Hailes on Mission

How does one begin to express gratitude to the Lord for His Grace and Mercy?   How does one adequately share that He is at work and He is doing great and Mighty things?   Well that is what we desire to say.   God is alive and He is calling people to Himself.   He is changing our world and our lives and we truly just want to stand in awe of His greatness.   This month we just want to share one quick story. As we went to one of the places of ministry they asked us to go out to a new village and pray over a sick person and to share the Gospel with them because they were hungry and thirsty for God.   We went and as we began to make the 3-5 km trek in the wilderness of the south of Madagascar we just stopped and realized that we were living the dream.   If you ever envisioned doing mission work among the unreached of the world this would have been that moment.   Trekking through the spiny forest where not many people have ever been or ever carried...

One of the greatest needs for effective ministry anywhere is the ability to communicate what the vision is and in missions what the end-vision is.   We feel like we have a good handle on these two things but as we continue to see the Lord do more than we expected at this point we continuously find ourselves falling at His feet and seeking His guidance.   We feel like we are just putting together a puzzle one piece at a time and we have never seen the cover to know exactly how it should all look.   There are so many pieces to put together and we have so many pieces that we have yet to see or encounter.   We seek to be faithful and obedient to Him and walk each day according to where He is leading us.   As we seek Him and seek to follow His voice and direction for our lives we continuously ask Him to give us His wisdom from above.   We are in the tough part of the puzzle.   We have the border coming together but we are now starting to work on the ...

This has been a very weird and challenging month for us all here.  We have seen the Lord work mightily but we have also faced many trials and struggles.  We started the month by working hard and seeing the Lord open up new places for ministry and calling people to Himself.  The SWBTS team was here and we were all working together to make much of the Lord and His Amazing Grace.  The Lord was faithful and we now have a lot of work to accomplish.  We finished that trip with a couple of days to rest and be ready to receive two young men from Tennessee coming to serve alongside us and our South Team here in F/D.  They made it in and we shifted gears very quickly to help them be ready to make the most of the time here and helping them be ready to attempt great things for Christ under proper guidance and support.  They are doing great by the way. It was in this preparation phase for the guys, follow up in the new area...

I don't really have a real update to give you all but I wanted to just share a little bit about how the Lord challenged me and at the same time comforted me in a time of need.  I also wanted to make sure everyone knew that as we (our family) walk into uncertainty today our hearts united stand in awe and wonder of how Great our God is.  We will praise Him no matter what the results or the circumstances that we live through.  Sitting and waiting for my MRI I really didn't think about what the process would be like.  It never dawned on me that it was a head MRI and not a knee MRI like I have previously had.  Thus, I walked into the MRI room and the technicians asked me if I had had an MRI before.  I answered yes a knee and they responded by saying "this is totally different".  They proceeded to have me lay down on the table and began to prep me for this new experience.  I confidently set myself down and attempted to be a good patient...

We’ve been back in Madagascar for over a month and finally we are starting to feel like we’ve adjusted back.   We were working hard to get the house in order and making small repairs and at the same time were making preparations for our partner team from SWBTS to arrive.   We still have a little ways to go, but we’re making good progress.   Phoebe and Emma went back to RVA.   Baylee jumped into school with our new homeschool.   The SWBTS team arrived and we all jumped into ministry, sharing stories of the Bible first with those at the beach celebrating with a picnic for Pentecost and then in two new locations in Fort Dauphin.   We saw many decisions made and over 40 come to faith in Christ.    As we’ve been getting back into the groove, I’ve asked myself a number of times what “normal” looks like and I’ve decided there’s not really a normal.   This week the SWBTS team will be ministering in and around Ambovombe.   Meanwhile, River, Ba...

We are back in Madagascar and what a journey it has been to get back to our home.   Leaving the US was probably harder the second time around.   Some of the excitement and just overall novelty of going across the world as missionaries didn’t seem to be the motivation for us actually boarding the airplane.   Our hearts were torn and knowing the amount of time we are going to be gone made us just want to soak in the moments and seconds we could get in the States.   It is funny to think that as we left we weren’t thinking about missing the great food, convenience of life, amenities of living in the US but instead we were thinking about you all.   Our family and friends.   We absolutely enjoyed our time in the States and you all made it very difficult for us to want to leave and come back to Madagascar.   So why did we come back?   The answer is simple.   Obedience.   That is why we have come back to Madagascar.   We simply want ...

Believe it or not our time here in the US is drawing to a close.  We are less than 25 days away from departure to Madagascar.  We don't believe that we have adequately been able to take in the emotions we are having, will be coming up or that we will have over these next few weeks/months as we begin to adjust to a new place.  Furthermore, we know that our decision to go back has an impact on our families and friends.  It has been so nice to see them all and to be able to share about what the Lord is doing.  We have just enjoyed having them around and knowing that we are all just a drive away if needed.  To think that we are about to go half-way across the world again and life will change once again is sad but it is also exciting.  As we prepare to go, we go knowing that the Lord isn't done using us in Madagascar and His will for us is to continue to just Trust and Obey Him so that is what we are doing.  This past month has been a full ...