Food for Christmas

What if you didn't have anything to eat for Christmas? For many in Haiti this is the reality. Yesterday, we gave out food to many families that had little or nothing to eat for the holidays.

Many people had been volunteering to work on the road by hand for 2 days a week. Several kilometers of road have been built by picks and shovels. Even though we feed the volunteers one hot meal on the day they work, they have nothing to take back to their wife and children at the end of the day. Well yesterday we were able to give them a box of Manna Pacs (a rice and protein meal from Feed My Starving Children).

They walked 3 hours down the mountain to get the box and then 3 hours back up to their house. Everyone was so happy to get the food.

Then we hand delivered several boxes to orphans and widows. Many sad stories of children living on the edge of survival. Many of the children have to work so hard to help the family survive.

Praise God that many of these families have food for Christmas. Thank you Love-A-Child and Feed My Starving Children. And most of all thank you Jesus.


". . .just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve. . ." Matt 20:28 NIV

Pastors Seminar Badi 13'

December 16-19th found us in Badi, gathered together with 87 pastors and church leaders representing 21 different churches from all across the south side of Pays-Pourri and Belle Fontaine. 

All of the speakers prepared notes and outlines that were translated and filed in binders which were given to each attendee. These binders are a wonderful resource for leaders that have very little study resources aside from their Bibles. 

As leaders in North America we have various translations, countless commentaries and concordances. But not only are these leaders resources limited but there are those that cannot read or even sign their own name. Between both seminars the past 2 weeks over 20% of the leader who attended are illiterate. Many of which rely on their literate children to read scripture to them.     

We again thank our 11 sisters that prepared all the food during this past week 

 Eralus Thelime as community leader and brother in Christ gave all of himself the past several weeks and months in preparation and coordinating. Please pray for him and his family as he serves Christ and his community. Pray for his children too as they grow and watch their Father as an example of true servant leadership. 

In the giving of certificates all of the churches represented took the opportunity to show their appreciation by presenting all 4 speakers with scripture plaques.    

Pleas continue to lift our brothers up in prayer. Pray that the seeds of truth that were sown the last 2 weeks would find fertile soil in their hearts and lives. They are hungry for God's word, much time was given to questions.They ask real questions about real issues that they are working through in their churches right now! A huge issue they are dealing with is adultery and immorality among leadership!! A lot of the same questions get answered and reconfirmed with Scripture; these are hard things to deal with, approaching leaders about their sin and dealing with it themselves! Please pray about this!! For this is where real growth will happen, Repentance, confession and teaching. All we can do is point them to God’s word and pray with them.

I again am reminded of my humanity. Race, color and nationality do not change the face of our ugly flesh, our Enemy and our broken hearts. May we all see those around us every day in need of God’s love and truth as we continue to serve Christ our Savior and Lord.    

    

Pastor Seminar Robia 13'

 The past four days Dec. 9-12th 75 pastors and church leaders from 18 churches across the north side of Pay-Pourri and Marosau gathered together for our second annual Pastor Training Seminar.

We were blessed to have brother Sujet from Petit Goave with us this year. The leaders enjoyed his teaching immensely. At one point when lunch break was called the leaders begged him to continue letting lunch get cold listening as his 1 hour session stretched to 2 1/2 hours. The hunger for spiritual food is truly great.       

May the Lord bless Jeams August for all his hard work as our translator.

We thank those of you who prayed for these past four days! As God's word was taught and lives were impacted for Christ's kingdom. On the third day a Haitian brother stood up after a session and said: 

"Our elders told us of many things but the more we look to the bible the more we see we need to throw out what they have told us and take up God's word as our truth."

We Continue to pray for just that, that God's word would be established as truth in the hearts and lives of the leaders of Christ's church.     

We also have to thank the 9 cooks that gave of themselves all 4 days so that we could eat 2 meals a day together.

We were very blessed by a Brother that made it possible for us to purchase Bibles for each of the pastors participating.

As our last day came to a close all the pastors were presented with a certificate of completion along with their Creole Bible and we ended with prayer for the upcoming seminar in Badi.

Please join us in Prayer as God's word continues to go forth!   

Pastor Seminars 2013

Monday is the first day of our 2013 pastor seminars in Pays-Pourri. This year we are expecting 185 leaders to attend between two locations. The first seminar will be the 9th through the 12th in the village of Robia and the second seminar will be the 16th-19th in the village of Badi.

Please pray for the hearts of all the leaders attending. That they would be inspired to a deeper walk with God as they lead God's church in Pays-Pourri.

Please pray for our speakers:

Michael Martin- Sanctification

Desire Merzantan- The life of a Leader

Emanuel Schrock- Justification through Faith

Rodney Sprenkel-Relationships of a Leader

Jeams Auguste- Translator

And that God's name would be glorified!

 Jimani Meeting House Progress

This past week Kiko and Tom installed the windows and ceramic tile on the wall behind the platform.
We are trusting Almighty God to supply funds to complete this project soon.

Dis Kòmandman Yo

French version of the Ten Commandments we seen in a park in Saint Marc, Haiti

God is like any other parent. He wants to do good things for his children. Like earthly parents, His love towards his children isn’t earned. We can’t work hard and get God to love us, He just loves us anyway. We can try our best, but we will still fail, and He loves us anyway.

In His love for us, God set down some rules that we need to follow. What good parent doesn’t give their children rules to follow. Those rules that God gave his children are called the Ten Commandments. When we live inside these rules, we will be truly blessed, when we live outside of these rules, we will suffer consequences.

These rules are paraphrased from Exodus 20:

1. You shall have no other gods before Me.

2. You shall not make for yourself a carved image…

3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

5. Honor your father and your mother…

6. You shall not murder.

7. You shall not commit adultery.

8. You shall not steal.

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10. You shall not covet…

Wow, what a lot of rules. Really, they are not that hard to follow. When Jesus came to this earth, he summed it up in two simple commands, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself. And with his illustration of the Good Samaritan, our neighbor is anyone we meet.

My challenge to myself is how I am responding to the unearned love that God is giving to me. Am I still living for myself or am I being obedient to His commands and reflecting the love that God has towards me to every person that I come in contact with.   

A picture for Jo!!

Hi Joanna, I just wanted to show you the luscious love gift that little Leon's mom brought for me!! I didn't bother telling her how much I don't like them!

Refeeding

Thank you Mary Ann and the IFM Children's Home for the work you are doing.

Leon was sick and malnourished. Mary Ann took him in. With some meds, good food, and TLC, he is almost ready to go back to his family. Praise God.

 Leon when he arrived.

 Leon doing well. Ready to go back to his family soon.

Painting the church in Jimani

Thanks for the pictures Vicki. The work team is doing a great job on the church. Blessings to each of you that donated for the construction of the church building. May God continue to bless the work in Jimani. -Mike 

Giving out the trees

We were happy to be able to give out the trees at two of the nurseries. It was exciting to see the people excited about planting the trees. We partnered with a local farmers group, O.P.A.P.P. (Organisation des Planteurs pour l'avancement de Pays-Pourri).

 Explaining the benefits of trees at the Trochet, Pays Pourri nursery.

 Explaining the importance of taking responsibility. Don't wait on the government or NGOs. 

 The make-it-work nursery. 

 Happy to have trees to plant.

 A picture from a few months ago. The trees growing in the nursery by Eralus' school in Badi, Pays Pourri.

 Members of O.P.A.P.P. getting ready to give out the trees.

 Mr. Solius, the technician that oversaw the tree nurseries.

 Eralus' son holding a nice avocado tree. 

 Some of the recipients will walk 1 1/2 hours south to other parts of Pays Pourri to plant their trees.

 Lot's of people come for trees.

 Mr. Solius giving a demonstration on "How to plant a tree."

 These school children taking trees to plant at their homes.

 Planting trees on the school property.

The people of Pays Pourri say "Thank you" for your support.  God Bless.

We praise God for men like Mr. Eralus and Mr. Solius. Both are members of our church in Fond Parisien. God is using them to help the people in Pays Pourri, both physically and spiritually.

Please pray earnestly for the Leadership Seminar that we are planning for December for the church leaders in Pays Pourri. If you would like to make a donation to help cover the expenses of the seminar, mark your donation "Leadership Seminar".