Nov. 1st and 2nd are All Saints Day and All Souls Day in the catholic church. They are national holidays here. They are also high voodoo holidays with ceremonies in graveyards and sacrifices. Our church in Titayen yearly chooses this occasion to have a 4-day outdoor crusade in the market and they team up with other churches in the village to bring the gospel message each night. We supply lights and generators to help with the logistically end, but it is all Haitian run and Haitian led. This year, 63 people gave their lives to the Lord during the 4 nights and are being followed up with discipleship classes in the church every Monday afternoon. Pray for these new converts that the Word will take root in their lives and they will be diligent to attend  the follow-up and begin growing in their faith.

The clinic addition is completely finished!!! The exam room is done and ready for patients. We are so excited. Thanks to the many teams that worked on this project from start to finish and to the Bethel Baptist Greeley. CO team for helping us finish. They grouted tile, put in the cabinets, and the counter tops and sink, and finished the plumbing. The most exciting part is that we have a small water heater unit and we get very hot water out of the faucet (only place on the compound that we have this!). The clinic is busier than ever - we probably are seeing over 20 burns and wounds at the moment, some very serious 3rd degree burns. We are so thankful for this new addition and the extra space and storage it provides. We are thankful for all the donations and hands that made it possible.

We have some staff prayer concerns to share with you:
 David and Judy Heady are currently in South America meeting with and encouraging Global Outreach staff there. Pray for their time with the missionary families and for strength as they have been traveling and speaking since mid-September.

Glen and Linda Erickson had to return to the States following the death of his elderly mother. The funeral was yesterday. Pray especially for their witness to Glen's siblings-several of whom do not know the Lord. His mother was a long-time believer and they rejoice in her homecoming.

Cody and Maria Whittaker, our GO missionaries in Jacmel, Haiti experienced an armed home invasion and burglary last week in the middle of the night. They were the third missionary family in that community to be hit.
The Lord preserved them and they were not injured even as bullets came through their bedroom door where they had barricaded themselves. They had just returned to Haiti in October following the birth of a son. This was a very traumatic experience and they have returned to the US for counseling and debriefing at this time. Please pray for God's perfect peace for them and direction as when they should return to Jacmel. Please pray for protection for them and the missionary community there.

These situations leave Chris and I as the only GO missionaries on the ground in Haiti at the moment. Please pray for us as we host a team from North Carolina and deal with the daily ins and outs of running the compound and ministries.

Our new family, Nicky and Christy Runk and their two children, will be coming in early December to spend the month here. Please pray for them as they are raising support and getting ready to move to Haiti. We ask for the Lord's provision for them to be able to finish fund-raising and hope to have them here full-time in the spring.

Thank you all so much for praying-we need it and appreciate it more than you can know.

Travels and Teams

Finally, we have a new camera and can take pictures again and blog! Our clinic addition is almost ready to go. In fact, we were able to use it last week for an eye team that came in. They were such a blessing to the over 130 people they were able to give exams to. They gave out readers and sunglasses and took back the prescriptions for over 50 pairs of glasses that they will be making and sending back to us to give to those patients who needed them. What a blessing!  It is just as expensive in Haiti as it is in the States to get an eye exam and glasses, so very few Haitians have ever had an eye exam and even fewer can afford glasses. We were also able to identify 21 patients mostly from our old peoples' program who have cataracts. We now have possibility for affordable or even free care for cataracts here and we are excited to move forward with that as well. Of course why heal physical sight if you do nothing for their spiritual sight? Every person that came through was also given a bible and track to encourage their spiritual walk.

We were able to spend time in the States in August and it was a different trip home in that Sheryl ended up with thyroid surgery and Chris broke his toe! Both were unexpected and put a damper on some of our scheduled plans, but we know that it wasn't a surprise to the Lord, and we have both healed well from it. We are thankful for all the people that we were able to see and the sharing we were able to do. Josh had a special  time in that he was able to travel to Phoenix to minister in Christ Life church, both speaking and helping to lead worship in the morning services and then be part of a youth rally in the evening and lead worship and share about his life in Haiti. It was a highlight for him and he loved his time there. (Josh is front and center in the picture). He also got his driver's license and applied for his student pilot's license (which was more exciting than driving for him).

We ask you to pray as we begin to gear up for our camp program. We are excited that we will be able to get it started in 2012, but there are many logistics that need to be worked out and we need time and wisdom to work on all those. Thank you so much to all of you that are praying with us.

Construction

New pictures of the clinic construction. The roof is on and the covering of block both inside and out is almost complete. Soon, we will be knocking out the wall between the old clinic and the new addition, so it all becomes one unit! Exciting (but very messy!).


We have also started a huge project in Titanyen-overseeing the addition to Titanyen Baptist church of a  new 2000- seat auditorium. The old sanctuary will be converted to Sunday school rooms and classrooms during the week. This is the largest construction project that Chris has ever worked with and it's very challenging! It will be the flagship church for a convention of 18 churches that Pastor Kelly is in charge of and will host many events in addition to weekly services.



The middle two weeks of May were very difficult for the people of Titanyen  as some in their midst chose to demonstrate violently in order for the village to get electricity. It ended up in a fight between Titanyen and a village further to the north and turned very ugly. We had several nights of the women that work for us along with their children all 'camping' in our volunteer quarters because it was too dangerous to sleep in their homes.  There still has not been resolution to the problem of no electricity, but the violence has stopped (with much intervention of the church leaders, police, and community leaders). Please pray that a peaceful solution will be found and there will be no further trouble.

We were very honored last week to attend the seminary graduation of Pastor Jean-Claude, the associate pastor of Titanyen church. He completed 4 years of vigorous study, living in town during the school week, working every weekend at the church often preaching, and overseeing a Christian school he directs. We applauded his dedication, perseverance, and sacrifice to complete this with so many obstacles, especially with the earthquake leveling part of the seminary. They had to press very hard to complete the required course work, making up for the lost months after the quake.  Our 3rd associate pastor will graduate in another year and we are excited about the young men in the congregation that are following their example and attending either bible school or seminary.  As many pastors in Haiti have never even been to bible school, this is so important for church pastors and leaders to get the biblical training they need in order to lead others.

We took time off from teams during the month of May as David and Judy Heady (our directors) had commitments in the States and we needed time for our new missionaries, Glen and Linda Erickson, to get their feet on the ground and established here. We are now gearing up for teams again for the next 6 months and the first team will arrive Friday morning. It happens to be our own home team from Grace, Greeley CO (including our oldest son Jonathan) and we are very excited for them to get here.

Shoes, Shoes, Shoes!

Last week we had a team from Walnut Memorial Baptist in Kentucky come to work with our school kids and sponsorship kids. Becky Ivy, the team leader, is our sponsorship coordinator. It was her vision that started the program and she handles all the details stateside for that program. Several on her team got the vision to bring new shoes to our 210 sponsorship kids. Then it mushroomed to include all the school kids, and then the 62 old people in our Gran Moun feeding program. In the end, they brought over 500 pairs of new tennis shoes to give out!!! Everyone of our school kids, everyone of our sponsorship kids, and every Gran Moun received a new pair of shoes along with some other needy people. We know that for some of these, this was the first pair of new shoes they had ever received.

Our old people walk up the dirt road every Monday morning to our property to receive their allotment of food for the week. Team members discussed washing their feet before giving them the new shoes and all wanted to do that. The smiles of the old people as their feet were washed and then fitted for a new pair of tennis shoes was priceless. What a joy to be part of a team that were literally being the hands and feet of Jesus to these elderly and indigent people.





It was wonderful to hear the laughter and squeals of delight from the preschoolers as they all got their shoes. They pranced around in them and wanted to leave them on the rest of the morning. The older kids were also excited, but many chose not to wear their brand new pair, but keep their old ones on and save the new pair for later. The new pair quickly made its way to their backpacks for safe keeping.



We are so thankful for all the hands and the hard work put out by Walnut Memorial and the many other teams that come along side us to help with projects and minister. We could not do it without them!

Jensky

This is Jensky now. He is almost healed. He will still need bandages to keep from developing bands and lots of lotion for his healing skin and good nutrition. He keeps gaining weight and is much more active. Mom says he is so mobile now, he is getting in trouble! He is not walking yet, but should be shortly. He is now 16 months old and we are so thankful he is doing so well! He is one of the success stories in that his parents did all we asked of them, brought him every time we gave them an appointment and understood the importance of keeping his dressings on. We are grateful that God placed us here to care for him.


Today begins a busy six weeks as we host 4 teams, 3 interns, and a new Global couple arriving tomorrow to live here and minister with us. We are excited to have Glen and Linda Erickson join us. They just recently retired from their jobs in the US. Glen is a diesel mechanic, truck driver, and farmer and Linda has been a nurse for 30 years. We look forward to working together. Pray for them as they transition to life in Haiti.

Jensky

This is Jensky now. He is almost healed. He will still need bandages to keep from developing bands and lots of lotion for his healing skin and good nutrition. He keeps gaining weight and is much more active. Mom says he is so mobile now, he is getting in trouble! He is not walking yet, but should be shortly. He is now 16 months old and we are so thankful he is doing so well! He is one of the success stories in that his parents did all we asked of them, brought him every time we gave them an appointment and understood the importance of keeping his dressings on. We are grateful that God placed us here to care for him.


Today begins a busy six weeks as we host 4 teams, 3 interns, and a new Global couple arriving tomorrow to live here and minister with us. We are excited to have Glen and Linda Erickson join us. They just recently retired from their jobs in the US. Glen is a diesel mechanic, truck driver, and farmer and Linda has been a nurse for 30 years. We look forward to working together. Pray for them as they transition to life in Haiti.

Last week, we had the privilege of having a Christian family musical group, The Taubles, with us for an afternoon. They traveled around the Port-Au-Prince area teaching lessons in stringed instruments and giving concerts. We do not have any stringed instruments in Titanyen, so we invited several schools along with our own school to come learn about the instruments and hear them sing and play. We had over 500 students show up (more than we thought would come), and the kids really seemed to enjoy it. They especially seemed to like the cello and the low notes it could play. It was a special afternoon for all of us.


We have gotten our children's puppet ministry back up and running now for the last several Saturdays and that has been great. We had to find some new men to be involved and that took some searching. The ones who had done it before the quake have gotten too busy with working for the relief organizations we have with us. We need to work with them some more on storytelling with the puppets, but it's off to a good start. The childrens' ministry we work with in Titanyen continued on through everything and it has grown to about 70-80 kids every Saturday morning.


Jensky, our little burned baby is doing very well. He is almost healed and we are so grateful for everyones' prayers on his behalf. We will get a picture of him this week and post it for you.


This is Carnival time and Madi Gras is tomorrow. Please pray for this country as this is a great time of voodoo celebrations leading up to Easter and spiritual warfare can be intense and oppressive. Pray for us as we minister in this season. Chris and Josh went up the mountain last night with some our men from church to show the Passion. We will be showing that film and the Jesus film often in the next 6 weeks.  Our church in Titanyen will be going out on missions to pray for villages and do evangelization.  In th middle of this, we have final elections for President in Haiti on March 20th and that may lead to demonstrations and possible violence. Please pray for the elections and safety of everyone. 

"Fall" in Haiti

There really are no seasons in Haiti. It is hot and hotter. There is the dry season and wet season, though. Right now, we are in the middle of the dry season and the compound and mountains behind us turn brown. When this happens, our almond trees turn a brilliant red for several weeks and then all the leaves fall off and new green leaves immediately replace them. This is as close as we get to "fall" here, but we sure enjoy the beautiful colors while it happens.

It has been a very busy time with teams and large projects on the compound. The men worked long hours rebuilding the generator house and then installing and wiring 2 new 100 KW generators to power all the facilities on the compound. The job is almost complete and we are very thankful for those who came and helped our guys. It would have taken weeks without the extra hands. 


Jensky, our little burn baby, is doing very well. He is slowly healing and has even gained a little weight which really thrills us as burn patients often lose weight due to all the protein their body needs to heal. We will post more pictures as he heals. In the meantime, we have gotten three more babies (they come in cycles it seems) and the clinic can get very noisy when they are all there.


We have been starting to plan more on how we could possibly start our youth camps on a smaller scale while Samaritan's Purse still occupies our conference center. Pray that we can work out the details and logistics to get this ministry off the ground.  

Jensky

Jensky Age 13 months

This is little Jensky. He is 13 months old and only weighs 12 pounds. He is malnourished and anemic and now is also badly burned. He can't walk, but on Saturday morning, he crawled over to where a big pot of hot cereal was cooking and pulled it down over on top of him. He was hungry and wanted some food.  His parents brought him to the clinic right away and we have been treating him every morning. He has 2nd and 3rd degree burns to his face, chest, arm, leg and buttocks. 

Thankfully, his parents do know the Lord and are very concerned for him and had sought treatment earlier for his anemia. Mom can hardly watch while we care for him and she cries as we have to scrub him. Today, we gave them a Creole bible (they only had a small New Testament) and she sat and read Psalms as we treated him. Please pray for healing for little Jensky and minimal scarring, so he can continue to grow and learn to walk.




On a more personal note: We know that God always meets our needs here as we serve Him and that is evident in so many ways. Last Wednesday afternoon, Sheryl suddenly developed a large lump on the right side of her neck that was painful and very visible. She talked with one of the doctors and started antibiotics and anti-inflammatories right away. The lump decreased some, but it was still there Sunday and she felt more evaluation was necessary. She was told that a oncologist/hematologist had just come in with Samaritans' Purse and he was able to examine her and give assurance that it wasn't lymph nodes and was probably a thyroid cyst that had bled. this would need ultrasound confirmation, which would mean a trip into town. Monday morning, Sheryl was informed that North Carolina Baptist Men had a radiologist with them for the week and he would be happy to ultrasound her. Mission of Hope kindly allowed us to go over and borrow their ultrasound machine and the radiologist was able to confirm the thyroid cyst and that everything was benign and it would absorb and dissolve on its own. How thankful we are for God's provision and at the right time. It is very seldom we get oncologists and radiologists here to work the mobile clinics, but God allowed them both to be here to assist with this need. We do praise Him every day for His goodness to us and how He provides in all things!

1-Year Anniversary of Haiti Earthquake

We are finally creating a blog of our life and ministry here in Haiti. We have lived here since 2003 and we are not as technologically savvy as some of our friends (although our teenage son Josh is very much so), but we are going to do our best to keep this updated with posts and pictures.


It seemed fitting to start today on the 1-year anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti. It is an event that changed our lives and the lives of all Haitians and foreigners who lived here or were visiting here on January 12, 2010. There was so much sorrow and tragedy, yet we have seen how the Lord has used this for good in the past year. Our hearts are heavy today and we have already shed many tears, but there is joy and thankfulness and healing as well in our tears.


Today we will commemorate with a prayer service at our church in Titanyen and also a memorial service in our chapel on the compound later this afternoon starting at 4:30. The earthquake hit at 4:53 pm on that late Tuesday afternoon and we will be praying and remembering that time a year later. We will be praising God for sparing the lives of all those who were on the compound that day (about 200 people), we will be remembering those who lost their lives, and those who lost limbs and were permanently injured, and we will be asking God for His grace and mercy to be on this country and the people of Haiti. May His word continue to pour forth and lives continue to come to Him as the result of all we have gone through as a country this past year.