The Lord gives and the Lord takes away

Praise the Lord for the safe delivery of Shirley's baby boy. He was born Saturday on the way (!) to the hospital. I haven't heard the details yet. They have said that they want to give the baby up for adoption, but so far they haven't gotten through on the phone to the orphanages we told them about. I wonder how they feel now that the baby is here? Shirley is staying with Samuel's Mom for now.

Late that night, Ecdes' (our helper who lives on our property) sister died. She was very sick (I think I asked you to pray). She lived out in the country with Ecdes' parents, about 5 hours awaay. They had been told a few weeks ago by the doctors that they didn't know what was wrong with her. He was very sad, of course, and he went out there to be with is family for a while.

Training Trip to Leogane

Tomorrow (Friday, Dec. 11, 2009) we are going to Leogane just outside of Port-au-Prince to train the leaders of 9 teams how to start an evangelistic soccer ministry at their schools. On Friday afternoon we work with the coaches, stay overnight and then all-day Saturday we teach the administrators, chaplains and coaches the basics of starting a team. On Sunday we meet with the regional committee and prepare them to follow up on the training.

Please pray for us and those we will train this weekend! Thanks!

Update on Trip to Verrettes

Sorry we haven't posted about the things you've been praying for...we've been having problems with our internet. So, for now, here's a quick update on Richard's trip to Verrettes.

The trip went well--no problems with travel. 4 young people and 1 adult trusted Christ, even though sharing the gospel was not the objective of the trip.

There was a special training session for the team administrators.

Everyone who was trained seemed to appreciate the new curriculum and we're praying that many players will learn how to better deal with conflict in their lives. Most of the team chaplains will be starting this training right away.

Thank you again for your prayers!

Pray for Sophie & James to make it to church tomorrow

Today's project: get Sophie and James ready to go to church tomorrow. I think for the first time. At least for the first time to this church. Please pray.

I had written about an answer to prayer about our neighbor, Sophie, who said she would like to go to church with me (Nov. 15). She was going to go to church last week, but it's a little complicated and then she got news that the father of her child, Sophonie, was killed. She said that he died because his former boss paid 1000 gourdes ($25.00US) to a witchdoctor to put a spell on him.

I had given her money to buy clothes for church, but she said she used the money to buy clothes for Sophonie to go her father's funeral. That might not have completely derailed our plan, but the day before the funeral I saw that Sophie had artificial nails glued on to her toes! (Remember she's only about 17). I have only seen this once before when I was at a salon on my birthday. I was so surprised then. The salon was not fancy or expensive. The lady who was having them put on, looked fairly conservative, not very well dressed, etc. Now here was Sophie who comes to us saying she and her little girl have nothing to eat, with these fake nails on her toes. It really is cheap to get stuff like that done here, but I was upset that she probably spent money that I had given her for church clothes on something so (to me) ridiculous. I asked her if she had spent money on them, hoping that maybe she would say a friend just did it for free. She didn't really answer me. I frowned, hugged her and said I didn't like that, but that I love her and then laughed. Then I let couple of days go by, I was really busy anyway.

I also realized that she should not go to church with the white people. I confirmed with her and Ecdes, who works for us, that walking in for the first time with the white people would make them see her a certain way. What they would think exactly I don't know and I don't think that Sophie or Ecdes can explain it to me, but we all agreed it would best if it weren't like that. Ecdes mentioned that it would be great if her brother, James, who hangs out at our house a lot could come too. And if Sophie came with Ecdes alone, then they found out she had a baby--THAT would not be good for them. And, I offered to watch Sophonie, so that Sophie could go, at least for the first time, without a 3 year old to worry about. Complicated, huh? Anyway, when I asked James, he said he would like to go too but just doesn't have clothes. We'll be working on finding clothes & shoes to lend James and Ecdes agreed to help him buy some used clothes "off the street" if we can't find any that fit. Actually it's great to be working together with Ecdes on this because he has expressed the idea before of some people being so bad they could never get saved (although not particularly James & Sophie.)

Yesterday Sophie asked me for money to get a permanent. When I disapproved and suggested she just have a friend braid her hair, she said it would not work well because it's too short, but she could get extensions. At first I started lecturing her about "if you can't afford to feed your child..." but then I asked her how much each would cost and could she have a friend help her out. She was only asking for $1US for the extensions (for her whole head) or $3 for the permanent. Extensions it is.

If you're wondering why we need to worry so much about clothes & hair for church, feel free to ask in a comment. I'll probably comment on it another day, but this is very long already, so I'm signing off for now.
Just please pray that they actually go,
that Sophonie is OK staying with me without her mom
that people are nice to them at church,
that they want to come back,
that God will speak to them.
Thanks

"A new day with no mistakes in it" --Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables

So now that I gave you the good, bad and the ugly about yesterday.....

Today Richard is on his way out to Verrettes to train about 40 leaders, mostly to use the Young Peacemaker book.

So Ricky and I helped him get ready.

Thanksgiving: Part I - with Police, Part II - with missionaries colleagues

Not our most glorious moment.... :(
...but we're thankful nothing worse happened. Yesterday, Thanksgiving....we ate humble pie, then pumpkin pie--even though the punishment didn't fit the crime, we are guilty.

We were our way out at about 12:30, with Mimi Potatoes, Pumpkin Pie, Salad and bread in the cooler. We let Ricky (age 15 1/2 :)) practice driving on a road—he doesn’t have a permit yet. We sometimes let him turn the car around and drive out on the unpaved roads of our neighborhood and then switch drivers before we get to the "main" road (not much better, but there is a little traffic on it.) This time we let him go a little ways on the "real" road. Some Haitian policemen stopped us to check our papers and they asked for Ricky's license. To make things worse, we didn’t have the current paperwork for our insurance in the glove compartment—it was at home. (Richard was going to make a copy on our copier/printer first. Normally the police should have written us a ticket (or ticketS) and let us go. But they asked for the keys to the car, kept them and are papers and just went back and stood were they had been standing. Richard tried to show them that we had the insurance sticker on the car and asked to go home to get the up-to-date paperwork since we were so close to home. But they wouldn't let us. When we asked what was going on, they said that someone from the traffic office had to come and we had to wait. We called the missionaries we were supposed to have dinner with and told them to go ahead. Every time we asked the police what was going on, they said that the man was on his way and would be there soon. It didn'teven seem like they were asking for a bribe. Sometimes we hear "don't you have something for me?" But not this time. We called people and asked what they thought about it. They thought it wasn't normal but couldn't really figure it out. The officers all looked under age 20, I think they liked the power of keeping us "blancs" there. But what can we say? We were in the wrong.

When we had been there about an hour and 15 minutes, a Haitian friend who works in the area came along and he and his friends talked to the police. After another 15 minutes or so, they got the police to agree to Richard going in Eddy's car with him to our house to get the proper paperwork. Ricky & I stayed with the car with 2 Haitian friends who were riding with us. Meanwhile I called the Haitian consulate emergency number. The representative listened and asked to speak with the the police officers, but they refused to talk to him. He said that if they still kept us after Richard got the papers, to call him back and that if we needed it we could possibly call the Marine Guard.

Aside - The mysterious Marine Guard. We've been told that anywhere you are, anytime night or day, no matter what you've done, if you think you are in danger, you can call the Marine Guard and they'll come and rescue you. I've heard of a story of a wayward teenager who found himself lost late at night in a bad part of town and the Marines came and got him. Kind of a cool picture of God, isn't it?

When Richard and Eddy got back, they talked to the policemen for about 10 minutes and they let us go without giving us any tickets. They said at that point that if Richard had told them that the paperwork was at our house, they would have let us go, but hmmmmm. So, several lessons learned, one of them is not to give in to kids when you know you’re right even though they say “C’mon just let me…..”

It wasn't my favorite Thanksgiving, but we're thankful for Eddy and his friend who helped us, for David Schmid who was just about leave home and come out to try to help us, and that we did make it to the Schmid's house and ate turkey with all the fixings.

Short news clip on voodoo

I thought this clip on voodoo might be appropriate because of a death that our neighbors say was caused by voodoo. Some of you have been praying for Sophie and Sophonie. This week Sophie came to us to tell us that Sophonie's father was killed because his former boss paid 1000 gourdes to a witchdoctor to put a spell on him.

http://www.chiamare.net/haiti-society-split-over-voodoo-15-november-2007/

One comment on the clip--As far as I can see voodooists have not been persecuted for quite a while. They don't have to hide what they do (well maybe some of it...?).

Soccer Clinic

Yesterday was a holiday in Haiti - commemorating the Battle of Vertieres.

So, we went out to the Croix des Bouquets area to an area called Champbrun. The little village there is only 20 kilometers away from Port-au-Prince, but is pretty much isolated with no electricity, no water, etc. A few years ago, God used Pastor Esperandieu Pierre, his wife and friends to begin a work there to help the people there who live on the edge, providing for themselves the best they can by raising goats and sheep.

Apparently about 40 years ago there were lots of trees in the area, but now it's like a desert with cacti and low thorn bushes. It took a long time for Pastor Pierre and his crew to clear some land, painstakingly digging thorn bushes out of the ground. They now have a church and a school which has grown in the past 4 years to the point where they have 350 students that they feed every day.

We had about 42 children officially participate in the clinic, but we counted 70 playing by the end of the day! We divided them into 7 groups of 6 players by age and rotated them through different training "stations": heading, shooting, dribbling, etc. The exciting part was that we had 5 student soccer players from Quisqueya Christian School helping us, plus Ecdes, who lives with us. This was the first time Ricky and his friends have helped us with a soccer clinic and it was neat to see how well they got along with the kids.

At one of the "stations" we shared the Gospel through a "3 ball" illustration as well as through a Gospel analogy that talks about a little Haitian boy who loved to play soccer. We didn't have them fill out response cards, we just sowed the good seed and pray that God will touch the hearts of the children.

After the soccer clinic, Ricky and his buddies got to drive a "go cart" around the dry desert-like sand and do lots of "donuts". It was a great time of combining ministry with play!

After we left about 2:30 PM we decided to stop at the National Soccer Training Center of Haiti. There we got to see the Haitian U-17 girls national team boarding the bus for a game. We also got to talk with some of the players of the Haitian U-15 national team and we gave each one a Gospel tract and we gave one of their leaders "Pilgrim's Progress" in Creole. Once again we sowed the Good Seed!

We were all tired, dirty and sweaty after a full day of ministry, but happy that we were able to distribute almost 100 tracts and share Christ through stories and illustrations with the 70 that participated in the clinic!

Article in New York Times on Gonaives

This is a good article on the city of Gonaives where we just did our training a few weeks ago:

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/11/16/16greenwire-storm-ravaged-haitian-city-waging-uphill-battl-64933.html?pagewanted=1

Update on Baby saved from abortion

One day this summer Samuel, a former Lemuel soccer player, called Elysee and said he needed the equivalent of $20 US because he had a “problem”. His girlfriend, Shirley, was pregnant, and they wanted to get an abortion. Elysee took time out of his busy schedule (He works full time and has started a restaurant on the side) to counsel the couple. He patiently explained to them the moral and physical dangers (especially in Haiti) of abortion and reminded them that Jesus died to forgive our sins. Praise God, the couple listened to his counsel and the young lady decided to have the baby.

Now, the baby is due before the end of November and Elysee has been in touch with Samuel & Shirley again. Unfortunately, Shirley has not been living at home because her Father is an alcoholic and her Mom is afraid he might hit her and harm the baby. Both her parents were very upset when they heard the news she was pregnant because she is too young to have a child and they did not agree with her dating Samuel. So Shirley was living with a friend, but then the friend told her she had to leave because she had no money to pay for rent and food.

So now her Mom is looking for a place for Shirley to stay for a while until the baby is born. She and her Mom were not talking for a while, but Elysee got them together to work things out and now her mother is going to take Shirley to a free clinic this week for a pre-natal checkup. She also knows of a hospital where Shirley and give birth for free.

Elysee just met with the couple yesterday and they told him they would like to put the baby up for adoption, so we have hooked them up with a reliable orphanage we know about. We also gave Elysee some money to give them for transportation and food until the baby is born.

Please pray for Samuel and Shirley as they go through the process of the birth and giving up the baby for adoption. Neither one is finished high school and they have no way to take care for the baby financially, nor do their parents. That is why they wanted to get an abortion. Pray also for Elysee as he counsels them and their parents, that there would be a full reconciliation between the families involved and that God would provide a good Christian home for the baby, or whatever His will is. Thanks!

Wow! Another answer to prayer

I had asked you to pray for our neighbors, specifically, Sophie, a teenage Mom with a little girl named Sophonie.

Last year I was praying a lot about them and others in their family and the others they were living with. But then things happened...like she moved away. It turns out she didn't move far away, and her Mom still lives down the street from me, so she started coming here a lot again. Another reason I stopped being focused on reaching out to her with the gospel was because I was feeling overwhelmed by not knowing if people are telling the truth, if they are coming around just because we give them food, medicine and clothes, etc.

But, yesterday we were sitting on my back porch, I was holding Sophonie (now 3) and feeding her Applesauce Cake I had just made. I'm not sure how it came up, but Sophie said "I would go with you to church." I was very surprised. She said she would need clothes though. (A cultural thing--it's considered disrespectful to go in old clothes, ladies "must" have sleeves and close-toed shoes.) We talked about that, about how I go to an English church, but I'd love to go to a Creole church with her. But we didn't make specific plans.

Today she stopped by and as we were talking, she said "you're my only friend, you know." "What?" I was surprised again. She said that she can't talk to anybody because all they do is gossip. She said she's trying to stay away from guys. So I brought up our idea of going to church and mentioned that maybe she could make some new friends who want to follow the Lord. So we decided to try for next Sunday.

I'm so excited. I didn't know she was this open. Please pray for this to work out...for God to give me wisdom as to what church to bring her to...for new friends for her...for our relationship.


Here's a picture of my sweet little Sophonie with a doll I gave her for her 3rd birthday. As soon as she got it, she kissed it's little face right away, before we took it out of the box. By the way, she does have clothes, but she does NOT like to wear them. I always give her a hard time about coming to my house without clothes on. (And, yes, it's a black baby doll).

Youth Ministry Allnighter

Last night was an "Allnighter" for the Youth Ministry of Quisqueya Chapel. There were 146 on campus, including the leaders. (Some could not stay all night, though.) It was an amazing night. After watching a long film, Q&A time and worship time, most of the kids stood in a long line to be prayed for by not one, but several of the leaders. They went to the first leader, he prayed for them, then they went to the next leader. I think there were 4 leaders praying like this. This took about 2 1/2 - 3 hours! ('til about 2 AM). One amazing thing was that you can get a crowd easily in Haiti among the poor who don't have much to do, but about a third of these kids are not poor (financially) but many are becoming very aware of their needs for God's work in their lives.

After the Q& A time, during worship, I felt that God was prompting me to pray with 3 specific guys--friends of Ricky's. During the first song, I noticed that one of them was praying with his head in his hand instead of singing. I felt pretty strongly I was supposed to pray THEN, so I walked over to where they were and only one was still there. It took me a few minutes to get up the courage to tap him on the shoulder and ask him if he would like to pray together. He had asked some questions about assurance of salvation, so we talked about that. Then we talked about other things and I said the obvious..."if you want to be sure, you can get that straight right now." He said "I guess we should pray." Then to decide who would pray first, he suggested we do "Rock, Paper, Scissors" His scissors could cut my paper, so that meant he prayed first. When we finished, we were both bursting. He said he felt filled with the fruit of the Spirit--filled with joy--like he was smiling soo big! Highlight of my year, I think.

ANOTHER amazing thing about last night was realizing how God has been answering prayers of mine from last year. Some of you have been praying for these things too. I prayed that Ricky would not fight us too much about going to Youth, that he would want to go and that his friends would come. Last year none of his closest friends were attending. As I looked around last night, I realized that in the past month almost all of his close friends have been at Youth or at least this Allnighter. And mostly they are showing interest in the things of the Lord. Another prayer was for a young Christian man who is strong in his faith to mentor Ricky and his friends. There were specific men I prayed about who have taught at our school. One of them was supposed to return to California and stay there, but God brought him back to be the main leader of the Youth Ministry (Marc). Ricky and his friends have Marc for Algebra, they get to talk to him at break, lunch, after school and at Youth. And when I was talking with Kevin (above) he mentioned that Marc has had a huge influence on all of them. I hadn't noticed how God was working...Now I thank Him for it!

No injuries at the football game

Thank you to those of you who prayed. There were no injuries at the game. We all had a good time even though our guys didn't win. Ricky made a touchdown, though.

The "Gold" truck

One day in Port-au-Prince I was driving with a Haitian friend when we saw this truck loaded down with brightly-colored plasticware, fans, and home products from China. They were blaring a message from a loud-speaker and playing loud music.

I asked my friend what this truck was all about. He said people bring their gold jewelry and other valuables to the truck and they get to pick a “prize” from among the items displayed.

As I though about this, it seemed that we are often tempted to do the same thing. We exchange something of great value for something that looks flashy or we think will make us happy in the moment. Like when I'm tempted to make an impulsive purchase, or waste my valuable time on an internet “sweepstakes”.

But some things are so valuable, you can't get them back once you give them away. Like your virginity, or your good name. Trust that has been built up over a lifetime can be lost through a single bad decision.

So next time we're tempted by the things of this world, let's remember that our relationships and character are much more valuable than anything this world has to offer.

A mother's request

Please pray for the safety of Ricky, and all the other boys who will be playing touch football today at Union School. Sometimes kids are too rough with soccer and even though touch football shouldn't be very rough, well............please pray.
thanks,
Carol

First Training Trip a Learning Experience

This year instead of doing one big (and expensive) training of Haitian leaders just after Christmas as we have done for the past two years thanks to AACH and AIS, we have decided to visit each of the 7 areas where we have set up a regional committee and see how they're doing and also train the local team chaplains in Ken Sande's The Young Peacemaker, which a fellow Crossworld missionary has translated into Creole.

Three people went on this trip: Richard Mears, AIS Haiti Director, Ronald William, AIS Haiti Board member and Coaching Supervisor; Sylvain Nelson, AIS Head Administrator and Chaplain Supervisor.

Our first trip was from Oct. 31st to Nov. 4th and we went to Gonaives. This was the town that was underwater just one year ago. This year they are having the opposite problem: They haven't had rain for over 2 months!

We were thrilled to find the 9-member Regional Committee eager to share their experiences from the summer and also willing to learn how to prepare quarterly reports and learn more about budgets and finance.

After a full day of discussion and training, we presented the Regional Committee with 11 pairs of cleats, 11 pairs of sneakers, and 24 soccer balls – enough for each of the 6 local teams to have 4 balls. (Can you imagine a soccer team in the US trying to function with only 4 balls?). They were happy to get the material and will be responsible for lending out the sneakers and cleats whenever there is a soccer tournament. While there we also did an inventory of the equipment we had given them before the flood and found that they still had most of what we had given them, in spite of the fact that the office where the equipment had been kept had been flooded.
The next day we did training with the 6 chaplains and 6 coaches, one from each team in the region. In the morning we introduced all of them to “The Young Peacemaker” curriculum and then in the afternoon, we had a separate seminar on coaching while the chaplains continued learning about “The Young Peacemakers”.

All throughout the two day seminar we would call a participant out of class so that we could do a personal interview with him. Since we really did not know these volunteers personally, we wanted to get to know them better and also make sure they were Christians who were assured of their salvation and were qualified and “able to teach”, as 2 Tim. 2:2 says. Thankfully, all but one of the volunteers were solid in their faith and we asked the Regional Committee to follow up with the one who was questionable.

Here are a couple of testimonies from these interviews:

“A robber entered our house and killed my father and cousin. I was very upset about this but my Mother said that I had not been killed because God has a plan for me, and so I decided to trust Christ and become a Christian.”

“My Father was very sick and the doctor sent him to Port-au-Prince for an operation. My whole family prayed for his recovery, and the operation was successful! I saw how God answered our prayers and put my trust in Him.”

It never ceases to amaze me how, when you share the vision God has given you with others, and they, intern, get others involved, the work of God can multiply rapidly. In the case of Gonaives, we trained two people through our TREC training program and now there are over 27 leaders involved in the AIS Haiti program there, most of whom we just met for the first time this past weekend!

Living Haitian Style

It was a joy to stay with a Haitian family in Gonaives for three nights. They cleaned out a room for the three of us, and we set up our portable beds in it. The room was all cement and had only one widow, so it held the heat, but thankfully, they had a pedestal fan that sucked the cooler air in from the outside and made the room a little cooler.

Gonaives is the fourth largest city in Haiti and was flooded in 2004 and in 2008. The family we stayed with survived both floods by living in a room for a month in a nearby public school above the flood waters. There were 10 people in one room with no clean water to drink, no electricity and no toilet facilities. Their house was completely underwater, and would have been swept away had it not had a cement roof.

This family's day began at 5 AM with getting water from a well in their courtyard. Several families share the walled-in compound and there were always children around. I made friends with two 7 year old girls who wanted to play with my hair (what little there is left!). I told them I wanted barrettes like they had, so they tried to put a couple in my hair (see pictures).

Then they have a breakfast of leftover rice or Spaghetti with ketchup.
At noon they have their big meal of rice and beans and maybe “Lalo” - a spinach-like vegetable they cook with goat and one or two small crabs to give it flavor.

After teaching seminars all day, we held soccer practice for one of the teams involved in our program. The field was nothing but dust. Every time you kicked the ball, a cloud of dust spewed up. This was supposedly one of the best fields in Gonaives and they had played championship matches on it – all without one blade of grass!

At night we had either “Fritay”, fried stuff that can easily give you the runs, or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (you can guess which on I chose!)

There is no plumbing in the house, so there was an outhouse with a cement “seat”, and a place to take a bucket shower. Somehow looking up at the stars under a full moon while you poor cold water over you with a pitcher is invigorating! It felt good to get at least most of the dust off.

At night I feel fell asleep to the sweet sound of mosquitoes buzzing in my ears (since I lost my OFF spray). My roomates wrapped themselves in a sheet to protect themselves and ended up looking like mummies.

But we slept well in spite of the little pests since we were so tired, only to awake before dawn to the sound of water being fetched, and meals being prepared to the singing of Christian songs and Christian music from the radio.

Proverbs 31 Woman

While staying a few days in a Haitian household, I was reminded of the woman praised in Proverbs 31. The woman in this picture was up before dawn, chopping wood (which woke me up!), mixing dough, and setting up her little stand outside her house on the street to sell little spice cakes.

Even though she was not my hostess, when she saw I needed some water to wash my hands, she went and got some for me.

All the while she was working, she was singing hymns.

Her house doesn't have indoor plumbing or a refrigerator, but she has the joy of the Lord, and her hands are not idle!

Article on the "firing" of Haiti's Prime Minister

HAITI Haitian Senate fires prime minister In a marathon session, Haitiansenators voted to oust Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis. By JACQUELINECHARLES jcharles@MiamiHerald.com
PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Haiti's Senate voted just after midnight Friday to dismissPrime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis, following almost 10 hours of debate.
Senate President Kely Bastien, who is not allowed to cast a vote underSenate rules, said a letter will be sent to President René Préval notifyinghim of the Senate's 18-0 decision.
A number of senators who opposed the move to fire Pierre-Louis had left theSenate floor shortly before the vote, believing that they had successfullyfilibustered the attempt when the clock struck midnight here.
``There is nothing illegal about the vote,'' said Bastien, adding that Haiti``could have a new prime minister as early as today or Saturday.''
The session began almost two hours after the scheduled start time andlawmakers spent hours debating procedures with supporters of Pierre-Louis,who questioned the validity of the senators' move to censure her.
Her supporters made impassioned pleas and cries of ``illegal'' and``unconstitutional'' from the Senate floor.
Senators have accused Pierre-Louis, a favorite of the internationalcommunity, of not moving quickly to solve Haiti's crucial problems: highunemployment, lack of significant foreign investments and environmentaldeterioration.
Pierre-Louis, in office for a year, said she has spent much of her tenuregetting international support for Haiti after four back-to-back stormsdevastated the country last year, and it is too soon to see the results ofher work.
Senators were not swayed.
But unlike the last censure of a Haitian prime minister -- Jacques-EdouardAlexis in April 2008 following days of food riots -- this one wasn't asswift or orderly.
At times, chaos reigned: Lawmakers screamed and talked over one another infront a national television audience.
The Senate president often rang a small silver bell in a futile attempt tocreate order as the session stretched into Friday morning without a vote.The vote finally occured at about 12:15 a.m., long after Pierre-Louis'Senate supporters had left, believing they had succeeded in preventing avote.
``There is an error in the summons and everyone knows it,'' said Sen. YouriLatortue, a Pierre-Louis supporter who last year successfully led themovement to oust Alexis.
But those lined up against Pierre-Louis weren't moved by the constitutionalarguments, nor her letter to the Senate president questioning the validityof the censure and informing him that she did not plan to attend thesession.
``Do we not have the right, the freedom today to call the government and askfor an explanation?'' asked Jean Hector Anacasis, one of the senatorsleading the effort to oust Pierre-Louis.
Sen. Joseph Lambert, the former president of the senate and leader ofPresident Préval's Lespwa Coalition, went even further, accusingPierre-Louis of not improving the lives of most of the country's estimatednine million citizens who live on less than $2 a day.
``I've never been so shocked in my life,'' said Sen. Andris Riche afterhearing Lambert's reasons for wanting Pierre-Louis gone and walking out ofthe session following an impassioned speech in support of her.
``You are going to commit an act that to me is disastrous. Decisions are notmade at the prime minister's office. You know where the decisions aremade,'' he said, implying the presidential palace.
Neither Pierre-Louis nor her government showed up for the censure.
*Miami Herald special correspondent Jean-Cyril Pressoir contributed to thisreport.

Some ninth grade students helped us put together booklets for "The Peacemaker for Youth" (in Creole) the study to be used with the players on the AIS-Haiti soccer teams. Here they are in my classroom at QCS.

Richard left this morning with Sylvain and Ronald to go out to Verrettes and Gonaives. They will reconnect with the leaders in those areas and train the leaders in using the Peacemaker study.

Rich prepares for a Road Trip

This weekend Rich, Sylvain and Ronald will embark on their first in a series of trips to visit each of AIS Haiti's seven Regional Committees.

During these trips we will visit our 56 evangelistic soccer teams supervised by 7 regional committees throughout Haiti so that we can train the chaplains in a curriculum a fellow Crossworld missionary has translated into Creole: Ken Sande's The Young Peacemaker.

In addition to this important training, these trips will also allow us to accomplish the following:

1. Train the members of the Regional Committees in leadership and financial skills.
2. Distribute over 1000 lbs of soccer equipment we have already received in Haiti.
3. Help each region prepare an annual plan and prepare an outreach during the 2010 World Cup
4. Deliver over 20,000 pieces of Christian literature: Bibles, tracts and materials in Creole to be used to evangelism and discipleship.

Normally, three AIS Haiti leaders will go on each trip: Richard Mears, AIS Haiti Director, Ronald William, AIS Haiti Board member and Coaching Supervisor; Sylvain Nelson, AIS Head Administrator and Chaplain Supervisor.

This trip will take us to Verettes and Gonaives and will last from Oct. 31 to Nov. 4th.

Please pray for safety in travel and a good time of training and fellowship with our volunteer leaders in Gonaives.

Adjust your mirrors!

This morning as I was driving Carol and Ricky to school we got behind an SUV with both mirrors cock-eyed. The one on the right was tilted up to the sky, while the one on the left was pointing down. In otherwords, they were useless for what they were intended for.

This reminds me of when I forge ahead with my life without praying and consulting God's word for wisdom. God's Word says that all things recorded there are to teach us and give us wisdom. Sometimes we have to look backwards in order to get perspective on our current situation.

God to this day asks us to remember his sacrifice for us through the sacrement of Holy communion. He wants the Jews to remember the way he delivered them from the Egyptians, and so he tells them to celebrate the Passover from generation to generation.

Remembering God's great works in our lives and the lives of his people is like us adjusting our rear-view mirrors on the car: By looking backwards, we can often see what's coming at us in the future.

So it's always a good idea to adjust your mirrors before you start driving, but it's even more important to look backwards and remember the work of God in your life and ask Him for perspective and wisdom to handle what coming up behind you!

Punctuation by God

I'm always hesitant to claim "God gave me this verse" or that He's speaking through one because I suspect some people say stuf f like that too easily. But...

After posting on Sunday morning about Psalm 90 v. 1 which I had been reading & praying back to God, I got up, got dressed, went to church, sat down and what was the very first thing read? You guessed it, Psalm 90! I think God was saying "yes, I did say that" and was putting the exclamation mark on that for me.

This weekend

Here are some verses God has given me (Carol):
1. "Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations." Ps. 90:1
2. "Wait for the Lord, Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." Ps. 27:14

Here's what it seems the significance of each of the verses is:
1. The first could be God talking to me about an office for AIS. The office we've shared has not worked out very well. It's where we had the cybercafe and we were sharing with another ministry. (and it was not very big). We're not renewing after this month, so that's ending. We don't have another place and there really isn't money at this time to rent one. Richard mainly uses Joy's room since she's at college, but it's not really adequate for many of the needs. Our house is pretty small, not accessible by public transportation (people have to walk about a 1/4 mile and part of it is up a big hill), etc. But yesterday we had two meetings out on our porch, where we've had most AIS meetings. Our colleagues in AIS never complain about the walk to our house. Sometimes we go drive out to the "main road" in our neighborhood to pick them up or drop them off, or even out to the main road of this area. The point is God is in control of this and all other needs of the ministry.
2. I know the one about wait for the Lord is ALWAYS applicable, but for me now it's very much applicable to having to wait and take things slowly with the soccer & business ministries. A few weeks ago we mentioned that our good friend Ronald lost his job as soccer coach at a high school. He has worked a lot for the soccer ministry, but aren't able to pay him for his work. We help him out as we can. But it makes me anxious for us to get a business or businessES started that can support the ministry, so that we can eventually have a couple people supported to focus on the ministry. We do want to promote the idea of volunteer work in ministry, but it's hard when people have such dire needs. In his case, here he is jobless, no income, but people see him busy with activity in AIS and they assume he gets money for it. He has to tell them 'No, I don't. This is volunteer work.' But those who know that it's run by an American probably have a hard time explaining that.
Please pray for Ronald. His beautiful attitude and faith through frustrating the conditions of his termination for that job are a huge inspiration to us.

Girls' Small Group

Yesterday I had my first meeting of my small group for girls that is part of the Youth Ministry of Quisqueya Chapel. I think it was a good start.

The small groups this year are "interest groups," and ours will be doing some baking, cooking, sewing and crafts. We are also studying the book of Mark (as is the whole church--in small groups). I am co-leading with a another missionary who was out of the country this week, but is coming back this week. We have 9 7th and 8th graders, half of them MKs and half of them girls from the neighborhood around Quisqueya Chapel. It will be a challenge to get them to connect. Last year's group didn't go so well in that regard. But this year, instead of having the small group as a 10 minute activity at the end of the youth meeting, we're allowing more time and going to our homes when possible.

Yesterday we started out meeting at the church. I share a song with the girls (from my laptop) that I just discovered and really love. It's called "By Your Side" and it's by Tenth Avenue North. My daughter Joy recommended it. It fit perfectly with our Bible Study from the first part of Mark about the baptism of repentence. I shared with them what I had heard online by the musician who wrote it. He was expressing how God was impressing on him that when we sin, we can go to God immediately. He doesn't need us to feel bad about for a certain amount of time or try to get better first before repenting and enoying his forgiveness. Of course regretting the sin is part of the process and we should focus on not sinning in that way again, but we can come to him right away "in the dead of night" as the author says.

After the song, Introductions, Bible study and discussion, I got out my beads. I showed them how I like to make beaded bookmarks and stretchy ribbon bookmarks to sell to help people in need. (one of the goals of our group is to help others with the things we make.) But I told them that whenever anybody helps me with these, it seems they really want to make a necklace. So for the first day I let each girl make one necklace or pair of earrings for herself.

Just to let you know what kinds of things we'll deal with in the group....I'll share this....
One of the girls lives in an orphanage (J) and is being adopted by a Canadian family. But this adoption has been taking years. I dont' know what she's been through before she came to the orphanage, or what it's like for her living with 50 (?) or more girls, the directors and some nannys (boys are in a separate home, babies, I think, are with the girls). Anyway, she made a beautiful pair of earrings quickly and then started making other ones. I reminded her that she was only allowed to make one pair for herself. She immediately (and expressionlessly) put everything back in one of my bins and sat there. Still showing no emotion. I didn't know what to make of it so I wen taround to other girls for a bit. Then I said she could make a necklace if she wanted, because I don't have many earring holders. She turned me down. Just sat there. Later one of the MKs was having a hard time tying a knot and remembered that I had remarked about how well "J" did at tying tiny knots for her earrings, so she asked her to help her. "J" went over and helped her (still expressionless). At the end I said, "J, don't you want to take a pair of earrings?" "No."
I don't know what was going on inside. ('I don't need your stupid earrings!' ? or 'I was making them for YOU to SELL!' ?.....no idea.) All last year she was in my group and hardly talked. I'm sure her English is a little lacking too. Pray for her please. As I said, I have no idea--yet--what she's been through or what it's like for her.
Thanks,
Carol

Shipment Arrives!

Yesterday morning (Oct 12), Ronald William (in white T-shirt in the picture) and I made a place in our storage room for the 31 boxes we shipped from the US.

Then in the afternoon we drove outside of Port-au-Prince to pick up the shipment of soccer equipment. We drove out with two pickup trucks and made good time in the sweltering heat of mid-day.

When we got there, they simply loaded one pallet on each pick-up with a fork lift, and since they were still shrink-wrapped, we just secured them with bungy cords and drove away!

When we arrived, we had lots of help from Ecdes' brother and cousin and we were able to unload and put the boxes in storage in less than an hour.

Now the exciting part: We get to distribute the equipment! We have several hundred soccer balls, and 5-6 boxes of sneakers plus some clothes to send to our regional committees.

Many thanks to Christian Aid Ministries for handling all the details of the shipment and customs, and to Jason Hoeckele for helping us gather and pack the equipment in the US. And of course, we thank all who donated equipment this summer, and appreciate the many individuals (especially Ian Moore) and organizations that are still collecting things for us such as AACH, Germantown Academy and Calvary Chapel in Philadelphia!

If you have some things to donate, please e-mail me and I will tell you where to send the items.

God loves the poor!

Last week I (Rich) was feeling overwhelmed by the needs of those around me in Haiti. Everyday I have needy people knocking at my gate in legitimate need and it breaks my heart to turn them away. But even Jesus did not heal everyone who came to him, and so I pray for the wisdom of Solomon to know how to handle each situation.

But then I got a phone call from a friend of a missionary I know named “Ti Frere” or “Little Brother” (Even though he is in his 20's and is taller than me!). He said that he had been trying to get a hold of my missionary friend because he needed some medical care.

He explained that he felt like something was wrong with his jaw. This was a serious problem since he had a big operation last year to remove his cancerous jaw bone and replace it with bone grated in from his ribs. A generous oral surgeon had come from the US to do this normally very expensive operation for free.

I called my friend in the US and she said that she herself needed an operation and had no money to help Ti Frere at this time. But she suggested that we get an x-ray done to find out the seriousness of the problem. Well, Ti Frere didn't have any money for an x-ray, so we prayed about the situation and I decided to call my Haitian Dentist and ask if he would do an x-ray for free.

He said he would! So we went to his office and after he looked at the x-ray he said he had a Cuban friend who was an oral surgeon and he would ask her to look at Ti Frere that afternoon for free! Well Ti Frere was right – he knew something was wrong. It turned out he had an infection in his bone graft and if it was not removed soon, his whole re-built jaw would be in jeopardy.

I explained to the oral surgeon that Ti Frere had no money, and so she generously offered to do the operation two days from then (Friday, Oct. 9) for only $200 US. So we prayed again and wrote an e-mail to his missionary friend in the US and also to the pastor of his church in Haiti.
The next day, we got a call from his pastor in Haiti. While the pastor did not recognize the young man's name, he had compassion for him and understood the urgency of the need. He gave the $200 needed for the operation!!!

So on Friday morning I gave the money to Ti Frere and also gave him some money for car fare and food that evening.

That afternoon I went to see Ti Frere and he was doing well. His Mom and sister were there taking care of him and he looked good.

This whole incident reminded me that God loves the poor, and that God has ways of providing for them that I could never imagine. All I need to do is be sensitive to God's Holy Spirit and let him show me who He wants me to help, and trust that He will provide for the ones I cannot through other people.

Please pray for Ti Frere as he recovers, and that he will discover God's plan for his life.

The Perfect Uniforms!

One of our leaders from Limbe, which is about 5 hours north of Port-au-Prince, met with me last week. His name is Pastor Peggy and he is a professor at the Christian University of North Haiti in Limbe. Pastor Peggy had come to Port looking to purchase soccer uniforms for the University team. He was a bit discouraged after visiting several places and getting a quote of $1,800 US for a set of new uniforms.

We talked about his region's plans for the year. This fall they are planning on having a inter-school tournament with 6 schools in the area. At this point none of the teams in his regions have uniforms, so I invited him back to the house to look at the 4-5 sets of uniforms I brought back from the states. His eyes lit up when he found beautiful home and away Diadora Uniforms in forest green and white. He told me these were the colors of the University!

These uniforms came all the way from Ohio and were collected by a college student for a school project. But God knew we needed them in Limbe, Haiti, and so he sent them all the way here.
Unfortunately, these two sets of uniforms will have to be shared between the University, and the 6 schools that will participate in the tournament.

So please ask your contacts if they can donate any uniform sets to us. We have about 80 teams involved at this point and only a handful have uniforms.

Quisqueya Chapel Youth!

I (Carol) have been involved with the Youth Ministry at Quisqueya Chapel (an English church here in Port-au-Prince) last year and this year. It has grown so much! I'm so excited to see all these young people coming out on Saturday afternoon! We might have had 90 this week.

This week we are starting small groups. Please pray for my small group of 8 girls.

Update by Carol

Last week we celebrated Richard's birthday, this week, mine. I've had a great time since my students made a big fuss over me. My ESL students got a huge cake, drinks, cups, plates, etc. and invited all the Sophomores to surpise me on Wednesday since not all of them would be at school on Friday. They sang happy birthday and we had a short celebration before we had to get back to work. Then yesterday at chapel, the Student Council brought me and two other teachers whose birthdays are coming soon up in front, sang Happy Birthday and gave us homemade cupckaes. All day kids were wishing me a happy birthday and writing nice messages on my chalkboard and whiteboard.

Last night Richard and I had a fun night of dinner and board games with another couple who are in ministry in this area too.

I also got lots of electronic messages from all over!

I feel very much loved and celebrated!

Richard's 50th birthday

The party for Richard's 50th was really nice. Richard wrote the story of what God has done in his life (well, the highlights) and gave out copies to people as they left. It was a good time for certain relationships.

(see facebook for more pictures)

Celebrating with One Hope, one of our Partners in Ministry

On Tuesday, I was invited to a celebration put on by “One Hope”, the ministry that produces the “Book of Hope” a comic-book-style evangelistic booklet that we have distributed to all of the schools we work with. The occasion was the distribution of their 600,000,000 copies of the“Book of Hope” worldwide.

We had the privilege of meeting Pastor Bob Hoskins, the founder of “One Hope” ministries. He explained how he has been preaching God's message of transformation for over 60 years how the first “Book of Hope” distribution took place in El Salvador. He had sent Bibles to the 50 most influential leaders in all the Latin American countries and when the Minister of Education in El Salvador called to thank him, he asked if there was any way to provide Bibles to all of the school children in El Salvador. At that time El Salvador was in the middle of a devastating civil war and as in all wars, the children were suffering the most. Pastor Bob was so excited about this request that he said “yes” right on the spot. Later he found out that there were 1 million school students in El Salvador and he had just promised to provide all of them with God's Word! So he developed a comic book version of the story of Jesus and included a simple Gospel presentation. God provided the resources to print and distribute the books and lives began to change. Within a year, the civil war had ended, and it has been peaceful there ever since. Some would say this is a coincidence, but Hebrews 4:12 reminds us that God's Word changes hearts.

We have been distributing the “Book of Hope” in Haiti since 2003. Since that time we have overseen the distribution of thousands of these wonderful comic books. Last year alone we distributed over 10,000 to the schools where we have started soccer teams.This year we plan to use a special booklet they have prepared for the World Cup in our outreach next summer. Please pray that God's Spirit will transform the hearts of many children as God's Word is distributed!Rich

Let's be more like cats

Every morning I try to sit down and spend some time reading my “One year Chronological Bible” and then praying for a while. This morning I was anxious about our finances since we have recently had a lot of unexpected expenses.. But then our cat, Macy, climbed up in my lap purring like crazy and just sat there. She wanted nothing more than just to be with me and have me pet her.This reminded me of Jesus' words to Martha: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:41) I needed to be more like Macy this morning, to sit contentedly in God's lap and listen to His Word. Then everything else would fall into perspective and I could face the day. My circumstances did not change, but my attitude did – anxiety was replaced by trust, fear was replaced by peace, and I remembered the verse that says “A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all.” (Ps. 34:19). All of us will face trials, but God will deliver us from them in his time and his way.What way will you choose today? Mary's or Martha's?

Pray for faithful workers who have lost their jobs

Please pray with us for two faithful workers who have lost their jobs.

Yesterday we found out that Ronald William who was a high school soccer coach and has put in many hours of volunteer hours with AIS-Haiti lost his job.

Today we just found out that Jean-Paul was laid off from his teaching job at another school. He has worked with AACH and AIS Haiti and has also put in many volunteer hours.

Please pray for God’s will in their lives and God’s provision.

We know that many people of lost their jobs in the US as well. We are praying for those that we know about. Feel free to “comment” on this post if you are in a similar position so we can be praying for you too.

A busy weekend of soccer tournaments

This past weekend (Sept. 11-13) AIS Haiti sponsored teams in three
different tournaments.  On Friday, our under 16 team from Borel won the
final game 1 to 0 to become the winners of an U-16 regional tournament
sponsored by the Haitian Soccer Federation.  We gave out Bibles to
several of the tournament organizers and the team will participate in a
service of thanksgiving at their local church on Borel.

Also on Friday, our regional committee in Jacmel hosted the final of a
“Ti Kan” (3 per side) tournament.  There were lots of people there and
the Pastor shared the Gospel clearly during half-time.   Lots of
response cards were collected, but so far not one indicated that they
trusted Christ.  Please pray that the Holy Spirit will draw people to
Christ as the evangelism counselors follow up with those who filled out
response cards.

On Sunday Elysee Vaillant, one of our key leaders on the AIS Haiti
board, led his team made up of former Lemuel players into the final of a
“Ti Kan” (3 per side) tournament.  Even though they lost 6 to 3, Elysee
was able to share the Gospel with the players on the other team and give
several community leaders who attended a Bible.  In addition, over 500
evangelistic tracts were handed out to those that attended the game.

Over 1,000 lbs of Soccer Equipment is on its way to Haiti

This summer, thanks to the help of a summer intern named Jason Hoeckele,
we were able to collect and ship lots of soccer equipment and sneakers
to Haiti.  We received a generous donation of balls and sneakers from
Ian Moore, the director of the Alliance of Christian Athletics of Haiti
who also gave us a generous donation towards the cost of the shipping. 
The rest of the cost of shipping came from the money raised at VBS by
Northampton Presbyterian Church who also collected 36 soccer balls for
Haiti!  Please pray that the equipment, which is being shipped by boat,
arrives safely.

Daniel's visit to the US a great success:

Daniel Jean-Louis, one of our key leaders in Haiti who graduated from
Liberty University, visited Rich in Pennsylvania for 3 weeks from August
20th to Sept. 7th.  During this time we visited 3 churches on Sundays,
met with 7 individuals, had lunch with 3 pastors, and attended 4 small
group meetings. 

Thanks to the generosity of some Christian Dentists and Doctors, Daniel
also got his first chiropractic adjustment, a clean bill of health after
a physical, and a teeth cleaning and dental checkup. 

He was also able to visit the Statue of Liberty and New York City with
his cousin from France, and also fly to Grand Rapids, Michigan to visit
the headquarters of Partners Worldwide, the ministry he works for part
time in Haiti. 

Humidity in Haiti and other places

Ricky and I got back to Port-au-Prince on Monday and it's been quite hectic ever since. School started on Tuesday. Fortunately for me, not all my classes have started yet, so I've been spending time between classes preparing. It was great to come back and see our friends and get back "home." Even though we have two places we call home, this, for now, is where I can lay down "in my own bed."

Richard is still in Pennsylvania. He took Grace to the airport yesterday for semester abroad. And the week started out with us moving Joy into her room at Eastern University. Before that we were glad to have all five of us together for two whole weeks!

It's about 93 and humid here. Since it feels so humid, I wanted to know just how humid this is. I found out that the maximum humidity I've experience here this week was 84%. I read online that it's like you poured water on a dry sponge and it has filled up to 84% of it's capacity to hold water. That's a lot of humidity. BUT I found out that Florida and Texas are the states that have the highest humidity in the US. I looked up a couple of towns in Florida and saw that in Tallahassee they have 93% humidity with a temp of 83! And Boston has 89% humidity! So it's really not so bad here. Come visit!
Carol

Read some good news about development in Haiti

Good news about Haiti for ag change!

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/haiti/story/1160246.html

We have been encouraged when we've driven through this area which is close to where we used to live when we first came to Haiti.

Business Training

Thank you....to those of you who prayed for the business "training the trainers" seminar, Business Labs Haiti 2009 by Young Americas Business Trust (YABT) in Port-au-Prince last week with the Israeli trainers provided by OAS (Organization of American States). It was a success. Here is an excerpt of a letter from a participant (translated from French):

"...as a participant, I would like to present in my name and in the name of all the participants, my sincere congratulations to the staff of YABT for the realization of this training seminar.

...this seminar rivaled other seminars offered by international organizations, in spite of your meagre financial resources.

I lift my voice as a Haitian and professional of this country to testify to my respect for you because you knew how to do things differently. From the judicious choice of participants, the choice of partners, the trainers, to the organization of the seminar led to the total success of Business Labs Haiti 2009. The participants as well as the trainers openly expressed their satisfaction...

May God bless Young Americas Business Trust"

We visit Quebec

Tomorrow, July 19th, Carol and I will visit the Quebec Baptist Church in Quebec city and present our ministry. This has been a special trip for us since we visited many of the sites familiar to us when we studied French here over 10 years ago!

Yesterday we met with Ed Sweeney to discuss a partnership between a school where he works and the schools we are working with in Haiti. One of his students started to collect school supplies for schools in Haiti in May and now wants to expand the project through our partnership with them. It great to hear about young people wanting to help students who are less fortunate!

Pray for the Business Lab "training the trainers" seminar this week

Please pray for the YABT team in Haiti who are hosting a "training the trainers seminar" (Formation de Formateurs).

From Monday, July 20th to Friday, July 24th our Haitian co-workers will host two Business Trainers from Israel and facilitate the training of 35 young Haitians as they learn how to help others start their own businesses. This training is sponsored by Young Americas Business Trust, an affilitate of the OAS, as well as funds we have raised in Haiti and the US.

Please pray especially for Daniel Jean-Louis and Jimmy Bruce who are responsble for all the details involved in this seminar including hosting two trainers from Israel, registering the participants on Monday and makeing sure all are served lunch, etc. throughout the week.

Joy graduated from Quisqueya Christian School on May 30, 2009. This is her giving her Salutatorian speech.

Evangelistic Match in Jean Rabel

The Regional Committee in Jean Rabel, one of the most remote parts of Haiti, did a great job organizing an evangelistic match in honor of our visit. Not only did they finance the entire game through local funding, they partnered with Compassion who provided funds for transportation and a meal for the players. AIS-Haiti's contribution to the tournament were the uniforms, balls, and sound system.

In typical fashion, the game that was supposed to start at 3 PM started at more like 4:30 PM, but the crowd was large and enthusiastic.

At the start of the game I was too busy setting up the sound system to notice that the coaches of the two teams and the referee were having a heated discussion at midfield. It seems that one of the teams had players who seemed too big to be under 15 years old, giving them a physical advantage. Even though this was just a friendly, non-tournament game, Haitians are very competitive and bragging rights of one town and one school against the other were at stake here.

However, our Board member, Elysee Vaillant noticed what was going on and intervened, suggesting that the one team offer not to play the bigger players at the start of the game. So the game started, and it was a very exciting game. Each team almost scored several times, but at the end of the first half the score was 0-0.

During half-time Sylvain used a gospel illustration with 3 balls on a stick to show how sin separtes us from God, but Christ can take away our sin and bring us close to God again. Several hundred fans heard this message and many filled out response cards which we have not yet had time to tally. These people will be followed up by the team of evangelistic counselors we trained to do this while we were there.

One young man approached a local pastor and asked trusting in Christ. The pastor was overjoyed to lead the young man to put his faith in Christ and is now more convinced than ever of how effective sports evangelism can be!

But the second half almost did not get played because the team with the bigger players were going to put them in during the second half to try and win the game. The coach of the opposing team heard about this and told his players to start walking off the field. Once again Elysee heard about this and served as an arbitrator to resolve this conflict, allowing the game to end in a 0-0 time at the end of regulation.

We were going to try to show an evangelistic film after the game, but the game ended late and then it started to rain, so we had to call it off. However, we left a copy of the film with the regional committee and they will show it to the community in the near future.

There was no score on the field, but there was rejoicing in heaven because at least on person trusted Christ as a result of the game!

Lessons from a humming Bird

While we were staying in a hotel in La Pointe near Port-de-Paix during our trip, a humming bird got into one of our rooms.

The poor bird flitted around and bumped into the window in a frantic attempt to escape.

When it got exhausted it would rest for a few seconds (which is when I got the pictures), but then it would start another desparate try to be free.

Finally, after seeing the bird get more and more frustrated and exhausted, we opened the window and let the poor thing free.

I couldn't help but feel that God was showing me a picture of my life lately. I have been so busy doing things and flying around at a frantic pace that I have become tired. When I do quiet down and rest from sheer exhaustion, my heart is still pounding and then I feel panic again over how much there is to be done before leaving Haiti in a few weeks and I get up and start to fly about working on my "to-do" list until I drop again.

God seemed to be telling the Israelites this in Isaiah 30:15: "This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it."

God wants to give me a peace in the midst of this busy time in my life, and I need to see that only He can open the window and give me freedom and rest. (Just to help me rest, I got a bad case of "Haitian Happiness" when I got back from the trip - thank God it did not happen on the 10 hour trip back!!)

Lord, don't let me have a stubborn heart like the Isrealites and refuse to repent and rest in you during this busy time of finishing up school and preparing to leave house and ministry behind for the summer.

How about you? Will you chose to trust God and rest in him, or will you fly about in frustration like the hummingbird?

Trip to Port-de-Paix - Rough Riding!

On May 16th we got up early and packed the car with 3,800 "Liv la Vie" booklets, 10 cases of Bibles and other Christian literature, a dozen boxes of soccer equipment, a speaker system and video projector to show evangelistic films and 7 people (Two riding in the back). Five members of AIS Haiti went on the trip: Rich, Daniel, Debreus, Sylvain and Elysee, with 2 riders going up and 1 rider coming back.

We covered everything with a tarp because of the frequent rains during rainy season and set out on what we thought would be a 6 hour trip north. In reality it took us 10 hours with stops to drop off equipment for two of our regions: Verettes and Gonaives.

Just outside of Gonaives, it started to pour and so all seven of us crowded into the 4-door cab of the pickup which was meant for only 5 adults. I squeezed in the front bucket seat with another friend trying to give the driver enough room to shift. The rain also made the roads very muddy and we needed 4-wheel-drive to get up a few slippery mountains.

The rough roads didn't help, either. Although there has been much improvement in the roads since I last drove to Port-de-Paix in 2002, the were still very bad in places.

But Haiti is still a very beautiful country with its rolling hills and mountain passes, and there are still lots of huts made of mud and sticks with thatched roofs in the countryside.

The highlight of the trip was fording the wide "Trois Riviere" river. The guide sat on the hood of our truck and pointed the way to shallow water. Daniel drove and we all gave him a high-five when we got accross.

Coming back the river was even higher than we went, so we hired an experienced driver to help us ford the river while we all sat in the back to give the rear wheels more tracktion, even in 4-wheel-drive.

Although the trip was an endurance test, it could have been much worse if we had broken down, or if someone had gotten sick, or if we had run into bandits, etc.

So we thank God for a safe trip, but are glad to be home.

Please pray for Barbara

Please pray for Barbara, my (Carol) Mom's cousin, whose husband just died. She deals with very serious health issues on a daily basis and has no children, nor other relatives besides my Mom and her children. It will be difficult for her to deal with arrangements and the sadness. However, she would say that Jesus has gotten her through many things and He will get her through this too. Thanks

Post about Ricardo Pierre-Louis on another blog

You've read about Ricardo Pierre-Louis on our blog....thought I'd post a link to a good blog post about him by AJOSHA.

http://ajosha-haiti.blogspot.com/2009/05/love-of-languages-translates-to-soccer.html

On their way to Port-de-Paix and Jean Rabel

Richard, Daniel, Sylvain and Elysee were off to the north yesterday. We got up at about 4:30 after a big night at school (Ricky in talent show & our BBall team winning the Championship...maybe another post). We packed books, soccer equipment, speakers, generator, food and water. They left at about 8:30 from our house, picked up Sylvain and Elysee and arrived safely in Port-de-Paix 10 hours later. For those of you who don't know Haiti so well, you're wondering how that can be in this small country. It's a matter of bad roads and loading and unloading people and luggage along the way.

Please pray for them to have a safe trip to Jean Rabel today and for the ministries up there to receive the encouragement and training they need. Also, be praying for the outreaches to be held this summer.

Ricky turns 15!

May 10th was Ricky's 15th birthday! He celebrated all weekend by having a few friends over to play soccer, X-box, and jam on the guitar and drums on Friday night, and then having a combined Birthday party with a girl from his class on Saturday.

The party on Saturday turned into an all-day affair starting at noon and not ending until 8 PM! But the invited the entire 9th grade from school, and lots of people came - enjoying music, line-dancing, and the ever-present X-box "FIFA 2009".

Ricky has grown a lot in every way over the past year. He is taller than me, has bigger muscles than me, and or course has more hair than me! But I can still get around him sometimes on the soccer field, so I don't feel too old!

He's also learned a lot in the past year, not only at school, but in music as well. He taught himself how to play the electric guitar, continues to learn new rythms on the drums and has also started to learn to drive.

Jordan Brumley

I had a dream! I dreamed that this summer we would be able to send a Haitian coach to the US named Obias Exilus and that he would room with Jordan Brumley, who grew up in Haiti as an MK (Missionary Kid). I had hoped that Jordan would be able to help Obias adjust to life in the US and speak creole with him and just have fun together as they got training and also ministered at soccer camps this summer.

So I challenged Jordan to consider doing a summer internship with AIS and pointed him to the AIS website so he could apply.

Well, as you might remember, Obias did not get his Visa. But Jordan was accepted by AIS as an intern this summer and God is in the proceess of providing him the money for this training. He is very excited about this and we are praying that he might consider coming back to Haiti at some point and helping us with the ministry!

Jordan was first exposeed to AIS through the Cleveland City Stars in 2007. He travelled with the team and helped out as an interpreter. He also got to play in the game in Cap Haitian.

Please pray that next year Obias will be able to get a Visa, and maybe next year my dream original will come true - with Obias and Jordan ministering side by side!

Outreach in Leogane

When we are weak, He is strong!



Last weekend (May 2-3, 2009) I came down with a stomach thing - Haitian Happiness, cramps, the whole nine yards. My stomach hurt, my back hurt, my knee hurt - I thought I was falling apart. So I was about to cancel an evangelistic film showing we had scheduled in Leogane, a town just outside of Port-au-Prince.

I really didn't want to cancel the film showing since we had had to cancel once before, so I tried to figure out a way to make it happen without me. I called up two of my key leaders: Ronald William, the soccer coach of a large Christian school in PAP, and Jean Paul Noel, a seminary student.

I sent them out with the video projector and a DVD player and prayed that they would arrive safely and that the equipment would work.

Then it started to rain while they were on the way, and not just a little rain. It flooded the streets of Leogane, and right in front of the church where the film was going to be shown a river appeared!

The rain kept the numbers down to about 50, but the Holy Spirit did it's work and convicted three people of their need for Salvation through Christ.

I just talked to the Pastor of the church and he said these three have been coming to church and they are following up with them.

So even in my weakness, God used me to share his love with others!

Well-travelled computers

In 2006 just before we left, Bucks County Community College in Newtown, PA gave us 5 Pentium 3 desktop computers. Thank you BCCC!

We put these computers on the Box truck we were shipping to Haiti and they arrived in Port-au-Prince in January of 2007.

Since then they have been used to teach typing to about 20 girls in an orphanage and just the other day we gave them to College Evangelique Maranatha (CEM) for their computer lab. CEM is one of the best primary and secondary schools in Haiti with over 90% of their students passing the national exams every year.

CEM has over 400 students, so the computers will get lots of use and benefit lots of students.

We were limited in the number of schools that could use desk top computers because they use a lot of electricity. In addition they are very heavy and expensive to ship.

Now we are looking for laptop computers since they are lighter and don't use as much electricity. Please let us know if you know of any places that might want to donate used laptops to Haiti!

Senatorial Elections in Haiti

Tomorrow (Sunday, April 19th) are the senatorial elections in Haiti. There is the possibility of some violence because one of the political parties has been banned from participating.

In order to reduce the possibility of violence, the UN and Haitian police have said that no cars, trucks or motorcyles are allowed on the road tomorrow at all.

This will not disrupt the elections since all the polling places are done by neighborhood and people can walk to where they need to vote.

Please pray for Haiti during this crucial time in their political history!

pray for Lt. Berretti

Well, I went back to the Navy Base on Monday since we didn't have school and Dr. Berretti adjusted me again. I feel great. BUT, please pray for Dr. Berretti, he caught a bad cough and was feeling terrible, but working anyway.

Answer to prayer about my back

While I was interpreting at the naval base for the Comfort Ship doctors (see older post), there was a lull in the flow of paitents and the doctor I worked with asked “What about you? Do you have anything that needs medical attention?” I mentioned my back and he turned to a doctor next to us, Lieutenant Barretti. I couldn't believe there was an Osteopathic Dr. who knows how to do adjustments right next to us! He adjusted my back right then and I felt much better! This was amazing because not all osteopaths do adjustments. I had been praying for God to provide some way for me to get help since I’m almost positive there are no chiropractors in Haiti. And God put me in that room with that doctor! In fact, I just realized, I wasn’t planning to go on this trip until after I prayed for help for my back and the teacher in charge of the trip happened to sit next to me at lunch and asked me if I could fill in on any of the days during Easter weekend because they didn’t have enough people. What’s really neat is that Pam had no idea what God had planned. I think Pam felt like I feel sometimes when I have to ask people to take on another task when they already have so much going AND it’s a holiday, or something else—ugh! But really she was being used by God to schedule me for a surprise! We can’t forget that in such mundane things like getting people to sign up to go on community service projects, we are doing angel-type work! What a privilege.
And I'm so thankful for Dr. Barretti!