New Generation Ministries Blog

Hello,

This morning the pastors conference started. There were about 50 pastors and leaders. Each of the members of the September team introduced themselves and shared something as an encouragement. Then Mike taught two sessions with a break in between. The pastor from the church that the team visited up north through the river also came to the conference. The name of the village is Nanpaul. (pronounced Naa-Paul) Afterwards they had an association committee meeting for planning an area wide crusade in November. The team was able to get enough parts to fix one more tank in the water system. So now two of the three 1000 gallon water tanks is working. It seems like it is impossible to just get what you need in Haiti sometimes. We are so spoiled here in the US and Canada, if we need or want something we just go to the store and get it. Not so in Haiti, some things are not available at all and some things are just hard to find and are available in very small quantities. In the early evening the team hiked up the mountain behind the orphanage and had devotions. There is a pretty good view of the valley from up there.



Tomorrow morning there will be a teachers conference for all of our teachers from all 4 of our schools. The teachers from Nanpaul asked if they could join the conference also. School starts October 1st. Tomorrow the team will be taking photos of the school children that will be going to the Marose school. Also in the afternoon one of the other Haitian ministries we have become friends with will be bringing a team of balloon artists to our orphanage. The balloon artists tell the salvation story with balloons. I am sure the children will enjoy it very much.  There is a revival meeting going on each evening at our Good Shepherd church in Perou. Please pray that God would touch hearts during the revival, it started Sunday night and will continue through next Saturday evening. Also please pray for the teachers conference and the balloon artists as they witness.



On another note we are slowly changing the name of the orphanage in Haiti from Good Shepherd Orphanage to Good Shepherd Children's Village. We are doing this as we believe it better describes how we are taking care of the children.  When we first started building a home for the children, we wanted something more than what most people think of when they hear the word orphanage. Most of us picture a large institutional style group home. We believe strongly in family and wanted to create an atmosphere as close as possible to a family. That is why we have 11 rooms with outside porches and entrances for the children to live in. Each one having a nanny or house mom, they call them keepers in Haiti. The idea is less children per caretaker, which hopefully will result in better care and less children slipping through the cracks. This will hopefully help the children to learn how to have relationships with adults that care about them. Adults that will  make sure they go to school, eat and drink, take showers and care for them when they are sick or hurt. We know this style will not be fail proof as we are dealing with real people and we all make mistakes. We are hoping that it will come close to a healthy family style of living. This is one of the reasons we feel moving to Haiti will help. We hope to be able to teach and model healthy family relationships, with God's grace, knowing we are not perfect either. We would really appreciate your on going prayers in this area. We need to find a balance between teaching what we think is the right way and what is just a different way, versus what is God's way and has nothing to do with culture. A tightrope we can only walk with wisdom from God.

Well thank you again for all of your prayers and for reading as I once again pour out a bit of my heart.



Many Blessings,

Chris