Thursday May 17, 2012

Hello,

This is one of those times that YOU praying can make all the difference in the world literally.

Please read below and pray, and thank you ahead of time :)

I talked with the team today. They had a good day. They do have one fairly large complicated prayer request for tomorrow. Today, as Becca taught the Inductive bible study to women from 4 communities, she came to realize that there were some different cultural views that were causing some difficulties. First we knew that illiteracy is higher for Haitian women than men. The stats I have found, say that the literacy rate of adults is between 39.66 %  and 53.6 % of the population of Haiti. Most of the sites defined literacy as; "Adult literacy rate is the percentage of people ages 15 and above who can, with understanding, read and write a short, simple statement on their everyday life ". The complication comes into play culturally because Haitian women typically are less likely to be literate because of the value placed on a Woman in  society.  The other piece of information that causes complications is that because the women tend to want people to just tell them what they need to know, they tend to not think for themselves or have opinions. Today it was hard for them to understand why they would want to learn how to study the bible for themselves. They just wanted Becca to tell them what the book of Ephesians said and what they should believe. We have experienced this on a smaller scale when trying to hire workers for the orphanage. When we ask a women what job she is applying for she says any of them. When we get more specific and ask if she could have any job what would it be? They look at us like they do not understand why we are asking such a question. We then try to ask things like what do you enjoy doing? It becomes apparent that it is not a problem of understanding the question. The problem is they have not been raised to think of themselves at all. The concept of choosing what you want in life is a foreign concept to women in Haiti. They have not grown up with anyone caring about their opinions.

Both Mike and Nathan spent some time trying to help the women understand why it is beneficial to be able to read and think for themselves. Becca taught them for about 3 hours today. She thinks that they were starting to get it near the end. She will be teaching them tomorrow morning again from 9:00 am to about 12:00 PM (6:00 am to 9:00 am our time) Please pray for a break through in their understanding.

God created these women for a purpose and he desires them to have a personal relationship with Him, to really know Him. He cares about them as individuals, he cares about their thoughts, desires, and opinions. He wants them to have wisdom and knowledge also. Please pray these cultural barriers will be broken.  Please join together in prayer for the women of Haiti. I believe Becca will have the opportunity to teach these women two more times.

In the afternoon the team passed out the gifts to the children, something that is always fun to do. In the evening they went into Marotte for the crusade. The team said it was a beautiful summer night and they had fantastic worship. Each of the team members shared for a few minuets. Two other pastors preached. When the team arrived back in the orphanage they passed out some colored finger lights Andy found, that attach to their fingers and shine different colored light. So there were red, blue, yellow and green glowing lights all over the grounds. They were a huge hit.

Tomorrow the team will work on projects during the day while Becca teaches and then go the crusade again in the evening. Mike will preaching in the evening, please pray that he teaches Gods heart. Also please pray for the team as they will have a ministry time afterwards. Pray that the Holy Spirit is there.

Blessings,

Chris