A Surprise Visit!

A Surprise Visit!

One of the things I like about Haiti is that you never know who is going to show up at your door. The other day I had an appointment with Watneck, one of our long-time leaders. He told me he was coming with a few of his players who he was bringing into Port-au-Prince for tryouts with some first division professional teams.

Imagine my surprise when he shows up at my gate with 8 big, strapping (and hungry) players. At first I was a little overwhelmed by the numbers, However, my first thought was “What an opportunity this is to share Christ with these young men, and some life-experiences I have had that could help them as they launch their professional soccer career”!

So after I put on some water to boil for a big pot of spaghetti, I had them sit down and started to talk to them about how important it is to live a balanced life and not neglect our spiritual lives for the sake of soccer. I asked the 8 who had trusted in Christ, and only 3 out of the 8 said they had. So I had a chance to share the Gospel with the group using the testimonies of several Brazilian soccer players who are Christians. I also told them that you never know when you might die, and showed them my gun-shot wound. Then we talked about some of the trials they will face as professional athletes living among competitive players who will try anything to get ahead and win.

I decided to give each one of them a nice Leather-bound New Testament in Haitian Creole and as I handed out the first one, the young man named Jean Marie took the Bible and said “Merci”. Then I read Ephesians 2:8-9 and asked them what we have to do to receive God’s free gift of salvation. I reminded them of how Jean Marie had received the gift of the Bible. He took the Bible from me, and said “Thank you”. This is one very important thing to understand about receiving God’s free gifts. Of course I went on to talk about the importance of repentance, and asking forgiveness and many other concepts that are important to know in order to have a sincere, saving faith. But one essential is simply believing and receiving God’s good gifts.

Finally, I had them play a game. I handed them 5 Haitian bank notes and told them one of them was counterfeit. After they found the one that was false, I told them how police who are trained to detect counterfeit notes are not shown notes that are false, but only bank notes that genuine. Once they know what the genuine notes look like in detail, it is easy to spot false ones. In the same way I told them they need to study God’s Word so they know the truth so well, they will not easily be deceived by all the temptations a professional athlete might face.

Watneck then mentioned that his players had no equipment: no cleats, socks, shin guards, shorts, or jerseys. So I looked in my soccer depot to see what I could come up with. Imagine going to professional tryouts with no equipment! Of course professional athletes in Haiti are lucky to make enough to just support their immediate families, and the chances are pretty slim that many of these players will make it to the big leagues, but we want to do all we can to prepare them for life now, and after their careers are over.

I also helped him type up some letters he needed for a woman’s soccer tournament he wanted to do next week since March 8th is International Women’s Day.

I ended up spending most of the day with this group of young men who have so much potential, but who will struggle without a spiritual compass in their lives.

Update on Francois' brother

Today (Sunday, Feb 23, 2013)we invited Francois' brother (Tinor) to attend Calvary Chapel in Haiti with us. He came along with Francois' children because Francois had to work Sunday morning.

After church, we invited them all to our house for lunch, and while the children played, I had a Bible study with Tinor. He really soaked up the Word and seemed to understand many spiritual principles and doctrines.

Please continue to pray for his spiritual growth, and that he will be able to find a job.

Valentines banquet at Quisqueya Chapel

Carol and I were responsible for the decorations and set up of a couples banquet on Valentines day. It turned out to be a lot more work than we expected, and I (Rich) had a bad cold that day, but Carol had off from school because of "Carnaval", and so we made it through and actually looked pretty good by the time this picture was taken!



About 30 couples came and enjoyed music by a lovely soprano and accompanist, a Filet Mignon dinner, and flower-shaped cake for dessert! Child care was provided, so Mom and Dad could relax and enjoy a romantic night together!

A Surprising Discovery!

While in the US in January, my daughter Joy and I pulled out a box of old family pictures and started going through them. I found buried treasure when I came upon a portrait and letter from my Grandfather Panfil’s brother, John B. Panfil.

My Grandfather on my Mother’s side, was named Henry Panfil. He and his brother, John and sister, Stephanie E. (called by her middle name - Elsie), emigrated from Poland as children. Henry was evidently quite bright and one of his school teachers took a shine to him and sponsored his education all the way through law school at the University of Pennsylvania. (Later my Mother became one of the first (and youngest) women to graduate from U of PA’s law school as well, finishing in 1956 at the age of only 24)

As a Catholic Priest, John could never marry, but his sister never married either and became his housekeeper. So when his superiors asked him to go to Mosul, Iraq as a missionary around 1925, they went together.
The letter we found is date May 25, 1926. Here is what it said:

Dear Miss Stott,
We received your letter and are glad of hearing that you are in good health and that Henry has passed his examinations (His Bar exams to become a lawyer).

After our long voyage we finally arrived to Mosul and intend to stay here for a while. Mosul is not a pleasant place to live in. A dirty, dusty oriental city. Plenty of water, the river Tigris flows near the city but its waters are contaminated and muddy. Sand storms, sand flies and flies make your life miserable in Mosul.

Elsie wants to go back – she is very lonesome. Anyhow we intend to go to Persia this summer; it is cooler there.

I am working presently among the Assyrians; their church is the eldest one in Christendom. They have lost their country during the war and were massacred by the Turks and Kurds and are in need of the American help in order to exist. We are trying to revive their old church, their customs and their language.

We visited the other day “Sheiloh Ady” (Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir), temple of the Yazidies (Yazidi), worshippers of the devil! They represent him as a peacock and adore him in secret. God is good, they say we should not fear him; being good he cannot do any wrong to us - but the Devil has power over the world, we are afraid of him, we must respect him and beg him not to molest us. Some begin(believe) in it, anyhow!? And really they fear the devil. They never pronounce his name, “Shaitian” , (Shaytan(Satan)) – and a Christian who would dare to pronounce it is in their presence, is in danger of being killed! Even the words having the letters “Shait” are eliminated from their language! Poor people, detested, persecuted, exterminated by the Muslims and Christians alike, but still attached to their belief!

I am glad that Henry has a place as a lawyer; he has now and open road for success and I think he will succeed. How are the things in Philadelphia? How is the exposition? Write us all about Philadephia and send us occasionally, if you can, some Sunday paper – we have no literature here – and the news are only from the Arabic papers. I am preaching in Syriac already – it is a nice language – the language spoken by our Lord.

Greetings and regards to all our friends,

Sincerely yours,
John B. Panfil

Several things strike me about this letter:

1) My Grand Uncle was a missionary almost 90 years ago to a country the US the invaded after 9/11 and still occupies.

2) He left his comfortable life in Philadelphia and went to “A dirty, dusty oriental city” to comfort the Assyrian Church who was suffering, much like we have ended up leaving Philadelphia to serve the Haitian church and people, many who are still suffering the effects of the earthquake and grinding poverty.

3) His sister went with him to a male-dominated oriental culture. No wonder she was lonely!

4) The false religion he describes is basically the same as Haitian Voodoo: In Creole the name for “God” is “Bondye”, or “Good God”. God is good, and can’t harm us, so he can be ignored. Satan and his “loa” or demons are the ones you have to worry about!

5) He mentions the genocide of the Assyrians in which 750,000 people were forcibly removed from their homeland near Turkey to other surrounding countries, but most died during this “removal”. This genocide started on April 24, 1915. It included the slaughter of 1, 750,000 Aremnians, Among those who died were the grandparents of my Armenian step-Father, William Hadigian. His Father saw his whole family killed by the Turks and then as a teenager he was conscripted into the French Foreign Legion for a time before escaping and making his way to the US on a boat.

6) The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) reached a consensus that "the Ottoman campaign against Christian minorities of the Empire between 1914 and 1923 constituted a genocide against Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontian and Anatolian Greeks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyrian_Genocide


Because John B. Panfil’s story was so fascinating, I started to look up his name on the internet, and what did I find! His name is associated with 2 photos on the internet. One of his house, and another of a young man in a kayak-like boat on the Tigris river.
In addition, I found him and his sister’s names in the 1920 and 1940 census, as well as the passenger list of several passenger liners. In addition, I found his name in several newspapers from Syracuse, NY where he spent the rest of his life after returning from Iraq (possibly in 1934).









As Hebrews 12: 1-3 says: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame,and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

Rev. John B. Panfil and his sister Elsie, are two of the witnesses that surround us here in Haiti, and set a great example for us to follow!

So far so good...

Thanks for praying for our friend's brother. So far he really seems to be serious. He's staying away from the Carnaval partying and this morning he met with a Haitian man who is a good discipler and also with Richard. He has been to school when he was younger at least a bit, but he says he can't really read. He has knowledge of some Christian concepts, but we don't know how much. Please keep praying for him and for his former girlfriend.

Mardi Gras

It's been a quiet Carnaval Week so far in Lake Wobe Port-au-Prince. The government decided that the main Carnaval (Mardi Gras) celebrations this year should be in Cape Haitien in the north. I think this is part of the decentralization of the country which is a good thing. We like it.

It's interesting to see how a former performer in Carnaval/Mardi Gras governs the celebrations now that he is President of the country. He used to use his platform to criticize former government leaders, but this year when other performers prepared impersonators to mimic "Tet Kale" (could I translate that Old Baldy??? -it's the friendly nickname that he goes by ever since his campaign) They did have plans to criticize him for campaign promises that he made and in their minds has not fulfilled. But he put the kabash on that--those performers' floats were not allowed in the big parade in Cape Haitian.

Of course, he himself, did sing on a float in the parade. I already saw a video of it online. But instead of being surrounded by saxophone & guitar players, he was surrounded by body guards with big guns. (This made Richard think of a former president of ours who used to pick up a saxophone to entertain us once in a while.)

Rumor has it that his son who is starting out as a Jazz performer was told not to behave in certain ways that some think are just like what the President did when he was "Sweet Mickey." They say the son did not comply and was sent away to another country, so we will not be seeing him perform this Carnaval.

OK Enough about rumors and politics--I promise, you won't be seeing any more of that on this blog for a long time.

More on ministry will be forthcoming.
Signing off from home where I sit because I get off from school for Mardi Gras,
Carol

"I need a new way"

Please pray for the brother of a friend who said "Mwen bezwen yon lot fason" (I need a new way) He threw away his cigarette and dumped out his "kleren" (a type of whiskey) and said he wanted to accept Jesus and have good friends. That was Friday night. He said he wanted to go to church, so his sister told him to cut his hair. But he said he was born with his hair, so he'd keep as it was, but he said he wouldn't wear his pants down low. He asked his sister to iron a shirt and pants for him to wear to church. When he put them on and looked at himself, he had doubts. He thought he didn't look good enough, but his sister encouraged him to go anyway. He was going to go to the Calvary Chapel here, but he was ready early and didn't want to wait until 8:00 when their first service starts, so he went to another church. Our friend said that he stayed home today instead of partying for Carnaval. We're excited about this. We told her that it might be good for him to come and talk to Richard and to try to have him get together with one of the leaders at Calvary Chapel.

Please be praying for him.
thanks,
Carol

Small miracles add up to big blessings!

Every day God does small miracles in our lives, but we have to be watching for them to appreciate how special they are.

James 1:17 (NIV) says: "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."

Here are some of God's perfect gifts he gave me on my visit to the US:

1) I forgot my soccer shoes, but the host family I was staying with in Ohio "happened" to have a pair of almost-new Adidas flats that were just my size! So I was able to play three times while in Ohio!

2) I preached at a church one Sunday and mentioned an amount of money that I needed for a particular project. A woman came up to me after church and said a friend of hers had given her that exact amount of money to give to a charity and so she wrote me a check for the exact amount I needed!

3) My daughter Joy invited me to attend a Philadelphia Orchestra concert featuring Beethoven's 5th symphony at the beautiful Kimmel Center in down-town Philadelphia. I had never been to the Kimmel center so this was a special treat.

I was running late so Joy called me and told me they shut the doors at 7 PM and don't let people in after that. I parked at the first parking garage I saw, which happened to have free "valet" parking. I ran through the streets of Philadelphia like a madman and burst through the door of the Kimmel center where I practically ran over my lovely daughter and her friend who were waiting for me. We hurried up the three flights of stairs and got to the row of seats on my ticket. Three people got up when I showed them my ticket. Joy's friend had a student ticket with no seat number, but I had an adult ticket and Joy also had just purchased a ticket at the box-office at the last minute. When we looked at Joy's ticket, it turned out to me right next to mine, with a vacant seat for her friend on the other side!!! So we got to sit together.

Afterwards, none of us had eaten dinner, but one of the local hotels was offering free "tapas" after the concert. So we went their afterwards and got free food!

4) I saw a friend who I hadn't seen in a long time pop up on Skype. Last time I had talked to him he was doing a graduate degree in Arkansas. I start talking to him and it turns out that he and his wife now live in Philadelphia where she is doing post-graduate work in Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. I studied Anthropology at the U of PA back from 1977-1981! He also told me that he was helping people save money on their utility bills, which was the business I had worked in before heading to Haiti in 1998. So I felt I had to go and visit them. It turned out they lived only minutes away from the Kimmel center, so I was able to stay overnight at their house after the Orchestra concert! The next morning I was able to help them out by watching their 5 month old son for a while so they could run an errand. I even remembered how to change a diaper!