Segaar-King December Ministry Update

Dear Friends and Family,             

The date we have chosen for the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015 is a bit arbitrary.  Because they use a Gregorian (instead of the Julian) calendar, many Eastern Christians celebrate New Year on or around January 14.  Orthodox Jews celebrate their New Year (Rosh Hashanah) in September!  Chinese New Year is in February.  Regardless of how we mark time, it is important to reflect on how God has blessed us in the past year and entrust the coming year to his loving guidance.  We give thanks to God for your prayers and support in 2014.  We look forward to another productive year in service to God’s people in Haiti in 2015.  May you have a blessed year in 2015!

Please join us in giving thanks for:

 -A fruitful trip for Zach to Haiti in December for an evaluation of the collaboration (called “Sous Espwa”) between Christian Reformed World Missions, World Renew and Back to God Ministries International.  Take a look at our blog for some of the lessons that we learned!

 -An opportunity to get in contact with our Haitian friends and ministry partners.  Zach’s visit was a whirlwind of phone calls, meetings, and activities, but we give thanks that things are going well.

-A few Sundays off from our church visits to rest and recuperate and healing from some pretty bad colds and cases of the flu.

Please join us in praying for:

-A BIG prayer request in 2015 will be for the organization of elections in Haiti.  Four years’ worth of election dates have come and gone, resulting in ongoing demonstrations and great frustration.  So far, the demonstrations have been organized and peaceful.  However, in 2015, the only official still serving a legitimate term will be the President!

-Upcoming surgery for Hannah and Isaiah to remove potentially cancerous moles from their skin.

-Our colleagues in Haiti who will be receiving an unprecedented number of church teams in January-March.  We hope to finish the Ministry for Christian Development’s conference center.

 -Zach as he tries to find time to work on his New Testament dissertation and Sharon as she works part-time at Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services as a chaplain in a Clinical Pastoral Education internship.

Thanks for your prayers and support,

Zachary, Sharon, Hannah, Vivian, Isaiah and Esther Segaar-King

Missionaries to Haiti through Christian Reformed World Missions 

What Does Christmas Mean?

The "grotto" at the Church of the Nativity where Jesus was born according to the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.

Another rock grotto in Bethlehem which could be the place of Jesus' birth.

Two out of four Gospels (Matthew and Luke) record a number of historical details about the birth of Jesus.  Both include genealogies, showing Jesus' biological lineage.  Both indicate that he was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the time of King Herod (Matthew), the rule Governor Quirinius (Luke) and under the reign of Caesar Augustus (Luke).  Jesus mother, father, family, and paternal home are all identified.  Why is this important?  Wouldn't the story be the same if we just had John's esoteric creation account ("In the beginning was the Word...") or Mark's report of John the Baptist's testimony of Jesus ("After me comes one more powerful than I...")?  When I first visited the "grotto" of the Church of the Nativity (pictured above) where Jesus was supposedly born, the images and decorations of the Eastern Orthodox tradition were unfamiliar.  Furthermore, I knew that it wasn't until several hundred years after Jesus' birth that this site was identified as Jesus' birthplace--meaning that one of the many of the shallow limestone caves in and around Bethlehem could just as likely be the real birthplace.  In the end, it doesn't matter where Jesus was born in Bethlehem.  What matters is that he was born in Bethlehem, under the reign of Herod, Quirinius, and Caesar Augustus, etc.

In Haiti, many evangelical Christians don't recognize or celebrate Christmas (or Advent) because of a perceived association with the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church.  This is sad because in Christmas we remember that Jesus is not merely an idea or spiritual principle (as many in our own culture would like to believe).  He is a historical person whose birth and life makes a huge difference to our world.  Since Scripture claims he is a real person, we are all faced with a real choice of what our response will be to the teaching and claims of Jesus.  Please pray that more and more Haitians would acknowledge the Christmas child.  Pray also for a renewal of faith in North America where we are comfortable talking about "God" and "faith," but not about Jesus Christ who gives us faith and allows us to know God.

Happy New Year!

Checking Up

Sous Espwa Team with World Missions and World Renew Latin America Leaders

Reflection in progress!

Human nature being what it is, one of the biggest challenges those in ministry face is working joyfully and effectively with fellow Christians.  For this reason Jesus spends a good portion of his final night praying that his followers "may be one" just as the Father and Son are one (e.g., John 17:11).  At the core of our ministry in Haiti is the collaboration (called "Sous Espwa") between Christian Reformed World Missions (our sending agency), World Renew and Back to God Ministries International.  These are three different organizations, each with different goals and a different organizational culture all working under the same roof and the same organizational recognition in the eyes of the Haitian government.  As if this weren't challenging enough, our staff members are Haitians, Americans and Canadians.  While the cultural distance between the U.S. and Canada isn't terribly broad, the cultural distance between Haiti and North America is quite vast.  And, what is perhaps the most challenging of all, there has been a large amount of transition on our team as long-time staff members and families have left and new ones have been recruited. That is why this December Zach flew back to Haiti to participate in an evaluation of Sous Espwa as an organization.   The exercise of evaluation was challenging and tiring, but also it was very exciting to see a new team (we're calling it "Sous Espwa 2.0") emerge.  We learned that there are several areas where our collaboration is not bearing the expected fruit.  We also rejoiced in the effectiveness of our "holistic ministry" strategy, as we empower Haitian churches and communities to meet the spiritual and material challenges that they face.  Some of the learnings were more lighthearted.  Our Haitian team confessed that maybe they could get up out of their desks and approach other team members instead of yelling across the entire office (this is a behavior of familiarity in Haitian villages) to communicate with them.  Our North American team members learned to be less vocal in staff meetings to give Haitian staff members space to consider ideas (the "flat" view of authority in North American culture is not shared in hierarchical Haitian culture where an authority figure's discourse ends discussion).  We give thanks for this great opportunity to learn, share and make our collaboration more effective.

Christmas Giving Needs

This Christmas we would like to draw your attention to several projects that cannot happen with out your support.  In the spring of 2015, Perspectives Réformées Haiti will be holding another conference for pastors and church leaders.  In order to hold this conference, we need to raise $5,000 USD by March, 2015.  If you would like to support the project, please make checks out to “CRWM” (with “PRIHA PROJ 805904” in the check’s memo line).  Additionally, we are faced with the challenge of meeting our support raising goal of $113,500 USD in order to continue our ministry in Haiti. If you would like to support the project, please make checks out to “CRWM” (with Segaar-King WMLA 802199 in the check’s memo line).   Send checks to CRWM, 1700 28th Street SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49508.

Segaar-King November Ministry Report

Dear Friends and Family,             

We spent the American Thanksgiving holiday in Minnesota where we reflected on gratefulness for God’s bounty, visited one of our supporting churches, and spent some time with Sharon’s extended family.  Most obviously, we were grateful to be warm since the thermometer barely got above 10° F.  Secondly, we were thankful for all the people we met who have been following our ministry in Haiti and praying for us.  It reminded us that whether we celebrate the holidays with a large family, a few friends or by ourselves, we all have a family in Christ--for we are all sons and daughters of the same heavenly Father.  We pray that you may find someone to help you bear your burdens and carry your joys this Christmas!

Please join us in giving thanks for:

 -A report that progress has been made within our partner, the Christian Reformed Church of Haiti, in sorting out some administrative challenges (see our attached newsletter).

-Our friend and colleague in Haiti David Maisonneuve has been making some improvements after being struck by an out-of-control motorcycle.

-Continued blessing in the work of fund-raising. 

 In December we will be visiting Bethany Christian Reformed Church (Muskegon, MI) on December 7 and Three Rivers Christian Reformed Church on December 14.

Please join us in praying for:

-Zach’s upcoming trip to Haiti in December for an evaluation of Sous Espwa (the collaboration of Christian Reformed World Missions, World Renew and Back to God Ministries International).  Pray for safe travel and that the effort will provide concrete ideas to improve our ministry.

-Upcoming surgery for Hannah and Isaiah to remove potentially cancerous moles from their skin.

-Organization of elections by the Haitian government which have been delayed for three years so that the country could be more politically and economically stable.

 -Zach as he tries to find time to work on his New Testament dissertation and Sharon as she works part-time at Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services as a chaplain in a Clinical Pastoral Education internship.

Thanks for your prayers and support,

Zachary, Sharon, Hannah, Vivian, Isaiah and Esther Segaar-King

Missionaries to Haiti through Christian Reformed World Missions 

Christmas in Haiti

While in Michigan we will be shivering under blankets of snow this Christmas, Haitians will be enjoying week after week of sunny, dry and warm winter weather.  While Christmas in Haiti is very different outwardly, there are many similarities with our experience.  For example, Haitians travel back to their hometowns to enjoy time with family, they often spend too much money on gifts, they get Christmas bonuses (the lucky few with jobs get two-months’ salary in December), and they go to church (though unlike us, they often spend entire afternoons and evenings at these services).   The greatest similarity, however, is the need that both Haiti and North America has for the Christmas child—Jesus Christ.  Here we are assaulted by the temptations of consumerism—to satisfy our deepest needs with new cars, jewelry, toys and electronics.  In Haiti, the Christmas season is a time of greatly increased theft as people steal from others to give gifts to loved ones.  Whether we live in North America or Haiti, we all need to be transformed by a relationship with Christ.

Recharge

In Haiti, people are often scrounging around for a powered electrical outlet to recharge their cell-phones because electricity is unreliable and scarce.  During public events (like church-services), one may see ten or twenty cell-phones recharging from one outlet by means of several multi-outlet strips haphazardly strung together.  Since people often ask us what we do during our home-services, we would like explain with the image of recharging.  During our field-service in Haiti, we teach, visit, consult with and encourage our Haitian colleagues.  When we are on our home-service, we need to recharge in several ways.  First, we need to “recharge” our support raising by connecting with churches and donors that can help us meet our considerable fund-raising goal by June 30, 2015.  Second, we recharge by getting a lot of the medical care that is unavailable to us in Haiti (which means a lot of doctor visits).  Third, we focus on spiritual growth by taking spiritual retreats and marriage growth retreats (we took one of each in October).  Finally, we concentrate on ministry growth.  Sharon is doing an internship in chaplaincy at Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services three days per week.  Zach continues to chip away at his New Testament dissertation.  Even though we are not in Haiti, the work continues, so we spend a lot of time answering e-mails and connecting with our colleagues over the Internet or phone.  Finally, we have been involved in consulting and strategizing with several organizations working in Haiti to enhance missions and grow our ministry.  The next time you plug in your phone, tablet or computer, please remember us in prayer as we try to recharge so that we can return to Haiti and serve more effectively.

Please Pray

Last summer was a historic moment for the Christian Reformed Church of Haiti (CRCH).  The General Assembly (a yearly meeting of pastors and deacons) elected a new president, Pastor Camelus, after nine years of Pastor Elihu’s leadership (see picture below).  We assumed the transition could be challenging for the CRCH after a decade of stability in the highest level of leadership.  Well, our hunch was right.  This fall, many of our projects and programs with the CRCH came to a halt as it reorganized its administration and decision-making processes.  Our colleagues in Haiti rightly stood back and allowed the Haitian leadership of the CRCH create a contextualized and long-term solution to these new leadership challenges.  However, we did pray for and encourage all involved to work together.  While the “dust has not fully settled,” we received word in November that the leadership of the CRCH agreed on a revised administrative structure.  Please pray that this new compromise plan will be effective and ministry will move forward!