Jesse's Baptism

Jesse was baptized today!  We are so happy to see him growing in  his faith, and to see his heart that is sensitive to the Lord.  We're looking forward to seeing him mature as a Christian and pray that he will always walk close with the Lord.

Tabitha's 7th Birthday

Tabitha turned 7 on May 10th.  It's really hard to believe she's that old!  We had a fun lego-themed party for her, and she is thrilled to be a 7 year old.  This year she has accomplished a lot.  She's learning to read, and she loves taking care of her little sister.  They're the best of friends.

Happy birthday, Tabitha!  We love you.

Rayanna Turns Four!

Well, this might be the latest blog post ever, but give me a break...by the fourth child it's amazing I even remember everybody's birthdays at all!  Almost a month ago--on March 21st--Rayanna turned four!  I've been barely keeping up with life, and blogging seems to be at the bottom of the priority list.  But, lest anyone think we forgot our baby's birthday, here is proof that we did indeed celebrate.  

Rayanna continues to bring lots of laughter and fun to our family.  She has grown and learned so much, and it is such a joy to watch her.  It's hard to believe she's 4 already!  This year she has taken a real interest in playing with the big kids, increasing her vocabulary, and "doing school."

Happy (late) Birthday, Rayanna.  We love you so much!

Home from Honduras

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

We are back from Honduras and had a wonderfully blessed time!  I know I won't be able to fully express in words the amazing things we experienced, but I'll do my best to give you a taste of what went on there.  Unlike most trips we've been familiar with, this was not a “project” trip.  We didn't build anything or “accomplish” anything.  And yet, we feel that it was an extremely valuable time of learning about orphan care and building relationships.

Our guide Douglas and his wife Karla

We learned a lot about what it means to be an orphan.  Although we've adopted two children, and even seen the less-than-ideal orphanage where Rayanna lived, on this trip we came face-to-face with the reality of what it means to be an orphan, especially in a country without much help available.

On a couple of our days there, we visited foster homes and private orphanages.  I had expected physical needs to be the most obvious needs we'd encounter, but I was surprised.  Most of these places had their physical needs met at least at a basic level.  But their overwhelming emotional/spiritual needs hit us hard.  Several of the girls we met were victims of incest, two of them bearing their father's child, and several of them having been raped repeatedly.  One girl's family had all been murdered while she hid in the bathroom.  One group of children with special needs were virtually homeless, living in an abandoned school with food provided but nothing else.  Some of the children's parents had simply disappeared and no one knew where they were.  One little 7-year-old girl had been digging through garbage to find food for herself and two younger siblings.

Of course, we've all heard stories like this before, but to meet these beautiful children in person and interact with them and see into their eyes and their souls . . . it was heart-wrenching.  Even the ones who were in “good” places didn't appear to have any help in dealing with their trauma, and several were unable to go to school because of missing paperwork or not being able to afford supplies.  Without counseling, without permanent families, without education, without hope.

Two days later we visited these places again, and I'm so glad we were able to go back.  We returned with Bibles and gifts, spent some time doing artwork with them, and read a letter of encouragement and hope in Christ that we had written for them.   Our guide and translator was wonderful and made it possible for us to share the gospel with them, and hopefully bring them some encouragement.  It was a precious time to spend with them, seeing a glimmer of happiness on their faces.  But it was so hard to leave, knowing that we can't fix things for them.

That was another thing I learned.  I already knew there's no easy fix for these situations, and we aren't going to “save the world” by visiting for a week.  But the firsthand experience really let me feel how small we are compared to the size of this problem.  However, that feeling also brings me to the lesson we learned in the happier parts of the trip—that the body of Christ is connected throughout the world by something deeper than culture or language or location.  We're connected by the Spirit of God, and we can work together to spread Christ's love and be His body to a suffering world.

The ministry that we partnered with there is called Providence World.  The contrast between the hopelessness of kids without homes and the joy in the families at La Providencia was amazing!  We spent a lot of time that week at La Providencia, learning about their ministry and their vision, and we are so excited to work with them!  

La Providencia is working on the orphan problem at a deep level—not a bandaid for the problems, but a solution.  Their model is placing children into families—a couple with up to 8 children, committed for the child's growing up years.  They ask to have children placed with them that (for one reason or another) can't be adopted, so that these children will have a family.  They provide excellent medical care and education, Christian training, and the love of committed parents.  These children will grow up to be assets to their local community and help improve the plight of children in Honduras.  But they don't stop with just the orphans!  Their excellent school includes children from the community as well (which raises the value of orphans in their society).  They provide surgeries for needy children in the area.  They are constantly looking for ways to reach out to the community and strengthen families, so that the root causes of children being orphaned will be diminished.  Their future goals which they are actively working toward include self-sustainability, a home for widows (“grandmothers” to the children), building more orphan homes, and much more.  We are thrilled to see what God is doing through them, and were so blessed to be a part of it.

The atmosphere was very enjoyable there too.  We felt much safer than we'd expected to, all the people we met were warm and friendly and welcomed us readily.  Even the scenery was beautiful!  We were up in the mountains, surrounded by gorgeous views everywhere we looked!  Up there it wasn't too hot.  It was in the 60's in the morning and would get up to maybe 80 in the afternoon.  We sure weren't in a hurry to return to the never-ending winter Maryland's having this year!

We are excited to go back to Honduras, and to take more people from our church with us next time.  We want to help this beautiful part of the body of Christ in the work they're doing.  And we desire to be a part of reaching out to orphans in Honduras and building relationships with the Honduran branch of our spiritual family tree.  If you have any interest in learning more about La Providencia, please visit their website at providenceworld.com.  You can sponsor a child, give a financial gift, buy coffee from them (I actually had my first full cup of coffee EVER while we were there.  It's good stuff!)  Or even find out about taking a trip there yourself.  You won't regret it!

Bound for Honduras!

Well, life has a way of passing by day after day, even when I haven't finished my to-do list.  I've been meaning to post on here for quite some time about our plans for a orphan-care mission trip to Honduras, but I just haven't gotten around to it.  So, taking the easy way out, I'm just posting our support letter and update letter below.  If you've already read those you can skip this post.  

December 2013

Dear Friends & Family,

We are excited to tell you about the ministry we've been serving in this past year and a mission trip that we are participating in this spring! We hope that you will be a part of the ministry too--by praying for us and/or contributing financially if you are able.

About a year and a half ago, we started planning an orphan ministry with some other people in our church. It's been encouraging to see that God is moving in other people's hearts as well as our own! Several families within our church have told us that God was leading them to be involved in orphan care, and we have witnessed His perfect timing as He brought us together in this ministry.

The ministry is known as Abba's Hands & Heart and is part of Mountain View Community Church. So far as a ministry, we have all been excited to establish a fund for adopting families and walk with two families through their adoption journey. We've also gotten to share in the excitement of two other families who hosted orphans from Latvia in their home last summer. We're looking forward to getting involved in the foster care system locally. And we've been so blessed to find friends and prayer partners who share a passion for orphaned children.

Along with the rest of the AHH leadership team, we want to provide an international mission trip opportunity for our church, specifically for ministry to orphans. Before taking a team though, our church leaders have asked us to go as a small group to “test the waters” and discern if this location would be a good fit for a larger team from our church. So this spring, March 1^st-8^th, four of us will be traveling to Honduras. The trip is being coordinated by Visiting Orphans, a ministry who plans trips specifically for the purpose of ministering to orphans. While in Honduras we will be helping out at a couple different orphanages.

One is a Christian organization called La Providencia. This ministry is unique in that, rather than a large institution, children are placed into homes of about 8 children with a “mom” and a “dad.” They are provided with education, health care, and loving Christian house parents. We will also spend some of the days helping at a state-run orphanage. These are the institutional buildings that most people think of when they hear of an orphanage. We are excited to go and help these children and their caretakers however we are needed. Some of the things we might do include playing games with the kids, cleaning rooms, helping with a building project, rocking babies, making music with the children, doing laundry, or whatever else is needed.

Our hope is that this will indeed be a good fit for our church so that we can return with a team next year and continue to serve the same community for years to come. We also hope that you will join with us in praying for God to lead us and be glorified in every aspect of this ministry—before, during, and after the trip!

If you are interested in receiving updates about the trip, or if we can count on you to pray for us, please let us know at erin.runkles@gmail.com. If you are interested in contributing financially toward the $2200 cost of the trip (preferably by early January) please visit www.visitingorphans.org and click on “donate”, or send a check to Visiting Orphans; 449 Metroplex Drive; Nashville, TN 37211. On a separate paper (not on the check), write Mountain View Honduras Trip—Heath & Erin Runkles.

Thank you for reading this and for keeping us in your thoughts and prayer. We appreciate it very much. Have a wonderful Christmas!

God bless,

Heath & Erin Runkles

Feb 1, 2014
Greetings Friends!

Thank you all so much for your prayer and/or financial support of our upcoming trip to Honduras.  We are so thankful for each one of you!

We just wanted to send a brief update as we continue to get ready for the trip.  One big praise we have is that all of the money needed for our expenses has been provided!  Any future donations will help the rest of the team, and after that be given directly to the orphanage we'll be working with.  Praise the Lord for His provision!

Another exciting thing is that my (Erin's) mom will be coming to stay with our kids while we're gone.  Since my parents live in Nebraska they don't get to see the kids very often, so this will be a very special time for Grandma and the grandkids.  

Over the past several weeks we've been completing a Bible study and having discussions with the rest of our team.  It's been a good study on discipleship that will help us as we serve in Honduras as well as at home in our regular lives.  With our team, we're also working on planning for activities to do with the kids when we're there.  This is the most uncomfortable part of the planning because we don't know exactly how things will go.  Our coordinator at Visiting Orphans keeps saying, "Plan well but be flexible!"  We should have teaching, crafts, stories, games, etc. to do with the kids for about 3 hours each day, but be prepared if the staff wants us to do something totally different instead.  We need to be ready for anything!  I (Erin) love to plan, but this will definitely be good practice in the flexibility part for me.  

Besides actual ministry to the kids and caretakers there, we also have the responsibility of deciding whether or not to recommend this as a larger-team trip for our church orphan ministry for next year.  This feels like a huge decision, so please pray for wisdom and unity for the four of us to see how God leads.  

Of course, prayer for safety is appreciated as well, especially since Honduras isn't the safest of locations, and we are both going and leaving our kids home.  

Thank you so much for your prayer and support.  We'll plan to send one more update before we leave (March 1st).  God bless you and your families, and thank you so much for joining us in this ministry to orphans!

In Him,

Heath & Erin Runkles

Our Visit to the Sunshine State

We just got back from a wonderful family vacation, the first "just us 6 and just for fun" vacation in awhile!  My college roommate was getting married in Florida, and we thought (well, I thought) "Why don't we make it into a family vacation?"  So my dear husband agreed, not because he really wanted to drive nearly 40 hours in a week, but because he loves me so much.  :)

The boys have been talking about going to Legoland for awhile, but we always told them it was unlikely since it was so far away.  But  . . . with the excuse of a wedding, we decided it would be worth it and we'd make it an early Christmas present.  I made up a scavenger hunt for them, and after we set up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving, they followed the clues to find out what their early present would be.  They were very excited!

So last Thursday, we drove to South Carolina, where our good friends Dallas and Kelly had just moved a few months ago.  We stayed overnight with them and drove another 9 hours the next day.  Then we arrived at Chad & Kelly's house.  Kelly was my best friend since junior high, and they had just moved from Illinois to Florida a year ago.  At both places it was great to catch up with old friends, and the kids all played well and had a lot of fun together too.  The only downside was that instead of the nice 70-degree weather I'd been expecting, Florida was having a heat wave, and it was 85 and humid!  But the skies were sparkling blue, and at night the temperature was just perfect.  However, it did NOT feel like Christmas time, so it was very disconcerting to see lights and decorations up.  They just don't fit with the summer-time weather!

Beth's wedding was beautiful.  Unfortunately her dad was in the hospital and couldn't be there, which was very hard for her.  But it was a lovely ceremony and reception.  We got to see a few of our other college friends there too, which was a lot of fun.

Sunday we went to church with our friends, and then drove to my uncle Mark's house for dinner.  It was great to see him again, and Rayanna got to meet him for the first time.  The kids did some fishing, and we played board games and had pizza and brownies.

After that we drove to Orlando and checked in to the Nickelodeon Hotel.  We looked around the grounds a bit and then went to bed.  Monday was our big Legoland day!  It was a lot of fun, and Heath and I were especially impressed by all the amazing Lego creations!  All of the following pictures are of things built out of thousands of Legos (except the roller coasters).

Tuesday we visited Gator Land.  It wasn't in our original plans, but we decided to do it last minute, and I'm so glad we did!  It was really fascinating!  I had never seen so many alligators, nor had I seen them up out of the water walking around.  So cool!  The shows were very entertaining too, and Tabitha and Jesse even got to be involved in the alligator wrestling.  Jesse got to sit on one, and Tabitha got to choose which one the performer would wrestle.

Don't worry.  This one's not real.

This one, however, IS real!

Tuesday afternoon the kids played in the giant slides and pool at the hotel for hours.  Ethan and Tabitha had the very special experience of getting "slimed" when the huge bucket dumped on them.  All of us enjoyed the water.  It was hard to believe the facebook updates we read that said there was 7" of snow at home!

Tuesday evening Jesse and Heath starred in the Double Dare show!  It was really fun to see them do that together, and their team even won the game!

Wednesday we drove back to South Carolina and stayed with Dallas & Kelly again, and Thursday we came home.  The kids were amazingly well behaved for all 2,000+ miles of driving.  We normally can't make it 10 minutes away without major fights breaking out, so I was very pleasantly surprised that they were so good on this trip.  God really does answer prayer!  We also had no major car troubles, which was another big answer to prayer.  And we had a really fun time together--both with our friends, and especially just as our family.  We made some memories that will last, and I'm so thankful we had this opportunity.

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving has been my favorite holiday at least since I was a teenager.  In the last few years I've finally figured out why.  It's because of its simplicity.  No expectation of gifts or disappointment without them, no required shopping, no commercialism, no debates over the right way for a Christian to celebrate it.  Just family, thankfulness, and lots of food.  It's the one major holiday that hasn't been totally commercialized and turned into a disgusting season of material splurging.

I used to roll my eyes at how early the Christmas decorations came out in stores.  (Now don't get me wrong, I love Christmas decorations AND Christmas music!  But not before their time!)  Anyway, I used to just roll my eyes as it started earlier and earlier each year.  But this year for some reason it has really upset me!  I've always been disappointed that Easter and Valentine's Day and Halloween and Christmas take over huge sections of the stores, while Thanksgiving gets one little shelf of fall-colored paper plates and turkey decals.  But this year I'm really angry about it.  And instead of enjoying the Christmas music wafting through the aisles, it actually makes me angry to hear it.  What kind of Scrooge gets angry at Christmas music!?

But let me explain.  Instead of Thanksgiving being a somewhat-overlooked holiday, it has become completely trampled by Christmas shopping.  Now I admit, I've never had the least desire to go shopping on Black Friday.  I usually hate shopping to begin with, and who in their right mind wants to go shopping on the most crowded day of the year?!  The day after Thanksgiving has always been a special time for my family growing up (decorating for Christmas, eating leftover turkey, just hanging out), and we've continued that tradition with our own kids.  So I've never even been tempted to shop on Thanksgiving weekend.  But I've noticed the sales starting earlier and earlier.  It used to be stores would open at 7 am, then 5 am, then midnight.  Now they're open on Thanksgiving Day so you don't even have to waste time being thankful, you can just start a day early on the consumer frenzy.  It's disgusting.

This whole post is really just an introduction though.  I came across Matt Walsh's post on this, and he says this much better than I can.  I encourage you to read it.  Before you make your shopping plans this year, take some time to think about it and make a purposeful plan for your holidays.  I hope a lot more people will stay home on Thanksgiving Day and take one whole day to really . . . Just.  Be. Thankful.