Julia's Prayer Letter

Here is a prayer letter Julia sent to her home church. I got her permission to put it on the blog. Enjoy! 

-Mike

Dear church family,

Therefore said he unto them, "The harvest truly is great but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. Go your ways; behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes:and salute no man by the way. Luke 10 : 2&3

This passage somehow struck a new meaning in my heart once again as we prepeared to go on a mission trip this month. It was so good for me to have a special weekend for evangelization . Even tho this is important in our everyday lives, somehow it makes this race of eternal destinies become so much more real when all the other worries & work of life are left behind and our one group focus is to go out and seek the lost! I'll share some of the highlights of our trip a little later!

The month began once more with comings and goings! July 3, Mike & Joanna and the boys left to head stateside. The will be gone for several months as they wait the arrival of their new baby and have a nice furlough. They are sorely missed around here, especially the little guys who just brighten everyone's day! That same day we welcomed Shea back. He had spent 3 months at home visiting friends and family and doing a term at SMBI. It's great to have him back again. Along with him came this year's WATER students. Carolyn Ringler & Hannah Manhart were here with us for the month of July doing this World Awareness Training in Evangelistic Responsibilities program.

July 6th was the day Sulley, the nanny from the children's home, left. She spent a year here with us and is now returning to her home in PA. Sulley your cheery outlook on life is sorely missed but we wish you God's blessings as you serve him in your new field.

July 11th we all piled into the truck to go pick Hannah and Austin up at the airport. Austin is back after spending 6 weeks at home and our dear Hannah is back to join the mission family. She will be taking Ruth's place in domestics.

Then July 18th Dale left us to go back to ON. He had agreed to stay and help us until the guys came back from their furloughs etc. so I guess that time had come. Dale your willingness to do just anything is still missed around here but we pray that you will be blessed as you seek for further direction for what God has in store for you.

In last months' newsletter I mentioned of our dear, old granny friend, Md Pecwa, who was at death's door. Well, she passed away peacefully on July the 3rd and went on to be with her Saviour and eternal reward. I'm so glad she can be released from her suffering but it was hard for all of us to go thro the nights of the wake and then the funeral. Please pray especially for Pecwa who is left behind, now at 87 years old. He is having a hard time continuing with life and struggles with loneliness after so many precious years of being married to her. I am thankful for the one granddaughter who took it on herself as her duty to move in with him and take care of her grandfather.

I also had mentioned our lab girl, Eveline who's baby was born prematurely and was in the hospital ever since. Sadly the baby must have taken a turn for the worst and very suddenly died a week ago Tues. I know we will never understand but God does & I'm glad Eveline realizes that too. One evening we staff all went in to town after work to encourage her and show her our support. Pray for her and her husband as they face this journey of hurt, healing and forgiveness. They have a son who is three years old and this was their first baby girl so that makes it especially difficult for them.

July 21st, was the big day! Our 'brother' Fernard is gettting married! He & Thouslene are good friends of all of us so we all were excited for this day.We girls even all sewed new matching dresses for the occasion and sang a song together for them!

Please go to our IFM blog for photos of the wedding. http://www.internationalfaithmissions.blogspot.com/ .

Now for the mission's trip....it all began early on the morning of Fri. July 27 when one of our church friends called and wondered where Michelle & I were?! You see the bus was supposed to leave at 5 am sharp and this was now 5:20! Well, I had just crawled out of bed and wasn't in a great hurry. You see we girls knew that the bus driver still had to come down to the mission in the morning and finish welding a rack to go on top of the bus to hold our luggage. Sure enough at 5:30ish we heard the welder start up and we knew we would right on time! We finished packing our bags and arrived up at the church where everyone was having prayer service.After squashing all 45 of us church folks into the bus and tying the luggage securely on top we pulled out of the church yard at 6:45a.m. Right on time :) Everyone sang lustily as we started off & literally did not stop the whole way till we arrived in Hinche! Opposite of our trip to Maniche, this bus driver kept his bus in tip-top shape & knew the mountainous road like the back of his hand, so the miles sped away behind us. We climbed up steep mountain ranges with cliffs that dropped straight off the sides, around sharp curves, and thro endless lush greenery. By the time we got to the central plateau area I had nearly forgotten I was in Haiti. Such different scenery, hillsides of gardens, groves of mango trees, swaying palms and fast flowing rivers & a big lake.We also passed the huge hydro-electric dam where most of Haiti's electric is produced .Even the road was smoothly paved with lines painted in the center and on the sides. Thus in 4 short hours we safely entered the city of Hinche- our destination!

We stayed at a Baptist school/church compound that provided simple but pleasant accomadations for us. School rooms for us to sleep in, a cook shack for the kitchen ladies, shower rooms & clean outhouses :) We ladies set right to work at cleaning the school rooms, 3 for the ladies and 2 for the men. The cooks began fixing a scrumptious dinner of rice n beans and fish sauce. After we all were settled in and had our bellies full we all chatted or slept to try to pass the afternoon heat. It was HOT, very, hot!! With no puff of breeze!

But we all survived and at 5 p.m. Pastor split us all up in groups of 5 or 6 and we struck out on the streets to go door to door evangelizing. We quickly discovered that Hinche is definitely not a heathen town and many of the places we stopped were Christians, however they all wanted us to come pray with them and it was such a blessing! The one place in particular stuck out to me- we were walking down the street singing when a little girl, maybe 3 years old, took us by the hand and led us to her house. Inside was her mother with a new baby who quickly explained to us that this little girl loves to sing and pray and as soon as she heard us she asked her mother if we could come to their house? Her mom said she could come get us , so that's what she did & she was so pleased with herself. We discovered the dad is gone all day long in Port au Prince for work so they are by themselves alot. We encouraged the mom to keep her daughter's love for Jesus alive and she will grow up to be a faithful follower. Another situation that I remember was the 2 young boys we met on the street that said they wanted Jesus in their heart.Since they were close to their home we asked that they take us to their house & we could talk there. Once there we discovered that the whole family is not Christian and we talked to the father quite awhile.He said he doesn't want to be a Christian because then it would be much worse if he sins. This way I guess he thought he doesn't need to be held accountable for his sin. How sad! By this time the young boys had disappeared & we could do nothing but leave them with a Gospel of John tract & pray that God would work in their hearts.

We also went door to door ministering on Sat. morning & late Sat. afternoon. This time we passed more thro the main part of town and were shocked at what a large city Hinche actually is! It is a well developed city with booming business & a huge market. THe streets are paved with sidewalks along many of the main ones & most people live in nice cement block houses. The center city square was like a park, with flowering trees and benches, even basketball & volleyball courts with a team playing! We also discovered it has many churches, huge churches - definitely stronge Catholic influence but also alot of Baptist.

Sunday afternoon we took the children walking so they could see the town to, since they didn't come along when we did street ministry. We walked clear to the far end of town where we saw the big fancy municipal buildings etc. & their big hospital. We actually went inside the hospital - I couldn't stop marvelling over how big it was. It was neat & clean but very simple with many, patients. I couldn't help but think how overwhelmed I would feel if I was a nurse walking those halls eveyday! We stopped & sang and prayed in a few rooms and everyone seemed to enjoy that.

Each evening we had services at church. I think they were supposed to be kinda like street revivals but since the church was set back off the street not too many other people came. However we had a blessed time of singing and worshipping together. There was always opportunity given for volunteers to sing however Michelle & I never had a chance to this time as there was always so many people who couldn't wait to share!

This mssions trip was so different from the last one as there several families with children along. THere were probably 15 children in total so there was always something to do, whether it was running after the little girls or combing hair or picking up after them. Then there was water to pump & carry over for baths and for the kitchen use, dishes to wash & always, always floors to sweep . The school yard was fine sand which made everything grimy and dusty! I thoroughly enjoyed this experience to get to know my church friends & it strengthens relationships so much when we are willing to be a part of them.

Mon. morning everyone set to packing all our belongings back up to get ready to go home. Buckets, blankets, dishes, speaker system, big suitcases, why it was just like a camping trip!! In short order we were all ready to go, so we proceeded in a vigorous prayer to God for protection on our way home. Then we were off, out thro the church yard & past the moto drivers, past the proud blue pillars that said "Welcome to Hinche", past the friendly merchants who were selling avacodoes, mangoes & cold drinks. Down the road -away, away on the long, winding, mountainous road that led us off to our home sweet home! And as we climbed up one steep hill & swooshed down the other side we sang & chatted & laughed & we remembered- the good times, the new things, the strange things & the silly moments. Then we tucked the memories deep in our hearts & like a big happy family we pulled into the church yard here at 1p.m. tired, hot and oh,so blessed!!

I can't thank you enough for all your prayers and support. It means so much, especially on weekends like this past one. I know God's work is so much more effective with the prayers of the saints! Thankyou so much! (Keep watching our blog for pictures of the weekend mission trip. One of these days when I have time I'll post them!!)

Because of Jesus,

Love, Julia