Today's the Day - The Cleveland City Stars are coming!

The day has finally come! The Cleveland City Stars reserve team goodwill tour will arrive today at 3:30, Lord willing.
Of course, we're up to our ears in printing out schedules, name tags, and vouchers; making lists, gathering stuff. The past few days have been crazy and stressful with late nights and early mornings. With tough decisions, like whether or not an orphanage or school is in a safe enough area to take the team, and changes, changes, changes!
But lots of people have been encouraging us, in person, on the phone and through email. Thank you, all of you. Keep praying, especially for Richard--so much rests on his shoulders. He knows it's truly the Lord's work. We keep having to give all of it back to him.

A first - checking weather for Haiti online

This morning I did something for the first time. I checked the weather forecast for Haiti online. I never checked before because the weather's pretty predictable, and you just don't think that stuff like that will be available online for Haiti. The reason I looked was because I've been praying about the weather for the upcoming matches - especially the big one in Port-au-Prince. It has been raining a lot, especially late afternoon (when the matches are played).

At first I laughed because everyday looked the same: Scattered thunderstorms. Duh, it's rainy season. :) But I looked closer and actually they predict a certain percentage of precipitation. Many of the days say 60%.........but Sunday's is only 30%........reason to hope? well, God's will be done. :)

midday update :)

I just called Richard while I'm between classes....
he did get on TV! He was in another meeting so he didn't have time to tell me any details, but that's kind of exciting. It could really help more people to be at the games.
More later....
Thanks for praying!

Richard on TV?!

Richard was invited to be interviewed on a live TV show tomorrow morning. The show is from 9 - 10 tomorrow morning. This of course adds a new element of excitement and stress! Pray for him, he's got so much on his mind.

Prayer

Here are some of our latest prayer requests:

• Pray that people will find hope through the presentation at halftime this Sunday
• Pray for safety for the Cleveland City Stars team arriving Thursday.
• Pray that the CCS team will be able to visit the orphanage they had planned to visit and Athletique d'Haiti which are in areas considered off-limits...for wisdom...these kids could really use a visit, but there are complications
• Pray for Richard dealing with the last minute changes that keep popping up -- like not being able to use the stadium on Saturday for a clinic, etc.

Thank you for your prayers

Cleveland City Stars Reserve Team

Here's the CCS Reserve team. Previously we had posted the CCS regular team, but the tour coming to Haiti is actually from this Reserve team.

So much going on!

Lately, there is so much going on, we can't keep up with putting everything on the blog.
But, I'll try to fill you all in on a fewthings.
This morning Richard had to be in 2 places at one time. He had planned a run-through for next week's game at the big stadium with about 200 people at 8 AM in the stadium so that they could figure out all the little details of what will happen. Then, this week he needed to see the (I think) General Director of the Soccer Federation who was supposedly in his office this week and Richard was at the Federation offices 4 times this week, but finally he was told that the meeting would have to be "tomorrow morning" (Sat. morning) at 7:30 am.
So, he rushed getting all his stuff together this morning (mostly to give the people something to eat & drink) left at 7 am, went to the stadium first to drop stuff off and speak to a few people quickly, then rushed over to the Federation office only to be told that "the matches are all called off." ??!!!!
Well, after some discussion it ended up that the Federation is going to double the price for all the games. We're sad about that, because for some people that may be too much. I guess we just need to pray double!
Now he's at the run-through, I'll hear about that when he gets home.

Girls Soccer Team Party

We hosted the QCS girls' soccer team party at our house yesterday. The girls had fun swimming, playing soccer, making up awards for each other (commemorating things like noses that attract soccer balls). Richard was the coach at the beginning of the season, then, Katie Broecker took over when Basketball was done. Joy's too modest to tell people that she was the captain, and that she scored several goals. I don't remember how many, but at least one in each of the last three games. They didn't win much, but they played some exciting games, improved their skills and mostly had fun.

More help, more encouragement

God has provided a way for us to cover some of the expenses of the soccer match at the big stadium in Port-au-Prince. The Federation is allowing us to handle the concession stands and keep the profits from it to defray costs of the game. This is great, but of course, it's another thing that Richard doesn't have time for! But God has his ways....

Last night Richard was supposed to go meet with some people from a nearby church where several friends and acquaintances of ours attend. It started to pour and I suggested he not go because of the condition of the roads around our house, but he felt it was OK. He was glad he went becauset the church has taken on the responsibility of providing volunteers for the concessions stands!

Haitian U-17 National Team

Rich and Ricky went to watch the Haitian U-17 National Team play against the Peruvian U-17 team. After Peru scored 2 quick goals, the Haitians came back and tied the score 2-2. This is the team the Cleveland City Stars will play on June 3rd. (Hard to believe these guys are 16, isn't it?).

Street Banner

So far we have 3 of these banners up in the streets of Port-au-Prince and 2 more are coming. This is a very popular way of advertising in Haiti.

GETTING THE WORD OUT

One of Richard's main occupations lately has been to get the word out about the games scheduled for the Cleveland City Stars, especially the one at Haiti's national stadium which holds 15,000 people. (We don't have that many friends yet.)

One way to do that is to advertise in the stadium at the game tonight (Sunday night) of the Haitian National U17 team against Peru.

That is our friend Charles up in the sky tying the tarp/banner he painted above the stands in the stadium. The pole the ladder was against was leaning back. We're thankful it got up safely!

Encouragement...and...Picking up the phone

Last night I was exhausted after being in the hot sun supervising the mounting of our large banner in the stadium and then visiting the person who is painting other signs for us to advertise the match to make sure everything is on schedule. But it was Saturday night and I knew it was a good time to reach many of our "married with kids" supporters who don't usually go out on Saturday nights as much as they used to.

I have to admit, I was not looking forward to making phone calls to tell people about our need of funds to cover the costs of advertising, sound systems and the training of ushers to help with our program in the stadium. But I prayed before I picked up my cell phone to make the first call (Land lines do not work here in Haiti), and as I made the calls, Carol was praying as well.

After getting answering machines a few times, I finally got through to one of our long-time supporters and after catching up with their family news and vis versa, I explained that in just 2 weeks an American soccer team is coming to visit Haiti and play 5 high-profile games in 10 days with the possibility of having over 30,000 people total in the stands and we still needed about $3,000 to cover these costs. It just so happened that the person I was speaking to was an advertising executive and could relate perfectly to the fact that I was having to spend a lot of money before the event to get the word out. It was clear from the conversation that God had prepared this person in advance to be willing to give, and all I had to do was make the phone call!

So when you're dreading picking up that phone, pray first and then make the call trusting that God is going to work through that conversation for his purposes!

Of course, we don't have the whole financial burden of the tour. The Haitian Soccer Federation is covering all other costs of the stadium, all ground transportation and security in Haiti through ticket sales. And the Cleveland City Stars team is covering their costs for airfare and lodging.

The Cleveland City Stars are coming in less than 2 weeks!!

A lot of people we know are getting as excited as we are. Several times a day at school, someone asks me about the upcoming matches. And, of course, Richard spends just about all his time now on the preparations for it.

Please pray for: The SOUND SYSTEM for the big event in Port-au-Prince--We were originally told that we would need to provide a sound system for this stadium that holds about 15,000 people. Then we were told that their sound system would be fixed in time. Yesterday we were told it WOULDN'T so we need to work on this again. The sound system is needed for the halftime program including some of the players speaking about their spiritual journies, music, instructions for people to fill out response cards for participation in future activities/interest in spiritual things and for music.

Getting ready for the big match at the National Stadium

Yesterday morning we had about 140 people from several different churches meet together for preparation to be counselors at the big soccer game at the National Stadium with the Haitian National Under-17 team. It was a great morning and we will be well prepared on June 3rd. We need to be, since we could have as many as 10,000 people at the game!

Ricky's Birthday

We are now the proud parents of 3 teenagers! Ricky turned 13 yesterday and it was a great day. At lunchtime, Richard came to school and we surprised Ricky with a cake and a very special present which was able to be delivered right on his birthday because of a really nice friend, Renald (and Richard, who drove Renald to get the gift)...



The most entertaining part about this gift was when we brought it home at the end of the day. When Lexi (our BIG lab-rottweiler puppy) saw the gift she was very curious and when she smelled it's skin and then...heard the loud noise it makes, she was terrified! It seemed really funny to us, but then again, it's bigger than her, it's got the skin of animal she's never encountered before, and it's sound probably sounds a bit like the scariest thing on earth--thunder. (see below)
Ricky really seems to like his Haitian drum. We're pretty sure he still prefers his drum set, but this is more portable. In fact, one of the first things he said was "I'm gonna take this to college!"

CCS Schedule Filling Up

The Schedule for the Cleveland City Stars Tour is really filling up. They will play a game here in Port-au-Prince, one in Arcahaie, one in Saint Marc, one in Cap Haitien as well as one futsal game here in Port-au-Prince. They will do at least two clincs as a team and Aaron Tredway plans to do a goalie clinic.

Pray for Richard's trip to Cap Haitien

Richard will be going to Cap Haitien tomorrow (Monday) and coming back Tuesday. Please pray for safety and for him to be able to make the needed contacts for the tour.

Answer to Prayer - Stephen

Thank you for praying for Jawa's son, Stephen. He is doing much better now. He didn't need a hernia operation. He's being treated for....hmmm I think it's an infection in the intestines. But he's eating (not all things though) and doing much better.

Trips to Arcahaie and Saint Marc

The trips to Arcahaie and Saint Marc went well. Richard was able to get things lined up for the matches in those towns and check out some hotels as well.

No one from the Haitian Soccer Federation was able to go with him to Saint Marc, Josuel Louidor, the head of the school committe of the UEBH went with him and was great company.

If you know much about Haiti, you know how it can be really hard to find places with hardly any street signs and other problems like that. But, God worked it out that Richard and Josuel were able to meet with the manager of the Tempete team (the Federation team that the Cleveland City Stars will play in Saint Marc). The stadium in Saint Marc is nice and, thank God, we don't have to worry about things like the sound system there.

Does being a Mears mean I have to play soccer?

QCS was planning a sports day and decided that the girls soccer team should play a women's team made up of staff members. They called it the Women's Allstar Team. People assumed I could play soccer since all the other Mears they know can play it well. At first I laughed, but when I realized that most of the women on the staff also knew little to nothing about the sport, I decided that the only chance we'd have would be to "psych them out" (as we used to say in the old days).

Looks like I'm about to head the ball....nah.

So, yes, I played. And, yes, we psyched them out, but didn't beat them. And I played soccer for the first time in my life. (Even though Richard considers my first soccer game to be one that happened in New York when we were dating and since there weren't many players, he asked me to stand in the goalie cage.) We did give them a run for their money, mostly because of a few girls who knew what they were doing and also because of my husband's great coaching, i.e. teaching us the whole game the day before. :)

It was fun and we had the most team spirit of all the teams at QCS. And, I must admit, I liked playing more than I thought I would. But I still prefer cheering in the stands.

Here is a Mother-Daughter picture from the game.