Despite all the troubling weather in and around the Caribbean we were blessed to only receive a little wind and about 3/4" of rain out of Irene. We know that the tents and temporary shelters would have had a difficult time standing in hurricane force winds and rain.
The Gateway team left on Saturday. What a great team. Really flexible. Linda Sullivan collected and sent down a large number of wedding dresses along with mother's of the bride or matron of honor dresses so we needed to find a place for all of them. (we loan these out to ladies in the community). Linda Erickson and I cleaned out the back of one of our containers and had one of our guys build racks to hang all the dresses on. What a blessing to have them in good plastic zip bags. We have them hanging in order of sizes, etc. So much easier to work with when the ladies come. We also have a section in the container where they can try the dresses on. The team ladies were so helpful in organizing all these.
We continue to work on the new TiTanyen church. What a huge undertaking. To date this will be the largest church we've been involved in constructing. We are praying that we have a lot of partners come along side us to carry the financial load of the construction. The church congregation is doing its part. Each week they have a "contest" between the men and women on giving to the construction of the church. YEAH!! for the women. They have out given the men 5 weeks to 1. It is a joy to see them giving with a cheerful heart.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
August 23,2011
The last few days have been "catch up" time for us. Getting lots of things done that have to be set aside when we have teams.
We've been so blessed to have Mary King staying here on the compound while her husband Curt is well drilling. They've worked in Haiti for years and she is a nurse and speaks Creole. She has been so gracious to work in the clinic while Sheryl Brumley and family take a much needed time out....speaking of Sheryl...she had surgery to remove a complex cyst off her thyroid. The surgery required removing the right lobe of her thyroid. PTL! all the tests came back normal and they will return to Haiti on schedule the first of Sept.
Last Thursday Linda Erickson, Mary King and I had the pleasure of doing crafts for the 150 youth attending the Youth Conference at TiTanyen Church. Thanks to the last teams here on the compound we had white T-shirts and sun visors for them to paint and decorate. They made "salvation bracelets" and we had enough other new T-shirts to give everyone a new shirt to take home. The biggest hit of the day was Mary teaching the youth to make balloon animals.
I started giving out school funds to the sponsored children thinking school was starting Sept 4th. What a disappointment to all when the Minister of Education decided that schools won't open until Oct 3rd. They opened in Oct last year. We understood this was due to the earthquake. God knows?
Gateway Church in TX sent a team of 8 here last Saturday. They have been very flexible to do whatever. The kitchen in the Afternoon school needed major work. They've scraped, washed and painted the walls. The guys picked up the stoves with 5 large burners and brought them to the GO compound to be degreased, scraped, cleaned and painted. They also installed 3 new burners. The ladies have painted all the brown trim on the Kindergarten...lots of block windows so it's been very time consuming.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
August 9, 2011
We've been extremely busy since our last update but it's been a great time of ministry. The Fellowship team painted the clinic addition the first couple of days and ministered with a young peoples program in TiTanyen...overseen by the Brumley's. These are some of the children in the village who don't attend church. They come to the program each Saturday for a Bible story, games and food. On Saturday the team went up the mountain to another children's program and ministered there for a few hours. The kids were thrilled as the American played games, etc.
While part of our staff was working with the Fellowship team David was at the airport picking up a team from Westport Rd Baptist Church in Louisville, KY. This team consisted of the pastor, his wife and two teenage children, the church's administrator and her husband and 3 teenagers.
These teams, along with 5 people here working with well drilling and David Jr. his wife Betsy, Ben Scott and a 19 year old young man from Louisville made for a GREAT week of ministry. Accomplished a lot too. David Jr and Betsy took one team and I took the other team. Both of our schools were painted inside and out. The Fellowship team was able to spend a day ministering and blessing another orphanage in TiTanyen. My Kindergarten director had asked me the week before if we had someone who could paint some more cartoon characters on the outside of the school. I told her we didn't have anyone that I knew of who could do this. Well..........God always has a plan. Alyssa, the pastor's daughter, said.."Oh, I can do that." She sketched out characters on the wall and the rest of the team helped paint them all. They are so cute. The Louisville team also did a VBS for an orphanage about 4 miles up the road from us. They had a great time. One young man from the orphanage plays the trumpet. As we arrived and got out of the van he started playing the Star Spangled Banner. The team was shocked and so was I. Then they played their Haitian national anthem. It was a joy for all.
Ben and David Jr also helped us with some much needed maintenance............electrical, etc. They shared with everyone that they were not electricians but sons of electricians so they wouldn't guarantee their work.
What a week....16 teenagers and not one complaint or whining out of any of them. God is good !! Great groups !!
While part of our staff was working with the Fellowship team David was at the airport picking up a team from Westport Rd Baptist Church in Louisville, KY. This team consisted of the pastor, his wife and two teenage children, the church's administrator and her husband and 3 teenagers.
These teams, along with 5 people here working with well drilling and David Jr. his wife Betsy, Ben Scott and a 19 year old young man from Louisville made for a GREAT week of ministry. Accomplished a lot too. David Jr and Betsy took one team and I took the other team. Both of our schools were painted inside and out. The Fellowship team was able to spend a day ministering and blessing another orphanage in TiTanyen. My Kindergarten director had asked me the week before if we had someone who could paint some more cartoon characters on the outside of the school. I told her we didn't have anyone that I knew of who could do this. Well..........God always has a plan. Alyssa, the pastor's daughter, said.."Oh, I can do that." She sketched out characters on the wall and the rest of the team helped paint them all. They are so cute. The Louisville team also did a VBS for an orphanage about 4 miles up the road from us. They had a great time. One young man from the orphanage plays the trumpet. As we arrived and got out of the van he started playing the Star Spangled Banner. The team was shocked and so was I. Then they played their Haitian national anthem. It was a joy for all.
Ben and David Jr also helped us with some much needed maintenance............electrical, etc. They shared with everyone that they were not electricians but sons of electricians so they wouldn't guarantee their work.
What a week....16 teenagers and not one complaint or whining out of any of them. God is good !! Great groups !!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
July 28, 2011
Picked up a team of 12 yesterday. They are from Fellowship Church in Brentwood, TN. Two adults with 10 9th and 10th graders. They will be working with a children's program in TiTanyen for a couple of days and then with another children's program in the mountains on Saturday. Lots of painting for them to do too. The Burn Clinic addition is finished and ready for a coat of paint.
David Jr, Betsy, Ben Scott and Mitch (a friend of David Jr's) will arrive tomorrow. On Saturday a team of 9 will arrive from Westport Rd Baptist Church, Louisville, KY . We have 5 others here drilling wells too. Never dull.....lots of people. I've run out of beds to sleep people until after Aug 6th. PRAY for our strength as we attempt to mix all these groups and accomplish what the Lord wants done in the next 10 days.
David Jr, Betsy, Ben Scott and Mitch (a friend of David Jr's) will arrive tomorrow. On Saturday a team of 9 will arrive from Westport Rd Baptist Church, Louisville, KY . We have 5 others here drilling wells too. Never dull.....lots of people. I've run out of beds to sleep people until after Aug 6th. PRAY for our strength as we attempt to mix all these groups and accomplish what the Lord wants done in the next 10 days.
July 27 ,2011
Great Week. July 18th a team from Christ Life Church in Tempe, AZ arrived led by Pastor Phil Goldsberry. He was accompanied by his son-in-law Brendon, son Phillip and wonderful support group for a total of 11. We were blessed to have 4 days of VBS....two days in the mountains at Blanquet Church and 2 days at Shekina Church. I was so impressed by the organization of this team...everything they did they did with excellence....from the Bible story teaching to the crafts and then the games. Everything pointed the children to Jesus. Each one of them showed the love of Jesus to these 300 children. I think there were around 45 young people that prayed to receive Christ and many others prayed for a stronger walk with Him. This team also worked toward painting the outside of Shekina church. This is a very large church and they only had a couple of afternoons to paint. Trisha..one of the team members worked in the kitchen a couple of afternoons showing our Haitian staff some new recipes. They loved it.
Friday, July 15, 2011
July 15, 2011
Monday July 11th Brian Tyndall...COO for our GO Home office arrived with his 17 year old son Caleb. It was their first time in Haiti. Great to be able to show them the ministry here. Our only regret was they arrived to late to see the Gran Moun Feeding program Monday morning and all our schools closed on July 8th. Sorry they missed the kids...especially the Kindergarten children. We were able to show them a lot of the ministry and they were able to spend time with each of our couples and their families plus Pastor Kelly. On Thursday they flew to Jacmel to visit with the Whittaker's before flying back to PAP on Friday morning. We had enough time for David to bring them back to the compound for lunch with all our staff and then back to PAP to fly back to the US.
Thursday morning we received a call that our container was on the road to the compound. WOW!!! We loaded the container on June 4th in Nashville. The container left Nashville on the 7th of June . July 7th it arrived in Haiti and believe it or not....it cleared customs and was on the GO property at 10:30 am this Thursday morning. (normally it is at least 4 to 6 weeks clearing customs). EVERYONE was enlisted to unload this container. We worked 5 hrs on Thursday and about 7 hrs today to complete the task. Needless to say it was a HOT HOT job. What made it more difficult was we had some huge shelving for our warehouse on the container plus 600 sheets of 15ft metal roofing for the new TiTanyen Church. Lots of clothes, shoes, blankets, folding chairs, ice maker, copier, welder generator, etc filled out the container. Lots of things to bless a lot of people. We want to thank everyone who contributed the items and especially those who came to Nashville to help load. Praise the Lord !!!!
Thursday morning we received a call that our container was on the road to the compound. WOW!!! We loaded the container on June 4th in Nashville. The container left Nashville on the 7th of June . July 7th it arrived in Haiti and believe it or not....it cleared customs and was on the GO property at 10:30 am this Thursday morning. (normally it is at least 4 to 6 weeks clearing customs). EVERYONE was enlisted to unload this container. We worked 5 hrs on Thursday and about 7 hrs today to complete the task. Needless to say it was a HOT HOT job. What made it more difficult was we had some huge shelving for our warehouse on the container plus 600 sheets of 15ft metal roofing for the new TiTanyen Church. Lots of clothes, shoes, blankets, folding chairs, ice maker, copier, welder generator, etc filled out the container. Lots of things to bless a lot of people. We want to thank everyone who contributed the items and especially those who came to Nashville to help load. Praise the Lord !!!!
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
July 13, 2011
July 2nd a great team arrived. ...Mark Green, his wife Linda, daughters Taylor, Danielle and Jessica with son Travis and his wife Shalane. Also on the team were 5 very mature, well mannered high school seniors....Ethan, Jordon, Ashton, Kelly and Ally. What a wonderful time we had with this group. We were blessed to hear how God touched each one of them as they opened their hearts to hear from the Lord. We had the team going in several different directions. Some worked each morning at the clinic, some painted the schools...(Thanks guys for resurrecting the cartoon characters on the wall of the Kindergarten.) Some of these painting were peeling and they were able to refurbish them. Several of the guys went on the well repair team. All the houses we built have now been painted inside and out. PTL!. So many happy families....grateful to have a safe and secure place to live. We were blessed to see how this team bonded with the Haitian people.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Thursday, June 30, 2011
June 30, 2011
Great week with the New Work Fellowship Church team. Several new people on the team and lots of " return " people. Always a joy to see familiar faces. Some of the team went on well pump repair, some worked in the clinic treating patients, others work on getting the electrical put in the new addition of the clinic. After clinic the ladies cleaned off all the shelves and medicines bottles in the pharmacy part of the clinic.....lots of cement dust with all the construction going on. Painting the addition to the clinic and the inside of one of the houses we built in TiTanyen rounded out their week. Saturday night was so special as they showed the Jesus in one of the tent areas and 43 people accepted Christ. WOW! God is good.
Years ago when we first came to TiTanyen I taught conversational English at the seminary. I had a young man named Samuel in my class. During Samuel's last year of seminary he almost died with tuberculous . He had a very tough type to treat and spent two months in the hospital and 4 months recuperating at home. God raised him up to pastor two churches in the Cap Haitian area...about 6 hours northeast of TiTanyen. God has blessed his ministry as he has stayed faithful to him. Our hearts were saddened when Samuel's wife called Thursday and said Samuel had passed away. He leaves a wife and two children and congregations that will miss him. Pray!
Years ago when we first came to TiTanyen I taught conversational English at the seminary. I had a young man named Samuel in my class. During Samuel's last year of seminary he almost died with tuberculous . He had a very tough type to treat and spent two months in the hospital and 4 months recuperating at home. God raised him up to pastor two churches in the Cap Haitian area...about 6 hours northeast of TiTanyen. God has blessed his ministry as he has stayed faithful to him. Our hearts were saddened when Samuel's wife called Thursday and said Samuel had passed away. He leaves a wife and two children and congregations that will miss him. Pray!
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Tuesday June 21, 2011
The team from CO was small but accomplished LOTS. Many people think you have to have a lot of people to make a difference but the small teams do a great job too. David preached Sunday at a church in Bon Reop called Light and Peace. He has preached there many times but not since the earthquake. WOW...what a change. They have done a lot of work on their building and their congregation has doubled. PTL! It was good to see all of the "Gran Moun" at the feeding program on Monday morning. They are really enjoying our new staff member Glen Erickson. He greets and hugs them all as he hands out the food. So many old people here do not receive this kind of attention and it is so appreciated.
Today David and I left for town about 8:15am....we went to the bank, had a tire repaired on the truck and then went by the hardware store to pick up some needed items. It is a distance of about 28 miles round trip. It took us 4 hrs and 45 mins. to accomplish these simple tasks. Nothing simple here.
David and crew will head to the airport at 2:30pm to pick up a team from New Work Fellowship Church in Hopkinsville, KY. There are 8 men and 3 women on the team. Most have been here before and are a great group of people. Pray for them as they work and minister....it is HOT here.
Today David and I left for town about 8:15am....we went to the bank, had a tire repaired on the truck and then went by the hardware store to pick up some needed items. It is a distance of about 28 miles round trip. It took us 4 hrs and 45 mins. to accomplish these simple tasks. Nothing simple here.
David and crew will head to the airport at 2:30pm to pick up a team from New Work Fellowship Church in Hopkinsville, KY. There are 8 men and 3 women on the team. Most have been here before and are a great group of people. Pray for them as they work and minister....it is HOT here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)