Hello,
Today the team traveled to Bercy and then Port-au-Prince. They visited one of the tent cities that our translator knew the pastor of. Mike said that it was really sad to see all the people and the conditions they are living in.They talked with and prayed with the two pastors there, who are trying to help. He said there were about 10,000 people in the camp. Their tarps and tents were worn out and full of holes, some had multiple layers of tarps full of holes, so there was really no shelter for them when it rained. There was no shelter for a church or a school, so there was no school for the children. He said they found out that the nearest water source was a two hour walk away from the tent city. When they passed out the supplies (mostly food) that they brought, it ran out before the line did. They prayed over people in line waiting to see a doctor. The people wanted them to.
There was a small medical staff of about 5 people for all of the people in the camp, as far as he could tell. Please pray that the Cholera does not spread to these camps. They would not be able to control it. It is hard to believe that 9 1/2 months after an earthquake that this many people could still be displaced and with out even the very basics to survive. And no hope for any change. And this is one of many tent cities. Please pray for His mercy over these people, pray for hope to come to them.
Please pray for the team also as they travel from Bercy to Port-au-Prince and fly home. Please pray for good connections and safe travel. And please pray for the team as they try to put into perspective what they have seen and experienced, as they try to figure out what their part is in all of this. I truly believe that we are all here for a purpose and we each need to find out what that purpose is.
Blessings,
Chris

Hello,
Talked with Mike again tonight, he is doing well and thanks everyone for their prayers.
The team made it to Gonaives today and were able to feed the children in the feeding program. It went well.
The guys on the team fixed up one of the containers like a shop. They built a workbench and organized all of the tools, Mike is thrilled, it will be so much easier to work on things now.
We have another very exciting piece of information, we were given a very nice welder which we shipped in one of the containers, we have been looking for a Haitian that had welding skills or was willing to be taught. Our plan was to then pay them to do work for us. To build security bars for the windows, make stair rails ect. We would supply the metal and gas and then pay them a fair wage, with the hopes that they in turn would purchase more metal and gas with the money they make and using our welder, weld for others and receive more income. Thus we would be helped, but ultimately they would then have a small business to sustain a family on. Well, today we found that someone and we are so excited.
The team spent the rest of the day playing with the children and saying goodbye which
is so hard to do.
Tomorrow in the late morning the team will travel to a mission we know in Bercy, drop off their things and then go into Port-au-Prince. One of our translators knows the Pastor in one of the tent cities. The team will be bringing food, medical supplies, clothing and shoes to the people and they will do ministry and have a worship service. Please pray for safe travel, the right connections and God to go before them and prepare the way. They will go back to Bercy to spend the night.
Tomorrow we also have another container that is suppose to be sailing to Haiti.
This is the 40 foot container with the church and school benches that our volunteers worked on. It also has musical instruments, more medical supplies, clothing, shoes and a huge commercial three section stainless steel sink for our kitchen. All of this is packed in the first 20 feet, then in the remaining 20 feet is food that was donated to us by Feed My Starving Children, they have given us 121,176 meals according to their records. Again we would ask for your prayers, it is such a battle to get things shipped to Haiti and then get them off the docks and safely to our orphanage. We so appreciate your prayers.
Blessings,
Chris

Thank you so much for all of your prayers, Mike is doing better.
The team was able to finish up with the children in the Marose school. YEA! They also spent time with the orphanage children doing craft projects and playing. One of the projects was decorating backpacks that were donated.
They had trouble with one of the cars today so they did not make it out to feed the poor children
in Gonaives.They will be going to Gonaives tomorrow instead. Please pray the cars work fine tomorrow. Hopefully they will be able to do the door to door evangelism tomorrow also. They are not sure at this point. Please pray for wisdom, guidance and protection as the team has experienced more trials this trip then on past trips. They have also experienced more victories,
sometimes the two seem to go hand in hand.
Again thank you so very much for your prayers.
Blessings,
Chris

Hello,
The team was up bright and early this morning. They were up the mountain to pray by 6:00. They spent time praying for Haiti and it's people,the community of Marose, the orphanage and the different ministries in Haiti.
Later on, the team started measuring, photographing and praying over the children in our Marose school. They are about 1/2 way done and hopefully will have time to finish up tomorrow morning.
The Pastor's association meeting went very well. They are a group that expects God to be in their midst, and therefore are not disappointed. They usually leave feeling filled and encouraged. Mike and Nathan really look forward to meting with them.
Mike spent a little time speaking to the women of the community about Cholera. He shared ways of prevention and what some of the symptoms are. Some of the things seem
so practical to us like not washing your vegetables in the river. But to them the water looks clean and they have always washed their vegetables in the river. Then some of the women on the team also spent time talking to them about health issues and shared with them and encouraged them. The team has also held whole community meetings discussing the prevention of cholera along with other health issues.
One of the men on our team got a bug bite today and had an allergic reaction. Dr. Ralph treated him and he seems to be doing fine now. Please continue to lift the team
and orphanage up in prayer. The Holy Spirit has definitely been moving and with that
seems to come some opposition sometimes.
Later in the day a man brought his wife to the medical clinic and said that some one had wanted to talk to her. Mike asked around and could not figure out who that had been, Wendy(one of the women on the team)gave her one of the little packets they had passed out during the meeting with the women. The women then said she had pain in her stomach. Mike asked her if she wanted prayer and if she was a christian. She said no she did not believe in God, so after talking with her for a while and making sure she understood what being a christian was he lead her to accept Christ.
Mike and Nathan believe the Holy Spirit is really moving in the area and so tomorrow the team will be splitting into two groups, one will be with Mike and one with Pastor Nathan. They are then going to go from house to house in the community and evangelize. Mike thinks this will be around 3:00 to 4:00 pm. They are two hours ahead of us right now. So this would be around 1:00 or 2:00 our time. Please pray for God to go ahead of them and prepare hearts.
Tomorrow around lunch time the team will be going to Gonaives to feed the poorest of the poor again. I have talked about this ministry before. There are pictures on the blog and stories for those of you who are new to our prayer partner e-mails. Just go to the bottom of the page and click on older posts until you get to the June 21st 2010 posting. There are quite a few photos and an explanation. Please remember to pray for the team and the children they will be ministering to, they tend to break your heart. Thank you for the time you take to pray for the team and our ministry it makes all the difference.
Many Blessings,
Chris

Hello again,
The team enjoyed church in Peru this morning. Mike preached, he said worship was good
and they shared communion together. Again many came forward for prayer and there were
3 more salvation's.
Later during church in Marose some of our team members shared their testimony's.
This can be pretty stretching for some. The team also was able to participate in a
baptism in Marose. It was a special one as it was one of our cooks. She is also the mother of the cook we had that passed away a little over a year ago.
Tomorrow in the early morning the team will climb the mountain behind the orphanage and spend time praying. Please pray that God will meet them on the mountain.
Tomorrow the team will also begin measuring, photographing and praying over each child in our Marose school. This will probably take a couple of days to complete as the school has about 400 children.
In the afternoon the men on the team will travel to Pastor Perry's for the Pastors Association meeting. Please pray that God will minister to, teach, and refresh these Pastors.
The women on the team will stay in Marose and have a sharing time with the women of the community. Pray that God is glorified and despite different cultures they are able to find common ground.
Two of the team members did not feel well this morning, but Mike said they were fine
later in the day. Please continue to lift the health of the team up and especially the health of the people of Haiti.
Many many blessings,
Chris

Kids will be kids no matter where they are from :)


Hello,
This morning the team headed up to Peru for the baptism. There were 12 people who were baptized with another 50 to 60 there for support. It is a lot of fun to participate in baptisms in Haiti. Nathan usually forms some kind of band as they walk to the river. In this case there were trumpets,trombones and drums. They worship as they walk. Mike said they walked 2 miles to get to water deep enough to baptize in today. I wish more of you could experience this.
When the team returned to Marose, Mike shared with the teachers before their seminar started. He also told them to make sure that the children washed their hands before school started and before meals, as a safety precaution because of the Cholera outbreak. Nathan has been instructing people in church also about sanitation and the importance of drinking clean water. He believes it is the churches responsibility to the community.
The team finished sorting and organizing the containers. They built shelves and racks
in the containers and will build more shelves tomorrow for the medical clinic. We sent many small bins to help organize things in the medical clinic. They will help protect things from all the dust also. It is unbelievably dusty in Marose sometimes.
The team gave out Glo sticks to the children again tonight. They absolutely love them. It is hard for them to comprehend what makes them light up. So far everyone on the team has been very healthy. One of the girls had a really bad headache the first night in Haiti, the team prayed for her and she has been fine ever since.
Tomorrow pray for the team as they head up to Peru again for church in the morning.
We brought communion supplies this time so they will be having communion with the church in Peru in the morning. Then in the evening they will be having communion during church in Marose.
Thank you so much for your prayers again. God is so awesome.
Blessings,
Chris

Hello,
I spoke with Mike again. The team spent the first part of the day measuring and photographing and praying over each child in our school in Gonaives. The school in Gonaives is in a rented building somewhat like a house this year. In order to hold all of the children, some are taught in the small courtyard. It becomes quite hot in the full sun for the children, so the solution they came up with today was to install a metal roof over the courtyard to protect them from the heat.
Some of the team also finished up the water piping which had been laid out and hooked up by the previous team. Now it is working and has all the on and off valves in place. And the three 1000 gallon holding tanks are filled. Wow!
Another part of the team fixed the concrete floor in the entry way to the church. It was quite worn and had become unsafe. They added a step also. Yeah !
Tonight the team went back up to Peru for the crusade. God continues to challenge Mike and I in the area of stepping out of our comfort zone lately. He puts things before us and asks 'will you'? The song that you hear first when the blog comes on fits pretty good lately. It is a song written by a Vineyard worship leader, it is called 'If you say go'. I encourage you to close your eyes and focus on God as you listen to it, listen with your heart. You can click on it to hear it again as it is not the full version of the song. Anyway Nathan was used to challenge Mike tonight. Nathan as he quite often does told Mike that Mike was the one that was going to be preaching and then told him what scripture to preach from. It was one of those 'will you' times. No prep time, just total dependence on God. AND GOD SHOWED UP. Mike said that the church was packed and when he invited them to come forward for prayer and ministry many came to be healed, to be comforted and to give their lives to Him. Tomorrow the team will be going back up during the day as at least 12 people want to be baptized. PRAISE GOD!!!! Please pray for them.
Tomorrow Mike will also be meeting with the teachers from all of our schools. He will share with them and then Nathan has arranged for a Pastor who is also a teacher
and principal of another school to do a training seminar with them. Please pray for this also.
We gave a Flannel graph to our Christian Education teacher today. Mike said she was thrilled and so excited. Most things are taught orally in Haiti. Now she will have the resources to teach the children using another learning style. Some of us learn
better when we can visually see what we are being taught. It has been a dream of mine to get her a flannel graph (a flannel graph, for those who don't know, consists of boards covered with background scenes in flannel and about 300 bible characters and houses, boats, animals ect., also made in flannel so they will stick to the boards, it is old school but new too our orphanage kids). This will enable her to share bible stories in a interesting way to the children. Our brain remembers things better when more then one of our senses are used. My daughter in law did a fundraiser over facebook and we were able to purchase a set and send it with the team.
One more prayer would be for the Cholera that many in Haiti are facing. It is not in the area we minister but the Haitian people have experienced so much hardship please pray for healing. And pray that it will be contained and not spread to any more people. Thank you for your faithfulness in praying for this ministry and the Haitian people.
Blessings
Chris

Hello,
I spoke with Mike again this evening. The team had a great day. After being up in Peru they came back to the orphanage and went down to the river with the kids to play. This is always a ton of fun for both the team and the children. Later the team helped organize two of the containers we have sent. They will work on the others tomorrow. We are trying to get them organized so that the food or medical supplies are not throughout the tools and building supplies. The containers double as storage units for us at the orphanage. Mike is also hoping to get photos from Nathans camera of some of the distribution of food and supplies to those in need, so that we can share them with you.
Pastor Nathan said the service at the crusade went well tonight, there were several hundred attending, which is amazing as right across the valley is a voodoo temple with a fairly strong presence.
Each trip we try to bring something to the children that would be new to them. Tonight the team made caramel apples. Belle wood farms, here in Whatcom county donated the apples. I guess they went over very well, the children and orphanage workers loved them.
Tomorrow the team will be going to visit our school in Gonaive. They will once again be measuring children for school uniforms and they will be taking their photos for the people who sponsor them. We have almost 1/2 of the 600 school children sponsored now. If any
of you are interested, it is just $10 per month and it buys them one hot meal 5 days a week and books, supplies and a uniform. The team will also take the opportunity to pray over each child. The team would appreciate your prayers for accomplishing this tomorrow.
Please also pray for Nathan, tomorrow he will be going back to Port-au-Prince to buy paint and some supplies. The roads are slowly getting better but it is still a long hard trip.
For those of you who have been praying for Madam Nathan, she is recovering from her surgery still but is pretty good. Again many thanks for all of your prayers.
Blessings
Chris

Some new photos of Peru, Haiti for those of you who have not seen Peru yet.


Hello,
I heard from Mike today.
The team made it safely up to the orphanage last night and they are all doing well. Thank you for all of your prayers.
The team traveled to the village of Peru this morning to visit one of our schools. They were
able to photograph 100 children for school sponsorship. They were able to get the children measured so that we can order uniforms for them. The team was also able to spend time praying for each child in the school. And they were able to pass out school supplies that were generously donated to the teachers and students in our Peru school by one of our prayer partners.
Peru is in the middle of a week long crusade, Pastor Nathan and part of the team will go back up to Peru tonight so that Nathan can preach. Please pray that God goes with them and that many will come to have a relationship with Him. Thanks again for your prayers they are very much appreciated.
Blessings Chris

Our October team.

Prayer Partners: Today I leave again for Haiti. It will be great to see the 600 kids that we now have attending school. Some of the team will be documenting names and info and taking photos. They will also be measuring for uniforms. We will be purchasing them in the states, and sending them back to Haiti. We will be pouring concrete counter-tops in the new orphanage restrooms. We will be preaching and ministering at a crusade in Peru and teaching Pastors and leaders.
Please pray for us as we travel and as we minister, that we are doing His will and not so much ours.
Also a huge thank you to Lyle and Montane, and others who have made more of my dream come true for these kids by donating or contributing towards musical instruments. To give these kids an opportunity to learn to play beautiful music, is out of the norm for kids in their situation. Lyle and his wife used to run a musical instrument business out of their home a few years ago. When they heard about the container that we were loading, they offered to help. They brought 16 nice brass horns, in cases, to go into that container, "beautiful instruments". Others contributed towards drums and a keyboard, and we really thank them, and so will the kids when they see them.
......Mike

Hello,
It has been a while since I have posted any news. We have had a team of helpers that have been building benches for our churches in Haiti, which will double for our schools. They are benches with a back support which will double as a desk or platform for writing on. So for the past two weeks almost nightly there has been welding, sawing, routing, staining and painting happening in a warehouse space that was generously donated to us for the past two weeks. We had a bar-b-que the first evening. Some have helped one night and some put in time many afternoons and evenings. We are so thankful for all the help of the volunteers. The benches will seat almost 700 adults (and even more children)this could not have been accomplished without so many extra hands.
Yesterday afternoon they were loaded into a 40 foot container along with doors for our orphanage, a large and small generator, a couple of projectors and some lap tops generously donated by the Canadian RCMP. These along with other miscellaneous items filled 20 feet of the container. This morning the container was picked up and is headed to Aurora, Illinois. The remaining 20 feet will be filled with donated food from 'Feed My Starving Children'.The container will then head to Florida and be loaded on a ship bound for Haiti. Again we ask for your prayers for the safe arrival of the container and contents to our orphanage. I am posting a photo of one of our youngest helpers, he is wearing a generous amount of stain :) Also a few other photos of the bench building and of the container being loaded. The October team
leaves next Tuesday and I will once again be keeping you updated as to what they are doing and what prayer needs there are.
Blessings,
Chris