Segaar-King November Ministry Update

Dear Friends and Family:

“He threw himself at his feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.”  Thus Luke pointed out that only one of the ten lepers came back to give thanks after Jesus healed him of leprosy (Luke 17:11-19).  The one who returned was a Samaritan, a race hated and excluded by Jesus’ Jewish peers, and yet he found the will and words to give thanks for God’s grace.  If the leper was so thankful for physical healing, how much more do we, who have been healed body and soul, have to give thanks?  This Thanksgiving let us return to the feet of Jesus to give thanks like  the Samaritan.

Please join us in giving thanks for:

-Our lively and growing family that brings us so much joy so far from our original home.

-A daily opportunity to give our full-time efforts to ministry because of your generous support.  So many foreigners with the desire to serve can only stay in Haiti a few weeks a year because of their vocations!  We stay all year round!

-Love.  This simple, yet profound word was what our four-year-old daughter carefully spelled out first on her list of what she was thankful for this year.  We are thankful for God’s love, love from others and love that we get the opportunity to express toward others.

-A successful five-day evaluation of the last three years of work done by the Christian Reformed Church of Haiti.  There is much for which to give thanks!

Please join us in praying for:

-God to raise up visiting teams from our supporting churches that would like to come to Haiti and help us to complete the Ministry for Christian Development Conference Center this spring, 2014.  If you are interested, contact us as soon as possible.

-A good start to the Savannette church construction project.  By the end of first week of December, the construction team will break ground.

-Generous support during this Christmas season for the upcoming seminar, “Obstacles to Ministry and Biblical Solutions,” which we are holding in March, 2014, to assist pastors with the challenges facing them in ministry. 

 

 

PLEASE SEE OUR ATTACHED DECEMEBER NEWSLETTER!

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, Isaiah, Vivian and Esther Segaar-King

Missionaries to Haiti

Christian Reformed World Missions

 

A Christmas Gift for a Pastor

Pastor Jean-Baptist, has a difficult life.  He rises at 4:30 a.m. for devotions, to prepare his children for school, and to catch the overcrowded bus.  Much of the day is dedicated to his paying-profession of construction because, like most Haitian pastors, his congregation does not compensate him.  By 3:00 p.m. he is exhausted but heading to the hospital to visit a parishioner who nearly died of pneumonia.  After a quick stop at home to put on his tie and jacket, he is off to the evening prayer meeting at church where he will be asked by several parishioners for loans to pay school fees.  Pastor Jean-Baptist finishes the day hungry, exhausted and with empty pockets despite a full day of work.  Pastoral ministry in Haiti (and throughout the world) is fraught with dangers of burn-out, sexual and financial temptation, and even the loss of faith.  On March 26-28, Perspectives Réformées of Haiti (PRIHA) will be holding a conference entitled, “Obstacles to Ministry and Biblical Solutions,” to help pastors navigate these challenges.  Pastors Paul Mpindi, Zach King and Jacky Chery (PRIHA’s coordinator) will be presenting.  It is critical that we raise  $5K for the conference by January 15, 2014.  If you would like to support the project, please send checks to CRWM (at the address below with “PRIHA PROJ 805904” in the check’s memo line).  This is a great gift to give a pastor this Christmas!

 

Haitian pastors, like the ones pictured above, need all the help they can get to face the challenges of ministry.

Haiti and Typhoon Haiyan

In Haiti, located in the Caribbean's "hurricane alley," we are used to receiving devastating tropical cyclones.  Our last hurricane, Sandy, came at the end of the hurricane season last year.  Perhaps you will remember Sandy from the destruction it wrought upon New Jersey and New York.  When it hit Haiti, Sandy was had winds of 70 mph.  Typhoon Haiyan, which made landfall last week in the Philippines, had winds of 200 mph.  For us, there was a connection between Haiti and Haiyan.  Jeff Cosico, our colleague who has been working for the World Renew Disaster Response program in Leogane for the last several years, is a native of the Philippines.  In fact, he was in Haiti when the Typhoon hit his hometown on the other side of the world.  Jeff had a very difficult time getting into contact with his family in the Philippines for several days due the destruction of the communications infrastructure in his area.  However, he finally received a message that his family was not physically harmed.  His house, however, was another story.  Although his contractual employment with World Renew in Haiti was to end at the end of this month, Jeff felt compelled to return to the Philippines as soon as possible.  Please pray for Jeff and his family as they rebuild.  As we so well know, going through a natural disaster can be traumatic and discouraging.  Pray also for the relief operation that is underway in the affected areas of the Philippines.  Also, please give thanks that Haiti was spared a disastrous hurricane this season.

Jeff sent us a picture of his house in the Philippines.

The Land of Tri-Level Bicycle Parking

Three level bicycle storage at Amsterdam Central Station

Bert Jan Peerbolte, Zach's Ph.D. supervisor, who is Professor of New Testament at the Free University

The one of the main academic buildings at the Free University where the Theology Faculty is housed

Last week Zach took his annual trip to Amsterdam for consultation with his Ph.D. supervisor, Bert Jan Peerbolte, from the Free University of Amsterdam.  The trip was the capstone of an unbelievably busy October in which we received a number of visiting delegations, wrote a new strategic plan for 2014-2017, and did ministry training.  Thankfully, this time Zach had something to present--the first two chapters (about 97 pages) of his dissertation on eschatology and missiology in the parables of Matthew, Mark and Luke (which he wrote last summer in Grand Rapids).  Zach was pretty nervous about how they would be received since he has been out of academics for nearly a decade.  However, Bert Jan was happy with the chapters and only suggested some minor changes.  While at the Free University, Zach wrote 27 pages of the third chapter as well.  Zach's objective is to graduate in 2016 and do most of the writing in 2014 and 15 (during four months of study leave).  While in Amsterdam, Zach stayed with Brenda Heyink and Matthijs Kronemeijer at the Gemeenschap Oudezijds 100 Christian Community.  Brenda is a former colleague from CRWM and friend from Calvin Seminary.  Her husband, Matthijs, works for the Chaplain Service of the Dutch military.  The community is located in the heart of the "Red-Light District" in old Amsterdam, where tourists come from all over the world for legalized pot, prostitution, and a lot of drinking/partying.  Oudezijds 100 Community is a light for Christ in a place where the churches are museums and spiritual darkness is palpable.  Please pray for Zach as he tries to be faithful to God's calling for him to deepen his knowledge of Scripture so that he can better teach those God has entrusted to him.  It is very, very, very hard trying to find time to work on this project in Haiti!

Dear Friends and Family:

 Greetings from the Heathrow Airport where I (Zach) am on my way to Amsterdam for my annual trip to meet with my Ph.D. advisor.  October has been an unbelievably busy and incredibly successful month for our ministry despite some very challenging moments.  During this month we have dedicated two new churches, done a three-year strategic plan, held a three-day-long TLT training conference for 60 church leaders, received a visiting delegation from Back to God Ministries International to discuss the future of the Perspectives Reformees ministry in Haiti, received a visiting team from Lakeside CRC (Alto, MI) for a week, and completed our first quarter reports.  For the next 10 days while Zach is in Amsterdam, he hopes to “burn the midnight oil” to complete a chapter of his dissertation. Honestly, we are completely exhausted.  Please pray for grace and patience to make it through this very challenging time.

Please give thanks for:

-A successful Timothy Leadership Training Conference in October where 60 leaders dug deeply into Scripture to learn key ministry skills.  Please see our blog for pictures and stories about this event.
-A blessed visit from a team representing Lakeside CRC.  We visited Thomassique and witnessed the dedication of the Gwo Kajou church building, saw many newly dug latrines, talked with beneficiaries of the programs.
-The development of a new three-year Strategic Plan for Sous Espwa.  This month we redid our vision, mission, and strategic objectives which is no small achievement for a team as diverse as ours.
-Good health and safety for our family and all our visitors.

Please pray for:

-We have felt “under attack” in October by many strange coincidences (including a generator breakdown and a poisoning of our dogs) that have attempted to steal our peace of mind this month.  Pray that God will give us peace and trust in his provision.
-The three-year evaluation of the Christian Reformed Church in Haiti which will occur in November.  A big part of our job is working with this Haitian denomination.  Pray that God will bless the evaluation.
-Our ministry team as we struggle to come up with our 2014-15 budget.  As always, resources are limited and the needs are great.
-Safety and blessing for our family while Zach is gone to the Netherlands and Sharon will be single-parenting.

 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, Isaiah, Vivian and Esther Segaar-King

Missionaries to Haiti
Christian Reformed World Missions

 

Calvary Assembly of God gave bunk-beds to our family!

Hannah enjoys mummy-wrapping at her birthday party in October.

The twins celebrate their 8th birthday,

Timothy Leadership Training Advances

This October we brought together about 60 leaders from all over Haiti for our biannual Timothy Leadership Training (TLT) Conference.  We had our largest graduating class of 11 (two in level two and nine in level one).  It is not easy to graduate from TLT as graduating from level one requires completing at least one year of training in the local church and completing many practical work-plans that the participants develop to apply what they learn to their ministry context.  We were really excited by the story of Doris Falante, a youth leader in Jacmel.  After completing the material on Christian Stewardship, Doris decided to organize the youth in his church to hold their own “gastronomic and artisanal fair” in Jacmel at time when many tourists visit.  The youth, who are almost all unemployed, discovered gifts they didn’t know they had in cooking and art and many wares and much food was sold.  Also, Doris decided to teach the church leadership about the importance of Christian giving, planning to increase the overall offerings of the church by 15%.  After Doris’ efforts, the offerings increased by 30% and there was money left-over to organize church activities.  Furthermore, Doris developed a plan to encourage young people to visit the sick and home-bound.  Doris got his whole youth group involved in the visitation which was an unbelievable encouragement to the suffering of the congregation who never expected that the young and healthy would take time to visit and pray for them!

Looking for a Few Good Teams!

We are looking for a few good teams!  An important part of our ministry is recruiting and receiving volunteers for Service and Learning Teams and Church Partnerships teams.  These two kinds of teams are vital to our ministry for several reasons.  First, they inform our supporters of how to better pray and lend a hand to our ministry in Haiti.  Secondly, they provide visitors an opportunity to learn about themselves and their own faith through the lens of developing relationships with people from another culture who share their faith in Christ.  Thirdly, teams are an important mechanism for funding our special construction and development projects in Haiti.  Service and Learning teams are focused on learning about Haitian culture and ministry.  They also have a service project which has a construction component as we are trying to complete the conference center for our partner, the Ministry for Christian Development.  Teams that are interested in Church Partnerships often visit from 5-7 days and spend focused time learning about our ministry and a community in Haiti.  We hope that after several visits, such teams will undertake a church-to-church or a church-to-community relationship that will include communication, visits, and eventually, shared projects.  We are so thankful for a team from Lakeside CRC of Alto, MI that visited us in the month of October.  They have developed a relationship with the CRC of Haiti churches from Thomassique over the last three years.  It has been an awesome growing experience for both Lakeside and Thomassique.  Currently, Lakeside is doing a project in Thomassique that includes church construction, latrine construction, a justice program, a leadership training program and microcredit.  Please prayerfully consider how your church would like to participate in sending a team to Haiti!

One of the Lakeside team members on the motorcycle that they helped purchase for the CRC of Haiti

A picture of the team that visited Haiti in October, 2013

The interior of  the Savann Plat church that Lakeside will assist the CRC of Haiti to construct.