Prayer Requests

Please pray for safety for Richard as he drives around town. He did a special meeting this morning with the leaders of an IDP tent camp that is going to be disbanded soon. The people need wisdom and help with people getting resettled. Thank God for a church in Pennsylvania who is partnering with the church at this site to pray for, to have a partnership with them and help in whatever way God leads them.

Please pray for Ronald and Sylvain who are up north (again) conducting training.

Pray for the YABT training that will continue this weekend at Young Life.

thanks!

Neighborhood Soccer Outreach tonight!

In many neighborhoods in Haiti they hold "Ti Kan"(small goal - about 2ft by 1 ft) 3 on 3 soccer tournaments during the summer to provide some healthy activities for youth. They hold these tournaments around 10 PM because they block off the streets to have a place to play.

When I (Rich) got back to Haiti at the end of July our neighborhood was making preparations to hold one of these tournaments so I prayed about how we could use this event for evangelism and I talked to some of the young men who play "ti Kan" with Ricky and I in our driveway most evenings. We decided to enter the tournament and also got the idea of partnering with Campus Crusade for Christ and a local church to show the "Jesus Film" before the semi-final games tonight. We will then do clear presentation of the Gospel at halftime and invite people to trust in Christ.

Please pray that it does not rain and that lots of people will come before the games to watch the movie. Pray also that the Holy Spirit touches the hearts of many people and opens their eyes to their need of salvation. Thanks!

Pray for Joy - at a medical clinc

Our daughter, Joy, left yesterday to go to Seguin, up in the mountains, to help out in a medical clinic and learn more about what it's like to work in one. Teresa Murphy, who works in the Haitian Christian Outreach, often has college interns come and work with her, and we were really happy that she was willing to have Joy even though she's still in high school.

You can check out the website of this ministry at: wwww.haitianchristian.org look at the medical clinic page or the picture page.

Prayer needed for a friend

Please pray for a friend of ours, Pierre (yes, that's a very common name here...a little anonimity is good...and God will know who it is). Let me tell it this way...

Church on Sunday started out very differently at the English church. The person leading worship for this week just started talking about how there had been some problems between church members during the week. She openly confessed a sin of her own and then asked forgiveness of the church. She suggested that all of us examine our hearts and get up to go ask forgiveness of anyone we had problem with. Then she excused herself to go ask forgiveness of an individual in the church.

All of this had a big effect on this friend of ours. As soon as church was over, he told Richard that he had been doing some confessing himself of some sins that have had a big impact on his life, and in fact he had been hiding it. He is involved with a woman, has had a child with her and they are having a lot of conflict. There have been other consequences, too. We've always known him to be a very humble person with a big heart who is always ready to help with ministry. We prayed with him right then and are trying to stay in close touch with him to help them in any way we can. We appreciate your prayers.

Pray for training this Saturday

We're back in country. Sorry for the long delay in posting. We had a nice time visiting family, friends and churches. I took a course in curriculum design and assessment at PBU which turned out to be very interesting and very practical.

Please pray with us for a mobilization training session for follow-up in Port-au-Prince.

This Saturday we are hosting a mobilization training session for the area leaders of those who are doing the follow-up on those who responded during the Cleveland City Stars tour. Instead of working directly with 200 or so volunteers, Richard and Pastor Bilda (Director of the Bible League in Haiti) chose leaders in 8 different areas of the city. These leaders plus an assistant will be at the training. It's great to have these people to work with since Pastor Bilda has been working with them on a discipleship project (Project Philippe). Also, leaders from churches in each area are invited as well. Some leaders from Arcahaie and Saint Marc will be there, too.

Follow-up in Cap Haitien is being done independently. We’ll update you when we get news of how that’s going.

So, this week is busy already with preparation for the session, advertising the truck for sale (no, the truck still has not sold), and I’m finishing my paper for the class I took in July.

A Visitor!

Tim Ferri, a friend from our home church, Crossing Community Church is coming to visit us. He will arrive on Saturday and stay for a week. Tim has been a faithful member of Crossing, and we appreciate the influence he has had on our kids in Crossing's youth ministry. We've worked with him at an outreach in the Kensington section of Philadelphia, too.

Tim's goals are basically to enlarge his mission vision, to check out the possiblity of bringing a work team to Haiti in the future and to see how God may use his skills in basketball to reach Haitian youth. We have a couple of basketball clinics planned for next week and Tim will join us on our trip to Verrettes next week to see the needs of the schools out there. He will also be helping us with other ministry activities during the week.

We've really been looking forward to his visit...he's been a great encouragement to us, espcially of the past year or so, in our efforts to get back to Haiti, and get the new ministry going. Please pray for the basketball clinics and that God will use this week according to His will in all of our lives.

Pray for Richard's trip to Cap Haitien

Richard will be going to Cap Haitien tomorrow (Monday) and coming back Tuesday. Please pray for safety and for him to be able to make the needed contacts for the tour.

Trips to Arcahaie and Saint Marc

The trips to Arcahaie and Saint Marc went well. Richard was able to get things lined up for the matches in those towns and check out some hotels as well.

No one from the Haitian Soccer Federation was able to go with him to Saint Marc, Josuel Louidor, the head of the school committe of the UEBH went with him and was great company.

If you know much about Haiti, you know how it can be really hard to find places with hardly any street signs and other problems like that. But, God worked it out that Richard and Josuel were able to meet with the manager of the Tempete team (the Federation team that the Cleveland City Stars will play in Saint Marc). The stadium in Saint Marc is nice and, thank God, we don't have to worry about things like the sound system there.

Please pray for Grace

Please pray for our daughter, Grace. She's at Biola University, she's doing well academically and she likes the school. I thank God for that, but I have some requests too :)

• Please pray for the right summer job for her--either at a camp or some kind of job that doesn't require a car (or for God to provide a car)--and God's wisdom about working in California to possibly establish residency there.
• Pray for a good roommate for her for next year.
• Pray for wisdom about possibly entering the Torrey honors program which would require more time and would probably make it diffiicult for her to have a job during school.
• Pray for all of us--being apart.

I think all of you Moms out there can appreciate these requests especially.

thanks

Carol

Please Pray for Stephen

Please pray for our friend Jawa's (Lionel Nicolas) son, Stephen. He is only two years old and has been sick a lot .

Last week they brought him to the doctor because he was sick and could not go to the bathroom at all. They took him to a clinic that used to be good but is now under new management and we are worried that he is not getting good treatment there. The doctor insisted that STephen stay at the clinic and he's had some tests, but there is still no diagnosis. Also, being in the hospital or a clinic in Haiti is very difficult because someone in the family has to stay with him constantly and provide anything he needs, like washing his clothes, etc.

Also, neither Jawa nor Esther has a job and they have already incurred a lot of expenses (well $150 US is alot if you have no job and what you could typically earn in a day is only $10-$12US/day.) We're afraid/guessing he may need surgery for a hernia and so far, we're the only ones paying the bills.
Pray for healing for Stephen, for wisdom for Jawa & Esther, and for us as far as how we help them.

Soccer evangelism in the north

Good Friday
Croyance's Visit
If you've been praying for our friends who are up in St. Michel in the north (Elysee and Croyance), THANK YOU. They have been fine/safe. Not just safe, but reaching out too.
Croyance has been up there only a few weeks, but he's already got a couple of things going on.
He has a weekly radio program going. And through the radio, he's organizing a tournament for people in the 8 sections of St. Michel. He's working with 6 pastors and they're going to do evangelism at the tournament. Croyance was here today to borrow soccer equipment for the tournament. Please pray...the tournament will be next week.

Egdes

This is Egdes. A really sweet kid who lives next door. He comes over twice a week to do some yardwork, wash the car, put gas in the generator, etc. He's a hard worker and, like most people from the country, very pleasant. He's so nice to have around. Richard and Ricky have a good time playing soccer with him, his brother, his cousins and others from the neighborhood on our driveway.

He's probably around 14 or 15 and is in his first year of secondary school (just like Ricky). Richard has had some conversations with him about spiritual things. He said he has already trusted in Christ as his Savior.

You can pray for his growth and for God's will in his life. He was sent here from the country to live with his uncle so that he could continue his schooling. (There are almost no secondary schools outside of the cities in Haiti.) He had started and stopped because of money, but now he is going to school again.

Prayer Request : church

Please pray with us about our church situation. We have not yet gotten settled in a church. While we were making the transition to living in Haiti again, we visited the Haitian church we used to attend (Bolosse), The Fellowship House (Sunday AM outreach ministry to upper class Haitian run by CrossWorld folks) and Quisqueya Chapel ("QC", an English Missionary church very close to our house). We kept thinking we'd visit the church out in Croix-des-Bouquets because it's close to the Cazeau house where we hope to establish a ministry house. (see blog entry of Feb. 28th.) We were delayed in visiting the Croix-des-Bouquets church for several reasons--we wanted to talk to the pastor first, and we heard there were security problems there. Then, Ricky was invited to play drums once a month at QC. Then, some weeks, (confession time...) we just didn't think ahead/plan ahead and by default went to the English church. The UEBH (the association of churches we work with) asks all the missionaries to attend a UEBH church, however, it is a challenge, especially for the kids who don't understand as much Creole and just because of cultural differences. We regret to admit that we haven't dealt with this sooner.
We have been taking steps to resolve this issue in the past few weeks and I thought it would be good to ask you to help us pray about it. We are looking into a church start-up being led by a UEBH pastor in our area. We are also considering making a plan to attend English church once a month. We are also thinking about listening to a podcast or audio cassette or watching a video of a sermon together as a family. (If you have any suggestions, please let us know--we already know about Davisville's podcasts, Calvary Philly & Calvary Central Bucks.)

A Few Important Prayer Requests

1. "Kay Cazeau" (possible ministry center)- Many of you have seen the pictures of Roger Cazeau's property in Croix-des-Bouquets (just outside of Port-au-Prince) and have prayed about the use of it for our ministry. And many of you know how amazing it seemed that Roger was praying for the property to be used for ministry, that he wants to help the children of Haiti, that he loves soccer and that he wanted us to have a ministry center there for AIS Haiti.
Well, we have 2 important prayer requests concerning this property.
Someone has started excavating to build on part of the property where we saw kids playing soccer last time we were there. Whoever is building does not have Roger's permission, but apparently they may feel that since Roger hasn't been to Haiti in so long, he forfeits his ownership. Roger has been managing the property through someone else, renting some of the space to a school. We want to help Roger find out what's going on and we need to know if God wants us to do something there.
Also, there have been some kidnappings out there not too long ago, so we're unsure about the security of the area...Is God keeping us away from danger? It seems he is at least for now, but that may not be the end of the story.

2. An office for AIS-Haiti - We've been praying about where and how to set up an office for AIS-Haiti, a place for Rich to at least begin... Now an opportunity has come up that might just be God's answer, but we're asking for you to join us in a concerted effort to ask God if this is His will for now, and if it is how we should approach the finances of it. There is an office that Rich could share with another ministry right across the street from QCS (where Carol works & the kids go everyday). It seems like a great opportunity because it is convenient for us and for people who will work with us (a lot easier for them to get to than our house on public transportation). Since we would share the office, we would only have to pay about $125US/month, however the owner may ask for more when the lease is up April 1st.

3. Sale of Box Truck - The International box truck has served it's purpose well. Now, we are attempting to sell it to put the money where we think it would better serve the ministry. Please pray for God's will and wisdom to know how much to accept for it.

We appreciate your prayers so much.

Pray for Kimberly, our first youth supporter

Many of you will know who I am talking about when I ask for prayer for Kimberly Perry. I am so sad to hear that she has been diagnosed with cancer. Please pray for her.
Kim was the first and only young adult who has supported our mission work. She started when she was in high school and has kept it up ever since. I believe she is in her third or last year of college at Clemson U.
Pray for Liz & Doug, her parents, who have done so much at Crossing Community Church. Doug just stepped down from his position as one of the elders. They will be going down to South (?) Carolina to arrange for treatment for Kim, etc.
She has anaplastic large cell lymphoma.
Thank you.