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?

Bits and pieces of what God is doing in Haiti

Dear Friends,

It has been a world-wind of activity since we arrived back in Haiti on August 8th. Here are some high-lights of what God is doing through our faithful Haitian friends and co-workers:

1) During the World-Cup outreach over 2,000 people watched the games in five different locations. One young single mother and her 2 children came to know the Lord in Gonaives and now they have been coming to church regularly and are growing in their faith! Many others are being followed up with. Most people that attended the matches received an evangelistic booklet called "The Champion". We are still distributing the 40,000 copies of this booklet that we received from One Hope Ministries.

2) We are sponsoring a door-to-door outreach to Leogane this week being done by a group of men from a church in Archaie. We supplied them with lots of literature, Bibles and a video projector and Christian DVD's for them to show films at night. Last night several hundred showed up for one of the films!

3) One of our leaders, Elysee Vaillant participated in an outreach at his girlfriends' church this past weekend. Please pray for Elysee as his father is dying of Prostate cancer, his sister is 8 month's pregnant after being married in 2009, and his house needs a new roof and is leaking badly when it rains.

4) This week we visited the camp ground at Verrettes and the Amputee soccer team is going to use it for their official training when it begins in 2 weeks. It was good to see our leaders there who have had a busy summer receiving the Right-to-Play team and the Corban team.

Thanks for your gifts, prayers and partnership that enable us to be God's hands and feet in Haiti!

Amputees Play Soccer

A few months before the earthquake I met Dr Fred Sorrells of the Institute of Sports. Even then, he was trying to introduce sports for the disabled in Haiti.

Just this week I met him again practicing with a team of Amputees on the soccer field of Quisqueya Christian School. It turns out that Haiti has been invited to play in the World Cup of amputee soccer to be played in October in Argentina.

We helped him immediately by giving him several cases of "The Champion" evangelistic booklets we had been given for our World Cup outreach and also some follow up discipleship material.

In addition I was able to tell the men the story of how I was shot. They were very moved by the story and applauded when it was over.

The next day we gave him some shorts and Ronald was able to help train the team. More importantly, 6 out of the 30 players indicated that they had trusted Christ for the first time. So God continues to use the tragic circumstances of life for His glory!

Then on Saturday, Ronald and I worked with 6 goalies who only had 1 arm. Out of these 6 we selected 3 to be on the World Cup team.

Ronald and I have been asked to continue to work twice a month with the special men at Quisqueya Chapel, where Carol and I go to church. They have a nice field we can practice on.

Please continue to pray for this exciting opportunity!

Hear Rich's story on the Internet!

For those of you who would like to hear Rich's story, Crossing Community Church recorded his presentation and you can find it on their website: Crossing.org

Just look at the box on the home page and you will see "Rich Mears - Haiti".

A Miracle - Rich's account of the shooting

On Thursday morning, June 17th, 2010 I got up at 4:30 AM to take one of our Haitian leaders named Debreus to the bus station. Debreus is the president of AIS Haiti’s regional committee in Jean Rabel in northwest Haiti. He had come down to Port-au-Prince to help transport the video projector, DVD player, VCR, new cleats, and evangelistic booklets to Jean Rabel (a village in the north of Haiti) for our World Cup outreach. Jean Rebel is one of 7 towns where we showed the World Cup games and then shared the Gospel with the spectators during half time.

So Debreus and I made the uneventful trip down to the bus station and began to unload. Debreus found a few men willing to help us. I left the pickup’s doors open because we were unloading and the next thing I knew someone was opening the front door and grabbing the bag that had the video projector in it and I said “No, that bag doesn’t go now”. Then he lifted up his shirt and showed me his gun and grabbed my briefcase that had my cell phone, digital camera and flash drives in it. I simply said “No”, and then I heard a loud sound and my thigh felt like it had a bad cramp. In the meantime, the man and his buddy ran off with my briefcase and I started to shout for help. At first I thought it was just an electric stun gun, since I had trouble moving and feeling my leg.

A man in his thirties got in the car and offered to drive me to the hospital. He explained that he had seen the whole thing happen and had driven for the UN. In the meantime, I shouted to Debreus to finish unloading the stuff and get on the bus that was about to leave. As I painfully lurched out of the front seat to get in the back, I saw the severity of my injury for the first time: my pants were soaked with blood and I realized that I had been shot. Then I saw policemen with guns run after the thieves without bothering to stop and see if I was OK.

I applied pressure to the hole where the bullet entered, and stop the bleeding, but I could not see that the bullet had exited my thigh and that was where most of the bleeding came from (Thank God it was a small wound from a .22 caliber pistol). I knew that it would not be good if I lost consciousness so I kept talking with my driver the whole time while I was in the car. I found out that his name was Joseph and that he had been raised in Jean Rabel and had attended the Christian school of Pastor Bolivar, which is one of the schools where we have established a soccer team. I asked him if he was a Christian and he said he had been trusted Christ but had not been attending church lately. He told me he had a seven-year-old daughter who was living with his mother in Jean Rabel. Then he told me something I will never forget. He said he wanted to help me because he felt like he could have been the one to be shot. You see, he had seen the two gangsters looking around for a target and got out of his car, locked the door, and then walked away. A few minutes later he heard a gunshot and ran over and saw that they had shot me. He felt like God was using this tragedy to get his attention and bring him back into a relationship with him. I told him I was ready to die and meet my maker and asked him if he was ready and he said he would think about that question.

Joseph lent me his phone and I talked to my friend Elysee about which hospital to go to and he suggested we try one run by “Doctors without Borders” across town. This is where we finally ended up about 45 minutes after the shooting and received some good care. The hospital workers got me out of the car, onto a stretcher and then into a bed. The “hospital” was a tent with flies and mosquitoes buzzing around. I talked with Joseph while waiting for care and he said that he would stay with me as long as I needed him. I even gave him my wallet so he could help me look for my ID. Later when it was time for him to go, I offered him some money as a thank-you gift and he refused it saying he was content with whatever reward he would get in heaven! (Much later I found out that he had been kind enough to go to the police station and write a police report for me!) I have his phone number and will follow up with him when I get back to Haiti. I know God is working in his life!

The doctor told me that things did not look serious – I had not bled to death because the bullet had not hit an artery or a major vein. Then they took X-rays to see if it had shattered or nicked a bone, and that was negative as well. By this time my Crossworld co-workers David and Bruce had shown up and went into action.
They took my truck back to the Bolosse campus and after my initial care, took me to another doctor for a second opinion. His name was Dr. Jeudy and he told me he would have to do a small operation to “excise” where the bullet had entered and exited.
When we got in the operating room, I was still conscious and quickly realized that the shot for the anesthesia was more painful than anything I had felt that day. After treating the wounds, Dr. Jeudy told me I needed to spend the night in his clinic. He put me in a private room next to the operating room that had a fan in it and was relatively cool. I was able to rest comfortably until the fan stopped because we lost city power. Then the room got very hot and I could hear the mosquitoes buzzing around my head. I knew I would not be able to sleep that night if I stayed at the hospital and so instead I asked the doctor if I could spend the night at the Bolosse campus with my fellow Crossworld missionaries, which he agreed to. In the meantime, David had called Carol, who was in the US with our children, and told her what had happened. They decided that it would be best if I could get back to the US the next day, if the doctor cleared me to travel. So after the operation to “excise” the bullet entry and exit holes, Dr. Jeudy gave the “OK” for me to travel. Carol got on the internet right away and was able to find a flight the following afternoon.

After spending the night at Bolosse, my Haitian friend Lamour drove me back to my house in my truck to get my clothes and pack for the plane flight. That morning, God gave me Psalm 41: “Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the Lord delivers him in times of trouble. The Lord will protect him and preserve his life; he will bless him in the Land and not surrender him to the desire of his foes. The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed and restore him from his bed of illness.”
Back at my house, I took time to say goodbye to the people who had been staying at our house since the earthquake and those who help us around the house. We talked about the summer and then prayed together and said goodbye for now. Then they helped me pack my things.

On the way to the airport we stopped by Dr. Jeudy’s clinic so they could change the dressing on my wounds and give me a pain shot. This time the shot burned like fire in my veins, but I felt no pain on the plane ride! We arrived at the airport and I was able to get a wheelchair so I didn’t have to stand in line. I got on the plane in the very first seat in First class and was never happier to have a big comfortable seat. When I arrived in JFK, Carol, Grace, Joy and Ricky were there to greet me. I was home at last!

As I reflected on this incident, I realized that I should not be surprised that this happened. All of us who are engaged in the Lord’s work and building his Kingdom on earth are in a battle. If we are not getting shot at, then we are not in the battle. Some of us get hit by Satan’s bullets and fiery darts and are wounded. Some of these wounds are obvious, like the hole in my thigh. Others are not, like the spiritual and psychological wounds of going through a church split, or dealing with an addiction problem.

Sometimes God’s soldiers die in battle. We call these heroes of the faith “Martyrs”. There have been more Martyrs in the 21st century than at any time in history. I am grateful that I did not die, and that God has given me more time to serve him here on this earth and to be with my beloved family.

Exactly 2 weeks after the shooting I got the OK from the doctor to begin Physical Therapy, and he said I should be fine. The only lasting inconvenience is that my left foot feels like it is asleep some times.

Thank you for your support and prayers during this time of trial. You are a great encouragement to us!!

Training 9 schools in Jacmel

Today (June 30, 2010) is the last day of training for 27 new AIS Haiti leaders in Jacmel. We are training them to start evangelistic soccer teams at their schools in the fall.

We are partnering with Unchartered Water - UW (www.unchartedwaters.org) to put on this camp. They have send a dozen young coaches to help us train our Haitian coaches and do a Kid's soccer camp with some of the children from the participating schools in the afternoon.

My three Haitian co-workers: Ronald, Sylvain and Jean Paul have been teaching the courses for the training and have been doing a great job in my abscense.

Unfortunately, Julia, the leader of the UW team and four of her team have come down with "Haitian Happiness", so please pray for them to feel better.

World Cup Outreach

The World Cup has begun and millions of Americans have watched the US battle England today on their big screen TV’s. But in Haiti, millions of people do not own television sets, let alone the “home entertainment” systems so popular in the US now.

So, thanks to some visionary donors, I purchased 5 video projectors on my last trip to the US and now we are using them to show the World Cup games to hundreds of people, as well as share the Gospel with them.

Our strategy is simple: We ask members of the churches we are working with to invite a non-Christian friend to watch the game with them, and then give them a beautiful booklet that explains who Jesus is that is specially made for the World Cup 2010. Each church member then follows up with their friend and does friendship evangelism with them. Since there are 64 matches, each match we encourage different members of the church to bring a friend, thereby exposing the maximum number of people to the Gospel.

So far we have 3 installations up and working and by next week we hope to have a total of 7 in place before the end of next week (using two old projectors I had in Haiti already).

The picture shows our team in Jacmel getting ready to take the projector setup to an outlying church.

Today we got permission to use a large room under “Place Jeremie”, a large public park where they play all of Haiti’s Futsal games. We are going to show the matches each day and do evangelism with the help of members of Tabernacle Church, one the largest UEBH churches in Port-au-Prince.

Please pray for these outreaches!

It gives me great joy to see our AIS Haiti leaders walking in the Truth

3 John 1:4 “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”

Our truck was loaded to the top with food, soccer equipment, tents and training materials when we set out on our road trip to North Haiti on March 25th. I was thrilled to have a new member of our team with us, Jean Eric Duval, especially since he was willing to drive most of the 10 hour trip! We were joined by Ronald William who is on the board of AIS Haiti, and Sylvain Nelson one of our leaders who just graduated from seminary last year.

Although some of the roads have just been re-done and are perfect, they get progressively worse the farther you get from Port-au-Prince and get really bad after the city of Gonaives which was flooded a few years ago.

Nevertheless our sturdy Toyota diesel pick up made it just fine and we crawled into our bunk beds after a cold shower and warm oatmeal.

The next day we got up early to start the training, however, it started at “Haitian time” - about an hour late. Eventually most of the 30 team leaders showed up – 3 from each of 8 teams we have in the Port-de-Paix area plus the regional committee. We had a great day of training going over the structure of AIS Haiti and introducing everyone to the “Young Peacemakers” curriculum. We even had time to play a little soccer with they guys in the afternoon. ( My team won when I scored the last goal!)

The second day more people came on time – especially since they realized we served breakfast early! We split them up into three groups: The Coaches, the administrators and the team chaplains and did training specific to each group. I taught the administrators how to prepare a budget and raise funds locally.

The next day was Sunday and the church of one of our leaders was having a big “Harvest” celebration where people bring gifts of produce and live stock to the church and then they auction them off to the highest bidder. Before the auction, however, they have a long service with lots of choirs and preaching. Unfortunately, we had to leave for an appointment after three hours – but they were still going strong!

The appointment was with young missionary who had just graduated from Wheaton College. He was in the process of starting a sports ministry for a larger mission in the area that had been there many years. We had a great meeting and he said after-wards that his head was swimming with all the information and experience I had shared with him. We are going to start with a joint training for our leaders some time in the next year and see where our partnership goes from there!

Later I reflected on what I had seen in church that day. Every choir had a custom-made outfit: One had robes, another had matching ties, etc. Also, the choirs had come from towns pretty far away, which means they had to pay for transportation to come to visit the church. I also thought about who was the audience they were singing to – I would suspect they were mostly Christians. Then I thought about how what they are doing is similar to our soccer teams: Our teams need uniforms and money for transportation so they can play other schools in other towns. The main difference is that when we play games in other towns our audience includes lots of people who are not Christian, but will come to watch a soccer game! It made me realize that the local churches in Haiti have the resources they need to support their school's soccer team – it's just a matter of balance and priority.

That afternoon I shared this with the Regional Committee and explained that I love music myself and sang in choirs for many years and was not criticizing what I saw that day at all, but I wanted them to realize that the local church in Haiti has more resources than they realize. We had a good meeting and discussed our dream of an outreach during the World Cup.

After the meeting we packed up and drove to Jean Rabel and arrived just before dark. That night it rained hard, but it was gone by the morning.



This was the biggest TREC training we ever had. There were 55 people that came – some from miles away. It cost us over $200 US just to pay for the transportation for everyone to come. They represented 12 teams in the area. This means that to date we have trained over 126 soccer leaders in the past 12 months. At Jean Rabel we had a good first day of training but because of larger numbers than expected, we did not have books for everyone

The next morning Ronald and I got up at 5 AM to do a training of coaches at the local soccer field. We drew quite a crowd, but everyone was happy with what we showed them. After that we split up into groups again and taught until 1 PM. After that we had a good meeting with the Regional Committee and talked about how to help each of the 12 teams implement what they had just been taught. Then everyone went home, and it was a good thing too, because that night it rained buckets through the early morning. When we got up we prayed that by the time we were ready to go, that the rain would stop – just as we had prayed – it stopped just as we were ready to load the truck and go!



However, the small stream just outside of Jean Rabel had turned into a raging torrent and we had to wait until another truck forged the stream to see if we were going to make it. Even though water came up over our hood, we still made it through, but it was scary! I was very glad for a diesel engine and 4WD! (see picture)

We then headed to visit our regional committee in Limbe, which is in the north of Haiti near Cap Haitian. Unfortunately, because of the lack of good roads in the north, we had to go south to Gonaives in order to go North. In one day we went from rain and swollen rivers we had to ford, to dry and dusty roads where big trucks in front of us kicked up so much dust we could not see, to heavy fog going over the mountains, to lovely sunny weather!

We arrived in the rain, however, and stayed with the family of Pastor Peggy: Four children under 12, including a 7 month old baby – 3 boys and a girl. Pastor Peggy is a professor of Physical Education at the Christian University of North Limbe and has attended both of our TREC trainings in Port-au-Prince. However, it wasn't until this trip that he really understood our strategy of working through Christian primary schools. He now is going to put together a larger committee who is going to have representatives of 6 local Christian schools on it.

Since Jean Eric had to leave us unexpectedly in Port-de-Paix, I ended up doing all the rest of the driving on the trip, including the 10 hour trip back to Port-au-Prince from Limbe.

In all, we are very glad that God has given us so many great volunteers who are implementing our program in so many schools all over Haiti.

First Training well received

Today was our last day of training for the Port-de-Paix region of 8 schools. Everyone seemed to benefit from the training and asked us when we are coming again.

We split our leaders up into three groups: Chaplains, Coaches and Administrators. I taught the administrators, Sylvain and Jean Paul taught the Chaplains and Ronald William and Jean Eric Duval taught the coaches.

I taught the administrators how to make a budget and went over the basics of Fund Raising. Our goal is to make the teams as financially independent as possible and that means they need to know how to raise funds locally.

Unfortunately we still have a shortage of soccer equipment - especially balls. We were able to give each team only one ball. Please pray that we receive more balls soon so that we can keep the boys playing.

Tomorrow we head to Jean Rabel and we will not have access to internet until Easter.

So have a blessed Palm Sunday, and Carol will have to update you on the homefront!

We're off!

We're just about to leave on our 10-day trip to Port-de-Paix, Jean Rabel and Limbe. Although the roads are greatly improved in some areas, there are still some rough spots.

We are taking with us food, equipment and Christian books for each region, and our truck is loaded to the hilt!

A special guest named Jean Eric Duval is going with us. He is the soccer coach at Union School (the OTHER English-speaking school in PAP), but since he got laid off after the earthquake, he is working for the ministry of youth and sport. He is going to help us train our coaches.

Please pray for a safe and effective time of training and visiting our volunteers in these regions!

Good day of Training, and evangelization!

Today three AIS coaches (Dana McGregor, James Poole and Nick Donaldson) and 2 Haitian coaches (Ronald William and Ernest Sauvignon) joined forces to teach 21 young Haitian coaches the fundamentals needed to coach children between 10 and 15 years old.

We went over Dribbling, passing, shooting and defense.

Half the coaches were committed Christians, but the rest were not. So we also went over the fundamentals of the Gospel and here are what some of the participants wrote:

“I'm not a Christian yet, but I believe in God. I just need a little thought before I can make that decision.”

“I'm already a Christian, but I would like you to pray for me.”

“I would like you to help me understand the Bible.”

“I'm not yet ready to trust Christ, but I think I will be soon!”

“Yes, I'm ready to trust in Christ.!”

Here are some comments the participants made:

“I have no criticism because your goal is to help children”

“I'm happy with everything you did because you made me feel that I am not alone.”

“The fun we had was really cool.”

“I really liked the training today. It was like 1000 good days for me!”

Please pray for the training of chaplains we hope to do next Thursday,

Sunday , Monday and Tuesday

Sunday, Jan 31, 2010

This morning I got up “late” and took my time getting to church. However, I forgot that I had lent my car to a medical team for 2 days, and so could not just hop in and drive away. So I hopped on a tap-tap and walked down the hill to church (and got my new shoes all dusty!).

When I arrived, everyone was singing, and I thought I was late, but then Pastor Bobby stood up and told us that this was just practice & that the service would start later – at least I was not late!

When the service did start, Pastor Bobby had us stand up by country. We had people from Canada, Holland, the US, Australia, the Philippines, the UK and of course, Haiti.

The theme for the day was to be “Filled with the Spirit”, and everyone sang as if they were. The church was jam packed and we made a joyful noise.

The last song we sang was “The City of God.” Ariana and Ruth started out by telling us that when the earthquake hit, they were both singing this song in different parts of Port-au-Prince. Ariana was singing it with her friends on the second floor of QCS and Ruth was singing it at her home. Both were praying for Haiti through the song.

Here are the words to the song:

[Verse 1]
You're the God of this City
You're the King of these people
You're the Lord of this nation
You are

[Verse 2]
You're the Light in this darkness
You're the Hope to the hopeless
You're the Peace to the restless
You are

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

[Chorus]
For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater thing have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City

We all joined in with them and just kept singing it over and over.

After Church, I stayed around and talked to people. Pastor Bobby introduced me to a Doctor and his friend who just trusted in Christ. He was a member of the Larco family, owners of a large beverage company in Haiti. He said a missionary had come to his hospital with lots of medicine for his pharmacy, and he told Dr. Larco he came with all the medicines he needed, but one. Then he introduced him to the Great Physician, the healer of our souls – Jesus. He and his associate trusted Christ then and there and couldn't stop talking about it after church that Sunday. Dr. Larco brought his whole staff to church. I am going to meet with them this week and give them some books called “Your New Life in Christ” in Creole.

Even though Dr. Larco could live in his fancy house, he is choosing to live in a refugee camp to show his concern and solidarity with his countrymen. He introduced me to one of the leaders of the camp who was trying to organize some activities for the children. We are going to work with him to help him this and supply him with equipment as well. In addition, we hope to use the “Young Peacemakers” curriculum we have translated with the children who play in our tournaments.

The next group that I met at church was Tear Fund, UK. When Carol and I worked at the UEBH, this was one of the largest contributors we worked with on projects. They helped pay for wells at several churches and latrines as well.

I met Matt and Annie. Matt is a water engineer, and Annie is a child psychologist. We talked about how we could work together and they said they have a curriculum that they would like to use in the refugee camps to help children recover from the trauma of the earthquake. I told them we have translators available who can do this and we also knew some camps that need water.

After them meeting I told Matt that there was stream near my house that seemed to always have water.
My friend Dan Carl said he would take us to look at it, since I did not have a car. We found a Haitian who actually knew the source of the water and Matt was able to test it to see how good a source it was. I was very excited because I don't think there are very many un-tapped water sources in Haiti.

Then we went back to my house where I gave Dan Carl a bunch of tracs and books for an evangelism project his friend was going to have among the refugee camps in Gonaives.

After they left, I took a 2-hour nap. When I woke up, I saw it was still daylight and Ecdes wanted to play soccer, so we ended up playing until it was dark – I'm sore today, but it sure was fun!

Monday, Feb., 1 2010 (Grace's 22nd Birthday)

Today it seemed like the phone was ringing was ringing of the hook. Calls from AIS leaders, friends and people in need. One story I think I forgot to tell was that soon after the earthquake, a young man who I had lead to Christ in Verrettes this summer called to see how I was doing. I talked to his Dad after I talked to him, and it seems that Christ has really changed his life!

I found out that one of our leaders in Limbe, Pastor Peggy, was in a motorcycle accident and was in the hospital with some injuries to his head and face. We are going to try and send him some money to help with his medical expenses.

The other thing I was doing today was organizing a trip to Leogane tomorrow to help sift through the debri of the three houses of our leaders that were destroyed by the quake. We are going with a team from Tear Fund, UK who is going to evaluate some of the refugee camps and also with about 8 young men from the UEBH churches in PAP who want to help others in Leogane.

Ronald William also came over and we were able to give Nesly from Gonaives, who is still with us, some soccer equipment to take back so he can organize an evangelistic tournament there.

I am still waiting for my truck to come back after I lent it to a team of Doctors for the day.

Tomorrow we head to Leogane, and I am also one day closer to seeing Carol again!

Play by Play since Sunday

Sun. Jan 24

In the morning we went to Patty and John's church: Christ the Rock Community Church. It was a great time of fellowship and worship with wonderful music. During the service they said that four members of the church were going with a medical team to Haiti, so we went to a meeting of the whole team at another church. It was so encouraging – there were 23 doctors and nurses in all who were going to a small hospital just in Haiti close to the Dominican border. They were very organized and well prepared, so we just shared a few suggestions with them.

Later in the afternoon, John and I went to an auto parts store to get an oil filter for my Toyota diesel truck. They do not sell this model in the US, so I was afraid about not being able to find the right one, but when I asked the salesman he said he was Jamaican and that his father had the same truck. He called a friend and looked it up on the internet and gave me the right filter!

The other salesperson at the store turned out to be Haitian and she asked me to help her get money to her relatives who live in Petionville which is only about ½ hour from where I live.

I finally got a nap on Sunday afternoon and woke up in time to see the Jets and Vikings loose their playoff bids.

In the evening we had a delightful time with Carol's cousins: Patsy and her husband, John; her daughter Jennifer and her husband Derek; and Jerry, Patricia brother and his wife, Bev.

Both Jennifer and Mike expressed interest in helping us find some things I wanted to take back to Haiti. Jerry owns a motorcycle parts business and gave me some battery chargers, tools and gloves. Jennier works at a school and sent around an e-mail asking for donations. She also went to her mother who works in the medical field and got a bunch of things like children's Tylenol, etc.

It is amazing how God has blessed us with such a wonderful family there for us when we needed them most.

Monday, Jan 25

Carol left for PA to fly to Philadelphia to be with Ricky in the morning. Because Carol's cousin Patricia is retired, she had time to help me visit lots of businesses and ask for donations for Haiti. So after we dropped Carol off, I went home and wrote a letter asking for donations and attached a list of items we needed the most.

Patsy was not shy about asking for the store managers at many different stores, and Office Max gave us a donation of pens and scissors while we waited. The other store managers were very nice, but said they would have to check with their corporate office before they could donate.

That evening I called some of my family and supporters and we watched the Miami Heat loose to LeBron James by 1 point.

I also tried to contact MFI to see when I could get back to Haiti and was notified that my best chance was Wednesday because a big team had canceled their reservation.

Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2010

Since I only had one day left before I was to leave, we had to set some priorities. I wanted to get some parts for my truck & generator, and also get some items I thought most relief organizations would not think of.

High on my list was Walkie-Talkies because cell phone did not work well in Haiti even 10 days after the event, and I really needed reliable communication with other missionaries and my Haitian co-workers.

Also, I wanted to try and set up security teams in the refugee camps that I knew of because there have been reports of robbers coming at night and not only stealing money, but small children as well.

So after we got the parts, we went to Jerry's motorcycle parts store and picked up what he was donating. Then we stopped in a uniform store to see if they had any security uniforms and how much they would cost. The clerk said they had no uniforms there, but directed us to their main store and warehouse about 40 minutes from there.

So we took the time to drive there, and we were very glad we did! After waiting for the manager to come back from lunch, we told him what we were trying to do and he talked to the owner who gave us everything we wanted at wholesale! We got a complete uniform with pants, shirts with patches and a cap for under $15 each! He also told us where we could get some pepper spray so that our security personnel could defend themselves if needed.

After waiting an hour for them to sew the patches on, we headed back home and then went out to dinner at a fast-food place before starting to pack for Haiti.

Next to the fast-food place was a “Play-it-again-Sports” store so I went in and asked if they could give me any equipment. They gave me a pair of goalie gloves, and said they would look for more.

Later that night as we were packing, Jennifer and Derek came by with all kinds of great medical supplies from Derek's Mom. In all we packed four 50 Lb. Suitcases with stuff, not knowing how much MFI would allow us to take.

It was almost 11 PM by the time we finished packing and by that time I was so awake, I could not sleep. I tried to close my eyes, but did not sleep soundly.

Wednesday, Jan 26

Patricia woke me up at 3:45AM so we could get up to Ft. Pierce by 6 AM for the flight. John drove me up in his pickup because the four big suitcases were too big for their car.

When we got to MFI, they said the plane was not full, so they allowed me to take all my suitcases for free! This was a tremendous blessing.

As I boarded the Hendrick Motorsport plane once again there was Laura the stewardess to greet me!
During the flight I helped a medical team learn some basic Creole, and got caught up writing this journal.

On the plane I met two medical teams. One of Podiatrists and the other had a hand surgeon among them. I helped one of the nurses learn some creole, and spoke to her about some of the cultural nuances I've learned. For instance, when talking with a child, in US culture, you want them to look you in the eyes so you are sure you have their attention. But in Haitian culture it is disrespectful for a child to look an adult directly in the eyes.

After we landed I lent my phone to one of the teams so they could hook up with their ride, but ironically had trouble connecting with my ride. Finally I got someone on the phone and found out that they did not have me marked down for a ride, so I sat at the airport for an hour and 30 minutes waiting in the dust.

There's lots of activity at the airport – helicopters flying overhead, fork lifts moving supplies around, planes landing and taking off. But I was too tired to enjoy all the excitement.

Unfortunately, I had to wait 3 hours before my ride from the airport showed up. However, during that time I meet a group of men from a NY church that was installing water systems so I made an appointment with them for the next day to go and see some of the refugee camps I was working with.

I also looked around at the shipments that came in and found a large generator that was sent to my Crossworld colleagues. I called them and they knew nothing about it, so they asked me to put it on the truck that came to pick me up and take it to QCS.

The free Hendrick Motorsports flights end on Saturday, Jan 30 so we are trying to find another way for Carol to get into Haiti on February 4th.

Thursday, Jan 28

Since I got very little sleep the night before I returned to Haiti, I slept “Late” and got up about 8 AM.
I went over to the QCS control center and a team begged to use my truck. So I let them use it and borrowed another friend's truck to go and get the water team I had met the previous day. Our first stop was Ronald William's camp. It turned out that they had a huge source of water, but that it was controlled by the State water company, CAMEP. The French and Canadians had already come and inquired about filtering the water, so it didn't seem like the ideal place to install one of my friend's systems. Then we went to see my other friend's neighborhood: Pierre Belgarde. He did not have a good source of water, so their system would not work their either. Later I talked with them and they might have smaller systems we could use in these places.

That night, Kim Hargrove, a former teacher at QCS and her fiance John stayed over at our house.
Another young Haitian man named Ti Frere also stayed over at our house that night because he had to leave very early in the morning to catch a bus to Cap Haitian. Ecde's brother, Jean, and cousin, Paules, were going to go with him.

Friday, Jan 29

We got up at 4:30 AM and packed up Jean, Ti Frere and Paules to go to Cap Haitian. Then we picked up an 87 year old woman named Virginie from a local hospital and drove her across town to the Coast Guard station so she could catch a helicopter to Cap Haitian to fix her broken hip. It turned out the US had sent an aircraft carrier with lots of helicopters to help with the relief efforts and they were using many of them to transport patients. My young friend Ecdes went with me.

Since there was some time between when we arrived and the helicopter came, I took the opportunity to share the Gospel with her and her nephew. There were several interruptions, but it seemed like they were really understanding what I was saying and the Bible verses I was showing them. When I asked them it they would like to trust in Christ, they both said yes!

After this exciting time, I explained to them that they would be flying to Cap Haitian, a town on the north coast where Virginie would be operated on. I also gave them some money for food and transportation if they needed it.

On our way home we dropped off a large tarp & 2 beds at Bolosse for the Vaillant family and visited his restaurant and house. Both were badly damaged and could not be used. For now the restaurant is closed, but we are trying to find a place to prepare food so he can keep his catering business going.

We also stopped to buy phone cards and found out the man selling the cards had a sick son at home. He went and got his son and we took him to a clinic and got him treated. He was so cute and said “MESI” after the nurse treated him. While there we found out that robbers had tried to break into the clinic twice in the past week. I had purchased some security uniforms in Florida and offered to give them 5 sets and some tear gas spray so they could defend themselves. They were very appreciative and felt like God had answered their prayers.

That afternoon, both Ecdes and I took a nap. After the nap we woke up and went to QCS to pick up the president of our AIS regional committee in Gonaives. He wanted to come to PAP to see the damage and encourage us, and also to plan how our AIS leaders in Gonaives could help the refugees there. Later we went to an orphanage to play some soccer. They asked me to referee a match and after wards, we got to play a little until it got dark. Afterwards we picked up Kim & John at QCS and went home and collapsed.

Saturday, June 30

Today we went to Leogane, another town outside of Port-au-Prince that had been badly damaged by the earthquake. Last year we started and AIS ministry there and set up a regional committee of 5 leaders. Nesly, Ronald William, Jimmy and his cousin went with me. When we got there we were very saddened to hear all our leaders there had suffered. One leader's house collapsed on his wife and she died. They were married for 15 years, and had no children.

Another leader's house was full of friends and family. They heard the house start to crack ran out before it totally collapsed.

But the most touching story was of the young lady who is the treasurer of our regional committee. She was at work when the earthquake hit and escaped unhurt. But when she got home, she found her house totally collapsed. Her husband told her that he had their 3-month old baby in his arms when the earthquake hit. Their house totally collapsed and he hit the floor with the baby underneath him in his arms. He yelled to let people know that he was not killed and they ran and got a car jack to jack up the cement roof so they could get him and the baby out! (See picture).

We helped them make a plan to organize the tent communities they were living in and also told them we would try and come with a team of young people to help them sift through the rubble for their belongings.

We also gave them a love gift and asked them to do a survey of needs in the communities where they lived to see how we could help.

While visiting their houses, we came upon one of their neighbor who had an badly swelled foot. He said it had been like this since the earthquake! So we went around looking or a clinic to take him to. We finally found a Canadian military field hospital that would help him.

On our way home, we stopped at the Bolosse campus and talked to Elysee Vaillant about the idea of putting together a team of youth to help our friends in Leogane. We set it up for next Wednesday, Lord Willing.

Then I took everyone who had helped me out to eat at Epi d'or, a bakery near us.

Update on Trip to Verrettes

Sorry we haven't posted about the things you've been praying for...we've been having problems with our internet. So, for now, here's a quick update on Richard's trip to Verrettes.

The trip went well--no problems with travel. 4 young people and 1 adult trusted Christ, even though sharing the gospel was not the objective of the trip.

There was a special training session for the team administrators.

Everyone who was trained seemed to appreciate the new curriculum and we're praying that many players will learn how to better deal with conflict in their lives. Most of the team chaplains will be starting this training right away.

Thank you again for your prayers!

Soccer Clinic

Yesterday was a holiday in Haiti - commemorating the Battle of Vertieres.

So, we went out to the Croix des Bouquets area to an area called Champbrun. The little village there is only 20 kilometers away from Port-au-Prince, but is pretty much isolated with no electricity, no water, etc. A few years ago, God used Pastor Esperandieu Pierre, his wife and friends to begin a work there to help the people there who live on the edge, providing for themselves the best they can by raising goats and sheep.

Apparently about 40 years ago there were lots of trees in the area, but now it's like a desert with cacti and low thorn bushes. It took a long time for Pastor Pierre and his crew to clear some land, painstakingly digging thorn bushes out of the ground. They now have a church and a school which has grown in the past 4 years to the point where they have 350 students that they feed every day.

We had about 42 children officially participate in the clinic, but we counted 70 playing by the end of the day! We divided them into 7 groups of 6 players by age and rotated them through different training "stations": heading, shooting, dribbling, etc. The exciting part was that we had 5 student soccer players from Quisqueya Christian School helping us, plus Ecdes, who lives with us. This was the first time Ricky and his friends have helped us with a soccer clinic and it was neat to see how well they got along with the kids.

At one of the "stations" we shared the Gospel through a "3 ball" illustration as well as through a Gospel analogy that talks about a little Haitian boy who loved to play soccer. We didn't have them fill out response cards, we just sowed the good seed and pray that God will touch the hearts of the children.

After the soccer clinic, Ricky and his buddies got to drive a "go cart" around the dry desert-like sand and do lots of "donuts". It was a great time of combining ministry with play!

After we left about 2:30 PM we decided to stop at the National Soccer Training Center of Haiti. There we got to see the Haitian U-17 girls national team boarding the bus for a game. We also got to talk with some of the players of the Haitian U-15 national team and we gave each one a Gospel tract and we gave one of their leaders "Pilgrim's Progress" in Creole. Once again we sowed the Good Seed!

We were all tired, dirty and sweaty after a full day of ministry, but happy that we were able to distribute almost 100 tracts and share Christ through stories and illustrations with the 70 that participated in the clinic!

First Training Trip a Learning Experience

This year instead of doing one big (and expensive) training of Haitian leaders just after Christmas as we have done for the past two years thanks to AACH and AIS, we have decided to visit each of the 7 areas where we have set up a regional committee and see how they're doing and also train the local team chaplains in Ken Sande's The Young Peacemaker, which a fellow Crossworld missionary has translated into Creole.

Three people went on this trip: Richard Mears, AIS Haiti Director, Ronald William, AIS Haiti Board member and Coaching Supervisor; Sylvain Nelson, AIS Head Administrator and Chaplain Supervisor.

Our first trip was from Oct. 31st to Nov. 4th and we went to Gonaives. This was the town that was underwater just one year ago. This year they are having the opposite problem: They haven't had rain for over 2 months!

We were thrilled to find the 9-member Regional Committee eager to share their experiences from the summer and also willing to learn how to prepare quarterly reports and learn more about budgets and finance.

After a full day of discussion and training, we presented the Regional Committee with 11 pairs of cleats, 11 pairs of sneakers, and 24 soccer balls – enough for each of the 6 local teams to have 4 balls. (Can you imagine a soccer team in the US trying to function with only 4 balls?). They were happy to get the material and will be responsible for lending out the sneakers and cleats whenever there is a soccer tournament. While there we also did an inventory of the equipment we had given them before the flood and found that they still had most of what we had given them, in spite of the fact that the office where the equipment had been kept had been flooded.
The next day we did training with the 6 chaplains and 6 coaches, one from each team in the region. In the morning we introduced all of them to “The Young Peacemaker” curriculum and then in the afternoon, we had a separate seminar on coaching while the chaplains continued learning about “The Young Peacemakers”.

All throughout the two day seminar we would call a participant out of class so that we could do a personal interview with him. Since we really did not know these volunteers personally, we wanted to get to know them better and also make sure they were Christians who were assured of their salvation and were qualified and “able to teach”, as 2 Tim. 2:2 says. Thankfully, all but one of the volunteers were solid in their faith and we asked the Regional Committee to follow up with the one who was questionable.

Here are a couple of testimonies from these interviews:

“A robber entered our house and killed my father and cousin. I was very upset about this but my Mother said that I had not been killed because God has a plan for me, and so I decided to trust Christ and become a Christian.”

“My Father was very sick and the doctor sent him to Port-au-Prince for an operation. My whole family prayed for his recovery, and the operation was successful! I saw how God answered our prayers and put my trust in Him.”

It never ceases to amaze me how, when you share the vision God has given you with others, and they, intern, get others involved, the work of God can multiply rapidly. In the case of Gonaives, we trained two people through our TREC training program and now there are over 27 leaders involved in the AIS Haiti program there, most of whom we just met for the first time this past weekend!

A busy weekend of soccer tournaments

This past weekend (Sept. 11-13) AIS Haiti sponsored teams in three
different tournaments.  On Friday, our under 16 team from Borel won the
final game 1 to 0 to become the winners of an U-16 regional tournament
sponsored by the Haitian Soccer Federation.  We gave out Bibles to
several of the tournament organizers and the team will participate in a
service of thanksgiving at their local church on Borel.

Also on Friday, our regional committee in Jacmel hosted the final of a
“Ti Kan” (3 per side) tournament.  There were lots of people there and
the Pastor shared the Gospel clearly during half-time.   Lots of
response cards were collected, but so far not one indicated that they
trusted Christ.  Please pray that the Holy Spirit will draw people to
Christ as the evangelism counselors follow up with those who filled out
response cards.

On Sunday Elysee Vaillant, one of our key leaders on the AIS Haiti
board, led his team made up of former Lemuel players into the final of a
“Ti Kan” (3 per side) tournament.  Even though they lost 6 to 3, Elysee
was able to share the Gospel with the players on the other team and give
several community leaders who attended a Bible.  In addition, over 500
evangelistic tracts were handed out to those that attended the game.

Over 1,000 lbs of Soccer Equipment is on its way to Haiti

This summer, thanks to the help of a summer intern named Jason Hoeckele,
we were able to collect and ship lots of soccer equipment and sneakers
to Haiti.  We received a generous donation of balls and sneakers from
Ian Moore, the director of the Alliance of Christian Athletics of Haiti
who also gave us a generous donation towards the cost of the shipping. 
The rest of the cost of shipping came from the money raised at VBS by
Northampton Presbyterian Church who also collected 36 soccer balls for
Haiti!  Please pray that the equipment, which is being shipped by boat,
arrives safely.

Great Trip to Gonaives and Verettes

We just got back safely from our trip. Daniel Jean-Louis, Ronald William and Jackie Klamer (who helped us with the Jen@biz business training seminar last October) went on a long roadtrip to visit with some business leaders in Gonaives who are trying to hold a conference to encourage more people to start businesses in Gonaives after they suffered their second flood in 3 years last November.

I also visited with the Ambassadors in Sport regional committee that lost all the soccer equipment we had given them in 2007 in the flood.

I was very impressed with the 9-member committee in Gonaives and their enthusiasm for the work. On Tuesday morning at 6 AM I did a soccer training with them on a dusty field and also got to share Gospel with them and another team that we invited to train with us.

During a team meeting I told them my personal testimony of how my Father died when I was only 11 years old and also did a Bible study with them on how to live at peace with others.

Our next stop was Verettes where we did a training on Tuesday afternoon for the U-14 team we have their (That made 2 soccer coaching sessions in one day for me!). Then in the evening we had a meeting with 5 members of the Regional Committee in Verettes.

Out of the seven teams that we trained and gave equipment to, only five have participated in planning events in the past year, so we are going to try and encourage the other two teams to be more active.

Then this morning (Wednesday, April 8th) we did another soccer trianing with the boys and girls teams and then did a Bible study with them on peacemaking.

The girls team in Verettes were particularly thrilled to be able to play with Jackie Klammer since they don't often get to see women soccer players as role models.

Thanks to all who prayed for our safety!

Frustrating news

After waiting from 8 am until 2 pm, Richard and Obias were disappointed when Obias was quickly denied the visa to go to the US for to train and minister with AIS International this summer. We're not sure if it's worth applying again this year. Getting visas for Haitians to go to the US is very difficult at this time.

This was particularly disappointing because all of Obias' expenses, from his plane ticket to his room and board for the summer had been provided by AIS and one of our supporting churches.