One down – Seven to go!

The summer U-15 soccer tournament at Verettes is officially over. The final and semi-final matches were both hard-fought games which ended in ties and had to be decided by penalty kicks.

In the end, it was the team from Borel that won the tournament. Apparently, their coach did a good job teaching them how to shoot penalty kicks!

The semi-final game between the home team Verettes and the visitor Borel was the best game of the tournament. Verettes dominated the first half and scored two goals. It looked like they were going to win the game. But about 10 minutes into the second half, they were awarded a penalty kick and scored making it 2-1. Then a miraculous goal just before the game ended tied the game, sending the game to penalty kicks. The goalie of Borel made two spectacular saves to lead his team to victory.

Two semi-final games were played on June 25th with the final being June 26th. Our Haitian brothers who did the evangelism did a great job sharing the Gospel at all the games. At one game he told the story of a boy who always wanted a soccer ball, so his Father worked and saved in order to buy him one. The boy loved that ball and played with it every day. One day he came home hot and tired after playing and opened the window in his bedroom and went to sleep with the ball beside him. When he woke up, the ball was not there. Someone had stolen the ball. A few weeks later he was still sad about the ball and was walking through town when he saw his ball for sale in a store. He knew it was his ball because he had made a mark on it. (In Haitian society, you can’t accuse someone of stealing unless you catch them red-handed.) So the boy told his Father, who then worked hard to buy the ball back for the boy. The Haitian evangelist went on to explain that, even though Satan “stole” the good things God prepared for us in the Garden of Eden by tempting Adam and Eve to sin, Jesus paid the price to restore us to God and eventually all things will be restored to us in the new heaven and new earth.

About 40 people indicated that they trusted Christ through these games and we collected well over 400 response cards. Through our partnership with 5 local churches in the area, each one of the people who responded will be followed up with.

In addition to the Gospel presentation at the games, we also have done two soccer clinics this week: One for young boys and another for girls where we presented the Gospel. Then on Thursday night, June 26th we showed two evangelistic films that were produced in Africa that contrasted African voodoo with Christianity. We had about 300 people at these films and many seemed to understand the message the films conveyed.

This afternoon we will do a soccer clinic for some churches up in the mountains surrounding Verettes. The youth in this area do not have the same opportunities to be coached as those who live in town, and we want to show these out-lying churches how they can use sports as a tool for evangelism.

Tomorrow we will visit a local church who is helping us with the follow up and rejoice with them over the work that God has done in their community this week. Then we will head to our next tournament in the North of Haiti in a town called Limbe.

Please continue to pray for God to touch the hearts many through these tournaments and for safety on the roads!

Lots of Help

Lots of Help!

This past Sunday (June 22nd, 2008), Ian Moore, the founder and director of AACH arrived at my house with 2 College students from James Madison University; Jonathan Bryant and Steven Gassaway. They came to help with the tournaments, do soccer clinics and learn about missions in Haiti. We will be together for two weeks and will visit 4 out of the 8 towns where we are holding soccer tournaments: Verettes, Limbe, St. Rafael and Hinche.

In addition, we have a Haitian Seminary student with us named Jean Paul who is helping us with the Bible studies for the players on the teams and also presenting the Gospel at half-time. Like most Haitian boys, he grew up without a Father in his life for many years, in his case because his birth was the result of an affair. His Father eventually became a Christian and accepted some responsibility for him financially and also let him live with him for a while, but some times he felt like a ping-pong ball going back and forth between his Mom and Dad. He became a Christian and while studying law at a University and felt God calling him to become a Pastor.

We are also getting lots of help with the tournaments from the committees we set up in each town. In Verettes, there is a committee of 9 men who have taken complete responsibility for planning the tournament and they have done a great job.

Please pray that we will stay healthy and safe, that people will hear, understand and accept the Gospel and the leaders we have trained will learn through their experiences this summer.

A Dream Come True

How do you feel when a dream becomes a reality?

On June 23rd the first game of our 8 summer soccer tournaments was played. Seeing the 13-15 year old boys in the beautiful new uniforms that were donated almost brought tears to my eyes since the week before it had taken me three days and $400 to get them out of customs.

But it was a beautiful afternoon for soccer and the two teams played a good, but lopsided match with Borel beating Gonaives 4-0. (Gonaives is the town that was totally destroyed by a flood the same fall as New Orleans – we hope to have a tournament there next year.)

Thanks to the new sound system provided by Northampton Presbyterian Church, we were able to present the Gospel to the spectators at the match, and will continue to do this at half-time and after the games for the next 6 games of the tournament.

Yesterday we presented the Gospel at 3 soccer games to about 400 people, and also at a soccer clinic for boys and girls with about 60 participants.

Today in the afternoon are the semi-finals of the tournament and we will have two games with the final tomorrow. This morning we are doing a soccer clinic with coaches and kids from the area.

Travelling

I'm writing this from the Dominican Republic where I'm going to study Spanish for two weeks. Partly because I'm working towards regular certification in the US, and partly because I love langugaes. Richard was here for the weekend, but now I'm alone in a country where I barely speak the language. It's good for me because it helps me remember what it's like for people who are beginners in French or English. I'm staying in the apartment of a friend in an area where I don't know anyone who speaks English, French or Creole. It's forcing me to use the little I know! |It was interesting going to church in Spanish. They even did the one Spanish chorus that Richard taught me years ago: "Alabare." That was fun. The embarrassing part was when they were doing the announcements at the end and my brain was tiring of trying to understand so I just looked at my bulletin and focused on reading the announcement s until....out of the corner of my eye, I saw a lady waving at me. I looked up and the whole congregation was waving at me. The pastor was saying something in my direction0--I don't know what! but I figured they were saying hello to visitors. So, I said that I didn't understand but I was here for 2 weeks to study Spanish. My course starts tomorrow.

Tomorrow is a big day for Richard, too. He is driving out to Verrettes with Ian Moore (AACH) and two college students who have come to help with the evangelistic tournaments in that area. In the next two weeks they will be going to Verrettes, St. Raphael, Hinche and Limbe. Please pray for safety and mostly for the success of the tournaments, presentations, etc. in each town.
Hopefully we'll put some pictures up soon.
--Carol

Australian Film Crew

Here's "our Australian film crew" :) (see below). Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of them filming or taking pictures, but Here they are having a meal at our house and jamming with our kids.
Thank you Andrew, Connie and Andrew!

Ambassadors in Sport sends film crew to Haiti

How do three young Australians end up in Haiti? They volunteered to make a documentary for Ambassadors in Sport, International and film footage of how God is using soccer worldwide to introduce fans and players to Christ.

Andrew Cameron and his friends Connie and Andrew arrived yesterday and for the next two days we will be filming the ministry in Haiti.

I'm very excited about this opportunity because it will allow us to share the vision God has given us for the youth of Haiti with many more people. I just found out that tomorrow we will be able to film the championship game of a school tournament in Verettes with hundreds of spectators and the two best teams in the area. One of the teams is from a school we trained in soccer evangelism called "La Providence" (Providence). Some would call this luck, but we call it God's providence!

Pray for us as we travel about the city and country in these next two days, for protection and good filming!

Recent training trips to Jacmel and La Pointe