Haitian leaders help the UW team succeed!

From June 27th to July 7th, a team of 18 people from Unchartered Waters Sports Ministries partnered with us to train 9 schools in Jacmel on how to start evangelistic soccer teams, and also worked with over 300 children through sports camps in Port-de-Paix, Archaie and Fermathe, Haiti.

AIS Haiti leaders Ronald William, Sylvain Nelson and Jean Paul Noel taught the classes for the training and Lucasse Henrilus helped out as a translator. Ronald also facilitated everything for the team and did a great job with all the logistics from food and lodging to teaching materials.

We hope to have more news and some pictures in a few days.

Corban Team stretched with 100 kids showing up on Wednesday

The week is going well with the Corban team, but yesterday was a challenge!

Although they are asking for 40 children each day, that's hard to do when there are thousands of kids in the IDP Camp (Internally Displaced Persons--i.e. internal refugees). They try to have a different 40 kids each day to give as many kids as possible a chance.

But yesterday 100 came. It's great to have all those kids get to do something, but the Corban team consists of only 8 people. Combined with the Haitian workers, it's still not quite enough. (And I'm guessing they didn't have enough supplies, although Richard didn't mention that).

Thanks for your prayers...keep on praying.
Carol

Corban College Team

Here's the Richard's report on what's been happening with the Corban College Team:

"The team from Corban College has been doing a great job!!

We have so far visited three schools in the Mornings and done two sessions of camp with 41 children from the Delmas 48 Refugee camp in the afternoons.

The team has done a great job sharing the love of Christ with the kids, sharing their testimonies and doing games and crafts.

Today they got to visit the house of our friends Frere Levi and also walk through a refugee camp.

They are a bit overwhelmed by the poverty but are encouraged by the warmth of the Haitian people.

Thanks for your prayers as we continue the same schedule through Thursday and then will visit Leogane and Verrettes over the weekend!"

Corban College Team Visit

A team of eight from Corban College arrived safely in Port-au-Prince on Sunday.

Their first day went well, running a camp for kids who are survivors of the earthquake. They did a craft with the kids--a decorated sun visor. Then they had a Bible lesson. After that they played games.

Richard has pictures, but internet hasn't been working well at the house. We'll fill you in with more details as we're able. Please pray for their work and safety this week.

NB: Although there was demonstrating in front of the ruined National Palace against the President for his "low profile" after the earthquake, the team was not near that area, so we don't expect any problems for them.
Carol

Meeting With School Leaders in Verrettes

Here are Richard and Tim Ferri meeting with some of the school leaders in Verrettes. We had some problems getting everyone together at the same time, but we met with leaders from two schools on Tuesday.

We were happily surprised to find that one of the schools is still using soccer equipment we gave them 5 years ago! Richard talked about our vision for a pilot project in the area, starting about 5 soccer programs and having the teams play each other. The leaders from the Verrettes school told us they had participated in a local tournament and that they were only able to do that because Richard had given them equipment 5 years ago and they took care of it by collecting the cleats and everything after every use.

We went to visit one of the schools in the area and found that it had several pressing needs. The roof is rusted and leaking in a lot of places, the school started building new latrines but was never able to finish, they need new benches and don't have enough space for the students. It was somewhat overwhelming, but it seemed like a good thing that we could only visit one school. It seemed like God was having us focus on this one school instead of being overwhelmed by several with all these problems.

Here's Richard talking to Emmanulie, the Director of the Orem (Sp?) School that we visited.

Tim is hoping to bring a work team to do a project like this. One work project that seems logical to do first, would be to finish the latrines.

As for starting the pilot project...Richard asked the schools to select 3 or 4 teachers to come to the TREC training (AIS's training for coaches doing soccer ministry) that will be held in December. We talked about the dates and a few more details. It was a good first visit for the project.

Daniel

Last month, a friend mentioned that his nephew who is taking a year off before starting college, was coming to Haiti on a short term trip and that since he likes soccer, he might be able to help Richard with soccer ministry. That was music to Richard's ears because he has been feeling overwhelmed working a lot by himself. Daniel Scheirman came toward the beginning of March and left last week. He was a big help, a good influence on kids (including our own) and a great person to be around.

Daniel helped with the soccer teams at QCS. Richard has been coaching the boys' U15 and U19 teams (basically, high school and middle school), and the other Dads who were helping couldn't continue past the beginning of the season.

He also helped us when we did a special program for "Jehu's Boys," a boys' home for orphans. Richard, Daniel and Ricky held a soccer clinic for the older boys. He shared his testimony and a great, heartfelt message (with interpretation) with the boys about having an accountability partner.

Daniel helped Richard rearrange soccer equipment to make it more accessible. He has such a great attitude, being willing to help with all kinds of things. And, even though he came from Colorado where there is almost no humidity, he didn't complain about the high humidity here.