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| Steve and Vickie Haddix will be taking their dogs, but not much else, to Haiti. |
(Not long before Christmas, 2015, it was my privilege to sit down with Steve and Vickie Haddix, who have answered a call to work at Alex's House Orphanage in Haiti. This is their incredible story, which appeared in the Dec. 23, 2015 edition of The Anderson News.)
The celebration will be much
different when Steve and Vickie Haddix entertain their family Christmas night.
Much, much different.
Steve's parents will be there. So
will Steve and Vickie's two sons, their wives and the four grandchildren. They
will gather at a house that has been virtually stripped of its furnishings.
There are a few folding chairs and a borrowed table in the house.
There will likely be tears. Lots of
tears. “Most definitely,” says the Haddix's son, Jonathan.
Most of all there will be love.
It's a love of family superseded only by a love for God.
“We told Kate, our oldest
grandchild, in the middle of November,” Steve says. “She is seven and she was
sitting in my lap. When I told her we were going to Haiti, she put her hands
over her ears and said, 'I'm not going to let you tell me any more to make me
cry.'”
Steve's voice breaks. To his right,
Vickie has tears streaming down her cheeks.
Steve sighs, then smiles, “You talk
about tearing your heart out.”
After living in Lawrenceburg for 25
years, Steve and Vickie Haddix are on their way to Haiti. Steve will be serving
as the Director of Missions for Alex's House Orphanage, a decision that was
bathed in prayer.
The Haddixs know it is the right
move. They know the events that led to Steve applying for a position he would
never have envisioned just a few years ago. Steve and Vickie have seen
everything that has happened since accepting the position two months ago.
Everything has lined up.
Everything.
Some would call it coincidence. To
the Haddixs, there's not a chance of that. It's the God they love answering
prayers in a mighty way.
Steve, who currently serves as
children's pastor at Hope Community Church, will say good-bye to his church
family on Jan. 3. Steve and Vickie board the plane for Port-au-Prince two days
later. All they will be taking are a couple of suitcases and their two dogs.
Difficult decision?
The Haddixs learned of Alex's
House through Hope Church several years ago.
The mission's founder is Bill
Howard, who had been serving as pastor of a church in South Carolina. “God had
laid it on his heart to start an orphanage in Haiti,” Steve says. “He had to
find Haiti on a map.”
According to Steve, Mr. Howard went
to Port-au-Prince where he met three young men, including one named Alex.
“Alex had a vision to get kids off
the streets of Port-au-Prince,” Steve says.
On Jan. 12, 2010, about two weeks
after Howard returned to South Carolina, the devastating earthquake rocked
Haiti. Official estimates put the death toll at 316,000 people.
One of them was Alex.
The orphanage bearing his name soon
opened.
Steve visited Haiti with a group
from Hope Church in 2013. It was eight years after Vickie and their youngest
son, Jonathan, took a 10-day mission trip to the country.
“My first trip, it smelled like a
garbage dump,” Vickie says. “That was when I was coming out of the airport and
getting on a bus.”
But something stronger than the
smell lingered in Vickie's mind.
“She came home and said, 'You've
got to go to Haiti,'” Steve recalls.
He was not about to budge. Driving
a bus for the Anderson County school system and working with kids at Hope,
Steve felt he was doing just fine in Lawrenceburg. He smiles, “I said, 'No,
this is my mission field.'”
Steve finally broke down in
February, 2013, joining some church friends for a mission trip. “After going, I
wanted to stay another week,” Steve says.
While that was impossible, he did
manage to head back to Haiti in March. “I wanted to finish the work of the
month before,” he says. “We knew we wanted to do more. We just didn't know what
it would be.”
The conviction came to fruition
when Howard offered Steve a position at the orphanage.
“Someone asked if it was difficult
to make the decision to move to Haiti,” Steve says. “We didn't make the
decision to move there. We made the decision to be obedient.”
The Haddix family is living the
teachings of Jesus, found in Matthew 10:37, “Anyone who loves their father or
mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter
more than me is not worthy of me.”
They are also living the teaching
of Matthew 25:35-36, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was
thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me
in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I
was in prison and you came to visit me.”
Once he visited Haiti, Steve was
convicted of those words of Christ. “I don't see how anyone can go there and
not have a life-changing experience,” he says.
Real life change
Steve and Vickie are not looking
for accolades. They simply want to continue a walk that started with Steve
sitting in his recliner back in 1998.
While he and Vickie had been raised
in the church in their native Breathitt County, they'd drifted away. “Vickie
said we needed to find a church for the boys,” Steve remembers.
“Steve was just working and
surviving. His focus was on the family,” Vickie says.
At the time, the oldest son, James
Michael, was 14 and Jonathan was 8.
“We weren't going to church
anywhere but I watched Jeff Eaton on TV on First Baptist every Sunday. I made
the statement, 'If he ever starts a church, I am going to try it out.' About
two weeks later, Jeff announced he was starting Hope Church.”
Even after making the vow, Steve
balked. “I didn't go. I was still making excuses,” he smile.
Eventually, Steve followed Vickie
to the church. They got plugged in and began working with children.
“I started going to Hope because of
Jeff Eaton,” Steve says. “I stayed because of the Jesus Christ I found.”
New step of faith
That relationship has taken a new
step of faith with Alex's House. As Director of Missions, Steve will be
responsible for coordinating work for more than 30 churches that travel from
the United States to work in the field.
“We will have the whole week
planned out,” Steve says.
The orphanage obviously has
children, but, as Vickie says, “They are not up for adoption. They will get an
education there at the orphanage.”
Steve explains that the orphanage's
desire is to instill a love of the home country and making a difference there.
“The need in Haiti is dire,” Vickie says.
“It is hard to explain unless you
have been there,” Steve says, “but there is a growing desire and a hunger for
God's word.”
Yet the poverty is gripping.
“In the U.S., we pray over our food
before we eat,” Steve says. “In Haiti, they pray for their next meal.”
Vickie actually got the new venture
rolling. She had seen an e-mail from Howard, the Alex's House founder,
advertising an opening for the Director of Missions. She mentioned it to Steve.
“We were sitting in at Wendy's when
I read the e-mail that Vickie had mentioned,” Steve says. “I texted Bill about
it. He got back with me and said he was traveling but we talked about the
position on the phone the next day.”
Steve sent his resume and soon
after he was making plans to move to a Third World country on a gigantic step
of faith. Most simply can't understand leaving the security of a home with
family close by for a country steeped in poverty.
“We were having a yard sale here in
Lawrenceburg,” Steve says of their effort to dispose of some of the family
possessions. “A man who was a Haitian native came by. I told him we were moving
to Haiti. His only question was, 'Why?'”
Vickie adds, “It makes no sense
what we are doing.”
Or maybe it really does.
“If God hadn't taken care of it,
we are not going.”
Steve and Vickie Haddix believe if
God wanted them in Haiti, He would take care of everything.
The family had a Chevy Malabu to
sell. “We took the car to a dealer in Nicholasville but couldn't agree on the
price,” Steve says with a laugh. “He asked about our truck and bought it.”
It was the truck that Steve had
planned on keeping around a bit longer.
The Malabu wasn't advertised for
sale, but at the yard sale in early November, a neighbor inquired if there was
a prayer request. “I told them to pray we could sell our car,” Steve smiles.
“They asked, 'What kind of car? Can I take a look?' They ended up buying the
car.”
But there was still the issue of
getting around town for two more months.
No problem. A church friend loaned
Steve a truck while Vickie is driving Steve's dad's car, a 1986 Chrysler
LeBaron convertible. It gets her where she is going.
The only glitch was their house.
The Haddixes have called Lawrenceburg home for 25 years and wanted to keep some
ties to the town, meaning they did not want to sell.
“We asked at church for people to
pray that we could rent our house,” Steve said of that October day. “Someone
told me, 'I ran into someone in Frankfort. They have been praying for somewhere
to move in Lawrenceburg, but they have kids and don't want to move until
January.'”
It should come as no surprise who
will be living in the Haddix house while they are in Haiti.
“There is just no way someone can
say this was not God working,” Steve says.
Vickie adds, “As for renting our
house and selling our cars, if God hadn't taken care of it, we aren't going.”
Steve and Vickie Haddix know some
question their decision.
“We have been told we are crazy for
leaving our salaries and our grandchildren,” Steve says. “We even had someone
tell us we were selfish.”
Steve chuckles.
“Jeff Eaton said, 'Crazy people
follow Jesus,'” he says.
But they also know things will get
difficult.
“When Bill Howard talked with us,
he wanted to make sure we were on the same page,” Vickie says. “He did not want
someone dragging me to Haiti. We have been shoulder-to-shoulder through all of
this.”
Their family is in Kentucky.
“Selfishly, I could say I wish they
weren't moving but they are a picture of selflessness. They are an inspiration
to me and I fully support them,” says Jonathan Haddix, their youngest son.
“I think what confuses people is
they think we chose to do this,” Steve says. “We chose to be obedient and this
is the door that opened. We have a desire to stay here. We love our family, we
love our jobs. We love Lawrenceburg. But we have a greater desired to be
obedient to what God wants.
“It is hard to leave the kids and
grandkids. We will not see the grandkids at every ball game or cheer
competition or dance recital. God told me it is not about what I am not going
to see them do. It is about what they will see God do through us.”
