update on Gustav

The rain finally stopped late this afternoon here in Port-au-Prince. We don't know what the damage is yet. Richard called a pastor in the south today but he also said he didn't know the specifics yet.

A boy from down the street came to our gate and said that he and his sister hadn't eaten in two days. Richard asked him a few questions and found that 9 people are living at this "house" with almost no roof. He came in and suggested we make a spaghetti dinner for them. He mostly made it himself while I was making our dinner. He and Ricky carried it over to the neighbors.

I never really thought about the fact that many Haitians have hardly any food at home, in cabinets or whatever...that they buy food almost daily...that there was probably no place open and their charcoal wouldn't light in the rain.

Please pray for them and people like them in the same situation.

Update on Hurricane Gustav

Thank you for your prayers.
Although we have off from school again today because of problems on the roads, we're fine where we are. It rained hard and steady from yesterday afternoon until about 7:00 this morning, now the rain is lighter.
The south of Haiti was hit harder than up here in Port-au-Prince. However, many people do not have decent housing, so they have the rain comes in and in some cases walls fall down. For example, Madame Levy who works for us, lives in a 4 room house with her husband and 5 children, but only one room is dry. We're going to lend them some money to fix their roof (we've already given them quite a bit of money this year for medical & funeral expenses). Please pray for them and others like them who are suffering because of the hurricane.

Tropical Storms & Food prices

Please pray for the people of Haiti. Tropical Storm Fay damaged some local crops, the food prices on basic food items like rice have continued to increase and today Tropical Storm Gustav is making landfall in the south of Haiti, too. This storm is predicted to be stronger than the last, so there could be worse flooding, wind damage, etc. The eye of the storm is expected to move across Haiti during the day today (Tuesday) with it coming closest to Port-au-Prince around 2 pm. Please pray for it to get blown south quickly to go into the Caribbean Sea.

Prayer requests

There are a few prayer requests heavy on our hearts...would you pray with us?
Please pray for my sister-in-law, Nancy Frankenfield's, family. Nancy's sister, Sue, was shot and killed yesterday by a woman with mental problems that she was trying to help. Sue's daughter is only about 19 years old. Please also pray for the spiritual lives of the whole family.

Please pray for our friends and supporters, the Nowalinski's. Their sweet, beautiful,20 year old daughter was killed in a car crash last week.

Please pray for my cousin & faithful prayer warrior, Betti for strong faith and wisdom facing an extremely difficult situation and for God to continue to comfort her.

Please pray for my friend, Sharon, who had back surgery for scoliosis, was opened up again because of an infection, and after that had an infection again.

Please pray for my friend, Susette, again. Although we had the good news that her cancer is gone, she has had complications because her esophogas was "burned" during her treatment and that has been very difficult.

Thank you, so much, for praying with us.

Results from the La Pointe Tournament

Results of La Pointe tournament:

57 people indicated they trusted Christ
21 Said they would like more information before trusting Christ
117 Said they were already Christians
134 Said they would like to study the Bible
62 Said they would like prayer

469 Total cards collected

The photos show the crowds surrounding the penalty shoot out and the two teams that played in the final. La Carinage won because their goalie stopped 1 penalty kick!

Moments like these make it all worth it!

I was struggling with a cold and it felt like my head was going to explode. It was wet and rainy and dark. But last night I forgot all about my « light and momentary afflictions » as my heart rejoiced over a young man who gave his life to Christ.

We were all together after the rain scattered everyone just as we were about to present the trophies to the winning team. We all huddled on a porch to escape the downpour. We were glad because at least we got to finish the penalty kicks when the final ended in a tie.

I had just finished counting the response cards for the game: 16 indicated they trusted in Christ, and 13 said they would like more information.

Just then a young man came into the middle of us and knelt down. He asked us to pray for him. Nelson, a STEP (seminary) student asked him what he would like us to pray about and he said he wanted to trust Christ. Nelson patiently explained the Gospel to him but made it clear that we could not pray for him to trust Christ, this was a decision he had to make on his own. After this explanation and him asking a few questions he was ready to pray, and what a simple, sincere prayer it was!

It's so neat to see God moving in the hearts of people. We were just faithful in proclaiming the Gospel, and this young man sought us out because the Holy Spirit prompted him.

Moments like these make it all worth it!

When you do it to the least of these

When you do it to the least of these, you do it to me

The other day I was driving around Port-au-Prince in a hurry as usual trying to pack too many errands into an already full day when I passed a woman with a baby sitting on the side of the road. This is a common site in Haiti as sometimes women “borrow” a baby so they can earn more money begging than if they didn't have one.

But this woman was different, as I raced by her, she didn't even bother to lift her hand and beg.

I did my errand, but could not get the picture of this woman and baby out of my mind so I re-traced my route and found her sitting listlessly by the road with a naked baby boy in her arms.

She was talking to someone, so I parked the car and waited a few minutes before walking up to her. At first I looked at the baby and saw that he was doing OK, but looked very hot and de-hydrated. So I went back to the car and got my water bottle and gave him a cold drink. At first it was too cold for him and he pushed the bottle away, but when he realized it was water, he started to eagerly guzzle it.

Then I looked down more carefully at the woman. She had a large wound on her breast and I couldn't even bare to look at it.

I gave her more than twice what I usually give to beggars, but still it wasn't much.

I drove away wishing I had given her more, and had spent more time with her, but I had other things to do.

Still I did go back to her, and stop and gave her baby a drink of water and her a little money, and I did it because I love Jesus!

Who knows, when I get to heaven this may be the one thing that Jesus rewards me for the most.

Tournament in La Pointe - the best yet!

The Tournament at La Pointe - The best yet!

Yesterday I flew to the North coast of Haiti to visit the 7th tournament of this summer.

I was delighted with what I found.

In spite of all the obstacles of organizing a soccer tournament in Haiti, the committee had done an excellent job.

First of all, not all of the 8 schools we invited participated, so they had to re-organize the schedule.

Then some of the food we sent up on a bus got soaked with rain because the bus broke down en route.

In addition, they decided to allow two teams to stay in dormitories for the week since one is over an hour away and the other is a 2 hour walk.

Last night I shared my testimony with the two teams that were staying overnight. They listened intently as I told them how my Father was murdered when I was 11 and how God used that experience to draw me to him and also to ask him to give me the power to forgive the man who killed my Dad.
Most of them don't have Dad's, so they were touched by what I said.

Afterwards, I reflected on what a blessing it is to be able to speak to these dear boys in their own language and be able to share heart-to-heart a story they could really relate to. God has given me this ability, and I want to use it for His glory as long as He permits me to.

It was a miracle that we were able to provide food for this tournament because all summer we were praying for food, but not until last week did we actually receive any.

So this week each day we feed over 200 players and coaches. This allowed everyone to stay all morning for the Bible studies and then have enough energy to play the matches in the afternoons.

In addition to organizing the matches and arranging for the food, the committee also raised about $150 US from local businesses. This is the most of any tournament this summer, and is something we want to encourage so that eventually each tournament can become entirely supported by their respective communities.

Right now the players are participating in a Bible contest and the winner will be announced soon.

This afternoon is the second Semi-final and Sunday will be the final.

We are going to do Evangelism during both of these games and in the evenings we will show 2 different evangelistic films.

We hope to share the Gospel with hundreds of spectators during these two games and already have a team of trained evangelistic counselors to help us with the follow up.

It's great to see our local leaders catching the vision and sharing it with churches, schools and even businesses in the community!