Perkins in Haiti

Training Leaders and Making Disciples in Haiti

Profiles

Behind the Scenes: Meet our Crossworld Coaches

Profiles

A successful launch involves alot of people.

This is just as true for missionaries as it is for the people at NASA.

We thought we’d take some time on the blog to pull the curtain back and show what goes on behind the scenes as we prepare to leave. In particular, we want to introduce you to some of the team that is helping us as we prepare to go.

Meet Lee and Joanne Freace.

Lee and Joanne serve as our official “coaches”. We met them the first day we set foot on the campus of Crossworld’s headquarters and they have been walking with us ever since.

Who they are

Lee

Lee grew up in church (every Sunday no matter what) and learned a lot about the BIble while attending Sunday School as a child. After getting married and having children, they started helping out as Sunday school teachers and youth group leaders. 

Although he had been around church his whole life and knew about Jesus, he still didn’t know him.

During this time, Joanne became a believer in Christ and started sharing with him about what it meant to have a relationship with Jesus. He deflected her approaches and managed to keep her off balance for a few years. But, that only lasted so long. He says: ” It was during that time that I realized that I was missing something. I had a beautiful wife and two great kids but I was lacking something that I couldn’t put my finger on.”

They started attending a couples Bible study and over time as the Lord worked on his heart, it began to click. Eventually, he accepted Christ. He says: “It was when I put my trust in Jesus finished work on the cross that I came to realize what I was missing in my life, a relationship with God, something that formal tradition could never supply.”

Joanne

Joanne was raised in a non-Christian, but moral home.

As a child, she remembers watching her grandmother read her Bible every day. She didn’t realize it at the time, but as she watched this, a seed was being planted.

After they were married and began starting a family, a neighbor invited her to a neighborhood Bible study “so she could get to know the neighborhood ladies”. One day at that study, she heard the story about Nicodemus learning that he needed to be born again (John 3:1-15). A couple weeks later, God used that story to lift the veil – she finally understood she needed to have a relationship with Jesus based on his death and resurrection. On that day, in October of 1974, she gave her life to Christ.

Where they serve

For over 28 years they served in Cork, Ireland as church planters doing evangelism, discipleship and leadership training. Over the years, they were able to be a part of starting five new churches in that country.

Just over two years ago, they returned to the States to help care for Joannes parents. While stateside, they continue to serve Ireland as field coordinators for Crossworld, traveling back and forth a couple of times a year and overseeing the ministry there.

Their role for us

Assessment team

We met Lee and Joanne for the first time on day one of Candidate Orientation at Crossworld’s headquarters in Kansas City. They served on the team that helped to assess us and see if we were ready to be appointed for service in Haiti. This process took two weeks as the team peaked into just about every nook and cranny of our lives. As painful as that may sound, it was a great experience as the team got to know us and as we got to know them.

Coaching

Since then, Lee and Joanne have served as our official Crossworld coaches and have been a tremendous help to us as we get ready to leave. At Crossworld, coaches generally do a few key things:

Skype Meetings

On a regular basis, we meet with them over Skype and talk about how things are going as we work to build our support team. During these times we’re able to share the joys and struggles we face. The questions they ask and the insight they provide during these sessions is invaluable.

Accountability

Each month we submit a report to them describing what we’ve been up to over the previous month and what we plan for the next one. This helps us ensure we stay on track with the goals we’ve set for ourselves and gives them a sense of how we’re progressing. 

Interface with the Home Office

Lee and Joanne serve as our key contact at Crossworld. There is a lot going on at the home office and it would be easy for us to get lost. Having Lee and Joanne as a starting point has been a great help.

Why we love them

Experience

Lee and Joanne are battle tested. They have given their lives to serving Christ as missionaries and have learned a ton along the way. I don’t think there is an issue we’ve faced that they have not faced themselves. Every time we meet with them, they bring with them decades of valuable experience that has been a great help to us.

Encouragement

Even though Lee is a Yankee’s fan, he’s still a great guy. 🙂 Seriously though, they have provided not just professional experience, but loving care as they have walked with us in this process. They ask about our kids. They want to know how we’re doing as a couple. Our meetings aren’t all business – we laugh together, we pray together and every time we come away from a meeting with them we think, “OK – the Lord has got this. He has us just where he wants us.”

Launching successfully into a ministry like this is an undertaking in and of itself. Without people like Lee and Joanne on our team, there is no way this process would be going as smoothly as it is.

Are you curious about what goes on behind the scenes in the process of launching a new missionary? Leave us a question in the comments and we may answer it in a future post.

Karl and Ann: A Picture of Faithfulness

Profiles

Karl backed into the little driveway in front of their house a couple weeks ago and jumped out to unlock the gate.

Paul and I went to the back of the truck and opened the tailgate to get our bags: Two carry-ons, two computer bags and two military sized duffles weighing in at 52 and 53 pounds each (thank God for a generous ticket agent that morning!).

I grabbed my computer bag, set it inside the gate and went back for a duffle.  I got back to the truck just in time to see Karl, at just a couple weeks shy of 72 years old, grab one of those 50+ pound duffle bags and whip it up the stairs like it was an empty cardboard box. Before I could say a word, he had it in the living room and was heading back for another.

Most of us can look back at our lives and quickly see the handful of people who have been our key influencers. For me, Karl and Ann are one of the first couples that come to mind.

IMG_4352
Karl, Ann and I at the Montana in Port-au-Prince a couple weeks ago.

Later this afternoon they will board an old DC-3 at the Port-au-Prince airport and make their way to their new home in St. Augustine, Florida. After 15+ years of serving the full-time in Haiti, the Lord is shifting their ministry to the US and they will continue serving with Convoy of Hope from there.

After 4 years of Bible College and 6 years of seminary, I have to say I probably learned more about how to do ministry from Karl and Ann than from anyone else.

I could spend all day talking about the lessons I learned from them over the years, but as they transition out of Haiti today, there are three that stick out in my mind.

Relationship with God

Karl and Ann have an intimacy with God that I’ve rarely seen in anyone else.  They know him. They talk with him. They do nothing without consulting him.

I can remember many times as Karl and I would pull out of the gate of the church to visit someone or go to the hardware store, Karl would stop mid-conversation and say “Ok Lord, please be with us as we go…”, and then jump seamlessly back into what we were talking about.

Many Christians struggle with some degree of compartmentalization in their spiritual life. There are times when their Christianity is “on” and there are times when it is not. For Karl and Ann, it is so integrated into their lives that turning it off would not be possible.

When I think about Karl and Ann, I think: Luke, make sure you walk with God.

Generosity

They’ll be the first to tell you that life in ministry hasn’t always been easy. They’ve been around the block enough times to see the good and the bad.

I remember sitting at their dinner table one night in 2006, with my napkin in my lap (<–their kids will get that 🙂 ) listening to them share about one of the more difficult times they experienced in ministry. It was a tough story, but I’ll never forget what Ann said about it. She said “Luke, you’ll experience this some day and when you do, You HAVE to take the high road.” Then Karl chimed in “She’s right, and God knows what He’s doing. You have to love them, and leave the rest to him.”

They’ve done that enough times now so see it work. When people are difficult, love them and trust God. Often times when you do that, they’ll come around.

When I think about Karl and Ann, I think: Don’t forget to take the high road.

Faithfulness

IMG_3977In their house in Haiti, they each have a chair. For Ann, it’s a rocker with a wicker seat and for Karl it’s a black wrought iron chair in the living room. Every morning – and I mean every morning – you will find them sitting in their chairs with their Bible open and they will be reading and praying. Reading and praying, reading and praying – day after day, week after week, year after year.

They are faithful through good seasons and bad. Through the busyness of hurricanes, coup d’états and an earthquake, every morning they show up for that appointment with the Lord.

If I had to point to one thing that has lead to their success in Haiti, I think it is this. They stay in the word, they listen to what it says and they respond to what they hear.

When I think about Karl and Ann, I think: Keep that morning appointment with the Lord.

I’m sad they are leaving Haiti. As that plane lifts off this afternoon, it will leave a void there that will be impossible to fill.

199476_5637166083_6218_nKarl and Ann made an impact. Lives have been touched and there are people on every corner of that island who love Jesus more because when God called them to go to Haiti, they said “yes.”

If you’re in Port-au-Prince today, when you hear the rumble of those DC-3 engines on the MFI plane as it lifts off the runway, would you say a prayer for them as they head into their next chapter of ministry?

If it’s half as good as this chapter has been, it’ll be a great success.

Who are the major influencers in your life? What have you learned from them? Let us know in the comments below, we’d love to hear about it!