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!
