Dear Supporters,                                                               September 26, 2013                                       

Our family would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your continued support of us in prayer and finances.  God has had us on an incredible journey, first Sunshine for three years and then us as a family for the last five.   It has been an amazing time reaching the lost for Christ, disciplining those who know Him, and helping those in need.  Along with any journey there have been times of great joy, sadness and gut wrenching choices.

After joining World Impact in October, we were to train in Central Kansas for nine months and then move onto our final position in Bailey, Colorado as Directors of Deer Creek Christian Camp.  At the end of December the decision was made to close two of the camps that were a part of World Impact, one in Pennsylvania and the one in Colorado that we were to take over as directors.  The leadership asked our family to stay on and become the directors of the camp in Kansas known as Morning Star Ranch.   We have continued to work at the camp while praying and seeking direction for our lives. 

As time went along, we both felt increasingly moved that it was time for us to step away from ministry as a full time vocation.  It was most certainly clear to us that Morning Star Ranch was not a place that our family would be able to serve and thrive in a healthy manner.  We both certainly do love the people that we have been able to work and serve with at World Impact.  There are numerous people who are dedicated to serving the urban poor and reaching the lost for Christ.

Eric has recently been offered an opportunity to return to working in professional baseball.  As a family we have decided to accept the position and we will be relocating to Bowling Green, Kentucky.  Eric will be working for the class A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays, the Bowling Green Hot Rods. For him it is an opportunity to return to work in an industry that he spent ten years in prior to becoming a missionary.

Missions and reaching the lost for Christ is still something very much near and dear to our hearts.   As Christians, we believe there are always opportunities to do ministry whether or not it is your full time vocation.  For Eric, heading back into the world of baseball will present him with the opportunity to reach his coworkers, players, and fans while doing his “job”.  He will be heavily involved in the chaplaincy program with the Hot Rods and establishing numerous faith and family nights where the gospel will be shared to the fans at the games.

We can never thank you enough for the love and support you have given to us over the years.  As we head off in a new direction, we would like to ask you to prayerfully consider one more thing, that is supporting some dear friends of ours Wilbert and Lisa Romain.  

  Wilby and Lisa are missionaries that we have supported for a while now and fully believe that they have been anointed by God and do His work in a mighty way.  Wilby grew up in Haiti and moved to the Dominican Republic in his late teens.  He became a Christian and after training, became a pastor of a Haitian church in Santiago, Dominican Republic.  Haitians are very much considered second class citizens in the Dominican and life is extremely difficult for them.  Most are migrant workers, moving constantly to find enough work to help support their families back in Haiti.  Pastor Wilby has established the church and seen sizable growth for the past five years.  In fact, his church has already risen up one leader and sent him out to help reach those who need Christ back in Port-a –Prince, Haiti.  It is Lisa and Wilby’s passion to have a thriving church, but more specifically to train up other Haitian’s to become pastors and plant churches throughout the Dominican Republic.   Right now, depending on which report you read, Haitian’s represent about 12-22% of the population in the Dominican Republic.  That is a large percentage that you can help reach by partnering with Wilby and Lisa. The name of their ministry is called “Lafwa, Inc.” They will have their website up and running by the 1st of the year.

To ask questions about becoming a financial partner, prayer partner, or to receive Wilby & Lisa’s ministry updates, email them at faithinaction08@yahoo.com. To send financial support, you can send checks to: Kentwood Christian Church, 5841 Kalamazoo SE, Kentwood, MI, 49508. Please write “The Romains” in the memo section of your check. The church will send you your tax receipt.

For those of you wondering about how to discontinue your financial support of us you many write World Impact at 2001 S. Vermont Ave.  Los Angeles, CA 90007, you may also call them at (323)735-1137, or email them at gifts@worldimpact.org.  Just mention that you wish to discontinue support for Eric & Sunshine Leach and they will be glad to take care of it.

Once again, your love and support for our family has been incredible and we can never thank you enough.  The lives that we have been touched are countless and it is because of your support thru the years that we have been able to show God’s love.  We have done it for no other reason than to bring honor and glory to our heavenly Lord and Father!  Amen!

Peace and Blessings,

Eric, Sunshine, Colton and coming soon Jaxson Leach

Dear Friends,

Sunshine was all aglow as 65+ women descended upon Morning Star for World Impact’s annual women’s retreat weekend.  With all the ladies coming and just one male compatriot, I trembled in fear.  Not really, but it was a truly different experience for me that weekend.  It was a great picture of women drawing closer to the Lord and celebrating together.

 

During the course of the weekend we had the pleasure of welcoming, serving and getting to know some of the ladies.  Their stories of redemption from brokenness, addictions and abuse to a relationship with Christ were powerful testimonies of God’s work in their lives. 

One of those testimonies really struck me as a great example of how Morning Star reaches people.  As a youth “Heather” had lived in the neighborhood of a World Impact church plant in the Wichita area.  She started coming to Lighthouse Church and visited Morning Star Ranch as a camper.  It was during her week at camp that she accepted Christ as her savior.

Heather went home after the week of camp a changed person. She started to share God with her family, got involved in church and was discipled.  Heather led her sister to Christ, and then her mom accepted the Lord as well.  Her parents had been divorced and out of Anna’s willingness to share the gospel her parents eventually reconciled and were remarried.  As the years went by she was discipled by the pastor and started to lead the youth outreach at the church.

Years later Heather was now back at Morning Star Ranch, not just attending the women’s retreat but speaking and teaching to all the ladies during one of the sessions.  Her example is exactly why we Evangelize, Equip and Empower those who we work with so they can go and reach others well beyond what we ever could. We serve a great and mighty God who can use anyone for his glory.

Peace & Blessings,

The Leaches

To our dearest friends,

Craig sat alone last October in his living room floor.  Desperation had come over him and he let the devil get a foothold.

The cold hard steel of the handgun pressed on his chest……BANG!  Craig pulled the trigger sending a round squarely into his torso.

Standing beside me Craig recounted the story of just six months ago.  About a year and a half prior to him attempting to take his life he had prayed to accept Christ as his savior.  He had struggled most of his life with abusing drugs, alcohol and women, but now struggled that night with his self-worth.   It is a question that we hear a lot.  How could Christ love me enough to die for my sins?  Doesn’t he know what I have done?  Those were the exact thoughts that came over Craig that night and he was alone and desperate enough that he tried the unthinkable, to take his own life.

Seconds after pulling the trigger Craig had a conversation with God.  Clarity sunk it. Christ is enough; he needed nothing more and nothing less than to trust in him.  Craig shut his eyes that night and prayed quickly asking for forgiveness and another chance at life.  That prayer has been answered for Craig as he is now using his testimony to tell others about Christ.  There are days that aren’t easy for him, but he leans on God for what he needs to get through.

As we minister here at Morning Star Ranch we have the opportunity to serve so many whether it be a World Impact camp and retreat or a rental group.  Everyone who comes to visit is in a unique place in their journey with Jesus from some seeking to know him, some running from him and others having firmly planted themselves in him.  Part of our ministry is to come alongside those who visit us to listen to their journey story, lift them up in prayer and challenge them to make the next step.

Craig told me his story; I prayed with him, gave him my cell phone and said you ever need someone to talk with call me.  We may never see him again on this earth, but this I know, we will see him again.

As always we covet your prayers.  This month please be in prayer for the youth that we will be reaching during summer camps.  Pray for strength and endurance for us and the staff at Morning Star Ranch that each day we will be filled up so we can pour out into others.  Also please be in specific prayer that God would provide someone who wants to be a missionary and serve in the role of maintenance for the camp. 

Peace & Blessings,

Eric, Sunshine & Colton Leach

Dear Partner’s in Ministry,

First John 5:14-15 references that if we ask God anything according to His will he hear it and we will have what we ask for. This is never more evident than recently while having a conversation with a group leader on our front porch. For months, we have been praying for volunteer groups who are passionate about our ministry and willing to serve. As I was talking with “Will”, he was telling me about how they had planned a week of service with three other camps, and each one had fallen thru for various reasons. I just kind of smiled and laughed, and told him about our recent time of prayer requesting groups just like theirs.

Often it is only after a period of time that we can look back and be like “WOW” God has answered our prayers.  Or we can see how He has protected and provided for us.  With Will’s group that was the case.  While they were here they heard first-hand how our ministry reaches the urban poor when Bo shared his testimony.  Bo shared about life in prison, the daily struggles to keep away from drugs and most importantly his daily relationship with Christ.  He told the group that he has to pray as he walks certain street corners because he knows the temptations that are literally right around the corner. Out of the whole week the group was here, it was Bo’s life testimony that inspired and motivated the guys as they went home.  It was no accident that God brought them here to help us transform the camp, transform their lives and transform others that we haven’t even met.

One of the biggest hurdles in ministry is that we often  get so busy  doing for the Lord, that we  don’t allow enough time to just sit and talk with him, or we don’t ask others to pray on our behalf. As we prepare to head into our busiest season, will you join us in daily prayer for Morning Star?

Will you commit to pray over these requests  the next few months as well?

1.)    Please pray specifically for all the youth and families who will be out here the next three months.

2.)    Pray that God is already preparing their hearts, and that we will reach them right where they are at.

3.)    Please also be in prayer for our staff. That we would stay focused on God, and that we would have the strength and stamina for the camp season.

4.)     Please be in prayer especially for our family as rural life has presented some very difficult challenges.

5.)    Please pray that God would provide meaningful relationships and wise counsel into our lives.

Peace,

Eric, Sunshine & Colton

Dear Family and Friends,

The staff here at Morning Star Ranch has looked forward to this time of the year. Eric and I moved here in mid-October.  Since we were the new “Director’s in Training”, we looked around with fresh eyes and saw all the possibilities. So we were fairly excited to kick off our camp/retreat season last month.

Morning Star Ranch is about 560 acres. Our entire staff has been busy getting the camp grounds, lodge and cabins into shape for this year’s camp/retreat season. It has been a lot of fun trying out new recipes, planning the menus, painting / redecorating the dining hall and getting the cabins ready for company. Eric and I both love hospitality ministry, we love creating a welcoming and relaxing place for people to visit.

Our first group this season was a group of RA’s from a local college. They spent the weekend focusing how to be good leaders and examples to the students they would be in charge of for the year. The following weekend we had a church board out to the camp for a time of prayer and meetings. They were gearing up for the New Year, and wanted to discuss how their church could grow and how they could be effective ministers to the congregation.

All of the retreats so far have shown me how important it is to have a quiet place for people to visit and recharge. We all need a place to go to  get away from our very fast paced lives, and refocus on what is important in ministry. Here at Morning Star Ranch, we have the opportunity to provide ministers a place to reflect, and plan their ministry opportunities for the future.

As Eric and I have settled into life here, we have met several people who have their own stories to share about Morning Star Ranch. Stories that have changed people’s lives. We are looking forward to all the opportunities God will give us to minister this year. As the year continues on, we will have church retreats, youth and kids camps, men’s and women’s retreats, and family reunions. Each group of people is a open door to minister.  

Prayer Requests:

~ Please pray that we can find a full time maintenance and camp caretaker.

~Please pray that we fill all our summer staff positions.

~Please pray that our new dining hall will be open for the camp season.

Peace & Love,

Eric, Sunshine & Colton

Welcome MSR Interns!

As Christians, we learned early on from the Book of Genesis in the creation of Adam that it is not good for man to be alone. God gave him a companion in Eve. Fast forward to the New Testament, and look at Paul on his missionary journeys with Timothy and Barnabas alongside him. In today’s church, we use catch phrases like “doing life together” or “community” to show the importance of having other Christians to help shoulder the load. That is why we are excited to have two new interns join us at Morning Star Ranch for the coming year.

Michael and Courtney are coming are coming alongside us in ministry at the Ranch for the 2013 year. In an interesting twist, they grew up as classmates in high school. They are from the Whitewater, Kansas area and learned about World Impact from missionaries in our Wichita ministry. As is true in the body of Christ, they each have unique skills that will make a huge impact this next year. Michael grew up on a farm and is very resourceful. He has also spent the last two summers working at a camp in Colorado. Last year he even headed up a week of kids’ camp. Courtney has the gift of hospitality, and she will be a great addition in making sure everyone’s needs are taken care of. She also has a servant’s heart and loves to cook.


It is great to have others help us out this year. It is a daunting task managing the Ranch and all the aspects of ministry. Their presence and work will help move the camp in the right direction. In addition, we have a passion for investing in others on a deep level. We are excited to be living and working with, investing in, and doing life with them.

Come summertime, our staff will expand to handle the demands of weeks of kids’ camps, youth camps, and teen camps. We are currently accepting applications for the summer months, so if you know of anyone looking for a more meaningful summer job than working at the local fast food restaurant, please send them our way. In the past, some of the best people we have worked with were referred by friends.

We always covet your prayers; this month, please pray for:


1. The groups using the Ranch next month that it will have an impact on their lives.

2.Michael and Courtney’s adjustment to life at the Ranch.

3. God’s provision of financial resources to finish the new dining hall.

Peace & Love,
Eric, Sunshine and Colton Leach

Sprucing Things Up

This time of year, as the weather turns cold and the camping season slows down, provides us with an opportunity to focus on other important things. As you can imagine, maintaining a 560-acre ranch takes a great deal of manual labor. Two big projects that Eric has been finishing up are winterizing the remote out-buildings and learning the water system. He is now a certified operator in training for small-water purification and waste-water management. He has become well-versed in all of the Kansas state regulations for water monitoring and testing. Most days, he comes back and gives me a debriefing. I learned today that you have to flush the waterlines to the toilets and put antifreeze in them so that the pipes don’t burst!

Preparations are underway for outlining retreats and camps for 2013. It takes a tremendous amount of preparation and planning to host as many camps as we do. From preparing curriculum, activities, maintenance, and cooking, it is quite a large undertaking. As most of you know, preparation and prayer is vital for setting up success. Coming up in the next two months, we have a pastor and deacon retreat and a college retreat. We are also excited that two one-year interns will be joining us this month. Both of them are eager to get started and have a great love of God and hearts for service. They will not only provide much-needed assistance in daily ministry, but companionship as well.

After living out here on the ranch for several months, we have adjusted quite well. It took a little while to adjust to the fact that the closest Target is over an hour away. But it hasn't taken us long to find out where the go-to spots are nearby. In all of the quaint, small towns, everyone has been very friendly and willing to help us out as the ‘new’ people in town. God’s beauty is all around us. We have a full bank of windows in the front of our house. I have enjoyed sitting at the kitchen table having tea, and watching the deer parade across our front lawn in the early morning hours. Colton and I go exploring at least once a day. There are several trails to walk, fields to explore, and a lovely golden retriever here named Abby that we enjoy playing fetch with. We love the peaceful atmosphere out here, whether it is walking down to the lovely old wind mill or crossing the Cottonwood River. We can feel God’s presence all around us, and we take comfort in that.

Please be in prayer this month for the following:

1. The new interns joining us. 

2.That God provides us with volunteers for service projects.

3. Financial resources to finish the new dining hall and minor improvements on existing buildings.

Peace and Love,
Eric, Sunshine, & Colton

War of the Worlds Men's Retreat

From Dallas, Denver, St. Louis, Topeka, and Wichita, the men began to check in at the Morning Star Ranch registration table. Some showed up in full fatigues. Some came hungry, others nervous, and some so excited they couldn't stand still. It was our family’s first retreat with World Impact, so we shared their emotions. I was nervous and excited; I paced back and forth, shook hands, introduced myself, and even tossed out a few man hugs. With all of the energy bouncing around, you knew something big was happening, and it was--we were on the cusp of Men’s Retreat 2012!


The theme for the weekend was War of the Worlds, one that really hit the men right where they were. The tone was set for an energy-intense weekend. After dinner on Friday night, we were off to the first session. The bonding began immediately as we crammed 120 men into the pavilion. The praise band rocked it out as did Dr. Don Davis with the teaching. You know it was good stuff when the teaching ran over by an hour and the men came out talking about how awesome it was.


There were three main sessions, some breakout groups about church planting in the city, games, fishing, softball, high ropes activities, a campfire with s’mores, and sharing some great meals together. As is often the case for me, the best part about the weekend was watching the men engage with one another in meaningful conversation late into the night. There were men at various points in their spiritual journeys, non-Christians and rock-solid believers. To see two men talking and praying together about Christ is the picture of true manhood.

As the weekend wrapped up, I was encouraged to see how the camp can be used for effective ministry. It provides an opportunity for those who come from urban environments to encounter God in a unique way. It also revealed three specific prayer requests that come with every camp and retreat.

1. For the pastors and leaders of those who came out to the retreat: please pray that God keeps them filled up for the work at hand.


2. For those who attended the retreat: please pray that their lives and hearts are a reflection of God’s calling in their lives. Also pray for protection as they head back into the urban areas.

3. For our volunteers and staff: please pray that they are encouraged in their work for His Kingdom. Also pray that God continues to provide the camp with those ready to serve.

Blessings,
Eric and Sunshine Leach

In The Starting Blocks

However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace. -Acts 20:24

We are so excited that this past Thursday we were given the “green light” to make arrangements to join World Impact.  It has been quite a journey the last two months, an emotional roll coaster that we weren't expecting.   The thrill of a new ministry, frustration of not having enough support, excitement of new people joining our ministry team to exhaustion of moving from place to place can be so draining.  As always, there are the many lessons that God has been teaching us and new relationships started that will be huge assets for His kingdom.   We are ready and willing to continue the race that God has set out for us in this next chapter and…did we mention that we are pretty excited as well?  Here is the latest update on where we are at financially and the time line for our ministry.

We have been blessed to have spent the last several months meeting old friends and making new ones on the fundraising trail.  We are currently at 82% of our needed monthly support to be fully funded.   What does the other 18% represent?  It is $740 per month.  We have a reserve of “one time donations” that we have received that we can draw monies from to make up our monthly short fall. We don’t want to continue to draw from that reserve fund as we have those monies set aside for ministry projects. These are funds that Sunshine & I can use to improve camp activities, men’s & women’s ministry, outreach and so much more.  We are continuing to meet and share what God has laid on our hearts.  If you want to or know anyone who is interested in missions please send them our way.  We also started the 81=Impact project has gotten some traction over the last several weeks and we are expecting a long term results from that.  Will YOU sacrifice $10 a month to help us reach our financial goal so that we can continue to do ministry next year?

On the fundraising side of things you can help us out three ways.

1.       Become a financial partner of our ministry.  Push the “Click Here” button on the right hand side to sign up today.

2.       Be willing to introduce us to your Church or small group.  We have found that without a personal introduction it is extremely difficult to open some doors.  Will you be our opener?

3.       Kroger, Bakers, Dillons, King Supers, Loaf N Jug, City Market & Quick Shop cards!  By putting your gas, grocery & pharmacy purchases on the gift card you can help us earn 4% of everything you purchase.  We have had 9 faithful users so far and it produces $200 every other month.  Could you impact 50 faithful users?  You already shop, why not use it?

This week will be a busy one for us as we are getting everything out of storage from 4 different locations.  On October 12^th we will be picking up the rental truck and trailer.  The game plan is to load the truck and get to Morning Star Ranch in Florence, KS on Monday October 15^th.  Both Sunshine and I are eager to start with training and learning.  We will be at Morning Star Ranch until August of next year at which point we will be moving to Deer Creek Christian Camp in Bailey, CO.    While in Kansas we will also be spending time at the Wichita ministry hub of World Impact for training and building relationships with the staff and families there.  We have a lot to learn from Church planting to computer systems so it will keep us busy.   We will be jumping in with both feet as one of the largest retreats of the year at the Ranch is the last weekend of October.  This will give us a great opportunity to experience camp life first hand and to learn from the Wichita camp staff who are already there.

As always we covet your prayers for our family and ministry.  For the next month here are some specific prayer requests.   Thank you again for all your love and support!

1.       For the move to Kansas. Patience, safety and ease of travel.

2.       The men’s retreat at the end of October.  That God prepares their hearts for an incredible weekend and that we listen and serve.

3.       That Colton will once again adjust well and that we find a toddlers group for him to continue to interaction with other children. 

4.       Sunshine finding the balance in setting up our home, learning new ministry tasks, and being a good wife and mother.

5.       For Me as I learn new ministry tasks, conferences, and for me to be a good husband and dad in  balance with everything else going on around me. 

81=Impact Project

We were making the 12 hour drive from Omaha, NE back to Louisville, KY as a flood of ideas rushed into my head about World Impact and Deer Creek Christian Camp.  At the next diaper change stop I quick jotted down some notes and it hit me, I can’t wait to get started!  Every time that I start talking about it makes me even more excited about what lies ahead.  We were set to move next week and start with World Impact on October 1st, but that has been placed into a holding pattern and hopefully a short one.

We are in a holding pattern because we need to raise an additional $810 per month in support so that we can help reach the urban poor for Christ.  In the transition from the Dominican to State side missions we have naturally lost some support and had others decrease their ability to give leaving us with a shortfall. That is where the 81=Impact Project comes in.  We are looking for 81 of our friends, or anyone willing to help, to support us at $10 per month so we can start our work with World Impact.

Sunshine and I feel that we are getting close to exhausting our “list” of people that we know and Churches in trying to raise the last amount that we need.  Between Sunshine and I we have over 1,200 friends on facebook, so that is why we are turning to social media.  Just think if 6.8% of our friends respond we will be able unload our storage unit into a truck and be on our way! If you are already a supporter of ours would you consider sharing this with a family member, small group or friends who are interested in missions?   Together we truly can Impact the World! If you would like more information about World Impact visit www.worldimpact.org or about what we will be doing visit www.impactthenation.blogspot.com.

You can start today by:

1.  Clicking here: Donate Now!  Just select change destination and select staff by name, then select Leach, Eric & Sunshine.  You can set up your monthly donation right there.  
2. Simply facebook Sunshine/Eric or email us at ericleach@juno.com / sunshine.leach@gmail.com and we will send you the printable form to fill out and mail in.

When Plans Change..

I have learned many things over the last 4 years of living and working in the Dominican, one of the big things is that plans change.  You almost always have to have a plan A, B & C and often times plan C gets scrapped for something else.  For me personally I love order and structure in everyday activities, but also love to problem solve with multiple options in my head.  It is fun for me to run through possible solutions and come up with options.  Here in the Dominican that skill has proved useful every single week.  Many times we have become so used to it that the teams that we work with don’t even know that we have had changes.   

Now when it comes to my personal life I have enjoyed moving around the country and world experiencing different places.   I have moved a lot the last 15 years, but it has been fun to learn regional and international cultures, customs and styles.  The one thing about all those moves is that I have always had control of them.  I chose to move, I could make plans A, B & C and if I didn’t like it I could always leave!  So what happens when plans change and we have little or no impact on the results?  Ugh! 

I find myself in a place of usual frustration, agitation and tension. 

Life was rolling along for us and looking good for our family.  As far as transitions go, it couldn’t be smoother.  We were finishing up the last two months with G.O., getting ready to start with World Impact on October 1^st.  We needed to raise almost the exact same amount of money to be missionaries with World Impact and most of our supporters had given us the thumbs up that they were on board.  We were excited about Sunshine being pregnant with our second child and everything was lining up perfectly.   That is when the plan changed and the question for me became how to not just survive but grow. 

Within days we found out that the baby was having problems and Sunshine needed to go back to the States.  As most of you know by now we lost the baby.  Sunshine had surgery and returned to the Dominican.  Between the airline ticket and medical expenses we racked up a healthy $3,000+ expense.  Right before that we got word that some of our missionary support had changed and now we needed to raise $600+ per month.  Between all of these things I quickly felt that my perfect little plan had completely spun out of control.  There was no plan that I could execute to resolve losing the baby, no strategy to implement; there was nothing I could do.   I became very tense and frustration set in.

God has been clearly trying to get my attention about turning to Him in my times of trial.  It is one of those things that I have always known, but seldom do.  As a problem solver, my normal reaction is to dive right in and not take the time to turn to God in prayer.  This time however, with the baby, there was nothing that I could do except to turn it over to Him.  As a result it lead to many times of prayer and not asking for the baby to live but that we would be able to give Him the glory in all that we do.  I Peter 1:3-9 brought me great comfort.  It just reminded me that as Christians we will suffer grief in all kinds of trials, but that our inheritance can never perish.  How comforting that is!  Pain, sadness and grief are all things that we experience and I have shed plenty of tears, but those are short lived in that eternity with him will be such a delight. It is in that knowledge that I find my comfort and joy.  Now the challenge is to remember the lessons from God and continue to apply them each and every day.

   Sunshine and I would love your prayers for three specific things right now.

1.       We have two weeks to sell our car here in the Dominican and right now we have no viable prospects.  

2.       For the transition back to the States.

3.       That God will provide us with new supporters to help us cover our $600 per month short-fall. 

From the Caribbean to Colorado

Sunshine, Colton and I would like to thank you for your prayers and support of our family as we have been, and continue, to serve others in God’s name.  We want to update you on the latest journey that God has us on for the next season of our lives.

It is hard to imagine that it has been seven years for Sunshine and almost four for me that we have been with G.O. Ministries serving in the Dominican Republic.   It has been a tremendous time of working alongside Dominicans, Haitians and Americans.  With G.O. Ministries we have seen tremendous growth, opportunities and relationships established.  We have witnessed  the school increasing in size, additional Church’s being planted, nutrition centers expanded , countless lives restored by committing lives to Christ, more medical outreach and relief being brought to Haiti. Gods hand has been present in moving all of us to Him. 

This past fall Sunshine and I both felt God speaking to us about a new chapter of ministry, but we weren’t sure what that was.  We both spent months in prayer and really felt He was calling us back to the U.S.  We continued to pray about what that would look like and felt so convicted that this is what was in store for us, that in March we let G.O. Ministries know what was on our hearts.  We felt very strongly that we were to step out in faith, but we also did not want to leave G.O. in a difficult position with the busy summer months.  We let them know that we would be happy to continue serving through the busy summer season, but that in August we would be leaving the ministry.

 While we were praying about what was next for us, we sat down and wrote a list of what we were passionate about in ministry and what we have been blessed with for skill sets.   We felt a strong calling to continue to work with the poor, to find a connecting point for the Americans that we have been working with to get involved in their own backyard, mentorship and leadership development.  With that in mind, we started to pursue ministry opportunities.

God began to lead us on a new journey. In March, we connected with an organization called World Impact.  After I initially saw the ministry opportunity with them, we spent about two weeks in prayer before contacting them.  Over the last three months we have had several phone conversations, filled out a 30+ page application, visited their regional hub for personal interviews, visited the potential job site and have completed the candidate  assessment program.   We will official be joining World Impact on October 1, 2012.  

World Impact works in 10 cities across the United States with their headquarters located in Los Angeles, CA.  Their goal is to impact urban communities for Christ and have been doing that for the last 40 plus years.  After the Rodney King riots in 1992, which happened all around their headquarters, World Impact charted a new course for the ministry to plant Church’s with indigenous people.  What better way to reach those around them than the people who know them best.  Missionaries work side by side living in the same neighborhoods in which they serve.  They train, equip and empower the locals so that they can be a light in some pretty dark places.

World Impact also has four camps around the country for urban youth to have a unique experience that they normally would never be afforded the opportunity to do.  Sunshine and I will be working at one of the camps in Bailey, Colorado called Deer Creek Christian Camp.  There are several things we love about this camp.  First, we love working with teams of people as we have done for the past several years.  Even though we are only with them for a week, it is amazing how much God can use that short time to impact someone.  Secondly, we both felt God leading us to do more mentorship and leadership development with young adults.  World Impact has a program called Leadership in Training that will not only provide us the opportunity to mentor, but expand the program as well.  It is a great program that identifies youth from the area Churches who have a desire to grow as a Christian leader.  They are able to spend three months at the camp to work, serve and have leadership training classes.  Another key element is called The Urban Ministry Institute or TUMI for short.  It is a seminary level education that has been developed by Dr. Don Davis to raise up future pastors and church leaders.  It is an incredible course that is affordable for all and it already has 112 satellite locations in 11 countries.  We will be looking to start a TUMI location in the Denver area and possibly at the camp. 

We are so excited about this new opportunity that God has laid out for us.  Please pray for us in this process that He provides us with the resources connect us with volunteers willing to help and that we will truly impact those coming to the camp.  The task at hand is enormous, but not too big for Him.  Our position with World Impact is similar to G.O. in that we have to raise our funds for ministry.  We would love for all of you to continue or become a new partner of ours in this new venture.  You can click on the give tab above for more details.

Our immediate schedule is that August 28^th we will be moving back to the States.  We are going to take a much need break to process all of the ministry we have been a part of the last 4 years, meet with supporters, friends , family and take a week vacation.  From there we will spend be spending nine months training and working at the Morning Star Ranch, northeast of Wichita and at the regional hub in Wichita, Kansas and then move out to Colorado.  It provides us a great opportunity to learn all aspects of the ministry while working at a camp.  We are eager to share more with each of you and will as we head out on this journey.  Thank you all so much for your love and support.

The last bit of big news is that we just found out that in the middle to end of February our family will be growing by one!  Sunshine and I are so excited for Colton to be a big brother.  Please also keep this in your prayers as we will be having a lot of transition this next season of life.

Eric, Sunshine & Colton Leach

Well we returned to the island after the holidays to some cool weather here. It had been a while since we had been here during a rainy season.The rain would start mid morning and rain till mid afternoon, for two weeks non stop it seemed like everything was just soggy. Then the sun would come out for a few hours, and it was just beautiful! It's the time of the year when you wear layers. At night I wanted to sleep with extra blankets on the bed because I was freezing and of course Eric thought I was over doing it a little.

We had a wonderful time in the states visiting with family and friends. We took some time to just relax, and to do some things together as a family.  We enjoyed showing off how big Colton has gotten. Ever the proud parents, it was fun for our family to see his "tricks." He is such a happy, busy little boy. We spent the majority of our time in Louisville, traveled to Kansas City, and then off to Omaha to spend Christmas with Eric's family. It was a relaxing time, and we had a lot of fun watching Colton run around with all his cousins. If we missed getting to see you, we will be state side shortly to work for G.O.'s biggest fund raiser of the year the "Kentucky Derby."

It's not always fun and can sometimes be painful, but I know that during these seasons I am growing. Learning to be a mom and a wife on the mission field has been challenging in ways that I never expected. I realize that the only way that I can be successful and keep my sanity is to abide in Him. That sounds like a simple concept really. But when the house hold chores pile up, your little guy needs attention, you haven't worked out, haven't had your me time or time with your spouse, it gets easy to sacrifice your time alone with the ONE who makes it all make sense.  I want to abide in him daily so that when crisis strikes, I am comforted and strong because I feel His presence all around me.

Medically speaking, last year we had 7 medical clinics and 4 dental clinics visit the island.  We treated about 5,000 people with medical/dental needs and shared the gospel with them as well. It really is a great week of ministering to the communities physically and spiritually.

Our community medical clinic located here in the community where I live is going strong as well. The clinic is open 5 days a week. Dr. Vladimir is our Dominican doctor here and he treat's about 50 patients a day. We charge 50 pesos ($1.30) to see the doctor and the medicine is free, but we never turn anyone away who can't pay. We have people who drive as far as 2 hours away to be seen in our clinic. They know we have "American" medicine. Not only is the medicine better quality than what you can buy here, alot of the pharmacies have been know to sell placebo's. We are known as a place of integrity.

Our biggest project of this year outside of medical clinics, will be the assessing of our Nutrition centers. We have 11 in total. With these nutrition centers, we are able to give 1,000 children across the island one hot meal 6 days a week. For most of these kids, it's the only meal they will receive. The centers are apart of our churches so that the pastors are also able to meet their spiritual needs. Last month, we began assessing the kids to see how nourished they were and what changes we need to make to get them to the best health possible. One of our visiting doctors from the U.S. came, Dr. Corrine Kohler, and we traveled to 4 of our nutrition centers. We took height, arm, ad weight measurements. We also recorded their names and ages. We are having the data analyzed so that we can see if the kids are getting enough to eat, and if they aren't, what we can do to supplement. We know the kids needs vitamins, and also are there extra things we can do to add to their food to build their muscles and immune systems up. Not only did it feel good to go out there and participate in the clinic, they kids loved the attention. It was a good feeling to talk with the Pastors and to let them know that we are working to get their kids in their communities healthy. After all the nutrition centers are assessed and all the information analysed, we will take our findings to the local health department here and see what THEY can do for their people. It is our hope that the Dominican health department here will provide additional boosters for the kids, and find out some other useful ideas to get these kids healthy.

We also gave each of the kids parasite treatment. They can have all manner of parasites and amoebas  in their stomachs. We often wonder if the medicine is strong enough to kill them all. A few days after we had treated one of the communities kids, one of our Pastors stopped us in the street. He said that he had a trophy for us. He pulled up a photo of a felt worm on his cell phone. Deloris and I were immediately grossed out! The Pastor started laughing at our reactions. He said "The day one of the kids you all treated for parasites walked by the door of the church, and as he walked by me, this worm fell out of his pant leg. I wanted to show you all this picture so that you can see with your eyes that you all make a difference.

We will be traveling to Louisville, KY Tuesday March 27th. We will be state side for about 8 weeks. We look forward to visiting with you all.  Eric will be preparing for Derby, and I will be assisting him when I can, chasing Colton around and keeping up with my own work. We will be traveling on to Omaha after Derby to visit Eric's family,and to see our supporter's there as well.

As I press pause on the last six months and take a moment to reflect on all God has done over the last six months it has been such an incredible time. I also realize that it has been entirely too long since our last update. It always amazes me on how life and ministry can take off and before we even aware so much time has passed. The last short-term trip of the year has left to head back to the States and I wanted to take a moment to recap for you all that went on this summer and fall.

We had 36 teams come down on short term trips, now that is a lot of ministry! God blessed us the last six months and construction wise we have been able to accomplish great things. We built four rock cages to help protect the Church in Hoyo de Bartola from the ever changing and flooding river. Continued construction on three homes and they are now set to be finished and moved into by the end of November. We started building a new Church/nutrition center and dorm in Phaeton Haiti. Continued the construction of Church’s and feeding centers in Batey Nueve & Batey Cuchilla, also worked on the parsonage in Halto del Yaque. There were also a lot of little projects like painting homes as part of community outreach in Panta Suenta, building basketball courts, starting the process of building a baseball field for children to have a safe place to play. G.O. also started the demolition of our old central church in order to build the new three story medical facility.

That was just the construction part! We also had many, many children’s ministry, three dental clinics, four medical clinics, sports outreach, family counselors, Pastoral training, music training, sports outreach and so much more. G.O. has been so blessed to be able to start another nutrition center for needy children, and we now have 11 centers on the island. Under the direction of Will Partin, our sports ministry has started a daily basketball clinic four days a week. It is great to see so many kids learning discipline, basketball and the love of God via devotions by the coaches.

This past year we have also seen our main central church move from our old building to our new temporary sanctuary. We have also watched as God has moved the hearts of so many as we have gone from 75 people of well over 150+ and are already out of space! What a great problem to have as we get ready to start the second floor of the building and future main sanctuary. The youth of the Church are on fire for God and are representing a huge portion of the congregation. We have had countless new people joining the Church and the impact hasn’t just been with the Dominican and Haitians. As many of you know the Americans who come down on the short term trips are often searching for God as well. Just with the teams that I knew if we had eleven people accept Christ and be baptized while on their trip. Can I get an AMEN on that!

It has been a great time of ministry! We are looking forward to a short break and having teams start up again in the New Year. This past year G.O. Ministries also spent some time laying out a new vision statement and over the next month I will be updating the blog and breaking down the 5 key components of it. It is extremely important to know why we do what we do and how it plays into moving God’s Kingdom forward. So stay tuned for more…….

We will be heading to the states in the next few weeks. Sunshine and Colton will fly back to the states 11/28, and I will follow them in about a week on 12/5. We are looking forward to a time of relaxation, spending time with family, seeing friends, and celebrating the holidays with family.

We wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving! We are all so blessed!

My summer of Medical clinics kicked off with Woodlawn Christian Church. I spent two afternoons with Nancy the Occupational Therapist and her assistants. This was our first OT clinic and I wasn't real sure what to expect. Let me just say that I was wowed. Those two afternoons we saw children with Cerebal Palsy(minor to really bad), club feet, and one little girl that was so crippled, neglected, and malnourished that it just broke your heart. Each child was assessed and dianosed. Most of the patients had been recieving therapy and good care. You could tell that they were loved and well cared for. After the assessment and diagnosis, Nancy would go through her toy bag, and would begin working with each child to see if they were age appropriate in thier coordination, checking thier reflexes, loving on them, and praising the parents for a job well done. One little girl was brought in by her grandmother. She was about one year old, about 28 pounds, had a mop of curly black hair and went by the name "princessa". She lived with her grandmother, as the little girl's father was dead. Princessa had been born with a blood cot in her brain, she didn't have very good muscle movement, couldn't hold her head up very well, and she had a lazy eye. But boy was she loved! Her grandmother would clap her hands and start singing the song " La Cucaracha" and this little girl was laugh and giggle and make this hissing noise. It was adorable. The grandmother was so good with her. Nancy showed her how to do exercises with her, and by just talking to her on the opposite side of her lazy eye would force "Princessa" to to use her lazy eye muscles more and strengthen her neck muscles as well.

The following two weeks I had medical/dental clinics with Harris Praire Church and the Dr. Veal dental team. Harris Praire's first stop was to Pastor Nico's church where we saw about 250 patients for medical/dental. On the second day we visited a rural community called "Cinco" and treated about 90 patients. On our third day of clinic we visited a Haitian church plant in the downtown Santiago area. We saw about 180 patients that day. It really was a great day there. We were introduced to the Pastor of the church (about 50 people)and learned that by having a medical/dental clinic we were really putting the church on the map. Every person who walked through the door of that church left knowing about service times, and had a chance to meet the Pastor of the church. The church was located in the business district, and was extremely busy all the time. It's hard to say how many people in the church, or who visited the clinic were there as refugees. It was a good feeling to know that we were a small of what God is doing for the Haitian commiunity in downtown Santiago.

Dr. Veal's dental team was a part of our basketball camp week. In 2 1/2 days of dental clinic we saw about 150 patients. The dentists were there to pull teeth, and they also did some cleanings as well. There really are few of us who enjoy going to the dentist...I am one of them. As I was watching our dentists pull teeth, I was thinking about the amount of faith it takes for those people to get into that chair. In the states you have xrays, they speak your language, and it's a great comfort to know that you know exactly whats going on all the time. That's not true here in one of these clinics. Sure we have Spanish and Creole translators...but it takes a lot of gumption and pain to blindly put your trust in a strangers hands. Know what I mean? Some of these patients teeth were so bad that they spent hours getting them out. The other day Eric and I were walking to a friends house to have dinner. One of our Haitian construction workers named Fran stopped me and smiled. He said "Thanks again for helping me get rid of this tooth. I feel like I have a new life without the pain I was in." The picture above...that's Felix in the chair, and that's me holding his tooth. Of course I had nothing to do with it! I mean I hear the sounds of those tendons breaking and I feel faint! Literally. One of the dentists that was working asked me to say a prayer for a young guy who was in the chair getting his tooth pulled, he was shaking like a leaf. So I am standing there at the head of the dental chair trying to pray and all I can hear is the sound of tendons breaking. I had to quickly walk before I vomited on the patient!

It's been great to walk around our community here and recognize the people that I saw in the OT and dental clinic. I see the moms and ask how their kiddos are doing. They smile and say that they are well and so grateful for the advice they recieved. I see the folks from the dental clinic and ask them if they are having any pain...big grins light up their faces! I love it that I had even a small part in that!!

Faith, Future and putting it into Practice

I wanted to share with you some things that have been on my heart and let you know where we are at as a family working in ministry.

2 Corinthians 5:7 “We live by faith, not by sight”

Faith is a word that at its core is the very fabric of belief in God. Looking at the words FaithFaithful it is used over 300 times in New Testament. and People put their Faith in Jesus, their Faith healed them, Faith guides them and the Lord is Faithful to all his promises. With the basis of our religion and all the references to Faith in the New Testament why then is Faith so hard? I believe that if you ask the majority of all people, Christian and non-Christian, that they would say that they have Faith in something. Conversely all Christians have Faith in the fact that Jesus was the son of God, he died for our sins and rose on the third day. The verse above 2 Corinthians 5:7 provides great insight to the fact that we can’t see Christ here with us, but we have Faith that his presence with us is a reality and that is how we are to live.

So why do I say living in Faith is so hard? Most people, and at times even I, think it is very easy. As I look back it was easy to put my complete trust and Faith in Christ when I accepted Him. It wasn’t until later that it became hard because He wants us to relinquish areas of our life that we simply don’t want to put our full Faith into believing that He will take care of us. At the root it is because we are control freaks! It is easy to be in Church and say that I trust the Lord and have Faith that He will provide. It is another thing completely when you have $5 left in your checking account and $400 medical co-pay due. We rack our brains on trying to figure out how WE are going to fix it and often times forget about the most basic thing of including God into the picture. I know that I do this a lot and people think that because you are a missionary that we are sort of super Christian, but in reality we have struggles just like everyone else. Jesus tells us many times in the New Testament that if we ask in His name that He will do it, John 14:14 “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” Pretty cut and dry right! We ask, then after period of time we doubt and don’t have Faith in the very thing that He said that He would do. This is where I find a great challenge, to have complete Faith in his provisions.

A great question is, that if Faith is a cornerstone of our way of life, what areas are you actively living out in it?

Future

As we mentioned in the previous blog it is our hearts desire to move back to the Dominican
Republic on a full-time basis. When we started to split our years by spending part of it in the Dominican and part in Louisville we agreed to a two year commitment. While it has been wonderful to serve in the home office it has also been made clear that our hearts are with those whom we work with and serve in the Dominican. Sunshine and I have been talking a lot about the Future and what we feel that God has in store for us. It has been much more challenging than I expected as we always expect a clear cut answer. Often times I feel that it would be so much easier if the answer was clear, but alas that is part of where Faith comes back into play.

What we do know is that the work that we do in the Dominican is a vital part of who we have become. We both want to continue to invest in the lives of the Dominican’s and Haitians that we have gotten to know over the years. Spend time at the feeding centers playing and teaching the kids, work with the children in the sports ministry, helping build homes, churches, feeding centers, reaching thousands via medical clinics and reaching the lost for Christ. As much as we love the people of Hispaniola we equally love working with the teams of Americans that come down to serve. We have a deep rooted passion to serve and to continue to serve in this capacity.

In Practice

Here is where Faith and our Future come together. We are putting our Faith in God that He will provide the resources for us to realize the Future.

Matthew 7: 7-8 “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

We are fervently in prayer, and ask that you pray as well, that God will help open doors so that we financially can continue to do ministry without going into debt. We were blessed before joining the ministry to start fund raising for about 10 months and built up a reserve. Our first year of ministry we were very close to our minimum budget needed and we were able to offset the small difference from the reserve. After that first year is when the economy in the US took a big step back and unfortunately we had several supporters whom could no longer continue on with us. Simultaneously we have had a large increase in expenses to our budget. All that being said we had a monthly shortfall of $1000 per month in support. We were able to add some supporters over the last couple of months and that allowed us to get that total down to $700 per month. In addition, our reserve was set to run out in July of 2010, but it was amazing to see that as each month that passed God has provided one time gift for us to where we have not run out of funds for the last seven months. We recently received our last ministry statement and we are down to $100 left in our reserve. This is a very difficult position to find ourselves in, but we have Faith that God will continue to provide for us. The most difficult part is checking our own ego, the nervousness of asking for financial support, and know that we can ask you as brothers and sister in Christ to help us meet our need.

Here is what we are asking:

First: Prayer that is always first and foremost. Pray that God will allow doors to be opened and hearts softened so that we will receive what is needed financially. Pray that the 115 letters we sent out last month would be fruitful. Also, since you are praying already, pray for those lives that we will come in contact with this year.

Secondly: For those of you that already support us we want you to know how appreciative we are of that. We would like to ask you if possible to make an increase to your giving. Also, and perhaps more importantly if you know of anyone else who might be interested in supporting missionaries that you share our passion with them. We need advocates on our behalf to take our work and share it with small groups, churches and individuals.

Thirdly: We ask those of you who are not supporters of ours to consider becoming a partner with us TODAY! As mentioned above we need to raise $700 a month in donations or $8,400 per year. I know for some it is easy to budget in a monthly amount, but for others it is easier to send in a one-time gift per year. Either way is awesome!

You can send in your gifts to the address below, Please make all checks out to G.O. Ministries but remember to put Eric & Sunshine Leach in the memo line. You can also click on the “Give” tab on the top of the blog page and follow the steps there. As always you can contact us and we would be happy to send you a copy of our ministry budget, as we always want to have transparency in our ministry.

Peace & Blessings

G.O. Ministries

11501 Plantside Dr. Suite #14

Louisville, KY 40299