Buxman Happinings 5/25/2010
We want to bring you up to date with what the Lord has brought us through and where he has us now. We have been so blessed to have you on our team as we have been through a shake-up in the last several months. I will try to do this in a short but concise way.
We had moved back to Haiti working with Heartline Ministries in October and we were getting settled and getting adjusted to life there. Lisa became very ill around Thanksgiving time with an intestinal infection that required a hospital stay there. We returned to Colorado in mid December to get higher quality care. The infection finally cleared up and with a drastic change in her diet (gluten free and dairy free now) she regained enough strength for us to return the 5th of January. On January 12th at around 4:45 PM, the earthquake struck, lasted around 45 seconds and devastated the country and killed 230,000 + people. Praise the Lord that our home, all of our working partner’s homes and our ministry structures stood with minor damage. We knew that our families, orphans, workers and those we minister to were our first concern and immediately moved the orphans to our home as it was the most secure as their walls had fallen down. With numerous aftershocks, death all around and chaos we decided to get our boys evacuated to the states two days later. Thanks so much to all of you that helped them with so much as they left nearly everything behind when they arrived here.
Within six days after the quake we at Heartline had transformed our women’s center into a clinic, had medical supplies and medical staff from the States up and running. We transported victims from the slum areas to our clinic for treatment and then took them back again. About 1000 patients were seen in the first couple of weeks. On the 20th of January, Lisa was an escort for the orphan children that had gotten humanitarian parole visas to be with their forever families and then came to Colorado to take care of the boys, get them in school and find a home to rent. Don stayed and worked in Haiti until the 18th of February and then came home to family for a few weeks.
The earthquake not only shook the earth but lives and ministries there too. Heartline is running a medical clinic and hospital that it did not have before the quake. There are no orphan children now; the women’s center was shut down for a couple of months before it started operating again.
Our lives took a turn too. We mostly are concerned for our boys as it is scary for them to live there in that house again, also with Shane and Trent in high school it is a critical stage and do not feel good about taking in and out of schools. Home Schooling is difficult in the high school years and even more difficult there with lack of educational resources to do it well. Our boys are settled back in and doing well now.
So here is what we are going to do……..
We still have a passion and desire to serve in Haiti and will do it from here. We want to still support the missionaries that we have been involved with there along with the many Haitians that we have come to know well. We plan to do that by starting a non-profit organization with a focus on specific needs of individual Haitians. You will be able to track you donation to a specific project or family and see the results. This organization will be funding source for rebuilding homes in Haiti, supporting projects and organizations and also taking in short term mission teams to do work projects. We want to help people to experience Haiti and have a connection to the place we love so much. We are already helping coordinate two trips this summer and probably two more later in the year. These are focusing on working with existing churches and pastors there and doing construction, evangelization and children’s ministry.
We will not be under the umbrella of Heartline Ministries any more as we would need to be full time to meet their criteria. We do continue to have a good relationship with them and part of what we will be doing will support their ongoing mininistries. Here is the new organization.
Aid In Action
P.O. Box 337463 Greeley, CO. 80634
We already have this registered as a 501(3)c and will have a bank account opened as soon as possible. ALL donations will go toward ministry as we are working to support ourselves while we are stateside. You can also start sending your money to the address above, Heartline Ministries will continue to receive money for a while, and then they will transfer it to the new organization.
We are initially focusing on Pastor Farem and his home. They have been close friends of ours since 2005, everyone in the family escaped injury but the house was mostly destroyed. We have given some money to start the rebuilding and it will take about $5000 to finish his home. We will be connecting with others also and will highlight them later.
At this time, you can access our blog site at http://BuxmanHaiti.blogspot.com to see pictures of Pastor Farem and his home. We soon hope to have a website up and running. We will have an advisory board and if you are interested in serving on it, please contact us, as we would love to have you on the team.
Once again thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all you have done and also staying with us during this transition, words cannot say enough. I do believe that one day in eternity you will see the fruits of your giving. Call or write us if you have any questions.
Don, Lisa, Shane, Trent and Joey Buxman
970-301-6038 Don’s cell 970-396-3822 Lisa’s cell
Bux8@aol.com
