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!
Showing posts with label ministry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ministry. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
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.
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!
Sunday, May 17, 2009
On their way to Port-de-Paix and Jean Rabel
Richard, Daniel, Sylvain and Elysee were off to the north yesterday. We got up at about 4:30 after a big night at school (Ricky in talent show & our BBall team winning the Championship...maybe another post). We packed books, soccer equipment, speakers, generator, food and water. They left at about 8:30 from our house, picked up Sylvain and Elysee and arrived safely in Port-de-Paix 10 hours later. For those of you who don't know Haiti so well, you're wondering how that can be in this small country. It's a matter of bad roads and loading and unloading people and luggage along the way.
Please pray for them to have a safe trip to Jean Rabel today and for the ministries up there to receive the encouragement and training they need. Also, be praying for the outreaches to be held this summer.
Please pray for them to have a safe trip to Jean Rabel today and for the ministries up there to receive the encouragement and training they need. Also, be praying for the outreaches to be held this summer.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
More pictures from the Leadership Retreat
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Leadership Retreat
This weekend we are having a leadership retreat for AIS-Haiti leaders. This is very important since we will be on Home Ministry this summer. Please pray for the local leaders to be prepared for this summer and for their growth as leaders in general.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Christian Literature Distribution in Haiti
One of our key partners in Haiti is Life Ministries (www.life-ministries.com).
They have supplied us with thousands of tracts, Bibles, and Christian books in Creole that we have distributed during our soccer outreaches and as we follow up.
In addition, we occasionally supply Life Ministry books to other missionaries. Below is a report from one of these missionaries who works in Gonaives, the 3rd largest city in Haiti that was completely destroyed by flooding in 2006 and again in 2008. (Imagine New Orleans flooding again!).
Dear Rich--Just wanted to update you on where the Bibles went that we got from you. We had my Pastor and a team of 12 other people come from my church in El Dorado, Kansas, USA. We had a Crusade in the evenings as well as a Pastor's Seminar during the week. The complete Bibles (24 total) went to the Pastor's Seminar and also 60 of the New Testaments went out at the conference as well. The pastor we have been working with is Pastor Mattieau and he took 60 Bibles to pass out to the people who received Jesus in the Crusade. He also took 50 of the follow-up booklets to disciple the new converts as well. We took 60 Bibles to an orphanage and plan to distribute more there as 60 was not enough. The Bibles have also been given out to the Ladie's Bible Study group that I lead each Monday evening. I just take some each week and give them out to the new ladies who come. So far 30 NT have been given out there. The remaining Bibles have been kept here at my house so when people knock at our gate to get food and clothing we also give them a New Testament. We plan on also giving NT to the Kids' club that we have in our home which is consisting of 20-30 children per week from our neighborhood.
They have supplied us with thousands of tracts, Bibles, and Christian books in Creole that we have distributed during our soccer outreaches and as we follow up.
In addition, we occasionally supply Life Ministry books to other missionaries. Below is a report from one of these missionaries who works in Gonaives, the 3rd largest city in Haiti that was completely destroyed by flooding in 2006 and again in 2008. (Imagine New Orleans flooding again!).
Dear Rich--Just wanted to update you on where the Bibles went that we got from you. We had my Pastor and a team of 12 other people come from my church in El Dorado, Kansas, USA. We had a Crusade in the evenings as well as a Pastor's Seminar during the week. The complete Bibles (24 total) went to the Pastor's Seminar and also 60 of the New Testaments went out at the conference as well. The pastor we have been working with is Pastor Mattieau and he took 60 Bibles to pass out to the people who received Jesus in the Crusade. He also took 50 of the follow-up booklets to disciple the new converts as well. We took 60 Bibles to an orphanage and plan to distribute more there as 60 was not enough. The Bibles have also been given out to the Ladie's Bible Study group that I lead each Monday evening. I just take some each week and give them out to the new ladies who come. So far 30 NT have been given out there. The remaining Bibles have been kept here at my house so when people knock at our gate to get food and clothing we also give them a New Testament. We plan on also giving NT to the Kids' club that we have in our home which is consisting of 20-30 children per week from our neighborhood.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Report on Business Training Seminar
Program:
Thirty-one Haitians between the ages of 18 and 35 attended nine days of entrepreneurial training (Oct. 15-25, 2008) in Port-au-Prince, Haiti made possible through J̬n@biz Р2008, the first annual business development program of the Haitian chapter of Young Americas Business Trust (YABT РHaiti). Twenty percent of the group was female and the rest were male. The participants, from a variety of backgrounds and business experience, shared sessions and group activities where they learned how to do market studies, financial planning and management techniques to help their businesses succeed.
Strategic Objectives:
Capacity-building
Personal and financial disciplines needed to succeed in business
Environmental scanning to identify feasible business opportunities
Organizational leadership to develop teamwork and project management
Entrepreneurship
How to write a business plan
Field research
Marketing their product or service
How to fund their business
Curriculum:
During the first four days of training, leaders and guest speakers provided an overview of business plan development. In the second week, more in-depth sessions were provided in the areas of marketing, production, internet research, management, finances, and the use of information technology in business development.
Throughout the program, an analogy of a tree to the process of business development was unveiled. The seed was compared to the business idea. The soil, the local environment. The need for sunshine was the need for financial capital, while the need for rain was like the need for good personnel. Just as it takes a long time for a tree to grow from a tiny seed, it takes time for a business to develop strong roots and bear fruit. The fruit then attracts birds, which were compared to customers who then go out and spread the word to others if the business is offering a good and attractive product or service.
Activities:
The delegates participated in many small-group activities throughout the training. In one activity, they examined the decisions made by business owners that lead to the gain, loss, and regain of a client’s trust. In groups of ten, each participant acted as a customer at a cyber café. Upon describing a strong reason that a customer places trust in the products and services of the business, participants passed a card representing their level of trust to the “owner” of the café. Each activity was followed by planned group discussions.
During the second week, participants were also required to perform field research each afternoon, exploring their respective target markets, competitors, opportunities, and challenges for their businesses.
Each participant wrote a business plan, complete with financial projections. For the final day of training, many participants prepared a display that highlighted their business plans. Ten participants chose to exhibit their business plan to the group in formal five-minute presentations.
Representatives from two local microcredit institutions gave sessions on their systems of providing financing for small businesses and fielded many questions. In addition, an entrepreneur from Haitian Partners in Christian Development's Business Incubator told the story of how he started his business.
Outcomes:
After nine days of training, most of the 31 participants handed in a business plan to the board of YABT – Haiti. Of the 31, we expect five to ten entrepreneurs will find funding and then we will mentor them for a year as they birth their business ideas into reality. Monthly training will continue for all participants.
The Story of Obias Exilus:
“There are many opportunities, but not enough services. People’s needs are not met.,” says Obias Exilus, owner of Design Plus, an informal printing services business. “It seems that businesspeople are not thinking right. We need more assessments of each area—to do deeper surveys to evaluate the real needs of the areas.”
Exilus was one of 30 participants in the recent entrepreneurship training program, J̬n@biz Р2008, held in Port-au-Prince for nine days. He entered the training with a hope to start Design Plus (a cybercafe and desktop publishing business), and, from the training, walked away with a better understanding of both the challenges and opportunities he holds as an entrepreneur.
“The biggest challenge is the energy problem because of the present price of gasoline used to fuel a generator for a café,” says Exilus. “Instead, we have to be equipped with an invertor or solar panels which takes a lot of money.”
In response to the challenges, Exilus has specific goals to make his business grow. In particular, he recognizes a budding target market which he believes Design Plus is able to meet. “I want to expand it to a cyber café,” says Exilus, “because we have a lot of students in the area who really need a place to do research and complete assignments.”
“Basically, I am learning what to do, what not to do, how to attract people to my...business, and how to increase production,” says Exilus after his experience in Jèn@biz - 2008. “I will get a profit which will help me sustain the business, and have a profit for the employees and myself.”
Acknowledgments:
YABT Haiti thanks the following individuals and organizations for their support of this project:
A Major donor from the US who funded the training
Haititec who provided 8 days use of their conference room for free
Dr. Leslie Jules and the Center for Specilaized Leadership for use of his curriculum.
Eagle Market, One Stop Market and Megamart who contributed drinks
Sogesol and Lumisec, two financial institutions who made presentations, reviewed the business plans and will finance several of the start ups.
The YABT Haiti board and teaching staff
TeleNational who filmed interviews and student presentations at the closing program.
Haitian Partners in Christian Development
AACH who handled the finances
Thirty-one Haitians between the ages of 18 and 35 attended nine days of entrepreneurial training (Oct. 15-25, 2008) in Port-au-Prince, Haiti made possible through J̬n@biz Р2008, the first annual business development program of the Haitian chapter of Young Americas Business Trust (YABT РHaiti). Twenty percent of the group was female and the rest were male. The participants, from a variety of backgrounds and business experience, shared sessions and group activities where they learned how to do market studies, financial planning and management techniques to help their businesses succeed.
Strategic Objectives:
Capacity-building
Personal and financial disciplines needed to succeed in business
Environmental scanning to identify feasible business opportunities
Organizational leadership to develop teamwork and project management
Entrepreneurship
How to write a business plan
Field research
Marketing their product or service
How to fund their business
Curriculum:
During the first four days of training, leaders and guest speakers provided an overview of business plan development. In the second week, more in-depth sessions were provided in the areas of marketing, production, internet research, management, finances, and the use of information technology in business development.
Throughout the program, an analogy of a tree to the process of business development was unveiled. The seed was compared to the business idea. The soil, the local environment. The need for sunshine was the need for financial capital, while the need for rain was like the need for good personnel. Just as it takes a long time for a tree to grow from a tiny seed, it takes time for a business to develop strong roots and bear fruit. The fruit then attracts birds, which were compared to customers who then go out and spread the word to others if the business is offering a good and attractive product or service.
Activities:
The delegates participated in many small-group activities throughout the training. In one activity, they examined the decisions made by business owners that lead to the gain, loss, and regain of a client’s trust. In groups of ten, each participant acted as a customer at a cyber café. Upon describing a strong reason that a customer places trust in the products and services of the business, participants passed a card representing their level of trust to the “owner” of the café. Each activity was followed by planned group discussions.
During the second week, participants were also required to perform field research each afternoon, exploring their respective target markets, competitors, opportunities, and challenges for their businesses.
Each participant wrote a business plan, complete with financial projections. For the final day of training, many participants prepared a display that highlighted their business plans. Ten participants chose to exhibit their business plan to the group in formal five-minute presentations.
Representatives from two local microcredit institutions gave sessions on their systems of providing financing for small businesses and fielded many questions. In addition, an entrepreneur from Haitian Partners in Christian Development's Business Incubator told the story of how he started his business.
Outcomes:
After nine days of training, most of the 31 participants handed in a business plan to the board of YABT – Haiti. Of the 31, we expect five to ten entrepreneurs will find funding and then we will mentor them for a year as they birth their business ideas into reality. Monthly training will continue for all participants.
The Story of Obias Exilus:
“There are many opportunities, but not enough services. People’s needs are not met.,” says Obias Exilus, owner of Design Plus, an informal printing services business. “It seems that businesspeople are not thinking right. We need more assessments of each area—to do deeper surveys to evaluate the real needs of the areas.”
Exilus was one of 30 participants in the recent entrepreneurship training program, J̬n@biz Р2008, held in Port-au-Prince for nine days. He entered the training with a hope to start Design Plus (a cybercafe and desktop publishing business), and, from the training, walked away with a better understanding of both the challenges and opportunities he holds as an entrepreneur.
“The biggest challenge is the energy problem because of the present price of gasoline used to fuel a generator for a café,” says Exilus. “Instead, we have to be equipped with an invertor or solar panels which takes a lot of money.”
In response to the challenges, Exilus has specific goals to make his business grow. In particular, he recognizes a budding target market which he believes Design Plus is able to meet. “I want to expand it to a cyber café,” says Exilus, “because we have a lot of students in the area who really need a place to do research and complete assignments.”
“Basically, I am learning what to do, what not to do, how to attract people to my...business, and how to increase production,” says Exilus after his experience in Jèn@biz - 2008. “I will get a profit which will help me sustain the business, and have a profit for the employees and myself.”
Acknowledgments:
YABT Haiti thanks the following individuals and organizations for their support of this project:
A Major donor from the US who funded the training
Haititec who provided 8 days use of their conference room for free
Dr. Leslie Jules and the Center for Specilaized Leadership for use of his curriculum.
Eagle Market, One Stop Market and Megamart who contributed drinks
Sogesol and Lumisec, two financial institutions who made presentations, reviewed the business plans and will finance several of the start ups.
The YABT Haiti board and teaching staff
TeleNational who filmed interviews and student presentations at the closing program.
Haitian Partners in Christian Development
AACH who handled the finances
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Difficult Day at Fort Jacques
Yesterday (Sunday) afternoon we went up to Fort Jacques for the final match in the tournament up there and to show the film "Le Combat." Things started out very well. We had bought a new cable for the speaker and we were playing lively Christian (Haitian) music while people were filling the stands.
The game got started a bit later than we had planned on, but it was off to a good start. Claudy, our contact from the local church was there. He kept his suit on from church, we guessed because he was in a hurry. His church had had a harvest festival which ended at 3 p.m. Now I wonder if there are other reasons he would wear the suit. Young people in the neighborhood respect and listen to him, and we found out that that is very important.
Marken was there as comentator (he had helped out in this way earlier in the week, too.). He's good at it and knows the names of most of the players.
During half time Celestin, a STEP Seminary Student presented the gospel and other STEP students gave out cards for people to sign up for a drawing and indicate if they were interested in trusting Christ, being in a Bible study, etc.
Sadly, after halftime people started getting angry and a spectator threw a rock at a player. Then lots of people started throwing rocks at each other. It's such a shame when a few people ruin a nice thing for everyone. Many people in the stands came running towards us to get behind the community center. I (Carol) went inside with the computer I was using to play music. The comentator tried his best to calm things down, as well as Claudy and others. Our group got together in the Community Center to pray while others continued to try to calm things down and convince the players to finish the game. People stopped throwing rocks, but were still angry, so the game had to end. So that the crowd would not get angrier, the trophy was given to the winning team.
We prayed and talked about whether we should still show the film. Our friend, Mme. Levy and I were the only ladies and we said we weren't too afraid, so we decided to try to show the movie.
When the kids and teenagers came into the community center they were loud and rowdy. They would not calm down enough for us to do the drawing--most people couldn't hear us, so we started the movie and they quieted down. We even had problems with the computer freezing up for a few seconds many times during the second half of the movie. Everyone laughed when a man who was being baptized was held under the water by the pastor and the picture froze like that. I couldn't help laughing. But the movie came back on after several seconds. Celestin did a good job staying cool (as did all of our Haitian volunteers) and at one point when I was trying to get the computer the stop freezing up, he talked a bit more about the gospel and the point of the film.
Then, it was very late when we finally did the drawing and many peoples' names were called who had left by this time. We kept drawing names until we had winners who were present.
When we packed up and started heading down the mountain, it was late. We ended up driving some of our volunteers home and one had to stay overnight with us because he lives further away. We got home exhausted and very aware of how hard the work is sometimes and how we need God's wisdom to reach tough kids. Please pray for them and for us to be able to reach out in ways that are effective according to God's plan. It doesn't have to be according to our plan, but we want people, especially young people, to hear and understand God's message of love.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
One without hope in Haiti
Nothing focuses us more on life than death.
On Tuesday, July 8th I took some of my former Lemuel Soccer team players and the coach of College Evangelique Maranatha up to scenic Ft. Jacques to help me with an evangelistic soccer tournament we were organizing.
Ft. Jacques is a fort that was build in the early 1800's to defend PAP against the impending invasion of the French after Haiti won it's independence in 1804. It has a spectacular view of the city and is a favorite place for young couples to meet and find a secluded corner to snuggle in.
The young men who went with me had never visited Ft. Jacques before and there was a break in the action, so I said they could go on a tour of the fort. They started to enjoy the view with the binoculars I had lent them when they heard a commotion behind them. They turned around to see a group of people standing around a hefty young man who was dressed nicely and had new sneakers on his feet. But this young man was flat on his back and his new jeans had bleach stains all over them – you see he had tried to commit suicide by drinking clorox bleach and was writhing in pain and convulsions. This young man, obviously not a poor young man, had lost all hope and had tried to take his life.
Since I was the only one around who had a car, the coach ran to get me and I quickly backed the car up to a place they could carry him to. However, the people there said I should contact the police first because if he died in my car on the way to the hospital, I could be held liable. Fortunately, this had already been done by a “good samaritan” and we were able to lay him in the back seat of the car, wreaking of clorox and vomit.
As we drove him down to the hospital, we prayed that God would save his life and give him another chance. It also caused me to reflect on life in this country of Haiti, and why I am here. I honestly wonder why there aren't more suicides here because without Christ, I don't see much hope for the people socially or economically. But I know God loves the people of Haiti, because he is still sending Christians here to minister to the rich and the poor, the families and the orphans.
This past week I had the opportunity to lead many people to Christ, as over 120 people indicated they trusted Christ for salvation. On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to perhaps physically save the life of this young man who was without hope. Naturally, I would rather talk to people about Christ before they become hopeless and try to take their own lives. But on Tuesday, it was clear that I was at Ft. Jacques “for such a time as this”.
The last thing I heard about the young man was he was transferred to the public hospital. Please pray for his physical and spiritual healing.
Maybe God won't call you to physically save a life today, but you can always encourage others with a smile, kind deed, prayer or act of generosity – just like Christ did when he was on earth. Who knows, you may give hope to the hopeless.
On Tuesday, July 8th I took some of my former Lemuel Soccer team players and the coach of College Evangelique Maranatha up to scenic Ft. Jacques to help me with an evangelistic soccer tournament we were organizing.
Ft. Jacques is a fort that was build in the early 1800's to defend PAP against the impending invasion of the French after Haiti won it's independence in 1804. It has a spectacular view of the city and is a favorite place for young couples to meet and find a secluded corner to snuggle in.
The young men who went with me had never visited Ft. Jacques before and there was a break in the action, so I said they could go on a tour of the fort. They started to enjoy the view with the binoculars I had lent them when they heard a commotion behind them. They turned around to see a group of people standing around a hefty young man who was dressed nicely and had new sneakers on his feet. But this young man was flat on his back and his new jeans had bleach stains all over them – you see he had tried to commit suicide by drinking clorox bleach and was writhing in pain and convulsions. This young man, obviously not a poor young man, had lost all hope and had tried to take his life.
Since I was the only one around who had a car, the coach ran to get me and I quickly backed the car up to a place they could carry him to. However, the people there said I should contact the police first because if he died in my car on the way to the hospital, I could be held liable. Fortunately, this had already been done by a “good samaritan” and we were able to lay him in the back seat of the car, wreaking of clorox and vomit.
As we drove him down to the hospital, we prayed that God would save his life and give him another chance. It also caused me to reflect on life in this country of Haiti, and why I am here. I honestly wonder why there aren't more suicides here because without Christ, I don't see much hope for the people socially or economically. But I know God loves the people of Haiti, because he is still sending Christians here to minister to the rich and the poor, the families and the orphans.
This past week I had the opportunity to lead many people to Christ, as over 120 people indicated they trusted Christ for salvation. On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to perhaps physically save the life of this young man who was without hope. Naturally, I would rather talk to people about Christ before they become hopeless and try to take their own lives. But on Tuesday, it was clear that I was at Ft. Jacques “for such a time as this”.
The last thing I heard about the young man was he was transferred to the public hospital. Please pray for his physical and spiritual healing.
Maybe God won't call you to physically save a life today, but you can always encourage others with a smile, kind deed, prayer or act of generosity – just like Christ did when he was on earth. Who knows, you may give hope to the hopeless.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Teams, Tournaments, even one for girls!
On Saturday, July 5th Ian Moore, Jonathan Bryant, Steven Gassaway from the US and Frantz and Jean Paul, our Haitian helpers all arrived safely back in Port-au-Prince. God protected us in many ways on this two-week trip around Haiti. No one got seriously sick, the truck did not break down, there were no accidents, nothing of great value was stolen, and we did not run out of money. We drove over 500 miles on some of the roughest roads of Haiti. The roads were so rough that my metal cage around the back of my truck came un-welded in several places and by the time we reached home every seam was cracked. Thankfully, this happened on the last day as we were entering Port-au-Prince, otherwise we would have had major packing problems!
Another AACH team arrived in Port-au-Prince on Saturday as well. Opal Golden and three High School students from the school she teaches at in New York state arrived and we all had a grand reunion at our house. Altogether, 13 people ate and slept at our house on Saturday night – a record for sure. Four of the guys slept on our roof to escape the heat and humidity in our house.
This team was headed to Les Cayes in southern Haiti to run a U-15 tournament for boys from July 7-13th and the first ever girl's tournament from July 14-20th.
Thanks to the generosity of another ministry, we now have another truck for the AACH/AIS soccer ministries to share. It is a big 'ol Chevy pick up, army vintage with a diesel engine that has benches and lots of room for stuff.
We packed up the team heading off to Les Cayes on early Sunday morning and sent them on their way. They have been having a great time helping with the tournament there and have been working hard to build relationships with local churches so that those who trust Christ through the many outreaches during the tournament can be followed up with.
Just before we left we posed in front of the big truck for a picture. (Hopefully we'll be able to upload that soon) It's neat to think that just about two years ago Carol and I returned to Haiti with a vision for using soccer as a tool for evangelism not knowing anyone else who had the same vision. Now through our partnership with AACH, we have hosted two teams from the US and now work with about 100 Haitian leaders in 8 out of the 11 departments (like states) in Haiti.
Another AACH team arrived in Port-au-Prince on Saturday as well. Opal Golden and three High School students from the school she teaches at in New York state arrived and we all had a grand reunion at our house. Altogether, 13 people ate and slept at our house on Saturday night – a record for sure. Four of the guys slept on our roof to escape the heat and humidity in our house.
This team was headed to Les Cayes in southern Haiti to run a U-15 tournament for boys from July 7-13th and the first ever girl's tournament from July 14-20th.
Thanks to the generosity of another ministry, we now have another truck for the AACH/AIS soccer ministries to share. It is a big 'ol Chevy pick up, army vintage with a diesel engine that has benches and lots of room for stuff.
We packed up the team heading off to Les Cayes on early Sunday morning and sent them on their way. They have been having a great time helping with the tournament there and have been working hard to build relationships with local churches so that those who trust Christ through the many outreaches during the tournament can be followed up with.
Just before we left we posed in front of the big truck for a picture. (Hopefully we'll be able to upload that soon) It's neat to think that just about two years ago Carol and I returned to Haiti with a vision for using soccer as a tool for evangelism not knowing anyone else who had the same vision. Now through our partnership with AACH, we have hosted two teams from the US and now work with about 100 Haitian leaders in 8 out of the 11 departments (like states) in Haiti.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
One down – Seven to go!
The summer U-15 soccer tournament at Verettes is officially over. The final and semi-final matches were both hard-fought games which ended in ties and had to be decided by penalty kicks.
In the end, it was the team from Borel that won the tournament. Apparently, their coach did a good job teaching them how to shoot penalty kicks!
The semi-final game between the home team Verettes and the visitor Borel was the best game of the tournament. Verettes dominated the first half and scored two goals. It looked like they were going to win the game. But about 10 minutes into the second half, they were awarded a penalty kick and scored making it 2-1. Then a miraculous goal just before the game ended tied the game, sending the game to penalty kicks. The goalie of Borel made two spectacular saves to lead his team to victory.
Two semi-final games were played on June 25th with the final being June 26th. Our Haitian brothers who did the evangelism did a great job sharing the Gospel at all the games. At one game he told the story of a boy who always wanted a soccer ball, so his Father worked and saved in order to buy him one. The boy loved that ball and played with it every day. One day he came home hot and tired after playing and opened the window in his bedroom and went to sleep with the ball beside him. When he woke up, the ball was not there. Someone had stolen the ball. A few weeks later he was still sad about the ball and was walking through town when he saw his ball for sale in a store. He knew it was his ball because he had made a mark on it. (In Haitian society, you can’t accuse someone of stealing unless you catch them red-handed.) So the boy told his Father, who then worked hard to buy the ball back for the boy. The Haitian evangelist went on to explain that, even though Satan “stole” the good things God prepared for us in the Garden of Eden by tempting Adam and Eve to sin, Jesus paid the price to restore us to God and eventually all things will be restored to us in the new heaven and new earth.
About 40 people indicated that they trusted Christ through these games and we collected well over 400 response cards. Through our partnership with 5 local churches in the area, each one of the people who responded will be followed up with.
In addition to the Gospel presentation at the games, we also have done two soccer clinics this week: One for young boys and another for girls where we presented the Gospel. Then on Thursday night, June 26th we showed two evangelistic films that were produced in Africa that contrasted African voodoo with Christianity. We had about 300 people at these films and many seemed to understand the message the films conveyed.
This afternoon we will do a soccer clinic for some churches up in the mountains surrounding Verettes. The youth in this area do not have the same opportunities to be coached as those who live in town, and we want to show these out-lying churches how they can use sports as a tool for evangelism.
Tomorrow we will visit a local church who is helping us with the follow up and rejoice with them over the work that God has done in their community this week. Then we will head to our next tournament in the North of Haiti in a town called Limbe.
Please continue to pray for God to touch the hearts many through these tournaments and for safety on the roads!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Lots of Help
Lots of Help!
This past Sunday (June 22nd, 2008), Ian Moore, the founder and director of AACH arrived at my house with 2 College students from James Madison University; Jonathan Bryant and Steven Gassaway. They came to help with the tournaments, do soccer clinics and learn about missions in Haiti. We will be together for two weeks and will visit 4 out of the 8 towns where we are holding soccer tournaments: Verettes, Limbe, St. Rafael and Hinche.
In addition, we have a Haitian Seminary student with us named Jean Paul who is helping us with the Bible studies for the players on the teams and also presenting the Gospel at half-time. Like most Haitian boys, he grew up without a Father in his life for many years, in his case because his birth was the result of an affair. His Father eventually became a Christian and accepted some responsibility for him financially and also let him live with him for a while, but some times he felt like a ping-pong ball going back and forth between his Mom and Dad. He became a Christian and while studying law at a University and felt God calling him to become a Pastor.
We are also getting lots of help with the tournaments from the committees we set up in each town. In Verettes, there is a committee of 9 men who have taken complete responsibility for planning the tournament and they have done a great job.
Please pray that we will stay healthy and safe, that people will hear, understand and accept the Gospel and the leaders we have trained will learn through their experiences this summer.
This past Sunday (June 22nd, 2008), Ian Moore, the founder and director of AACH arrived at my house with 2 College students from James Madison University; Jonathan Bryant and Steven Gassaway. They came to help with the tournaments, do soccer clinics and learn about missions in Haiti. We will be together for two weeks and will visit 4 out of the 8 towns where we are holding soccer tournaments: Verettes, Limbe, St. Rafael and Hinche.
In addition, we have a Haitian Seminary student with us named Jean Paul who is helping us with the Bible studies for the players on the teams and also presenting the Gospel at half-time. Like most Haitian boys, he grew up without a Father in his life for many years, in his case because his birth was the result of an affair. His Father eventually became a Christian and accepted some responsibility for him financially and also let him live with him for a while, but some times he felt like a ping-pong ball going back and forth between his Mom and Dad. He became a Christian and while studying law at a University and felt God calling him to become a Pastor.
We are also getting lots of help with the tournaments from the committees we set up in each town. In Verettes, there is a committee of 9 men who have taken complete responsibility for planning the tournament and they have done a great job.
Please pray that we will stay healthy and safe, that people will hear, understand and accept the Gospel and the leaders we have trained will learn through their experiences this summer.
A Dream Come True
How do you feel when a dream becomes a reality?
On June 23rd the first game of our 8 summer soccer tournaments was played. Seeing the 13-15 year old boys in the beautiful new uniforms that were donated almost brought tears to my eyes since the week before it had taken me three days and $400 to get them out of customs.
But it was a beautiful afternoon for soccer and the two teams played a good, but lopsided match with Borel beating Gonaives 4-0. (Gonaives is the town that was totally destroyed by a flood the same fall as New Orleans – we hope to have a tournament there next year.)
Thanks to the new sound system provided by Northampton Presbyterian Church, we were able to present the Gospel to the spectators at the match, and will continue to do this at half-time and after the games for the next 6 games of the tournament.
Yesterday we presented the Gospel at 3 soccer games to about 400 people, and also at a soccer clinic for boys and girls with about 60 participants.
Today in the afternoon are the semi-finals of the tournament and we will have two games with the final tomorrow. This morning we are doing a soccer clinic with coaches and kids from the area.
On June 23rd the first game of our 8 summer soccer tournaments was played. Seeing the 13-15 year old boys in the beautiful new uniforms that were donated almost brought tears to my eyes since the week before it had taken me three days and $400 to get them out of customs.
But it was a beautiful afternoon for soccer and the two teams played a good, but lopsided match with Borel beating Gonaives 4-0. (Gonaives is the town that was totally destroyed by a flood the same fall as New Orleans – we hope to have a tournament there next year.)
Thanks to the new sound system provided by Northampton Presbyterian Church, we were able to present the Gospel to the spectators at the match, and will continue to do this at half-time and after the games for the next 6 games of the tournament.
Yesterday we presented the Gospel at 3 soccer games to about 400 people, and also at a soccer clinic for boys and girls with about 60 participants.
Today in the afternoon are the semi-finals of the tournament and we will have two games with the final tomorrow. This morning we are doing a soccer clinic with coaches and kids from the area.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Australian Film Crew
Here's "our Australian film crew" :) (see below). Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of them filming or taking pictures, but Here they are having a meal at our house and jamming with our kids.
Thank you Andrew, Connie and Andrew!
Thank you Andrew, Connie and Andrew!
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Sunday, May 4, 2008
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.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Great Afternoon of Ministry
Sometimes you forget the things you really love to do when you haven't done them for a while!
Yesterday I had the opportunity to coach and do a Gospel presentation to about 30 Haitian boys between 10 and 12 years old.
I was introduced to this team by my good friend Louis Price-Mars who is working with gang leaders and business owners to try and reduce violence in one section of Port-au-Prince. He saw this former professional soccer player working with kids in the area and wanted to encourage him so he asked me to meet him and see how we could help.
The boys were very well-behaved and I had a great time coaching them. They loved it when I was "monkey-in-the-middle" and they had to keep the ball away from me! Then I taught them a passing drill that even players twice their age have trouble with and they got it right away.
Afterwards we talked about how soccer has rules and if you break the rules, you probably won't win the game. Then I transitioned into how God gave us certian rules to follow in the Bible and how we can't possibly follow all those rules. That's why God had to send Jesus: to forgive us for breaking the rules and help us "win" the game of life.
A small crowd had gathered in addition to the 30 boys and I could see that many were really listening.
Afterwards I gave the coach a Gospel tract and some materials he could use to teach the boys more about Jesus.
Our follow up plan is to make contact with some of the local churches the boys already attend and help them follow up with the boys. We also have several coaches we trained in December who live near the neighborhood and hope to put them in touch with this team.
These days most of my time is spend in administration and organizing, and I really miss coaching and being with kids - so I'll have to do this more often!!
Yesterday I had the opportunity to coach and do a Gospel presentation to about 30 Haitian boys between 10 and 12 years old.
I was introduced to this team by my good friend Louis Price-Mars who is working with gang leaders and business owners to try and reduce violence in one section of Port-au-Prince. He saw this former professional soccer player working with kids in the area and wanted to encourage him so he asked me to meet him and see how we could help.
The boys were very well-behaved and I had a great time coaching them. They loved it when I was "monkey-in-the-middle" and they had to keep the ball away from me! Then I taught them a passing drill that even players twice their age have trouble with and they got it right away.
Afterwards we talked about how soccer has rules and if you break the rules, you probably won't win the game. Then I transitioned into how God gave us certian rules to follow in the Bible and how we can't possibly follow all those rules. That's why God had to send Jesus: to forgive us for breaking the rules and help us "win" the game of life.
A small crowd had gathered in addition to the 30 boys and I could see that many were really listening.
Afterwards I gave the coach a Gospel tract and some materials he could use to teach the boys more about Jesus.
Our follow up plan is to make contact with some of the local churches the boys already attend and help them follow up with the boys. We also have several coaches we trained in December who live near the neighborhood and hope to put them in touch with this team.
These days most of my time is spend in administration and organizing, and I really miss coaching and being with kids - so I'll have to do this more often!!
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Everyday Opportunities
Several times, our Ambassdors’ cybercafé has provided an opportunity to talk with people about faith in Jesus (Well, OK it’s really the Holy Spirit, but the cybercafé is a vehicle). On Friday Rich had two of these opportunities.
The first happened because a lady’s cell phone kept ringing with a loud musical ringtone that was bothering others in this small room. Someone turned and asked her to shut it off or answer it. Richard could tell that the customer was a little upset by the way it was said. So when she was leaving, he grabbed a “15-minutes-free internet navigation” coupon and followed her outside to give it to her. He tried to smooth things over and she ended up asking him where he goes to church. To his surprise she spoke in English. She said she’s been feeling that she needs to go to church again. Rich told her about the English-speaking church we sometimes attend called Quisqueya Chapel. He gave her the Pastor’s phone number and encouraged her to make an appointment with the Pastor’s wife to talk about her desire to get closer to God.
The second time was when Richard and Dorothy were interviewing someone to do translation work (we share the space with Dorothy and her ministry includes translation work). Since it is a ministry, they asked him about his faith using the question: “If you were to die today, are you sure you would be going to heaven?” He said he was not sure but answered that he tries to live the way his mother taught him to live. This led to an interesting discussion and Rich got to share with him that the Bible makes it clear in 1 John chapter 5 in the thirteenth verse that those who trust in Jesus can know that they have eternal life. He said everything we talked about made sense and said he would think about our discussion and let us know if he makes a decision to trust in Christ!
The first happened because a lady’s cell phone kept ringing with a loud musical ringtone that was bothering others in this small room. Someone turned and asked her to shut it off or answer it. Richard could tell that the customer was a little upset by the way it was said. So when she was leaving, he grabbed a “15-minutes-free internet navigation” coupon and followed her outside to give it to her. He tried to smooth things over and she ended up asking him where he goes to church. To his surprise she spoke in English. She said she’s been feeling that she needs to go to church again. Rich told her about the English-speaking church we sometimes attend called Quisqueya Chapel. He gave her the Pastor’s phone number and encouraged her to make an appointment with the Pastor’s wife to talk about her desire to get closer to God.
The second time was when Richard and Dorothy were interviewing someone to do translation work (we share the space with Dorothy and her ministry includes translation work). Since it is a ministry, they asked him about his faith using the question: “If you were to die today, are you sure you would be going to heaven?” He said he was not sure but answered that he tries to live the way his mother taught him to live. This led to an interesting discussion and Rich got to share with him that the Bible makes it clear in 1 John chapter 5 in the thirteenth verse that those who trust in Jesus can know that they have eternal life. He said everything we talked about made sense and said he would think about our discussion and let us know if he makes a decision to trust in Christ!
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