Segaar-King June Ministry Report

Since coming back to Haiti on June 7, we have had a chance to experience some of its beauty

Dear Friends and Family:

Greetings from Haiti!  On June 9 we arrived safely in Haiti with our whole family.  Honestly, it has been a challenging readjustment to life in Haiti.  Nine months is a long time to be gone.  Also, June and July are among our most busy and stressful months with teams and projects.  By God’s grace, we are readapting to life in Haiti little by little.  We would like to thank you for your prayers and also thank our colleagues in Haiti who worked so hard in our absence.

Please join us in giving thanks to God for:

1. A safe and successful trip for the youth team from Cascade CRC and Thornapple Community Church (Grand Rapids, MI).  This team of 34, our second largest team ever, had a busy and impactful week with us.  See our blog for more details.

2. Safe arrival and good health.  Though one of our children was traveling with strep-throat, we finally found the right anti-biotic to treat it.

3. A good reception from our colleagues.  We have been blessed by many phone calls and visits from our colleagues whom we have not seen for nine-months.

4. Lots of ministry needs and opportunities.  It is nice to feel needed!

Please join us in praying for:

1. Our greatest prayer request for the next year is that God would lead a new missionary family to Haiti.  It is critical that we find a qualified candidate as soon as possible.  Please help us spread the word.  The job description is posted at:

 https://re21.ultipro.com/CHR1005/JobBoard/JobDetails.aspx?__ID=*0BF55BF46DB8E951

2. The director of Back to God Ministries International (BTGMI), Pastor Kurt Selles, will be visiting Haiti in July.  BTGMI is the primary supporter of Perspectives Réformées, our French-language radio ministry.  Pray that Kurt’s visit will help shed light on the future of PR in Haiti.

3. Pray for the ongoing conflict within our partner, the CRC of Haiti.  Since part of the conflict is about money, we have engaged an auditing firm to analyze four years-worth of transactions.  We know an audit will not resolve the conflict.  However, pray that it will provide information that can help lead to a resolution.   

Thanks for your prayers and support,

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

Missionaries to Haiti through Christian Reformed World Missions 

A Full House

The youth team enjoyed Sunday services at a church in Port-au-Prince where Zach has preached at from time to time.

The team treks down a mountainside to see a spring capping in Badyo, a community located in the mountains above Port-au-Prince.

A few days after we arrived on the field from our nine-month visit to Michigan, we received a team of 34 from Thornapple Community Church and Cascade Christian Reformed Church.  Both churches, located east of Grand Rapids, sent a combined team made up entirely of high-schoolers and a few chaperones/youth leaders.  The team enjoyed trips to Jacmel to visit CRC of Haiti churches, the mountains above Port-au-Prince (see above) to see community development projects, and trips to several other churches and ministries in Port-au-Prince where members sang and did crafts with children.  We spent considerable time informally discussing the ministry and the Christian faith with this large group of young people.  There were some difficult logistic moments as the team, with the addition of five Haitian interpreters, tried to get from point A to point B in busy Port-au-Prince.  Also, an intestinal bug that "manifested itself" first on the flights to Haiti worked its magic on the team throughout its entire ten-day visit.  Some of the team's testimonies were very encouraging.  One young woman talked about her desire to begin a career in ministry.  Another young woman wanted to be baptized and reaffirm her faith commitment to Christ.  As a group, the young people were so touched by their experience that they wanted to send some of the left-over funds raised for the visit to World Missions and World Renew instead using them to buy new material and furniture for their own youth-group meeting  rooms at their home churches.  A high-point for us was the evening where we had all 39 of the group to our home for supper.  Hospitality is an important part of the life of a missionary in Haiti!  We give thanks for the team and we hope that you will join us in praying that this experience will solidify the faith of these young people who are the future of the church!

Back in Haiti

As we were moving out of the apartment we occupied during our nine months in Michigan, some wildlife native to Grand Rapids visited our bird-feeder.

Dear Friends and Family:

Greetings from Haiti!  After nine months in the United States, we are finally back on Haitian soil.  The traveling itself was uneventful, but our arrival was bittersweet.  Our good friends and neighbors, a missionary family which has worked in aviation for many years, planned to leave Haiti permanently the day after our arrival.  The plan was for us to spend a little time with this family on the night of our arrival since one of the family's children is Hannah's best friend.  However, upon arrival we learned that the family had been held-up at gunpoint in their home earlier in the morning.  We were shocked and saddened by this event, not only because of our attachment to the family, but because of the fact that our home is mere feet from theirs.  After the incident, the family went to a hotel to stay until their outbound flight the following morning.  Sharon and Hannah managed to catch the family at the airport to say their goodbyes.  Although this incident is disturbing, we trust that God will continue to keep us, our staff, and our visitors, safe in our homes and in our travels.  We would appreciate your prayers for our peace of mind and for our daughter, Hannah, who will miss her best friend.

Prayer Requests

Soon we will be seeing the mountains of Haiti again after nine months in Michigan.

This summer we will especially appreciate your prayers as we return to Haiti. 

1. Only a few days after we arrive, we will be hosting a 35 member youth-team from Cascade CRC and Thornapple River Church in West Michigan.  Pray that God would touch these young people through their experience.

2. Pray for interpersonal conflicts within some of the Haitian churches that we work with, especially the Christian Reformed Church of Haiti.  We will need God’s wisdom as we try to show the love of Christ who makes us one.

3. Pray for our new co-worker, Troyle Sanon, who will replace Lunise Cerin-Jules as the World Renew Haiti Country Consultant.  Please pray for Lunise also as she plans to move on.

4. Pray that God will raise up a new missionary family to come to Haiti with CRWM.  CRWM is posting a new job description for a “Youth Leadership Consultant” with a focus on ministry to Haitian young people.  Pray and spread the word.  If you know anyone who might be interested, put them in contact with us!

5. Pray that God would help us find an occasional childcare provider for our children during the summer months.  Pray for God’s daily presence with us—He knows what we need!

Goodbye with Thanks!

Isaiah and Vivian did profession of faith at Fuller Ave. CRC in May.

As we look back on the  past nine months, we give thanks to God for many blessings.  We are thankful for Grand Rapids Christian Elementary School whose educational specialists spent countless hours working with our twins to catch them up in reading.  We benefited greatly from many doctors catching us up on thirty months-worth of appointments that we missed in Haiti.  We give thanks for the study leave in which Sharon served as a chaplain, who encouraged and prayed with hurting people.  Zach nearly finished the second revision of his Ph.D. dissertation and hopes to graduate in the spring of 2016.  It was invigorating to grow personally, spiritually, and professionally.  We have gotten a new perspective on our work in Haiti also.  We were appointed as missionaries to Haiti by CRWM in July 2005.  In the last ten years, we’ve internalized a lot of stress from our life and work in Haiti.   God has used these months to help us surrender our hopes and dreams for our ministry to the Holy Spirit’s leading.  In our travels from western Minnesota to Ontario, we have been encouraged by the prayers, sacrificial support, and encouragement we have received from you, our partners in ministry.  In a time when so many missionaries must spend unforeseen months in the USA pleading for funding, we are planning to return to Haiti on the date chosen years ago! 

Back to Haiti

Alot of people have been asking how we feel about going back to Haiti on June 9.  We have mixed emotions. There is much to look forward to.  We have good friendships that have been tested by the ups and downs of life.  God has blessed our ministry with a network of Haitian and North American colleagues whom we respect and trust.  Our children are looking forward to seeing their pets, moving back into their rooms, and unpacking their toys.  Though it lacks some basics, we rent a spacious house in Haiti with a beautiful garden of tropical plants.  We are looking forward to delicious mangos and the sunny weather.

But there is pain in departure. The friends and family we leave behind in Michigan have been with us since childhood, witnessing graduations, weddings and baptisms.  It has been refreshing to enjoy a little anonymity.  On most days in Haiti we are approached by four or five people asking for money because as foreigners we are perceived to be wealthy.  Zach has already starting having dreams about broken-down cars, generators, water pumps, and refrigerators in Haiti.  Though they are little things, please pray that we will find our most essential belongings functional.  Pray for our children who have a big adjustment to make leaving friends, schools, and grandparents behind.  In these times, a Gospel promise comforts us, “No one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive times as much in this present age . . . and in the age to come, eternal life” (Mark 10:29-30).  Most of all, pray that we will be confident and faithful in our calling to serve God’s people in Haiti.

Segaar-King April Update

Dear Friends and Family:

Our tickets are purchased and we are starting to pack our bags.  We are returning to Haiti on June 9!  It has been a busy and eventful home-service for our family.  It was good to catch up with so many of you who have been faithfully supporting us for the last ten years.  It has been a blessing for our children to complete a school year here in Michigan as well.  Finally, it has been refreshing to enjoy a time of study and enrichment.  Before we leave, we would like one final chance to say goodbye!  You are invited to an OPEN-HOUSE on SUNDAY, MAY 17, 2015, at FULLER AVENUE CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH (1239 Fuller Avenue SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49506) FROM 2:00 TO 4:30 P.M.   Some light snacks and Haitian coffee will be served.  We look forward to seeing you there!

Please join us in giving thanks for:

1.   A successful trip to Amsterdam in March/April for Zach’s Ph.D. study.  He has completed a first draft of his dissertation on missions in the New Testament.  Lord willing, he will graduate in the spring of 2016.

2.   Improvement in the social and political conditions of Haiti after an agreement on elections this fall.  See our blog for more information.

3.   The work of John and Carol Vanderstoep who have lived in our home in Haiti and picked up some of the slack in our ministry during our absence.  They return to Canada in early June.

Please join us in praying for:

1.   The recruitment of a new missionary for CRWM in Haiti.  If you know anyone interested, please put them in contact with us.

2.   A large team coming to Haiti from the Thornapple/Cascade area of West Michigan.  They will arrive only a few days after we return.

3.   The adjustment of our children back to life in Haiti.  As they get older, it feels more difficult.  School will start again around August 10.

4.   Safe travel for our family back to Haiti on June 9.

FOR MORE PICTURES, STORIES, AND INFORMATION ABOUT OUR MINISTRY AND FAMILY, PLEASE SEE OUR BLOG AT segaarking.blogspot.com

Thanks for your prayers and support,

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

Missionaries to Haiti through Christian Reformed World Missions