The (not quite) Holy Family.

I have three scenarios for you: 1: You’re a regular “Joe Schmo” going about your daily business. You meet this, girl fall in love, and ask her dad for her hand in marriage. He says yes, and so does she. You’re excited, you’re sitting on top of the world. You start saving up money, building a house, and getting things in order for the big day. A few months go by and your bride-to-be has a baby bump and you know for sure that you’re not the baby daddy. 2. You’re a young girl minding your own business, trying to plan a wedding and out of nowhere, this angel appears and say you’re about to be pregnant. Did I forget to mention you’re a virgin and you plan on staying that way for a very long time (like eternity)? 3. Your dad is the king of the Universe. Not only that, but He created it and everything in it. Actually, so did you. You’re royalty. You can do anything you want, whenever you want. Life is real good! And then, your father gets this great idea. How about you give u...

Very little is known and said of St. Joseph in Scripture. And, he doesn't say a word in the Bible, either. However, there are a few things Scripture does tell us. We know that Joseph was a righteous man (Matthew 1:19), that he was obedient to the Lord (Matthew 1:24,) and that he came from the line of King David--kind of a big deal (Matthew 1: 1-16). Why would this holy and righteous man, foster-father of Jesus and relative of Israel’s greatest king, have nothing to say throughout the whole Bible? What is the Lord teaching us in this? Rather, what is the Lord teaching me? A week ago I had a unique opportunity to travel to our home in Haiti without my family. I went to help lead a mission trip and to tackle a very intense “honey do” list given to me by my wife. One of the things on that list was to move out of our old condemned home into our beautiful new home (graciously built by mission partners). As I was walking across our mission base lugging suitcase after suitcase, carr...

For the next 9 days I'll be traveling to the exotic Caribbean island of Haiti with 34 friends, no wife, no kids. This is a dream come true right? What man doesn't desire 9 days without His wife and three kids aged 3 and under while he hangs out with his friends on the beach in perfect 85 degree weather. Man, it's going to be amazing! Ok, enough sarcasm. The fact is that it’s more fun traveling through busy airports with my wife and three kids than to be separated from them for over a week. Though not the ideal scenario, in this particular situation I do have to travel alone because our newborn has no passport yet. I am often asked why I would take my wife and young children and bring them to a developing country. People try to tell me that it's not fair, that I’m depriving my kids from all that America has to offer and placing them in danger of getting sick, not having proper education and even death (all things that happen in every country around the world).  ...

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice!”  (Philippians 4:4) Throughout Scripture, we hear this invitation from our Lord, to be joyful, or to rejoice. The word “joy” appears about 60 times in the New Testament and the word “rejoice”, 43 times. It’s clear that the Lord wants us to be a joy filled people.  As I pray about this I reflect on how often I forget to live into this invitation. Being a full-time missionary in Haiti I often allow the difficulties of living in a developing county to rob me of my joy. Things like not having water for 3 weeks, lack of electricity, the poor education system and lack of quality medical care ( #American problems)  or the stress that comes from living in a trilingual community with people of all ages and at different stages in life, keep me from rejoicing as the Lord commands me to do. The Lord invites us to rejoice but He does not promise that everything is going to be happy-go-lucky all the time. Christ rejoice...

How can a baby or a child be a missionary? It seems kind of silly but it is so possible. Kids actually make the best missionaries. I became pregnant about a month after leaving everything behind to become a full-time missionary. As soon as my baby bump was evident, this caused lots of attention. So before my first was even born, he was attracting people to talk to me about missions, what it means to be a missionary family, and about the faith in general. The fact that I was pregnant opened up countless opportunities to share my testimony of the many wonders God has worked in my life simply due to the fact that people are caught off guard by seeing a pregnant missionary. If that was the effect before Nathaniel made an appearance, imagine when he was actually born. Not only did he bring lots of people to Paul and I that gave us the chance to evangelize people and get to know them, but he brought joy to people, as babies do. When Nathaniel was 2 months old we moved fr...

Since moving to Haiti in October 2012, we've never travelled to the U.S. for just a break. Our trips have always had a purpose: Nathaniel's surgeries as a baby, speaking engagements or other work to gain support for the mission, Thérèse's birth, weddings, a funeral, etc. So though this trip has a vacation scheduled into it, here's a peek at what a missionary family does their first time in the U.S. after 7 months. April 16: Fly to ATL April 17-19: Long overdue marriage retreat in ATL April 19-21: Life Teen missionary end-of-year retreat at Life Teen's Camp Covecrest in GA April 21-23: Life Teen bi-annual staff & missionary retreat at Life Teen's Camp Hidden Lake, also in GA April 23-26:  4 doctor's appointments and catching up with dear friends at Covecrest, including Nathaniel's Godparents April 26-May: 1 First family vacation (since our honeymoon) in North Carolina, thanks to a generous mission partner May 1-May 4: Driving to an...

It was perfect timing. Today at Palm Sunday Mass I was the narrator in the Passion narrative. While I was reading, a few of the Haitian missionary kiddos that live at our mission base had given Nathaniel their palms that they had tied in the shape of circles. As I got to the part of the story of Jesus’ suffering where the soldiers made a crown of thorns and pushed it into Jesus’ head, I noticed that Nathaniel was trying to get Paul to put the “crown of palms” around his head.  I choked on my words as I struggled to read the narrative and immediately thought about our beautiful Mother Mary. I wanted to stop for a minute and sob, but I had to keep going. Yes, Jesus suffered and died for us and experienced an unbearable amount of pain. Mary suffered in a different way, though. She watched the closest person to her get publicly mocked, flogged, and ultimately crucified.  Nathaniel and Thérèse currently have nasty coughs and during the night I feel like crying when I hear th...