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.