Tonight on the phone the team said they believe the youth rally was very successful and the team enjoyed themselves also. Friday and Saturday there were about 150 youth. Today many recommitted their lives to God. Thank you so much for your prayers. Also, both yesterday and today there were meetings with potential youth leaders. Jeremy and Jacob were part of a panel with Mike, put together as a forum for the pastors and youth leaders to ask questions about youth ministry. Mike said the youth leaders being trained seem to be of leadership quality. So we now have youth group leaders and the start of a youth group in all 4 of our Good Shepherd churches. Please pray for wisdom and guidance for the leaders. Jeremy also felt great today and no one else has felt sick, thank you for praying for the team's health. The team enjoyed the two weddings this afternoon. Our son Jesse and his fiance had quite a bit of dialog about the customs and culture involved in a Haitian wedding afterwards with Stanley (one of our interpreter's). The team went swimming in the river again with the children in the orphanage. The children found a channel that is narrower and deeper, which creates fairly fast water and rapids, when they hurl themselves in the water moves them along quickly and shoots them out the other end. The team had a blast going through this chute with them. The team has really enjoyed spending time with the children and the children are getting good at communicating with the teams.
For church and other important events the women iron the clothing with a very old, very heavy, black iron, literally made of iron. They have to heat it up over the fire, iron until it cools down and heat it up again. We have a photo of one of the women ironing in the orphanage.
It is utterly amazing that they get the clothes ironed so well, they are ironed better then ours. The women also get their white clothing whiter than we can get white clothing, and they are washing by hand in cold water :) Mike enjoys finding ways to make life a little easier for the women who work in the orphanage, so before this trip he bought an electrical iron for the women and took it with him to Haiti. He said they are thrilled with it. They can only iron in the evening when the generator supplies power, but they love it.
Tomorrow morning Mike will be preaching in the Marose church. Jeremy has been asked by Nathan to preach with him at our Good Shepherd church in Gonaives. Again please pray that God does the equipping and opens the ears and hearts of the Haitian people. Jeremy loves to be challenged, and pushed out of his comfort zone, I wish I could be there with him and the team. Nathan said that the moving of our Gonaives church has gone well, The area has come together and there is a strong community feel. There has been many salvations since they have moved into this building. Tomorrow the team was supposed to attend the baptism of 11 new believers, but now there are 28 people that want to be baptized :) God is soooooo good. Thank you so much for all of your prayers, as I have said before, they do make all the difference.
Blessings,
Chris
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