Here's what Richard found in the bathroom at 3 in the morning...good thing he turned on the light before going in.

The other half of the story

I just met with Debreus, the young man who was with me when I got shot.

Here is his side of the story:

He said he was coming back to the car to get another load of books when he saw a man open the front door and take my briefcase. Then he heard a loud noise and realized that I had been shot.

He talked to a friend who was also going on the bus and the friend said that his brother Joseph knew how to drive and was there at the station seeing him off. So he called his brother and asked him to go and help me get to the hospital. That is how Joseph ended up helping me!

The police also talked to Debreus and told him that as long as I had an ID card, Joseph would have no trouble getting me to a hospital.

I found out from Debreus that he had lost his personal overnight bag as well that had his Bible in it, as well as 1000 gourdes, which was worth about $25 US. In addition, they took a box of the "Champion" evangelistic booklets we were taking to Jean Rabel. God has a sense of humor! Imagine the gang members opening the box and reading a bit of the booklets to see what it said! Maybe 200 gang members took home the colorful booklets, and one got a Bible!

After Debreus got on the bus, he found out that the Pastor we work with in Jean Rabel was on the bus, too - Pastor Bolivar. I am sure that they were praying for me the whole trip, and that is part of what God used to give me the peace I had in the hospital.

During the bus trip, Debreus also thought that the bag with the video projector had been stolen, but to his surprise, the bus driver handed it to him after they got there. It had been loaded on top of the bus!

The Saturday after Debreus got back to Jean Rabel, he called a meeting with the Regional Committee and told them what happened. They also rejoiced that they had received evangelistic booklets , soccer cleats and a video projector to use for outreach.

In spite of Debreus trying to find a big TV antenna so they could project the World Cup games, they never were able to show any matches because the signal was too weak. Instead, they used the projector to show several Evangelistic films in Creole. These films show how Christ is more powerful than the voodoo demons many of the people near Jean Rabel still worship. They showed the films numerous times, and 36 people indicated they had accepted Christ afterwards!

There are now 14 schools involved with AIS Haiti in the Jean Rabel region and we are hoping to organize some tournaments in the fall.

So now you know the other half of the story!

Internet problems

We're not able to write much these days because our internet setup won't work at our house these days. It works at the school campus (where I work) but slowly.

When we first got back, we had electricity problems, but whenever we had something to provide electricity, we had internet. Now, that same system won't work at our house. I guess there was some damage to a tower or something. We did have a bad storm with very bad winds.

At the same time, Rich has been busy getting many things fixed at our house and starting the new school year is always a busy time--even more so coming back after the earthquake.

Please bear with us :)
Carol

Damage to Truck

My body wasn't the only thing damaged by the bullet. It went through my body, the seat of the truck, through the plastic door covering and made a dent in the metal of the door, but did not pierce it.

This means the bullet is still in the truck's door!

Everytime I hop in the driver's seat, I am reminded of God's mercy and grace, and that he still has a plan for me on this earth!

For me, this has become a memorial, just like Jacob piled up some rocks at the place where he had his dream of the ladder into heaven.

What about you? Do you have something that reminds you daily of God's goodness to you and his good plan for your life?

I read in a book about a man who keeps pictures on his desk at work of the hospital he was born in, and the place where he would be buried to help remind him to make the most of each day for the Lord.

Rich shares his story

Since I've been back in Haiti, I have had several opportunities to share the story of the robbery and shooting with several groups.

This is a group of young campers from a bad section of town that a friend invited to a summer camp at our church, Quisqueya Chapel.

They listened intently as I told of God's deliverance and showed them the place where I was shot.

I reminded them that we never know when our life will end, and we all need to be ready to face God's judgment.

Afterwards we went out to the truck to see where the bullet went into the door.

On Sunday, Aug 30th I will have the opportunity to share my story at Quisqueya Chapel, the church we attend in Haiti.

Bits and pieces of what God is doing in Haiti

Dear Friends,

It has been a world-wind of activity since we arrived back in Haiti on August 8th. Here are some high-lights of what God is doing through our faithful Haitian friends and co-workers:

1) During the World-Cup outreach over 2,000 people watched the games in five different locations. One young single mother and her 2 children came to know the Lord in Gonaives and now they have been coming to church regularly and are growing in their faith! Many others are being followed up with. Most people that attended the matches received an evangelistic booklet called "The Champion". We are still distributing the 40,000 copies of this booklet that we received from One Hope Ministries.

2) We are sponsoring a door-to-door outreach to Leogane this week being done by a group of men from a church in Archaie. We supplied them with lots of literature, Bibles and a video projector and Christian DVD's for them to show films at night. Last night several hundred showed up for one of the films!

3) One of our leaders, Elysee Vaillant participated in an outreach at his girlfriends' church this past weekend. Please pray for Elysee as his father is dying of Prostate cancer, his sister is 8 month's pregnant after being married in 2009, and his house needs a new roof and is leaking badly when it rains.

4) This week we visited the camp ground at Verrettes and the Amputee soccer team is going to use it for their official training when it begins in 2 weeks. It was good to see our leaders there who have had a busy summer receiving the Right-to-Play team and the Corban team.

Thanks for your gifts, prayers and partnership that enable us to be God's hands and feet in Haiti!

Amputees Play Soccer

A few months before the earthquake I met Dr Fred Sorrells of the Institute of Sports. Even then, he was trying to introduce sports for the disabled in Haiti.

Just this week I met him again practicing with a team of Amputees on the soccer field of Quisqueya Christian School. It turns out that Haiti has been invited to play in the World Cup of amputee soccer to be played in October in Argentina.

We helped him immediately by giving him several cases of "The Champion" evangelistic booklets we had been given for our World Cup outreach and also some follow up discipleship material.

In addition I was able to tell the men the story of how I was shot. They were very moved by the story and applauded when it was over.

The next day we gave him some shorts and Ronald was able to help train the team. More importantly, 6 out of the 30 players indicated that they had trusted Christ for the first time. So God continues to use the tragic circumstances of life for His glory!

Then on Saturday, Ronald and I worked with 6 goalies who only had 1 arm. Out of these 6 we selected 3 to be on the World Cup team.

Ronald and I have been asked to continue to work twice a month with the special men at Quisqueya Chapel, where Carol and I go to church. They have a nice field we can practice on.

Please continue to pray for this exciting opportunity!

Haiti's earthquake was caused by a previously unknown fault

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38648080/ns/technology_and_science-science/

When it rains, it pours

It's rainy season here in Haiti, and it is raining hard almost every night. Thousands of people are still in tents, and many of them suffer when it rains.

But we all know that "When it rains, it pours" doesn't always pertain to rain. Normally we have three sources of electricity which combine to give us power when we need it: Commercial power (EDH), a generator and a combination inverter / battery system. When we got home Sunday, the generator was broken and the inverter batteries where dead, so that left us dependent on commercial power which at best gives electricity only about 8 hours a day (usually at night). We have actually been working on replacing the batteries for a while.

So for the past three days I have been waiting for a repairman to come fix the generator and also trying to find the right kind of batteries to buy. I was told the kind I want are stuck in customs and that they raised the duty on batteries from 5% to 20% after the earthquake. Yet most business in Haiti need batteries to ensure a steady source of electricity to function.

Then there was our water supply which was "borrowed" by our neighbors who are building a house down the street so they could have water to mix cement. So, since I was injured, we have not been receiving water from the water company. Fortunately we had some in our cistern. And today I was able to clean out the pipes that bring rain water into the cistern.

In addition, my cell phone was stolen when I was shot, and Carol's phone was stolen while a friend of ours was borrowing it. So I had to go out and buy two new cell phones this week. At least the phone companies here give you back your phone number if your phone is stolen (with receipt of course).

This is all part of living and working in Haiti! We were definitely spoiled this summer in the US, but now we're back in the "majority world" where most people live without electricity, clean water and telephone service.

Rich

Back Home in Haiti

We got back to Haiti yesterday.

We were welcomed home by 7 friends (plus 3 cute kids) (OK some of them live here, but some came over to say hello.)

One great thing to come back to, besides friends, was lots of birds in our trees--what a welcome, new sound for this house. On the other hand, it felt like about 1000 degrees with high humidity. And our generator isn't working. With inverter problems, that wasn't much fun. But we got city power late at night and it's still on now. We also have no working cell phone between Richard, Ricky and I. So....Richard will be busy while I set up my classroom for the new school year--that's where I'm off to this morning.

Thank you, to all of you who prayed for us and helped us while we were in Pennsylvania and helped us get back here; especially the Colombo family and Steve Payne. We really appreciate you.
Carol

Heading back to Haiti!

Rich is back on his feet, Carol is ready to start teaching again and Ricky is excited to see his Haitian friends as we all head back to Haiti tomorrow (August 8th).

Our Haitian co-workers Ronald and Elysee will be there to greet us and we are anxious to hear all that God has done through them while we have been away.

While we are sad to leave family and friends in the US, and will miss then very much, it is clear that God is not finished with us yet in Haiti and we are excited to see what he has in store for us as we return.

Thanks to all who cared and prayed for during the past 6 months as we survived an earthquake and Rich being shot. Hopefully the next 6 months will be a bit calmer!

Hear Rich's story on the Internet!

For those of you who would like to hear Rich's story, Crossing Community Church recorded his presentation and you can find it on their website: Crossing.org

Just look at the box on the home page and you will see "Rich Mears - Haiti".