Pastor Bixby got home this past Wednesday night from his time in Haiti serving as a French-speaking chaplain with a medical trauma team. The team found they were able to accomplish their goals sooner than planned, addressing immediate overwhelming needs, laying the necessary foundation for efficient future work, etc.. With more personnel arriving (”fresh troops” as it were) and the situation stabilizing, the team decided it was time to come home. So all of Morning Star’s leadership team members are home in Rockford for the moment, safe and sound, and ready to share what they experienced.
Jeremy Scott flew out of O’Hare with the boxes tonight (1/28) and hopes to accompany them not just to DR but on into Haiti (by Fri.pm, 1/29) and spend a couple days there with the team.
from Jennie Bixby (Tues.pm, 1/26) - “Thankful for the answers to prayer. My heart is heavy after talking to Bob this evening. Bob’s last 24 hours: he felt a large after-shock that knocked down more buildings, went to see an orphanage, a baby was born at the clinic, searched the village for a baby bottle, and another baby is fighting for her life at the clinic. He said that the team can’t believe it’s only Tuesday. He said, ‘Each day seems like a month.’“
These men (Jon, Jeremy, and Rick) are currently driving through the night toward New York City (they’re in our prayers, especially considering they’ve been working all day and are driving through ice storm conditions).
All in all, from 3:30pm Tuesday up till 7pm Wednesday–Rockford and neighboring communities helped Morning Star gather 118 boxes full of medical supplies and formula (approx. $250,000 worth!). The plan now is to drive the donations to NYC to be taken with a team of Haitian medical personnel to three clinics in Haiti. Delta Airlines has approved the medical team to carry for free as many supplies as they can gather by the time their flight departs Friday morning.
So “Team Haiti” has hit the road to NYC…and it seems it will be icy and long. But while we pray for their safety, we are also overwhelmed by the blessing that they were able to carry so much out with them. Morning Star people, local hospitals and clinics, local media stations, classmates, neighbors, coffee houses, retirement communities of Rockford—THANK YOU for your proactive generosity. Several people faraway sent unexpected financial donations online, totalling about $400, which will be very helpful toward financing this road trip and toward future Global Grace endeavors. THANK YOU.
If you’re part of the Rockford/Chicagoland area and have an opportunity to donate supplies, please consider this immediate opportunity to send medical supplies on a free trip to Haiti:
from Bob Bixby to the Morning Star Church family (3:24pm, 1/19/2010)
We have 24 hours. We found a small medical team comprised of Haitians leaving for Haiti this coming Friday and they have just received the right to take as many medical supplies and material as they can WITHOUT fee on Delta Airlines! The needs are desperate and there is a very practical way we can help: we can get as much stuff as we can collect to their depot in New York City by Thursday afternoon. That means tomorrow night a crew of volunteers start driving, and I really think we ought to step up to the plate and make it happen. So, starting tonight (Tues.1/19) at 6pm we will have the church doors open until 10pm, and then all day tomorrow (Weds.1/20, from 7:30am, until 7:00pm) for people to bring in supplies that fall into one or both of the following categories: baby formula and medical supplies (as per the list we have below).
Babies are dehydrating and dying. One very real, very practical, very instantaneous way we can help is to make it possible for these babies to have a fighting chance at life. We cannot go there ourselves, make the bottles, and feed them. How I would love to do it if I could. I know many of you would as well. But we can — most of us — buy at least one can of formula. Many can buy more. Maybe you can buy some of the medical supplies or you know a doctor who would give to our project.
Already, Wesley Willows is providing boxes for us to take! We’ve asked other places. If a donor understandably wants more information about who they are donating to, please contact Jeremy Scott (jeremy@wordcentered.org|815.721.6412) for more details. Jeremy and I will drive through the night unless we get replaced by enthusiastic volunteers!
Folks, this is just a neighborly gesture. It’s a small thing. The organization that we are helping is Christian. It’s a cup of cold water. Let’s do something. As I’ve said before, we are going to do some long term relief work in the near future, but this is something we should be able to do immediately with immediate impact.
I can’t believe I’m saying this: Go shopping!
Pastor Bob Bixby
In addition to baby formula, please scan this list of medical supplies to see if you can provide any of these items:
A lot of masks
Gauze Sterile
betadine
Elastic Bandages
All kinds of bandages
Tents
Many have asked whether it is possible to contribute financially to Global Grace’s continuing plans for Gospel-driven, enduring help for Haiti. If that is what you would like to do, the original PayPal donation venue is still active. See yellow button in sidebar. –>
Please continue to pray for Jeremy and Anouk Scott. Their referral for the adoption of Alex and Elvin (a.k.a., “Josiah”) had been a hope and expectation for the last 15 months, and for much of that time, according to Liberian court rulings, the boys were legally “Scott” sons. However, the moratorium on Liberian adoptions over the past year or so (for the government to be able to make reforms to the system) has put a significant strain on the waiting process. Jeremy and Anouk were loving and supporting the boys from afar, wanting them home, and praying for clear direction and provision from God about how/whether to continue pursuing them. As of yesterday, October 19th, God appears to have answered their prayers in an unmistakable way. This below is from the Scotts’ adoption journal entry today:
Jeremy and Anouk Scott were thrilled last week when a friend working with the orphanage in Liberia sent them new photos of Alex and Josiah. The Scotts had hoped to be able to bring the boys home by Christmas, but God has arranged things differently. The Liberian government has been regulating the adoption process and investigating allegations of abuse in the country’s orphanages, so those efforts have necessarily hindered the completion of the Scott boys’ adoption, as well.
God has been answering prayer, giving grace and wisdom to the Scotts and the orphanage staff, keeping the boys safe, restoring Josiah’s health and continuing to help him grow stronger (they learned that he started walking last month!), and bringing them back together into the orphanage (they had been separated during investigations). Financial gifts have been coming in — about $8,000 has come in of the Scotts’ anticipated $12,000 remaining costs, and that in addition to the $18,000 or so the Scotts had already raised and seen provided to cover their expenses earlier on. Please prayerfully consider giving toward the Scotts’ needs.
Joy McCarnan is planning and hoping to join a mission trip* through Together for Adoption and Carolina Hope Adoption Agency this June 10-19 with a number of folks from likeminded USA churches to serve orphans in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Here is some footage of some of the orphans the team will encounter this summer: [editorial note: Video had to be removed temporarily due to concerns unrelated to the Orphans Refuge team’s trip to Addis Ababa.] As you view this video, please pray about the Orphans Refuge trip, and please pray about your own involvement in the lives of orphans, foster children, and adoptive families.
DONATION DETAILS:
* If you would like to give toward deferring Joy’s trip costs, here are specifics:
Checks can be made payable to Morning Star Baptist Ministries (or to Global Grace, Inc.), and mailed to this address:
Morning Star Baptist Church
3426 Colony Bay Drive
Rockford, IL 61109
Jeremy and Anouk Scott are praying for a Christmas miracle. It really would be a miracle for God to arrange all the details for the Scotts’ two little boys to make it to Rockford, Illinois, USA — by Christmas. But maybe He will be pleased to do just that!
Alex and Josiah have been living in an orphanage in Liberia for about a year now. It’s a good orphanage, where good people are trying to take good care of them. But it isn’t home.The Scotts have seen many, many direct answers to prayer and evidence that God is paying attention to their sons’ situation, even though they are across the ocean from them. There are still some things that must be worked out with the boys’ case histories and other details. As convinced as we are that it would take a miracle to get the boys home by Christmas, we are just as confident that God could and will do that if He wants to.
… There are several ways we can encourage the Scotts while they wait for God to reveal what’s next:
… 1. If you are willing and able to give toward covering the Scotts’ remaining adoption expenses (anticipating about another $11,500), that would be wonderful.
… 2. When they go to Liberia to pick up the boys, the Scotts hope to take some needed humanitarian supplies for the orphanage. It’s very possible that some of the supplies the Berrymans took when they picked up Rhianna and Baylee from the same orphanage last February would’ve directly benefited Alex and Josiah, who were living there at the time but had not yet been referred to Jeremy and Anouk. Please email Anouk about how to add efficiently to what she’s collecting to take over.
… 3. If you have questions or innovative ideas, or if you would like to contribute clothes or other items that the Scotts still need for Alex and Josiah, please email Joy McCarnan for “wish lists” and details.
… 4. Subscribe to the Scotts’ online adoption journal if you haven’t already. You can read and respond to their updates there.
… 5.Most importantly, please be praying that God will glorify Himself by clearing the way for Alex and Josiah to come HOME as soon as possible, maybe even by Christmas!
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UPDATED (7pm, 1/20) 
