Amputee goalies play to help raise funds

Cesar and Ariel with Georges, a former player on the Haitian National Team

This afternoon, two of the team's goalies and I went and played with the group of Haitian men that I play with each Thursday night on a lighted field. Many of these men are influential businessmen and of course they all love soccer.

I told them about the team and also asked them if Cesar and Ariel, the Amputee goalies, could play for a while.

This really helped the men get to see how well Amputees can play, and everyone was very impressed. Ariel even stopped one of the best players on a breakaway!

Today was also a good day for getting paperwork done. Hopefully tomorrow we will get passports for everyone!

Time Magazine to do a story about the Team!

It was the call fame-seekers wait for for a life-time. A reporter from TIME Magazine called us this morining and hopes to come and visit us today. Not that we are seeking our own glory, but we are seeking God's glory as he is the only one could take a group of broken men and form them into the Haitian National Amputee soccer team that has been invited to the World Cup of Amputee soccer in Argentina that starts on Oct. 17th.

Please pray for this effort. We still do not have the passports, the Visas or all of the money we need to send the team to Argentina. So this is still a prayer request. In addition, it has been raining Haiti for the past 3 days, which is very unusual. This is preventing us from training as we would like for these last few days before the World Cup.

The plan at this point is to fly the team to San Antonio, Texas for special training and last-minute fund-raising before they go to Argentina on Oct. 16th.

I will not be going with the team, but we all can support them from afar through prayer.

There has been much spiritual growth during the time of training for all of us involved, as we see God providing just-in-time each day for the team.

Thank you for your prayers and support!

Great weekend for Amputee Soccer Team

Team being filmed on Sat.

(Team singing "Amazing Grace" at Quisqueya Chapel

On Saturday, a film crew from one of Haiti's top TV shows for Haitians outside of Haiti filmed the Amputee soccer team. They did interviews with the captain of the team, the coach and one of the players who was trapped under rubble for 4 days after the earthquake. They also filmed them singing "Amazing Grace" and the Haitian National anthem.

Then on Sunday, 5 members of the group and myself sang "Amazing Grace" at Quisqueya Chapel and it went very well,

After church we sold sweets and drinks and put out a can for donations and people generously gave us $190 US in gifts and sales!

We are very excited about what God is doing, but have a ways to go to get the team to Argentina in about 2 weeks!

Creating the first ever Amputee Soccer field in Haiti

Whereas most of the teams participating in the Amputee World Cup have been training on nice regulation fields for months if not years, Haiti’s National Amputee soccer team has not yet practiced on a proper field. Amputee soccer is played with six one-legged players and a one-armed goalie with 2 legs.

Today it took us 4 hours to properly line the field so that we can begin to practice on it Saturday. In addition, it took me 2 hours last week to purchase the proper sized goals and these will also be put into place on Saturday morning.
We are also praying that a Haitian TV show will film us on Saturday giving us valuable publicity at a time the team most needs it.

On Saturday afternoon, Radio Caraibe will interview Pierre Bruny, the captain of the men’s Haitian National Team (11 a side), who is also the president of the Amputee Soccer Association.

Thanks for your continued prayer for the team!

Meeting the Former Haitian Ambassador to the USA

On Sunday, Sept. 19th, Carol and I went to a Haitian church and met the former Haitian Ambassador to the USA. He had just resigned his post on August 1st so that he could run for President of Haiti, but they threw out his candidacy based on a technicality.

He is a fascinating person. He grew up at the mission campus of a Baptist denomination in the South of Haiti. He then emigrated to the US as a teenager and became a journalist for the Wall Street Journal in 1965 where he worked for many years. He broadcast anti-government protests into Haiti from the US which earned him a death sentance from the Duvalier regime. Later he helped to found Radio Lumiere, the biggest evangelical radio station in Haiti. He was also the first Haitian president of the Baptist denomination that he grew up in and is an ordained pastor. Now at At 70 years old, he feels he wants to give back to the country that gave him birth.

This got me thinking about the fact that those of us who are Christians are Ambassadors for God, as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 5:20 . This is where "Ambassadors in Sport" got it's name from. As someone has said, our lives may be the only Bible people we meet will ever be exposed to.

Sometimes we will need to be brave and protest unjust governments and social structures like our new friend did when he protested against the Duvaliers. Sometimes we might have the opportunity to use our knowledge and experience to help many others and give back to the country that gave us birth, like the former ambassador.

I just pray that I will be a faithful ambassador for Christ, even twenty or thirty years from now. How about you?

Amputee Soccer Training Camp helps build the team

Thanks to the generosity of Mission of Hope, Haiti (www.mohhaiti.org,the amputee Soccer team enjoyed a week of concentrated training from Sept. 13 to the 17th.

They had two practices a day, ate 4 meals a day and had a great time of team-building in preparation for the World Cup that starts on Oct. 17th.

The Mission of Hope provided free lodging and daily transportation to the training field, in addition to serving two meals a day.

Ronald William, head coach of AIS Haiti stayed with the team day and night the whole week while the team's coach trained with the team 3 out of the 5 days. Ronald's fiance cooked the noon meal and also did laundry each day.

Rich drove out to be with the team on Thursday and helped them organize a exhibition match against a US mission team that was at the camp, as well as a local soccer team. About 300 people came to watch these games, and afterwards, Rich and Pastor Evens were able to talk to them about praying for the team, and also share the Good News of Christ with the spectators.

On Thursday Rich stayed the night with the team and showed a Power Point about Amputee Soccer and also an evangelistic film called "Le Combat".

The next morning the team had their final practice from 6 AM to 9 AM. After that was a trip to a local beach for 3 hours where the team had a great time playing in the water and adding one more memory to a great week.

Please continue to pray for the team as the still need to raise quite a bit of money before they will have enough to go to Argentina.

Amputee Soccer team arrives at camp

I spent the day taking the Haitian National Amputee Soccer team to the Mission of Hope campus outside of Port-au-Prince. They are graciously hosting the team and feeding them for free.

They are going to be there until Friday doing intensive training and also doing some Bible study in the evenings.

The woman who was to cook and wash clothes for the team had to back out at the last minute because her Mother got sick, but God provided another friend who could do the job at the last minute.

Preparing for a camp of 18 people is quite challenging in Haiti because you can't just go to the local shopping center and get what you need. This morning I spent 3 hours going across town just to get some cash so we could purchase a few items we needed.

Please pray that God uses the camp in the lives of the players!

I will return on Thursday and sleep overnight to take the team home on Friday.

Kimberly's Birthday

Kimberly’s first birthday cake and present



Birthdays are such a special celebration in the US that we forget that in many countries, there is just not enough to go around for a birthday celebration.



This has been the case for Kimberly since she was born. Her single Mom never had enough to throw her a birthday party. Kimberley was born on September 11th 2005, so yesterday Carol and I decided to throw her her first birthday party. She dressed up in her white dress and was dancing with excitement as Carol made the cake. Then we wrapped an African-American Barbie doll up for her.



Her Mom and her little brother and older sister and our family all sat down and sang “Happy Birthday” in French as she wiggled with delight. Then her eyes opened wide when we gave her the present. Francoise, her Mom was almost as happy as she was and laughed as Kimberly un-wrapped the doll.



These simple pleasures are what being a Christian community is all about!

A great week for the Amputee Soccer team!

God starts providing for the Amputee Soccer Team!

On Thursday, Sept 8th I took some of the leaders of the Haitian Association of Amputee Soccer to visit the Mission of Hope in Haiti. This organization has a large campus outside of Port-au-Prince and has offered to house and feed the team for 5 days of intensive training from Sept 13th to 17th. We were going out to see the campus for the first time and make final arrangements. Mission of Hope received us graciously and in addition to giving us free food and lodging for the camp, even is going to transport the team to a nice soccer field twice a day for training!

Friday, Sept. 9, was a big day for the Amputee soccer team.

It was the first day of fundraising in Haiti for the team, and we were anxious to see what God would do.

I decided to take Cesar, one of the goalies of the team with me to visit several businesses and present the opportunity. The first business we went to was a small store where I sometimes buy water. We explained the needs of the team to the owner and asked her for a donation of two jugs of water(worth about $3 US) and she gladly gave them. This was the first donation by a Haitian!

Next we went to a hardware store to buy the soccer goal posts for the team. The manager got so excited, he gave us a 25% discount worth about $20 US. Another customer in the store opened up his wallet and gave us about $6 US. In all, we visited about 8 businesses that day and were well-recived by most of them. Please pray as we follow up next week with them.

That afternoon the Amputee soccer team got all dressed up in Addidas uniforms donated by my High School Alma Mater, GA and played an exhibition match at Quisqueya Christian school (QCS). The students at QCS were excited to hear about the Amputee team from the captain of the Haitian National Soccer Team, Pierre Richard Bruny, who is the president of the Haitian Association of Amputee Soccer. The students then watched the game and were inspired by the effort both teams made and cheered like mad when the red team scored a goal.

After the game I handed out brochures about the team to many of the spectators, and later I got a phone call from someone who wanted to know how to contribute to the team.

The QCS student council had decided to raise funds for the team by selling hot dogs and soda and they raised $355! So during the first day of fund-raising in Haiti, the team received about $385 US in cash and discounts!


Saturday, September 11, 2010 started early when I received a phone call at 7 AM from a friend of mine who has a radio show. He called to tell me he wanted me to call him back so he could interview me on the radio via the phone about the amputee soccer team and the robbery. Even though I wasn’t quite awake, Carol said I did a good job communicating in Creole. In my closing words, I said that I forgave the gangsters who shot me, and that if they asked forgiveness of Christ, they would be forgiven by God as well and find power to change their lives.

Later that day there was a picnic at QCS, and Carol and I went over early to see if we could help. I noticed that one of the English-speaking churches in Port-au-Prince was having a men’s seminar at QCS as well. Since I knew the leaders of the conference, I asked them if I could make an announcement about the Amputee soccer team and they said yes! Not only did they say yes, but the pastor of the church wrote a personal check for $200 US, and made a pledge of $500 from his ministry!

After such an exciting morning, I enjoyed the picnic with Carol and Ricky, but also was able to make several other contacts for fund-raising.

After we ate, Ricky pulled together a boy’s soccer team to challenge the parents and teachers in a game. Unfortunately a player fell on my ankle while I was playing goalie and sprained it. It was the same leg that got shot, so right now I am back on crutches!

But I can’t wait to see what God is going to do next week as our quest to raise enough funds to sent the Amputee soccer team to Argentina continues!

Radio Interview reaches most of Haiti!

On Tuesday, Sept 7th we did a radio interview. It went really well and was heard by at least 100,000 people around Haiti via Radio Lumiere (www.radiolumiere.org), the largest Christian Radio Station in Haiti that covers 94% of the country. We were the invited guests on a radio program from 9 AM to 10 AM hosted by David Eliassant each Tuesday and Thursday. Myself, Ronald William and Cesar (one of the players on the Amputee soccer team) arrived just minutes before we were to go on the air and had very little time to prepare. David, the show host, started out with me and I described Ambassadors in Sport Haiti and our vision. Then he talked with Ronald a bit and then moved on to Cesar. Cesar did a great job explaining how he had lost both arms in an electric accident. David also asked him if he was a Christian and if he had ever felt like his life was over. Amazingly, Cesar said that, through Christ's strength, he never felt hopeless and now had a new vision for encouraging other amputees through sports.

I was also able to share how I had been shot, but that because Christ has forgiven me, I am able to forgive those who shot me. I encouraged those who make a living by stealing to allow Christ to change their lives and forgive them.

We had hoped that Bruny, the captain of the Haitian soccer team would be able to join us, as well as Pastor Evens of the Haitian Amputee Soccer Federation, but we had to leave without them in order to be on time for the interview. Praise God, they showed up at the break in the middle of the show and were able to share how they had gotten inlvolved with the Amputee soccer program.

I have attached a picture of Cesar at the microphone, telling his story.

We are having an exhibition match at 2 PM on Friday (Sept 10) at Quisqueya Christian School and hope that the media will come and cover this incredible story! Please pray that God will use all of this for His glory!

Please pray for my students

I've been praying every day for the safety of my students. One of my sixth graders was not there yesterday. I didn't put it together until now, but she has the same last name as a girl who was kid - napped last Friday night.

Also, I just realized that 3 girls out of 19 students in one of my 7th grade classes lost their fathers in the earthquake.

I thank God that the atmosphere has mostly been upbeat at school, but during prayer requests in homeroom, a young man asked for prayer for the anxiety that many of the students feel.

Pictures of the Haitian National Amputee Soccer Team

Here are some pictures of the Haitian National Amputee Soccer team.

The uniforms they are wearing were donated by Rich's High School, Germantown Academy.

These are the 15 men who have been selected to go to Argentina to represent Haiti at the Amputee World cup which starts on Oct. 14th.

Rich has been using his musical ability to teach this group how to sing the Haitian National Anthem, Amazing Grace and the US National Anthem, which they will perform when they visit the US before heading to Argentina.

Please pray for them as the funds for their trip have not come in yet.