3/29 Haiti team arrives home late Tuesday evening, early Wednesday.
Today began with a few guys going to a new church building sight to help put one truss up for size. The trip was bumpy and nerve racking. Come to think about it, everytime we get in the cage truck it is a trip you want to go straight to the chiropractor. But we survived.
We mainly went sightseeing today and had a wonderful Haitian cooked meal. At the end, we had chocolate cake and ice cream. Was it ever good!
Thank you for your prayers during this trip. We look forward to filling in the holes with many stories of God's provision.
We have invited Frantz to come back home with us. He will be with us during our Faith Promise weekend. He will give his testimony on Sunday Night.
Pray for Bob to receive his strength as we prepare to travel Tuesday. We fly out of Haiti at noon and have a layover in Miami for a few hours. We will arrive in Detroit around 11PM and then in Findlay around 1am.
Joy in Jesus!
Pastor Mike
3/28 Well today is our last full day in Haiti. We had a wonderful day yesterday! We went to church and worshipped with people in a providence of Porta Prince. The people were very happy to see us, they put us up in front facing the congregation. They sang a number of hymns and presented some special songs from the women and one selection from the men, their voices were amazing and their love for the Lord was so sweet! We sang "It is Well With My Soul" and on the last verse through an interpreter Pastor Mike had them sing the response, it was very emotional to sing together! Pastor Mike preached from Romans (I think chapter 5:1-11 and then he used the illustration of the story of the "Ragman", they listened to it all so intently! After the service the Pastor humbled himself and asked Pastor Mike if he would be willing to come and preach for 15 days straight, they felt what God shared through him brought hope and they have been waiting for hope! The church was just some walls with lots of poles holding up the ceiling, basically it was open air, it was nothing like the church we worked on. After church we went to a sugar plantation museum, we also ate there. After the museum we went to the steel market, everyone had a great time. In the middle of our joy there has been hard times though. Bob Knight has been sick with a fever for 2 days and many of us have not been feeling well either. I have not been feeling well so I have not been eating the meals prepared, I have been eating oatmeal and last night I had toast for dinner.
Last night Franz shared some of his life's story with us....WOW, you all will hear some of it on Sunday night. Today we are supposed to go to Baptist Missionary, a beautiful lookout, see the present palace and how it looks today and to a museum in Porta Prince, I am not sure if I am going as my stomach is getting more upset, I may stay back with Ann and Bob. Tonight Elise fixes a full Haitian meal, I doubt I will eat and I know I will be missing something wonderful.
I meant to close last time with my favorite verse which fits my life many times but especially has been close to my heart during this trip! We all share one PC so we hurry!
"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us." Ephesians 3:20
With great love and affection for you all!
Donna
Today we went to church at Pernier Church of the Nazarene which is about 30 minutes away. It was good to worship with the Haitian people in a packed sanctuary. This church was damaged in the earthquake as well. They are in the process of rebuilding it. I was privileged to bring the message. It was different speaking one sentence then waiting for Frantz to interpret it. Can you imagine how long my sermons would be if I had to do that at home? I don't need you to respond to that.
Today we went out to eat and had really good barbecue chicken, vegetables, and potatoes. Have I mentioned how much I appreciate the cooks? They have outdone themselves again this year. After eating we went to a place where they hammer out 5 gallon barrels into different art pieces. Then we returned back at the Bible College. I was worn out and had to take a nap. Not everyone did that. Some of the younger guys played soccer with Frantz and a few other Haitians. We are going to have to teach them about the Nazarene Nap.
We need to pray for Bob Knight. He has had a fever for a couple of days. Ann says that his fever is getting under control but pray that it continues. Other than being sore and tired, there is not much more going on.
Tomorrow morning earlier a few of the men are going to put some rafters up at a new church building project for a few hours. Then the group will head off to go sightseeing for our last full day.
Our plan is to fly out on Tuesday at noon.
Joy in Jesus!
Pastor Mike
Hello from Haiti, (received 3/26)
This is the first chance I have had to email. We just returned from Marose! The church turned out beautiful and we had a great time! I had a lot of fun with the children and we worked very hard! The church family there were so appreciative that they prepared a meal for us, goat, we had grown to like the goat so it was hard to eat but it would have been an insult not to eat so we ate. We in fact were walking by and saw them tying it up it was really loud crying out and then it was done!
The dedictation service in the new church was amazing, the music presentation was beautiful, they prepared flower corsage and pinned on each of us, presented certificates to us and thanked us many times. Everyone was dressed up so nice to include the children in fact the children sang a song for us with actions it was so cute. The service went on for 3 hours, there were probably about 300 people present that walked for miles to be there! A number of the men and women with their Pastor were up in the church, we could hear them having a prayer service this morning at 4:30 as we were packing up to go! They came out and prayed for us and thanked us again and blessed us! my heart is to overflow. Our church presented the Pastor also with a gift from our church in the amount of $1,000.00 which is worth $40,000 for them with the currency exchange, it was given during the service and they were stunned! Well I have to go for now but I have thought of you all many times.
Love,
Donna
Today started at 4:45am as we packed everything up to head back to the Bible College. The thing that struck me was what we heard in the morning as I woke up. It wasn't the roosters crowing (although that did happen). I could probably talk to you about some of the Haitian roosters that crow way too early, like 2:30am. But I won't. The sound I heard was prayer in their new sanctuary. I believe they started praying at 5am. I heard the song, "What A Friend We Have In Jesus." There is a line that talks about... "O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer!" I heard them walking around the sanctuary and praying. Each one was lifting up their voice to God like a chorus. You could really tell they were passionate and fervant about praying. It really reminds me again why God is doing such a wonderful work at this church and in our hearts. In 2 Chronicles 7:14 says, "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
What a powerful reminder to give your all to God and seek his face. The verse goes on to say, "Now my eyes will be open and my ears attenive to the prayers offered in this place." It is almost as if the Lord is seeking us out to pray with a passionate heart. How humbling to think God wants to fill my body and consecrate it. Look up the passage and continue to read verses 11-23.
How did I get caught up in that? Anyway, we spent the day traveling back to the Bible College and rested from our work to mentally and physically prepare for a full day of work tomorrow. I almost forgot to tell you what we had for breakfast. Go ahead try to guess. O.K. I'll tell you... Some had a Bacon cheese burger, some a cheese burger, and of course with fries. There were some that did a lot better in their choices but I won't go into that since I wasn't one of them. You can ask them when we return.
Tomorrow we will begin the day at 6:30am to work around the Bible College. We will prepare materials for future groups and repair the big truck we travel in.
Until tomorrow...
Joy in Jesus!
Pastor Mike
3/25 It is 10:15PM and we are starting to wind down from a long day. Yes, we were up at 5:30am and began our work for the day. We were able to finish the church by noon so they could get in and clean it up for the dedication service. It looked beautiful. They hung curtains up and flowers that made it look very quaint. The service was supposed to start at 5:30pm but it didn't start until 6:45 pm. The church was packed. We ended up sitting on the stage. It was quite an experience. Most of the service was in Haitian Creole. There was a great spirit in the service. At one point the ladies of the church put a little flower on each of us. I can't forget to mention that the service lasted for 2 1/2 hours.
