Discipleship Group applies what they are learning

In an effort to prepare trained leaders to spread the Gospel in Haiti, Rich has been meeting with a group of about 16 young men. We have looked at the 10 commandments in a very practical way in an effort to apply God's Word to our lives. Yesterday we looked at the last one: Do not covet.

In our discussion we talked about how coveting is usually the thought pattern we fall into before we steal. Often when we covet, we break some of the other 10 commandments in an effort to get what we want. For example, David broke many commandments in his effort to get Bathsheba as his wife. Other examples we looked at where Achan in Joshua 7 and Ahab's murder of Naboth to get his vineyard (1 Kings 21).

But the best part of the study was when I asked how the participants had applied what they had learned to their lives. One who is married said he had asked forgiveness from his wife for his sins against her and had started to communicate better with her and resolve some long-standing conflicts.

Another said that after we had done a session on personal finances, he realized he had been wasting money on little things, and that this was keeping him from reaching his true financial objectives. His brother said that he was using the envelope system he had learned from our study to manage his finances. His other brother said he had discovered he had a problem with envy at school when his classmates would look better than him. He has since committed this to the Lord and asked forgiveness.

I have learned that most of the times I break the 10 commandments is because I'm not really trusting God and believing that he has my best interest in mind. But even in the midst of extreme suffering, he is still present and working out his ultimate will. That's why I have memorized this promise below:

1 Peter 5:10
New International Version (NIV)
10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

Business Plan Training Program produces results!

From November 29 to Dec. 15, 2011 YABT Haiti partnered with Fondation Espoir (FE) to hold a "training of trainers" in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. There were two classes: One that met 3 times a week for 4 hours for 3 weeks and another that met for 8 hours on Saturday and 4 hours on Sunday for three weeks (total 36 hours). Of the class that met during the week, 26 graduated and got a certificate. In the weekend class, 30 participants graduated and got certificates (Total 56).

Of these 56 , 52 entered an on-line business plan competition sponsored by the Clinton/Bush Foundation. So far four have been selected to participate in the second phase of the competition which includes further training in how to start a business!



Objectives:

• The main objective of this workshop was to FE Train trainers to be able to replicate the training in FE’s five training centers as mentioned above. In order to achieve this objective we encouraged each participant to do the following:

1) Complete the on-line application for MEMAHaiti.org, a business plan competition sponsored by the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund and TechnoServe. The application process closed on Dec. 18th and on Jan. 5th they will announce those who qualify for the next step in the competition. Out of the 56 who got certificates, 52 applied to MEMAHaiti, and four have made it to the next second level.
2) Complete an on-line application to the TICAMERICAS.net competition. So far a total of 5 participants have applied to this competition. However, more may apply since the deadline has been extended to January 10, 2012.
3) Prepare a written Business plan that could be submitted to potential investors and banks so that financing can be obtained.
4) Start the business if possible on a small scale and then build on their success.
5) Go on and train others in the principles they learned in the workshop.

Please pray as we follow up with each participant, and help those who made it to the second level to possibly win the competition!