Sunday , Monday and Tuesday

Sunday, Jan 31, 2010

This morning I got up “late” and took my time getting to church. However, I forgot that I had lent my car to a medical team for 2 days, and so could not just hop in and drive away. So I hopped on a tap-tap and walked down the hill to church (and got my new shoes all dusty!).

When I arrived, everyone was singing, and I thought I was late, but then Pastor Bobby stood up and told us that this was just practice & that the service would start later – at least I was not late!

When the service did start, Pastor Bobby had us stand up by country. We had people from Canada, Holland, the US, Australia, the Philippines, the UK and of course, Haiti.

The theme for the day was to be “Filled with the Spirit”, and everyone sang as if they were. The church was jam packed and we made a joyful noise.

The last song we sang was “The City of God.” Ariana and Ruth started out by telling us that when the earthquake hit, they were both singing this song in different parts of Port-au-Prince. Ariana was singing it with her friends on the second floor of QCS and Ruth was singing it at her home. Both were praying for Haiti through the song.

Here are the words to the song:

[Verse 1]
You're the God of this City
You're the King of these people
You're the Lord of this nation
You are

[Verse 2]
You're the Light in this darkness
You're the Hope to the hopeless
You're the Peace to the restless
You are

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

[Chorus]
For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater thing have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City

We all joined in with them and just kept singing it over and over.

After Church, I stayed around and talked to people. Pastor Bobby introduced me to a Doctor and his friend who just trusted in Christ. He was a member of the Larco family, owners of a large beverage company in Haiti. He said a missionary had come to his hospital with lots of medicine for his pharmacy, and he told Dr. Larco he came with all the medicines he needed, but one. Then he introduced him to the Great Physician, the healer of our souls – Jesus. He and his associate trusted Christ then and there and couldn't stop talking about it after church that Sunday. Dr. Larco brought his whole staff to church. I am going to meet with them this week and give them some books called “Your New Life in Christ” in Creole.

Even though Dr. Larco could live in his fancy house, he is choosing to live in a refugee camp to show his concern and solidarity with his countrymen. He introduced me to one of the leaders of the camp who was trying to organize some activities for the children. We are going to work with him to help him this and supply him with equipment as well. In addition, we hope to use the “Young Peacemakers” curriculum we have translated with the children who play in our tournaments.

The next group that I met at church was Tear Fund, UK. When Carol and I worked at the UEBH, this was one of the largest contributors we worked with on projects. They helped pay for wells at several churches and latrines as well.

I met Matt and Annie. Matt is a water engineer, and Annie is a child psychologist. We talked about how we could work together and they said they have a curriculum that they would like to use in the refugee camps to help children recover from the trauma of the earthquake. I told them we have translators available who can do this and we also knew some camps that need water.

After them meeting I told Matt that there was stream near my house that seemed to always have water.
My friend Dan Carl said he would take us to look at it, since I did not have a car. We found a Haitian who actually knew the source of the water and Matt was able to test it to see how good a source it was. I was very excited because I don't think there are very many un-tapped water sources in Haiti.

Then we went back to my house where I gave Dan Carl a bunch of tracs and books for an evangelism project his friend was going to have among the refugee camps in Gonaives.

After they left, I took a 2-hour nap. When I woke up, I saw it was still daylight and Ecdes wanted to play soccer, so we ended up playing until it was dark – I'm sore today, but it sure was fun!

Monday, Feb., 1 2010 (Grace's 22nd Birthday)

Today it seemed like the phone was ringing was ringing of the hook. Calls from AIS leaders, friends and people in need. One story I think I forgot to tell was that soon after the earthquake, a young man who I had lead to Christ in Verrettes this summer called to see how I was doing. I talked to his Dad after I talked to him, and it seems that Christ has really changed his life!

I found out that one of our leaders in Limbe, Pastor Peggy, was in a motorcycle accident and was in the hospital with some injuries to his head and face. We are going to try and send him some money to help with his medical expenses.

The other thing I was doing today was organizing a trip to Leogane tomorrow to help sift through the debri of the three houses of our leaders that were destroyed by the quake. We are going with a team from Tear Fund, UK who is going to evaluate some of the refugee camps and also with about 8 young men from the UEBH churches in PAP who want to help others in Leogane.

Ronald William also came over and we were able to give Nesly from Gonaives, who is still with us, some soccer equipment to take back so he can organize an evangelistic tournament there.

I am still waiting for my truck to come back after I lent it to a team of Doctors for the day.

Tomorrow we head to Leogane, and I am also one day closer to seeing Carol again!