Highview Baptist Church

This weekend we had the opportunity to share our story with our Highview family. The staff were extremely encouraging and even took the time to share our story with the entire church through a video. We are thankful for our friends at Highview and we are going to miss them dearly.   We hope that our story encourages you to consider how God might be calling you to be involved in carrying the Gospel to the ends of the earth.


BidwellsinHaiti from Crossings on Vimeo.

Crossings in Haiti

Returning home from Haiti last night from a Crossings in Haiti trip, I am both exhausted and humbled at how the Lord has worked. Throughout the week our teams worked at the camp in Montrouis (Mo-wee) to help prepare it for camp for Haitian boys and girls. Also, the teams had the opportunity to go to local BHM churches and lead Vacation Bible Schools for around 100 kids at a time. Towards the end of each day one of the American students had the opportunity to share the gospel using a translator. By the end of the week, 100 students crossed over from death into life!!! We know that the angels are rejoicing and we are as well. It is also comforting to know that these children have the opportunity to be shepherded by the local churches and pastors.

I am deeply grateful for the staff at the camp in Montrouis. They are passionate first for the gospel and then for people. Chris and Kelly Lieb are amazing examples of what Deuteronomy 6 proclaims.

Overall it was an incredible week, but like always it was great to get back home to our family.

A note from Josiah and Kilee left on the door for me. They know the key to dad's heart.

"Raise your hand if you're moving to Haiti!" 

Kilee said, during a rousing conversation in 5-year-old Sunday School.  Each child was picking something about themselves and putting it with "raise your hand if you...".  Scott and I had heard, "lost a tooth", "cheer for UK", and "like the color blue" and seen hands fly up all over the room.  Needless to say, when Kilee tried to get some hands up with hers, all she got were some blank stares!

That's right, the Bidwell family is moving to Haiti. 

It’s a big change that we certainly did not see coming our way!  After nearly a decade of ministry with Crossings, we had figured the Lord was keeping us at Crossings for life!  But through recent trips to Haiti with Crossings, we began to sense that a move could be in our future.  Crossings has recently begun a partnership with Baptist Haiti Mission (BHM), a gospel-centered ministry that has been operating on the ground in Haiti since 1948.  The primary aim of BHM is to “Strengthen the Church in Haiti” through training pastors and planting churches.  BHM also ministers through child sponsorships, hosting mission teams, home construction and running a 90-bed hospital on the mission.  Crossings and BHM are working together to impact the nation of Haiti for the gospel of Jesus Christ via camp ministry.  This year, Crossings has sent American students overseas to “do camp” at one of BHM’s camp properties, help renovate the camp facility, and do VBS in local villages.  The newly renovated camp will be utilized to host Haitian camps, training for pastors, and retreats throughout the year.  It’s a very exciting new partnership that originally connected us with BHM.

Through conversations with the staff at BHM, the Lord began turning Scott’s heart toward mission work in Haiti.  After lots of prayer and wise counsel from trusted mentors, we realized together that the Lord was indeed calling our family to join with Baptist Haiti Mission and move to Haiti as missionaries.  It is a bittersweet change. We will greatly miss our family and friends.  We have the full support of Crossings during this transition, but we will also miss our Crossings family so much.  It’s going to be a tough road in many ways, but also thrilling as we anticipate the adventure of ministry in Haiti and the friends we will join there. 

We are writing this blog to share our unlikely journey to becoming missionaries with you and to document our family's life and ministry in Haiti after we move.  Please feel free to drop by anytime you'd like!   We are desperately asking for your prayers as we know that nothing we do is any good apart from the grace of God at work within us.  If you would be interested in being on our support team, we would be incredibly honored and thankful!  Check out our Partner With Us page to learn how!

Thoughts After A Long Blog Hiatus

So, it's been awhile. A year, one month and a week or so to be exact. I think the season we have been in with our kids has left me completely physically exhausted and I decided to just let the blog go. Here lately, things have started to change with our daily routine and the kiddos are growing up more and more. I just might have time to record some thoughts and share some pictures every now and then. Obviously, I'm not a pro blogger, so this news is exciting only to our parents -- but nonetheless, I'm hoping I don't flake-out this time and keep the blog going.

The Lord has been teaching me a lot this year. The kids have definitely been growing older and learning new things, and have had new struggles of their own. Let me just say out loud, having a 2-year-old little boy is an exercise in stress management, coping skills, and raw nerve. Josiah is a precious, very-much-loved little mess. We love him with all of our hearts and we continue to pray that God protects his life on a daily basis as he seems to be teetering between fun and calamity the majority of the time!

Kilee has been blossoming as a young 5-year-old lady. She has been enjoying 3 days of preschool a week and adores her school friends. We have decided to homeschool her for Kindergarten and we will be starting this summer. We work together each day in "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" and she is already reading 5-6 word sentences on lesson 35! It's truly amazing to watch her mind work. Kids are such amazing little learners!

Hope you enjoy what follows!  Stay tuned. . .