to adopt the children that were orphaned or displaced. People wanted to help the children. I get that. I have a soft heart for kids and of course want to help children as well. When the earthquake hit Haiti, missionaries actually were arrested for trying to take children across the border into the Dominican Republic to "save" them.

Nouvelle Terrain medical clinic

This is Melissa, Steevenson, and Billy in orphanage

Please remember in times like these (natural disasters), children have families. Even if they were in fact orphaned by both parents, they have extended family. Many will relinquish their family members in order for the child to survive, but why are we as missionaries or mission organizations or humanitarian aid organizations opening up more orphanages to help children instead of helping the families feed their children? Or helping the children reunite with their family if they were separated?

Sheppard Family

We have 14 children, 12 of which joined our family through adoption. Seven of our children were originally adopted into the USA by well meaning adoptive parents that did not end up continuing to parent them. For the most part, they simply were not prepared to parent children with trauma histories. Most people "assume" that we are adoption advocates, but I'm not sure that I would use that term to describe ourselves anymore. Orphanages and adoption....it's heartbreaking to me. I see these options as band-aid solutions to a much bigger problem. I love all of our children and we are blessed to call ourselves family, but I would not choose for them to be separated from their first family. 

Please consider helping organizations that are on the preventative end of orphanages and/or adoption. For years before moving here, I used to work in processing adoptions from Haiti and from other countries. I worked in orphanages and saw the incredible need. I saw the mothers or family members bringing their starving children crying and begging the orphanage to take their child. We stopped referring children under a year old because such a high percentage of them did not survive. They were too far gone by the time they were admitted to the orphanage. Our son Steevenson was one of these very sick children that barely survived. He was hospitalized numerous times and just had difficulty recovering. He still has side effects from his years of starvation. The orphanage would put many of these children on an IV and a feeding tube and provide as best as they could, but it often was too late. Months later they would die. It was heartbreaking to witness and also heartbreaking to call the adoptive family in process and say their child passed away.

The loss of livestock and crops and homes and access to clean water produces this kind of outcome - families that simply cannot feed their children and the children will die. In what is normal everyday circumstances in Haiti, the children are already dying from severe malnutrition. We see children with bloated bellies and orange hair from starvation in these villages regularly.

The challenges are overwhelming. I fear that many people focus on statistics that the hurricane did not bring as much loss of life as expected. Many believe Haiti has been spared. I praise the Lord that much of Haiti was spared from the immediate effects of the hurricane. Some areas were not impacted really at all. And yes, it could have been so much worse. But I also think many people do not quite grasp the long term effects of a natural disaster such as this in a country with such limited resources to begin with.

Please continue to pray for Haiti in the days, weeks, and months ahead. If you feel called, consider donating to one of the many organizations on the ground in Haiti or to contribute to our efforts with the little villages we are involved with www.thechancetodream.com

Your continued thoughts and prayers are greatly appreciated!! 

For Such a Time As This

Being a missionary is hard....

Ron's mom passed away this past week.

There are hard moments in life where it seems the Lord sends a certain scripture or song for encouragement. I am so thankful for those moments!

For such a time as this
I was placed upon this earth
To hear the voice of God and do His will
Whatever it is

I am here
I am here
I am His
For such a time as this
~Paraphrase of Esther 4:14 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXcJUIAJNW0)

I have had the great blessing of being able to hike out into some very remote villages here in Haiti.  When I stand on top of the mountains, I truly feel the presence of God. I think of my grandparents in times such as this--walking from village to village to evangelize. They lived in the middle of unrest. They lived in the middle of war. They experienced incredible hardship, but they held strong to their calling.

When we were first called to the mission field, we thought we were called to China. We even had accepted a position in China over 15 years ago. And then my mom was diagnosed with cancer for the first time. And God told us to wait....and so we waited.... and waited.... and waited on the Lord.

And then finally.... God said Go....

We went to mission organizations. We talked about what the Lord had laid on our hearts. Or maybe I should say, we tried to. We were quickly told, you have too many children to serve under our ministry. Most mission organizations have family size limits for those they send on the field. This was funny to me because I had never read anything in the Bible about limiting the number of children you have in order to serve God. 

This is how we ended up essentially as "independent" missionaries. We were called and so we went. I am not doubting God during this difficult time. I know He has it ALL in His hands. But I will say that there is a reason mission organizations limit family size. To be truthful, I still don't think it's right or biblical, but I do understand the fear and concern. Since we moved to Haiti, my mother passed away. And now Ron's mom has passed away as well.


Our family watched the memorial service of my mother through the blessing of video streaming. There were no physical arms around me from immediate family standing next to me at the memorial service. Thankfully, my grown children, other family members, and many friends were there, but my husband and our younger children were thousands of miles away--across the ocean in Haiti. They were not able to attend their grandmother's service. It was certainly NOT in our budget to drop over $15K to come back for a funeral.

Mission organizations typically transport families home during these times. They also pay for furlough and medical insurance and many other things that we've simply given up. We have opted to rely on the Lord for His continued guidance, protection, and blessing.

Ron has traveled back to the States and will stay there for two weeks. I'm staying behind with our kids in Haiti.

This is HARD.

But then I think of my history and my heritage. I think of my mother who had to travel two months on a Naval transport ship back from China. I think of her mother dying while they were in China. Her family members were not present. There were no international flights at that time. I think of my grandparents who would receive a telegraph days or weeks later notifying of births, deaths, and important events back in the States. There was no internet streaming, Skype, Pinger, WhatsApp, or Facebook or Instagram.  Nothing was instant. Now though, from just about any remote village, we have the ability to access the world--even if the connection may be unreliable.


I was not raised in a Christian home. That is a long story that I hope to share more about someday. I barely knew my grandfather and (step) grandmother. They were across the ocean in Asia continuing to serve the Lord. I am not sure that they ever realized it, but while they were evangelizing around Asia, they were also evangelizing a young grandchild back in the States.

I would spend hours wondering: what would cause someone to give up everything and serve the Lord? What would compel someone to go to a far off distant land to preach the gospel? Why would they do that?  This impacted me greatly. I admired their sacrifice. Although my mother was traumatized by her life and her upbringing, she held high respect for their calling.

I came to know the Lord as a young adult. And since that time, life has not all been easy. In fact, life has been really, really hard. But God has continued to provide abundantly. We have been able to purchase a plane ticket for Ron to travel back to the States for two weeks. When my mom passed away, we were blessed with the ability for me to travel back to Oregon as well. We serve a mighty God!

Thank you for all of your prayers and your support! We love you and couldn't be here without You. Please keep Ron and his family in prayer this coming week. God has placed so many amazing people in our lives. Thank you!!

Off to Guatamala !

Once again, Mom is leading another mission trip down to the country of Guatemala. Earlier this year, Mom wrote about the work that she does there with The Chance To Dream. A quick summary is that The Chance To Dream is a non-profit organization which was founded by a friend of ours with Mom as a co-founder primarily focusing on the improvement of education in Guatemala.

Bringing in teams with medical expertise and medication offered freely to the populace is already really good, but couple it with psychology trauma training for the firefighters, involving the community in recognizing and treating common maladies with sustainable methods, as well as supporting the teachers of the village schools with the team members trip expenses and you've got an efficient four-birds-one-stone scenario which everyone loves!

On this particular trip, the team is mostly nurses and nursing students who will be serving in Santa María de Jesus alongside the local Bomberos (firefighters) who've graciously assisted in the past by allowing the team to set up their clinic at the fire station with the Bomberos providing valuable assistance. The team is planning to spend five days seeing patients sharing love with the community in Santa María de Jesus. After the five days of clinic with the team, Mom is staying a few extra days in order to hold a seminar with the Bomberos regarding teaching about child trauma.

Trauma in Guatemala is a very serious and prevalent issue. Drugs and alcohol have long ago reared their ugly heads and they flagrantly disrupt the lives of many. Cartels have infused themselves within the society and scores of young children are recruited by them to carry the drugs, often times becoming the victims of gang violence which contributes to Guatemala having one of the highest child homicide rates in the world. This is night-and-day different from the trauma in Haiti--which is also everywhere you look--primarily because the poverty doesn't afford the chance for anyone to even
think about drugs and alcohol in order to make it a problem.

It is by no means a hopeless situation. Important, meaningful changes happen all the time and we are thankful each time we visit for the opportunities God has given us to be such positive influences on the lives of so many people both young and old. Thank you for all of your prayers and support!

God Bless!

Chasing After Crazy Life Decisions

Hello everyone! I'm David--one of the Sheppard kids--here to update you on some of the goings-ons with Mom, Dad, and the rest of the family in Haiti.

If I had a nickle for every time...
Every time I find myself talking about my incredible family, my eyes are met with incredulity from anyone who hasn't heard about them before. Fourteen children, homeschooled, and now living in Haiti as missionaries. Certainly not a typical family so it's easy to understand their surprise. And really, it's very exciting to share of God's faithfulness to us. Of course, it's then only natural to wonder at the circumstances which ignited the fire of courage to make these difficult decisions.The answer, of course, is complicated, convoluted, and confusing enough to fill the pages of a decent sized book. So as not to bore you--or bore myself and hurt my fingers typing--here's a reader's digest gander into our life decisions.

The simple answer is that God's called us to serve and we've done our best at responding to that call whenever we hear it. No matter the circumstances. An example I've heard my dad use many times is that we've never known where we'd get the money to complete an adoption upon commencing along any of our 12 adoption journeys. In spite of the perceived impossibilities, each time a figurative door shuts a window is opened (yeah, yeah...I know it's a cliché but sometimes clichés are true). Finding those windows has made for a host of exciting and, perhaps, unorthodox life decisions. Some have called it crazy. "How can you do that to your kids?!" they question, as if living a life contrary to American normality is borderline neglect.

Many other people seem very impressed and we've been blessed with enthusiastic friends who've consistently contributed their time, skills, prayers, and even their finances to support us and sometimes carry us through our more difficult times. Even still, I can't tell you how many times people have told me that they couldn't do what we do. A fantastic friend and former neighbor of ours even nicknamed our mom "Supermama". A more perfect nickname I know not. But it promotes the idea of being abnormally special when the reality is that we're not any more or less special than the barista serving coffee at a Starbucks in California or the CEO of a Fortune 500 company in New York. The most special thing about our lives is a gift which God has freely given to all who choose to accept it.

And really, that's the center of it all. The very core of our decision making process. That's also the reason we have a difficult time answering the question of what we do. From Guatemala, Ecuador, the USA, and Haiti, we've been doing our best to simply keep Jesus at the center and trust God to meet all of our needs. Is that crazy? If so, then we'll continue chasing after the next Crazy Life Decision and trust God will catch us every time we fall.

The Briefest of Updates

Hello everyone!

I'm David--one of the Sheppard kids--here to update you on some of the goings-ons with Mom, Dad, and the rest of the family in Haiti. 

Hello everyone! I'd just like to preface this by saying that much has happened in our tumultuous yet blessed lives since the last post. I would like to give an overview of all of it, but that'd take too much time. So for this post, I'll share with you Mom's speaking engagement at the Orphan Summit last month. Also, there's another mission team leaving for Guatemala in a couple of weeks so please keep them in your prayers! 

Mom was invited on behalf of Chosen International to speak at the Orphan Summit back in early May this year. For any of you that don't know, the Orphan Summit is an event hosted by the Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO) with the aim of equipping people to care for orphans with wisdom and love. To those of you who know my mom, it must be very shocking to learn that she often is asked to speak about adoption, orphans, and attachment.

This time was no different. Mom taught a workshop on adopted teens and--more specifically--how important adoption advocacy groups, ministries, and churches can collaboratively support families with teen adoptees. Sounds very interesting, don't you think? I said as much to Mom and asked how she thought the workshop went. 

"Well," she said, "one of the women attending apparently didn't like it. I got some negative feedback from one person afterwards." The thing is, sometimes people want answers that don't exist. There are a lot of people who would gladly take Morpheus' proffered blue pill and live in a false reality. It's impossible to please everyone and even to attempt that is completely impractical. Sometimes the overwhelming difficulties people face causes a show of bitterness to anyone who reminds them of their pain. It's a natural response.That being said, someone from the popular magazine Adoption Today seemed impressed and even contacted Mom wondering if she'd be interested in writing an article on the subject of Teens in Adoption.  

Anyhow, Mom's other workshop was a gigantic success and she tells me she had a good time at the Summit this year. Her next trip is going to be to Guatemala from June 21 to the 29. It's a fairly small team with only 8 members including my mom. They're planning on providing medical care and education in Santa María de Jesus.

Traveling can be very tiresome and even a little dangerous. Please remember them in your prayers this month as they seek to alleviate physical ailments while--more importantly--they trust God will use them to minister spiritually to those they come in contact with.

That's it for now. Thank you so much for your love, prayers, and just general support you've thrown our way!

~God Bless

Ecuador

I'm sorry for the lack of blog posts. We continue to serve day in and day out in Haiti. I'll try to post some updates on Haiti soon. We just had an amazing medical team leave yesterday and the week before we did trauma training as well as some sustainability training for missionaries.

But....for this post: I'd like to say a few things about Ecuador. I've been in the planning process of gathering a medical team to Ecuador for many years. Up until this past year, we really felt called to place Ecuador on hold as we settled in more fully to life in Haiti and continued with our ongoing projects in Guatemala.

This year though, we felt strongly called to look at Ecuador again. One of our sons is from Ecuador, so suffice it to say, Ecuador has a strong place in our hearts. I began the process of details for a team going down many months ago. Doors began to open. Amazing things happened and connections on the ground have been incredibly generous to offer their support in logistics, but also their support in lodging (thank you so much Robbie!).  It looked beneficial to fly down to secure some details prior to a full team, so I booked a flight for a quick trip before the orphan summit (which is the first part of May). And then the Earthquake happened....

I will still be going down this coming week to make some plans for the September team, but an added focus has been added to the trip. Unicef is saying that at least 150,000 children have been affected by the earthquake. I think most people are aware that I specialize in trauma, attachment, adoption, and abuse. Most are probably also aware that we personally have 14 children that have suffered from significant trauma histories. Assisting families in distress is dear to my heart. Helping relief workers to serve more effectively within trauma is needed. Many relief workers run themselves to the ground without taking time to make sure they are ok as well. We hope to assist those on the ground that are helping others.



I will be flying into Guayaquil and driving 2.5 hours to the coast where I will be staying. I will then drive another 2-3 hours north to where destruction has impacted so many families. Please keep Ecuador in your thoughts and prayers! My understanding from people on the ground is that the news is under reporting the devastation. Reports are showing hundreds of aftershocks that continue. The country is in need of much love and support!

I will be stopping in Florida on the way to Ecuador and plan to purchase supplies to bring down. If you feel called to help financially with supplies or would like to help with baggage expenses, your assistance would be greatly appreciated. No donation is too small and all donations are tax deductible. 

Now the we live full time on the field, we realize more fully how destructive "drop in" missions/help can be. For this reason, we will be directly helping those that are already in place in Ecuador.

Donations can be sent to:

The Chance to Dream (reference Ecuador in memo line)
4208 E 32nd Avenue
Spokane, WA 99223

Or donations can be made online: www.thechancetodream.com

It would be helpful if a message could be sent to me at linda@aafcs.net regarding the donation and specifically how you would like the donation to be spent.

The Chance to Dream is a small non profit without any paid staff. Tana (fellow founder) lost her dad to cancer this past week. Please keep her and her uncle Bob, who lost his brother (also fellow founder) in prayer.

Why Guatemala....

I often hear this from people: Wait a minute...I thought you were missionaries in Haiti. Why are you going to Guatemala all the time? Hmm...

I wish I could answer this easily, but all I can say is that the Lord often calls us to many things in life. Many years ago, I believed strongly that we were called to China. My grandparents were missionaries there for over 40 years. My mother was raised there. My first daughter was born in China. But...somehow the Lord had different plans for us than what was "obvious". The Lord continued to open our eyes and lead us to other countries in Asia and then to serve throughout Africa. He has since lead us to serve and focus our energies in Latin America and the Caribbean.

 

And what can I say about Guatemala other than it truly has my heart. This is a painful thing for me in many ways. I feel like my heart is with my grown children in different places and then also with dear people around the world. The bulk of family is in Haiti and my heart continues to be here as well. The good thing is, God is bigger than all of these logistics and details.

Back in December, I had the incredible opportunity to travel to some very remote villages in Guatemala and was able to assist in opening a high school that will serve students from 16 different villages. The Chance to Dream truly began in these villages years ago and our commitment remains within these villages and students. I think I was on 7 different types of transportation (chicken buses) for 14 hours traveling back from the villages. It was a windy, bumpy road with people crammed in and well....it wasn't the most pleasant experience. 

BUT...I do still lead two medical teams a year to Santa Maria de Jesus (near Antigua) and these teams have an involvement in helping to sustain the village schools. Each team that I bring in to either Haiti or Guatemala (or Ecuador), our intent is that we will of course bring the hope of Jesus to others, but also that we will be involved in sustainable projects on the ground vs. just drop in for that one week and do the best we can.

 

Please keep Guatemala in prayer and the students. We need funds to keep this program running and continue to pray for guidance regarding this process. And please consider joining a team to either Guatemala, Ecuador, or Haiti. I bring in a very limited number of teams (4 teams to Haiti a year, 2 to Guatemala, and 1 to Ecuador), but what they do is crucial to assisting with sustainability in country.

The end of January, I will have a medical team traveling to Guatemala. We will overlap that team with much needed trauma training for the fire fighters as well. We are beginning to expand upon trauma training and continue to see such a great need for mental health services internationally. 

We are blessed beyond measure that the Lord has entrusted us with this incredible task of serving internationally. We covet your prayers and especially think of friends and family members back home in the States. We pray that each one of us with faithfully walk with the Lord wherever that leads us. 

 

Thank you everyone for your love and support!! I'll attach some random photos below. :)

~ Linda and Family

Link to the Fundraiser for the school in Guatemala