March 14, 2012

The medical team from Maryland came from Pierre Payen to Borel on Sunday.  We visited Ti Riviere, then took a long drive north through the countryside.  The next day we were in Pierre Payen.  I asked how they had slept and one doctor’s wife said not well, “I kept thinking about all that we saw.  The needs went on and on.  You think maybe you are just seeing the worst part and when you go over the hill, it will be better, but it is not.”   The stories of struggles and blessings go on and on.  This week David, the water filter expert for the water project, arrived.  He is a Canadian who has lived all over the world working on clean water projects.  We‘ve enjoyed his stories and information on Haiti and other countries like Peru, Chile, Honduras, Egypt, Tunisia, and Jordan.  One of his projects involved reviving reservoirs from Biblical times in Jordan.  On Thursday we took Seth and Jess to the airport to return to the United States.  They have worked the past year at HATS, Karen’s orphanage in DeChapelle.  We will miss them terribly and pray that they continue to follow wherever God leads.  Everyday includes something different: hiking to the mountain churches of Borne and Gresseau; trips to the hospital; assisting a woman who just lost her son; unloading a 5000 pound generator; hauling supplies; feeding hungry kids; driving to the heart of Port-au-Prince in the middle of the rubble and squalor that remains two years after the earthquake. Many of us struggle with that overwhelming feeling that you can’t really make a difference.  We have to keep reminding ourselves that we have a responsibility to share the blessings God has given us, but the purpose for our being here in Haiti, or in the United States, or wherever we are, is to share the love of our Lord Jesus Christ with those around us.  Our prayer is that we never get distracted from the message.

Romans 1:16-17 (The Message) – It’s news I’m most proud to proclaim, this extraordinary Message of God’s plan to rescue everyone who trusts him, starting with Jews then right on to everyone else!  God’s way of putting people right shows up in the acts of faith, confirming what scripture has said all along: “The person in right standing before God by trusting him really lives.”

March 7, 2012

Special guests, neighbors and friends of the Snyders arrived from Pennsylvania.  It was the first trip for five of them and it was a couple of days before they adjusted to temperatures and different eating habits.  The Snyder kids were excited by having the neighbor kids here and they spent a lot of time catching up with each other’s activities.  Christina Miles will be going to Africa this August to live with a family that was a part of the Gothenburg Church in Sweden and are now serving God there.

We also had the pleasure of working with eight guys who had come to Pierre Payen on a work team from Cedarville University in Ohio.  They were a bundle of energy and blessed us and the Haitians.  They completed the screens, painted and built a roof over the stairs to the basement apartments of the guest house.

One of the most exciting events on the compound was the completion of the solar panels.  Eighteen have been installed and are now all hooked up.  The team work that it took to lift these heavy solar panels manually to a height of 20 feet and then put in the proper place was quite impressive.  They are providing power to the guest house, discipleship center, dorm and our house!  With the cost of fuel and generators in Haiti and the abundance of sunshine, it looks like these will pay for themselves within a year. 

Psalm 117 – Praise the Lord, all you nations.  Exalt him all you peoples.  For great is his love for us and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.  Praise the Lord.

February 29, 2012

Bob Eatherton, the Director of the Midwest Region led a group of pastors and church leaders from that region that had never been to Haiti.  Their ministry focus was to travel to several area churches and schools to see the needs and lift them up in prayer.  They hoped also to identify churches/schools in need of sister churches and to bring that information back to churches in the Midwest.  On Sunday we worshiped with our brothers and sisters at the Freycenau church and went by the Elim church in St. Marc.  The next two days the group painted one of the Homes for Haiti in the morning and traveled to churches in the afternoon.  The Ti Riviere church needed assistance with the school which is in the church building, the church at Savanne Tapion needs  a sister church, the church at Verette  presently is just poles without a roof or walls.  Our biggest challenge was going to two mountain churches.  We were able to drive to Godin, which desperately needs church benches since theirs were stolen as well as extensive work on the building.  The church at Gesse was an hour and a half drive and a 30minute walk.  Their sister church has provided a lot of assistance and the church building, which is also the school,  is in good shape.  The need there was for the funds to provide school lunches of beans and rice.  Please contact the General Conference office or Steve Mossburg if you are interested in helping with any of these needs as a sister church or work team.  We are striving to push more teams out into the surrounding communities.  The final day at Borel the team led the dedication of the completed Homes for Haiti.  Our prayer is that as this team returns home, the experiences they had here will spur the churches around them to pray for churches here and to support the work here as God blesses them.  We know that the missional attitude we saw in this group will impact America.  May God be glorified in it all.

Romans 10:13-15   Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.  How then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?  And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?  And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?  And how can they preach unless they are sent?  As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

February 22, 2012

A team from the Chambersburg Church of God and their former pastor Earl Mills, who is the new Director of the Great Lakes Region, arrived.  We attended the Chandelle Church on Sunday and Pastor Earl spoke.  This team with 24 members was the largest team to come to Borel and they set several records.  They brought 108 jars of peanut butter, they drank 150 sodas, they gave out over 400 balloons and thousands of pieces of candy and toys during the children’s program they hosted at Chandelle, they distributed a hundred Christian Creole tracks as they walked through Te Riviere, and they donated 6 units of blood at Hospital Albert Switzer.  Most of all this team abundantly shared Christ’s love with us and the Haitian people in many joyous ways. The week was filled with work projects on the compound, trips into the surrounding community, and putting a new roof on a portion of the school at Chambersburg’s sister church in Chandelle. 

The sister church program offers great opportunities for churches in the U.S. to build long term relationships with a church in Haiti.  If your church has a sister church we’d love for you to spend time working there on your next team visit to Haiti.  The visits and financial support given by the U.S. church is reciprocated with spiritual up lifting and lasting friendships.  There are many churches and schools in Haiti who need a sister church.  Some are very large others are quite small.  Many have a school that is part of the program.  Some are in cities; others are in very remote areas.  Your church could find a sister church that fits your interests and abilities.  For more information about the sister church program contact the General Conference office at 419-424-1961.

We look forward to seeing the members of this team leading teams back in years to come.  May we lift one another up in prayer as Paul taught us in II Thessalonians 1:11-12 With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of His calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith.  We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him, according to the grace of our God and Lord Jesus Christ.

February 15, 2012

Two members of the Newburg Church of God in Pennsylvania, Steve and Pam, arrived for a weeklong visit before traveling on to a training conference they were helping with in the village of Titiann.   Pam and her husband Pastor Dale Miller served as Project Help missionaries the first time we came to Haiti to work on the hospital in Pierre Payen in 2001.  Along with Terry Bailey, the founder of the Haiti Loving Hearts school sponsorship program, we traveled to several churches and schools.  The time spent with Pam was a learning experience in language, culture, logistics and spirituality.  The Newburg congregation sent a thoughtful tote bag of goodies for each missionary family.  Our thanks go out to them for all gifts, but the prayer shawl and you prayers are most treasured. 

Ken spent the week in the mountains.  His story follows.

I had the privilege of accompanying a team from Pennsylvania to Targette (a church and village in the mountains) to lay tubing to bring water closer to the local people.  We drove for 1½ hours to Gilbert and then walked 2½ hours to get to the church.  We had four pack horses that carried our supplies.  There were some beautiful views of the Artibonite Valley along our way.  We walked down into the canyon to find the spring.  The pathway was very steep and challenging.  We were using hands and feet to make our way down, but young girls and women were walking up and down getting water.  They were carrying 40 pounds of water on their head and not missing a step.  Children were running barefoot up and down and we were doing our best not to fall.  We saw three springs and a waterfall, a first for me in Haiti.  We chose  the spring the locals said was the best and began the next day. 

It is primitive here, more primitive than the island of Lagonave.  There are no generators, so when it is dark, it is dark. The team brought a solar panel, keyboard and sound system for the church.  The panel worked well and soon there was music and singing coming out of their new speaker.  As we were getting ready for bed that evening, we discovered we had an audience of about 30 Haitians watching us sleep.  They would just watch us to see what we were doing.  We were their entertainment.  We got up about 6:00 am each day.  We had Haitian spaghetti for breakfast.  We also had boiled plantain, yam (not like our sweet potato), rice with red sauce and bean sauce, corn meal for our meals.

We put the tubing into the spring and secured it.  It is a long and treacherous walk.  The Haitians carried the tubing for us.  Each roll of tubing weighed about 60 pounds.  We unrolled the tubing and place it along the sides of the canyon.  I think it may be the most severe terrain I have tried to walk.  It is very steep, feet always sliding, grabbing for a limb.  All the Haitians walked around like it was nothing.  The tubing took the clean water from the spring to a much closer location.  Most of the villagers had to walk at least ½ mile to get water before.  We rolled out 2000 feet of tubing the first day, attached a faucet and the fun began.  They were thrilled.  We put another 1000 feet and faucet in the second day, and then 600 feet and faucet in the third day.  All of the water flow was created by gravity, no pump.  There was water flowing at 3-4 gallons a minute.

As we were walking on the sides of the canyon, up and down, hanging on for dear life, one of the team members said he didn’t like walking on the narrow path because it was scary.  It was a reminder that God leads us down narrow paths that may seem scary if we are trying to go alone, but we must trust in Jesus.  Matthew 7:13-14:  You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate.  The kingdom to hell is broad and its gate is wide for the many who choose the easy way.  But the gateway to life is small, and the road is narrow, and only a few ever find it.

February 8, 2012

A team from Mt. Pleasant and Terry Bailey from the Mt. Laurel Churches of God arrived.  These churches have been instrumental in organizing the Haiti Loving Hearts school sponsorship program.   During this trip they visited all of the schools and took pictures of each student with an identifying number so that accurate records can be kept.  Many children and families have been blessed by the generous financial gifts and the outpouring of Christian love.  The team also worked on the building to house offices for the Haitian conference.  They painted the new wall just inside the entrance to the compound and they repainted part of the discipleship training center.  It was a blessing to travel with part of the Mt. Pleasant team and members of Just Cause into the prison at Arcahaie.  Thaddeus McKee gave a message from   Psalm 139: 1-4, 7-10  O Lord you have searched me and you know me.  You know when I sit and when I rise, you   perceive my thoughts from afar.  You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.  Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.  Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence?  If I go up to the heavens you are there; if I make my bed in the depths you are there.  If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. The message touched the hearts of the prisoners and the visitors.  We sang with them, then distributed drinks and cookies and had prayer with the men in each cell.  It’s inspiring to see how God is working through the lives of these young men.

February 8, 2012

February 1, 2012

Another team arrived from Indiana.  Most of them were from the Congregational Christian Church.  There were 6 women and one man but even though they were short on “man-power” they accomplished a lot of work, tiling three bathrooms and starting the work on the new patio at the guest house.  Four members of the team stayed on another week to complete the painting and tiling on the patio project.  They also managed to get out into the community every day, praying with people, laughing and playing with the children, and singing in the back of the truck with the young Haitian men.  The average age of the team was 50 plus but the energy level was 20.  They brought joy to prisoners at Arcahaie and took a swim in the ocean in their clothes!  This team also shared in the heartache of the community, comforting a man who lost his mother, whom we had prayed with at the hospital the previous day.  They consoled those who lost friends in a tragic motorcycle accident that killed the driver and two children on their way to school.  Through the laughter and the tears we shared the knowledge that God is our refuge.  Psalm 71: 1-3   In you O Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame.  Rescue me and deliver me in you righteousness, turn your ear to me and save me.  Be my rock and refuge, to which I can always go.  Give the command to save me, for you are my rock and fortress.