Soccer Contest with Compassion Kids

Sunday afternoon we had the rescheduled contest for the Compassion kids that was supposed to take place at the national stadium before the big game between the Cleveland City Stars and the Haitian National U-17 team.
Eleven boys were able to come and about as many adults came with them. Although it was a shame we couldn't do it at the stadium with all the kids, this was much less crazy. At the stadium there were too many problems to deal with before the game. We had the rescheduled contest at Quisqueya Chapel which worked out great. They seemed to have a good time. There was even a short rain storm in the middle of the event, but we got the kids under the gazebo and did one of the contests there. Then they were back outside. We gave them hotdogs, chips and juice and then handed out prizes for the winners. All the kids got a book about the Bible, and the winners got a pair of cleats, a new soccer ball and a T-shirt.

It was great having Tim Ferri here visiting us from our home church. He helped out and really seemed to enjoy the kids. Later, at home, Tim hung out with some of the guys from the neighborhood. Unfortunately, most of them wanted to play only soccer. Even though basketball is really Tim's game, he played soccer. He hasn't been intimidated by not knowing the language--he's been learning a couple words each day, noticing which ones are similar to Spanish. He learned "zanmi" (friend):

Tim got here safely

Tim arrived safely today. He was held in immigration for a little while because we forgot that he would need to have our address to fill out his immigration form. After a little while, they let him go.
This afternoon he and Richard held the soccer contest with the Compassion kids who were supposed to have this the day of the big match in the stadium, but the timing didn't work out.


The kids had a great time in the soccer competition. And we provided hot dogs, plantain chips and juice for them afterward.

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.

Pilot Project

We have chosen 5 UEBH schools to work with for a pilot project for the soccer ministry. These schools are fairly close to each other in the Verrettes area, which is about 2 1/2 hours away from Port-au-Prince. We chose schools with students supported by Compassion, Int'l. because Compassion strongly encourages the schools they assist to have a sports programs. This is often very difficult for schools in these poor areas to provide.

Tuesday morning we will be going out there to meet with the leaders from these 5 schools. Please pray that God will direct us in this.

Haitian National Under 17 team Defects in New York

We were so sad to read the news that 13 out of the 18 players on the national Under 17 team defected in New York on Wednesday during a layover on their way to the Under 17 World Cup in South Korea...and relieved to find that they have been located and 11 have come back to the squad. Two players have been sent back to Haiti as a punishment and were replaced by alternates.

We've heard about players using overseas matches as a way to leave Haiti, but this was shocking, not only because it was 13 players, but also because they were on their way to the World Cup and so many people in Haiti were excited and proud of this accomplishement.

It seems no one, except those involved, really knows why this happened. Although these young players probably had some desire to find a panacea in the US, did that alone cause them to forsake their country’s dreams of being well represented in a World Cup tournament? There were probably other factors involved since someone had to arrange the van to pick them up and whisk them away. Some suspect political motives (people trying to make the current government look bad) and maybe these guys had to deal with too much corruption and there was some anger about that. One thing we’re sure of, a lot fans in Haiti will be thrilled to see their team playing in this World Cup.

As you know, our goal in Haiti is to use soccer to develop Christian character and teamwork among Haitian school children, and this incident shows that it is not enough to develop soccer talent in Haiti. Character training must also be included if these young men are going to lead successful and fulfilling lives after their soccer careers are over and make a lasting contribution to Haiti.

You can read more about it at http://www.haitiwebs.com/ in the sports section.

Prayer request - betrayal

Please pray for Richard. He has been betrayed by a friend, someone we have helped a lot has been stealing from us and selling the stuff he steals. He has also given in to temptation on other serious issues. Please pray for him and his wife and two young children. The reason I ask for prayer for Richard, is that he really enjoyed their friendship. Since we've been back in Haiti we've tried to deal with him in gentle ways, but now it's obvious we have to "cut him off" ie. not hire him for anything anymore and not lend him money even for necesseties. After having several things confirmed by several people, we see that we would only aggravate the problem by trying to help out. There are good pastors and other Christian people he can go to for help, but Richard will miss his friendship. We pray that this young man will be honest and be willing to change so that the friendship can be restored someday.

Joy, the courageous

On Tuesday we drove Joy out to Cazale to work at a medical clinic. Wow, we were overwhelmed by the place. They do 3 clinic days a week and see about 250-300 people each of those days. The rescue mission there cares for a lot of kids. In fact, they hire about 65 Haitian people to take care of them 24 hours a day. We were amazed and impressed with the work that Lori Moise, her sister, Licia, their Dad and their husbands, along with all the Haitian workers do in that relatively small space, 11 kilometers away from civilization :).

We were a little queasy seeing the children with severe malnutrition and just being in the crowded, warm clinic. And of course, we've all been sick lately, so we weren't surprised when we called Joy on Wednesday morning and found out she had passed out. She said she was OK, though, and wanted to stay. The next day she felt sick, but she still wanted to stay to learn something and hopefully help out.

Yesterday she talked about witnessing stitches and putting an IV in a baby's arm. For those of you who don't know, Joy has wanted to help Haitian kids in some medical capacity, but she's never been anxious to deal with blood. But, I guess, she can't avoid some of that, and now she's got the opportunity to see what goes on first hand. Pray for her...that God would use this to give her direction...and for her protection.
Sorry, no pictures, yet, until she comes back, or puts some on facebook. But you can check out Lori's and Licia's blogs.
xanga.com/haitinurse4life
xanga.com/no_I'm_not_a_nurse

Captain of the Flora team

The captain of the Flora team shared about his relationship with Jesus and

how much that has meant in his life.

Fun at the Beach

Pics of St. Marc game

Pics - Cap Haitien Match

Tour Results so far: Cleveland City Stars 2-2-0, 6 points

The Cleveland City Stars beat Haiti's ACS professional team in Cap Haitien (3-1) putting the results for the Tour so far at 2 wins, 2 losses, no ties and 6 points scored. Several of our players have been dealing with some traveller's diarrhea and dehydration. So, unfortunately, not all of them could go up to Cap Haitien. Goals at that game were scored by James Jaggard, Alec Lemmon and Carlos Calderson...Hope I got the names right, I'll have Rich check them when he gets home :).

Tomorrow is the last match of the Tour, the Futsal match against the Haitian National Futsal team in Port-au-Prince. This morning the team was headed out from Cap Haitien to see the Citadel, the most famous historic site in Haiti.

I'm sorry I'm not able to post the news and pictures on this blog sooner. More details and pictures will be added as soon as possible.

Carlos Calderson, Kent and Aaron Tredway in Port-au-Prince

Carlos Calderson, CCS Reserve Team Coach, Kent Manson, leader of the tour and Aaron Tredway, Executive Director of CCS at the Sylvio Cator Stadium in Port-au-Prince.

Pics at the big stadium in Port-au-Prince

Pastor Pierre of Campus Pour Christ speaking at Hafltime.
Pastor Bilda
speaking during the second half of the game...doing what the Haitians call 'chofe' - warming up the crowd and making sure everyone knew about the door prizes.

Update on St. Marc

I’m sorry the news is a bit slow in coming, I haven’t always been able to reach Rich on his cell phone up north. Finally, here’s an update of the past couple of days. (And I still can’t upload pictures until Rich comes home tomorrow afternoon.)

On Monday and Tuesday, the team played two games, one against Flora, in Arcahaie and one in St. Marc against Tempete, a professional team in that city. In the game in Arcahaie, Flora won 2-0. In the game in St. Marc the Cleveland City Stars won 2-1.

Even though they didn’t win the Arcahaie game, Richard said that the team captain of the Flora team, who is a Christian, shared about his life with the spectators at halftime, and then went out to score a goal right away. In St. Marc, kids could come on to the field after the game to play and hangout with the CCS players. They really like the interaction with the kids…that’s what it’s all about.

At each game, door prizes have been given out and at the Flora game, we gave the Flora team some equipment, as well. The way this has been organized is that the spectators fill out a card with their name and address and they can indicate if they received Christ as their Savior, or if they would like more information, or have a prayer request they would like to share. The counselors at each game give out and collect the cards, then there is the drawing, and finally they sort the cards to see what follow up should be done. At Port-au-Prince 629 checked that they had received Christ as their Savior, At Arcahaie, 55.

In each town we visit there are really two teams that are involved in the game. The Cleveland City Stars, of course who play on the physical soccer field, and the team of counselors who are in the stands talking with people and distributing the response cards. This team is working in the spiritual realm where hearts are changed and life-changing decisions are made.

In St. Marc we were blessed to have a particularly well-trained and enthusiastic team of counselors working with us, and out of the several thousand people that were there, 170 indicated that they had come to know Christ personally.

Tomorrow the team gets a break and then they come back to Port-au-Prince in the afternoon. They leave for Cap Haitien on Thursday morning to play ACS Thursday afternoon. The old “Montezuma’s revenge” has hit a few of the players and one leader, so pray that they feel better soon, and that no one else has health problems.

The big match in the stadium

Thank you for praying for the big match at the stadium
First, some answers to prayer:
· The weather was good for the game – a light drizzle while it was starting and then it cleared up.
· None of the players were sick.
· No one was seriously injured.
· Pastor Pierre did a good job presenting the gospel.
· The turn out was pretty good
· Our STEP (seminary) intern has been doing a great job

As for the game…Haiti won 2 to 1. The Stars are a team of very good individual players, but this team has not played together for very long—only about 3 weeks. I’m sure that being in a third-world country for the first time (for most of the players) had an effect. Also, the locker room was very hot before the game, but the air conditioning was finally turned on.

Forgive me for writing this post so late, and with no pictures, I caught a nasty cold/flu that's been going around. All day yesterday I had a sore throat and headache and last night I had a fever.

More about the Port-au-Prince match

It was a very difficult day for Richard and me. At 7:00 am we went to pick up “pates” (pronounced pah-tay) to be sold at concession stands at the game. Since the Federation was getting all the money from the ticket sales, we were looking for a way to recoup expenses and we were told we could do the concessions. But when we were told by the Federation that they would not take any percentage of that, we thought we would have all the profits. But later we found out that the Stadium was taking 60%. That’s why we were trying the sale of “pates”. But in retrospect, it added an extra stress that we did not need. And not many were sold because there are vendors who carry baskets around in the stands and there was no announcement that these pates were on sale at the concession stands.

After picking up other things and taking them all to the stadium, we went to church. One of the players, Elijah, did a great job giving his testimony. After church we all went back to the hotel for the brunch there, but it was served an hour late. We wished we hadn’t waited for it because when we got to the stadium there were more problems. First, we had a problem at the gate. The counselors were supposed to meet in the conference room, but they were not allowed in the gate that would give them access to it because most of them had the lower priced tickets. Then we were told we could not use the conference room. So we had the counselors split up, some in the cheaper section, some in the higher priced section. This made the organization of the counselors difficult.

We had heard from our announcer, via phone, that there was no sound system yet. (Their’s had broken and they had agreed to rent one). Then as soon as we got in, the Federation people called us into their office. They were upset because they heard Richard “talking” on the radio & other announcements of the game that gave the ticket price as 50 gourdes, when it had been changed to 100 gourdes. (see previous post ). They also told us that they would lose money on this match and they asked Richard what they should do about that. Richard showed them where he had taken notes in his notebook about the President of the Federation approving the 50g ticket price and reminded them that they had changed the ticket price only a week before the game. Radio spots and interviews had already been taped. After this, we didn’t know if they would have a sound system or not, but they did. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t let our announcer emcee the game, even though they had agreed to this before. We were supposed to have players give their testimony before the game, but that didn’t happen—I’m still not exactly sure why.

Another issue that complicated halftime was that the Federation’s sponsor, Digicel, decided to do a presentation of cell phones to a few of their players at that time. And people did not stop talking while Pastor Pierre made his presentation. We thank the Lord that you could still hear him over the talking, but most likely some people were not paying attention. We did get a lot of decision cards handed out, filled in and collected. Of course, it will take time to sort them out and set up the follow-up. One reason people filled them out was that we gave away door prizes. There was a sticky situation for a few minutes when two people showed up to collect the first prize of a laptop. But Pastor Pierre and Pastor Bilda handled it really well, calmly and with smiles. It turned out that these men had names that sounded almost exactly the same.

Cleveland City Stars Arrive!

Finally...here's a picture of the players on the Federation bus at the airport with their Haitian flags. Sorry this is out of order, more recent pics below.

At the orphanage yesterday

Yesterday some of the players went to the Servants in Haiti orphanage and had a good time playing basketball and soccer.

Haitian National Under 17 team & coach

This was an interview with Richard and the coach of the Haitian National U17 Team and a picture of the whole team, during a recent game in the national stadium.

Police & Digicel girls picture

Here are our faithful security police officers and in the background, on the bus, you can see two of the Digicel girls (mentioned in a previous post) while the bus is being loaded at the airport.

Surprising welcoming party, police escort, a good beginning

They're here!
Yesterday afternoon the Cleveland City Stars reserve team arrived in Port-au-Prince for their goodwill tour. Richard went to the airport in the driving rain to pick them up, but by the time all the players and luggage got through, the rain had stopped. Richard was not the only one to greet them. It seems that the Federation (Haitian Soccer Federation) sent not only the bus and security escort, but several "Digicel girls" as well. Digicel, a cell phone company, is an/the official sponsor the Federation. When I heard that, I was worried that they might be dressed like Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, but they were dressed normally, wearing bright red Digicel T-shirts.

The police escort was pretty exciting. Two policemen on motorcycle led the bus through the crowded rush hour streets to make it to the hotel in record time. The Federation really came through. The bus was not only air-conditioned, but actually cold.

The players got into their rooms, had dinner and then we had a time of worship and orientation.

Several of the players expressed their eagerness to jump into this cross-cultural experience--they loved the Chips Bananes (Plantain chips) and wanted to learn some phrases in Creole.

Of course, God is doing little special things all along the way and we want to share them with you. One of them was that Rod Meadth (Math teacher at QCS who leads the QCS Chapel worship band & does worship at this church) came to lead the worship and did a great job as usual. Also, it worked out to bring Joy and Ricky to help lead worship. Ricky played his Haitian drum and Joy sang. The kids and I can't participate in a lot of the activities because it's the end of the school year and we have final exams & projects (and grading). Another blessing was the room we got to meet in. We had been disappointed that El Rancho, the hotel, could not provide a free room for us to meet in. We were going to walk up to a nearby restaurant because the owner had said he would give us a room for free for the evening. But a couple things changed, Richard met a "brother" who worked and a group who was using a large meeting room finished their seminar for the day, so we got to meet in there. We really appreciated that.

So it was a good beginning.
Today, the team went down to the stadium for a practice and some were going to do a Coaches Clinic and to visit the Servants of Haiti orphanage in Cite Militaire.

trying to keep you posted....
Carol

SCHEDULE OF MATCHES - Cleveland City Stars

It just occured to me that some people here in Haiti might be looking on this blog for the schedule of matches. Here it is:

DATE & TIME : GAME (TICKET PRICE)
Sun. June 3rd at 5 pm: vs. Haitian National U17 team in the Sylvio Cator Stadium (100 gdes.)
Mon. June 4th at 4 pm: vs. Flora in Arcahaie (100 gdes.)
Tues. June 5th at 4 pm: vs. Tempete in Saint Marc (100 gdes.)
Thurs. June 7th at 4 pm: vs. ASC in Cap Haitien (100 gdes.)
Sat. June 9th at 4 pm: Futsal Match against Haitian National Futsal team at Place Jeremie (free)

Tickets must be bought at the gate, we don't have them ahead of time.
There will be Christian music playing and a halftime presentation with interviews of a few players.
Hope to see you there!

Today's the Day - The Cleveland City Stars are coming!

The day has finally come! The Cleveland City Stars reserve team goodwill tour will arrive today at 3:30, Lord willing.
Of course, we're up to our ears in printing out schedules, name tags, and vouchers; making lists, gathering stuff. The past few days have been crazy and stressful with late nights and early mornings. With tough decisions, like whether or not an orphanage or school is in a safe enough area to take the team, and changes, changes, changes!
But lots of people have been encouraging us, in person, on the phone and through email. Thank you, all of you. Keep praying, especially for Richard--so much rests on his shoulders. He knows it's truly the Lord's work. We keep having to give all of it back to him.

A first - checking weather for Haiti online

This morning I did something for the first time. I checked the weather forecast for Haiti online. I never checked before because the weather's pretty predictable, and you just don't think that stuff like that will be available online for Haiti. The reason I looked was because I've been praying about the weather for the upcoming matches - especially the big one in Port-au-Prince. It has been raining a lot, especially late afternoon (when the matches are played).

At first I laughed because everyday looked the same: Scattered thunderstorms. Duh, it's rainy season. :) But I looked closer and actually they predict a certain percentage of precipitation. Many of the days say 60%.........but Sunday's is only 30%........reason to hope? well, God's will be done. :)

midday update :)

I just called Richard while I'm between classes....
he did get on TV! He was in another meeting so he didn't have time to tell me any details, but that's kind of exciting. It could really help more people to be at the games.
More later....
Thanks for praying!

Richard on TV?!

Richard was invited to be interviewed on a live TV show tomorrow morning. The show is from 9 - 10 tomorrow morning. This of course adds a new element of excitement and stress! Pray for him, he's got so much on his mind.

Prayer

Here are some of our latest prayer requests:

• Pray that people will find hope through the presentation at halftime this Sunday
• Pray for safety for the Cleveland City Stars team arriving Thursday.
• Pray that the CCS team will be able to visit the orphanage they had planned to visit and Athletique d'Haiti which are in areas considered off-limits...for wisdom...these kids could really use a visit, but there are complications
• Pray for Richard dealing with the last minute changes that keep popping up -- like not being able to use the stadium on Saturday for a clinic, etc.

Thank you for your prayers

Cleveland City Stars Reserve Team

Here's the CCS Reserve team. Previously we had posted the CCS regular team, but the tour coming to Haiti is actually from this Reserve team.

So much going on!

Lately, there is so much going on, we can't keep up with putting everything on the blog.
But, I'll try to fill you all in on a fewthings.
This morning Richard had to be in 2 places at one time. He had planned a run-through for next week's game at the big stadium with about 200 people at 8 AM in the stadium so that they could figure out all the little details of what will happen. Then, this week he needed to see the (I think) General Director of the Soccer Federation who was supposedly in his office this week and Richard was at the Federation offices 4 times this week, but finally he was told that the meeting would have to be "tomorrow morning" (Sat. morning) at 7:30 am.
So, he rushed getting all his stuff together this morning (mostly to give the people something to eat & drink) left at 7 am, went to the stadium first to drop stuff off and speak to a few people quickly, then rushed over to the Federation office only to be told that "the matches are all called off." ??!!!!
Well, after some discussion it ended up that the Federation is going to double the price for all the games. We're sad about that, because for some people that may be too much. I guess we just need to pray double!
Now he's at the run-through, I'll hear about that when he gets home.

Girls Soccer Team Party

We hosted the QCS girls' soccer team party at our house yesterday. The girls had fun swimming, playing soccer, making up awards for each other (commemorating things like noses that attract soccer balls). Richard was the coach at the beginning of the season, then, Katie Broecker took over when Basketball was done. Joy's too modest to tell people that she was the captain, and that she scored several goals. I don't remember how many, but at least one in each of the last three games. They didn't win much, but they played some exciting games, improved their skills and mostly had fun.

More help, more encouragement

God has provided a way for us to cover some of the expenses of the soccer match at the big stadium in Port-au-Prince. The Federation is allowing us to handle the concession stands and keep the profits from it to defray costs of the game. This is great, but of course, it's another thing that Richard doesn't have time for! But God has his ways....

Last night Richard was supposed to go meet with some people from a nearby church where several friends and acquaintances of ours attend. It started to pour and I suggested he not go because of the condition of the roads around our house, but he felt it was OK. He was glad he went becauset the church has taken on the responsibility of providing volunteers for the concessions stands!

Haitian U-17 National Team

Rich and Ricky went to watch the Haitian U-17 National Team play against the Peruvian U-17 team. After Peru scored 2 quick goals, the Haitians came back and tied the score 2-2. This is the team the Cleveland City Stars will play on June 3rd. (Hard to believe these guys are 16, isn't it?).

Street Banner

So far we have 3 of these banners up in the streets of Port-au-Prince and 2 more are coming. This is a very popular way of advertising in Haiti.

GETTING THE WORD OUT

One of Richard's main occupations lately has been to get the word out about the games scheduled for the Cleveland City Stars, especially the one at Haiti's national stadium which holds 15,000 people. (We don't have that many friends yet.)

One way to do that is to advertise in the stadium at the game tonight (Sunday night) of the Haitian National U17 team against Peru.

That is our friend Charles up in the sky tying the tarp/banner he painted above the stands in the stadium. The pole the ladder was against was leaning back. We're thankful it got up safely!

Encouragement...and...Picking up the phone

Last night I was exhausted after being in the hot sun supervising the mounting of our large banner in the stadium and then visiting the person who is painting other signs for us to advertise the match to make sure everything is on schedule. But it was Saturday night and I knew it was a good time to reach many of our "married with kids" supporters who don't usually go out on Saturday nights as much as they used to.

I have to admit, I was not looking forward to making phone calls to tell people about our need of funds to cover the costs of advertising, sound systems and the training of ushers to help with our program in the stadium. But I prayed before I picked up my cell phone to make the first call (Land lines do not work here in Haiti), and as I made the calls, Carol was praying as well.

After getting answering machines a few times, I finally got through to one of our long-time supporters and after catching up with their family news and vis versa, I explained that in just 2 weeks an American soccer team is coming to visit Haiti and play 5 high-profile games in 10 days with the possibility of having over 30,000 people total in the stands and we still needed about $3,000 to cover these costs. It just so happened that the person I was speaking to was an advertising executive and could relate perfectly to the fact that I was having to spend a lot of money before the event to get the word out. It was clear from the conversation that God had prepared this person in advance to be willing to give, and all I had to do was make the phone call!

So when you're dreading picking up that phone, pray first and then make the call trusting that God is going to work through that conversation for his purposes!

Of course, we don't have the whole financial burden of the tour. The Haitian Soccer Federation is covering all other costs of the stadium, all ground transportation and security in Haiti through ticket sales. And the Cleveland City Stars team is covering their costs for airfare and lodging.

The Cleveland City Stars are coming in less than 2 weeks!!

A lot of people we know are getting as excited as we are. Several times a day at school, someone asks me about the upcoming matches. And, of course, Richard spends just about all his time now on the preparations for it.

Please pray for: The SOUND SYSTEM for the big event in Port-au-Prince--We were originally told that we would need to provide a sound system for this stadium that holds about 15,000 people. Then we were told that their sound system would be fixed in time. Yesterday we were told it WOULDN'T so we need to work on this again. The sound system is needed for the halftime program including some of the players speaking about their spiritual journies, music, instructions for people to fill out response cards for participation in future activities/interest in spiritual things and for music.

Getting ready for the big match at the National Stadium

Yesterday morning we had about 140 people from several different churches meet together for preparation to be counselors at the big soccer game at the National Stadium with the Haitian National Under-17 team. It was a great morning and we will be well prepared on June 3rd. We need to be, since we could have as many as 10,000 people at the game!

Ricky's Birthday

We are now the proud parents of 3 teenagers! Ricky turned 13 yesterday and it was a great day. At lunchtime, Richard came to school and we surprised Ricky with a cake and a very special present which was able to be delivered right on his birthday because of a really nice friend, Renald (and Richard, who drove Renald to get the gift)...



The most entertaining part about this gift was when we brought it home at the end of the day. When Lexi (our BIG lab-rottweiler puppy) saw the gift she was very curious and when she smelled it's skin and then...heard the loud noise it makes, she was terrified! It seemed really funny to us, but then again, it's bigger than her, it's got the skin of animal she's never encountered before, and it's sound probably sounds a bit like the scariest thing on earth--thunder. (see below)
Ricky really seems to like his Haitian drum. We're pretty sure he still prefers his drum set, but this is more portable. In fact, one of the first things he said was "I'm gonna take this to college!"

CCS Schedule Filling Up

The Schedule for the Cleveland City Stars Tour is really filling up. They will play a game here in Port-au-Prince, one in Arcahaie, one in Saint Marc, one in Cap Haitien as well as one futsal game here in Port-au-Prince. They will do at least two clincs as a team and Aaron Tredway plans to do a goalie clinic.

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.

Answer to Prayer - Stephen

Thank you for praying for Jawa's son, Stephen. He is doing much better now. He didn't need a hernia operation. He's being treated for....hmmm I think it's an infection in the intestines. But he's eating (not all things though) and doing much better.

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.

Does being a Mears mean I have to play soccer?

QCS was planning a sports day and decided that the girls soccer team should play a women's team made up of staff members. They called it the Women's Allstar Team. People assumed I could play soccer since all the other Mears they know can play it well. At first I laughed, but when I realized that most of the women on the staff also knew little to nothing about the sport, I decided that the only chance we'd have would be to "psych them out" (as we used to say in the old days).

Looks like I'm about to head the ball....nah.

So, yes, I played. And, yes, we psyched them out, but didn't beat them. And I played soccer for the first time in my life. (Even though Richard considers my first soccer game to be one that happened in New York when we were dating and since there weren't many players, he asked me to stand in the goalie cage.) We did give them a run for their money, mostly because of a few girls who knew what they were doing and also because of my husband's great coaching, i.e. teaching us the whole game the day before. :)

It was fun and we had the most team spirit of all the teams at QCS. And, I must admit, I liked playing more than I thought I would. But I still prefer cheering in the stands.

Here is a Mother-Daughter picture from the game.

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

Richard on the Radio!

Well, Richard was interviewed on the radio this morning at 6:30 via telephone. (My job was to keep the household, mostly the dogs, quiet :) ) A lot of Haitians listen to the radio, so hopefully the word got out about the upcoming games with the Cleveland City Stars. A few minutes later, Reginald from Radio Lumiere called back and had set something up for him to be interviewed for another station. So, almost right away that was taped (over the phone again) and will be played on Monday. God is really providing a lot of great opportunities this week.

Preparing for the tour

With the Cleveland City Stars coming to Haiti in about 6 weeks, Richard has been busy preparing...working on logistics for the team and coordinating the matches to be effective evangelistic events. Here's his report on the last few days:


God has been opening doors for us left and right. This week I have met with several large ministries here in Haiti and all of them are excited about the team and want to parcticipate in the evangelization they will do.Compassion, League Biblique and Campus Pour Christ all want to put us in contact with churches in Port-au-Prince, St. Marc and Cap Haitien and help us publicize the games. In addition, they will give us people trained in evangelism to use as counselors at all the games.

I have set up a trip with the president of League Biblique to visit Cap Haitien the 7 and 8th of May to encourage the churches to invite people and provide counselors in the stadium. I have also met with several leaders from the Haitian Soccer Federation this week. They promise they will get me the official letter of invitation tomorrow (as they have promised for the past 3 days!).

The Federation wants us to play the U-17 team and I think this is a better opportunity that we could ever dream of. You see, the Haitian U-17 just qualified for the U-17 world cup that will take place 18 August to 9 Sept. in Korea. That means they are one of 24 teams to qualify for this privilge. In order to qualify they had tie Mexico (0-0), the defending U-17 champion, tie Honduras 1-1 (the other country that qualified from their pool) and beat El Salvador 3-0 to win their pool. This is a very good team and I think that they will give the reserve team a very good, high profile game. In addition, this will probably be the only international game they will play in Haiti before they head to the U-17 world cup and is likely to be highly publicized by the media.

I am meeting with the director of Radio Lumiere today to start preparing some radio and possibly some television spots. They are also going to put me in touch with the National Television Station to see if we can't get the game on television.

Please pray for all of these opportunities - that I would be able to manage my time well and find the best people to help me. Please pray that God would raise up other godly men and women to help with this huge opportunity, and that God would provide the needed funds for a sound system, printing evangelistic tracts and other literature. THANKS!

We got the pool set up

We've been especially hot since the big generator isn't working at school so we don't have air conditioning. But, we got the pool set up and we've been cooling off in it.

Our 22nd Anniversary

Richard and I celebrated our 22nd Wedding Anniversary at the beach. We had a really nice weekend. Since we had been trying to take the kids to the beach for weeks and it never worked out, (and since a friend and Richard's parents gave us money for a hotel stay) we took the kids and just got 2 rooms.

Unfortunately, Ricky got swimmers ear. He was a trooper, though and he enjoyed some of it.

Happy Easter! Joyeux Paques!

Here is a picture of us at Quisqueya Chapel, the English church near us. We love what they do every

Easter. They put up a cross during lent and the people of the congregation write on a piece of paper something they are "sacrificing" or a sin they are asking God to remove. Then they put the paper on the cross (it has chicken wire all over it). The papers are burned on Good Friday. On Easter Sunday, as we walk into church, one of the kids hands us each a flower which we put on the cross to celebrate what Jesus has done.

After church we went to a friends' house for coffee and Easter treats and a nice visit.

We had David and Phyllis Schmid (of CrossWorld) over for a nice Easter dinner. It was great being with them--we really haven't had much of a chance to visit with them since Thanksgiving!.

Here are the beautiful Easter eggs we colored on Thursday. The sad story of these eggs is... I tried to do my usual 3 things at once, so the job dragged on for most of the day.

Then I got involved in the last minute preparations for Passover. AFter the Passover Seder, I collapsed on my bed and fell right to sleep. The next day I forgot to put the eggs in the fridge. So, we started smell something bad. Throughout the day I kept saying things like, "We have to take the trash out, it stinks." Finally at the end of the day, Joy realized it was the boiled eggs. Eeewww what a stink, by then! It's possible that one of them was a bad egg to begin with. We've been buying our eggs from a lady that we pass on the way home, like many other foreigners do, and we always break them into a bowl to check them before we use them and often we find a bad one. Well, I've learned my lessons--just pay the $4 to buy eggs in the supermarket for Easter and don't forget to put them in the fridge!

We had better "blessings" with the chocolate covered eggs --another of our family traditions.

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.

we're too hot, you're too cold

This morning on the internet I saw that it was 34 o F in PA and when I talked to my Mom & sister on Skype I saw they had turtleneck shirts on and were expecting flurries. Well, down here, it's just getting hotter. Through the "winter" we've been pretty comfortable...especially for those of us (me) who don't play soccer. But now it's hot enough that the kids are on a mission to get the blow up pool set up. Unfortunately, Richard says we don't have enough water right now, so I guess I better try to distract them with making chocolate covered Easter eggs.

Passover 2007

Well, we celebrated our traditional "Christ in the Passover Seder" last night. We were glad we hadn't invited too many people over because Richard had a bad cold this week. It's hard for him to slow down when he gets sick (sometimes it seems like everything's hard in this country). I didn't expect it, be he managed to get us a lamb shoulder so we could have a lamb bone for our seder plate. So, yesterday I had off from teaching and Richard got to take a 4 hour nap. And, then, as you can see "Rabbi Richard" was in fine shape for the seder.

Our friends Kerline and Lesly came over for their first Passover celebration. They enjoyed it....Even if it doesn't look that way in the pictures! :)
By the time we realized that Joy wasn't in any of the pictures, our batteries wore out. I have to get copies of Kerline's pictures to show that Joy was there. :)

Some of you have heard me say that it seems like every year when I prepare for Passover, God shows me something new...well, it happened again this year! I was reading an old booklet that we had in our stuff packed away in Haiti called "The Meaning and Importance of the Jewish Holidays" and I found 2 new things. First, I learned that in the time of Jesus, people went to the temple in Jerusalem to get a lamb for Passover and when they did, the priest would indicate an appropriate (without defect) lamb by pointing to the animal and saying "Behold the lamb." Isn't that amazing since, when John the Baptizer pointed to Jesus he said "Behold the lamb...the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world?"
The second thing was that the word "Afikomen" is actually a Greek word and that the tradition of hiding the afikomen began after Jesus died for us. Afikomen means "the one who came." That makes a lot of sense for those of us who believe Jesus is the Messiah because the Afikomen is the "middle matzah" that is taken from the matzah plate, which has three matzah, one on top of each other, broken (like the Messiah who was "crushed for our iniquities" Is 53:5) then wrapped in linen and hidden away until the children joyfully find it (reminding us of Jesus dying, being wrapped in linen and being found alive on the third day).
I really didn't expect to learn new things about Passover this year because we've been celebrating it for more than 10 years now...hmmmm....or maybe I'm so old I forget stuff and then learn it again! Well, if that's the case, just think of what a happy old lady I'll be going around saying "Guess what? I learned something new today!"

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.

Daniel

Last month, a friend mentioned that his nephew who is taking a year off before starting college, was coming to Haiti on a short term trip and that since he likes soccer, he might be able to help Richard with soccer ministry. That was music to Richard's ears because he has been feeling overwhelmed working a lot by himself. Daniel Scheirman came toward the beginning of March and left last week. He was a big help, a good influence on kids (including our own) and a great person to be around.

Daniel helped with the soccer teams at QCS. Richard has been coaching the boys' U15 and U19 teams (basically, high school and middle school), and the other Dads who were helping couldn't continue past the beginning of the season.

He also helped us when we did a special program for "Jehu's Boys," a boys' home for orphans. Richard, Daniel and Ricky held a soccer clinic for the older boys. He shared his testimony and a great, heartfelt message (with interpretation) with the boys about having an accountability partner.

Daniel helped Richard rearrange soccer equipment to make it more accessible. He has such a great attitude, being willing to help with all kinds of things. And, even though he came from Colorado where there is almost no humidity, he didn't complain about the high humidity here.

A Special Day with Jehu's Boys

We did a special program on Saturday, March 23rd with the boys known as "Jehu's Boys" at Bolosse Campus. Jehu Mettelus who is a graduate of STEP (the seminary where we used to live) started a ministry called Center for Education and , taking in boys off the streets of Port-au-Prince. About 5 years ago he had 11 boys, now he has 23. Some of you may remember we've done other sports events with them.

For this day, we split the boys into two groups: the older ones went to the field on campus for a soccer clinic and the younger ones stayed with Joy, Phyllis Schmid and I to play at Phyllis' house. We also helped prepare and serve lunch for them. They really enjoyed it and so did we.

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.

My latest bulletin board

Well, it's not as good as the one Grace did for me, but this is what I was able to come up with for our drama section of the year.

Prayer Request - Missionary's son in jail

Please pray for Max, the son of a missionary. He was in school with Grace at QCS.
This article appeared in the Edmonton Sun today
Cut Haiti aid until son free: Missionary
By ALAN FINDLAY,

NATIONAL BUREAU
A Canadian missionary whose son has been jailed for eight months without charges in Haiti is calling on the Conservative government to withhold aid to the impoverished country.
Michel Charbonneau told Sun Media by telephone from Haiti yesterday his 20-year-old son Max will likely have to spend at least another eight or nine weeks in a Haitian jail awaiting word on charges over a kidnapping he and his parents say did not happen.
LEADING CONTRIBUTOR
"The only way that Max will be released is if the Canadian government freezes a part of the (aid) money or all of the money we are supposed to give them," said Charbonneau.
Canada is a leading contributor of aid to Haiti. The feds announced $520 million last summer for several initiatives. Originally from St. Hyacinthe, Que., the Charbonneaus have been running a Haitian mission, including food and medical care for thousands of kids, since 1996.
Their son Max, who lived with them in Haiti before returning to Quebec after graduation, was arrested during a visit last summer.
OLD SCHOOL FRIEND
His father said Max was arrested over an incident involving an old school friend. According to Charbonneau, the friend had asked Max for a ride after having a problem at home. He borrowed his parents' car, drove her to a nearby hotel and returned home, said Charbonneau.
Three days later, the police arrested him for kidnapping. He has spent the past eight months in prison while a judge decides whether he will be charged.
Charbonneau said the ordeal has been particularly difficult after spending the past nine years helping thousands of impoverished Haitian children.

Answer to prayer

Political Days: Another teacher was remarking that she was jealous of the snow days people back in the states have been getting and she mentioned that we haven't gotten any "political days." (Our only equivalent to getting snow days off to catch up on things is getting a day off for political problems.) This made me realize I should be praising God for that! So I have been. The only time school has been cancelled this school year was in December due to rumors about problems expected during elections. And even then, only the elementary and middle school closed while high school students had final exams. So, thank you, if you've been praying for safety and stability in Haiti and our safety.

One more from the AIS leaders' visit...

This is a picture of the AIS leaders who visited us last week as they clapped for Margaret to thank her for the delicious food she prepared for
them. She is a real blessing to have around. She works for us Monday-Friday and sometimes Saturdays. She is a wonderful Christian, who has a great attitude about everything. She's like family to all of us. You can pray for her because she and her boyfriend have been waiting patiently, for a few years, for God to provide a job for him so that they can get married.

Elysee's Birthday & Prayer Request

Saturday, we had a party for Elysee. Feb. 28th was his birthday and he came home to Port-au-Prince for the weekend. His Dad's birthday was Saturday, so we celebrated both. This picture shows Elysee with his Dad and Jenica, Elysee's God-daughter.

We also have a prayer request for him and Croyance.--for their safety in the northern town of St. Michel.

We were so happy that Elysee and Croyance got jobs out in the country and got to leave the troubled area of Bolosse. But, just recently, the UN police began a new tactic. They decided to take over the buildings where the gangs were based in Cite Soleil (ghetto of Port-au-Prince). Although some gang leaders were arrested, some of them got away and fled to other parts of Haiti. We just found out that one of (if not the) most notorious ganster, comes from St. Michel, so he decided to move his whole "army" back there for a while (Between 50 to 100 "soldiers").

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.)