Missionaries in Haiti
Lowell & Robin Adams (Lance, Cassandra, Madalyn)
http://villagehealtheducation.blogspot.com/
Career Missionary
Fund #: WM04-0336
Home District: Central New York
“As a child I had an interest in medical missions. During college, God continued to call me into missions by sending missionaries into my life that kept the vision alive.” –Lowell
“As a teen I thought it would be such an honor if God would ask me to serve Him in another country. I believe He put the desire in my heart for missions work. –Robin
Lowell and Robin served as compassionate ministry missionaries for one year in Ethiopia with the Church of the Nazarene. In 2007 they had the opportunity to visit Haiti. God has now opened the door for them to return to Haiti as Global Partners’ career missionaries. Their desire is to use comprehensive community health and development as a means to evangelize, plant churches, and develop church growth within Haiti.
Lowell and Robin have three children: Lance (’91), Cassandra (’93), and Madalyn (’07).
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you” (Jeremiah 29:11-14a NIV).
Butch & Tricia Alexander
Career Missionary
Fund #: WM04-0329
Home District: Western PA
In 2002 Tricia had the opportunity to go on a short-term mission trip to Haiti. At that time she felt that at some point in her life she would return to do full-time missions work. In January 2006 Butch was able to accompany Tricia to Haiti, and God put a passion in his heart to return. “With our children grown, we knew that we were at a place in life where we had more to give. So, after much prayer, we started the missionary application process. As a result of another short-term trip to Haiti in 2007, we are convinced of God’s call upon our lives.”
In May 2007 the Alexanders were appointed to career missionary service to Haiti with Global Partners. They will also be working hand in hand with WISH (West Indies Self Help, Inc.) on the island of LaGonave. It is their desire to allow God to work through them as His instruments in sharing love and Jesus with the Haitian people.
Butch and Tricia are from the Western Pennsylvania District and members of Sandy Lake Wesleyan Church. They have two grown children.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us (Ephesians 3:20 NIV).
Mitch & Char Black
GO-Net Intern Missionary
mitch.and.char.black@gmail.com
Mitch and Char Black are Go-Net Intern Missionarys currently serving on the Anse-Galets missions station on La Gonave Haiti. Thier roles there are to assist with hosting and managing teams.
Diane Busch
GO-Net Employee Missionary
Fund #: WM29-0070
Home District: South Carolina
At a young age Diane Busch accepted Jesus as her Savior. She became excited about missions after reading books about missionaries and when missionaries stay in her home. At age 16 her family spent a year in Russia as missionaries with Global Partners. She studied Spanish in college and went on several short-term mission trips to Latin America. She is now a physician assistant, working in emergency and internal medicine.
Diane has always had a strong desire to share Christ, especially international. God has opened a door for her to serve as a Global Partners’ missionary at the LaGonave Wesleyan Hospital in Haiti. She will have the opportunity to serve through treating patients in the hospital and training national healthcare workers, especially on the use of life-changing equipment that has gone unused due to a lack of training. Her main desire is to build relationships with the Haitian people, sharing Christ’s love and discipling believers.
You faithfully answer our prayers with awesome deeds, O God our savior. You are the hope of everyone on earth, even those who sail on distant seas. –Psalm 65:5 NLT
Greg, Heidi, Haley and Luke Edmonds
Career Missionarys
Fund # WM04-0361
www.rebuildhopeinhaiti.com
gpedmonds@juno.com
Greg believes that missions is what God has been preparing him for throughout his life, and he has sensed the call to missions for many years. He loves cross-cultural ministry and spent a year as a youth pastor at the Wesleyan Community Church in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. “I feel like I can do nothing else,” Greg stated, “but to follow Christ’s call to ‘Go and make disciples of all nations.’”
When Heidi was a teenager, she attended a youth convention that sparked her curiosity about missions, and since then she has been on several short term missions trips. However, it was not until she began leading mission trips with Greg that her involvement in missions became more serious. She asked herself what more could she do to make a difference in the lives of people in need.
Greg and Heidi have been appointed by Global Partners to long-term missionary service in Haiti where they desire to be the hands and feet of Christ. They want to be able to help restore hope in Haitians, rebuilding lives one person at a time.
In Haiti last January Greg saw poverty, sickness, and hunger like never before. They suddenly became more than a picture on the news or a story in a newspaper. The people had names, faces, moms, dads, children, brothers, and sisters. When he looked around the main thing they lacked was hope.
Heidi and Greg realize that they can’t feed every hungry person in Haiti, or clothe every naked child, or provide medicine, vitamins, and health care to every undernourished person…they can’t relieve all the injustice of the government, or set everyone free from their bondage to sin. But God has called them to be His hands and feet in Haiti, and to do all that they can with what He has given them. They can give the people of Haiti themselves, the love of Christ, and hope.
Greg and Heidi have one child: Haley (’05). Baby #2 is due July 25th, 2010!!
“Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” –Psalm 82:3-4 NIV
Rodney & Michelle Geiszler (Benjamin, Joseph, Garin)
Career Missionary
Fund #: WM04-0335
Home District: Northwest
“After going on a couple of short-term mission trips I started to feel that these trips were not enough. God used the people and events I experienced in Guatemala to draw me in and to be open to serving wherever there is a need.” –Rod
“After my first trip to Guatemala I felt that God was asking me to do something more and to step out of my comfort zone. One night I asked Rod, ‘What if I told you I wanted to move to Guatemala forever?’ Unexpectedly he replied, ‘How do we make that happen?’” –Michelle
We seriously looked at ourselves and listened to what God was really asking us to do. He asked us to step out in faith so that He could lead us into His perfect will for our lives. As a result, we have been appointed to serve as career missionaries with Global Partners in Haiti. It is our desire to show God’s love by being His hands and feet through simple acts of servanthood wherever He leads.
Rod and Michelle have three sons: Benjamin (‘96), Joseph (‘00), and Garin (‘04).
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him (Colossians 3:17 NIV).
Carl & Maya Gilles (Théa,Mitziena, Zahra)
Career Missionary
Fund #: WM04-0330
Home District: Atlantic
Carl was called to missions while studying for the ministry in Canada. Being from Haiti, he went to Bethany Bible College with intentions of returning to Haiti immediately after his studies. However, his burden for the unreached French peoples led him to pastor a French church in Canada for four years.
In 2005 Maya visited a Haitian orphanage where she sensed the confirmation of her call to missions in Haiti. A year later, by God’s providence, she married Carl whose desire was to return to his country. They prayed for direction in their lives and were quickly guided towards Haiti.
In May 2007 Carl and Maya were appointed to career missionary service to Haiti. Carl’s vision is to equip Christian believers to be effective in both their general and specific callings, so that they can impact their families, communities, country, and the world for Jesus Christ. Maya’s desire is for evangelism and discipleship to children, youth, and women. It is her passion to give them the tools to develop their full potential and to pursue their dreams and callings with the Lord’s guidance.
Carl and Maya have one child: Théa (‘08).
Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4 NIV).
Dan & Joy Irvine (Heather, Rebecca, Brooke)
Career Missionary
Fund #: WM04-0313
Home District: Western PA
In 1981 Dan and Joy (Alexander) Irvine began their missionary work in Haiti. Dan was a church planter and director of education while Joy supervised schooling for American missionary children. Following their time in Haiti, they lived in Florida for 10 years where Dan was involved in various ministries. In 1995 God called them back to their home state of Pennsylvania where they have been serving on staff at Sandy Lake Wesleyan Church.
When they left Haiti in 1987, they knew in their hearts that God would again, someday, open a door of service to Haiti. As a result of God’s call on their lives, Dan and Joy have been appointed to serve as career missionary with Global Partners.
Their mission in Haiti is to serve the expatriate missionaries, to stand along side the national church leadership, and to develop resources. They desire to be a communication bridge between The Wesleyan Church of Haiti and The Wesleyan Church of North America.
Dan and Joy have six children. Elizabeth, their oldest child, is married. Matthew, Heather, and Marcus George are in college. Rebecca and Brooke will be going to Haiti with them.
“. . . if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him. Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did” (1 John 2:5-6 NIV).
Justine Iskat
GO-Net Employee Missionary
Fund #: WM29-0056
www.justine-steps.blogspot.com
Home District: Western PA
Justine Iskat is a 2008 graduate of Indiana Wesleyan University where she earned a B.A. in Writing and a minor in Intercultural Studies. After being appointed by Global Partners in 2007, she spent her senior year of college and the year following graduation preparing to live overseas.
During her preparation, Justine planned to serve in Swaziland Africa. Just two months before her anticipated departure, however, changing needs on the field made it clear that Swaziland was no longer the destination that God had in mind. Unsure of what to do, Justine began praying for God’s direction.
After spending time in prayer, Justine contacted family friends Dan and Joy Irvine in Haiti to share her gifts and desires. She had hoped her former Pastor and his wife would be able to offer some guidance. Instead, they offered her a job, and less than 2 months later, she moved to Haiti to teach English.
“I still can’t believe how awesome God is,” says Justine as she thinks back on how God led her to Haiti. “He took me, a former Writing major, to a country in desperate need of English teachers.” Fittingly, Justine’s theme verse for this year comes from Ephesians 3:20: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine…”
Matthew Tegen
GO-Net Employee Missionary
Fund #: WM29-0054
Home District: South Carolina
“I grew up in South Carolina where I was surrounded by a great Christian family and church that fostered my growing relationship with Christ. Having always had interest in technology, I ended up in a comfortable computer job after graduating from Southern Wesleyan University. However, over time I began to feel a calling to use my experience in a different way. After some time and a lot of prayer, I met Dan Irvine, a Global Partners’ missionary in Haiti and the GP area director for the Caribe Atlantic area. Dan shared the need for missionaries in Haiti with experience like mine. Ever since then I has been preparing to spend time in Haiti.”
Matthew has been appointed to serve as a GO-Net missionary with Global Partners in Haiti. While there he will have the opportunity to invest in the lives of people and the community through offering support for the existing computer infrastructure, working with other missionaries and Haitians to implement new technology solutions, and teaching Haitians how to work with and maintain various information systems. By providing a more sustainable, self-sufficient infrastructure, it is his hope that he will help open doors for others to minister in Haiti. It’s also his goal that through this process he will be able to build lasting relationships that demonstrate the love of Christ.
Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms (1 Peter 4:10 NIV).
Cory & Kris Thede (Elijah, Anna)
Career Missionary
Fund #: WM04-0276
Home District: West Michigan
In preparation for missionary service, Cory earned a B.S. degree in horticulture and Kris earned an M.D. degree. Their service in Haiti began in 1998. God’s words from Ephesians 4:12 guides them: “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ” (NAS).
Equipping the Saints: Through education—agricultural, medical, and spiritual—Haitian Christians can better touch others for Christ. One improved life impacts many lives in one’s family and community. Cory and Kris hope to strengthen the faithful and draw others to the Lord by meeting needs.
For Work of Service: Striving to upgrade food and medical resources, Cory and Kris attempt to improve the health of the Haitian people. Healthy people serve better, opening doors for others to see God’s love and receive freedom.
Building up the Body of Christ: Cory and Kris host teams, who come to encourage, pray, work, and partner locally. The Thedes’ share global prayer requests, and the Haitian church shares in building up His believers. By living among the Fauche community, sharing in its sorrows and joys, Cory, Kris, Eli, and Anna build up the church to glorify God.
