Camp Barnabas Youth Camp

Youth Camp Update

We spent some wonderful and crazy 5 days with almost 200 older christian youth over Carnival working with youth groups from churches throughout Haiti. This is a conference that has been happening here for some years, but this is the first year that we as GO partnered with them and worked together on planning and directing the conference. 

Before the camp started, we had to put the basketball hoops up and then we placed two large lights, so people can play after dark and also for security. It was very popular during the camp. We still need to paint the court and place all the lines.

The first night of camp, all the campers circled the chapel to pray for the days ahead and for the Lord to bless their time.

               
                    Praise and worship was a highlight of the camp, especially in the evening service.

Devotions started early every morning before breakfast and then there would be several teaching sessions. The morning would usually close with bible drills between the churches-very competitive.

Chris teaching one of the morning sessions-kids were attentive and he really enjoyed speaking to them. 

 Sunday morning was a special worship service lead by the youth and some leaders. It was a very blessed time with several groups singing special music and interpretive dance with the praise songs.

 Every afternoon (except Sunday) was game time and this was both fun and challenging as Haitians do not know how to play group games, but they learned quickly and and were very competitive. They especially loved the belly bumpers. They also had a soccer tournament between several of the churches.

Josh was able to talk them into all getting together for a group picture. We didn't get them all there, but most are in this picture.

It was an exciting and tiring 5 days. We pray that as these youth go to their homes all over Haiti that they will take the things they learned back to their churches and communities. We also learned things about how we can improve and maximize the time we have during camp.

Change is in the Air

Yesterday, the helicopter for Samaritan's Purse (S.P.) left our compound for the last time. After two years of hosting S.P., they have left our conference center and we now have it back to take up where we left off when the earthquake hit. They still have a small staff living and working at the bottom of our property, but the majority of their staff moved over to their base in the South of Haiti. Their operation has changed from relief to sustainable projects.

Our first conference starts back up next Monday and we are busy refurbishing the conference kitchen and getting it ready to go. It was very heavily used for the last two years, serving over 500 meals/day at the height of the relief effort, so it needed an overhaul. The conference is a Leadership Training conference for pastors and lay-leaders in the churches. This is the same conference that was taking place at the time of the earthquake. We were on day 2 of 5, when the earthquake hit and everything was suspended, so now we are starting again and starting over with the same conference and prayerfully many of the same people.  We are very excited to get back to conferences and we are also gearing up for youth camps.

Our first returning youth camp will start February 17th and bring in about 230 youth during the Carnival and Madi Gras celebrations.  Schools are closed here during that time and the goal is to get these kids away from the raucous parties that happen this time of year and instead focus on their walk with the Lord. The theme this year is Jeremiah 29:11 and we pray that these kids will feel that they DO have a hope and a future in this country when they follow the Lord. We still have work to do to get the camp ready. The site of the helicopter hanger is actually our basketball court and we now have to take down the hanger building, fill holes and redo the floor, and get the poles and hoops up and ready to go. We may not have it all finished, but want to have it usable when they arrive.

We have hired our very first employee for the camps, a Haitian youth director named Romil who has such a heart for evangelism and discipleship. He speaks English well and we feel he will be a good fit for what we want to accomplish. Chris is in process of changing a small S.P. staff house next to our house into a temporary camp office where he and Romil  can work on plans for camps. We are excited for all these changes and ask for your prayers as we move forward with these ministries.

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.