Haitian Amputee Soccer team heads to their second World Cup in Mexico!

The Haitian Amputee Soccer team is currently in the US training to participate in the Bi-annual Amputee World Cup.

They will be in Mexico this Friday, November 28th. Their first game will be against Germany on Nov. 30th. Then they will play Kenya and Russia. They will fly back to Dallas on December 9th and then get back to Haiti on December 15th.

After they arrive back in Haiti, they plan to tour in the provinces with some other players and finish with an exhibition match in Port-au-Prince January 12 which will be the 5th anniversary of the earthquake.

However, without the generous contribution of time by one of our Ambassadors Football alumni, Elysee, they would not have made it out of Haiti. Elysee spent 2 days solid working on the internet I the Ambassadors Football Haiti office.to complete all the Visa applications that had to be done. He also took pictures of all the players and meticulously sized them to meet the Visa requirements. His hard work was rewarded by all of the players and coaches getting 5 year visas!

Thank you Elysee!

There are many Christians on the Amputee team, and they still will sing Christian favorites like Amazing Grace whenever they get the opportunity. This tradition started when I was preparing them for their first World Cup in Argentina. I told them that just like Soccer is an international sport, Music is an international art form and rehearsed with them so they could sing at teams dinners and other public occasions. This tradition has endeared the team to many!

A Key AFH Leader's meeting

On Nov. 15 we held a meeting with most of Ambassadors Football Haiti key leaders from around Haiti to introduce them to AFH’s board members. Currently, AFH has four Pastors as board members: Pastor Doucet Desronvil, President of the Wesleyan Church in Haiti; Pastor Yves Chaperont, Assistant Pastor of Calvary Chapel, Port-au-Prince; Pastor Marc Coquillon, of Teen Challenge, Haiti; and Pastor Fanier Justima of the UEBH.

There were many challenging conversations that day, but the one that the hardest, yet easiest, to answer was “Where do we find the money to finance this ministry?”

I said: “This is a faith ministry and all of our finances come from the hand of God. We all need to pray and ask God for his provision.”

Later in the meeting Pastor Doucet told our leaders the story of how Christian Service Brigade started in Haiti. The founder of CSB, Pastor Joe Coughlin was invited by a group of Haitian leaders to come and visit Haiti from June 6-10, 1966. The response to the idea of starting CSB in Haiti was very positive.

Naturally one of the delegates asked the question: “Where do we find the money to finance this ministry?”

Here is how Joe Coughlin responded according to the minutes of this historic meeting:
“Since this is not my organization, though I am interested in it, and though I have my opinions, I would prefer that you first seek answers from among yourselves.” After many suggestions Joe answered thus: “We don’t search for money by our own efforts, but we ask God for this. We must be very practical when it comes to money. We trust God for our spiritual needs, cannot we also trust God for our material needs? If you look to man you will surely be disappointed but if you look to God you will never be disappointed?”

Today “Brigade Chretienne d’Haiti” is a totally Haitian ministry that is in hundreds of churches all around Haiti and is found in almost every evangelical denomination. All without any direct help from CSB in the US or any other country. God has blessed this movement in Haiti and it has grown through the prayers and gifts of Haitians as they saw how this movement could disciple and help their young men and women grow spiritually.

I believe God wants to do the same thing with Ambassadors Football Haiti as the church in Haiti discovers the value of sports ministry to raise up and train the youth of Haiti physically and spiritually.

That is one reason I believe He gave me the idea of starting the “Give a kid a kid in Haiti” program. This program not only helps our players and leaders financially, but also helps fund our local teams in Christian schools.

Won’t you join your Haitian brothers and sisters in prayer as they ask for God’s provision for this ministry to expand and be fruitful just as many Haitian pastors joined together to birth the Brigade movement in Haiti almost 50 years ago?

The story of Franso

Rich and Franso speak at a goat training for AFH leaders


When Franso entered the Give A Kid A Kid program through the ministry of Dr. Kelly Crowdis, a veterinarian serving with Christian Veterinary Mission he was 16 and ranked last in his fourth grade class because his mom didn’t have enough money to send him to school every year. He lives with his mom who has a small garden from which she sells produce, his little brother and twin sisters. His parents were never married and after the twins were born his father decide to move on. His father still lives in the community but with another woman and rarely speaks and never supports his first family. Franso was a young man headed down the wrong road hanging out with gangs looking for acceptance.

The Give A Kid A Kid program offered Franso what he needed: someone who cared, structure, responsibility and the good news of the gospel. After three months of classes Franso failed the exam children must pass to receive a pregnant female goat. He sat and watched the other children receive theirs and saw their joy and the chance they had to change their lives for the better. That day he made some decisions about his life and took a month long revision class and received a goat after passing the exam. The moment he picked up the rope and led his goat home his life changed. He had a purpose, responsibility and hope for the future. During the next 6 months of classes he not only learned how to properly care for his goat but he learned about God being our good shepherd the same was he was being a good shepherd to his goat and he accepted the life saving message of the gospel and let Jesus into his heart. His goat had twins: he kept one and gave one to the church. His grades improved and he finished the year number one in his class. He is now mentoring several young boys and they are hanging out with him instead of with the local gang members where he used to hang out. He brings them to church and is showing them Christ through his life.

Franso passed the test to enter high school (7th grade) as number one in his class. He donates the offspring of one of his female goats to the church for missions outreach, he sings in the church choir, he is working to grow food for his goats and others in the forage garden. With the money from selling the offspring from his now 4 female goats and what he earns in the garden he has purchased a cow which now has a calf.

God used one small goat to draw him to himself and change his life! Please pray for his unsaved family!




Dr. Kelly Crowdis loves to teach!

Building for the Future

This weekend I purchased the supplies pictured above to build a goat pen for the goats given back to the program. It will be managed by one of the veterinary agents trained by Dr. Kelly and consist of a fenced in area with part grass and part cement floor covered by a shelter. This will keep the goats dry when it rains.

This pen will allow us to hold the goats given back to the program until we have enough to distribute to another team, or sell the male goats in order to buy female goats.

This week we are also preparing for a leader's conference to be held in Gonaives on Saturday, Nov. 15th. Our Haitian board of directors will meet some of our regional leaders for the first time, and we will all plan together for 2015.

So thanks for your prayers as we build our goat pen, and make plans for 2015!

Trip to Verrettes to talk about the Goat Program

On November 3rd we will go to Verrettes to talk about the goat program.

Since we lost 7 goats to pneumonia a few weeks ago, we need to take stock how many goats we have left and when they will be healthy enough to distribute to another team.

We also need to make some shelters for the goats since it has been raining a lot and we don't want more goats to get sick!

Another exciting thing is that we now have ear tags with the Ambassadors Football logo on them. Each of our goats is now going to be tagged with a unique number!

Stories and pictures from our trip South

This is Sister Petit with one of her grandchildren.



Equipment distribution to schools in Port Salut.

Thanks for your prayers!

Trip to the South of Haiti - Port Salut, Jacmel and Leogane

10-22-14


Please pray for our Trip to Leogane, Port Salut and Jacmel between Oct. 22 and 25th.

Today Lucasse, Rochenel and I left for a trip to visit three towns where we have teams in the south of Haiti. We left the house at 9 AM and hit a big traffic jam in Carre four because the locals were burning tires to protest trash being dumped in their neighborhood. We were in the traffic jam from 10 AM until 11:30 AM, but finally made it to Leogane around noon.
I liken driving to Haiti to a video game where you never know what’s going to pop out of nowhere: Motorcycles, goats, chickens, pedestrians, etc. Thank God Lucasse is a good driver!

We first went to visit Pastor Guillaume in Leogane. Pastor Guillaume is the head of the regional committee for Leogane which oversees the AFH teams in four schools. The object of this trip is to prepare each town we visit to play a regional Evangelistic Futsal tournament. The Regional winners will then be eligible to participate in the National Futsal tournament.

There were 3 members of the regional committee at this meeting: Julia and Guidony . Julia’s huband and daughter survived by crawling under a bed when their house collapsed and had to be extracted from the rubble by using a car jack to lift up the cement roof so they could crawl out. Now the daughter Is 5 years old and in kindergarten.

After lending Guidony a digital camera so he could take pictures of the players for their tournament badge, we started on the second leg of our trip to Port Salut.

We made good progress until we got a flat tire. It was a very hot day, and our tires got extra hot because of the heavy load of books we were carrying. So the tube inside one of our back tires exploded like a popped balloon and we knew right away what the problem was. However, the heavy load tore the tire as soon as it popped and it could not be repaired. Thankfully we had a good spare tire that allowed us to get back on our way after about 30 minutes.

So because of these two delays, we ended up getting to Port Salut around 5:30 PM which was 1 ½ hours later than we told them.
However, when we got there we found 11 leaders waiting for us. What was most amazing is that one of them was a 65 year old school teacher who was more excited than anyone else about AFH’s program because if would help the church evangelize her neighborhood. She also told us that after the training that Lucasse and Rochenel did last May, they had started to work with the children and 3 came to Christ at the first practice!

The other exciting thing was the “Met” Moran was at the meeting. “Met” means “”Master” or “teacher” in Creole. It turns out that Met Moran is in charge of most of the sports activities in Port Salut. He is the representative for both the Haitian government Ministry of Youth and Sport, but also for the Haitian Soccer Federation – and best of all, he is a committed Christian! Not only that, but he says he has access to a basketball court that is perfect for Futsal, and it is available this fall because they are not doing a basketball tournament at that time!

The Christian author Blackaby reminds us to look for where God is already at work and join Him. It certainly looks like God is already at work in Port Salut, and we want to join Him!

During the meeting some little boys and girls were kicking a deflated Basketball around and laughing and giggling as they played “keep away” from one another. It was just another reminder of the power of soccer to attract children into AFH’s programs.

So thanks for your prayers as we join with God in what he is doing in Port Salut, Jacmel and Leogane.!

Uh-oh -- Pneumonia among the goats! Please pray for the goats

Please pray with us about the goat project. 7 goats have died recently of pneumonia. 22 goats have been exposed to it because these are the goats that were given back to the ministry.

This should be a time of rejoicing because those who have benefited have been "passing it forward." But we are concerned that we may lose more.

We do praise the Lord for the veterinary agents trained by Dr. Kelly who are able to treat the goats and may be able to save them.

Thanks for your prayers.

Give a Kid a Kid in Haiti ready to give more teams goats!

The GKK leaders met on Sept. 23 in Le Forge at the administrator Chantele's house. As you can see from the picture, her children and friends also wanted to be in the picture.

In all, 7 leaders of AFH who are involved in the GKK project met to go over the results of the program to date.

The good news is that this summer our players and leaders have given 22 goats back to the program, and this is enough to give at least one other team goats!

The program has faced some challenges as two of our goats were stolen and killed for their meat, and one of our breeding bucks was hit by a car and died.

However, the program is working very well over all, and lots of baby goats are expected to be born in the next few months!

Leaders shown in the picture above are:

1) Chantale, GKK project Administrator
2) Nesly Gustave, President of the Gonaives Regional Committee
3) Alner, a veterinary agent
4) Darwens, a veterinary agent
5) Lucasse Henrilus, AFH staff
6) Rochenel Pierre, AFH staff
7) Rich Mears, Director, AF Haiti

Center of Hope Surveying Team visits Haiti

The field as it is now


Rich got back to Haiti on Tuesday, Sept. 16th and 3 days later received a team of 4 from Ambassadors Football, Int'l that consisted of Jon Ortlip, the International Director of AF, John Boggs, who is over the Center of Hope ministry worldwide, John, a specialist in artificial turf fields and and Richard, a surveyor.

The team spent from the 19th to the 22nd of September surveying and laying out the field and placing the out-buildings like bathrooms, locker rooms and a waiting area for parents when picking up their children.

The team also found out what building materials are available in Haiti so that a minimum of material needs to be imported.

On October 5th, Quisqueya Chapel will be presented with the proposed layout of the Center of Hope and have a chance to ask any questions they may have.

Then on Oct. 12th, the final vote will be taken and hopefully the project will be approved!


If it is approved, then planning for the construction would begin immediately!

Please pray for God's will for this exciting project!

John William's (1796-1839) message for today!

When you love soccer, you love to read about the lives of the stars of the game: Pele, Maradonna, Messi, Ronaldo, etc. Some led commendable lives after soccer, some did not.

Because I am a missionary, I love to read about former missionaries whom God has used to spread his love throughout the world.
One Biography I read this summer was the life of John Williams (1796-1839) sent out by the London Missionary Society. Through his vision and training of “faithful men who could teach others” he was able to spread the Gospel to many islands in Polonesia including many of the Cook, Somoa and Society islands.

After spending 18 years with his family in Polonesia, he returned to England in 1838 for 4 years to recruit new missionaries and raise funds for a ship to reach other islands.

Before he left to return to his beloved islands where he was martyred in 1839 he said this:
“I feel, still, that the work of Christian missions is the greatest, noblest, and sublimest to which the energies of the human mind can be devoted. I think, Christian friends, that no labor we can bestow no sacrifice that we can make, no journeys that we can undertake, are too great to be undertaken for the glorious purpose of illuminating the dark world with the light of the glorious gospel.”

(John Williams, Messenger of peace by Janet and Geoff Benge p. 181 (YWAM publishing)

And what better tool than the “beautiful game” to use to light the dark places with God’s love and light!

“God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them!” (Hebrews 6:10)

Thank you for making our ministry to children in Haiti possible!

Praises and prayers from a busy summer!

Dear Praying friends,

Thanks once again for praying for Carol and I:

Praises:

1) Carol's Mom moved into a lovely Christian care facility two days before Carol had to return to start school in Haiti! This was a huge answer to prayer as Carol searched and searched for a good place for her Mother.

2) Rich got to do soccer ministry at two summer camps: The Ambassadors Football camp at Church of the Savior and also a VBS camp at Davisville Church.

2 Photos of Ambassadors Football camp at Church of the Savior:

2 Photos of camp at Davisville:

3) Rich has visited a different church practically every Sunday, and traveled 680 miles alone to visit one near Boston.

The Fryes, my hosts at Heritage Bible Church in Princeton, MA

4) Got a shipment of 8 barrels of soccer equipment off to Haition August 11th.!

5) Rich got to preach to his family at the church his grandmother attended for almost 50 years. Please pray for God to touch hearts through His word!

6) Some large gifts for the goat program have come in!

Prayers:

1) Rich is still hurting from the effects of the Chikungunya Fever and is suffering from painful joints and arthritic-like pain, especially in the AM. Thankfully, Carol seems to be over it completely!

2) Rich is trying to work with his parents to help improve their living situation. His Mom show the early stages of dementia and has been getting worse over the summer. Pray especially on August 13, 14 and 15 as other family members will be there to help convince Rich’s parents of the need for a change.

3) Surveyor Needed! We are in need of a surveyor who can survey the property of Quisqueya Chapel at a reasonable price, or one from the US who would come down and donate their time in exchange for travel, room and board costs.

4) AFH is raising funds for the first ever U-15 National Futsal Tournament. We want to kick off the tournament with a leadership training camp in October. Please pray for God to supply!

5) Please pray for Chantalle as she administrates the goat program.

6) Pray for safe travel for Rich as he returns to Haiti on Sept. 2nd.

Thanks so much for praying!

Ambassadors Football Camp in PA

The week of July 14 to 18 I had the privilege of being one of 13 soccer coaches at the Ambassadors Football camp at Church of the Savior in Wayne, PA.

The camp was lead by John Boggs, who grew up in Haiti and is a really great camp director and story-teller. Our team of coaches consisted of three Brazilians, two from Northern Ireland, one from England, two from the Netherlands a Mexican, a Scottish young man and one from the Czech Republic.

The remarkable thing was how well we all worked together in a spirit of Christian unity even though we were from very different cultures.

I coached a team of eight 7 & 8 year olds: 6 boys and two girls. In my group were two players of Haitian decent! I was able to help assure two players of their salvation and share the Gospel with one who had not yet made a decision for Christ. So please pray for "J" as he thinks about the decision only he can make to trust in Christ.

Each day we spent time on the soccer field teaching soccer skills and playing games.

Then after lunch we would have a Bible study time and assembly time where we had some fun with our players, but also shared important Bible truths. The Bible character we looked at this year was Peter,and how he went from a coward to a pillar of the church after his faith was strengthened by the Master!

One of the highlights of the week happened after the camp was done for the day. We visited a Christian soccer outreach in Upper Darby which is a very diverse town near Philadelphia. It is estimated that in that township over 100 languages are spoken!

While there while the others coached soccer, I got to share the Gospel with several younger teams and later I shared how I survived the Earthquake and a gunshot wound in Haiti with older players. After I told how I survived being shot the older group actually burst into spontaneous applause! This was the first time this had ever happened to me, even though I have told the story hundreds of times. It touched my heart!

There also happened to be a team of Haitian adults practicing at the park and I was able to talk to them and give them some Gospel tracks. Later we played a short game with them.

During the camp we challenged the players to bring in soccer balls for kids in Haiti and they responded by bringing in over 35 balls!

Please pray for me the week of July 28 - August 1 as I lead the soccer portion of a VBS at another of our supporting churches!

God's ways are not our ways

Well, some of the things I hoped to see this summer are not going to happen.

I had hoped that two of my Haitian leaders would be able to attend a 6 week training session in the Ohio starting on June 30th, but their US visas were not approved.

I was also hoping that Quisqueya Chapel's eligible voters would approve the proposal for the Center of Hope and that construction would begin this summer. However, on June 8th at the congregational meeting, the vote was to continue to evaluate the proposal and postpone the final vote until September.

I read a quote this morning that helped me overcome my disappointment:

"I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: "Give me light that I might tread safely into the unknown." And he replied: "Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way."

I have hopes and dreams about what I would like to see God do in our ministry this next year, but of course I can't make these things happen, and so I need to step into the darkness and walk by faith, holding onto God's hand all the while.

"...And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Mt, 28:20

Presenting the Center of Hope Partnership proposal to Quisqueya Chapel

Today,March 18, 2014 - Important Meeting about a Sports Ministry Center with a Turf Field

Sunday May 18th was flag day in Haiti, but for me it was a “banner day” because after church I presented the idea of Ambassadors Football building a “Center of Hope”on the church property to the eligible voters who, according to the constitution, have the right to accept or deny the project. Below is a summary of the project:

Overview of Ambassadors Football Center of Hope:

On January 29, 2014 Jonathan Ortlip, the Director of Ambassadors Football (AF)flew to Haiti to present representatives of the Board of Quisqueya Chapel (QC) with a proposal to build a “Center of Hope” (COH) sports ministry facility on the property of Quisqueya Chapel.

What is a “Center of Hope” Sports Ministry Facility?

In essence, it is a sports facility centered around an artificial turf soccer field that will attract children and adults who love soccer to get involved in the various ministries that will take place at the COH. These ministries include:
- summer soccer camps in English
- soccer leagues for children and adults
- A soccer school in English that focuses on developing skills through Futsal.
- Concerts and other outreaches, most of which will be conducted in English.

How will the “Center of Hope” Sports Ministry Facility be paid for?

Ambassadors Football will raise the funds to build the COH and will also operate the facility as a ministry / business with the goal of producing some profit to help fund the nation-wide work of Ambassadors Football Haiti. Income will be produced by renting the field in the evenings for soccer leagues and also through running a soccer school which focuses on Futsal. Quisqueya Chapel will receive an on-going percentage of whatever profit is produced, and will also receive a small monthly rent.
It our hope and prayer that as we partner together with Quisqueya Chapel in this ministry that we will be able to reach many English-speaking parents as we minister to their children. This will in turn increase the membership at Quisqueya Chapel and create a spirit of both spiritual and financial revival at through strategically located sports ministry center.

Yes!

On May 18th Quisqueya Chapel’s eligible voters agreed to continue with the process and take a final vote to accept the partnership on June 8th. So please keep praying!

We are hoping that the field will be ready next time Ricky and his friends get back to visit the church!

A Week I will never forget!

Dear Praying friends,

This is turning out to be a week I will never forget - A week of great sorrow because of the loss of my friend, George Knoop, but also a week or endurance, perseverance and blessing.

Yesterday I got up at 5 AM to get ready to travel to Gonaives to meet with our leaders who were trained last year how to teach our players how to raise goats. As we started out, I noticed that our trusty Toyota 4-cab pickup truck’s manual transmission seemed to be slipping, especially on hills (which Port-au-Prince has many of!). Sure enough, soon I smelled the awful smell of rubber burning- our clutch was starting to go! We already had the car packed, and there were 6 of us going on the journey, so I called my mechanic and discussed the situation and decided we would limp along pretty slowly. So a trip that normally would take 2 hours ended up taking about 3. But thanks to a lot of prayer, we made it and were very happy to see about 40 of our leaders there waiting for us.

The meeting and administration part went well. We had couple from France who taught our leaders how to grow Moringa, http://www.moringanews.org, a type of tree whose leaves are very good food for both humans and animals. I felt a little like “Johnny Appleseed” as we handed out seeds to our leaders afterwards!

Then we broke into small groups to talk about the good and the bad of the program. Here are some responses to one of the question we asked: Do you have a story of how God is working through the “Give a kid a kid” program?
“Since God is a shepherd, He also calls us to be shepherds. Depending on how we raise our goats, God can see if we are good shepherds or bad shepherds.”

“Because of this idea our players and learn more about God. God is serving with (GKK) to help our players understand how to raise goats. More people are understanding how this can help with their finances, and more players are getting saved.”

“My goats gave birth to two baby goats, but that same day, the babies both fell into an open latrine. I didn’t know what to do, but a friend came along and got a rope and was able to save the goats! I was surprised because people around here just don’t do things like that! So I cleaned them up with soap and now they have started to grow! I thank God for that!” Pastor Jonas

Many told us how much their players love their goats, and try hard to care for them, some under difficult conditions, like when it does not rain for a week or two.

After this, all 43 leaders had to get in line and have their administrative paperwork checked and updated to make sure everything was in order: Had their goat had babies? Did their goats or babies die? This really helped us know what was happening and we will give you an update after we analyze the data collected. After that they were each provided with a meal of rice and beans and chicken.



Finally, we had a question and answer period. All of our leaders in the soccer program are volunteers which is a very difficult when most of them receive very low pay as teachers where we have teams. Some of them asked if we could offer them a small monthly stipend to help them with their needs. I responded that this was the reason we launched the GKK project, hoping that the offspring of their initial goats would help them be able to respond to these needs in the future. Like any good, stable way of making money, raising a herd of goats takes time, but in the long-term will be a good thing (Think of how rich Jacob became after only 14 years of raising Laban’s goats).

One of the things that made the trip so pleasant was that I had four young Haitian men who are doing internships with me this summer to help. We worked as a team and it showed. The other pleasant surprise was how well our new administrator of the GKK, Chantale, presented the role in GKK and how firmly, yet kindly, she dealt with our leaders.
So, in general, as we approach the one-year anniversary of the start of GKK, we are encouraged and are doing all we can to help our leaders and players become good shepherds, both of the goats and of our players!



(PS: the meeting ended at 3 PM and we limped our way back to PAP and arrived around 7 PM after a long, but satisfying day!)

Happenings this week

Just a little update on some things that went on this week.

Last weekend (April 25th & 26th) Lucas and Rochenel went to Leogane to train leaders in futsal and they started the teams off on our Bible contest. For the first time, they had three guys from Quisqueya Chapel who are very interested in serving come along to learn more about what AF-Haiti does.

Wednesday – My discipleship group came over to our house after school to watch To Save A Life. Weve been trying to do this for months, but I was trying to schedule it when all 5 girls could make it. Now that I look back, I think I should have done more than one of these with whoever could make it. We had 4 of the 5 that day and in fact, I didn’t know anyone was coming on Wednesday morning! But it all came together that day and we had a good time eating chocolate chip cookies and French bread pizza. Of course we watched the movie and had a discussion of it and got to know each other better—like who likes to bake and who doesn’t. One girl said she and her Mom have only tried baking something once and it didn’t turn out! I’m planning to have her over again to show her how easy it is. These girls have been pretty open this year and this get together brought us a little closer. Please pray for their spiritual growth.

Thursday – Labor and Agriculture Day in Haiti - Richard took some guys with him and also Francoise’s family (with a carload of materials and food) up to Venita’s house for a volunteer workday. Venita’s needed work on her doors to have security. Although her house is small, it was built with three doors. Since she has been having problems with security, they bricked up the side door which was never used and put that solid door on the back of the house. Then they added a handle and a padlock to the front door. It was a long day--Richard was gone 12 hours. So much for that idea of getting a break from your labor! Since they had to let the cement dry on the door-frame for the back door, Francoise’s husband Audaince went back up today to put the door on.
It was also the first time Francoise and her husband and kids got to see Venita’s house. (It’s far away and hard to get to). We love getting these two friends together because they encourage each other so much and their kids love playing together.

Friday – I got word that one of the nursing homes in Lancaster will probably have an opening this week, so I was hurrying to get the application done. But my sister in Lancaster took Mom to visit it and she did not like the looks of it and wouldn’t go inside. I’m not sure what’s going there exactly. When I was there in March she had a great attitude about all the places we saw. She’s probably been down because of something that has happened in our family. Please pray—it’s a lot for my sister to handle and there are a few hours a day when Mom is alone.

Meanwhile, Richard went out to Verrettes on Friday to work with Chantale who has been trying to get up to speed keeping track of the goat project (GKK). It has been a challenge, so Richard made the trip out there to help her. Although it might be nice to have someone in Port-au-Prince do this job, she's more centrally located to do the visits to check up on the goats and their owners. That was another long day.

Friday and Saturday - Lucas and Rochenel went down south to visit an area that hasn't had a visit since getting started in 2012. They did Level 1 training for chaplains, coaches and administrators.

Thank you for praying!
Carol

Lots of Soccer Ministry going on!!

Lately we've been describing our life in Haiti, but there is lots going on with the soccer ministry:





1) In the past couple of months we have done lots of training in soccer ministry all around Haiti. Our training focuses on preparing our teams to participate in a National Futsal Tournament and Bible Contest that will start in the fall of 2014.

We are training our coaches in how to coach and referee Futsal (5 a side soccer on a field the size of a basketball court).

Our chaplains are being trained to prepare our players for the Bible contest which will be based on the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Then our administrators are gearing up to run the first stage of the tournaments with local four teams.

But the best part of the training is that we are connecting with our volunteers and players and helping them be better equipped to minister.

2) The Goat project is moving forward with lots of baby goats being born and our players and leaders, for the most part, taking good care of their mamma goats. We have hired an administrator who is going out and meeting the players and leaders participating in the program. Please pray as she gets adjusted to her new responsibilities.

3) A little over a month ago Jon Ortlip, the Executive Director of Ambassadors Football (AF), Aaron Treadway, Director of Professional Soccer Ministry and Jon's son, Henry came to Haiti.



They came to accomplish two things: a) Present the idea of a "Center of Hope" to Quisqueya Chapel and b) For Henry to interview me for "Risen Magazine", a Christian Magazine that features interviews with various Christians in the news. Well, the issue came out, and you can see the picture they chose at http://www.risenmagazine.com/spreading-gods-love-through-soccer-rich-mears/. If you subscribe to the magazine, you can also read the article.



Quisqueya Chapel is now considering allowing AF to build a "Center of Hope" which consists of an artificial turf soccer field and possibly locker rooms and offices. This Center would not only become the headquarters of Ambassadors Football Haiti but also has the potential to support the ministry through a soccer school, soccer camps and night leagues.


4) Please pray for our Haitian leaders Rochenel Pierre and Lucasse Henrilus will get their US Visas so they can attend an Ambassadors Football training from the end of June to the beginning of August. This training would not only help them spiritually and professionally, but would also help them meet Ambassadors staff from all over the world.



Rochenel Pierre Lucasse Henrilus

5) We have been invited to a training in the US being held by the US Youth Futsal Association from June 9-14th by Keith Tozer, the coach of the US National Futsal Team!! Please pray that God would provide the Visas and resources for us to ba able to attend this training.

Easter present from God

Easter present from God--as if rising from the dead and bringing us eternal life were not enough!

We had friends over on Sat.--2 families who struggle to make ends meet. In one of the families, 2 girls had to come to our house barefoot and 1 had on a pair of shoes that didn't fit, so she had her heels on top of the back of the shoes. We wanted to get them sandals, but we couldn't go downtown and stores were not open.

But on the way back from being at the church property (Richard had worship rehearsal & the kids played on the playground) there was a lady walking along with a tub of sandals on her head. Richard stopped the car and Margaret, who works for us, but was just with us for fun that day, got out to see what she could find. The lady had sandals to fit all 8 of the children! They were able to buy them all for 800 gourdes (100 gdes, about $2 each)!

I wish I had taken a picture of all those feet with all those sandals on them! We were all thanking God. And that woman was nice to sell them for that price, too. (I will add a picture later if I can.)

Our Resurrection Weekend in Haiti

Yesterday was “Good Friday”, or “Holy Friday” in French. Since early this morning we heard the “music” of the “Rara” bands. These bands are associated with voodoo and usually include some who are drunk and turn violent.
I asked my Haitian pastor friend why “Rara” bands play for almost the whole day on “Good Friday” and he said it was in celebration of the soldier who won Jesus cloak when they gambled at the foot of the cross. They are celebrating “good fortune” and not the Risen King!

We celebrated by having a turkey dinner with our dear colleagues David and Phyllis Schmid who just got back from a 6 month medical leave. David got very sick in October and had to go to the US for treatment and to recover. He is doing much better now and it was so good to see them.

Then we went and picked up our “Haitian adopted grandchildren” and their Mom Venita.
They are living in very bad conditions in spite of the fact that we helped build them a house after the earthquake.
Two of the children had bad cases of Scabies, a mite that bore under the skin and causes infection. So we took them to a hospital last night and got treatment for them.

Today (Saturday) our church is having an Easter egg hunt for kids and so we are going to take them to that. I will present the Gospel there using the “Resurrection Eggs”, plastic eggs with charms inside that explain the Gospel.

Then on Easter Sunday I (Rich) will lead worship at our church and play the recorder for a few songs.
May you have a blessed Resurrection day!

Thoughts about the Passion week

Carol and I celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary on April 13th by going away for a weekend at the beach (one of the nice things about living in Haiti!). On our rings, we have the verse 1 Jn 4:19 "We love because he first loved us." Without Christ's sacrifice on the cross, and his forgiveness of our sins, we would not have been able to forgive each other and stay together all these years!

Love, or the lack of it, can make a huge difference in a child's life: For a few years now we have been paying school fees for a 14 year old boy in our neighborhood named Davidson. We already knew that is Father had died many years ago. Then in the past month his Mother died suddenly of a fever leaving him and his 3 brothers as orphans. After his mother died, we found out that he has a little brother (same mother, different father) who is 3 years old who does not talk normally. So I took him to visit a preschool that specializes in developmentally delayed children. Thankfully, the director said that she does not feel he is autistic. She believes he simply has not received the love, attention and stimulation that he should have as a baby. She suggested that he be put into a kindergarten situation with a regular schedule and regular stimulation with other children, so we will look into this after the Easter holiday. Imagine that, a Mother's love has such an impact on a child's intellectual and emotional state that it allows the child to develop normally and reach his potential. Without it, the child does not develop normally! Thank God that God loves us all the time, and in James 1 verse 27 it says: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

Nature awaits the return of the King of Heaven and earth:

A very emaciated Mom was fighting off her puppies when they tried to nurse. She had no milk for them, and so what should have been a beautiful time of mother and puppies was disappointing for both. Later I saw several Puppies who were fighting each other over a piece of fruit. Poverty affects everything on the food chain…

Coral reefs in Haiti:

80% of Coral reefs in the Caribbean in the past 50 years have died off because of Bleaching (Time p.43, April 14, 2014) Other causes: Over-fishing, Pollution, Fertilizers, Lionfish.

“At least a quarter of the world’s corals have been lost over the past 25 years.”

“Corals don’t like it when the water around them suddenly heats up, which can trigger what’s know as bleaching. The coral organism reacts by ejecting the zooxanthelia algae living inside its tissues, which robs the coral of both its color and its source of food. While bleaching doesn’t necessarily kill the coral outright, it leaves it extremely vulnerable to other stresses.” P.44

I love to go snorkeling around the many coral reefs in Haiti, but as you can see they are quickly being killed off.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Brain_coral.jpg

Romans 8:22 says: "We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time"

Maranatha - Come Lord Jesus!

Former Lemuel Soccer Team Player is now a Theology Student!

This is a picture of Rich and Thony Amady, one of the original players on the Lemuel soccer team which started back in 2001.

He is now taking courses at the Evangelical Seminary of Port-au-Prince and hopes to become a pastor someday.

This summer he may do an internship with Ambassadors Football Haiti and work at some summer camps we hope to organize during the World Cup.

As John says in 1 John 1:4 "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth."

Update on Tournaments and Trainings

It has been a busy week of ministry for AFH.

The week started with an evangelistic Futsal tournament in Gonaives from February 27 to March 1 with 8 teams participating. Each player in the tournament received a New Testament in Creole so he can prepare for a Bible contest we will run in conjunction with our the AFH school futsal tournament we hope to start in October. In addition 5 people indicated they trusted in Christ and Lucasse, one of our staff, got to have a spiritual conversation with a young man who described himself as a “gangster”.

Then Rochenel and Lucasse travelled up north to the town of Jean Rabel to do a training seminar with our coaches and chaplains from 16 teams. The chaplains received New Testaments in Creole for their players and will start reading the 4 Gospels with them in preparation for the Bible contest starting in October. The coaches learned more about Futsal and ministering to their players.

From March 4-6 Lucasse and Rochenel taught a seminar inPort-de-Paix they were joined by Sylvain Nelson, who is now Pastor of a large church in Gros Mornes. Pastor Sylvain taught the chaplains while Lucasse and Rochenel taught the coaches of 16 teams from the area.
The last tournament of the week is March 7-9 in Gros Mornes with 4 teams. This is the first tournament ever in this town, and it has generated a lot of enthusiasm.

This same weekend there is also a tournament in Verrettes with 4 teams. Please pray that many will hear the Gospel.

Get this Kid off my back!

Today I visited with one of our AFH leaders named Fritz who was given a goat last fall. His goat had twins - a brown one and a white one - a boy and a girl. Guess which sex is standing on his mother's back?

Fritz has done a great job raising his goat and even has several of his own. He started out with 2 females and now he has 6 goats total!

Sad News, but there is always hope in Jesus!

This week has also been a week of some very sad news:

One of our AFH leaders who was active on the Regional Committee in Gonaives died suddenly this week leaving his wife with 5 young children to care for. His name is Belguens Ezavier and he was in his 40’s and just fell ill one morning and by the afternoon he had died. We are grateful that he is a Christian and we will see him again someday in heaven.

The second sad news is that my 53 year old cousin, Bruce, has inoperable Pancreatic cancer and may have less than a year to live. Pancreatic cancer is hard to detect and by the time they discovered it, it had already spread to the liver and other places. His Doctor is going to try chemotherapy and perhaps some other treatment that may help. Carol and I will be in PA from June to August and hope to spend some time with him then. Please pray for him and his 2 brothers and sister as they go through this trial together.

God has a way of helping us and comforting us in our sadness. Today I visited a bed-ridden 80 year old woman and had a chance to pray for her health. She reminded me of my own Mother who is going to be 80 years old on March 15th and is not in good health. In the same house was a young woman named Eliana, the same name as a the daughter of a good friend of mine. She is suffering from cancer, just like my cousin Bruce. So I prayed for her and Bruce at the same time. Then I had the simple joy of seeing some of the fruits of our goat project and holding one of the kids born by a female given to one of our leaders.

First and Second Day or AFH's Evangelistic Tournament in Gonaives during Carnaval Season

The first day of our outreach week started out with a car problem: A seal on the clutch master cylinder started to deteriorate which caused us to not to be able to shift properly.

We got to Gonaives well before the time for the match but ended up setting up the equipment we brought late because of the repair, if that’s what you want to call it. The mechanic could not find the right parts so he “degajed” meaning he improvised enough to make it work so we could limp back to Port au Prince.

We did get set up for the first match of the tournament in Gonaives. We used our brand new portable Futsal goals and they worked great!






Just before we left we had time to see all the kids in their uniforms. This was probably the first time in their lives they ever wore a complete soccer uniform with matching shorts, jerseys, socks and shin guards. They all looked really great!



Uniforms from our Canadian "HEADR" team that came down last August. Thank you Art and Team!



Uniforms from Calvary Chapel in Philadelphia thanks to Rose Simon and shipped by Crossing Community Church!

As we headed back to PAP we did have some car problems with the clutch, but nothing as scary as the day before when our rear wheel fell off the car and we had to stop in the middle of the road. The mechanic who had fixed a bearing seal had apparently not tightened the lug nuts very well, and the rough roads of Haiti just shook them loose.

We did have a very scary incident on the way home: My helper Ti Frere was driving and we were passing a tractor-trailer on a straight away on a very dark stretch of road when all of a sudden we see a single headlight in front of us. A truck was on our right taking up more than his share of the road and there was a ditch to our left. We tried to avoid what turned out to be a motorcycle and we are pretty sure he keep control of the bike and just brushed us as he went by.

Many times motorcyles and even cars in Haiti do not turn on their headlights on at night unless they "have to". In this case, the motorcycle did not have his lights on when we first started to pass the truck. Since it was a dangerous area known for kidnapping we did not feel it was safe to stop and find out what happened.

Both of us were quite shaken by the event, but an inspection of the car the next morning showed a very faint stripe where the motorcycle swiped the side. Driving at night is dangerous in any country, but it is particularly dangerous in Haiti because of the lack or street lights and many people and bikes lining the streets without proper lights, reflectors, etc. Next time we will do all we can to arrive before dark!

The good news is that during the second day of the tournament two people trusted Christ and, as God arranged it, they were the ones who won copies of the New Testament in Creole at the drawing after the match! What are the chances of that happening?!

The final is on Sunday, so please pray for a good crowd that will hang around and watch our evangelistic films afterward and that many will trust in Christ!

Training on February 25th and New Testament Distribution

The training we did on Feb. 25 had two parts. One part was done by Dr. Kelly Crowdis, the veterinarian we are partnering with to train our several of our leaders how to do “goat first aid”. This will keep our leaders and players goats healthy.

The other part was led by Rochenel and Lucasse and trained our coaches and administrator how to become officials at Futsal games. As Rochenel talked to our coaches one of them said how much he appreciates the Biblical training he has received. He says he reads a devotion to his players at each practice and feels God’s Word is having an effect on his players!

From February 27th to March 9th we will distribute really nice New Testaments for children.



We were chosen to give these out because we have teams all over Haiti. The organization that gave us the Bibles wants us to run a Bible quiz tournament at the same time we do our national tournament starting in October, 2014.

o we are distributing the Bibles now and asking our leaders to study the 4 Gospels with our players in preparation for the Bible tournament.

This week alone we are distributing 624 New Testaments to 52 teams!

Please pray that our players will be open to reading,understanding and applying

God's Word!