Sunday, December 6, 2009


Our new orphanage photo!

Maki Cia

baptism


feeding the poorest of the poor

school

Our last trip

Hello
The trip was great. Sorry, I was only able to get on our blog a couple of times and not on our e-mail at all while in Haiti. Between limited power via our generator and towers being out, communication outside of Haiti was very limited. We spent the first night in our daughters village. It was great seeing all the people who we have connected with in her village. Nathan picked us up in the late morning to go to Marose. The church had a 21st anniversary celebration that evening and again Sunday. The celebration on Sunday lasted about 7 hours. There were many pastors who shared. Mike also shared. There were choirs that performed. There was hours of Worship. It was a good day and evening. The next morning the medical clinic was open. It was good to see for myself all the people and their needs being met. Our doctor is seeing about 150 patients every Monday. He sees them until sundown. The emergency room of the Hospital in Bellingham sees about the same amount of people in a day. The difference being that there are many, many doctors and nurses and techs. Our clinic has one doctor, one nurse and one tech. We are in the process of hiring one more nurse to help with the patient load. Please continue to pray that we are able to open up for one more day a week soon. Some of those patients are waiting from early morning till all most sundown outside in the heat to be seen, and 99% of them have walked to get there. I was able to see school in process also, which was very exciting for me. They have to cancel school when ever teams go down,
because the church is where the teams sleep and it is also where school is held. Mike has seen both the medical clinic and the school in action, because sometimes he goes down by himself or with just a couple of people. We were able to talk with each class and teacher and pray over them. On Tuesday we were able to go into the poorest part of Gonaives and feed the children. I loved being able to get down on the ground and feed the little ones so the older children did not eat their share. I prayed over each one as I fed them, such a privilege, knowing some have TB and hepatitis or scabies and even HIV. Knowing
that it is their only meal that day, maybe their only touch physically and spiritually. It is both rewarding and heart breaking at the same time. In the afternoon the pastor's association met. Mike shared and I was asked to share a short message also. Again a such a privilege. We have now taken in the little school in the poor section of Gonaives that Mike had shared at on the last trip. The school where he brought more than 40 children and few adults to the Lord. Pastor Nathan knows the pastor, who felt like God told him to start the school. He has a few teachers who help him, they all volunteer for free including the pastor. We have started to feed these children once a week. We are hoping to sponsor the children in this school for 10$ US per month so that we can feed them 5 days a week and help them get an education like the children in our community of Marose, who we offer a free education and meal and uniform to. Please pray that we are able to get them all sponsored. We were also able to participate in a baptism again. Praise God. I love being a part of other cultures. We brought Maki Cia (our new daughter and half sister to Janae and Joshua) into the United States on December 3rd, because we had visited her several times during the process she received US citizenship as soon as she entered the US. We will retain her Haitian name of Maki Cia as her middle name, like we did with our other children. Her new first name will be Elizabeth. She is so cute. She has two huge dimples when she smiles. So far the adjustment has gone well. Between traveling to many different places in Haiti and then on many flights to and in the states she seems to have bonded quite well so far. Thank you ever so much for all of your prayers. It is such a miracle that she is finally home with her forever family. Many Blessings.
Chris

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Hello
Today the celebration went very well. In fact it is still going on. The celebrations here last hours it started around 2:00 and it is 6:30 now. For some reason we can not use our e-mail here the last few days. But I have been able to use our blog so I am writing this on the blog and will try to get our son to paste this on our e-mail to send it out. Tomorrow we will watch school and be here to see and maybe help with the Medical clinic. We will probably be meeting with the Pastor's association on Tuesday, and then feed the poor in Gonaives. Bonding with our daughter has been going very well. God has been amazing, she already pushes others away and wants just me. She is still very quiet, but very sweet and so pretty. Thank you for your prayers. They really make such a difference. Blessings
Chris
P.S. Miss Amanda size18 months leaves plenty of growing room, I over quessed size 2 :)

Saturday, November 28, 2009

We have arrived. Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!We spent the day and night at Russka Village with our new daughter.It has been so good. She is very quiet and shy, not like her siblings. Janae has told Mike when he asked her if she could be quiet that she" likes to be loud". Maki Cia (Elizabeth) has a very sweet spirit. It was so nice to see friends we have made there. Mike gets to see them every time he goes down to Haiti. I have not been there for a year and a half, because I have felt like it was important to be home so that Janae and Joshua could adjust. This morning we drove up to Marose
to the orphanage. Again it was good to see everyone. A year and a half is way to long. They had a celebration tonight, I guess they have every night this week. They are celebrating their 21st anniversary. Mike and Nathaniel are going to be doing baptisims in the morning and there will be a large community wide service in the afternoon. Mike will be one of the speakers. He would appreciate prayers that the Holy Spirit is with him as he shares and with Nathan and Nathaniel.
Thanks for your prayers, Blessings Chris

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



We get to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We fly out today and will be able to get our daughter tomorrow,( Friday). We will stay in her village for the day and one night. Saturday will go up to the orphanage. We will be back next Thursday, December 3rd. I will try to update while we are down there depending on internet access. Please keep praying for us and the rest of our children here at home. This will be the first time we have both left Joshua and Janae for this long. Thank you soooooo much.
Blessings Chris
Prayer Partners: This list of contacts was formed for the main purpose of informing our supporters of up-dates to events, trips and projects, and to request prayer for the ministry and the children. I have been very apologetic in the past for using this list to ask for prayer for myself and or my family. The further we get into this ministry and the work that God has called us to, the more we realize that we stand or fall. we succeed or fail based on our faith and the prayer support that we get. Haiti is a very hard place to minister. It is a very poor, depressed, and spiritually dark nation. But without a doubt this is what He has called us to. Your support in prayer is as vital to us and the work we are doing, as water is to the people of Haiti.
Two of the personal things that I have asked for prayer for have been 1) the healing of our 20 year old adopted son Jesse of cancer of the thyroid. This prayer was powerfully and swiftly answered for us because of your prayers. 2) the adoption process for our daughter in Haiti to be as short as possible. It has now been 16 months since we started. In recent weeks my wife has been praying and planning, by faith, to have her home for Christmas. Now, thanks to your prayers, this will be true. Chris and I will leave on Thursday to go pick up our own daughter and bring her to our own forever home.
I will no longer apologize for asking for your prayers. They are necessary to our survival, and to keeping our hand to the plow that He has called us to........................................Thank you and bless you as you continue to pray for me and my family, as we will serve the Lord.....................Mike

Wednesday, November 18, 2009


Glad to be home again. This trip was short and purposeful, but God showed himself strong in our ministry in Haiti. Just three of us went this time. Myself, my son-in-law Andrew, and Scott from Canada. We went mainly to see the long awaited well be drilled by Starfish Ministries. They started drilling on Thursday and were making pretty good progress, but no water yet. We had prayed long and hard for this one. On Sat evening the guy's came to me and asked if they could drill on Sunday. I felt that since it was a ways up the hill and the sound did not carry to the church, that it would be OK if they stopped for church service. As I was giving the message to the congregation, I knew that the guys were listening from behind the curtain,( because they were dirty from thier work), so I interrupted the service by telling the congregation how important this was to all, and asked the guy's to come out front to get prayed for. They reluctantly did, and we did, and they went back to work. Two hours later the struck water, good water, lots of good water. On Monday morning they were packed up and on their way to another job. Thanks guy's, and thanks God.
The next victory was the opening of the free Medical Care Clinic. With Dr. Ralph, the nurse, and the Tech, Pastor Nathan and I prayed and dedicated the clinic as God had spoken to us and given us the vision almost a year earlier. We were actually helping the sick in Haiti. We saw over 140 patients that first day. They had started lining up at 2:00 in the morning to be seen. It was so heart warming to see the needs finally being met. God, you are sooo good.
Those were the victories, but this was the miracle.........We were asked by a local pastor to come see his school in the poor part of Gonaives. We did, and Pastor Nathan spoke to them for a few minutes, and then asked me to give the children a message,( he loves to put me on the spot like that). So I told them how very special each one of them was to God, how much He loved them, how he was with them and would never leave them, and how he so wanted them to walk with Him, and have relationship with Him. Then we asked if any of them wanted to receive Christ into their hearts as their savior, before we were done we had brought 45 children and 3 adults into the Kingdom of God. WOW, it is always so humbling to see God work in spite of us..................................
Two major victories and a miracle, and several other blessings along the way. I would say that it was a good trip. and I can't wait to get back there and see more. Feeding children, giving medical attention, loving, educating, encouraging, blessing, and caring. Because that's what He does.......Mike

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Thank you so much for your prayers. Jesse's scan showed that they removed all the cancer. All he has are tests left to establish more baselines for follow ups in the future, that way they have something to compare it to. So as soon as they can get his medication balanced he will be good to go. Praise God !!!!!!!!!!!!!! He has been so merciful !!!!!!!!!!!!! I spoke with Mike after our doctor appointment. It took a few tries over the course of an hour, but I reached him. He said that all the pastors in the association were asking about Jesse, it has been a blessing knowing that they have been praying for him in Haiti also. Not a coincidence that he is Haitian. Now Mike will be able to share with them the results before he leaves. Mike and the team had just finished helping Emory feed the children in the poor part of Gonaives. He said it went well. Tomorrow they start traveling home. We would appreciate your prayers once again. Remember to keep checking the blog, I have posted some photos and will post more after they are home from this trip. The address is newgenerationhaiti.blogspot.com. Just a thought for the day, on the way home from the doctor's I was listening
to music and the words of one song jumped out at me and caused me to think about my perspective.
They were "How can I further your kingdom when I am so wrapped up in mine?
Many Blessings,
Chris

This is a photo of Elizabeth Maki Cia. Our daughter waiting in Haiti. She is with 3 of our other children.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

This is Herby
Hello,
I talked with Mike this afternoon. He met with the pastor's association today. They have added the pastor from the school they visited earlier in the week. Mike said they had a good meeting. The team was able to put the pipe in the well yesterday, all 80 or so feet of it. I guess it is pretty heavy by the time you are adding the last piece. But it is in. Mike and Nathan were able to meet the president of the Red Cross in Gonaives to discuss the medical clinic today. Our doctor also choose to stay on Tuesday and work for free in order to attend to the patients he was unable to see on Monday, which says a lot about his character and heart. He has to travel to reach our clinic he is not local. Tomorrow the team will be feeding the poorest children in Gonavies. Please pray for them and the children they will be serving. Again, as I have shared before this is not an easy task. But something we are called to do. We have worked out arrangements for our translator Herby to live at the orphanage. This will be a huge help, both to Nathan and Us. We are very excited, as this is something we have been talking and praying about for a few months. Thank you so much for your continued prayers.
Blessings Chris

Monday, November 9, 2009

The digging of the
well has been a success. Vince and his team are on their way to the second well they are digging. Please pray they are successful there also. Tomorrow our team will be putting in a pipe to keep the well open until we get the pump and tanks. Thanks so much for your prayers. The grand opening of the medical clinic was a success. Mike said there were about 200 people in line last night ( 2:00 A.M. this morning). Dr. Ralph saw patients until he was exhausted Mike said, which was about 90% of the patients. He will be open again next Monday. Pastor Nathan took our team to a school in the poorer part of Gonaives today. Mike said a lot of them were very malnourished. They asked Mike to share a message with the children and 40 children gave their hearts to the Lord along with 3 adults. God is so merciful. One of the mothers at the school had 3 really sick children, one with an eye infection, and they were very malnourished. Our team took them back to Dr. Ralph, he gave the one with the eye infection medication and then gave them pedialyte and peanut butter to take home. It is so good to be able to help. Mike has asked for prayers for the team that God would continue to work thru them and with them. Also he would like prayer for the construction that they would make wise decisions. On a lighter note, when Nathan went into Gonaives today, people in the bank and those he knew in the streets stopped him to ask who Mr. Mike was, and where he was, they said they enjoyed his teaching. Another day full of God's blessing, thank you very much for your prayers, they are much needed
Blessings Chris

Sunday, November 8, 2009

I just heard from Mike. Wow, what a day! Church went well, Mike gave the message and then had Vince and the rest of the well drilling team come up front to be prayed over. After church they went back to drilling and hit water at 65 feet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They kept drilling to 75 feet the rest of the day. Tomorrow they will drill to 85 feet, they said digging 20 feet down into the water should provide lots of clean water. Praise God!!!!!!!!!!!!! As far as the orphanage building goes they have all the steel in place and are supposed to have the cement for pouring the roofs tomorrow. Praise God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Please pray that the cement comes. They have spent time with the kids at the river and playing soccer (which is the only sport I have seen Haitians get into, the kids love it). Another interesting event happened today, Nathan loves bringing Mike places with him, sometimes it is more cultural, and sometimes he will bring Mike to a church near by and then ask him to preach. Today Mike said just when he thought Nathan could not stretch him or surprise him anymore Nathan brought Mike to the radio station in Gonaives. Gonaives is about 20 to 30 mins. away, also approximately the 3rd largest city in Haiti. When they reached the radio station he told Mike that he had arranged for Mike to preach over the radio. So Mike was broadcast over the radio this afternoon.
The way God works sometimes is amazing.
Tomorrow is the grand opening of the medical clinic. Another praise God!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It will be open every Monday starting tomorrow. Thanks so much to those of you who are helping to support the nurse and doctor. They will have a dedication ceremony with prayer and blessings. So far a great trip. Thank you ever so much for your prayers.
Blessings, Chris
For the many, many of you who have asked (thanks),
Jesse is doing okay, but could use your prayers this coming week. For those who do not know. Jesse is our 20 year old son. He had thyroid surgery last month and they found cancer in one side of his thyroid. The surgeon made the call durning surgery to remove the other side also. When they sent his thyroid to the lab they found
a microscopic spot of cancer when they disected his thyroid. Standard care says if you have one spot and the organ has been removed you are done with treatment
unless something comes up again later. If you have three or more spots you do radiation treatment. Jesse had two spots one obvious to the surgeon and one microscopic. We have been told if you ask a dozen endocronologists half would say do the treatments and half would say not to do them. We have asked more questions and have found out that radiation is cumulative in your body. In other words it builds up. I do not remember the dosage measurements, but we were told at 100 of them
there is a significant risk of secondary cancer in patients 20 years later some where else in thier body. Jesse's dosage would be 50. At my age I might take my chances, but at 20 years old I think I would not choose radiation. So we are opting for doing a scan using a dosage of 13 that is supposed to show whether any cancer is left, This
would be used as a baseline for tests in the future to compare with. He has to be off all thyroid medication for a few weeks and be on a low sodium diet (very boring) for
a few weeks, before they can administer the scan.He has been doing this, which is why we have had no new to report to those of you who have asked. He had a lab Friday and takes the radiation on Monday and has the scan done on Wednesday. We are told the results
in the doctors office on Thursday. If this is clear, Jesse has chosen to trust all is taken care of and he will continue to be tested at recomended times. Please pray the test is accurate and he is clear of cancer. And that God is with us. Thanks sooooooooooooooo much! Many Blessings.
Chris

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Hello everyone,
Mike called tonight, the team has reached the orphanage. Thanks for your prayers. They have started digging the well. They are at 58 feet and optimistic. Tommorrow Mike will be sharing at church. Andy will be running the sound equipment and Scott will be video taping. Please continue to pray for success with the well, and for Mike as he teaches. Many thanks.
Chris
Greetings,
The team has arrived safely in Haiti and are on their way to the orphanage.This is about a 5 to 51/2 hour drive. Please pray for safe traveling. Again, I will let everyone know more when I do. Please keep praying for the well drilling to be successful. Blessings, Chris

I just dropped the November team off at the Seattle airport late last night. The main goal this trip is digging our well. Yeah! Please pray for safe travel and that we find a good source of water to tap into. Please pray that all machinery works for our well and for a couple of other wells in Haiti that two from our church are going to dig. Also that our sound board makes it to the orphanage. This is the last piece to the Pastor's association's sound equipment for their revivals. I will update more when I hear from Mike.
Again a huge thank you for your prayers they are so important.
Chris

Tuesday, November 3, 2009








and yet another.................

Here is another photo from the last trip.

Home again........ For me it is a bitter / sweet thing. When I am here, I miss being in Haiti, and when I am in Haiti, I miss being here with my family. For those that go as a part of a team, it is also a bit of a transition. The need is so great, yet the love from the kids and locals is also so warm and friendly, it is hard sometimes to transition back into our regular routine. Our prayers are that we never quite transition all the way back to where we were. That we now have a better understanding of the heart of God for the people of the world. Here in North America, we spend the majority of our time, energy, and money on our comforts and our pleasures. In countries like Haiti, all of their time, energy, and money are spent on survival......Not much time to rest as we gear up for the next trip. November 6th thru 16th. ( Please pray for me as I work to keep my business going enough to take care of my family and pay my personal bills.)
Current status in Haiti is that Construction of the new orphanage is going well. Relations with the kids and the locals are going extremely well. And our efforts to build up and encourage the local pastors are beyond our best expectations. Please continue to pray for us as you are part of our team, definitely making a difference in the lives of the people of Haiti.
P.S. We are excited to be putting the finishing touches on our remodeled website as we speak. Look for it coming soon to a computer near you.................Mike

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Greetings,
The team fly's out of Haiti tomorrow morning at 9:50. Please pray for on time arrival to the airport and on time flights, and working planes. They should land in Seattle around 10:45 pm. They are in Port-au-Prince tonight, so they will not be up in the middle of the night traveling to the airport. Thanks again for all your prayers. Mike will send an update after he is home. We will post some of the photos also. He said it has been a good trip.
Many blessings,
Chris

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Hello again,
Just a quick update. Mike said helping Emory yesterday with feeding the children went really well. Mike and Nathan have been speaking at several churches and have had most of the congregation come forward for prayer, healing or salvation. Denise's leg is better, thanks so much for your prayers, she now has a sore throat and cough, so she still needs prayer. They have the roofs formed up for the concrete but the steel has still not been delivered, so we also need prayer for the steel to come so they can pour the roofs. Tomorrow the team will be traveling to Port-au-Prince which is about a 5 hour journey and they would appreciate prayers again for travel. We really appreciate your prayers, it seems as though they are what moves things forward.
Blessings,
Chris

Monday, October 19, 2009

Hello again,
Just got off the phone with Mike. The team is doing really well. They had a great Sunday. Mike spoke at church in the morning. They had a great afternoon and then went to visit another church where Pastor Nathan was asked to share in the evening. Mike said they had a good alter call afterwards. Later on that evening they had a really good team meeting. A lot of real life was shared. They are spending a lot of bonding time with the children. Also the girl's day went well, they passed out about 150 girl's day kits. Today around 3:00 (1:00 our time) the pastors association meeting starts. Nathan, Mike and Kurt will be sharing. Please pray that Nathan, Mike and Kurt are lead by the holy spirit as they speak so they can really meet the needs of these pastors and truly bless them. Mike has done interviews with doctors the last few times he has gone to Haiti, in hopes of finding a doctor to run our newly built clinic.
He had a successful interview this trip. Starting in November we will have a Doctor coming one day a week to run our clinic. He is trained and a real doctor and a Christian. Praise God! We also have found a nurse who will act as both receptionist and nurse. Praise God, we have been looking for months. Also the doctor is willing to increase his days at the clinic as we increase funding for the medical clinic. A couple of other prayer needs are, for Denise one of our team members, she got a bug bite and has allergies to bug bites. It was red, painful and quit swollen last night. The team prayed over it and the swelling is gone, and a lot of the pain, but it is still red and hurts some.She would appreciate our prayers. Also tomorrow they will visit Emory, a friend of ours who has a feeding program in the poorest part of Gonaives about 20 to 30 mins. from us. They will also be helping them with some medical things, because he has a visiting medical team. This is something that you would thing would be easy. But it is not, it is very hard to be face to face with children starving. They take in the first 250 at the door of his tin building, the rest are turned away. It is hard to comprehend, in North America we just do not have a grid to place this on. It is one thing to see photos and read about it and quite another to be in the midst of that kind of suffering and be able to do so little to help.
Thank you so much for your prayers, they are so important and much needed. Blessings Chris

Saturday, October 17, 2009

October team update

I talked to Mike, the forming up of the roof for concrete is going well. Please pray the steel for reinforcing arrives today. And that they are able to put in pipe work for the future electrical wiring. The women spent time organizing and stocking the medical clinic. Tomorrow they will hold a girls day meeting. They are expecting about 200 women from the community for this event. They have kits to pass out to all of them, thanks to many of you who have sewn them. Please pray for the teaching for girls day. I did not remember to ask Mike who would be translating, but my guess is either Herbie or Stenley, young Haitian men ( in their early 20's). Last time this proved to be both embarrassing and comical for Herbie. Tomorrow Nathan's grandfather goes into surgery for a hernia, we would really appreciate prayer coverage for him. Mike was able to spend time today talking with him and praying for him. A privilege. Thanks so much for your prayers they are greatly appreciated.

Friday, October 16, 2009


I wanted to share about a special couple who have been a blessing and an encouragement to Mike and I and our ministry. There names are Ben and Laura. When Laura was growing up she attended
a wedding celebration of an aunt. What impressed her about the wedding was that the couple asked
for donations to be given to a cause they believed in rather than be given wedding gifts. Laura said
after Ben proposed she recalled that memory. She was talking to a mutual friend later on and told her the story. Our friend suggested New Generation Ministries. When she shared this with Ben
he said he knew that this was what they were supposed to do. So when they were married they
asked for gifts to be made to our ministry. We were blown away with their generosity and the generosity of their guests. They have been an inspiration. James 1:27 says "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." Proverbs 22:9 says "A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor."I know they will be blessed for what they have chosen to do and that they will be rewarded in heaven for it. We pray that their marriage will be richly blessed. Chris

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Team arrives

October 2009 Team Photo
Hello,
This is Chris again, not Mike. Someday we will have internet in our orphanage and be able to communicate from there. But for now Mike calls me. They started the trip with plane delays but did manage to arrive in Port-au-Prince at the scheduled time, which is very good. They arrived at the orphanage last night around 11:00 pm, and were up early this morning ready to go. Their plans were to put rafters on the first phase of our orphanage building and a metal roof. They had a change in plans though. The source we had for wood is no longer available. So after much delberation and prayer they will be putting on concrete roofs. I think in the long run this will be better. Metal roofs get very hot in the sun and make the rooms very hot as well, and it is already too hot in Haiti. The concrete would hold up better in hurricanes, and would allow more rooms to be built on top if we needed them. The down side is this will be a more expensive choice. But God is in control not us and He knew what the team would be facing when they arrived. So they are spending time with the children today and this evening will be forming up for concrete roofs. As I was talking to Mike today, I could hear the laughter of children in the background. A sound I love. The best birthday gift I received this past June was a call from Pastor Nathan, as I was handing over the phone to Mike he said no wait, and I could hear him talking to someone in the background, then all the children were yelling happy birthday to me. It was wonderful. Well that is all the news for now. We would appreciate your prayers for the roof building to go smoothly and for health, safety and unity for the team and orphanage. But even more than that for lasting relationships to be built and for lives to be spoken into and changed and passions birthed. Blessings and many many thanks, Chris

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

It is with great joy that I return to Haiti. It has gotten to my heart so that when I am there, I miss my wife and family, and when I am here I miss them and the children in the orphanage. I take a team of 11 generous, sacrificing, caring, people,(8 men, 3 women). Our tasks at hand are putting a roof on the first of 3 parts to our new orphanage building, and relating with the children. Because of your prayers and generous giving I will be taking Christmas bags for all the children in the orphanage, the school children, the adult helpers, and the pastors and their wives. I feel like Santa Clause, But it is really more Jesus than anything.
Please pray for us as we travel, and carry our ambassadorship of the Holy Spirit to the "least of these" in Haiti. Pastor Kurt and I will also be speaking to the pastors of our association, encouraging and building them up in the faith of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, so that they can continue to be champions of their flock and the calling they have been given. It is not easy to be a pastor in Haiti, nor does it come with a paycheck. It has become one of my greatest joys to encourage and cheer on these great men of faith who sacrifice for the gospel. Please pray that as these men are renewed in the strength of the Lord that it spreads like a brush fire among the people. They need it so. We are so grateful to all of you and your support of us, We could not do what we do without you. Chris will up-date the blog and E-mails as I report in while on the trip. We are always open to your comment, words of encouragement, and words that you feel are from the Lord to us. Back on the 24th................Mike

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Thank you so much for your continued prayer support for my family, my self, and Gods ministry though us to the people in Haiti. This last trip was very different for me. We went as a pastors delegation to the pastors in Haiti. We taught regularly to the pastors in different areas of the country. They were so appreciative and gracious to us for encouraging them, and building them up in the word of God. We also visited several other orphanages and ministries along the way. It was a very full trip with a very full schedule, and many stops. But we were always well received. I made a lot of new contacts and gained much helpful info for our ministry.
Our construction is moving forward at a good pace. As the funds come in we are employing several local Haitian workers and helpers. And we are training one of our older boys to be a construction worker himself. One other young man is the first of our kids to go to high school this year. A very special opportunity, that we have been working on for a while now. School starts on the 7th of Sept. for us, as it does for most of our local kids. We will be launching a new "School Sponsor" program, for our neighborhood kids to come to free Christian school this year. They will need books and uniforms and will receive a good hot meal each day. A sponsor would pay $10 U.S. per child to cover the above expenses. We have 225 children enrolled this year. We are going ahead in faith that God will provide the sponsors, because this is what He has directed us to do.
Our October team will put a roof on the first new orphanage building. and a November team will drill a new well and work on the water system that so many of you contributed towards. Thank you for your generosity and your listening to the Lords call. I am glad to be home with my family, but miss Haiti already..............Thanks for your time and your heart..............Mike

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Country Update - Haiti
UNICEF estimates that 490,000 children are orphans in Haiti. This translates to just about 6% of Haiti's population. In 2004, at the height of intercountry adoptions into the U.S., over 350 children were served through intercountry adoption into the U.S. Thousands more were served by the orphanages in Haiti, which often provided support to the community. However, over the past three years the processing of adoptions in Haiti has slowed to a crawl. Abandoned children endure adoption processes lasting two or three years before being united with adoptive families.

Not only is such lasting institutional care damaging to the children who wait and wait, but the slowed process has had a negative effect on the many desperately needy children of Haiti who are not waiting in orphanages. Many orphanages support free medical clinics, schools, nutrition programs and family preservation programs. Orphanages have been a resource for temporary care for children following a family crisis, such as a fire or illness. But now that children languish in orphanage care for years, orphanage directors report that the beds are full, the food and medicine supplies are insufficient, and the children needing temporary care are left on the streets with little prospect for life.

In an attempt to move towards transparent and democratic government, Haitian officials now adhere to the Haitian Constitutional law regarding adoption, written in 1974 by Jean Claude Duvalier. While the law of 1974 places severe limitations on the size of family and age of those who may adopt, it also allows Presidential Dispensation for those not meeting the family size or age limitations. Unfortunately, Haiti lacks an organized and transparent system for obtaining Dispensations. This confusion over Dispensations, along with the absence of a sense of urgency regarding institutionalized children has caused extensive delays in the adoption process and further victimizes children who have already lost much.

Haiti has a pending solution to this legal logjam. A newly proposed adoption law will clarify who may adopt; increase protections for Haitian children, their birth parents, and adoptive families and streamline the adoption process. This legislation is supported by the United States and French governments along with the NGO community, including Joint Council.

Joint Council's work in Haiti has been extensive, from working with the Haitian government, adoption service providers, orphanages and other NGO's on developing and implementing Standards of Practice for Intercountry Adoption, which were signed at the U.S. Embassy in Port-A-Prince in January 2009 (see Joint Council's page on Facebook for the pictures) to advocating for a change in the current law. In August Joint Council launched the first of many advocacy efforts to support the change in law. Joint Council's efforts, entitled the Haitian Children and Families Initiative, strives to ensure the new law is implemented. A second effort will occur this month. This effort will include a petition to U.S. Congress requesting support of the law. You can sign the petition by clicking here.
More details on this month's initiative will be available on Joint Council's Haiti country information page in the coming week.


Here are a few photos from the Walk for Water that I previously posted about! What a Blessing it was! Thank you again to Aumony and Naomi!

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Haiti again


I just got off the phone with Mike. He was in an area where there was no cell phone coverage. Glad to make contact with him. Pastor Kim from our church is with him on this trip. I guess Kim has fully packed every minute. Mike said it was like having me on the trip. There is so many needs and and time is so limited that I always feel like every second counts when we are there. Any way they are doing well. He said our Pastors association around Gonaives and Marose has grown now to almost 50. They had a teaching time with Kim, Mike, Philip and Deojon(spelled wrong, but I have no way of getting the correct spelling right now). Afterwards the pastors from our association prayed over them and Mike said it was awesome. The holy spirit was definitely there.

Tomorrow the team goes to Deojon's church in Port-au-Prince and each one will share his or her testimony there.

We have a huge praise report from here today. Two girls from our church, Naomi and Aumony put on a walk -a- thon called "Water for Life". It was geared towards children, we walked from the church to Lynden city park. The purpose was to raise money for the well and water system for the orphanage. We would like to drill for a well that is deep enough to be safe with filtration and provide water without running out. We also would like to put a 2000 to 3000 gallon holding tank on the hill above the orphanage, that would receive water from the well via a pump. Then through a water pipe system we could provide running water by gravity that would feed the kitchen for cooking and washing and also provide water to our future boys shower and toilet room and girls shower and toilet room. The church through a" give your best garage sale" raised just over $6000. At the walk -a- thon today they raised $8000. Mike knows the figures better than I do, but this is pretty close to what we need to accomplish our goal I believe. Praise God !!!!!!!!!!!!!

The team will be traveling home after lunch tomorrow and should arrive home sometime Monday afternoon. Please pray for safe travel. Thanks sooooo oooooo much. Blessings Chris

Thursday, August 27, 2009

What's up in Haiti

I talked with Pastor Nathan today. He said the teaching time for the pastor's association at our orphanage went well, as did the children's activities. Thank you for your prayers.

Mike also shared a praise report. Ben, the driver for the last trip whose daughter was healed, had asked for prayer because he did not like his current job situation. When he returned to work, after driving our team around while they were in Haiti, he was let go from his job. He then found a different job and loves it. He says this is a result of praying with the team. He is happy and God gets the praise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I should hear from Mike again tomorrow. I will send another update if I do. Thanks again for your prayers. Chris

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Latest up date

Hello
Thank you for all your prayers. I heard from Mike. They had a pastor's conference for
Haitian pastors today. It was very good. Tomorrow morning they leave for our orphanage in Marose. They will have about 3 hours driving time. So please keep them in your prayers. There will be a teaching time for the pastors association that Mike and Nathan have started near our area. There will also be some vision casting. Mike has some activities planned for the children too.
Should be good. Please pray for safe travel for all of the pastors in our association along with our team, and for our vision to be caught. Also for the children and those interacting with them to be blessed. Thanks and Blessings Chris
WOW, the last trip was great. We had a good team and we had several significant events that really made the trip worth while. Everyone got home safe and sound, ( although some of us were delayed an extra night in Miami ). We spent more relational time with the kids, They absolutely loved it. Gin really put her teaching skills to work with several projects for them. And can you try to imagine how you might feel if you had been adopted out of Haiti as a child, and then went back to minister as a young woman. For Kiana and Sonize, this was a real special insight, one they won't easily forget. Becca got the medical clinic ready to open, all we need now is a doctor and a sponsor. We saw miracles,healings and the team really got the vision for the ministry. Thanks so much for your prayers. I leave on Sunday to help with a Pastors Conference in PAP, then to show a team our ministry in Marose, then up to Tricotte. I know that I have probably asked too many times, but the power of your prayers is significant to the work that God is doing. ...........Thank you again..............Mike

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Pictures and Welcome home!




Haiti Team August 2009

Making cakes!

Our Tap Tap for the week!

Heading out!

Thought we'd upload a few photos now that we're home safely! Thank you for your prayers and support! There will be more to come!
~Lelands~

Monday, August 10, 2009

Another Haiti Update!

Hello again,
I talked with Mike today. I guess they have been doing some VBS every day and the children are loving it. They finished up making the
chalkboards today. Early tomorrow morning the team will start heading to Port-au-Prince, and then home. It's about a 30 hour trip from the orphanage
to home. They are supposed to fly into Seattle around 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday. Mike has yet to come home from Haiti and have all flights work.
He either has delayed flights or broken down planes at each airport. So the team would love prayer for traveling. The ride to Port-au-Prince has become worse each trip, due to road damage from the hurricane last fall, that they were stuck in. He says that people have remade the road by driving off of it where ever huge washouts are left from the hurricane. There is no government road work done in Haiti for the people. So that trip is pretty hard.
Mike shared with me a great praise report. When they travel to Haiti, Mike hires a tap tap for the time they are there, as no one in the orphanage has
a vehicle. Tap taps are usually small pick ups painted as wildly as you can imagine and you hire them by taping (really banging) on the side. In this case
it is a huge tap tap. They look like huge flatbed trucks with built wooden walls or railings for sides and some kind of covering over the top, some times.
They are totally painted out. Anyways they hire the same driver for the whole time also and he stays in the church with the team. So Mike noticed that
the driver was not very happy looking and sitting outside on the porch of the church. So he talked to Benjamin (the driver) and found out that his wife had called and said that their daughter was very sick and throwing up blood. So Mike said let's go get the team and pray together. So they prayed and two hours later Benjamin's wife called and said their daughter was totally healed. Praise God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So again thanks for your prayers.

Chris

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Haiti trip update

Hello again,

I talked to Mike and the team today. They are having a blast. The baptism was smaller than they thought it would be, but was really fun and special. Three of our older boys in the orphanage choose to be baptized also. The team had a lot of fun baking the wedding cakes and cupcakes. They also enjoyed the wedding and said they took lots of photos. They have done a lot of stocking of the medical clinic. Tomorrow and Monday they will be making chalkboards and doing VBS with the children. Mike has an interview with a medical doctor that will work in our clinic part time. So he would like prayers for that. The team will go to our church in Marose during the morning and another church in the evening. We have 5 new children in the orphanage. So now we have 40. Three of the children are the children of our cook that passed away earlier this year. Two others are children that Nathan thought needed help. So we have 5 new children to be sponsored. Thank you so much for all of your prayers. Chris

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Haiti trip

Hi

This is Chris writing this time. I heard from Mike and the team in Haiti today. The team is doing well. He says some of the women would like a few less bugs and a little less heat. They unpacked medical supplies today and spent part of the day playing with the children. Tomorrow they have a meeting with area pastors. Also they are baking cupcakes and a wedding cake in a bread bakery run by a fellow missionary. I believe this will be the first time ever these children will have had cake or cupcakes (complete with sprinkles). Should be a lot of fun. Our daughter and Pastor Nathan's sister will also be altering wedding clothes my daughter brought down for a bride and groom. Mike brought the groom to the Lord on his last trip and after Mike had left the groom told Pastor Nathan that he thought he should marry the woman he was living with. Nathan told him to wait till Mike came back and they would perform the ceremony. So Saturday evening the team will celebrate a wedding. Saturday morning will be a baptism of about 60 people that the team helped bring to the Lord on a previous trip. This will take place in the river behind the orphanage. The cupcakes and wedding cake are for those two celebrations. On Monday they will go to Gonaives one of 3 or 4 of the largest cities in Haiti. In Gonaives they will be helping another missionary with his daily feeding program. They will help feed about 250 children. So they have some full and exciting days head. Thanks so much for your prayers.

Friday, July 31, 2009

Friday July 31st
See the picture below as construction continues on the new orphanage. We are so excited to see the progress you have helped us make. This is the first of three buildings. It is the dorm building. The building is 140' long and will be divided into separate living quarters, with a nanny for each of 5 to 6 children. This will give them a parent "type" guardian to watch after them. Each child will have his or her own bed, WOW, most have never had one. I just can't express enough, how grateful I, and these kids are for the prayers and support you have so generously given. You have made this progress possible............Mike

Friday, July 24, 2009

July 24th 2009
Getting close to our team trip on August 4th. We will be taking medical supplies, computers, and toys for the kids. It will be a good trip. I'm only back for two weeks, then off again for a pastors conference. This will be a fantastic opportunity to encourage and equip these dedicated pastors literally giving their lives away for the sake of the gospel. Please pray for them, and us. We will also be taking with us, a delegation of business people. These are wanting to see how best to invest in business to create jobs and income for the people. This is something that we have prayed for for a long time. Please pray that doors are opened for these opportunities. When I get back I will post some pictures of our orphanage construction progress...........Mike

Monday, July 13, 2009

July 13th 2009
Just a quick note of appreciation for all the people that have lately been putting their Faith in Action. It is one thing to say that we are so touched by the stories we hear about the children in Haiti. And quite another to do something about it. The poverty and the oppression on these children is almost insurmountable for them to have any chance at an upbringing that will allow them to be sustainable and have a family of their own, if they even live that long. But some of you lately are amazing examples to all of us.
A Garage sale that netted over $10,000. A worship/Dance performance, for" the least of these". A children s walk-a-thon, where families with small children can walk a couple blocks and show first hand how to put even the smallest Faith in Action. A hot dog stand for the support of the participants of the next mission team. These simple acts, are exactly what Jesus was talking about in Mt. 25:31. And these simple acts are what is building a new orphanage for these children and providing them with a new well of clean drinking water, and sending them to free school and feeding them....Get the connection....We do, and we thank you....Very much....Mike

Thursday, July 9, 2009

July 9th 2009

We are so very excited about all the activity at the Good Shepherd in Marose, Haiti. We are well under construction of the first building of the new orphanage. The building is 140' long, and is divided into 12' X 15' rooms. These will be the living spaces for the kids and nannies. Our approach is to assign a full time nanny to about 5 children. Meeting not only their physical needs, but some love and personal attention as well. All eating will still be done corporately to insure good nutritional meals. Special thanks to our regular supporters and those that attended our 1st annual fundraiser dinner in May. This is the result of your compassionate giving. To help these children have just the very basics of life.

Our next team trip is August 4th. The team is set and getting ready to experience the heart of God. Please pray for them, and their mission.

We would very much appreciate you prayers for the up-coming pastors conference August 24th. This will equip, encourage, and empower selected pastors that have dedicated their lives to advancing the gospel in Haiti.
7/8/09

First Post; Thank you so much to Maria, a wonderful, big hearted Woman, Wife, and Mother, who seeks God and sees with her heart, the things that He sees, and is willing to do something about it. We are very appreciative and inspired by her............

Monday, July 6, 2009

Welcome to your own blog :)





Hi Mike & Chris :)
This is the beginning of your new blog ... and this is where YOU will post ...
Maria