It seems like every couple of years the Lord has moved me into seasons of change/transition. These seasons are always to grow me personally as well as the ministry work He has called me to in Haiti. About a year ago January 2018 the Lord began revealing to me His desires for my life. I admit I was reluctant at first and fought Him for a few months. What the Lord is calling me to in this season is by far the hardest yet. He has called me to transition out of being the director of therapy at Northwest Haiti Christian Mission’s (NWHCM) Miriam Center and to transition the outreach program to be a partnership between NWHCM, STAND the Haiti Project Team based in PdP and 5 STAR GLOBAL MINISTRIES which will allow it to continue to grow and flourish. As Miriam Center Therapy Coordinator and Outreach Director, I have been developing and running these two separate programs since 2009. Both of these have developed into multi-faceted and dynamic programs.
 I would like to take a minute in this email to thank NWHCM for the last 11 years of ministry. It was through their organization that my passion, love and calling for special needs ministry was born, fostered, and bloomed. Looking back over the years it is incredible to see how faithful the Lord has been and how much He has truly blessed the work that is happening not only at the Miriam Center but also throughout all of NWHCM's ministries. To think, in 2007 there were 14 children in Heaven’s Waiting Room that were under their care. They were living good lives but not thriving. Fast-forward to today and there are 30 children who are thriving and doing things I never dreamed possible. The Miriam Center programming has become a blueprint for other organizations and has inspired to date 3 other programs that now daily help children. In 2009, the For Jonathan Sake Outreach Program (FJS) was launched as a way to prevent further special needs orphans. None of us could have dreamed or imagined that it would be serving or have served over 600 families! We serve a BIG God. As I write this, I am overwhelmed and standing in awe of God’s provision and plan.
  With that said it makes it even harder to write this. NWHCM has become my “Home Base”, it is where it all started, where a huge part of my heart is, and where God has developed and grown my vision and dreams. I feel like I have reached my “young adulthood” and it is time for me to prepare to leave my “nest” at NWHCM. Two years ago God started this process when NWHCM and I all realized that God was expanding my mission field and vision beyond the mission walls. We made the decision to move forward into a new ministry partnership. So for the last 2 years I have not worked directly under the mission but in partnership with them. Not much changed the past 2 years I was still doing everything I did before plus God opened doors for me to partner with five other organizations in Haiti to further Christian therapeutic disability advocacy and care. Through these partnerships God has continued to reveal the bigger picture… His greater call on my life. But he also revealed to me I can’t keep doing it all.
TELL ME MORE ABOUT 5 STAR GLOBAL MINISTIRES?
In August 2018 God led me to begin planning to open a nonprofit called 5 STAR Global Ministries. What God has taught me through my work in Haiti the last 11 years has become a blueprint for helping other organizations across Haiti to start moving forward in starting disability care for their special needs orphans and as well as starting outreach programs to prevent special needs children from being abandoned and becoming orphans. So in the future the focus of my time, energy, and resources will be on Expanding disability care across Haiti and eventually to other countries. I strongly desire to share the knowledge God has given me so that more children get helped.
STAR stands for...
Special-needs
Therapy
Advocacy
Reaching communities globally
This starfish has 5 legs and there are 5 ASPECTS OF MINISTRY that form our starfish…
1. Christ-Centered
2. Family Empowerment
3. Disability Advocacy
4. Training and Educating Nationals
5. Holistic Therapeutic Medical Care
Vision: To empower families, caretakers, and locals to provide Christ-centered disability care. While training and education nationals to provide disability advocacy in under-developed countries.
MISSION: We are a Christ-centered ministry whose goal is making the Invisible...Visible and giving a Voice to the voiceless through Christ, Church, and Community. Showing the love of Christ 1st through our actions then through our words. Daily building relationships and being Christ's hands and feet to those living with a disability in countries that see them as cursed for being different. Bringing hope to the hopeless...light into the darkness...and Joy in the midst of hardship. Making Christ's love visible and available to ALL! All while using the individual gifts and talents God has given each of us to help each child reach their fullest potential. We plan to do this by focusing on the 5 aspects that form our starfish.
LOGO: 
The logo will be a starfish for 2 reasons
1. Starfish have the ability to grow back a leg when it is broken off just as the children and people we serve have the ability to grow in their skills and abilities.
2. The story of the guy who was walking the beach and 1 by 1 throwing the starfish back to the sea. Another guy came by and asked why are you doing that, you can't help them all. The guys response... I helped that one and made a difference in his life. I know we can't help or save all the children but one child and one family at a time we can make a difference.
The following areas of ministry will take greater focus:
- Growing sustainability of the For Jonathan Sake Outreach Program in Northwest Haiti.
- Partnering with various organizations across Haiti providing training to existing professionals and organizations seeking to help or improve their work with children with special needs
- Training and educating nationals through being a professor at the therapy university in Leogane as well as taking students during their clinical rotations.
- Helping other organizations open new outreach centers and therapy clinics across Haiti so that more children receive needed services
- Training on how to build adaptive equipment out of resources that can be found in Haiti.
- Developing Occupational Therapy (OT) as a medical profession recognized and utilized in Haiti.
WHERE ARE YOU IN STARTING 5 STAR GLOBAL MINISTRIES?
Currently I am in the very beginning stages. I am beginning to start the paperwork to get the name and ministry legally registered in Pennsylvania. Nathan will be helping with developing our website. My dear friend Warren Was designed the logo. I am praying about who to ask to be on the board of directors. Please join me and praying for God to bring the right people. Ideally I would like to find a doctor to be the medical director, an accountant to help my dad with finances, a therapist, a pastor, and an IT/Technology person. I would also love help and/or any advice from other friends who have started their own non-profits. I am in no rush to get 5 STAR GLOBAL MINISTRIES off the ground. I am trusting in God’s timing. With the transition being a year and a half with NWHCM I have time to develop it slowly, seeking God’s direction. The development of 5 STAR GLOBAL MINISTRIES will not change my funding. I will still be serving under Commission To Every Nation (CTEN) out of Texas. All my funding will still be going through them. So really nothing is changing except I have a name for my organization and what I am doing in Haiti. More on all of this in a later updates. If you have time and would like to help with any of the paperwork stateside or willing to look over and help in this area please email me.
BACK TO THE BIG CHANGE…. WHAT IS THE CHANGE….WHAT WILL BE DIFFERENT?
MIRIAM CENTER
The plan for the Miriam Center is that by May 2020 NWHCM will be fully financially sustaining and running Miriam Center Therapy and I will be a consultant coming in to help with treatment planning, schedules, supervision for the Rehab Technician Staff, and helping with bracing/equipment needs of the children. The exact details are still being worked out but the year and half transition is to give NWHCM time to raise the funds needed to sustain the therapy program without my financial assistance. Currently I spend around $20,000 a year on this program. I have come up with a plan where the therapy needs of the Miriam Center kids can be met at $12,000 per year ($1,000 per month). The therapy staff will be smaller since the outreach program is going through transitions as well and the staff will work only for the Miriam Center and have no involvement in outreach. They will have 1 Rehab Technician and 2 locals who have been trained to be Activity Assistants. Also over the last 11 years the Miriam Center is fully stocked and even over stocked with the therapy supplies needed to run this program so supply costs get lower each year. If you have a strong connection to the Miriam Center Therapy program and would like to ensure that it keeps going please consider becoming a monthly donor with Northwest Haiti Christian Mission (NWHCM) specifically for Miriam Center Therapy Program. If you would like to become a monthly donor or make a 1x donation please contact myself or NWHCM directly and we can help get you connected and set up to do that. God owns cattle on 1,000 hills and is the ultimate provider. I know and believe that within a year and a half NWHCM will have the funding to keep therapy going for the 30 amazing young adults (I can't believe they are all teenagers now!) at the Miriam Center.
FJS OUTREACH PROGRAM
The outreach program was developed at and is one of NWHCM programs. The program has exploded in the last 8 years growing from helping 8-10 families in 2009 to helping over 600 families in 2018. This program is my passion keeping special needs children with their families and empowering the families to care for them while we fill in the gaps where we are needed. The budget to run the outreach program for 2018 was $85,000 and is projected to be closer to $100,000 for 2019. The increase is due to the need to hire more staff and accounts for the growth in the number of active members in the program as well as the costs for furnishing and building equipment needed to move the program to STAND in Pdp. This program takes 90% of my time, energy and resources. I can’t keep being the sole financial provider for this program and do the other things God is calling me to do. Both of these transitions are so that within 2 years I will have more time, energy, focus, and resources that can shift to His greater call on my life which is 5 STAR GLOBAL MINISTRIES. Finding sustainability for this program in hard and I realize it won’t happen in 2 years or even 5 years but I desire all my programs to be sustainable without me someday. Isn’t that the dream of any missionary. Right now 3 parties of people have agreed to partner together to ensure this program continues to thrive, NWHCM, STAND, and 5 STAR Global Ministries (my new ministry I am developing). NWHCM will continue to provide space for parent education seminars and outreach fun activities as well as be the primary location for the medical clinic, outreach pharmacy, and nutrition distribution. STAND in Pdp’s main focus is therapy and they are giving space for daily therapy, building clinic, providing funding for outreach nurse, Vitamin programs and 1 Rehab Technician. 5 STAR GLOBAL MINISTRIES (myself) will continue to be the main financial provider for this program and will cover the salary of 3 Rehab Technicians, an outreach director, and part-time translator.
This BIG transition will begin taking place in May/June 2019 when the new outreach schedules come out for the year. There is so much that needs to happen in the next 5-6 months before this move. I have my work cut out for me.
- STAND Building being made ready with equipment and supplies- January 2019 my parents plan to come into Haiti to build needed equipment and help prepare the STAND building to become the headquarters of therapy. I am in the process of making an AMAZON wish list of the supplies/equipment that needs purchased and got to Haiti before May. I will include it in the next email update
- BUILD A UNIFIED STAFF- Starting in January till May I will be doing a therapy continuing education/training with all my current 3 Rehab Technician Staff, 4-5 new Rehab Technicians as well as 4 locals who want to go to therapy school next year and 2 locals who have become Activity Assistants at the Miriam center. I have had a lot of trouble with staff unity. Due to my health issues the last 12 months I have not had time to pour into my current staff. All but 1 is new within the last year. This training will not just focus on therapy but also on team-building, leadership skills, and spiritual development. The next 6 months this will be my main focus to insure the Miriam Center and the outreach program both have strong therapy staff and that a few extra Rehab Technicians get trained and can be placed in other locations in Haiti that are waiting on a trained Pediatric Rehab Technician.
 PEPARE THE OUTREACH NURSE- Due to being sick so much in 2018 I have been unable to pour into the new outreach nurse like I would have liked. A better plan for communication about sick kids needs developed. As well as a better paperwork plan for tracking vitamins, sick kids in the hospital, etc. She is also in need of more training. - MAKE NEW CALENDERS WITH SCHEDULES FOR OUTREACH 2019/2020- making schedules will be a nightmare and a half…lol. Typically it takes a good 2 weeks to create all the paperwork for the next year of outreach but this year will take even longer. Currently we have 4 groups that get 10 weeks of therapy from 1-3:30 each day. But once outreach moves to PdP we will run 2 groups each day which means everyone gets 20 weeks of therapy (we could add 140 more children to active outreach but that would be financially impossible at this time). So 1 group will get therapy from 9:30-12:00 and a second group will get therapy from 1:00-3:30 every day. This will require us to find and change every ones grouping and folders to ensure that those that live far away get morning slots. Those that are in school get afternoon slots, etc. Please be praying for the organizational side of this transition. It is overwhelming just to think about and there are a lot of details that still need to be worked out.
This is ALOT of information… ALOT of Transition/Change. Thank you for taking the time to read it. Thank you for believing in God’s call on my life and in the ministry that I do. I could not have built these programs without your prayer support and financial support and I can’t keep moving forward in God’s call without you. I really need prayer warriors in this season of Transition/Change. Please pray
- That God will be the one leading and guiding each of my steps.
- That with God’s help I can build a unified therapy team for the Miriam Center and for the Outreach Program.
- That splitting the team in 2 to form these 2 teams will go smoothly and the staff will be able to have peace and see the big picture.
- That I will be able to find and train an outreach director for the PdP campus that will be able to make wise decisions, advocate for the children in the program, and lead the staff well.
- That I will stay healthy, not over extend myself, and find balance in my life and ministry.
- That God will provide financially for the costs that are involved in this transition.
- That God would build my board of directors and 5 STAR Global Ministries Team
- That peace will reign and wisdom will abound as all the details are worked out.
FUNDING
If you are not a monthly supporter would you pray about investing in my ministry and life in this way. By becoming a $10.00 a month, $25.00 a month or whatever amount, monthly donor makes a huge difference. You are investing in hundreds of lives being changed and transformed.
TO DONATE
1. ONLINE CTEN WEBSITE- www.cten.org/autumnmarshall/
2. PAYPAL: autumn.marshall@nwhcm.org
If you have a special bond and passion for the Miriam Center and want to ensure therapy continues even after I am not there on a daily basis would you consider becoming a monthly donor through NWHCM to help fund the therapy program. If so reply to this email and I will get you details.
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