We are so Thankful for YOU!

Happy Thanksgiving Season and Happy "Holy" Days to each and everyone of you! 
December is full of many different festivities and outings for many of you I am sure.  On top of Celebrating the birth of our Savior and prayerfully ushering in a new year, we get to celebrate ONE YEAR on staff with Samaritan Air.  God is so good and faithful to use us.  So, before we update you any further, we want to pause and say thank you to our Father in Heaven for looking down upon us and you with love and working out "HIS BEST" in "HIS" timing.  "Thank you Jesus for coming that first night over 2000 years ago to begin the process of rescuing us from sin, death, and the evil one!"

Now, on to the business at hand.  Life is busy, but we are keeping it simple.  John has his first trip into Haiti in one month!  He will be flying into the country in January and staying there for a couple of weeks.  He has the privilege of assisting his home church in Washington State with two of their medical teams.  He is busy these days trying to accumulate "stuff" to help make this time in the country easier.  He is taking the helicopter to a very primitive, remote area (we are told).  He was told just last week by a Haitian pastor that will be assisting him that the area he will be staying at is "not modern" at all. :)  We aren't sure what that means, but John is trying to plan for "Survivor" type conditions.  I told him just yesterday that maybe he should get some of those crank flashlights!  I said it in jest, but he said that would be a good idea.  All uncertainty aside, John is sooooo ready to go to Haiti.  He will be sending pics, if possible, while he is down there.  He will also be visiting the Dominican Republic at the end of his trip.  

Someone who works at the airport brought the boys doughnut 'treats'. :)

Arriving last year, we were uncertain what this first year would look like.  It has been a difficult transition for the boys, but we are enjoying our time here.  We did know that it would take this year to work more of the legistics out with Samaritan Air.  And, as always, God has taken the lead and pushed us forward on his time, not ours.  This 2nd year with Samaritan Air that begins in January will provide more opportunity for John to be in the country as well as more time for him to build financial backing for Samaritan Air.  Yes, we still have a lot of support to raise, but those of you that have stood with us this year are definitely going with John on this first trip.  Every bit of your support and prayers have been stored up for just this moment.  We so appreciate the monthly support you send on our behalf.  You have helped us get passports and save up for the upcoming trip.  Life for the "white man" in Haiti can be a little more expensive since Haiti seems to operate on a bribery system. :)  Until we build more of a reputation and more contacts, we will have to rely on the "American dollar" to help us out.

All of you who have walked with us this year, beat the throne of heaven on our behalf in your prayer time, and sent sacrificially monthly support, we say, "Thank you!  We could not be doing anything we are doing without YOU!"

The boys and I are settling in at our new school, Glades Days School.  It has been a great place to minister.  Just today during Bible class we were discussing prayer and its importance.  After our discussion, one of the students asked me, "Mrs. Kandel, is that why your boys are so happy and protected?  Because you have prayed over them?"  My heart melted.  I wonder weekly if I am getting through to anyone.  I had to pause and say, "Thank you Father," in a silent prayer.  We are different, and we are not understood, but we are God's to be used by him where-ever and however He chooses.   There are probably a lot of kids that don't get us or care, but if one sees God and his fingerprints on us, then that one life is worth all the "hard stuff" we have faced and will face.

Below are some pics from this year of the boys around the house.  Enjoy and May God richly bless you in this year end and the new year to come.

WE LOVE YOU!

The Tower of Babel

Hello to all of our family and partners!  It has been awhile since we have had a chance to update our blog.  Life and ministry have kept us busy as I am sure you all find true in your own lives.

We want to give you an update as to our work here in Belle Glade/Pahokee as well as in Haiti with Samaritan Air.  We have all the paperwork for our passports for our entire family completed.  YAY!!!  Now, we are praying to have the passports in our possession soon so we can make a trip as a family to the Dominican Republic and Haiti over Christmas and New Year.  As many of you know, this year has been and continues to be our transition year.  It has been a year full of adjustments and a year filled with raising our own personal support as well as building relationships for Samaritan Air.  As a praise item, we do have two different mission teams coming into Haiti in January that would like to use Samaritan Air and its helicopter to assist them in making their work more efficient.  This team is from John's home church in Washington State.  Prayerfully, John will be able to fly this team into a remote area to set up a medical clinic.  This area is one just like the area where John had his heart set afire about the need of a helicopter in Haiti.  God is so good.  We still have a lot of work to do to build relationships and the need for Samaritan Air's services on a regular basis in Haiti, but we are committed to the long haul of bringing the hands and feet of Jesus to all areas in Haiti using the helicopter.

As far as local ministry and life: The boys and I have taken our places at a local school in Belle Glade, FL named Glades Day School.  I feel like Belle Glade and the school are a big part of God moving us specifically to Pahokee, FL.  John has been very busy helping out the local agriculture business with flying and maintaining their aircraft as well.  He has a vast amount of knowledge and experience that has come in handy while out here in the farmlands.  We also have joined a local church, Belle Glade First, and have begun to build relationships there.

(main street, Pahokee, FL)

At school the boys are settling in quite nicely.  They have made friends and are enjoying being around people again. :)  At school I am teaching middle school English and middle/high school Bible.  We are taking our time going through Genesis this semester.  Just this past week we began to talk about "The Tower of Babel" and the spreading out of people groups.  I was reminded of the necessity to be obedient to God when he gives you a task.  See, in Genesis 9 God told Noah and his family when they left the ark to "spread out and fill the earth," and they didn't obey.  We see 100+ years later the people decided to "stay together and make a name for themselves."  I was able to show the students that the scattering and confusion of languages was not only God's judgement on their disobedience, but also God's provision for man.  Simply stated: God had a plan.  Man chose to disobey God's plan. Man did his own thing.  Man was stopped before man went too far.  God's plan was and still is carried out to protect man.   

As I was telling the kids about the Tower of Babel, God gently reminded me that obedience to Him always carries His protection.  I am glad that almost a year ago now, we chose to be obedient and go when God said to go.  I am not going to lie and say that everything is GREAT, because it truly would be a lie.  BUT, we are where God wants us.  We are pulling closer as a family again.  And we know that following God isn't easy, but it is what is best!  This year has been difficult to say the least, but I am glad that obeying God last year and saying yes to Samaritan Air has been a way of answering many prayers of provision and protection.  Our ministry is slow starting in our own ideas, but God's timing is perfect.  We know that when God builds it in His time, He receives the glory, and it is perfect.

Keep praying for our work with Samaritan Air to continue to grow.  Pray about future prayer partners and supporters as we are still FAR from what we need to be in Haiti full time.  Pray about this upcoming work with John's home church and Samaritan Air. 

Thank you to everyone for all your prayers and financial partnerships.  Together we are making a difference in the kingdom.   You are what helps us "Carry the Kandels into the darkness." 

Give me your eyes....

"How beautiful are the feel that serve!" That is what the photographer said when she edited this photo.  Thanks to our new friends here in South Florida, we were able to have Clifford, a boy adopted from Haiti, join us for this particular photo, and OH How perfect to have him with us!!

I begin writing today overwhelmed with emotion for our new life and our new location.  It has been just over 5 months now here in Pahokee and Belle Glade, FL.  And you have probably been able to follow the transition well with the older posts on here.  I am just so thankful that our Father is long-suffering and ever patient with us, his children.   God has been so good to us as we fall in love with His people here in addition to those we will serve beside in Haiti.  Belle Glade.....such a rich area of multi-cultural people groups....lots of diversity.....lots of poverty.....lots of separation amongst the different people groups.  It truly is like a "third world country" in so many of the areas in the city here.  So different from "Palm Beach" as most think..... And God has been so gracious to allow us time to see His People here, to let go of "life" as we had become accustomed to, and fall into a deep compassion of "love" for this community.  God is up to something.  We have met at least 6 other families who have been moved here by a leading of God over these last 2 years for SOMETHING???

It was 14 years ago here in Florida that our service to Haiti and thus our love affair with that country began.   But is was also 14 years ago that God began doing "Eye" Surgery on me.  God had truly captured my heart at age 11 and birthed a love for HIS world in me at that time.  But it was during our first term as missionaries to Haiti that I began to see the world through His eyes.  A new love, a new compassion for all of the people I saw everywhere I went began to grow inside of me.  The gift of mercy and compassion that I had always possessed seem to be growing larger, expanding to a bigger world.....right around me.  Fast Forward the last 10 years to where we are now.  Life had become comfortable.....not easy.... but familiar.  God knew that.  He gave me these past few months to get past all the life I had come to know, :) so I could fall deeper in love with His people.....right around me.  I see the kids and the adults in town and want to gather them up and love them.  Show them that their prejudices aren't necessary.  That they are loved....dearly loved.  Their town is something to take care of and have a sense of personal pride in.   That not all the people from outside of Belle Glade come here just to get a "government grant" and then move on.  That the color of skin on people doesn't need to divide them (and there are several different nationalities here).   I could go on, but I don't need to overwhelm you.   That is for me, and it is a gift from God.  A personal ministry inside of our full time work with Samaritan Air....I get to invest in this local community and show our boys how to love a world that is so much bigger than them.

God continues to bless our decision to stay in the Pahokee, Belle Glade area.   We have a lease on the home we moved into in January, YAY.  I have accepted a job offer at a school in Belle Glade where the boys and I can invest more into this community, Glades Day School.  The pay offsets their tuition (OUCH) and pays insurance for the boys and I!  God has shown our entire family that He will take care of us.   This job will also provide us with a venue to invest in the Belle Glade of tomorrow.

The Bible says that God has plans for us. In Jeremiah 29:11, it says: For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."  God's plans for us are good. They are better than anything we could possibly think of ourselves.

Samaritan Air:  We are soooooo excited!! John will be taking the helicopter to Haiti in August to stay at a temporary home at New Life Children's Home.  We have been so blessed to work alongside this orphanage with a variety of people they have  put us in contact with.  I am looking forward to posting pictures and stories from John's time in the country later this Summer (early Fall).  We have had the privilege to help this orphanage on a variety of occasions.  Check out their website ttp://www.newlife4kids.com/.  It is always humbling to sit back and watch God work out the details of our work with Samaritan Air.  We just have to remember to stop trying to guess what He is up to and just follow His lead. :) 

Thank you for your patience in this transition year.  We have a long way to go to be "fully supported" missionaries with Samaritan Air, but are just so excited that we can start our work with them anyway.

The boys in front of some river cane!

Our Mango Tree!! YUMMY and FUN!

"You are not your own, you were bought with a price."

Have you ever let go of everything familiar to walk completely into the unknown with no idea of what the future holds?  That's faith in a big God!  Surrendering all is a familiar phrase that Christians throw around in church and amongst themselves, but how many truely do it?  Surrendering all that you know to walk out the teachings of Jesus is not easy.  Everyone's journey is different, and as we all progress in life, God will reveal more and more of what needs to be surrendered.  He is good like that and patient with us in our growth process.  He is a good Father!

Four months ago we left all that we knew as comfortable and familiar and headed to South Florida to begin our work with Haiti.  We moved to an area I personally had never heard of in Palm Beach County....The Western Communities.  The first month was a huge adjustment for us mentally and physically.  Homeschool began with no materials or curriculum established.  We floundered along.  We began going to a church 45 minutes away because it was familiar and comfortable.  February brought some feelings of loneliness for all of us as we knew no one out here, and we were home all day in a strange area homeschooling.  At this point we were advised to not go out at night to "certain areas".  "What???  What areas?  Please, we are desperate to get out!!!  What areas???," I would ask myself over and over.  During February we met our neighbors and begin getting to know them.  In February I felt in my spirit it was time to settle in here...the Western Communities of the Glades.  So we found a church out here in Belle Glade, FL where we have been the last two months.  Things were becoming familiar, friends were being made slowly, and life was getting a little easier in our new location for however long we would be here.

March brought some excitement as we pursued two schooling options for our boys.  Both of which were private school options.  One was a Christian school, and the other was a private school out here in Belle Glade, FL that provided a better option for our boys than the public school out here (as advised by some of the local school administration).  So with excitement I pursued both schools diligently and interviewed with them.  We loved them both, but one was here and the other was 45 minutes away.  Which one would open up???  Which one would offer me a job to offset the costs?  Where would we have to move in May?  So many questions without immediate answers.  Again, waiting....in Limbo.

Limbo has been our state of existance these last four months.  We knew our housing was short term, but thought that it might work out more long term.  We knew homeschool was not for us at this time, but it was our only option for the semester.  We knew God brought us out here to the Western Communities by a miracle of His hand, but we didn't understand why or how this was to work out.

"You were bought with a price.   You are not your own.." 

Those words from 1 Corinthians 6 flooded my soul a few weeks as I realized that we are where we are suppose to be.  That the Western Communities of the Glades were going to be as much a part of our ministry as Haiti will be.  John and I have never had a lot of money, but have always believed what we did have and do have is God's.  We wrestled with wanting more so we could give more.  God gently reminded me recently that John and I are giving a lot more than money, we have given our lives to do whatever he says and whereever he leads.  I didn't get that.  My life has always been His, and John and I's life together was committed to being His on our wedding day.  Packing up and leaving everything when He calls was what we "promised" to do.  We cou ld do nothing less. 

Though the last few months have dealt us some crazy limbo situations, we have stayed the course and remained diligent on our knees as we trusted God was in control.  Today, He answered one of our immediate prayer needs..... a teaching job at a school that will offset the costs of the school for our boys!  Praise the Lord.  Now, we continue our prayers for a home we can settle into by June!  Our current home has been a generous help these last few months.  Our landlord has waited patiently along with us as we wait upon the Lord for some direction. 

We will be staying out here in the Western Communities! (I knew we were brought here for a reason).  Now we will need a more long term rental home.  Continue to pray with us for the gift of a home to settle into. 

As for Haiti and our work there:  June will offer a firm decision on the hangar project.  We will keep you updated as soon as everything goes through.  John will also be going into the country in August/September.  Please surround that trip in prayers.  We still have a LOT of support to raise to offset the costs of going into a country that operates on  "bribery system" as far as the "white man" is concerned. 

Thank you all for your continued prayer and financial support.  Please feel free to continue to share our blog.  We would love to share more of our work with your friends, families, churches or even company/organizations. 

Missions Update....

March 12, 2012

Here we are 2 1/2 months after packing up and leaving our life as we knew it in Tennessee.  We have been adjusting to many changes that have come with this move and transition.  It is a thrill to be living day by day, moment by moment, waiting on the Lord and being flexible.

We live in an instant society here in America.  It is sometimes difficult to be on a slower pace, but that is what mission's work requires.  Life needs to slow down and be flexible.  "Roll with the punches" if you will, while trying to plan ahead and cast the vision.  This year is a year of changes for us and our work with Samaritan Air and ultimately with the people groups of Haiti.  Our first order of business that we wanted to accomplish in arriving here in South Florida was to prepare the Jet Ranger for service in Haiti and consider all options for a Hangar in the country of Haiti.  Well, both of these items are underway.  John is working on the helicopter, working out all the "bugs" as they arise.  It will continue to be flown here in the US throughout this year to make sure it is ready to leave the comforts of America and head to Haiti where parts will not be so readily available.  So the helicopter, like us, is in a year of transition. :) 

The hangar is our first order of business in the actual country of Haiti.  We had several ideas coming down to Florida of what the hangar might be and what our best options were.  BUT, as we have been here and establishing relationships, we have realized that God has been working perfectly on those details.  Recently we met a couple who are missionaries with New Life and are destined to return to Haiti this May to live and begin building their mission organization's compound there.  They are building near a hospital training facility in Haiti.  It is near the city of Meribalais.  It is a great central location to put our first helicopter and amazing that it will be located within miles of a hospital training facility where we can transport the wounded and sick.  There are still lots of details to finalize, but our newly made connection with this couple and their mission organization is looking like a "match made in Heaven".  They are very interested in building a Hangar and living quarters for Samaritan Air on their compound!  So pray with us for the details to fall in line and that the hands of Satan will be bound so he may not rise against this endeavor.  Pray for protection of this couple and their transition to Haiti and the beginning of the building process.

Our next immediate job as it relates to Samaritan Air is to do a deputation (Support raising) trip to Tennessee this Spring.  We are working on those details as I type.  We came down at 20%, but have found ourselves quickly falling to 10% of our required monthly support level we need.  We have been blessed and well taken care of by God with a contract job with a local agriculture company.  This job is a way God is using to take care of us through this year as we raise the needed funds to do our work in Haiti fulltime.  So we will be speaking to some church congregations as well as a small group/community group or two if we can.  If you are interested in us sharing our work with you, let us know and we can schedule a time while we will be in Tennessee.

In my last blog I referred to Pahokee, FL and Belle Glade, FL as "little Haiti".  I am so amazed that we are so disconnected with the rest of world living out here.  We can't even make a phone call from our home without dropping it!!!  Funny, but it is preparing us to leave it all behind and follow wherever He leads!  We may not be able to make phone call like we thought, but we are still here via internet.  We don't want to get a home phone yet due to this home being a "temporary-short term" home we are renting.  How short term you ask?  We are not sure.  You can be in prayer with us on this matter over the next 3 months.  Our boys' schooling is what is holding up our semi-permanent roots here.  We are seeking the best options for our boys.  After visiting public schools and private schools around here (some up to 40 miles away), we feel there are two private schools that are the best fit.  Because this is our choice, we are not asking our monthly support to be raised to compensate for that.  Instead, I am looking at teaching to offset that cost.  So our prayer request is for God's perfect will/hand picked school for the boys and a hand picked teaching job for me.  One school is 10 minutes from our home here.  The other school is 40 minutes away.  So if the further school is what God has for us, we move.  If the school out here opens up, we talk to our landlords about a long term rental situation.  It is expensive to live here in South Florida, but are so thankful that the support we have to raise is so much LOWER than if we were to live in Haiti.  Having the mission organization planted here and the convenience of flying to Haiti from here, our cost of living is so much lower that if we were permanently stationed in Haiti.  That is a praise as we know the state of our economy.  Our call to serve Haiti is to impact those over there with our hands and talents because Jesus loves them as much as He loves us, and we choose to help them until they can help themselves!!!   The beauty of this for us is the "crew" of partners that join us.  It is all of our work!  WE are your hands and feet.  We need a crew to fly, so you are just as important as those of us on the ground and in the trenches.

THANK YOU TO THOSE THAT partner with us financially each month and pray regularly for us.  We are doing well and the work is getting done!

Prayer requests:
The Hangar to be built in Haiti
John's trip into Haiti (March)
The boys' schooling for the Fall.
Monthly support to raise

Praise Items:
Provisions!!!  God is so good, all the time

The Twilight Zone...

We wanted to show you around Pahokee, FL a little.  The pictures and the feel of the town make us ask ourselves, "Are these taken in Haiti?"  Pahokee, FL  does remind us a little of the capital city in Haiti....sort of.

                                         ^ Local Laundroomat and conv store beside of Post Office

Gas Station

neighboring home

Local Thrift Store

The roads are much better here and the general access to basic needed supplies makes it much easier than Haiti of course.  We also have a newer bank.  But everything else reminds us of a run down, left to defend herself kind of city.

Our home is just 2-3 miles from the downtown part, which is surrounded by farmland in front and Lake Okeechobee in the back.  But due to the "round the clock" construction on the dike, we can't really access or see the lake from our home.

Our Home

Our home from back side angle

View from our front porch

The fields across the street... (sweet corn)

So now you see a little of where we are. 


....On a different note.  We have been studying Joshua at church and chasing our giants in life.  And as we were studying it, something sprung out of the page to me.  In the first chapter of Joshua when God was telling Joshua he would take Moses' place as leader of the Israelites, His words to Joshua were,  "I have given you this land promised to Moses for the people to possess."  Then after that he tells him many times to be strong and courageous, He THEN gives specific instructions as to what to do in Jericho.  NOW, what struck me was that God had already given them this promise of the land.  Already told them they would possess it, BUT they still needed to go forward and DO the marching.

It's just like being given a "Full Ride" to a college.  You know the 4 years of schooling is paid for.  It's your gift... your promise.  But you still have to go to the college, go to class, and pass the tests.  You still have to go do the work!

John and I with our family have been given this opportunity to go do the work we are preparing for with Samaritan Air.  God has opened all the doors, brought renters immediately into our home in TN, brought a very substantial home with a very modest rent here in FL, has said, "Go and I will provide"..  That is our promise..... that God will provide.  That is why we came to FL so quickly after receiving to call to go back into missions.  BUT we know we still have work to do to find our partners in this ministry.  God has promised to provide, and we live so peacefully in that because he has.  We will just continue to share our work, speak with churches and small groups and know that God has called us, we are here, and He is raising the rest of our "crew" to partner with us.  We just have to continue to go forth speaking and "possess the land He provides."

Thank you to ALL who are reading this BLOG, Sharing this BLOG and praying for us every time we come to mind.  God is so good...  ALL THE TIME!

Praise God for: This home, our family, our supporters (both the prayer warriors and the financial partners), John's ability to work part-time as we continue to raise support, homeschooling, neighbors, a church to invest in,  beautiful sunshine all the time, lizards for our boys to hunt, roaches that remind me we are doing this because God says to and not to be comfortable, neighbors that help us know 'safe' parts of town, corn fields to pick our own sweet corn, fruit trees in our own backyard, and the list could go on. 

We really are thankful and know we are right where we should be at this precise moment.

Blessings to All!!

Support Address:  Samaritan Air, 3161 S.E. Chandelle Rd, Jupiter, FL  33478
Physical Home Address:  2727 Bacom Point Rd, Pahokee, FL  33476

FINALLY.... We are here!

We are in FLORIDA!  We arrived at the end of December and were welcomed in Florida style..... large roaches all through the home!!!  Fortunately they were dead!  We fogged the home that night and got the rest.  Not much activity since then.

Since arriving, John has begun to work on the helicopter destined for Haiti.  Just last week he fixed the starter that was giving them some trouble.  The boys have visited the hangar as well and managed to help dad by playing "angry birds" on his phone. :)  Also last week John was able to help a neighboring farmer "save" his crops.  Early one morning a farmer, whom we had never met at that point, began banging on our home all around the house.  They scared our boys so badly, they came running into our room.  John went to a door to find out who and what was happening.  To which he was met by, " We need a pilot!!! We are losing our crops!"  After the initial introductions were finally made and the confusion was cleared up, John was off to the skies to fly a helicopter low enough to keep the frost away.  The farmer was so appreciative, and John was glad to help out... once we figured out who these strangers were running around our home banging on the sides, scaring our children. :)  Even here in Pahokee, FL we are able to use our talents to help others.  God is so good.

I have begun homeschooling this semester to keep the boys on track with their schooling.  That is a nice challenge added on top of trying to settle in a new place, unpack, and continue to keep up with supporters. :)  But we are more than conquerors in this world and so, claiming that promise, I will conquer this homeschool thing also!! ;)

A trip into Haiti to begin the hangar project is in the works for February.  We are very excited about that.  In the meantime I am looking at trying to pour myself into the community here to help mentor the kids in the schools.  There are so many that need help to improve their understanding of academics to raise their test scores.  But more than that, they need to know someone cares about them and is willing to help them with what they need! 

Our physical address here in Pahokee is: 2727 Bacom Point Rd, Pahokee, FL  33476. 

We are still in the process of raising support.  We are currently @ 20% of our monthly needs to go full time with Samaritan Air.  Please share our blog and information with those you feel would love to partner with us in our endeavors of reaching our community here in FL and into Haiti.

Blessings to all!

Support Address: Samaritan Air, 3161 S. E. Chandelle Rd., Jupiter, FL  33478