A Beautiful Beginning

One of the first things Laura and I noticed about the property we have built the guest house upon was the intense noise we immediately heard.  It was the unmistakeable sounds of God.  The day was hot when we first viewed the property in August of 2011, a hot, still day with nary a breeze to cool us.  As we made out way onto the large plot of land which consisted of 9 parcels all nicely subdivided and ready for the builder, we could sense an overwhelming presence.  It was an easy decision.  We chose the most level of two lots side by side and entered into agreement with God; His will be done.

16 months later with the first stage of Rio Vista Mission House almost complete, we still sit in peaceful wonder each morning as He blesses us with His noise.  His creation glistens in the morning light, everything coated in a thin but distinct layer of moisture, truly God's way of providing for all the little creatures that live in the trees and brush which completely surrounds our little enclave.  The towering Caoba trees, some of which are over 200 years old, filter the light of the rising sun each day. 

The bright globe sends beams of yellow light through the leaves and dances through the thousands of water laden spider webs in the nearby bushes.  The first sounds of His creation reaches our ears as the birds of the sky begin their ceaseless twittering and whistling; I don't think I have ever seen an unhappy bird here.
Fully an hour we sit and watch and listen to the orchestra play, the Maestro in full control as He continually adds more and more to the convoluted and yet extremely intricate rhapsody of life. All of these things work together, only most of us take all of His creation entirely for granted, expecting that trees are just trees, plants are just plants, bugs and creeping things are better left unseen. 
Each day we truly appreciate the splendor and noise of God's creation, for this is the noise that He meant all of us to hear, and then understand, and finally to give thanks.

In a few days we will all enter a New Year, a new page in our stories; how much time will you spend in the presence of the Lord in the year to come, or the following years?  "Be still and know that I am God"  All of creation around us shouts to humanity of the glory of God, a deafening roar from the sheer size of it all; created for us to enjoy, growing around us for each of us to explore.  My God does not need to be proven for His existence for pointing out the obvious is entirely ridiculous.  If you didn't know it already, your standing in it.

Our prayer for you in the coming year is that it be a prosperous year, full of blessings as you also promise to watch and listen more intentionally to the noise of God around your lives.  If you find it difficult where you are because your lives are just "too busy", take a break from it, venture out into the sunlight and find a place where you too can hear the noise; and then bask in it.

So deafening, words hardly do Him any justice.

Bendiciones
Mike and Laura

Today I feel good, having endured the first cold in years and of course, as I'm sure you will all agree, summer colds tend to be worse!  Both Laura and I are adjusting to the climate and the colds we have both suffered are just another bump in the road.  We have been actively searching a variety of properties and several options have been presented through our contacts here in the D.R.  While we have not made a decision as yet, we both feel the Lord guiding us along a patient path...the calming presence of His spirit.  It is obvious to us that His will for us to continue to seek Him and trust He will provide the place and situation through His people is profound.  God has surrounded us with good, caring people who wish, above anything else, to serve the Lord.  Several Mission groups who operate here and bring teams of people here to work, have committed support for our operation once we are established.  Truly a blessing and more confirmation of our calling to be here.  This week we are asking for prayer support in particular with the location confirmation.  We are near a decision and trust that God has directed us to the right place and time.

Laura and I appreciate all of your prayers, please write us back as the Lord directs you if you have any questions or words for us as we continue our journey.  Once we have chosen our base we will put together a mission team to come to the island and help us get set up.  The options we have on our short list (we have four options right now) will all require substantial upgrading and in some cases complete rebuilding!

We miss you all very much especially our home group bunch!

Dios te bendigas!
Mike

Arrival!

Well everyone, the day has finally arrived...Feb 22 we flew from Toronto, but not without enduring one last trial in Canada!  It seems the Lord has a continued sense of humor as He unleashed a record snow dump on Windsor the day before we leave.  So I spent most of the day shoveling snow, digging out the folks...digging out neighbors...and of course 4 X 4 ing through the streets of Windsor!  What fun!   O to leave or not to leave...see ya!  We will pray for a swift end to the winter Canada enjoys so well!  Kidding aside...our flight was uneventful and quick, even Raven our dog did very well on her first flight!  She was a bit excited when we arrived and was very glad to see us.  We cleared customs easily with the dog and saw our taxi was waiting for us.  Laura and I were discussing our mission with our cab driver and explaining who we knew in country as missionaries and we discovered Jose also knew many of the people we had met of previous trips.  While driving down the road Jose suddenly pulled over and waved over a man standing on the roadside...Michel Drouin from Quebec was evangelizing again in the country.  We had stayed with Michel and got to know his heart for the Haitians who he ministered to.  Michel jumped into our taxi and we caught up quickly on the past two years.  What a blessing to see him again!  Michel immediately invited us to stay with him as he would be alone soon when his team returned to Canada in March.  Another blessing!  We will certainly explore this option the Lord has presented!  After settling in at our Hotel Casa Blanca in Cabarete, we enjoyed our first day venturing out to the community and seeing what was where.  We have met the owners of the Hotel, former pastor and wife from London Ontario, William and Dorothy have lived here for several years and now minister to locals and tourists alike as they use their hotel.  William is also a successful realtor on the North Coast and has several options for us to view!  Last night we met another pair of Missionaries who run a local orphanage and children's hospital here in Cabarete.  Martin and Cindy  work with street kids and abandoned babies.  We also met a family from Whitehorse who are here working with Martin on his Hospital.
The Lord continues to open doors and we are prayerfully vigilant of His guiding will...continue to pray for us and His direction as we go forward with these people and others who will surely come into our path.

Bless you all
Michael and Laura

One week to go in Canada!

Hey everyone, bless you all this day the Lord has made!  The last few weeks we have journeyed across Canada...U-haul in tow and now we find ourselves in Windsor Ontario visiting with the last few family members on Laura's side.  For those of you who didn't know it, it takes days to get across this province!  Ontario is huge!
And cold!  The Lord is giving us a good appreciation of winter before we leave,  I told you He has a great sense of humor!  I'm not complaining, we have enjoyed our time with family and are almost ready now to moake the final move to the island.  February 22 is our fly date and when we arrive we have several options to consider.  We will be staying at a Christian Hotel in Cabarete...Casa Blanca Hotel!  We look forward to getting there and activating our business plan.  North Coast Missionary Services is fully incorporated now in the D.R.  and we are praying the Lord will show his hand when we arrive.  Pray with us as we make this final step that God will bless and cover us as we go.  Pray with us for His blessing and covering for our children and family we leave behind.  We look forward to seeing many of you in the D.R. in the time to come! 

Bless you well
Michael and Laura Boisclair

A Celebration of God's Promise

Good morning to all who read and blessings to each of you in this New Year 2011!  I am compelled to write again as we enter the new year with all the blessing of God. We are excited at the pending launch of our Mission and at the same time pensive of our time here coming to an end.  Over the holiday we enjoyed a good deal of time with our children who, at various points on their own journeys, took time to respectfully be with us at our last Christmas together in Canada for a while.  What a blessing indeed!  As I muse over our children's paths that they are upon I can only wonder how God will direct their lives...how He will influence them with people, situations, and events in order to guide their steps and help them to reach their individual dreams.  We continue to pray for them most fervently and invite others to pray for our children as we step out on the path God has laid before us.  This path takes us away from our country, our church and friends within the body, and far apart from our children and family.  We have Faith that we have done the right things for our children and raised them in a way that they should go.  While life and distraction fills each of their lives I am hopeful that God will continue to work in them and direct them on their individual paths.  Our children never stop looking at us, as parents, mentors and role models, I pray that we can be humble enough to forgive them for the mistakes they will make, and courageous enough to continue on our paths so that we may be salt and light to them and others who look to God for direction.

The time is ticking down to our inevitable move date...and before we go we wish to invite all who have been a part of our journey, both within the church and outside the community of God.  On Sunday January 9, 2011 at 10:30 am at the River of Life Community Church in Lethbridge, please join us for our sending by our church into the Mission Field.  Join us after the service for a lunch to Celebrate God's Promise...He has given each one of us a promise and dream....we take this time to remember, thank, honor and strive towards our individual promises and dreams that He has shown us and the ones He has yet to come for us.  Join us to celebrate the Promise of God.

Michael and Laura

Update

Good Morning to all and bless you on this day the Lord has made!  Well things are progressing quickly now as we have entered into agreements to sell our house and have accepted a great offer on our business last Friday!  We have so much to do now as we continue to downsize our possessions and get ready for the move to the D.R.  We are busy training the new buyers for our company and hopefully by Mid January we will be able to go.  It was six years ago that I gave my life and everything in it to God and learned to trust His ways for me.  Our life has been full of trial and blessing at the same time.  Each trial we face allows us the opportunity to look to God for answers and every time we do, we see the blessing come forward.  The dream of moving to the Mission Field began more than 40 months ago and since then the trials have been immense.  Many of you who we call friends know of these trials as we have accepted your counsel and wisdom as we shared our trials with you.  We see the hand of God moving people around us to line us up with the best counselors for each situation...it has always been through God's people that we see the true spirit of God!  Many of them unwittingly realizing their purpose in our trials until...through their words or actions...a solution presents itself for our trials.  The most recent trial presented itself when we knew we had to make the step to go to the Mission Field.  This step involved selling almost everything we have...house, business, and possessions in order to go.  Once the decision was made in February 2010...God began to work on his people.  In May He brought us a buyer for our house...who will use the house for local ministry!  He brought us several buyers for our business, one of which we chose just last Friday!  The day after we sold our company I received notice from our lawyer in the D.R. that our non-profit company has been granted full operational status by the Government there!  Once the lawyers settle on a close date for our company here in Lethbridge we can officially announce our leave date...sometime in January 2011!  We are officially in uncharted waters now...stepping out into the nations with Faith and trusting fully that God will continue to fill our lives with people who bring good Godly counsel...as I type this short blog, I can sense His presence within me...knowing it pleases Him to see Faith meet with action.  This is the confidence God can give...I know Him through His trials for me,  I know Him through His blessings when I trust He will see us through the trials.  Look always to the Lord..trust in Him...step out in Faith...and you will see the blessing in your lives.  We are only at the beginning and we have seen so much...I can hardly wait to see the rest!
Blessings to all of you who support us...through your counsel....your giving...and your prayers!

Prayer for Dominican Republic and Haiti

Good Morning and Bless you all on this day the Lord has made.  We ask that you lift up these two countries and pray for the safety of the people who live there.  Hurricane Tomas is bearing down on a direct course for Haiti and possibly some areas in the Dominican Republic.  This could be even more catastrophic for these already strained island nations as many Haitians in particular still live in tent cites.  Please join us as we continue a daily prayer vigil over their protection and continued support for rebuilding these hard hit areas.

Thank you Lord for our ability to respond to your call...you give us the ability and resources to assist when and where we can.  With heavy hearts and overwhelming concern we lift up these nations to your Lord...watch over them and protect them from harm.
We praise your name

Knowing the Time...watching the signs.

Most of you know that our timing is close and as we draw near to the time to leave we are ever mindful of how God wants us to represent the calling He has given us.  What I mean is how we respond to the things that happen around us and who He involves us with in our daily lives.  Things which happen and you have no apparent explanation for things other than God must have orchestrated it.  For example...eight months ago while counseling with Daniel Zopoula about the timing of our move to the D.R. we concluded that October seemed likely given the circumstances at the time.  During the last eight months we have been diligent in seeking his will for that timeline and everything has unfolded towards this day.  We have been shown favor with our company and with our completing our home renovations so we might be able to get top dollar on a very busy real estate market.  God has also allowed us time to visit family and friends we have not seen in a very long time and we have seen the blessing of God in their lives.  We have a great peace of knowing we could be gone soon and may not see those we love for some time.   Pray for us as we continue on the path tomorrow...we are meeting with our first potential buyers for our house!  We were approached earlier this year in May by a group who saw an interest in our house.  Well tomorrow they want to make an offer...and they have already agreed to all our conditions!  Without listing and without pushing ourselves into the Mission Field, God has orchestrated all of this in His time.  We step out now boldly and with confidence that His plan will unfold.  Praise His name!  Thank you Jesus!
Blessings
Mike

Thanksgiving!

The Lord is truly good to us!  We find ourselves in Windsor this weekend visiting Laura's family and friends for Thanksgiving.  After a very bumpy flight over the prairies and into Windsor we finally arrived on time.  The weather is beautiful here and is much better then snow!  Although we miss our immediate family at this time of year...time with those we see less often is important.  I am thankful for the blessing these people are to us.  They are good ministers to our souls!  We pray constantly for them and also for all those who cannot be with us for this Holiday!
Bless you all.

Michael and Laura

Part of the Purpose

This video was posted on Facebook  and it shows part of what we support with our Mission House.  Elio Madonia has pioneered mission Field work in the North Coast area and we hope to be able to assist his work when we arrive.

God bless him and his family.

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DkrtaAaoE6no&h=85f63

Here we Go!

Saturday October 2, 2010.
Well this is the first blog I am posting on this site.  I will continue to post new blogs as we progress towards our move to the Dominican Republic.  It has been a long journey so far but the most exciting part is yet to come!  Laura and I are thrilled to have so many supporters and followers who believe in God's vision for us in this new venture.  We begin tonite with a missions night at the ROL Church in Lethbridge...hope you can join us as we update the missions group on our progress to date and our short term plans to come!

Blessings to all of you who follow along and support us on this journey for God!
Mike