Friday, October 7, 2011
Support Update
Dear Friends...thank you to everyone who has given so far from the bottom of our hearts. By our rough (very rough) estimation we have nearly 1/2 of what we need to be fully supported for an entire year! Many of you have passed along links and information to your friends and family for us... and we are grateful. We are excited now, we have submitted our resignation letters to the VA Hospital, where we work, and our last day will be December 3rd. This is bittersweet, our time at the VA has allowed us to experience critical care nursing with some absolutely wonderful people... and we will miss many of them. However, quitting your job makes it very...very.. real! We will be spending time in Louisville and So. Indiana with family and friends before we depart for Haiti in January. Also..since we will no longer be working full time, we will have more time to reach out and help generate support. As many of you know, CFI is a non-denominational ministry that is not affiliated with a single church or community; and neither are we. CFI seeks to provide opportunities to any individual or church that would have a heart for Haiti, to go and serve. We ask that if any of you or if any of your church's would like to hear more about how to help Haiti or about what we will be doing in Haiti, please let us know! We would be delighted to share more information with you or present to your church. We ask that everyone continue to pray for Haiti, that God's Glory would guide us and go ahead of us...make no mistake, God has already been there.... we pray we would walk in his path's and see Him there! Thank you for your prayers..... Strength and Honor!
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Dear friend,
After taking several short mission trips to Ranquitte , Haiti Haiti Central Kentucky based ministry called Christian Flights International and have volunteered to spend a year living in Ranquitte, working at the Bendawest clinic on CFI’s campus.
Our personal goal is to “be a brother to all.” We hope to experience discipleship with Haitian Christians and grow in faith with believers there. We are so excited about the opportunity for relational evangelism while living in Haiti
Today we are writing you because we need help to make this life change happen. Please join our support team. Your gift, no matter how large or small will help provide healthcare and the life-changing message of Christ in Haiti
Serving Him,
Ronnie & Rachel Allen
Ways to give. . .
Visit http://www.christianflights.org/ and donate online. Designate your donation to Ronnie & Rachel Allen
Mail your donation to: Christian Flights International, 580 Roy Arnold Blvd. , Danville , KY 40422
Be sure to include a note on the memo line of your check that the donation is for the Allen support.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
For me (Ronnie) it began by putting a waded up dollar from my pocket in a jar.....
As a college student @ EKU, I first heard about Haiti through C.S.F (Christian Student Fellowship). C.S.F. supported a Haitian born missionary and he came to speak to us once a year. It was no pivotal moment, I just said to myself that one day I would do more.
The opportunity to do more came almost exactly 10 years later. Rachel and I had been married awhile and I felt God reminding me about Haiti. Through friends, scriptures and His voice in my heart, He let me know that the wish I had from 10 years prior was something He still wanted me to pursue.
We connected with Eddie Arnold at Christian Flights International (CFI) a group that had close ties to C.S.F. back in college that took teams to Haiti. Our Friend, Drew Jones, had made a few trips with Eddie and had encouraged us tremendously to go. God had blessed us with a great education and wonderful careers as nurses, so we decided to use our own money to support our trip, and in February of 2009 we set out with Eddie and his team for Ranquitte, Haiti to serve at the clinic there and share the gospel.
Those of you that know us may remember how "different" we were upon returning home. To say the experience impacted our hearts would be a tremendous understatement. Rachel and I have had many other ministry/mission experiences in the past... but for us this just clicked! Haiti is a place where a love for Jesus and bringing His Kingdom met with the extreme poverty, depravity and hopelessness of a nation that has forgotten and at times betrayed God as well as her people. For us... seeing children eating paper plates out of a ditch on the side of the road, hearing the voo-doo drums at dusk and seeing 30 people walk upwards of 30 miles standing outside the clinic door at 7am, is the ragged edge where the hope, love and abundant life that Christ came to die for is needed. Our love for the Haitian people was fortified with 3 additional trips in the following years. Meeting many Haitians who have not lost the love, hope and abundant life that Christ promises, those who want to help their country and their people have encouraged the desire in us to partner with them , use our skills as nurses and serve in the clinic, meeting the needs of the sick in the community, developing relationships with Haitian leaders who haven't lost hope, and assist in the development of a new clinic that will better meet the needs in Ranquitte.
Many people asked "Why go there when there are plenty of poor people here?" Well that is true, there are many Americans in need of relief from poverty. But in America. . . we have hope, we have the right to life, liberty and the persuit of happiness. . . and we have a government that still supports that. Haiti has a government that is corrupt, keeps its poor people poor and has had leaders exercise dictator like rule killing their own people at will. There is a big difference.
Why a year?
It was our expereience in our short term trips, while many wonderful things were accomplished, things were just different when the missionarys are there. We quickly recognized that the changes that needed to be made in the clinic were not going to be made by dropping in for 10 days every few months and telling the Hainian clinic workers to change. We felt like that to honor and respect Christ we had to be willing to commit to the Haitian people more than just random instruction. Jesus' model of doing life with his disciples, Paul's willingness to be a tent-maker, always ready to go and be with a new church body as they set up fellowship show the ultimate value of community and change. For us, we could not continue to visit Haiti once or twice a year, give lip service to the clinic workers and expect real change. We knew that we must be willing to endure the difficulties of living in Haiti. We want to share our lives and become vulnerable with those we mean to befriend. We want to be and example of Christ's love and be a part of his growing kingdom in Haiti....
As a college student @ EKU, I first heard about Haiti through C.S.F (Christian Student Fellowship). C.S.F. supported a Haitian born missionary and he came to speak to us once a year. It was no pivotal moment, I just said to myself that one day I would do more.
The opportunity to do more came almost exactly 10 years later. Rachel and I had been married awhile and I felt God reminding me about Haiti. Through friends, scriptures and His voice in my heart, He let me know that the wish I had from 10 years prior was something He still wanted me to pursue.
We connected with Eddie Arnold at Christian Flights International (CFI) a group that had close ties to C.S.F. back in college that took teams to Haiti. Our Friend, Drew Jones, had made a few trips with Eddie and had encouraged us tremendously to go. God had blessed us with a great education and wonderful careers as nurses, so we decided to use our own money to support our trip, and in February of 2009 we set out with Eddie and his team for Ranquitte, Haiti to serve at the clinic there and share the gospel.
Those of you that know us may remember how "different" we were upon returning home. To say the experience impacted our hearts would be a tremendous understatement. Rachel and I have had many other ministry/mission experiences in the past... but for us this just clicked! Haiti is a place where a love for Jesus and bringing His Kingdom met with the extreme poverty, depravity and hopelessness of a nation that has forgotten and at times betrayed God as well as her people. For us... seeing children eating paper plates out of a ditch on the side of the road, hearing the voo-doo drums at dusk and seeing 30 people walk upwards of 30 miles standing outside the clinic door at 7am, is the ragged edge where the hope, love and abundant life that Christ came to die for is needed. Our love for the Haitian people was fortified with 3 additional trips in the following years. Meeting many Haitians who have not lost the love, hope and abundant life that Christ promises, those who want to help their country and their people have encouraged the desire in us to partner with them , use our skills as nurses and serve in the clinic, meeting the needs of the sick in the community, developing relationships with Haitian leaders who haven't lost hope, and assist in the development of a new clinic that will better meet the needs in Ranquitte.
Many people asked "Why go there when there are plenty of poor people here?" Well that is true, there are many Americans in need of relief from poverty. But in America. . . we have hope, we have the right to life, liberty and the persuit of happiness. . . and we have a government that still supports that. Haiti has a government that is corrupt, keeps its poor people poor and has had leaders exercise dictator like rule killing their own people at will. There is a big difference.
Why a year?
It was our expereience in our short term trips, while many wonderful things were accomplished, things were just different when the missionarys are there. We quickly recognized that the changes that needed to be made in the clinic were not going to be made by dropping in for 10 days every few months and telling the Hainian clinic workers to change. We felt like that to honor and respect Christ we had to be willing to commit to the Haitian people more than just random instruction. Jesus' model of doing life with his disciples, Paul's willingness to be a tent-maker, always ready to go and be with a new church body as they set up fellowship show the ultimate value of community and change. For us, we could not continue to visit Haiti once or twice a year, give lip service to the clinic workers and expect real change. We knew that we must be willing to endure the difficulties of living in Haiti. We want to share our lives and become vulnerable with those we mean to befriend. We want to be and example of Christ's love and be a part of his growing kingdom in Haiti....
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