Play by Play since the earthquake by Rich - Day 4 and beyond

`Friday, Jan 15, 2010

We got up early and heard that a local gas station was giving out gas. We got there as soon as we could and left a boy there with the gas jug. In the meantime, I helped direct traffic around the gas station so that emergency vehicles could get gas. After an hour of directing traffic, I had the satisfaction of seeing an ambulance drive out of the traffic jam and get on it's way. I also helped an older gentlemen get his car started by giving him a jump. Then I went back up to see where we were in line. I found out that my young friend was in a line that they had just changed to vehicles only. All that time waiting in line was wasted! I talked to some employees of the station and he said they were giving out numbers. Just then, they opened up another pump to give out diesel which is what we needed. Because we were right next to it, we were like the 6th person in line. So after waiting 4 hours, we were able to get 8 gallons.

After that we took Ricky over to his friend's house to check on them. We found out that their neighbor's house had completely collapsed, but that they were all OK. They also had a working internet connection, so we were able to communicate with our loved ones that day as well.

I left Carol there and wanted to drop Ricky off at his friend's house. On the way I saw some QCS teachers walking down the road and asked them where they were going. They said they were going to help out at a medical clinic at our church, Quisqueya Chapel. So I gave them a ride. When we arrived at the clinic some folks came running over and asked if I could transport a child with a broken femur to a hospital. I took the child over to Hope Hospital but they said they were full. So I talked to the director who allowed me in with the girl. When I stopped by later, I found out that she was in line to be x-rayed.

On the way to Ricky's friend's house we saw a woman running down the street waving her arms. We stopped and found out that her husband who had Alzheimer's had “escaped” and he was too strong for her to bring him back alone. So we chased after him and brought him back to the house. The lady named Georgina explained that some of the walls of the house had broken down and he could now easily get out. We found a place where we could easily pile up some blocks to stop up one dangerous area. While we were doing that, the man changed into an impeccable suit and tie and said we should take him with us! We got him sitting down in his car and then prayed with her and gave her some encouragement. Later that night when we dropped off Hendi, we stopped in and visited her and things were fine. Later that week I stopped by at her house several times just to encourage her and see how she was doing.

When we arrived at Ricky's friend's house, we found out that his Uncle, who was a doctor, died because he did not receive any emergency care. His legs were trapped under rubble, and he bled to death. The funeral was that day, and Hendi's Dad was the only one who could go because of the crisis. So we invited Hendi and his little brother to come over to our house.

That night a friend from Northern Haiti called and asked me if I could help him get his sister out of Port-au-Prince. I said I would try and he said he would meet me at QCS the next day.

When we got home that night, Carol and I started to look around or clothes, shoes and anything else that desperate people might need. I remembered that I had a traction unit that I used to use or my neck. So I grabbed it and took it to the hospital. The next day I saw that they had used it to hold up the two broken legs of a little boy who eventually stayed with his family at QCS.

Saturday Jan 16, 2010

Since I had heard from Elysee, Ronald and Sylvain over the phone, I wanted to go and see them at Bolosse which is about 40 minutes across town. But Carol and I talked it over and decided because of the security risk, it was not wise. (Earlier on the radio they had said that 4,000 prisoners had escaped from the city jail when it was damaged in the Earthquake, and that many were robbing people throughout the city – later we found out this mainly happens at night). So we decided to go to QCS and find out what was happening. On the way we saw that another gas station was selling gas, so we had our Haitian friends get in line for it. Unfortunately, by the time they had their turn, they were not giving out diesel anymore.

We also learned that Margaret and Mitou were OK. However, Margaret and Mitou had just paid a year's rent on their house and the earthquake had now rendered it unusable. (The custom in Haiti is to pay an entire year's rent in advance for one year). All of the board members of YABT Haiti were OK as well: Daniel, Jimmy, Kerlande and Guerier. Jimmy's house was severely damaged, but they could at least get their things out of it, unlike many who lost everything.

In the meantime, I took Ricky to say goodbye to his friend who is a girl named Axel. They were supposed to drive to the Dominican Republic and then fly to the US from there. However, they told us that their driver and car had never returned from an errand, and that he should have been home hours ago. (The next day, I went by and found out that they never did find the car or driver and that they had taken a helicopter over to the D.R!)

Then we had to go back and pick up the people who were trying to buy gas and that's when we found out they did not get diesel. However, I reasoned that I might be able to trade someone for Diesel if I had a few gallons of gas and so I sent two strong young men to get in line for gas. They succeeded in getting 4 gallons! Later I gave two gallons to my co-worker Denny Day for his car and two gallons to another co-worker for his motorcycle.

We decided to wait for them at QCS and just as I turned into QCS, I saw that ahead of me was my Crossworld supervisor's truck. In it were David Schmid, my supervisor in Haiti and our fellow Crossworld missionaries Bruce and Cindy McMartin. These were the very people I wanted to see at Bolosse! It was a happy reunion. But they were at QCS on business. The UEBH seminary campus was overrun with over 2,000 refugees and they were desperate for medical aid, food and water. So we all met with Ted, the head of coordinating the medical missions and talked about their needs. I was also fortunate to see the Day family there. These are our other Crossworld missionaries in Port-au-Prince.

Susie Day (The wife of Denny Day, a teacher at QCS and fellow Crossworld Missionary) was at her parent's house alone when the earthquake hit. She was in the office and somehow escaped the house falling on her by digging her way out of the rubble. She had horrible black and blue bruises on her face, arms and back, but had no broken bones! In fact, since she was a nurse she treated other victims the next day. Since then they have all gone back to the US for some rest and recovery.

While driving around we saw someone with a sack of rice, so we stopped and asked him where he got it. It turned out that he got it just around the corner and so I sent two of my Haitian helpers to go and buy a sack. They squeezed their way up to the front and the guy took their money and threw them a sack, even thought they just got there and there were tons of people waiting. So now we had rice and Spaghetti to eat!

As we finished up the meeting with our fellow Crossworld missionaries, my friend Wilfrid Lilite showed up at QCS. We then took him to his Uncle's house and drove a long way to pick up his sister who had a badly sprained ankle but was otherwise OK. By the time we got back to QCS to pick up Carol it was dark.

As we left the school to go home after a long day we found a man on a stretcher outside the QCS gate who needed medical attention. He had spend 2 days under the rubble of his house and seemed badly dehydrated and probably had several broken bones in his legs as well. His name was Ralph. They said they had been refused entrance by Hope Hospital because they had too many patients. By now it was dark, so I took them over to my friend's the Mannaseros who were running and emergency clinic with one doctor.

While at the clinic, my friend told me they were desperate for some medical supplies which they had a QCS. They told me to get a catheter for someone who had not urinated for 2 days and was very uncomfortable. So I went over and got the supplies and the catheter. However, I did not realize there are many types of catheter's and so I got the wrong type. The type I needed was called a Foley Catheter, and the people at QCS said they did not have one there, but that they could get on. Unfortunately I ended up waiting and hour to this.

When we got back with the RIGHT Catheter, we found out that the doctor had not yet looked out patient. So they treated him and let him spend the night.

However, he had a friend with him who only had a sprained ankle but now had no ride home with his family. We were all tired and hungry and really needed to get home so I flagged down a motorist who was going their direction and he graciously gave them a ride home!

During all of this activity, Carol was having a meeting with our friend Elysee Vaillant who had come to QCS looking for help for the same refugee population as our co-workers David and Bruce. She introduced them to the coordinator and he said he would do his best to help them. We gave them some first aid supplies and sent them on their way.

When we finally got home, we had to make up beds for Wifrid and his sister who stayed with us so we could take them to the bus early in the morning.

Sunday Jan 17, 2010

I got up early to take Wisly and his sister to the bus station all the way down town. I told him we didn't have much diesel left, but we would try and save gas by going down a long hill in neutral. On the way we gave two families and a pregnant woman a ride. They got the bus just fine, and on the way home, I stopped and checked on the family with the man with Alzheimers.

While riding I heard over the radio that the president of Senegal had offered free land in Senegal to any Haitians who wanted to emigrate there. He said Senegal was even open to creating a “little Haiti” in Senegal depending on how many wanted to emigrate. As I thought about this I realized that God has a bigger plan than any of us could imagine. First of all, Senegal already has a Haitian missionary couple there, sent last year by the Haitian church and working alongside some of our Crossworld collegues. Second, Senegal is the gateway to North Africa which is 90% Muslim.

At 9, we went to church at Quisqueya Chapel which was miraculously undamaged. It was a very emotional service as many had lost houses and relatives or were injured in the quake. I was asked to lead songs and God lead me to just the right songs: It is well with my soul, Be still my soul, Great is Thy Faithfullness, Our God our Help in Ages Past, etc.

Before church a man and a woman on a stretcher had asked if we could help them. We asked them to wait until after church. So after church, we took a look at the woman. Her foot had been crushed by a cement block and had never been washed or treated and was badly infected and leaking pus. I was afraid it might have to be amputated. So I took him to Hope hospital and at first they said they were full, so I went in to try and find Natalie, and instead found her Mother who is the Director. I begged her to at least look at th woman and tell me if she needed an amputation. Thankfully, she said she would and when she did, it turned out that she just needed to clean and properly dress the wound. So I left her there, but left my phone number in case thy needed help. Later they called and said everything was OK and they thanked us.

While dropping her off, I saw a traction unit that I had donated to the hospital in use. A young boy had broken both legs, and they were holding her legs up. God never lets anything go to waste!
There was also food and water distribution going on at our church and we stopped by, just helped a bit but were encouraged to see things going so smoothly.


We were exhausted from the night before, so we took a nap in the afternoon and fixed a few things around the house. We removed 4 batteries from our inverter so that they would charge faster and soon we hope to repair our plumbing system so that we have running water. Bucket showers get old after a while!

Monday, Jan 18, 2010

Monday Carol, Ricky and I all went to Quisqueya Christian School to see what needed to be done. The Director told us that we needed to clean out all the classrooms of all teaching material and papers. Since Carol has been teaching there now for over three years now, she had collected a lot of material. This is especially true because for many of her classes, she has had to create her own curriculum.

So we all worked together to separate her own books and materials from that of the school. I (Rich) got the idea of forming a chain of young boys who were playing to help us move all the books from the second floor of the school to the first floor closet where thy would be stored. This worked like a charm and we got all the books moved from two classrooms very quickly.

What took a while was going through all the papers left by previous teachers to see if they would be useful in the future. So we really didn't finish until after lunch which was graciously provided by the school.

While at school, Carol got talking to another teacher and she told her about the free outgoing flights for missionaries thanks to Hendrick's racing, a NASCAR company. Later we talked about it with Ricky and decided that we would try and get him on a flight the next day.

I also hooked up with two of my AIS leaders at the school. Lucas and Ronald William. Lucas said that his family's house was leveled and he could not even get any of his clothes out, so he asked me for some clean clothes which I will give him tomorrow. Lucas was doing pretty well emotionally considering many of his friends and neighbors died and his family lost everything, including their truck which they used as a taxi. Thankfully, none of his immediate family died. He also asked me if we could help him pay for transportation for his family so they could move out to live with relatives, but I told him I was down to my last 200 US, and he would have to wait until the banks open for me to help him. (Later in the week, thanks to a gift from a former missionary, I was able to give him $60 to help his family evacuate).

Ronald William showed up late in the afternoon and said that his house was OK, but that many houses and buildings, including a beautiful Wesleyan Church near him were leveled. He said that no international aid had been received in his area and that many needed medical care, food and water. I put him in touch with the man coordinating the relief efforts out of QCS and he said if he can provide a place to hold a mobile medical clinic, he would try and supply doctors and nurses.

Lucas also told us that no one had visited his neighborhood either and many were hungry and thirsty.
Then later that afternoon another acquaintance called me and told me the same information about his area.

Then I took Ricky over to say goodbye to a friend who was leaving Haiti to go to school in the US.

Our local gas station has a small store and we noticed it was open, so we stopped in to get some essentials which fortunately they had: TP, Laundry detergent, margarine, salt, etc. We were also thrilled to see that they are filtering water again since clean drinking water is another essential!

When we got home we found that our internet was not working. In the meantime we counted our last gallons of diesel and saw that we have 6 left. Pray that they will open gas stations and banks soon!

Finally we started to make dinner and it appeared that the meat we had counted on for dinner was spoiled because of not having any power. However, the Mother of the Haitian family we are staying with washed it with boiling water and some bitter orange juice and saved it from going bad! When you are in need, God shows you a way!

That night we helped Ricky pack for his trip back to Florida, and then purchased a ticket for him on the internet to go from Ft. Lauderdale to Philadelphia.

Tuesday, Jan 19th, 2010

We packed up the car with all the things we wanted to take to Bolosse for Elysee and the refugee camp of almost 2,000. However, we had to stop at the QCS command center to see if there were any urgent needs there. When we got their, Scott, who was with Crisis Response International (CRI) introduced me to a medical team and told me he had met them at the Haitian – Dominican border just that morning. They had come back with him from the command center looking for a place to set up their mobile clinic. I told them I would lead them over because it was hard to find, but first I had to pick up my son and take him home so he could pack because he was going to be leaving that day.

It turned out that it took longer than I thought to pick up Ricky and get him packed before we returned to QCS, so the medical team had left before us. Later we found out that they got lost for an hour, but found their way after they called us at the airport and got directions.

When we got to the airport with Ricky, we found out that they had completely changed the airport around and that there was only one entrance with heavy security. Since everything at this point was standby we didn't know what flight Ricky would get on. We only knew that their were supposed to be 4 flights that day. The first flight was full, but the second had plenty of room, so Ricky got on a 40 passenger plane with only 10 passengers on it and got treated like a king at 5 PM that night.

Carol was trying to contact a friend in south Florida named Lisa to ask her to pick Ricky up in Fort Pierce. Lisa asked a friend of hers to pick Ricky up, but it was hard to stay in communication so we didn't know for sure that he was going to get Ricky when when we left for the airport. Then we got an e-mail from MFI, the mission that was coordinating the flights saying that since Ricky was an unaccompanied minor, “family services” would take care of him. “Family Services” turned out to be a part of the Florida State government, and they would not release Ricky to our friends. When Ricky said he had to catch a connecting flight in Ft. Lauderdale, they drove him 2 hours south to the airport. Fortunately by that time we had heard what happened from our friend Lisa who then went and found Ricky at the airport and thanks to the wonders of wireless internet was able to show the Family Services officers and e-mail from us authorizing Lisa to pick him up.

The next day Lisa got him on the flight and then his Uncle Fred picked him up at the airport. The next day, Uncle Fred took him on a shopping spree to buy winter clothes for school. Then our home Church's Pastor, Tim, and other friends arranged for him to get into Calvary Christian Academy which he had attended from 2003 to 2006. What a great blessing our friends and family have been during this transition time for Ricky!

Wednesday, Jan. 20th, 2010

Around 6:30 AM on Wednesday morning there was another major aftershock in the 5.0 range. We heard a house crash in our neighborhood and some screaming. I was supposed to pick up a nurse and her translator to a hospital near the epicenter of the first earthquake, but took a quick tour around the neighborhood to see if I could find the person who was injured.

We did find the person's house, but fortunately he had already been taken to the hospital with a broken arm.

So I went over to QCS and picked up the nurse and her translator and drove them across town to the Adventist Hospital. When we got there, all the doctors and nurses were outside listening to an engineer evaluate if the building was safe after the big aftershock that morning. He said it was basically OK, but that the operating room was one of the most dangerous places in the building because it was far from the exits.

While there I found a team of doctors who had working all night in the operating room and only stopped at 3 AM, only to be awakened by the tremor at 6 AM! They were exhausted and I was happy to give them a ride back.

While we waited for the doctors to get ready, Ecdes and I handed out tracks to patients in the courtyard.

Back at QCS, I went and used the internet and also made some calls to the US. I talked to Dwight Lehman, my Crossworld Director who said they were bringing in US cash so we can have money to operate since the banks are still closed. I also talked to the pastor of our home church, Tim Smith, who was looking into schooling options for Ricky.

Then I was assigned to take a team of doctors over to another big hospital in town. When we got there it was full of tents in its courtyard and you could hear the cries of the wounded all around. It was so overcrowded that they had refused to see a wounded child who needed his dressings changed. Thankfully he was one of the few who had received stitches, and they were healing well and were not infected. So I cleaned his wounds on the sidewalk and also showed his mother how to clean them as well, and gave her enough supplies to take care of her son so she wouldn't need to go back to the hospital again.

Then I decided to go and visit Ronald William's neighborhood. The day before I had asked him and his committee to make a summary of how many people were in refugee camps and also make a list of people in the camp. What they showed me was fantastic. They had counted the number of people in their four camps, accounted for the wounded, and told me how many had lost their houses. He also showed me the list of families that were in the camps, some with up to 15 family members with no home. In order to assess the medical needs, I went around and looked at the worst cases. I changed their dressings and cleaned their wounds. Almost every one I thought, would still require stitches. One boy had a deep cut in his hand – down to the bone, and it was getting infected.

When I was done, I went back to the big hospital to see if the doctors were ready to go home, but they said they needed at least an hour to finish up operations they were in the middle of. Since they said it would be at least an hour, I went back to get the worst of the wounded from Ronald's neighborhood and rushed them back to the hospital. Unfortunately, the boy with the bad hand did refused to come with us. When the nurse looked at the first person who had a deep gash in her leg, she said I had done a good job of cleaning and dressing it. When I asked her how come she could not do stitches, she said that you can only do stitches within 6 hours of when the wound occurred, otherwise you sew up the germs in the wound and it gets infected. I never knew that, and it really made me upset to think about all the people who would be left with ugly scars because they did not receive proper care.

In the meantime, a hospital worker who had overheard me saying I needed a nurse or doctor to help me evaluate the needs of the refugee camp I was working with introduced me to Marvin, a Mennonite missionary from Titayen, a town just outside of Port-au-Prince. He said he had a mobile clinic and was looking for another place to work after finishing up with another area. So I told him I had to take some of the people I had brought back to their neighborhood and he said he would like to go with me and check it out.

When we arrived, the community leaders were eager to talk to him and arranged a time to meet him at a local landmark and lead him up to the refugee camps the next day.

This means that in two days, God provided medical care for both of the refugee camps I was concerned about!

We returned to QCS with the doctors late in the afternoon, but there was still a bunch of doctors who needed to get back to a hospital close to where we lived, so once again, I played chauffeur and drove them over to L'hopital Espoir.

Thursday, Jan 21, 2010

We packed up the car hoping to that we would be able to finally make it across town to Bolosse. When we got to QCS we were asked to take a team of Doctors to a hospital quite close to Bolosse. So after we dropped them off, we arrived at Bolosse around 10:30 which gave us about an hour before we had to pick up another team of doctors and take them to the airport.

When we arrived at Bolosse, it looked as beautiful as ever, filled with trees and nice and green. But when we got to the top of the hill and saw the Bible school that was built in 1946, our hearts dropped. It was crumbled and in really bad shape.

Thankfully, we were able to talk to our two missionaries who live there, The McMartins and Schmids and give them all hugs, etc. since we hadn't seen everyone yet. Then we found Elysee and he shared with us how they were trying to organize the refugee camps on campus. They had divided them into 4 zones. His committee was operating under the authority of the UEBH and he asked me for some advice.

I suggested that he assign leaders in each zone to be responsible for Medical Care (Medic), Pastoral Care (Chaplain), Food & Water, Security, etc.

I made it to the CTDI hospital at noon to pick up the doctor I had met yesterday and take him to the airport as I had promised, but he was still in scrubs and had to finish up an operation. He said he would be ready in 20 minutes, but it turned out to be more like an hour. During that time I tried to help organize the medical supplies for the hospital by simply putting like supplies together. I was happy when I found a specific item that a doctor said he really needed.

When we were finally ready to leave, it ended up that we took 5 doctors and nurses to the airport.
We got to the airport on time, but had to wait around a long time until the person who could make reservations was available to talk to. I wanted to make reservations for Carol and I to fly out the next day.

In the meantime I saw some other missionaries saw me and asked for a ride back to QCS.

By the time we got back, it was almost dark and so we went home to start packing and talk to Ecdes about our plans. We needed to tell the refugees that were living at our house that they could not stay there any longer, and so we sat down with them and asked them how much they needed to move out to the country. Thankfully, a fellow missionary had giving me some money, so I had enough for them.

Then we collapsed in our beds.

Friday, Jan 22, 2010

Friday morning we threw some clothes in a suitcase and went over to QCS to tell the command center that we were leaving for a few days. We left our truck there for them to use while we would be away, and they got us a ride in a World Vision truck that had come over from the Dominican Republic.

When we got to the airport we were very grateful to find out that we were scheduled for the first flight out, and thanks to our friends at MAF, we were able to send an e-mail to Carol's cousin Patsy in Ft. Lauderdale to tell her what time to pick us up.

Still we waited around the airport for several hours but connected with the Mother of Joy's best friend from Canada at the airport.

Just as our plane was finally boarding, I saw three people who had just gotten off the plane approach some Haitian policemen. I saw that they were struggling to communicate and went over to see if I could help. They explained that they were 3 neurosurgeons who were trying to get to the CTDI hospital where I had been driving doctors all week. I ran over to my Crossworld colleague who was there picking up some packages and two disaster relief specialists. He said they had to go close to that hospital on the way home and would be happy to drop them off. I also had them call Ted, the head of the QCS relief effort and he said they could stay there as long as they needed and that he would also provide food and transportation for them! In less than five minutes God used me to put 3 neurosurgeons to work helping the wounded of Haiti!

When I got on the plane I was excited, but tired. I introduced myself to my seat-mate who was named Walter. Walter had been a para-medic in the army, but now was an executive that worked on Park Ave. in NYC for Wells Fargo Bank. He felt God wanted him to go down to Haiti and just up and took a week's vacation to go and help with no group sponsoring him. We talked for a while, but I was so tired I took a little nap.

When I woke up, Walter and I spent the rest of the trip discussing what I should be buying in the US while I was there.

When we got to Ft. Pierce, Carol's cousin, Patty was there to greet us. She even graciously offered to take Walter with us down to Ft. Lauderdale airport, a 2 hour drive. Of course Walter was thrilled and he later wrote us that he was able to get a late flight home to NJ that night and was in his bed by 2 AM!

Sat., Jan 23

Carol and I slept in for the first time in a looong time. We actually slept until 10 AM! When we woke up, Patsy and her husband John had fresh bagels and coffee waiting for us. After breakfast we made an appointment in the afternoon to go to the chiropractor since our bodies had been feeling the stress of all the events of the past 10 days.

That evening Patsy and John arranged a cookout with all of Carol's relatives who lived in the area and so we had a great time seeing family we hadn't seen in years, and of course eating ice cream!

Sun. Jan 24

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

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

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

Pictures

This is where we slept for a few nights after the earthquake--it's the top of our hosue.


This is the only damage we had at our house--a security wall partially came down. Thank God nothing worse happened to our house.

Some pictures

 

Richard flies back today

Richard is at Missionary Flights Int'l. (MFI) this morning to fly back to Port-au-Prince. We are really grateful for Henrick Motorsports and the race car drivers who have provided several flights per day since the earthquake, working with MFI. (The drivers paid for the gas for the planes.) Normally MFI only has one flight per week in and out of Port-au-Prince. So it has been a tremendous blessing that because of these NASCAR drivers and Hendrick's, a lot of doctors and supplies have gotten to Haiti and a lot of people have gotten to the US.

Since the Hendrick flights are ending on Saturday, we'll be back to one flight per week. So, it's a real blessing that there was a cancellation for today which allowed Richard to fly back in. It will be harder for me to get a flight on MFI, so I may have to take a commercial flight and since we don't know when PAP airport will be open for commercial flights, I may have to fly to Santo Domingo and take a bus to Haiti.
Carol

Tuesday, two weeks after the earthquake

Richard is flying back to Haiti tomorrrow from Fort Pierce, FL. The time at my cousin's house has been great--restful and encouraging because of all the people who have expressed interest in helping Haiti through prayers, giving, and coming down to work. We were very encouraged by the Christ the Rock Community Church in Cooper City, FL.

I am up in Pennsylvania for about a week. Ricky has had two good days at Calvary Christian Academy. We were grateful that the school accepted Ricky in the middle of the year even though their 10th grade class is full. The students have been great too, making him feel at home. Ricky is living with our friends, the Colombos for now.

If you're in the area, Crossing Community Church in Newtown will be hosting a Q&A time for those of you who want to hear about the earthquake in person on Saturday, January 30th at 7pm.
Carol

Sunday Jan. 24 update

Sorry we haven't updated in a while. I actually just posted something I wrote on Wednesday and thought I had posted, but I didn't.

So, after Wednesday.......Thursday I spent at our school, QCS, campus helping out wherever I could. Richard mostly drove around, taking doctors to hospitals and patients to hospitals. I'm sure he'll post something about that.

Friday we flew to Florida where we've been staying with my cousin Patsy and her husband John, who have been just amazing hosts, supporting us in sooo many ways. We are so grateful for them.

It has been so amazing to see all the attention the Haiti earthquake(s) is getting here in the US! And how much money is being raised....and how many people are going there!

Richard will return to Haiti in a couple of days.

I will be going to PHiladelphia tomorrow to stay with Ricky for about a week. Then I'll return to Haiti.

God has provided for Ricky through Calvary Christian Academy (CCA) accepting him back into the school. And He has worked it out so well--even though at our school in Haiti we had already completed one week of the second semester and would have done a second one by now, CCA is having review & midterms this week and then starting 2nd semester Feb. 1st. This seems perfect because during the review Ricky can get an idea of what they 've been doing and he can start the new semester without missing anything! (Sorry for all the excalamation marks:))

We are trying to figure out day by day what to do, but....So far it looks like Ricky will be staying at our friends' the Colombo's. But we are thinking that Ricky is too young to live for 6 months without his parents, I am thinking of only staying in Haiti for about a month and then returning to PA to live with Ricky. We're thinking that Richard could still work in Haiti and spend about a week with us a couple of times. Please pray with us about all this.
There's more to tell, but I will post this for now,
in His loving arms,
Carol

Wednesday - another earthquake - a 6.1

Psa 27:1 Of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

This morning Richard woke up very early because he was going to take a surgical nurse to a hospital down in the area where the epicenter of the earthquakes hit. We talked a bit while he was getting ready, said goodbye. When he left I went back to sleep. at about 6:05 I was shaken awake by another earthquake, jumped out of bed and ran out the front door. It was more alarming this time being awakened by it. Richard had not actually left the driveway yet so he came down to make sure I was all right. I was shaking, but fine. I’m glad I didn’t get up and get in the tub for my bucket bath at 6:00!

We heard some people near by yelling “Help!” A man had hurt his arm. Richard called out to him and then left, I think to check on him and then keep going to Diquini and Bolosse.

I really wanted to get on the internet to find out what happened outside of my neighborhood and to let people overseas know that we were still OK in case they heard about this earthquake.I turned on the inverter (battery powerd electricity), but I couldn’t connect. But I needed to connect with God first.

So I ended up reading Psalm 27 and 28.

Here are some highlights
For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.

Tuesday, one week since the earthquake

We put our son, Ricky, on a plane to the US a little before 5pm, almost exactly a week after the earthquakes.

There's a lot to praise God for.

The first part of the morning we spent packing our truck with supplies for Bolosse, the seminary campus where we used to live. Richard and some helpers made 3 guerneys and we had a bunch of stuff that could help the people over there like tarps, bandaids, clothes, shoes...all kinds of stuff. First we went over to school to talk to people in the organization which was planning to send doctors over there. There were some doctors who were willing to go without security personnel. Richard had two of our neighbors dressed in all black with dark sunglasses on standing up in the back of our truck bed to at least look like we had security. :)

BUT, we were also coming to the conclusion that Ricky should go back to the US for two reasons. First the school will not be reopening for quite a while and when it does, it may be very different. We only have about 50 students left in country out of about 250. Second, it is difficult to have enough money, water, food, etc. right now while there is virtually nothing open. So...

We were going to drive to the Dominican Republic Wed. or Thurs. to put Ricky on a plane there, because we heard the airport here was basically closed except for medical personnel, supplies and evacuations. But a friend in Missionary Aviation Fellowship sent me a message telling me to call him if we wanted to get out of the country. After considering the options we decided to go that way. So, we had to pick Ricky up from his best friend's house, take him home and get him packed, send a few emails, book a flight from FL to PA, etc. Then we took him to the airport.

By this time the doctors found a driver and went on ahead to Bolosse. Or so we thought, unfortunately they got lost, but finally they did make it there.

Driving up to the MFI/MAF section of the airport we saw David Schmid from Bolosse. He ws in the mission pick-up truck, so we transferred all the stuff from our truck to his so he could take it to Bolosse since we didn't think we'd make it today.

We had to wait a while, but Ricky got on a flight. When he arrived in Fort Pierce, a friend of a friend was there to pick him up, but he had to go through customs and by then, Ricky was released to Family Services of Florida. They drove him to Fort Lauderdale airport. When I heard that I wsa a bit upset because his flight is not until tomorrow. But then, another friend went to Fort Lauderdale airport and was able to get him and take him home to her house until tomorrow. Thank you, Lord.

Richard has volunteered to drive a surgical nurse to Diquini early in the morning, so we need to get some sleep. Good night :)

Monday

It's Monday and I had to clear out my classroom completely so that our school can be used as a rescue center. It's now looking like opening up the school again is a little further off. :( But I'm glad that our school can be used for such an important work. Most likely I will be volunteering here as a translator or doing some kind of help. I may also have to make up school packets for students to keep going until we can reopen. I really don't know the scope of this disaster; I only know it is huge. Could this mean we don't reopen school until September? I think it's more likely we'll open some time in March and then have to go late in the yaer to finish, but it's really hard to say. Please do pray fo rour son, Ricky's education.

I need to get off line now.

Thanks for praying.
Carol

Sunday

Today started early with Richard taking Wilfrid and his sister to the bus station. Wilfrid came down here from the NOrth to check on family members and bring his sister back to her mother's house.
I got up and started making chicken soup with chicken that had to be cooked last night before it went bad. I tried to make a huge quantity even though there wasn't that much chicken, judging from the number we fed yesterday.

We went to church and had a good time of mourning, hearing testimonies, thanking and praising God, singing and praying. After that it was ambulance duty again. One young lady was not sick enough to get help today :(. We took another young lady who had a badly injured foot to a hospital.

Oh, by the way, Sophie really went to church today. She seemed kind of excited when she left. I think she had to go by herself. As it turns out she could have come with us becasue our "English" church had a bunch of non-English speaking people in it today who don't usually come, so we had a bi-lingual service. It was a bit of a free form service and Richard led the congregation in a few hymns. Both he and Pastor Bobby did a great job of allowing people to mourn, but also helping us to see the bigger picture of God's work. For example, Richard shared what he had heard on the news about Senegal in West Africa. Senegal, being the place where more slaves left Africa than any other place, is offering part of their country to the Haitian people to start a "Little Haiti" over there. Very interesting considering their is only one foreign missionary we know of sent out by a Haitian mission agency and he (and his wife) are in Senegal. Also interesting that that part of the world has been becoming more and more Islamic...seems like God wants to put some Haitian Christians over there.

We came home and dished out soup to everybody who was here and ourselves.

After that we went back to church to see the distribution of food being done by Convoy for Hope. It was well organized. Many people got a package of instant rice and soy and a water bottle. The Book of Hope was given to them as well. The group gave out food yesterday and will do the same tomorrow, too.

Saturday

So much has happened today and I'm trying to hurry because I'm running the generator, using up diesel, when I just found out that the station that sold us gas the other day was threatened so they're not selling gas now. Some people think we'll be able to buy gas soon, but we don't know. So for now we're running the generator 1-2 hours a day, mainly to update this, facebook and our email.

God has been doing amazing things. This morning we were planning to go to Bolosse, where we used to live and where there are more than 2000 people living on the campus of the seminary. Many of them are injured and we wanted to help people like Elysee Vaillant who has been involved in our ministry and Margaret and Mme. Levy who work for us. We prayed about the safety risk and weren't sure if we should risk going there today with our truck. But first we needed to take Johnny to get another injection and a few things happened along the way. And we couldn't get anyone from over there on the phone. So we ended up deciding not to go.

Richard was out getting supplies and driving people in need places they needed to go. I spent most of the day cooking and cleaning up, feeding the neighbors and others who stopped in. With all that movement, I didn't notice the tremors we had today.

At about 3 pm Elysee showed up from Bolosse with 3 guys who were forming a team to help deal with the needs of the 2000+ people camping out at Bolosse. This was amazing because there's almost no public transportation. But after praying, a friend agreed to take them to our house to tell us there needs. They really wnated to talk to Richard, so at first I just gave them water, fed them spaghetti, made up a care package of large bandaids, antibiotic ointment, and gauze. Then I sat down with them and said they could explain it to me and I'd tell Richard because we couldn't reach him by phone and he was still out helping people.

Here's the amazing part...after listening to them a while, kind of as an afterthought, we decided that we should try going over to the school where I teach since 2 emergency aid organizations are setting up bases there. I really didn't expect anything great to happen, but I thought it was worth a try. As soon as I got out of the car I spotted Ted Steinhour, who was just the man I needed. Not only had he been gone all day, but as soon as I said the guys were from Bolosse, he said "I was trying to get to Bolosse today!" Come right over here and let's have a little meeting. He had heard of the problems at Bolosse and wanted to help. He is going to get a team and supplies over there as soon as it can be worked out. We were thrilled.

But please pray...More serious security measures are needed for sending the doctors and espeically supplies over there. Pray also for a team of doctors to be available for this particular need and for the supplies. If they are dominican doctors, pray for interpreters. Also pray about the people on the campus, the guys said the number keeps growing. They say they won't be surprised if it ends up being 5,000 people.
They don't have facilities, like toilets, etc. for anywhere near that many people. Another request: for the organization the guys want to work out, for example a place for people who are seriously injured, helping people who can go out to the country to get there.

Sophonie

I'm so grateful for Marie-Ange (which means Marie-Angel) the grandmother of Sophonie, my little 3 year old neighbor who puts a huge smile on my face when she comes running up to me with her arms up in the air to be picked up. Marie Ange saved Sophonie's life during the earthquake. She saw that a wall was about to come down on her. she says she grabbed Sophonie's arm and then "flew." I think it's her dramatic way of saying jumped out of the way. With all the death and devastation, it's so nice having Sophonie around. Today she was helping her mom wash clothes in a tub and was singing some song about Jesus. It was so cute. But, more important than that, God has a plan for her life...He kept her hear for a reason.

Earthquakes January 12, 2009

3 Earthquakes hit Port-au-Prince Tuesday 1/12/09, the first two about 5 pm and 6pm then one at 1 in the morning. The first was a 7.0. It was very scary, shook our house up a lot, but our house has no cracks or anything! Thank you God and thank you Pastor Hantz Bernard who had a very solid house built. Things fell and smashed, and it was scary running outside. The refrigerator opened and all the contents smashed on the floor, but the fridge did not fall over, tall pieces of furniture did not fall over either.

We are all fine. It's nerve-wracking to feel all the aftershocks. The first night we slept on the "roof"(flat top) of our house. Last night we slept in the living room near so that we could run out the door easily if we needed to. But we only went outside for one aftershock.

Our immediate neighborhood was not too badly hit. But nearby there was a tall hotel under construction and 5 or so stories fell and apparently crushed poor peoples' houses. All over the city people are hurt or have died. The first night Ricahrd took a lady who was pregnant and also injured (shoulder) to a hospital....he eneded up trying 5 hospitals before he left her at that one. All of them were filled with people who needed help. It's still like that. In some places doctors are trying to help people but they need materials. That same night Richard brought an injured man, Izidor, back to our house becuase he had no place to go. When the earthquake hit, he was injured trying to get downstaires from the 3rd floor with his baby in his hands. He did not know what happened to any of his househodl. The next day we took him to his mother's house where he found out his wife survived but not the baby. We gave some first aid, prayed with some people and then took Izidor to a friends house closer to his own crushed house. The plan was for him and his wife to reunite there.

On the way, we saw many dead bodies on the sides of the roads and many people working on getting people out of the wreckage. I have a lot of pictures but it's a miracle even to get to post this at the house of a friend of a friend. So i'm not sure when I can put up pics.

We had news as of this morning that the school has heard from all the staff and teachers except 2. That is, all of them are Ok, one worker had a son die, one had a neice die.

As far as our co-workers in AIS-Haiti, we ahve heard from Sylvain, he is fine, but not his house. We have not gotten any word on anyone else.

Please pray for Margaret who works at our house and her husband Mitou. We haven't heard from them & we don't know where their apartment is so we can't go check on them.

Please pray for the Vaillant family--Mrs. Vaillant, whom we call Mme Levy works at our house and their son Elysee is invovled in the AIS Haiti ministry.
Pray for Ronald William whom we have not heard anyhthing.
thank you
will post when I can

Only God knows the results

“… do it to the least of these.” While waiting over 2 hours to get my car registration verified by the Haitian police, I noticed what looked to be small jail cell in the corner of the building. I guess it was a holding cell for serious traffic offenders. In any event, I started to pray for the man and then felt moved by the Spirit to give the young man a water bottle and a Christian tract in Creole. Only the Holy Spirit knows how God’s Word will affect this young man!

Rich

Resolving Conflict

"Leave your offering and go and be reconciled with your brother." Conflict is a part of every community and family, whether in Haiti or the US. Several times we have had to help our regional committees resolve conflicts. In one case, one of the committee members had a long-standing conflict with his pastor that we didn’t know about until we visited the church. Ronald William, one of our board members, visited the church affiliated with one of the schools where we planted an evangelistic soccer team. He noticed that one of the regional committee members did not even enter the church, but sat outside the church for the whole service with his arms crossed looking angry. When Ronald questioned him about this, he went into a long story about all the ways this pastor had hurt him ever since he had become pastor a few years ago. It turns out Jean (not his real name) had been a top leader in the church before this new pastor took over, and one reason he was upset was because he not a part of the leadership team anymore.

We realized that the regional committee was not going to function well unless this dispute was resolved so Ronald and I made a special trip to talk with the regional committee about this. We met with the pastor first and he explained his side of the story. Then we met with the whole regional committee. God worked it out that “Jean” was able to explain why he felt the way he did and he and the pastor were able to reconcile their differences.

All this is very ironic since the curriculum we are using with our players is “Living in peace with each other” How can our leaders teach the players under them how to do this if they are not at peace with each other?

Cookies and the Gospel

During our training trip to Verrettes about a month ago four young men trusted in Christ. Here's the story of how God used us to draw them to himself:

When we go to Verrettes, we usually stay in a large house that used to be a missionary's house that hosted a lot of teams. It has large windows that are easy to look through and so the neighborhood kids love to come and see who is visiting. Sylvain, one of our Haitian trainers, heard two boys calling in through the window asking for food early in the morning. So he invited them in, gave them something to eat and also shared the Gospel with them. Both of them trusted in Christ and Sylvain followed up with them the next day.

The next day I (Rich) had just finished teaching a session and went outside for a break when two boys came up and asked me for food. I went to the car to get them some cookies and also got some Christian Tracts in Creole that I always keep in the car. I sat down on the ground with them and read the tract to them while they ate their cookies. Another Haitian Christian friend walked by and so I asked him to join us. Together we talked to the boys for a long time and found out that one of the boy’s father had died and he was living with his Grandparents. The other was from a very poor family, according to my Haitian friend. We explained the Gospel to them clearly and both boys indicated they would like to receive Christ. After we prayed with them I gave my Haitian friend some money so that he could buy some sandals for the one boy.

The next day we met with them both again to teach them more about growing in Christ and the importance of going to church. My Haitain friend, Rosime, who lives in the area will follow up with them and I'll check on them next time I go to Verrettes!

The Lord gives and the Lord takes away

Praise the Lord for the safe delivery of Shirley's baby boy. He was born Saturday on the way (!) to the hospital. I haven't heard the details yet. They have said that they want to give the baby up for adoption, but so far they haven't gotten through on the phone to the orphanages we told them about. I wonder how they feel now that the baby is here? Shirley is staying with Samuel's Mom for now.

Late that night, Ecdes' (our helper who lives on our property) sister died. She was very sick (I think I asked you to pray). She lived out in the country with Ecdes' parents, about 5 hours awaay. They had been told a few weeks ago by the doctors that they didn't know what was wrong with her. He was very sad, of course, and he went out there to be with is family for a while.

Training Trip to Leogane

Tomorrow (Friday, Dec. 11, 2009) we are going to Leogane just outside of Port-au-Prince to train the leaders of 9 teams how to start an evangelistic soccer ministry at their schools. On Friday afternoon we work with the coaches, stay overnight and then all-day Saturday we teach the administrators, chaplains and coaches the basics of starting a team. On Sunday we meet with the regional committee and prepare them to follow up on the training.

Please pray for us and those we will train this weekend! Thanks!

Update on Trip to Verrettes

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

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

There was a special training session for the team administrators.

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

Thank you again for your prayers!

Pray for Sophie & James to make it to church tomorrow

Today's project: get Sophie and James ready to go to church tomorrow. I think for the first time. At least for the first time to this church. Please pray.

I had written about an answer to prayer about our neighbor, Sophie, who said she would like to go to church with me (Nov. 15). She was going to go to church last week, but it's a little complicated and then she got news that the father of her child, Sophonie, was killed. She said that he died because his former boss paid 1000 gourdes ($25.00US) to a witchdoctor to put a spell on him.

I had given her money to buy clothes for church, but she said she used the money to buy clothes for Sophonie to go her father's funeral. That might not have completely derailed our plan, but the day before the funeral I saw that Sophie had artificial nails glued on to her toes! (Remember she's only about 17). I have only seen this once before when I was at a salon on my birthday. I was so surprised then. The salon was not fancy or expensive. The lady who was having them put on, looked fairly conservative, not very well dressed, etc. Now here was Sophie who comes to us saying she and her little girl have nothing to eat, with these fake nails on her toes. It really is cheap to get stuff like that done here, but I was upset that she probably spent money that I had given her for church clothes on something so (to me) ridiculous. I asked her if she had spent money on them, hoping that maybe she would say a friend just did it for free. She didn't really answer me. I frowned, hugged her and said I didn't like that, but that I love her and then laughed. Then I let couple of days go by, I was really busy anyway.

I also realized that she should not go to church with the white people. I confirmed with her and Ecdes, who works for us, that walking in for the first time with the white people would make them see her a certain way. What they would think exactly I don't know and I don't think that Sophie or Ecdes can explain it to me, but we all agreed it would best if it weren't like that. Ecdes mentioned that it would be great if her brother, James, who hangs out at our house a lot could come too. And if Sophie came with Ecdes alone, then they found out she had a baby--THAT would not be good for them. And, I offered to watch Sophonie, so that Sophie could go, at least for the first time, without a 3 year old to worry about. Complicated, huh? Anyway, when I asked James, he said he would like to go too but just doesn't have clothes. We'll be working on finding clothes & shoes to lend James and Ecdes agreed to help him buy some used clothes "off the street" if we can't find any that fit. Actually it's great to be working together with Ecdes on this because he has expressed the idea before of some people being so bad they could never get saved (although not particularly James & Sophie.)

Yesterday Sophie asked me for money to get a permanent. When I disapproved and suggested she just have a friend braid her hair, she said it would not work well because it's too short, but she could get extensions. At first I started lecturing her about "if you can't afford to feed your child..." but then I asked her how much each would cost and could she have a friend help her out. She was only asking for $1US for the extensions (for her whole head) or $3 for the permanent. Extensions it is.

If you're wondering why we need to worry so much about clothes & hair for church, feel free to ask in a comment. I'll probably comment on it another day, but this is very long already, so I'm signing off for now.
Just please pray that they actually go,
that Sophonie is OK staying with me without her mom
that people are nice to them at church,
that they want to come back,
that God will speak to them.
Thanks

"A new day with no mistakes in it" --Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables

So now that I gave you the good, bad and the ugly about yesterday.....

Today Richard is on his way out to Verrettes to train about 40 leaders, mostly to use the Young Peacemaker book.

So Ricky and I helped him get ready.

Thanksgiving: Part I - with Police, Part II - with missionaries colleagues

Not our most glorious moment.... :(
...but we're thankful nothing worse happened. Yesterday, Thanksgiving....we ate humble pie, then pumpkin pie--even though the punishment didn't fit the crime, we are guilty.

We were our way out at about 12:30, with Mimi Potatoes, Pumpkin Pie, Salad and bread in the cooler. We let Ricky (age 15 1/2 :)) practice driving on a road—he doesn’t have a permit yet. We sometimes let him turn the car around and drive out on the unpaved roads of our neighborhood and then switch drivers before we get to the "main" road (not much better, but there is a little traffic on it.) This time we let him go a little ways on the "real" road. Some Haitian policemen stopped us to check our papers and they asked for Ricky's license. To make things worse, we didn’t have the current paperwork for our insurance in the glove compartment—it was at home. (Richard was going to make a copy on our copier/printer first. Normally the police should have written us a ticket (or ticketS) and let us go. But they asked for the keys to the car, kept them and are papers and just went back and stood were they had been standing. Richard tried to show them that we had the insurance sticker on the car and asked to go home to get the up-to-date paperwork since we were so close to home. But they wouldn't let us. When we asked what was going on, they said that someone from the traffic office had to come and we had to wait. We called the missionaries we were supposed to have dinner with and told them to go ahead. Every time we asked the police what was going on, they said that the man was on his way and would be there soon. It didn'teven seem like they were asking for a bribe. Sometimes we hear "don't you have something for me?" But not this time. We called people and asked what they thought about it. They thought it wasn't normal but couldn't really figure it out. The officers all looked under age 20, I think they liked the power of keeping us "blancs" there. But what can we say? We were in the wrong.

When we had been there about an hour and 15 minutes, a Haitian friend who works in the area came along and he and his friends talked to the police. After another 15 minutes or so, they got the police to agree to Richard going in Eddy's car with him to our house to get the proper paperwork. Ricky & I stayed with the car with 2 Haitian friends who were riding with us. Meanwhile I called the Haitian consulate emergency number. The representative listened and asked to speak with the the police officers, but they refused to talk to him. He said that if they still kept us after Richard got the papers, to call him back and that if we needed it we could possibly call the Marine Guard.

Aside - The mysterious Marine Guard. We've been told that anywhere you are, anytime night or day, no matter what you've done, if you think you are in danger, you can call the Marine Guard and they'll come and rescue you. I've heard of a story of a wayward teenager who found himself lost late at night in a bad part of town and the Marines came and got him. Kind of a cool picture of God, isn't it?

When Richard and Eddy got back, they talked to the policemen for about 10 minutes and they let us go without giving us any tickets. They said at that point that if Richard had told them that the paperwork was at our house, they would have let us go, but hmmmmm. So, several lessons learned, one of them is not to give in to kids when you know you’re right even though they say “C’mon just let me…..”

It wasn't my favorite Thanksgiving, but we're thankful for Eddy and his friend who helped us, for David Schmid who was just about leave home and come out to try to help us, and that we did make it to the Schmid's house and ate turkey with all the fixings.

Short news clip on voodoo

I thought this clip on voodoo might be appropriate because of a death that our neighbors say was caused by voodoo. Some of you have been praying for Sophie and Sophonie. This week Sophie came to us to tell us that Sophonie's father was killed because his former boss paid 1000 gourdes to a witchdoctor to put a spell on him.

http://www.chiamare.net/haiti-society-split-over-voodoo-15-november-2007/

One comment on the clip--As far as I can see voodooists have not been persecuted for quite a while. They don't have to hide what they do (well maybe some of it...?).

Soccer Clinic

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Article in New York Times on Gonaives

This is a good article on the city of Gonaives where we just did our training a few weeks ago:

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/11/16/16greenwire-storm-ravaged-haitian-city-waging-uphill-battl-64933.html?pagewanted=1

Update on Baby saved from abortion

One day this summer Samuel, a former Lemuel soccer player, called Elysee and said he needed the equivalent of $20 US because he had a “problem”. His girlfriend, Shirley, was pregnant, and they wanted to get an abortion. Elysee took time out of his busy schedule (He works full time and has started a restaurant on the side) to counsel the couple. He patiently explained to them the moral and physical dangers (especially in Haiti) of abortion and reminded them that Jesus died to forgive our sins. Praise God, the couple listened to his counsel and the young lady decided to have the baby.

Now, the baby is due before the end of November and Elysee has been in touch with Samuel & Shirley again. Unfortunately, Shirley has not been living at home because her Father is an alcoholic and her Mom is afraid he might hit her and harm the baby. Both her parents were very upset when they heard the news she was pregnant because she is too young to have a child and they did not agree with her dating Samuel. So Shirley was living with a friend, but then the friend told her she had to leave because she had no money to pay for rent and food.

So now her Mom is looking for a place for Shirley to stay for a while until the baby is born. She and her Mom were not talking for a while, but Elysee got them together to work things out and now her mother is going to take Shirley to a free clinic this week for a pre-natal checkup. She also knows of a hospital where Shirley and give birth for free.

Elysee just met with the couple yesterday and they told him they would like to put the baby up for adoption, so we have hooked them up with a reliable orphanage we know about. We also gave Elysee some money to give them for transportation and food until the baby is born.

Please pray for Samuel and Shirley as they go through the process of the birth and giving up the baby for adoption. Neither one is finished high school and they have no way to take care for the baby financially, nor do their parents. That is why they wanted to get an abortion. Pray also for Elysee as he counsels them and their parents, that there would be a full reconciliation between the families involved and that God would provide a good Christian home for the baby, or whatever His will is. Thanks!

Wow! Another answer to prayer

I had asked you to pray for our neighbors, specifically, Sophie, a teenage Mom with a little girl named Sophonie.

Last year I was praying a lot about them and others in their family and the others they were living with. But then things happened...like she moved away. It turns out she didn't move far away, and her Mom still lives down the street from me, so she started coming here a lot again. Another reason I stopped being focused on reaching out to her with the gospel was because I was feeling overwhelmed by not knowing if people are telling the truth, if they are coming around just because we give them food, medicine and clothes, etc.

But, yesterday we were sitting on my back porch, I was holding Sophonie (now 3) and feeding her Applesauce Cake I had just made. I'm not sure how it came up, but Sophie said "I would go with you to church." I was very surprised. She said she would need clothes though. (A cultural thing--it's considered disrespectful to go in old clothes, ladies "must" have sleeves and close-toed shoes.) We talked about that, about how I go to an English church, but I'd love to go to a Creole church with her. But we didn't make specific plans.

Today she stopped by and as we were talking, she said "you're my only friend, you know." "What?" I was surprised again. She said that she can't talk to anybody because all they do is gossip. She said she's trying to stay away from guys. So I brought up our idea of going to church and mentioned that maybe she could make some new friends who want to follow the Lord. So we decided to try for next Sunday.

I'm so excited. I didn't know she was this open. Please pray for this to work out...for God to give me wisdom as to what church to bring her to...for new friends for her...for our relationship.


Here's a picture of my sweet little Sophonie with a doll I gave her for her 3rd birthday. As soon as she got it, she kissed it's little face right away, before we took it out of the box. By the way, she does have clothes, but she does NOT like to wear them. I always give her a hard time about coming to my house without clothes on. (And, yes, it's a black baby doll).

Youth Ministry Allnighter

Last night was an "Allnighter" for the Youth Ministry of Quisqueya Chapel. There were 146 on campus, including the leaders. (Some could not stay all night, though.) It was an amazing night. After watching a long film, Q&A time and worship time, most of the kids stood in a long line to be prayed for by not one, but several of the leaders. They went to the first leader, he prayed for them, then they went to the next leader. I think there were 4 leaders praying like this. This took about 2 1/2 - 3 hours! ('til about 2 AM). One amazing thing was that you can get a crowd easily in Haiti among the poor who don't have much to do, but about a third of these kids are not poor (financially) but many are becoming very aware of their needs for God's work in their lives.

After the Q& A time, during worship, I felt that God was prompting me to pray with 3 specific guys--friends of Ricky's. During the first song, I noticed that one of them was praying with his head in his hand instead of singing. I felt pretty strongly I was supposed to pray THEN, so I walked over to where they were and only one was still there. It took me a few minutes to get up the courage to tap him on the shoulder and ask him if he would like to pray together. He had asked some questions about assurance of salvation, so we talked about that. Then we talked about other things and I said the obvious..."if you want to be sure, you can get that straight right now." He said "I guess we should pray." Then to decide who would pray first, he suggested we do "Rock, Paper, Scissors" His scissors could cut my paper, so that meant he prayed first. When we finished, we were both bursting. He said he felt filled with the fruit of the Spirit--filled with joy--like he was smiling soo big! Highlight of my year, I think.

ANOTHER amazing thing about last night was realizing how God has been answering prayers of mine from last year. Some of you have been praying for these things too. I prayed that Ricky would not fight us too much about going to Youth, that he would want to go and that his friends would come. Last year none of his closest friends were attending. As I looked around last night, I realized that in the past month almost all of his close friends have been at Youth or at least this Allnighter. And mostly they are showing interest in the things of the Lord. Another prayer was for a young Christian man who is strong in his faith to mentor Ricky and his friends. There were specific men I prayed about who have taught at our school. One of them was supposed to return to California and stay there, but God brought him back to be the main leader of the Youth Ministry (Marc). Ricky and his friends have Marc for Algebra, they get to talk to him at break, lunch, after school and at Youth. And when I was talking with Kevin (above) he mentioned that Marc has had a huge influence on all of them. I hadn't noticed how God was working...Now I thank Him for it!

No injuries at the football game

Thank you to those of you who prayed. There were no injuries at the game. We all had a good time even though our guys didn't win. Ricky made a touchdown, though.

The "Gold" truck

One day in Port-au-Prince I was driving with a Haitian friend when we saw this truck loaded down with brightly-colored plasticware, fans, and home products from China. They were blaring a message from a loud-speaker and playing loud music.

I asked my friend what this truck was all about. He said people bring their gold jewelry and other valuables to the truck and they get to pick a “prize” from among the items displayed.

As I though about this, it seemed that we are often tempted to do the same thing. We exchange something of great value for something that looks flashy or we think will make us happy in the moment. Like when I'm tempted to make an impulsive purchase, or waste my valuable time on an internet “sweepstakes”.

But some things are so valuable, you can't get them back once you give them away. Like your virginity, or your good name. Trust that has been built up over a lifetime can be lost through a single bad decision.

So next time we're tempted by the things of this world, let's remember that our relationships and character are much more valuable than anything this world has to offer.

A mother's request

Please pray for the safety of Ricky, and all the other boys who will be playing touch football today at Union School. Sometimes kids are too rough with soccer and even though touch football shouldn't be very rough, well............please pray.
thanks,
Carol

First Training Trip a Learning Experience

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here are a couple of testimonies from these interviews:

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

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

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

Living Haitian Style

It was a joy to stay with a Haitian family in Gonaives for three nights. They cleaned out a room for the three of us, and we set up our portable beds in it. The room was all cement and had only one widow, so it held the heat, but thankfully, they had a pedestal fan that sucked the cooler air in from the outside and made the room a little cooler.

Gonaives is the fourth largest city in Haiti and was flooded in 2004 and in 2008. The family we stayed with survived both floods by living in a room for a month in a nearby public school above the flood waters. There were 10 people in one room with no clean water to drink, no electricity and no toilet facilities. Their house was completely underwater, and would have been swept away had it not had a cement roof.

This family's day began at 5 AM with getting water from a well in their courtyard. Several families share the walled-in compound and there were always children around. I made friends with two 7 year old girls who wanted to play with my hair (what little there is left!). I told them I wanted barrettes like they had, so they tried to put a couple in my hair (see pictures).

Then they have a breakfast of leftover rice or Spaghetti with ketchup.
At noon they have their big meal of rice and beans and maybe “Lalo” - a spinach-like vegetable they cook with goat and one or two small crabs to give it flavor.

After teaching seminars all day, we held soccer practice for one of the teams involved in our program. The field was nothing but dust. Every time you kicked the ball, a cloud of dust spewed up. This was supposedly one of the best fields in Gonaives and they had played championship matches on it – all without one blade of grass!

At night we had either “Fritay”, fried stuff that can easily give you the runs, or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (you can guess which on I chose!)

There is no plumbing in the house, so there was an outhouse with a cement “seat”, and a place to take a bucket shower. Somehow looking up at the stars under a full moon while you poor cold water over you with a pitcher is invigorating! It felt good to get at least most of the dust off.

At night I feel fell asleep to the sweet sound of mosquitoes buzzing in my ears (since I lost my OFF spray). My roomates wrapped themselves in a sheet to protect themselves and ended up looking like mummies.

But we slept well in spite of the little pests since we were so tired, only to awake before dawn to the sound of water being fetched, and meals being prepared to the singing of Christian songs and Christian music from the radio.

Proverbs 31 Woman

While staying a few days in a Haitian household, I was reminded of the woman praised in Proverbs 31. The woman in this picture was up before dawn, chopping wood (which woke me up!), mixing dough, and setting up her little stand outside her house on the street to sell little spice cakes.

Even though she was not my hostess, when she saw I needed some water to wash my hands, she went and got some for me.

All the while she was working, she was singing hymns.

Her house doesn't have indoor plumbing or a refrigerator, but she has the joy of the Lord, and her hands are not idle!

Article on the "firing" of Haiti's Prime Minister

HAITI Haitian Senate fires prime minister In a marathon session, Haitiansenators voted to oust Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis. By JACQUELINECHARLES jcharles@MiamiHerald.com
PORT-AU-PRINCE -- Haiti's Senate voted just after midnight Friday to dismissPrime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis, following almost 10 hours of debate.
Senate President Kely Bastien, who is not allowed to cast a vote underSenate rules, said a letter will be sent to President René Préval notifyinghim of the Senate's 18-0 decision.
A number of senators who opposed the move to fire Pierre-Louis had left theSenate floor shortly before the vote, believing that they had successfullyfilibustered the attempt when the clock struck midnight here.
``There is nothing illegal about the vote,'' said Bastien, adding that Haiti``could have a new prime minister as early as today or Saturday.''
The session began almost two hours after the scheduled start time andlawmakers spent hours debating procedures with supporters of Pierre-Louis,who questioned the validity of the senators' move to censure her.
Her supporters made impassioned pleas and cries of ``illegal'' and``unconstitutional'' from the Senate floor.
Senators have accused Pierre-Louis, a favorite of the internationalcommunity, of not moving quickly to solve Haiti's crucial problems: highunemployment, lack of significant foreign investments and environmentaldeterioration.
Pierre-Louis, in office for a year, said she has spent much of her tenuregetting international support for Haiti after four back-to-back stormsdevastated the country last year, and it is too soon to see the results ofher work.
Senators were not swayed.
But unlike the last censure of a Haitian prime minister -- Jacques-EdouardAlexis in April 2008 following days of food riots -- this one wasn't asswift or orderly.
At times, chaos reigned: Lawmakers screamed and talked over one another infront a national television audience.
The Senate president often rang a small silver bell in a futile attempt tocreate order as the session stretched into Friday morning without a vote.The vote finally occured at about 12:15 a.m., long after Pierre-Louis'Senate supporters had left, believing they had succeeded in preventing avote.
``There is an error in the summons and everyone knows it,'' said Sen. YouriLatortue, a Pierre-Louis supporter who last year successfully led themovement to oust Alexis.
But those lined up against Pierre-Louis weren't moved by the constitutionalarguments, nor her letter to the Senate president questioning the validityof the censure and informing him that she did not plan to attend thesession.
``Do we not have the right, the freedom today to call the government and askfor an explanation?'' asked Jean Hector Anacasis, one of the senatorsleading the effort to oust Pierre-Louis.
Sen. Joseph Lambert, the former president of the senate and leader ofPresident Préval's Lespwa Coalition, went even further, accusingPierre-Louis of not improving the lives of most of the country's estimatednine million citizens who live on less than $2 a day.
``I've never been so shocked in my life,'' said Sen. Andris Riche afterhearing Lambert's reasons for wanting Pierre-Louis gone and walking out ofthe session following an impassioned speech in support of her.
``You are going to commit an act that to me is disastrous. Decisions are notmade at the prime minister's office. You know where the decisions aremade,'' he said, implying the presidential palace.
Neither Pierre-Louis nor her government showed up for the censure.
*Miami Herald special correspondent Jean-Cyril Pressoir contributed to thisreport.

Some ninth grade students helped us put together booklets for "The Peacemaker for Youth" (in Creole) the study to be used with the players on the AIS-Haiti soccer teams. Here they are in my classroom at QCS.

Richard left this morning with Sylvain and Ronald to go out to Verrettes and Gonaives. They will reconnect with the leaders in those areas and train the leaders in using the Peacemaker study.

Rich prepares for a Road Trip

This weekend Rich, Sylvain and Ronald will embark on their first in a series of trips to visit each of AIS Haiti's seven Regional Committees.

During these trips we will visit our 56 evangelistic soccer teams supervised by 7 regional committees throughout Haiti so that we can train the chaplains in a curriculum a fellow Crossworld missionary has translated into Creole: Ken Sande's The Young Peacemaker.

In addition to this important training, these trips will also allow us to accomplish the following:

1. Train the members of the Regional Committees in leadership and financial skills.
2. Distribute over 1000 lbs of soccer equipment we have already received in Haiti.
3. Help each region prepare an annual plan and prepare an outreach during the 2010 World Cup
4. Deliver over 20,000 pieces of Christian literature: Bibles, tracts and materials in Creole to be used to evangelism and discipleship.

Normally, three AIS Haiti leaders will go on each trip: Richard Mears, AIS Haiti Director, Ronald William, AIS Haiti Board member and Coaching Supervisor; Sylvain Nelson, AIS Head Administrator and Chaplain Supervisor.

This trip will take us to Verettes and Gonaives and will last from Oct. 31 to Nov. 4th.

Please pray for safety in travel and a good time of training and fellowship with our volunteer leaders in Gonaives.

Adjust your mirrors!

This morning as I was driving Carol and Ricky to school we got behind an SUV with both mirrors cock-eyed. The one on the right was tilted up to the sky, while the one on the left was pointing down. In otherwords, they were useless for what they were intended for.

This reminds me of when I forge ahead with my life without praying and consulting God's word for wisdom. God's Word says that all things recorded there are to teach us and give us wisdom. Sometimes we have to look backwards in order to get perspective on our current situation.

God to this day asks us to remember his sacrifice for us through the sacrement of Holy communion. He wants the Jews to remember the way he delivered them from the Egyptians, and so he tells them to celebrate the Passover from generation to generation.

Remembering God's great works in our lives and the lives of his people is like us adjusting our rear-view mirrors on the car: By looking backwards, we can often see what's coming at us in the future.

So it's always a good idea to adjust your mirrors before you start driving, but it's even more important to look backwards and remember the work of God in your life and ask Him for perspective and wisdom to handle what coming up behind you!

Punctuation by God

I'm always hesitant to claim "God gave me this verse" or that He's speaking through one because I suspect some people say stuf f like that too easily. But...

After posting on Sunday morning about Psalm 90 v. 1 which I had been reading & praying back to God, I got up, got dressed, went to church, sat down and what was the very first thing read? You guessed it, Psalm 90! I think God was saying "yes, I did say that" and was putting the exclamation mark on that for me.

This weekend

Here are some verses God has given me (Carol):
1. "Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations." Ps. 90:1
2. "Wait for the Lord, Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." Ps. 27:14

Here's what it seems the significance of each of the verses is:
1. The first could be God talking to me about an office for AIS. The office we've shared has not worked out very well. It's where we had the cybercafe and we were sharing with another ministry. (and it was not very big). We're not renewing after this month, so that's ending. We don't have another place and there really isn't money at this time to rent one. Richard mainly uses Joy's room since she's at college, but it's not really adequate for many of the needs. Our house is pretty small, not accessible by public transportation (people have to walk about a 1/4 mile and part of it is up a big hill), etc. But yesterday we had two meetings out on our porch, where we've had most AIS meetings. Our colleagues in AIS never complain about the walk to our house. Sometimes we go drive out to the "main road" in our neighborhood to pick them up or drop them off, or even out to the main road of this area. The point is God is in control of this and all other needs of the ministry.
2. I know the one about wait for the Lord is ALWAYS applicable, but for me now it's very much applicable to having to wait and take things slowly with the soccer & business ministries. A few weeks ago we mentioned that our good friend Ronald lost his job as soccer coach at a high school. He has worked a lot for the soccer ministry, but aren't able to pay him for his work. We help him out as we can. But it makes me anxious for us to get a business or businessES started that can support the ministry, so that we can eventually have a couple people supported to focus on the ministry. We do want to promote the idea of volunteer work in ministry, but it's hard when people have such dire needs. In his case, here he is jobless, no income, but people see him busy with activity in AIS and they assume he gets money for it. He has to tell them 'No, I don't. This is volunteer work.' But those who know that it's run by an American probably have a hard time explaining that.
Please pray for Ronald. His beautiful attitude and faith through frustrating the conditions of his termination for that job are a huge inspiration to us.

Girls' Small Group

Yesterday I had my first meeting of my small group for girls that is part of the Youth Ministry of Quisqueya Chapel. I think it was a good start.

The small groups this year are "interest groups," and ours will be doing some baking, cooking, sewing and crafts. We are also studying the book of Mark (as is the whole church--in small groups). I am co-leading with a another missionary who was out of the country this week, but is coming back this week. We have 9 7th and 8th graders, half of them MKs and half of them girls from the neighborhood around Quisqueya Chapel. It will be a challenge to get them to connect. Last year's group didn't go so well in that regard. But this year, instead of having the small group as a 10 minute activity at the end of the youth meeting, we're allowing more time and going to our homes when possible.

Yesterday we started out meeting at the church. I share a song with the girls (from my laptop) that I just discovered and really love. It's called "By Your Side" and it's by Tenth Avenue North. My daughter Joy recommended it. It fit perfectly with our Bible Study from the first part of Mark about the baptism of repentence. I shared with them what I had heard online by the musician who wrote it. He was expressing how God was impressing on him that when we sin, we can go to God immediately. He doesn't need us to feel bad about for a certain amount of time or try to get better first before repenting and enoying his forgiveness. Of course regretting the sin is part of the process and we should focus on not sinning in that way again, but we can come to him right away "in the dead of night" as the author says.

After the song, Introductions, Bible study and discussion, I got out my beads. I showed them how I like to make beaded bookmarks and stretchy ribbon bookmarks to sell to help people in need. (one of the goals of our group is to help others with the things we make.) But I told them that whenever anybody helps me with these, it seems they really want to make a necklace. So for the first day I let each girl make one necklace or pair of earrings for herself.

Just to let you know what kinds of things we'll deal with in the group....I'll share this....
One of the girls lives in an orphanage (J) and is being adopted by a Canadian family. But this adoption has been taking years. I dont' know what she's been through before she came to the orphanage, or what it's like for her living with 50 (?) or more girls, the directors and some nannys (boys are in a separate home, babies, I think, are with the girls). Anyway, she made a beautiful pair of earrings quickly and then started making other ones. I reminded her that she was only allowed to make one pair for herself. She immediately (and expressionlessly) put everything back in one of my bins and sat there. Still showing no emotion. I didn't know what to make of it so I wen taround to other girls for a bit. Then I said she could make a necklace if she wanted, because I don't have many earring holders. She turned me down. Just sat there. Later one of the MKs was having a hard time tying a knot and remembered that I had remarked about how well "J" did at tying tiny knots for her earrings, so she asked her to help her. "J" went over and helped her (still expressionless). At the end I said, "J, don't you want to take a pair of earrings?" "No."
I don't know what was going on inside. ('I don't need your stupid earrings!' ? or 'I was making them for YOU to SELL!' ?.....no idea.) All last year she was in my group and hardly talked. I'm sure her English is a little lacking too. Pray for her please. As I said, I have no idea--yet--what she's been through or what it's like for her.
Thanks,
Carol

Shipment Arrives!

Yesterday morning (Oct 12), Ronald William (in white T-shirt in the picture) and I made a place in our storage room for the 31 boxes we shipped from the US.

Then in the afternoon we drove outside of Port-au-Prince to pick up the shipment of soccer equipment. We drove out with two pickup trucks and made good time in the sweltering heat of mid-day.

When we got there, they simply loaded one pallet on each pick-up with a fork lift, and since they were still shrink-wrapped, we just secured them with bungy cords and drove away!

When we arrived, we had lots of help from Ecdes' brother and cousin and we were able to unload and put the boxes in storage in less than an hour.

Now the exciting part: We get to distribute the equipment! We have several hundred soccer balls, and 5-6 boxes of sneakers plus some clothes to send to our regional committees.

Many thanks to Christian Aid Ministries for handling all the details of the shipment and customs, and to Jason Hoeckele for helping us gather and pack the equipment in the US. And of course, we thank all who donated equipment this summer, and appreciate the many individuals (especially Ian Moore) and organizations that are still collecting things for us such as AACH, Germantown Academy and Calvary Chapel in Philadelphia!

If you have some things to donate, please e-mail me and I will tell you where to send the items.

God loves the poor!

Last week I (Rich) was feeling overwhelmed by the needs of those around me in Haiti. Everyday I have needy people knocking at my gate in legitimate need and it breaks my heart to turn them away. But even Jesus did not heal everyone who came to him, and so I pray for the wisdom of Solomon to know how to handle each situation.

But then I got a phone call from a friend of a missionary I know named “Ti Frere” or “Little Brother” (Even though he is in his 20's and is taller than me!). He said that he had been trying to get a hold of my missionary friend because he needed some medical care.

He explained that he felt like something was wrong with his jaw. This was a serious problem since he had a big operation last year to remove his cancerous jaw bone and replace it with bone grated in from his ribs. A generous oral surgeon had come from the US to do this normally very expensive operation for free.

I called my friend in the US and she said that she herself needed an operation and had no money to help Ti Frere at this time. But she suggested that we get an x-ray done to find out the seriousness of the problem. Well, Ti Frere didn't have any money for an x-ray, so we prayed about the situation and I decided to call my Haitian Dentist and ask if he would do an x-ray for free.

He said he would! So we went to his office and after he looked at the x-ray he said he had a Cuban friend who was an oral surgeon and he would ask her to look at Ti Frere that afternoon for free! Well Ti Frere was right – he knew something was wrong. It turned out he had an infection in his bone graft and if it was not removed soon, his whole re-built jaw would be in jeopardy.

I explained to the oral surgeon that Ti Frere had no money, and so she generously offered to do the operation two days from then (Friday, Oct. 9) for only $200 US. So we prayed again and wrote an e-mail to his missionary friend in the US and also to the pastor of his church in Haiti.
The next day, we got a call from his pastor in Haiti. While the pastor did not recognize the young man's name, he had compassion for him and understood the urgency of the need. He gave the $200 needed for the operation!!!

So on Friday morning I gave the money to Ti Frere and also gave him some money for car fare and food that evening.

That afternoon I went to see Ti Frere and he was doing well. His Mom and sister were there taking care of him and he looked good.

This whole incident reminded me that God loves the poor, and that God has ways of providing for them that I could never imagine. All I need to do is be sensitive to God's Holy Spirit and let him show me who He wants me to help, and trust that He will provide for the ones I cannot through other people.

Please pray for Ti Frere as he recovers, and that he will discover God's plan for his life.

The Perfect Uniforms!

One of our leaders from Limbe, which is about 5 hours north of Port-au-Prince, met with me last week. His name is Pastor Peggy and he is a professor at the Christian University of North Haiti in Limbe. Pastor Peggy had come to Port looking to purchase soccer uniforms for the University team. He was a bit discouraged after visiting several places and getting a quote of $1,800 US for a set of new uniforms.

We talked about his region's plans for the year. This fall they are planning on having a inter-school tournament with 6 schools in the area. At this point none of the teams in his regions have uniforms, so I invited him back to the house to look at the 4-5 sets of uniforms I brought back from the states. His eyes lit up when he found beautiful home and away Diadora Uniforms in forest green and white. He told me these were the colors of the University!

These uniforms came all the way from Ohio and were collected by a college student for a school project. But God knew we needed them in Limbe, Haiti, and so he sent them all the way here.
Unfortunately, these two sets of uniforms will have to be shared between the University, and the 6 schools that will participate in the tournament.

So please ask your contacts if they can donate any uniform sets to us. We have about 80 teams involved at this point and only a handful have uniforms.

Quisqueya Chapel Youth!

I (Carol) have been involved with the Youth Ministry at Quisqueya Chapel (an English church here in Port-au-Prince) last year and this year. It has grown so much! I'm so excited to see all these young people coming out on Saturday afternoon! We might have had 90 this week.

This week we are starting small groups. Please pray for my small group of 8 girls.

Update by Carol

Last week we celebrated Richard's birthday, this week, mine. I've had a great time since my students made a big fuss over me. My ESL students got a huge cake, drinks, cups, plates, etc. and invited all the Sophomores to surpise me on Wednesday since not all of them would be at school on Friday. They sang happy birthday and we had a short celebration before we had to get back to work. Then yesterday at chapel, the Student Council brought me and two other teachers whose birthdays are coming soon up in front, sang Happy Birthday and gave us homemade cupckaes. All day kids were wishing me a happy birthday and writing nice messages on my chalkboard and whiteboard.

Last night Richard and I had a fun night of dinner and board games with another couple who are in ministry in this area too.

I also got lots of electronic messages from all over!

I feel very much loved and celebrated!

Richard's 50th birthday

The party for Richard's 50th was really nice. Richard wrote the story of what God has done in his life (well, the highlights) and gave out copies to people as they left. It was a good time for certain relationships.

(see facebook for more pictures)

Celebrating with One Hope, one of our Partners in Ministry

On Tuesday, I was invited to a celebration put on by “One Hope”, the ministry that produces the “Book of Hope” a comic-book-style evangelistic booklet that we have distributed to all of the schools we work with. The occasion was the distribution of their 600,000,000 copies of the“Book of Hope” worldwide.

We had the privilege of meeting Pastor Bob Hoskins, the founder of “One Hope” ministries. He explained how he has been preaching God's message of transformation for over 60 years how the first “Book of Hope” distribution took place in El Salvador. He had sent Bibles to the 50 most influential leaders in all the Latin American countries and when the Minister of Education in El Salvador called to thank him, he asked if there was any way to provide Bibles to all of the school children in El Salvador. At that time El Salvador was in the middle of a devastating civil war and as in all wars, the children were suffering the most. Pastor Bob was so excited about this request that he said “yes” right on the spot. Later he found out that there were 1 million school students in El Salvador and he had just promised to provide all of them with God's Word! So he developed a comic book version of the story of Jesus and included a simple Gospel presentation. God provided the resources to print and distribute the books and lives began to change. Within a year, the civil war had ended, and it has been peaceful there ever since. Some would say this is a coincidence, but Hebrews 4:12 reminds us that God's Word changes hearts.

We have been distributing the “Book of Hope” in Haiti since 2003. Since that time we have overseen the distribution of thousands of these wonderful comic books. Last year alone we distributed over 10,000 to the schools where we have started soccer teams.This year we plan to use a special booklet they have prepared for the World Cup in our outreach next summer. Please pray that God's Spirit will transform the hearts of many children as God's Word is distributed!Rich

Let's be more like cats

Every morning I try to sit down and spend some time reading my “One year Chronological Bible” and then praying for a while. This morning I was anxious about our finances since we have recently had a lot of unexpected expenses.. But then our cat, Macy, climbed up in my lap purring like crazy and just sat there. She wanted nothing more than just to be with me and have me pet her.This reminded me of Jesus' words to Martha: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:41) I needed to be more like Macy this morning, to sit contentedly in God's lap and listen to His Word. Then everything else would fall into perspective and I could face the day. My circumstances did not change, but my attitude did – anxiety was replaced by trust, fear was replaced by peace, and I remembered the verse that says “A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all.” (Ps. 34:19). All of us will face trials, but God will deliver us from them in his time and his way.What way will you choose today? Mary's or Martha's?

Pray for faithful workers who have lost their jobs

Please pray with us for two faithful workers who have lost their jobs.

Yesterday we found out that Ronald William who was a high school soccer coach and has put in many hours of volunteer hours with AIS-Haiti lost his job.

Today we just found out that Jean-Paul was laid off from his teaching job at another school. He has worked with AACH and AIS Haiti and has also put in many volunteer hours.

Please pray for God’s will in their lives and God’s provision.

We know that many people of lost their jobs in the US as well. We are praying for those that we know about. Feel free to “comment” on this post if you are in a similar position so we can be praying for you too.

A busy weekend of soccer tournaments

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

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

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

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

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

Daniel's visit to the US a great success:

Daniel Jean-Louis, one of our key leaders in Haiti who graduated from
Liberty University, visited Rich in Pennsylvania for 3 weeks from August
20th to Sept. 7th.  During this time we visited 3 churches on Sundays,
met with 7 individuals, had lunch with 3 pastors, and attended 4 small
group meetings. 

Thanks to the generosity of some Christian Dentists and Doctors, Daniel
also got his first chiropractic adjustment, a clean bill of health after
a physical, and a teeth cleaning and dental checkup. 

He was also able to visit the Statue of Liberty and New York City with
his cousin from France, and also fly to Grand Rapids, Michigan to visit
the headquarters of Partners Worldwide, the ministry he works for part
time in Haiti.