January 18, 2012

This was a first for us and for the next team to arrive from Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian in Columbia City, IN.  Everyone was a “newbee”.  No one had been to Haiti before and some had never flown before.  As you might imagine, they arrived wide eyed and full of enthusiasm.  They had a lot of talent in the areas of carpentry, electrical work and painting.  But it was such a blessing to see how quickly they built relationships with the Haitian children and young people.  One team member stepped right in as an answer to prayer for two young brothers who were without food often for 2 or 3 days.  By sponsoring the boys in the school program, they now have a meal provided each school day.  Another  team member, Harrison, who runs cross country at college would get up each morning at daybreak and run several miles through the rice fields.  One day a young Haitian man stopped him and asked “Why are you running?  No one is chasing you”.   Sometimes we must seem like a peculiar people. 

The whole team brought suitcases of personal care items and toys.  They divided the items into 475 bags and distributed to two needy schools in the area.  The team’s willingness to open themselves to God’s leading and seeking God in daily activities and nightly devotions brought this scripture to mind from Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom and His righteousness,  and all these things will be given to you as well”.   We know that God will continue to bless all of you and we hope to see you soon.   I think there are already plans for the next trip to help renovate one of the schools we visited.

January 25, 2012

Dennis and Lisa McKee, the organizers of the Homes 4 Haiti program led a team of 19 from Indiana.  The team was very eclectic, ranging in ages from 10 to almost 70.  Many had made repeated trips to Haiti and some were here for the first time.  Some had been raised in church while others shared personal testimonies of how God had dramatically transformed their lives.  Some felt the transformation while here in Haiti.  But all had to make a choice when Christ called.  1 Peter 2: 9-10 says “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”  The team conducted a very busy bike repair clinic, distributed $1000 of rice and beans to churches from Borel to the mountain top, participated in a prison ministry led by Thad McKee and other members of Just Cause, painted offices and tiled bathrooms, and dedicated the first completed Homes 4 Haiti house (three more homes were started this week).  Old relationships were renewed and new relationships began.  It is always exciting when teams are inspired in Haiti and step out in faith to create new ways of expressing God’s love here.  Perhaps your team will take that step.  

January 18,2012

This was a first for us and for the next team to arrive from Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian in Columbia City, IN.  Everyone was a “newbee”.  No one had been to Haiti before and some had never flown before.  As you might imagine, they arrived wide eyed and full of enthusiasm.  They had a lot of talent in the areas of carpentry, electrical work and painting.  But it was such a blessing to see how quickly they built relationships with the Haitian children and young people.  One team member stepped right in as an answer to prayer for two young brothers who were without food often for 2 or 3 days.  By sponsoring the boys in the school program, they now have a meal provided each school day.  The whole team brought suitcases of personal care items and toys.  They divided the items into 475 bags and distributed to two needy schools in the area.  The team’s willingness to open themselves to God’s leading and seeking God in daily activities and nightly devotions brought this scripture to mind from Matthew 6:33: “We know that God will continue to bless all of you and we hope to see you soon.”  I think there are already plans for the next trip to help renovate one of the schools we visited.

January 11, 2012

Jan 11, 2012

The Haitian Conference started on January 4^th at the Borel compound.  Don Dennison, Ben Tobias, Pastor Prime and his wife Isimene and their son and niece arrived to participate in the conference.  We had the pleasure of spending time with them and traveling to Charette for Sunday service.  The next team to arrive was very special to our heart because they were all friends from our home church of Leadwood, Missouri.  They spent the first day at Pierre Payen, power spraying the rooms at the hospital so that they could be painted by a future team (maybe that could be you).  The following day they came to Borel and attended part of the Haitian conference, worked on the guesthouse and completed tasks at our house. We are thankful for the blessings and numerous gifts of love.

So far there have been a variety of visiting teams, but all bring to our remembrance the following scripture from Philippians 1:3-6, 9-11  “I thank my God every time I remember you.   In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a great work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.  And this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Christ Jesus-to the glory and praise of God.

January 4, 2012

Jan 4, 2012,

We returned to Haiti on Jan 1 with Ken’s 85 year old mother along for her first trip to Haiti.  She was a little overwhelmed but did so well on the trip that we traveled all the way to Borel  in one evening.  It was good to finally get settled into our home on the compound.  We are in one of the stone houses that were part of the Standard Fruit Company property.  The house was built in the 30’s and needed some work.  Our thanks go out to our friends in Haiti , as well as the teams from the US that helped get it into shape.   When we arrived a team from Pennsylvania led by Micha Yarger was just finishing up their week.  That group had completed many tasks and blessed many Haitians as well as all the missionaries on the compound.  They helped Andy set up the solar pump that supplies water to the community of Borel.  There was a celebration when the water was once again flowing.  Members of the team had painted the following scripture on the well. “Jezi di, si yon moun swaff dlo li met vin jwenn mwen li met vin bwe”  Jesus said, if anyone is thirsty for water he can come and find me, he can come drink.  We know that God has a lot in store for this group of young people and one very talented slightly older artist.