Pictures of the Haitian National Amputee Soccer Team

Here are some pictures of the Haitian National Amputee Soccer team.

The uniforms they are wearing were donated by Rich's High School, Germantown Academy.

These are the 15 men who have been selected to go to Argentina to represent Haiti at the Amputee World cup which starts on Oct. 14th.

Rich has been using his musical ability to teach this group how to sing the Haitian National Anthem, Amazing Grace and the US National Anthem, which they will perform when they visit the US before heading to Argentina.

Please pray for them as the funds for their trip have not come in yet.

Here's what Richard found in the bathroom at 3 in the morning...good thing he turned on the light before going in.

The other half of the story

I just met with Debreus, the young man who was with me when I got shot.

Here is his side of the story:

He said he was coming back to the car to get another load of books when he saw a man open the front door and take my briefcase. Then he heard a loud noise and realized that I had been shot.

He talked to a friend who was also going on the bus and the friend said that his brother Joseph knew how to drive and was there at the station seeing him off. So he called his brother and asked him to go and help me get to the hospital. That is how Joseph ended up helping me!

The police also talked to Debreus and told him that as long as I had an ID card, Joseph would have no trouble getting me to a hospital.

I found out from Debreus that he had lost his personal overnight bag as well that had his Bible in it, as well as 1000 gourdes, which was worth about $25 US. In addition, they took a box of the "Champion" evangelistic booklets we were taking to Jean Rabel. God has a sense of humor! Imagine the gang members opening the box and reading a bit of the booklets to see what it said! Maybe 200 gang members took home the colorful booklets, and one got a Bible!

After Debreus got on the bus, he found out that the Pastor we work with in Jean Rabel was on the bus, too - Pastor Bolivar. I am sure that they were praying for me the whole trip, and that is part of what God used to give me the peace I had in the hospital.

During the bus trip, Debreus also thought that the bag with the video projector had been stolen, but to his surprise, the bus driver handed it to him after they got there. It had been loaded on top of the bus!

The Saturday after Debreus got back to Jean Rabel, he called a meeting with the Regional Committee and told them what happened. They also rejoiced that they had received evangelistic booklets , soccer cleats and a video projector to use for outreach.

In spite of Debreus trying to find a big TV antenna so they could project the World Cup games, they never were able to show any matches because the signal was too weak. Instead, they used the projector to show several Evangelistic films in Creole. These films show how Christ is more powerful than the voodoo demons many of the people near Jean Rabel still worship. They showed the films numerous times, and 36 people indicated they had accepted Christ afterwards!

There are now 14 schools involved with AIS Haiti in the Jean Rabel region and we are hoping to organize some tournaments in the fall.

So now you know the other half of the story!

Internet problems

We're not able to write much these days because our internet setup won't work at our house these days. It works at the school campus (where I work) but slowly.

When we first got back, we had electricity problems, but whenever we had something to provide electricity, we had internet. Now, that same system won't work at our house. I guess there was some damage to a tower or something. We did have a bad storm with very bad winds.

At the same time, Rich has been busy getting many things fixed at our house and starting the new school year is always a busy time--even more so coming back after the earthquake.

Please bear with us :)
Carol

Damage to Truck

My body wasn't the only thing damaged by the bullet. It went through my body, the seat of the truck, through the plastic door covering and made a dent in the metal of the door, but did not pierce it.

This means the bullet is still in the truck's door!

Everytime I hop in the driver's seat, I am reminded of God's mercy and grace, and that he still has a plan for me on this earth!

For me, this has become a memorial, just like Jacob piled up some rocks at the place where he had his dream of the ladder into heaven.

What about you? Do you have something that reminds you daily of God's goodness to you and his good plan for your life?

I read in a book about a man who keeps pictures on his desk at work of the hospital he was born in, and the place where he would be buried to help remind him to make the most of each day for the Lord.

Rich shares his story

Since I've been back in Haiti, I have had several opportunities to share the story of the robbery and shooting with several groups.

This is a group of young campers from a bad section of town that a friend invited to a summer camp at our church, Quisqueya Chapel.

They listened intently as I told of God's deliverance and showed them the place where I was shot.

I reminded them that we never know when our life will end, and we all need to be ready to face God's judgment.

Afterwards we went out to the truck to see where the bullet went into the door.

On Sunday, Aug 30th I will have the opportunity to share my story at Quisqueya Chapel, the church we attend in Haiti.

Bits and pieces of what God is doing in Haiti

Dear Friends,

It has been a world-wind of activity since we arrived back in Haiti on August 8th. Here are some high-lights of what God is doing through our faithful Haitian friends and co-workers:

1) During the World-Cup outreach over 2,000 people watched the games in five different locations. One young single mother and her 2 children came to know the Lord in Gonaives and now they have been coming to church regularly and are growing in their faith! Many others are being followed up with. Most people that attended the matches received an evangelistic booklet called "The Champion". We are still distributing the 40,000 copies of this booklet that we received from One Hope Ministries.

2) We are sponsoring a door-to-door outreach to Leogane this week being done by a group of men from a church in Archaie. We supplied them with lots of literature, Bibles and a video projector and Christian DVD's for them to show films at night. Last night several hundred showed up for one of the films!

3) One of our leaders, Elysee Vaillant participated in an outreach at his girlfriends' church this past weekend. Please pray for Elysee as his father is dying of Prostate cancer, his sister is 8 month's pregnant after being married in 2009, and his house needs a new roof and is leaking badly when it rains.

4) This week we visited the camp ground at Verrettes and the Amputee soccer team is going to use it for their official training when it begins in 2 weeks. It was good to see our leaders there who have had a busy summer receiving the Right-to-Play team and the Corban team.

Thanks for your gifts, prayers and partnership that enable us to be God's hands and feet in Haiti!

Amputees Play Soccer

A few months before the earthquake I met Dr Fred Sorrells of the Institute of Sports. Even then, he was trying to introduce sports for the disabled in Haiti.

Just this week I met him again practicing with a team of Amputees on the soccer field of Quisqueya Christian School. It turns out that Haiti has been invited to play in the World Cup of amputee soccer to be played in October in Argentina.

We helped him immediately by giving him several cases of "The Champion" evangelistic booklets we had been given for our World Cup outreach and also some follow up discipleship material.

In addition I was able to tell the men the story of how I was shot. They were very moved by the story and applauded when it was over.

The next day we gave him some shorts and Ronald was able to help train the team. More importantly, 6 out of the 30 players indicated that they had trusted Christ for the first time. So God continues to use the tragic circumstances of life for His glory!

Then on Saturday, Ronald and I worked with 6 goalies who only had 1 arm. Out of these 6 we selected 3 to be on the World Cup team.

Ronald and I have been asked to continue to work twice a month with the special men at Quisqueya Chapel, where Carol and I go to church. They have a nice field we can practice on.

Please continue to pray for this exciting opportunity!

Haiti's earthquake was caused by a previously unknown fault

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38648080/ns/technology_and_science-science/

When it rains, it pours

It's rainy season here in Haiti, and it is raining hard almost every night. Thousands of people are still in tents, and many of them suffer when it rains.

But we all know that "When it rains, it pours" doesn't always pertain to rain. Normally we have three sources of electricity which combine to give us power when we need it: Commercial power (EDH), a generator and a combination inverter / battery system. When we got home Sunday, the generator was broken and the inverter batteries where dead, so that left us dependent on commercial power which at best gives electricity only about 8 hours a day (usually at night). We have actually been working on replacing the batteries for a while.

So for the past three days I have been waiting for a repairman to come fix the generator and also trying to find the right kind of batteries to buy. I was told the kind I want are stuck in customs and that they raised the duty on batteries from 5% to 20% after the earthquake. Yet most business in Haiti need batteries to ensure a steady source of electricity to function.

Then there was our water supply which was "borrowed" by our neighbors who are building a house down the street so they could have water to mix cement. So, since I was injured, we have not been receiving water from the water company. Fortunately we had some in our cistern. And today I was able to clean out the pipes that bring rain water into the cistern.

In addition, my cell phone was stolen when I was shot, and Carol's phone was stolen while a friend of ours was borrowing it. So I had to go out and buy two new cell phones this week. At least the phone companies here give you back your phone number if your phone is stolen (with receipt of course).

This is all part of living and working in Haiti! We were definitely spoiled this summer in the US, but now we're back in the "majority world" where most people live without electricity, clean water and telephone service.

Rich

Back Home in Haiti

We got back to Haiti yesterday.

We were welcomed home by 7 friends (plus 3 cute kids) (OK some of them live here, but some came over to say hello.)

One great thing to come back to, besides friends, was lots of birds in our trees--what a welcome, new sound for this house. On the other hand, it felt like about 1000 degrees with high humidity. And our generator isn't working. With inverter problems, that wasn't much fun. But we got city power late at night and it's still on now. We also have no working cell phone between Richard, Ricky and I. So....Richard will be busy while I set up my classroom for the new school year--that's where I'm off to this morning.

Thank you, to all of you who prayed for us and helped us while we were in Pennsylvania and helped us get back here; especially the Colombo family and Steve Payne. We really appreciate you.
Carol

Heading back to Haiti!

Rich is back on his feet, Carol is ready to start teaching again and Ricky is excited to see his Haitian friends as we all head back to Haiti tomorrow (August 8th).

Our Haitian co-workers Ronald and Elysee will be there to greet us and we are anxious to hear all that God has done through them while we have been away.

While we are sad to leave family and friends in the US, and will miss then very much, it is clear that God is not finished with us yet in Haiti and we are excited to see what he has in store for us as we return.

Thanks to all who cared and prayed for during the past 6 months as we survived an earthquake and Rich being shot. Hopefully the next 6 months will be a bit calmer!

Hear Rich's story on the Internet!

For those of you who would like to hear Rich's story, Crossing Community Church recorded his presentation and you can find it on their website: Crossing.org

Just look at the box on the home page and you will see "Rich Mears - Haiti".

Shipment to Haiti

Wow! Thanks to many individuals and organizations today we are shipping over 1,000 pounds of sneakers, clothes, soccer balls, books for teaching, medical supplies and other things to Haiti.

Rich at Crossing Community Church

Here's the link for Richard's talk at Crossing Community Church on Sunday, July 11th that describes the shooting incident.

http://crossing.org/sermons/20100711_RichMears.mp3

Statistics on Haiti

Check out Newsweeks' website which has some interesting statistics on the progress at the six-month mark after the earthquake.

http://www.newsweek.com/feature/2010/shelter-in-haiti.html

Rich speaking to Jr. Hi at Crossing

Last weekend Richard spoke to the Junior High group at Crossing.

Here he is showing where the bullet went through his leg.

Countdown to Haiti - 15 days

We only have a week until we go on vacation with my family and when we come back we'll only have one day before we get on the plane for Haiti. So.....that means TO-BUY lists of things we want to bring to Haiti, TO-DO lists of things we want to do before we leave. The TO-DO lists include squashing soccer balls, filling boxes with them and packing them for our shipment.

This Wednesday we'll bring boxes of soccer equipment and other items to CAM in Ephrata, PA for a shipment that will get to us in a couple of months. Other than that, we fit whatever we can into two 50-lb suitcases each to take on the plane.


We thank God for all the people who donated equipment for us to take to Haiti. So far, we have over 60 boxes packed!

UW team leaves Haiti rejoicing

The Uncharted Water Sports Ministry team returns rejoicing in the Lord:

The weekend after I was shot, the UW team of 18 arrived in Port-au-Prince. Normally I would have been there to greet them and join them in ministry during their 10 day stay, but that was not to be. So my very capable leadership team in Haiti took over and guided the team to a fruitful and enjoyable time of ministry in Haiti.

AIS Haiti was in charge of the training in Jacmel. We had invited 9 schools to send 3 people each so that they could start soccer ministries at their schools. Then in the afternoon, we invited 3 students from each school to a soccer camp for kids so they could learn the basics and go back to their schools and get their classmates excited about having a school soccer team.

This is what Julia, the UW team leader had to say about the trip:
“All together the trip was amazing. Between all three teams we got to share the gospel with over 1500 kids and about 125 came to know the Lord. The training in Jacmel went well and our training in St. Louis was even better, we trained 15 leaders and they really seemed to grasp the concept of using sports to evangelize. They expressed that they felt challenged in their personal faith and were excited about the knowledge they received.”

The pictures show where we held the training in Jacmel – right along the ocean shore!

Madame Ernst’s “house”

 

June 2010

STEP Seminary building

 

This is the building we used to work in (2000-2003)…after the earthquake and some work clearing away the rubble.

Storm Damage in Tent City

Here's a link to a AP article on a tent city damaged by a summer storm.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ijocxXn8VRQrZeDKCJbkjPhbI5oAD9GUE2H03

Video Interview with the President of Haiti

Here is a video interview with President Preval done by PBS Newshour:

Check out this CBS report on the Six Month Anniversary of the earthquake.

Medical Leave

Just to update you all on what's happening...

Richard is on medical leave until August 8th when we will return to Haiti.

His progress in physical therapy is good, painful at times, but he is determined to get full use and range of motion back quickly.

He gave the message in our home church, Crossing Community Church, on Sunday and that was followed by a lot of support and encouraging remarks.

With Richard here, our shipment to go to Haiti is getting bigger :) and we'll be concentrating on that a lot in the next few days.

Thanks for your prayers.
Carol

Les Forges School helped by Right to Play

Here is a picture from the team that came down in the end of May. These are children who attend the Les Forges School where the Right to Play team worked on replacing the roof.

New Roof for Les Forges School

 

Haitian leaders help the UW team succeed!

From June 27th to July 7th, a team of 18 people from Unchartered Waters Sports Ministries partnered with us to train 9 schools in Jacmel on how to start evangelistic soccer teams, and also worked with over 300 children through sports camps in Port-de-Paix, Archaie and Fermathe, Haiti.

AIS Haiti leaders Ronald William, Sylvain Nelson and Jean Paul Noel taught the classes for the training and Lucasse Henrilus helped out as a translator. Ronald also facilitated everything for the team and did a great job with all the logistics from food and lodging to teaching materials.

We hope to have more news and some pictures in a few days.

A Miracle - Rich's account of the shooting

On Thursday morning, June 17th, 2010 I got up at 4:30 AM to take one of our Haitian leaders named Debreus to the bus station. Debreus is the president of AIS Haiti’s regional committee in Jean Rabel in northwest Haiti. He had come down to Port-au-Prince to help transport the video projector, DVD player, VCR, new cleats, and evangelistic booklets to Jean Rabel (a village in the north of Haiti) for our World Cup outreach. Jean Rebel is one of 7 towns where we showed the World Cup games and then shared the Gospel with the spectators during half time.

So Debreus and I made the uneventful trip down to the bus station and began to unload. Debreus found a few men willing to help us. I left the pickup’s doors open because we were unloading and the next thing I knew someone was opening the front door and grabbing the bag that had the video projector in it and I said “No, that bag doesn’t go now”. Then he lifted up his shirt and showed me his gun and grabbed my briefcase that had my cell phone, digital camera and flash drives in it. I simply said “No”, and then I heard a loud sound and my thigh felt like it had a bad cramp. In the meantime, the man and his buddy ran off with my briefcase and I started to shout for help. At first I thought it was just an electric stun gun, since I had trouble moving and feeling my leg.

A man in his thirties got in the car and offered to drive me to the hospital. He explained that he had seen the whole thing happen and had driven for the UN. In the meantime, I shouted to Debreus to finish unloading the stuff and get on the bus that was about to leave. As I painfully lurched out of the front seat to get in the back, I saw the severity of my injury for the first time: my pants were soaked with blood and I realized that I had been shot. Then I saw policemen with guns run after the thieves without bothering to stop and see if I was OK.

I applied pressure to the hole where the bullet entered, and stop the bleeding, but I could not see that the bullet had exited my thigh and that was where most of the bleeding came from (Thank God it was a small wound from a .22 caliber pistol). I knew that it would not be good if I lost consciousness so I kept talking with my driver the whole time while I was in the car. I found out that his name was Joseph and that he had been raised in Jean Rabel and had attended the Christian school of Pastor Bolivar, which is one of the schools where we have established a soccer team. I asked him if he was a Christian and he said he had been trusted Christ but had not been attending church lately. He told me he had a seven-year-old daughter who was living with his mother in Jean Rabel. Then he told me something I will never forget. He said he wanted to help me because he felt like he could have been the one to be shot. You see, he had seen the two gangsters looking around for a target and got out of his car, locked the door, and then walked away. A few minutes later he heard a gunshot and ran over and saw that they had shot me. He felt like God was using this tragedy to get his attention and bring him back into a relationship with him. I told him I was ready to die and meet my maker and asked him if he was ready and he said he would think about that question.

Joseph lent me his phone and I talked to my friend Elysee about which hospital to go to and he suggested we try one run by “Doctors without Borders” across town. This is where we finally ended up about 45 minutes after the shooting and received some good care. The hospital workers got me out of the car, onto a stretcher and then into a bed. The “hospital” was a tent with flies and mosquitoes buzzing around. I talked with Joseph while waiting for care and he said that he would stay with me as long as I needed him. I even gave him my wallet so he could help me look for my ID. Later when it was time for him to go, I offered him some money as a thank-you gift and he refused it saying he was content with whatever reward he would get in heaven! (Much later I found out that he had been kind enough to go to the police station and write a police report for me!) I have his phone number and will follow up with him when I get back to Haiti. I know God is working in his life!

The doctor told me that things did not look serious – I had not bled to death because the bullet had not hit an artery or a major vein. Then they took X-rays to see if it had shattered or nicked a bone, and that was negative as well. By this time my Crossworld co-workers David and Bruce had shown up and went into action.
They took my truck back to the Bolosse campus and after my initial care, took me to another doctor for a second opinion. His name was Dr. Jeudy and he told me he would have to do a small operation to “excise” where the bullet had entered and exited.
When we got in the operating room, I was still conscious and quickly realized that the shot for the anesthesia was more painful than anything I had felt that day. After treating the wounds, Dr. Jeudy told me I needed to spend the night in his clinic. He put me in a private room next to the operating room that had a fan in it and was relatively cool. I was able to rest comfortably until the fan stopped because we lost city power. Then the room got very hot and I could hear the mosquitoes buzzing around my head. I knew I would not be able to sleep that night if I stayed at the hospital and so instead I asked the doctor if I could spend the night at the Bolosse campus with my fellow Crossworld missionaries, which he agreed to. In the meantime, David had called Carol, who was in the US with our children, and told her what had happened. They decided that it would be best if I could get back to the US the next day, if the doctor cleared me to travel. So after the operation to “excise” the bullet entry and exit holes, Dr. Jeudy gave the “OK” for me to travel. Carol got on the internet right away and was able to find a flight the following afternoon.

After spending the night at Bolosse, my Haitian friend Lamour drove me back to my house in my truck to get my clothes and pack for the plane flight. That morning, God gave me Psalm 41: “Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the Lord delivers him in times of trouble. The Lord will protect him and preserve his life; he will bless him in the Land and not surrender him to the desire of his foes. The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed and restore him from his bed of illness.”
Back at my house, I took time to say goodbye to the people who had been staying at our house since the earthquake and those who help us around the house. We talked about the summer and then prayed together and said goodbye for now. Then they helped me pack my things.

On the way to the airport we stopped by Dr. Jeudy’s clinic so they could change the dressing on my wounds and give me a pain shot. This time the shot burned like fire in my veins, but I felt no pain on the plane ride! We arrived at the airport and I was able to get a wheelchair so I didn’t have to stand in line. I got on the plane in the very first seat in First class and was never happier to have a big comfortable seat. When I arrived in JFK, Carol, Grace, Joy and Ricky were there to greet me. I was home at last!

As I reflected on this incident, I realized that I should not be surprised that this happened. All of us who are engaged in the Lord’s work and building his Kingdom on earth are in a battle. If we are not getting shot at, then we are not in the battle. Some of us get hit by Satan’s bullets and fiery darts and are wounded. Some of these wounds are obvious, like the hole in my thigh. Others are not, like the spiritual and psychological wounds of going through a church split, or dealing with an addiction problem.

Sometimes God’s soldiers die in battle. We call these heroes of the faith “Martyrs”. There have been more Martyrs in the 21st century than at any time in history. I am grateful that I did not die, and that God has given me more time to serve him here on this earth and to be with my beloved family.

Exactly 2 weeks after the shooting I got the OK from the doctor to begin Physical Therapy, and he said I should be fine. The only lasting inconvenience is that my left foot feels like it is asleep some times.

Thank you for your support and prayers during this time of trial. You are a great encouragement to us!!

Training 9 schools in Jacmel

Today (June 30, 2010) is the last day of training for 27 new AIS Haiti leaders in Jacmel. We are training them to start evangelistic soccer teams at their schools in the fall.

We are partnering with Unchartered Water - UW (www.unchartedwaters.org) to put on this camp. They have send a dozen young coaches to help us train our Haitian coaches and do a Kid's soccer camp with some of the children from the participating schools in the afternoon.

My three Haitian co-workers: Ronald, Sylvain and Jean Paul have been teaching the courses for the training and have been doing a great job in my abscense.

Unfortunately, Julia, the leader of the UW team and four of her team have come down with "Haitian Happiness", so please pray for them to feel better.

Rich's perspective

Many thanks to all who have been praying for me and sending me get-well wishes.

God spared my life for a purpose and I cannot believe the wonder of the human body that can close up and start to heal a hole in my body after only a few days. The biggest risk at this point is infection, and thanks to Carol's excellent care, we have been able to keep the wounds clean.

I have been to several doctor's appointments here in the US, and two different doctors have marvelled that I have had no permanent damage. A centimeter in any direction and I would have bled to death, been paralyzed or would need massive doses of Viagra!

Nevertheless, the recovery has been painful at times and feels like a constant cramp in my thigh and sometimes an intense burning in the wounds then they get hot.

As I thought about what happened, I realized that the Bible says we are in a Spiritual Battle for the souls of men, and when you are in a battle, you have to expect to be shot at, and there are going to be those who are wounded or killed.

In a Spiritual Battle, those wounds can be physical which you can see, like mine, or spiritual or emotional, which you cannot see.

I am thankful that I will live to fight again, but as always appreciate your prayers for a speedy and complete recovery.
Rich

Father's Day

We had a nice Father's Day with all of us together.

Richard wanted to go to church since we're staying here on the property of our home church, Crossing Community Church. The only difficulty was getting down the steps of this missionary apartment. Then we put Richard in a wheelchair and got him into church.

Everyone was very encouraging. Our pastor, Tim Smith, said some really nice things and allowed Richard to tell his story to the congregation. As he was speaking, Richard mentioned that we should pray for the young man who shot him and others like him, many of whom did not have the benefit of a loving father in their lives. He encouraged the men to be godly fathers.

After church, we went to our friends' the Colombos, parked Richard in a recliner in front of ESPN so he could watch the Brazil-Cote d'Ivoire game. We ate delicious ribs and rice that tasted a lot like Haitian "Diri Djon-Djon."

Back at the apartment, after dressing changes, etc., Richard took his pain medication and got in bed. Then all of us came into the room and Grace, Joy and Ricky played guitar and sang. A sweet moment. A great Father's Day.

Thank you for your prayers.
Carol

He's home!

Richard made it home to PA last night.

Grace, Joy, Ricky and I bought balloons and went out to JFK airport. Gerhard Laemmle (Crossing Comm. Church) generously offered to drive us out there and Pastor Tim offered his wife's van ;). Even though there was tons of traffic, as soon as I got out of the van to go look for him, Richard called my cell phone to say he was ready to go. An American Airlines worker who was wheeling him out had loaned him his personal cell phone to make the call.

He was in good spirits, but the pain medication was starting to wear off. He had had a shot of local anesthetic before getting on the plane. We got home a little after 10, he walked slowly up the steps to the missionary apartment (good leg, bad leg), ate ice cream (thank you, Kevin) & Ibuprofen PM and went happily to bed.

We went to the doctor here and that went well. He needs to keep the area still for about a week to let the wound heal internally. He's not supposed to hobble around on the crutches too much this week. But we are allowed to get him to comfy spot in a house with cable TV and let the World Cup matches take his mind off of his injury.

We are so thankful to God that the bullet didn't hit bone or an artery and that Joseph, a stranger until Friday, took the time to drive Richard to the hospital. And we we're grateful to our missionary co-workers who spent the day making sure everything was taken care of!

Thoughts about the shooting

This is the answer I sent to my nephew and his wife who expressed some beautiful words of comfort and encouragement including feeling sorry for the man who shot Richard...thought I'd share it.

"It's interesting that you expressed feeling sorry for the person who did this. I do too. Although if it were me being shot, I KNOW I would feel quite angry at him or her at that moment. ("Who are you to wreck my life by just pulling that trigger? What did I ever do to you?") But I also know that there's a lot of frustration, anger and sadness behind that act. And I know that all of us need Jesus for the sins we commit--we're not perfect like Jesus is. Anyway we do pray for him. He's probably extremely poor and without hope. Some people whose lives were already pretty hopeless before the earthquake have become unbearable. Even though we don't see ourselves as rich, we don't have to watch our kids cry for not having food. It's possible that the man who pulled the trigger has witnessed that kind of thing. Or has just watched someone die for lack of a few dollars worth of medicine. Of course that doesn't excuse this person--doesn't mean he can just go around shooting random foreigners. But we can be humble knowing the truth that our not-so-heinous sins are evil in comparison with God's goodness. And God spared Richard's life. And Richard may even play soccer again!"

Friday morning

I finally got to talk to Richard last night. He had been released from the clinic where they had cleaned out the wounds.

He sounded amazingly good! I'm not sure how much of that was the pain medication ;). And he's so happy to be coming up here. It's been hard being separated. He said they gave him a local shot for pain, I guess while they were cleaning the wounds. But he only has antibiotic and Tylenol for today.

He'll be getting on a plane today at 2:25 Lord willing and arriving in New York at 8pm where we'll be waiting.

After hearing Richard sound so good on the phone I slept peacefully.

This will be one Father's Day when we'll really mean it when we say "glad to have you as the father of our children" and "glad to have you for a Dad."

Update

Richard is supposed to be released from the Clinic where he was this afternoon to stay at a Bolosse Campus house tonight. Then he is going to be helped through airports by wheelchair and fly to New York where I will pick him up at 8pm tomorrow evening.

Thanks for your prayers today...please pray for the traveling tomorrow.

thanks,
Carol

Richard injured in a robbery this morning

This morning I got a call from my CrossWorld supervisor informing me that Richard had been robbed early this morning while he and a co-worker, Debreus, were loading equipment onto a bus to be taken up north for the World Cup Outreach.

He was shot in the leg during the robbery. The bullet went right through (and out of) his thigh. He is going to be OK, but will be coming up here to Pennsylvania to recover.

It seems that God was already working in that a stranger drove him to a Doctors Without Borders hospital and he has already had an xray. The doctors could see that no bones were broken and no artery was hit. He is getting good care and the doctors will advise our mission director, David Schmid, who has been with Richard for the past few hours, how and when he can travel up here.

I was going to go down there to help him make the trip, but David advised me to wait. He said that most likely one of the missionaries down there could accompany him to Pennsylvania.

We are a bit anxious, of course, but our pastor, family, friends and co-workers have been really supportive.

We would appreciate your prayers for Richard, he's in some pain and was pretty traumatized. Please pray for these arrangements and that God will use this for His glory and for good in the lives of Haitians.

As I get more details, I'll update the blog.

In His good hands,
Carol

Brazilian football has Haitians euphoric at last

From an article by By Alice Speri (AFP) – 9 hours ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Walking the streets of Port-au-Prince these days you may think you are in Brazil as Haitians starved of joy and excitement since January's devastating earthquake are caught up in World Cup fever.

Green and yellow flags line the streets, while children and adults alike sport Kaka jerseys and even the ubiquitous graffiti against President Rene Preval and MINUSTAH has for once been supplanted by freshly painted signs in support of the World Cup's most storied team.

Argentina is Haiti's second favorite outfit, but the bitter rivalry between the two South American teams does not transfer over to their euphoric fans here who seem united like never before.

"This is just a huge party for everyone," said Teddy Maindre, an Argentina fan who nonetheless waited impatiently for Brazil's first game on Tuesday against the footballing minnows from the hermit state of North Korea.

The atmosphere everywhere resembled that of a final, with huge speakers blasting the cup's soundtracks, girls in green and yellow makeup and nails, and young boys wrapped in flags improvising acrobatics on their motorcycles. The World Cup, which kicked off Friday in South Africa, comes just five months after Haiti was left shattered by a massive earthquake that killed up to 300,000 people and flattened the capital Port-au-Prince.

Port-au-Prince's main stadium, which became a refugee camp in the aftermath of the quake, now welcomes people with a few cents in their pockets to watch the games on giant screens.

Francois Mackenson, the young founder of a local Brazil fan club, has set up a flat screen in the shell of a collapsed building in Delmas 57, one of the devastated capital's many sprawling slums.

"This year we didn't get to have a carnival because of the earthquake," Mackenson lamented. But he told AFP that Brazil's "inevitable" victory would make up for that. "It's giving us the strength to start again," he said.

During the game there is some daylight in the perpetual traffic jam that is Port-au-Prince as Haitians of all ages glue themselves to TV sets and radios in refugee camps and street-side businesses.

Even some of the policemen brought in to beef up security on the streets confess that Brazil is their team.

"Because it's the best team of course," explained Peguito Merisier, one young officer who said he would have to watch the fans not the game to make sure the excitement didn't translate into drink-fueled trouble.

"Haitians go crazy for football, they forgot the earthquake already," said Merisier, pointing to people dancing and waving flags among the rubble.

"All that's on their minds now is Brazil and Argentina. But when the cup is over it will be politics."

For 1.5 million people still displaced by the earthquake and struggling to eke out an existence, the earthquake is hardly forgotten but it may provide a chance to try and move on.

World Cup Outreach

The World Cup has begun and millions of Americans have watched the US battle England today on their big screen TV’s. But in Haiti, millions of people do not own television sets, let alone the “home entertainment” systems so popular in the US now.

So, thanks to some visionary donors, I purchased 5 video projectors on my last trip to the US and now we are using them to show the World Cup games to hundreds of people, as well as share the Gospel with them.

Our strategy is simple: We ask members of the churches we are working with to invite a non-Christian friend to watch the game with them, and then give them a beautiful booklet that explains who Jesus is that is specially made for the World Cup 2010. Each church member then follows up with their friend and does friendship evangelism with them. Since there are 64 matches, each match we encourage different members of the church to bring a friend, thereby exposing the maximum number of people to the Gospel.

So far we have 3 installations up and working and by next week we hope to have a total of 7 in place before the end of next week (using two old projectors I had in Haiti already).

The picture shows our team in Jacmel getting ready to take the projector setup to an outlying church.

Today we got permission to use a large room under “Place Jeremie”, a large public park where they play all of Haiti’s Futsal games. We are going to show the matches each day and do evangelism with the help of members of Tabernacle Church, one the largest UEBH churches in Port-au-Prince.

Please pray for these outreaches!

Article on Haitians being helped by their faith

Displays of quiet dignity in Port-au-Prince

Many citizens of the ravaged city of Port-au Prince are "amazingly stoic," according to Bill Coltart, a paramedic from British Columbia.

Many citizens of the ravaged city of Port-au Prince are "amazingly stoic," according to Bill Coltart, a paramedic from British Columbia.

Read the article at: http://www.nationalpost.com/Displays%20quiet%20dignity%20Port%20Prince/2501856/story.html

From this article:

"The Haitians have been buoyed by their faith.

I heard the evidence on the last four nights of my assignment, when I slept at the home of a Port-au-Prince couple whose house stood undamaged by the earthquake.
It was only a few dozen metres from the fairways of the Petionville Club, the city's private golf course, where 50,000 homeless people had set up camp. By day, the spot was a portrait of misery, with people lacking latrines and deprived of even basic medical care. But every morning at 4:30 a.m., in the pre-dawn darkness before even the roosters started to crow, I woke up to a chorus of melody. People were praying in a call-and-response style that rose and fell in a rhythm similar to field chants during the slave era.

"HALLELUJAH, hallelujah. HALLELUJAH, hallelujah."

Rehired

Thank you, to all of you who were praying for this...I was offered a contract to teach at Quisqueya Christian School again this year. The school year begins on August 17th. I'm really looking forward to seeing the students and staff again in August!
Carol

Phila Inquirer story about a Haitian girl getting a new leg at Shriners

Haitian girl, 8, fitted for leg by Shriners in Phila.

By Michael Matza

Inquirer Staff Writer
Eight-year-old Sarah Maurice, who lost a leg to Haiti's earthquake, had just one question for doctors Wednesday at Shriners Hospital for Children in Philadelphia.

When the technicians finish building her artificial limb, will it be the color of her chocolate-brown skin?

Prosthetist Jennifer Stieber assured her it would.

Sarah, an irrepressible elf in a blue-striped dress and a single brown sandal, mostly laid her crutches aside to hop about the hospital on her sound left leg during a morning of medical evaluation.

Her spunk belied her tragic backstory: the collapse of her family home that killed her 44-year-old mother and left Sarah trapped with the corpse in the rubble for two days; the amputation of the child's leg above the knee; a stifling week in a tent on a Port-au-Prince street; the agonizing evacuation over broken roads to the undamaged house of a great-aunt in the southwestern town of Port Salut.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20100520_Haitian_girl__8__fitted_for_leg_by_Shriners_in_Phila_.html#ixzz0oSkBsq4a

Travelling with the Corban Team!

This past week we visited 6 schools in Port-au-Prince and then on Friday we ventured out to Leogane to visit 2 more schools.

Everywhere we went the children were excited to see us, and we were happy to see them. We played with them and then shared the Gospel using a "3-ball magic trick" illustration as well as "wordless book" bracelets.

On the way back from Leogane we visited the new property of the "Jehu's Boys" orphanage. The property is on the side of a hill overlooking the Port-au-Prince bay and is a gift from God as it was purchased from the Mayor of Gressier at a very low price. The new building was not damaged hardly at all by the earthquake and will house a school and living quarters for the boys when it is done.

Later in the afternoon on Friday we worked on the basketball court at Quisqueya Chapel that Indian Trail church (the home church of the team leader) gave us money to expand and renovate. It is going to be great when it is done.

Saturday we took a long road trip to Verrettes with a plumber/electrician to plan how to install a water purification system that will supply the whole community with clean drinking water. The team also played with some Bible Club children and Jean Paul shared the Gospel with them and 4 children trusted in Christ.

Later that day we went to the beach for the afternoon and also snorkeled a bit.

Sunday we visited Tabernacle, a Haitian church and then most rested since some of the team were sick.

I took two of the men out with me to a clinic in Cazal along with 4 children and their mothers who were sick. Licia and Laurie, the nurses at the clinic, were very kind to see us and after examining the children gave us lots of medicine to help them get over Diarhea and worms.

Today we are going to visit 2 schools - one near Fort Jacques - a historic fort we will also visit while there.

The team leaves early tomorrow, and we will be sad to part, but rejoice in the over 30 children who have trusted in Christ this week!
Rich

Water system in Verrettes

You may remember reading about the large capacity water systems that were donated after the earthquake. One of them was designated for Verrettes, the town where we have one of our regional divisions of AIS-Haiti and we're in close touch with the UEBH pastor. They have had a shortage of clean drinking water, so the filtration system should really be useful out there.

One of the challenges about setting it up was having a pump to input water into the system because it is meant to filter thousands of gallons a day. One of the times we went to the Dominican Republic (DR), Richard went with a Dominican friend-of-a-friend, Victor, to buy the pump, which really means buying the pieces for it. Then Victor spent hours putting it together. Yesterday, while in Verrettes, Richard found out that it is going to work (I really feel like I should say "Lord willing" here, because, well...experiences...).

Please pray for the use of this filtration system keeping in mind the following conundrum. There are very poor people in the area who really need the water and the system was donated, so it would seem logical to give out the water for free. Plus there are costs to maintaining the system. So the church should probably charge something for the water. But some free services and goods put Haitian small business people out of business and we want businesses to grow and prosper so that those business owners can feed their families. So do they charge less because it was a donated system and the people are so poor and there's a shortage in the area? Or do that charge the fair market value to be fair to the small businesses in the area?
If you have any ideas, go ahead and comment.

Please pray for Sophonie

Please pray for my little friend, Sophonie, who's 3 years old. She's very sick. Today Richard is going to take her out to a clinic that provides long term care for sick children. We're not sure if they're going to suggest keeping her there for a while or not. She has not had good nutrition for most of her life. Pray for her mother, Sophie, a teen mom who as already had a baby of hers die. She is really pulling back from Sophonie, probably fearing another terrible loss like before.

Corban Team stretched with 100 kids showing up on Wednesday

The week is going well with the Corban team, but yesterday was a challenge!

Although they are asking for 40 children each day, that's hard to do when there are thousands of kids in the IDP Camp (Internally Displaced Persons--i.e. internal refugees). They try to have a different 40 kids each day to give as many kids as possible a chance.

But yesterday 100 came. It's great to have all those kids get to do something, but the Corban team consists of only 8 people. Combined with the Haitian workers, it's still not quite enough. (And I'm guessing they didn't have enough supplies, although Richard didn't mention that).

Thanks for your prayers...keep on praying.
Carol

News about Haiti

Here are some recent news articles:

1. You have to see these pictures of a rainy night inside bed-sheet-tents in Haiti - please PRAY while viewing...

http://www.opednews.com/articles/4/Photo-Essay-Across-from-H-by-Mac-McKinney-100511-652.html
(I guess some websites don't allow you to post an actual link, but you can cut and paste or go to www.opednews.com

2. I'm so glad these people are in Haiti:

In Haiti, international relief targets rats and bugs

Large pest control businesses like Terminix and Orkin are part of an international relief effort to improve sanitation in Haiti refugee camps and stop the spread of potentially dangerous pests.

read more from the Christian Science Monitor, www.csmonitor.com:

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2010/0510/In-Haiti-international-relief-targets-rats-and-bugs

2. No Wonder Haitians love Brazil

CORRECTED - Brazil pays first donation into Haiti quake fund
(Corrects paragraph 10 to read millions not billions)

WASHINGTON, May 11 (Reuters) - Brazil became the first contributor to a reconstruction fund for Haiti on Tuesday

Corban College Team

Here's the Richard's report on what's been happening with the Corban College Team:

"The team from Corban College has been doing a great job!!

We have so far visited three schools in the Mornings and done two sessions of camp with 41 children from the Delmas 48 Refugee camp in the afternoons.

The team has done a great job sharing the love of Christ with the kids, sharing their testimonies and doing games and crafts.

Today they got to visit the house of our friends Frere Levi and also walk through a refugee camp.

They are a bit overwhelmed by the poverty but are encouraged by the warmth of the Haitian people.

Thanks for your prayers as we continue the same schedule through Thursday and then will visit Leogane and Verrettes over the weekend!"

Corban College Team Visit

A team of eight from Corban College arrived safely in Port-au-Prince on Sunday.

Their first day went well, running a camp for kids who are survivors of the earthquake. They did a craft with the kids--a decorated sun visor. Then they had a Bible lesson. After that they played games.

Richard has pictures, but internet hasn't been working well at the house. We'll fill you in with more details as we're able. Please pray for their work and safety this week.

NB: Although there was demonstrating in front of the ruined National Palace against the President for his "low profile" after the earthquake, the team was not near that area, so we don't expect any problems for them.
Carol

Interesting video

this is an interesting video with footage from security cameras of the National Palace during the earthquake and much more.

However, they say "not one church is standing in Port-au-Prince." That's not really true--I'm pretty sure that Bolosse Church is within the city limits and it is still standing.

http://vimeo.com/11086636

Fellowship of Christian Athletes visits Haiti

Today I took 4 members of FCA Atlanta on a tour of our work in Leogane.

We visited 2 schools where we have teams and they had a great time meeting the kids we are working with.

They hope to partner with us by sending coaches and other qualified people to help us train our leadership.

Right now, Ronald William and our new coaching friend, Kirby, are training our coaches in the Leogane area.

Thanks for making this possible!

Pray for baby Aiden, son of my niece

Please pray for my niece, Lisa's baby, Aiden. He has been having seizures since he was born.

The neurologists are going to remove the left temporal lobe, left occipital lobe and and part of the left parietal lobe. This is the area causing his seizures as this part of the brain did not finishing developing. Once the drs. do the surgery they will see if there is any more abnormal tissue that needs removed, etc.

The drs. told them all of his functions will transfer to the right side of his brain(!) and hopefully he will be seizure free. He will need a great deal of therapy and will be develpmentally delayed, but the idea is that with the therapy he will get caught up in development since he is so young. He will not have periphal vision on his right side, but they do not think he has it now anyway. He has another eye exam today at 2, another MRI that will assist the dr. in surgery, and a test later today determining how his brain processes energy. It was determined this was not genetic.
Thank you so much,
Carol

Another Aftershock...and progress

There was a 4.4 aftershock today in Haiti. Pray for the people who are struggling with feeling safe.

Many of you have asked us how the reconstruction is going in Haiti. I'm going to try to post links to articles or portions of articles that will give you some updates on activity in Haiti. Here is one by the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction .

“More than ever, Haiti is in a vulnerable situation due to the upcoming rainy and hurricane seasons. There is great urgency now to give particular attention to structural safety for temporary schools, hospitals and camp settlements,” said Margareta Wahlström, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction. “Camps must be built in safe locations with resistant materials and adequate drainage systems to be able to withstand the next hurricane season. The entire international community shares a collective responsibility to reduce the vulnerability of thousands of Haitians to new, imminent disasters.”

In the past decade, Haiti has suffered significant losses from hurricanes. The 2008 season was particularly severe as Haiti experienced four hurricanes in a row. Mudslides are another risk that Haitians may face if rainfalls are significant.


“It will take a minimum of ten years to rebuild Haiti but it is important to start building safer schools, hospitals and critical infrastructure now. It costs much less to integrate disaster risk reduction principles into the design of new construction than to retrofit existing buildings. The 2009 Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction recommended allocating ten percent of relief aid to disaster risk reduction. It is our hope that 10 percent of the estimated US$ 10 billion reconstruction effort will focus on reducing Haiti’s vulnerability to disasters, which are a recurring threat to the Haitian people,” said Wahlström.

Right to Play team from Moncton University visit AIS in Verrettes

It has been a wonderful week of activity for me as I hosted a team of 26 from Moncton University in New Brunswick in French-speaking Canada.
All the club members are related to the University of Moncton as former or current students. They raised thousands of dollars and collected 3,200 lbs of equipment which they brought over in 64 hockey bags. Each club member had to do a fund-raising activity to be a member of the club. They did everything from bagging groceries to benefit concerts and sports contests like a canoe race across a frozen river!

Once they arrived, we stuffed a school bus with the bags and once it was full, we piled the rest on the roof.
We had three major activities planned for the week:

1)Visiting at least 10 schools (2 a day for 5 days), One Christian and one public.
2)Tearing off a roof on a school and replacing it with painted tin.
3)Organizing a 7-game, single elimination U-13 boys soccer tournament with 8 teams.

By the end of the week we had visited 12 schools, played games with over 3,000 students, and gave each school two sets of soccer uniforms, school supplies, and lots of other sports equipment.

We had torn off the roof and rotten wood and, along with our Haitian helpers, had started to put on the new roof.

The soccer tournament went very well with at least 500 people coming to each game and probably about 1,000 attending the final. We were able to get a local radio station to call the final live and got the opportunity to share the Gospel over the radio at the half-time break and after regulation before the game went to penalty kicks. In the end, the Verrettes team won on penalty kicks and afterwards there was a nice award ceremony.

In addition, we played a woman’s soccer game with local Haitian players, some of which used to be on the Haitian woman’s national team.

Another high-light was visiting the physical therapy and prosthetics center which was helping rehabilitate those earthquake victims that had limbs amputated. We were able to distribute hundreds of Teddy bears and stuffed animals to these victims as well as the children in the mal-nourishment and pediatric wards.

Some of the challenges we faced during the week were:
1) A shortage of gas and diesel
2) Someone stole our generator, but the police recovered it
3) At one of the soccer games, angry fans started to throw rocks at the opposing team when their team lost and some of our players were hit.
4) One of our trucks had a flat tire 3 times.

Thanks to all of us who prayed for us this week. I was very proud of our AIS Haiti leaders and how they performed under pressure. We all grew during this period!

An Article on the Reconstruction Efforts - Housing

Many of you have been asking me how the reconstruction is going in Haiti. Well, the job is so vast, just about any answer is ancecdotal. So, I'm going to start posting links to some articles about the progress, problems and (....hmmmm gotta find something that starts with "P"....) praises (!) in reconstruction.

Here's one for today:
Transitional housing slowly getting built in Haiti
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/30/1606660/transitional-housing-slowly-getting.html#storylink=fbuser#ixzz0mhNhT68i


By FRANK BAJAK
Associated Press Writer

PAPETTE, Haiti -- Unlike the vast majority of earthquake victims still crowded into squalid camps, the simple farmers of this hard-hit village have reason to hope as hurricane season looms.

Getting a shipment ready

I know many of you are probably wondering what in the world I'm doing up here in Pennslvania while Ricahrd is doing all the hard work in Haiti, that is, besides feeding Ricky, doing his laundry and driving him around. (By the way, thank you for your prayers--Richard made it back safely and so far the trip to Verrettes is going well.)

I have been taking a very interesting class in Education at Philadelphia Biblical University, working on our prayer letter and new prayer card. I've been spending time with family and friends, too.

Now one of my jobs is boxing up donations that we have received, making the packing list and taking them out to CAM in Ephrata to have them shipped to Haiti. If you would like to include anything in this shipment, keep in mind, CAM can only send humanitarian aid which can include books to be used for literacy and education. Bibles can be part of this. Of course, French Bibles are best, but many like having an English Bible. I would not want to ship a large quantity of English Bibles, though. We can NOT ship medicine through them either--and that includes even ibuprofen, acetaminophen (Tylenol), ointments, etc. But we CAN ship bandaids, ace bandages, diapers, etc. Feel free to ask me if you are thinking about somethign you'd like to send.

Please also keep in mind that it costs at least $1/pound to send these things to Haiti. If you would like to make a donation to cover the shipping cost, that would help so much.

Richard will updating soon on the progress of the Verrettes trip.

Richard's time in the States

This morning I took Richard to JFK airport for his return to Haiti. His time here in the States has been busy> I can't believe how fast the time went by! Here is some highlights:

When I picked him up at JFK on Friday night, the 9th, we drove north and stayed overnight in Mystic Seaport, CT. The next day we went to our friends, the Martinez' house in Rutland, Massachusetts and had to catch up on about 5 years of news! Well, it had been about 5 years since we had seen them in person. That night Richard's cousin, Jonathan, his wife, Kim, and their son, Aiden, came over to visit, too.
the next morning we attended Heritage Bible Chapel, where the Martinezes attend. They have just recently started supporting us! I have to say I was surprised to see that the church was so big and so full! Why? Well, let's just say, it's not the Bible belt....anyway. It's a great church and we enjoyed meeting with several of the members who had a great interest in Haiti and what's been going on there. It was so nice to spend the time with the Martinez family.
Monday we went to Manhattan to take a picture at Grace Church to commemorate our 25th wedding anniversary. We really enjoyed walking around New York on a bright sunny Spring day!

Throughout the week, Richard met with family, friends and supporters...catching up, thanking them, being encouraged by them. We visited our daughter, Joy, who is a freshman at Eastern University on Wednesday. And Richard got to play tennis with Ricky a few times.

Saturday he at the Saturday morning men's Bible Study.
Sunday, he greeted the congregation at Crossing Community Church and then drove right over to the Church of the Good Samaritans where he spoke. He enjoyed visiting with them a bit, but had to hurry back to the apartment so that I could use the car to go to my sister's bridal shower.

We've been collecting some equipment.
Monday we went to Germantown Academy, where Richard went to school for elementary through high school. We spoke about the earthquake to a French III class. The students were not only very attentive, but quite advanced--seemed to understand our French AND some Creole! They are actually reading a book in French that is set in Guadeloupe which has some Creole in it. We were amazed at the stack of boxes of donations the school gave us! Since the school is building a new upper school, they need to clear out the original building and were willing to give a lot to Haiti--even lots of new items from the school store!

Later that day we picked up boxes of donated equipment and clothes from Calvary Chapel Philadelphia.

This week, the Beales, of Crossing Community Church, helped us get some issues straightened out on our laptops.

We appreciate all of you who helped make this a great trip and those who donated equipment and clothing for Haiti....Next step...is me packing up a bunch of boxes, getting a hold of a van and driving it out to CAM in Ephrata, PA....Any volunteers??? :)
Carol

Celebrating the life of Betty Mears

God worked things out so that Richard was in town for his grandmother's funeral. Betty Mears went to be with Jesus after living 100 years, 1 month and 21 days on this earth. Many wonderful people have been affected by her, including 3 children, many grandchildren and great grandchildren. She and Richard's grandfather married late in life, but had been friends when they were very young. She was a thoughtful and active woman of faith who influenced us and our children as well. We are thankful for her role in our lives. Here is a picture of her and Richard Cook Mears, Sr.

Our 25th Anniversary

Yesterday was our 25th wedding anniversary.
I picked Richard up in New York Friday evening. Here we are in Mystic, Connecticut where we stopped on our way up to the Boston area to visit our friends Jose & Raquel Martinez and Heritage Bible Chapel.

On our way back to PA, we stopped in Manhattan to see Grace Church where we were married. We were hoping the magnolia tree would be in bloom just like it was on our wedding day...it wasn't, but the blossoms on this tree (cherry? pink dogwood?) are about the same color. It was a beautiful day and we really enjoyed it.

Easter in Haiti

Easter in Haiti is either a celebration of death or a celebration of life. If you are following the Voodoo religion, Easter (really Good Friday) is a celebration of the death of Christ. Especially in the countryside they dress up in costumes to "trick" the spirits and even yell "crucify Him" in what they see as Satan's victory over Christ.













If you are a Christian, you celebrate the resurrection and life of Christ. A traditional meal consists of "Poulet pays" or Haitian-raised chicken. In the picture you see Elysee's fiance, Anne Love, proudly holding up two chickens which she prepared for our Easter meal.










In order to celebrate in a grand fashion, we invited Adline, her new-born son and her 10 year old daughter as well as James, our teen-age neighbor - so we had about 11 people around the table with 2 babies under 4 months and a 3 year old.



Even though I had had a tummy ache (since Saturday), I really enjoyed holding the babies while their Mom's ate.

Afterwards we had a good discussion about the fact that since God forgave us, we need to forgive each other.

So I had a nice Easter with my Haitian family, but of course I missed Carol and the children so I called them on our internet phone!

God's Grace in the midst of tragedy

The day of the earthquake our neighbors came running to us asking us to help transport a pregnant woman to the hospital who had a badly broken arm. I (Rich) ran and got my keys and asked our Haitian helper, Ecdes, who is 16 to come with me.

We got the woman into the car and made her as comfortable as possible, but she was in extreme pain.

We had to drive to 5 different places before we finally had to give up and take her into a hospital even through they said they were all filled. Ecdes and I carried her up to the only light we saw in the courtyard and asked the overwhelmed nurse who was there to take care of her.

The woman's name is Adline and today she came by with her baby boy named Wilkens Jean who was born on February 4th, to thank us for our help.

It turned out that, in spite of the overcrowded conditions, she did receive some care. She was in the hospital a couple of weeks, actually. But they couldn't treat her arm properly and it became infected and had to be amputated.

However, she did not complain at all, and now she is the happy mother of a healthy baby boy. She has a 10 year old daughter to help her out, so that is a blessing. But her husband died before the earthquake and she has no job.

She was so thankful to Ecdes and I that she has made Ecdes the boy's Godfather.

Please pray that we will be able to help her find a job so she can care for her two children.

False teachings abound in Haiti

While in Limbe Pastor Peggy told me he had to come to Port-au-Prince on business next week. I asked him what he was going to do in Port-au-Prince and he said he was going to try and get a Visa to take a training in the US. When I asked him what kind of training he said it was a follow up course on some psychological training he had already received. He told me the name of the course, and I immediately recognized it as a non-Christian cult that is popular in the US. Pastor Peggy had told me he had already attended several sessions on this teaching and that at least 1,000 others – some Christians – had already received the training. I was astounded! I asked him how he had made contact with these people, and he told me through the internet.

When I told him that this was not just “psychological training”, but the false teaching of a specific religion, he was surprised. He thought it was just “Positive thinking” and harmless. I suggested that he ask the Holy Spirit to confirm in his heart if the teaching was false, and he said he would do this.

I am praying that God will use him and this experience to help him tell others about this false teaching and their methods!

It gives me great joy to see our AIS Haiti leaders walking in the Truth

3 John 1:4 “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”

Our truck was loaded to the top with food, soccer equipment, tents and training materials when we set out on our road trip to North Haiti on March 25th. I was thrilled to have a new member of our team with us, Jean Eric Duval, especially since he was willing to drive most of the 10 hour trip! We were joined by Ronald William who is on the board of AIS Haiti, and Sylvain Nelson one of our leaders who just graduated from seminary last year.

Although some of the roads have just been re-done and are perfect, they get progressively worse the farther you get from Port-au-Prince and get really bad after the city of Gonaives which was flooded a few years ago.

Nevertheless our sturdy Toyota diesel pick up made it just fine and we crawled into our bunk beds after a cold shower and warm oatmeal.

The next day we got up early to start the training, however, it started at “Haitian time” - about an hour late. Eventually most of the 30 team leaders showed up – 3 from each of 8 teams we have in the Port-de-Paix area plus the regional committee. We had a great day of training going over the structure of AIS Haiti and introducing everyone to the “Young Peacemakers” curriculum. We even had time to play a little soccer with they guys in the afternoon. ( My team won when I scored the last goal!)

The second day more people came on time – especially since they realized we served breakfast early! We split them up into three groups: The Coaches, the administrators and the team chaplains and did training specific to each group. I taught the administrators how to prepare a budget and raise funds locally.

The next day was Sunday and the church of one of our leaders was having a big “Harvest” celebration where people bring gifts of produce and live stock to the church and then they auction them off to the highest bidder. Before the auction, however, they have a long service with lots of choirs and preaching. Unfortunately, we had to leave for an appointment after three hours – but they were still going strong!

The appointment was with young missionary who had just graduated from Wheaton College. He was in the process of starting a sports ministry for a larger mission in the area that had been there many years. We had a great meeting and he said after-wards that his head was swimming with all the information and experience I had shared with him. We are going to start with a joint training for our leaders some time in the next year and see where our partnership goes from there!

Later I reflected on what I had seen in church that day. Every choir had a custom-made outfit: One had robes, another had matching ties, etc. Also, the choirs had come from towns pretty far away, which means they had to pay for transportation to come to visit the church. I also thought about who was the audience they were singing to – I would suspect they were mostly Christians. Then I thought about how what they are doing is similar to our soccer teams: Our teams need uniforms and money for transportation so they can play other schools in other towns. The main difference is that when we play games in other towns our audience includes lots of people who are not Christian, but will come to watch a soccer game! It made me realize that the local churches in Haiti have the resources they need to support their school's soccer team – it's just a matter of balance and priority.

That afternoon I shared this with the Regional Committee and explained that I love music myself and sang in choirs for many years and was not criticizing what I saw that day at all, but I wanted them to realize that the local church in Haiti has more resources than they realize. We had a good meeting and discussed our dream of an outreach during the World Cup.

After the meeting we packed up and drove to Jean Rabel and arrived just before dark. That night it rained hard, but it was gone by the morning.



This was the biggest TREC training we ever had. There were 55 people that came – some from miles away. It cost us over $200 US just to pay for the transportation for everyone to come. They represented 12 teams in the area. This means that to date we have trained over 126 soccer leaders in the past 12 months. At Jean Rabel we had a good first day of training but because of larger numbers than expected, we did not have books for everyone

The next morning Ronald and I got up at 5 AM to do a training of coaches at the local soccer field. We drew quite a crowd, but everyone was happy with what we showed them. After that we split up into groups again and taught until 1 PM. After that we had a good meeting with the Regional Committee and talked about how to help each of the 12 teams implement what they had just been taught. Then everyone went home, and it was a good thing too, because that night it rained buckets through the early morning. When we got up we prayed that by the time we were ready to go, that the rain would stop – just as we had prayed – it stopped just as we were ready to load the truck and go!



However, the small stream just outside of Jean Rabel had turned into a raging torrent and we had to wait until another truck forged the stream to see if we were going to make it. Even though water came up over our hood, we still made it through, but it was scary! I was very glad for a diesel engine and 4WD! (see picture)

We then headed to visit our regional committee in Limbe, which is in the north of Haiti near Cap Haitian. Unfortunately, because of the lack of good roads in the north, we had to go south to Gonaives in order to go North. In one day we went from rain and swollen rivers we had to ford, to dry and dusty roads where big trucks in front of us kicked up so much dust we could not see, to heavy fog going over the mountains, to lovely sunny weather!

We arrived in the rain, however, and stayed with the family of Pastor Peggy: Four children under 12, including a 7 month old baby – 3 boys and a girl. Pastor Peggy is a professor of Physical Education at the Christian University of North Limbe and has attended both of our TREC trainings in Port-au-Prince. However, it wasn't until this trip that he really understood our strategy of working through Christian primary schools. He now is going to put together a larger committee who is going to have representatives of 6 local Christian schools on it.

Since Jean Eric had to leave us unexpectedly in Port-de-Paix, I ended up doing all the rest of the driving on the trip, including the 10 hour trip back to Port-au-Prince from Limbe.

In all, we are very glad that God has given us so many great volunteers who are implementing our program in so many schools all over Haiti.