Juggling Multiple Roles as a Missionary

Office in Petionville, Haiti

Hmm...people keeping asking me to outline what a "typical" day in my life looks like. Oh my gosh. It kinda makes me want to laugh because I don't know that there is a "typical" day in my life or a "typical" day in the life of really anyone that lives in Haiti, or a typical day in the life of a missionary, but I'll give it a try.

Our life is very complex. We wear so many different hats and have to adapt to changes perpetually. I will try to outline just an example of what our schedule looks like when things go well in Haiti (or in our lives).

I work/serve/volunteer in my office in Petionville 2-3 days a week (usually two specific week days and every other Friday). This depends on details of unrest or being called "on the scene" I guess you could say at times. On a good day, it takes 20-30 minutes to get to my office from our home. On a bad day...hmmm...well...maybe hours.

Play therapy area for children

Processing Grief and Loss

In my office in Petionville, I mostly see individual clients (or couples). I have fish that I am thankful for and I kinda/sorta have air conditioning in that office (which perpetually does not work- in fact my ceiling fell down the other day, but that's a minor detail). It's a nice little relaxing atmosphere when things go well. Some of the clients I see are children, missionaries struggling with transitions, expat/ngo workers with a range of variables, victims of sexual assault is not uncommon, victims of shooting or witnesses to shootings is also not uncommon, individuals that have been held hostage, individuals with a whole range of trauma that I guess I'd rather not go into detail about.



It can be ultra sad stuff to be brutally honest. But one good thing that I hold onto is that this life feeling HARD is a really good thing. The reason it is good, is that I do still care. I am not numb to the suffering of others or the serious concerns of trauma on the field. Being numb would maybe make it easier, but I also realize that is a dangerous place to be (when we begin to no longer FEEL what we do on the field).

Trauma Workshop for Teens

I also assist with marriage counseling, couples therapy, adoption therapy, attachment therapy, and on and on.  These things are actually "less" stressful and help to give me a more balanced work load to prevent burnout in myself. It is difficult for me to share "what" I do because of confidentiality, but on the other hand, I want to be transparent with donors. We NEED funding and people do need to have a general idea at least of the types of things that we do. Probably under 20% of my client base are paying clients (some at very reduced rates). I'm pulled into a lot of unique situations that do not have specific funding (trauma related situations of evacuating individuals with mental health needs or crisis situations). I am not "good" at saying no, but that is a whole different topic. I am getting better at saying no and we are certainly praying about what we can do for "free/volunteer/reduced rate" compared to the percentage of full pay clients with overhead and we need to actually eat also.

On the other two weekdays (and every other Saturday), I work in my new office in Tabarre (which is upstairs from Pizza Amour). This is all the way across town where it is HOT and dusty. Usually it takes me about an hour and a half to get to this office, but it can take three or more hours when there are issues. In that office, we have hired an amazing local social work student/staff who is assisting with group therapy, research studies, individual therapy, and helping with a range of workshops we are currently offering. I'll attach some examples. I'm excited about what we are offering in this location. As Stephana begins to work more directly with the local population, we will increase our ability to offer more mental health services. We work within sex trafficking, sexual abuse/assault, orphan prevention, transitioning out of orphanages, transitioning into independence, parenting classes, men's groups on respecting women, rape prevention, trauma healing groups, etc.

Teen Trauma Workshop

So...five or six days a week I am doing therapy essentially in one form or another. I continue to see clients on Skype in the evenings or early mornings and have begun to have clients in various countries throughout Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Online, I work mostly with missionary/expat families that are raising children with trauma on the field (often through adoption) as well as teen adoptees and adult adoptees. It is a unique niche where I think there is a great need. I would appreciate anyone spreading the word regarding my Tuesday night Free Live Streaming from The Chance to Dream Facebook page https://web.facebook.com/thechancetodream/?ref=br_rs  as well as the availability of appointments for services. https://www.schedulicity.com/scheduling/AAFRZU

Assessing children for Malnutrition

As a family, the bulk of what we do is sustainability in a range of ways and preventative services.  I'm sorry to so blatantly say this, but there is essentially NO money in preventative or sustainability programs. The resources we "used to have" and the resources we have now are night and day different. We NEED your help! If we were to step in and "save" the orphan child, it pulls at heart strings, but doing programs to prevent children from being poverty orphans doesn't get much funding. If we are stepping in to "save" a child from sex trafficking, there is a different ability to recruit funds than if we are working with the girls/teens/boys years after they we removed from abusive situations. These children and adults are are still working through their trauma and conditioning that has developed due to their early history. Without this long term support, they often go back to where they were before they were "saved" from whatever fate they were in.

Medical Care in Haiti- with Vanessa and Julia
This is someone bringing a baby to our house
which is not uncommon

When we step in and "save" children from starvation and feed them and show a starving baby and now a healthy baby, there is funding for that (and we do some of that as well), but there is essentially NO funding for preventing that baby from starving in the first place or funding for long term job creation programs so families can feed their kids. If we step in and open an orphanage and "save" children from the streets, there is funding for that, but if we are seeking out the families that have placed their children into orphanages when they were not in fact orphans at all and we try to help assist the family in parenting their child, there is essentially no funding for that. If we open a medical clinic and we serve hundreds or thousands of patients and bring in US doctors to prescribe medication and "save" patients from eminent death, there is funding for that, but if we go out to villages and do preventative medical care without prescribing medications that cannot be purchased here anyway, there is virtually NO funding for that.

Hiking to Noevelle Terrain

We used to work in orphanages and adoption for years. I worked in medical clinics for years. I held the dying babies and "saved" the dying babies, but the Lord has really opened our eyes to the "how can we prevent this" thought process. What can/should we be doing BEFORE it reaches that point?? Our focus now is very educational and preventative.

View from the hike to Noevelle Terrain

We do also serve in two different villages way up in the mountains in Haiti. We work alongside two local pastors in their services of these villages. We do not take "ownership" for our service in these villages. This is also confusing to people. Where is YOUR school or church or clinic? Hmm...yes, we have helped to build a school and a church (or two) and a clinic, but they are not OURS. They belong to the villages. The villages built and are instrumental in the projects. We are in the villages and we are hands on. We continue to provide funding when we are able to.

We try to hike into Noevelle terrain every month and offer educational training as well as provide periodic medical clinics, working on a plan to get not only clean water, but actually a water system to the village (since they lack water entirely , help with agriculture, we've done a TON of building assistance, and we assist with discipleship and evangelism as well. We "try" to go to the other village every week and help with a range of projects, but we are very intentional about being on "the side" in these villages. We want to enhance and support community ownership instead of promote a continual handout and produce amazing things (schools, churches, clinics, feeding programs) that would all completely fall apart if we were not here. And no- we don't have any intention of leaving Haiti, but we do not want to develop programs that are dependent on foreigners in general.

Medical Team in Ecuador September 2017

Ron and the kids assist in all kinds of projects for both of these villages (some of kids build and translate and pack supplies and help with clinics or VBS). I mostly stick to the organization of implementation of medical care within these communities (bringing out teams when we can, transporting some starving babies to malnutrition clinics, HIV testing and follow up, blood pressure clinic, following some on chronic conditions). We are hopeful to have an amazing friend/missionary who is nurse midwife that may be doing some training within the local matrons to help reduce infant and maternal mortality rate by increases prenatal care and education of the community. I still do medical teams to Guatemala 2-3 times a year and once a year to Ecuador as well as implement training with first responders (fire fighters, paramedics). 

In Home Visit with Dr. Diane in Guatemala

Teaching Gymnastics for Missionary/Expat Kids

I do a lot of workshops and training on Sustainability and Self-Care and so part of that would be why I am involved with coaching gymnastics and teaching crossfit. We have Crossfit and Poker every Sunday night at our house. I also teach at a dance studio every week and offer homeschool gymnastics and gymnastics for expat kids periodically. We hope to rent the Olympic Stadium possibly four times this year and do classes for expat kids. There are not a lot of healthy outlets (or outlets at all) for missionary kids to sustain on the field.

Teaching Gymnastics at the Stadium with Children's Home

We NEED your help to keep doing what we do here on the field and throughout The Caribbean and Latin America. We do not draw a salary from The Chance to Dream or from any other organization. We are blessed to be a part of World Outreach Ministries which serves as our home office for personal funding. This connection allows us to do more on the field and spend less time with administrative details. We need your help in serving and helping many organizations serve more effectively on the field. Would you consider partnering with us monthly? We are doing a strong PUSH to increase our monthly donations in order to stress less about how in the world is the Lord going to work out these details of our own survival.  We know that God is good and is BIGGER than finances, but we urgently need your help today!

1. DONATE ONLINE!

https://www.worldoutreach.org/index.php/missionary-support-2
(Select our name from the list and follow the prompts) There is an option to set up monthly donations.

2. MAIL CHECKS TO:

World Outreach Ministries, Inc.
P.O. Box B
Marietta, GA 30061
(designate for Ron & Linda Sheppard #546)

3. BILL PAY - via your online banking which can set up monthly donations as well

World Outreach Ministries, Inc.
(designate for Ron & Linda Sheppard #546)
P.O. Box B
Marietta, GA 30061

Please email us: Haitimissionaries@gmail.com  or Linda@aafcs.net or Message us on Facebook: The Chance to Dream just to let us know if you begin to partner with us monthly. We want to thank you personally, but this also helps us track donations appropriately and see where we are at with recruiting funds. We are seeking 60 partners in 60 days and are in need of 50 more partners currently. God Bless you and thank you for your continued prayers, love, and support!

Love,

Linda for The Sheppard Family in Haiti (Ron, Christelle, Talitha, Billy, Roseminique, Melissa, Jordan, Steevenson, and Noami).

Joseph, Kenneth, David, Phuong, Maliya, and Julia are doing well stateside. David is set to move to China in three weeks! Praying for him as the Lord leads him to serve in my mother's homeland. Julia is pursuing nursing at Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas. We appreciate your prayers for our grown children as they navigate life independently.