Verrettes Tournament plans for the summer

Richard and Daniel went out to Verrettes on Thursday to meet with the TREC graduates out there and planned the tournament for this summer. There was a great turnout for the meeting and dates were chosen for the last week of June. Please pray with us for all of the tournaments for summer 2008--that God will provide all that is needed and that they will be used for His glory.

Happy New Year!

We wish all of you a happy, healthy, new year for 2008.
May you sense His presence, know His will for your days and Grow to love Him more every moment. We thank God for all He has done this year to keep us safe and healthy and able to serve Him.

Thank you for reading our blog. Of course, since it's that time of year, we're making resolutions to write more frequently. We've been really busy this month with the end of the quarter at school, Christmas and of course, the TREC training. Today I will be posting several entries now that I got Richard to come home for a few hours and we got some pictures.

Soccer Match

The emphasis for the first 2 days of training was on soccer and evangelism. Pastor Sony Camilus of Campus Pour Christ in Haiti did the evangelism training. Then we gave the participants the opportunity to put what they learned into practice by organizing an exhibition soccer game between the Haitian Coast Guard team and the Radio Megastar team. It was an exciting match with each team trading goals until the Coast Guard team finally prevailed 3-2. But was even more exciting was that over 300 people attended the game and filled out response cards. Many indicated that they had trusted in Christ!

A Defining Moment

There are certain times in your life when you get a glimpse of why God created you. One of those times is when you hold your children in your arms for the first time. They look up at you and you understand the joy of seeing a new life just begun.

I had another moment like that after our evangelistic soccer match. I was heading toward the truck after the game, exhausted and just wanting to get things packed up and get back to the guesthouse so I could rest. As I approached the car, I saw several of our participants talking to a young man with a soccer ball in his hand. It turned out that the young man named Louis James had just won the soccer ball in the drawing we had just held for those who turned in their response cards. The conference participants were very excited and introduced me to James and told me that he would like to trust Christ as his Savior. I talked to the young man and shared with him some Bible verses and then he started his new relationship with Christ that very moment!

This is the second birth that the apostle John talks about in John 3. To me it was just as exciting as the birth of any one of my children – and this second birth means that I will see Louis in heaven and spend eternity with him!

Pictures of the Coach training

Here are some pictures of the coach training.

TREC - a good start

They came from the North, they came from the South, in all, Haitian representatives came from 6 out of the 9 “departments” around Haiti. On Wednesday, December 26, 2007 about 45 Christian leaders and school teachers came to Port-au Prince to participate in a 10 day intensive training program on how to start and in some cases continue evangelistic soccer teams in their churches and schools.

These men made great sacrifices to come to this training: First they gave up most of their Christmas & New Year’s holiday to come to this training, and second, most of them paid their own way to come. In one case, 3 coaches left the north coast of Haiti at 2 AM and arrived in PAP at 6 AM after traveling over the roughest (and dustiest) roads imaginable.

The seminar kicked off with two special guests: Ian Moore, the founder and president of the Association of Christian Athletics of Haiti, and his friend Georges Edeline. Georges Edeline is among the elite coaches in the US who have the USAF’s “A” license. He has over 40 years of coaching experience, and has helped many Haitian players get scholarships to play in the US. Among them is a well-known Haitian economist that has a radio program named Kesner Farrell who was one of his first recruits at George Washington University.

Since Georges was born in Haiti, he is fluent in Creole and loved being back on the soccer fields of Haiti where he grew up. Our coaches benefited greatly from his vast coaching experience, and his jovial demeanor that immediately attracted them to his style of teaching. Thank you, Georges!

Soccer Match

In spite of some logistical difficulties, the soccer match went well. Richard was busy today with the showing of the Jesus Film, but he'll post as soon as he can. What I know so far is that several people were interested in what they heard and indicated a desire to trust in Christ. Richard prayed with one person who received Christ.

Evangelistic Soccer Match & Jesus Film

Please pray for the evangelistic soccer match tomorrow that is part of the training for the future leaders of soccer ministries. The game will be tomorrow (Saturday) and everyone will be invited to come back to see the Jesus Film on Sunday afternoon.

Pray for the logistics, for those who ccould and those who will attend. Pray for the particpants to catch a vision for this type of outreach in their areas.

Good start to Soccer Ministry Training

Thanks for your prayers. The soccer ministry training got off to a good start yesterday. Almost 50 participants arrived by Wednesday night and got settled at Ormiso, a conference center in Carrefour. Although we were disappointed that it didn't work out to have the training at Titayen, it's been good to have it closer to home. Richard has come back home yesterday and today to get more cleats, sneakers, socks, shorts and balls. The kids and I are at home, though so we don't have a lot of details, but here's a little about what's been happening.

For the first two days we were able to use the National Stadium from 8-10 am. (Originally we were to use the stadium everyday, but the Federation changed their plans and decided they needed to close the stadium for the rest of the holidays.) After that, they've had sessions on "Methods of Evangelism," "Role of the Coach."

Hopefully we'll have pictures up tomorrow night.

TREC 07-08: A trip to visit the school Directors and tell them about the training

This past Saturday Rich drove to Verettes, a small town in the middle of Haiti with two other Haitian colleagues to speak with the Directors of 7 Haitian primary schools in the area about TREC 07-08, a training we are planning for Dec. 26, 2007 to Jan. 5th, 2008. The purpose of the training will be to help these schools start evangelistic soccer teams.

We are very excited about this training because about 8 highly qualified soccer coaches are coming from the US for 10 days to help us.

All the school directors were very excited about the idea of having teams at their schools, and were motivated to pick 3 teachers from each school to attend the training.

Now we're waiting to get the applications back so we can see who can come!