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!