Hello,

We wanted to send out an update. The team arrived home safely. They flew out Monday morning and had a layover in New York that evening. They flew to Seattle the next morning. Some went to a hotel, some saw the empire state building, the M&M wall, and some did street evangelizing. 

This week and last, the children have been out of school for carnival and Easter. We have been spending a lot of time just building relationships this week. Also we have been working on language. Becca and Janae are really getting good at the language. 

This week also has been spent preparing for a wedding. Nathan's sister, one of our nurses named Betsy, is getting married tomorrow morning. Mike will be giving the message. There have been many friends and family helping. Becca has been the official gas oven lighter. She is the best at it. I was able to help make the wedding cake. It has been fun seeing all the special food items that are being prepared. There has also been painting and decorating at Nathaniel's house, Nathan and Betsy's father. 

Please pray for Mike as he shares the message and for Betsy and Figleson, whom she is marrying. It should be a fun celebration.

Mike will also be preaching on Easter Sunday, please pray that he shares what God has for the people. That it will be encouraging, uplifting and hopeful.

Both Becca and Nathan's health is improving a little. We felt a spiritual lifting happen as we prayed for them today. Today is the first day that we have seen real improvement. Thank you for lifting them up in prayer, we really appreciate your prayers.

Blessings,

Chris

 Kat and Laura playing UNO

 Steph making fruit loop necklaces

 Rose and one of the children

 Lynn giving one of the books she made

 Tami painting nails with flowers

The girls making doll clothes

 Hanging on the new monkey bars

 Unloading the 40 ft container of food for the schools and children's village

 Worship

Mike, Brenda and Kathy

 The Haitian bibles you bought for Christmas

Kathy's gingerbread cookies for the children

Dustin and two of the children

 Julia with one of our children

 David, Laura and Lynn, part of the dental team

 David and Tami doing dental work

 Kacie playing barrel of monkey with the children

 Caitlin and I making fruit loop necklaces

Before the dentist helped us

Helping me do my laundry :)

Getting our nails painted complete with flowers

Our chalk art :)

Hello,

Today was a great day for the team. The dental clinic went well. Dave, Julia, Tami and Lynn have been such a blessing. Steph and Rose said the Women's Health classes went well also, they have tackled some difficult topics. They passed out more feminine hygiene kits also. Kacie taught the women's bible study as Becca is still sick. Please pray for her and also for Nathan. Nathan is having a flare up of his Malaria. Becca has a really bad cold which seems to be bordering on Bronchitis. 

I stayed back and just had fun with the children today. We played memory and slapwhich, among other games and we drew all over the outside walls of the short stay missionary team rooms with sidewalk chalk. I probably started sometime I may regret later, but the children and I had a blast. I will try posting photos on the blog later. 

The team also spent time painting the girls fingernails, complete with flowers. I will try posting photos of the nail painting also. 

Tomorrow morning we will be going to Pass Rien for church. Nathan's grandfather will be preaching. This should be quite a treat as he is a character and was quite an evangelist in his day. We are looking forward to hearing him speak. The team will also be doing a craft with the children in the afternoon.

Tomorrow will be the last full day for the team. Besides the March team of 9, Laura will also be leaving. She has been here for two months. It will be very hard on both her and the children. They are already starting to feel the emotions as the time to leave comes closer. It will also be an adjustment for Laura as she goes back to work and life in the states. And an adjustment for the children, because they have become close to her. I know each one of them would appreciate your prayers.

Again thank you so much for your prayers.

Blessings,

Chris

Hello,

Thank you again for your prayers. The dental team worked very hard today to finish up all the dental care for the orphan's in our children's village. They were also able to help some more from the community. One young lady from Pass Rien was in so much pain, that when the team had to stop last Monday, because of the dark she was almost in tears. So She was given money for a tap tap, so she could come to Marose and get the dental work done. She came on Tuesday and her tooth needed to be extracted. She was so thankful afterwards that she ran around and hugged and thanked everyone. Yesterday a boy about 10 years old came. One whole side of his face was hugely swollen. The girls gave him a small little car and his whole face lit up. They extracted his abscessed tooth and he too was so very thankful. Even though he was young and afraid, he knew it would take away his pain. It is amazing, to think of how hard it must be to do life when dealing with so much pain. The dental team has been such a blessing to the people in our villages. 

The team also gave out the gifts to the children from their sponsors, which is a special time for the children. Lynn and some of her friends made special notebooks for some of the children. And Bobbi, Rose's daughter made up pencil cases full of things for each of the children. 

Tonight is all night worship in Marose. Mike is preaching, please be praying that God speaks to their hearts. I went to the first part until it was time to put my kids to bed. One of the young girls from our children's village, Bergelande helped to lead worship. She was beaming from ear to ear, the whole time she was up front. It was a very special privilege to her.

Please also be praying for Becca and Pastor Nathan. Both are pretty sick. We prayed over Becca this afternoon and she was able to get some immediate relief, but could still use prayer. I believe it is Spiritual warfare in both cases. Both Becca and Nathan are pushing hard into the Spiritual realm in Pass Rien. And, as one of our friends from another ministry put it during prayer, they are undoing what satan has worked for, over the last 1000 years to bind up.

Tomorrow, Saturday, Rose and Stephanie will be doing Women's Health classes in Marotte, also David, Julie, Tami and Laura will be holding another dental clinic. Becca and Kacie will be teaching the women's inductive bible study. So it will be a full day. Please pray for all of them as they reach out in their different giftings to help the Haitain people. Thanks and blessings,

Chris

                                                                 March 2013 Team

Hello,

Thank you so much for your continuing prayer support. We really appreciate the prayers. Every night the church in Pass Rien meets. On Tuesday evenings they meet in someones yard. They meet in a home or yard for two reasons. The first reason being to bless the family, the second to have the presence of the Lord in the neighborhood, which aids in spreading the Word. This Tuesday Kacie, Nathan and Mike went to the home meeting. The dental team remained behind in the children's village working on the children's teeth. Nathan lead worship and Mike preached. Many came forward for prayer. One man in particular needed prayer. When Mike prayed for him, he lifted Mike's hands on to his shoulders and indicated he needed healing in his shoulders. He could not lift his arms high to worship. Mike started praying for him and he was healed suddenly and started raising his arms and praising God. God's mercy has been so incredible in Pass Rien.

This morning Rose and Steph held the Women's Health class and passed out more feminine hygiene kits. They had about 50 women again.  Becca taught her women's inductive bible study again. And the dental team continued to worked on more of the children in our children's village. Laura was really good at making sure someone was with each child if they had a procedure done. Can you imagine sitting in a chair as a child and seeing all the dental tools. And then seeing  them come at you with a needle. They had an interpreter explaining everything to each child, but still some were scared, the girls did a great job comforting them. As I sat by the girl we are trying to adopt, holding her hand, it almost made me cry, thinking of how they felt, and no mother being a mama for them. So after today there are a lot less cavities and abscessed teeth. They also performed dental work on people in the community of Marose, actually they are still performing dental work as I type again. Please pray for the health and stamina of each of the team members. They are putting in long hours trying to treat as many patients as possible. 

Later in the day the team also visited friends of ours that run a ministry in Gonaives. They were able to purchase some items made by Haitian women, who are learning how to do business and provide a living for their families.

Well thank you again for your prayers, it makes a difference knowing our back is covered. I will try and post a team photo. It does take longer to post photos from Haiti, so give it  bit :)

Blessings,

Chris

Hello,

Sorry the updates have been slow in coming. Our wireless stopped working. We are now using 3G sticks until we can get someone to repair it. The sticks are inconsistent, sometimes they work and sometimes they do not. Sometimes they work, but take 20 or more minutes to load. So I have not posted a lot.

The team has been doing great. Yesterday the team visited Pass Rien and divided up in to three groups. Rose and Stephanie taught on women’s health issues. Rose also belongs to a group called mission impossible. Mission impossible is a group of Christian women who get together and sew women’s feminine hygiene pads. They passed out 50 kits and had over 50 women attended their teaching.

Becca’s friend Kacie is part of the team. Kacie help’s Becca in Seattle with the inductive and deductive bible study teaching. Becca has spent time in Pass Rien teaching twice already. She has 4 women that she has been training as leaders for Bible study. So Kacie and Becca spent the afternoon teaching these women some more. Becca felt like she was supposed to spend some time teaching on the Holy Spirit. The team said that the Holy Spirit fell on these women. The time was amazing. Becca then asked them to spend time praying and teaching each of their groups. Kacie said that the women definitely left with a mantle of leadership on them. 

Laura’s father Dave, who is a dentist along with Laura and her sister Julia, Tami and Lynn held a dental clinic. They filled cavities, extracted teeth and performed other necessary procedures. Their part of the team stayed in Pass Rein from 10 am until 7 pm, without taking any breaks. Basically they worked until it was too dark to keep working.

Each of these groups will be meeting again in other villages we minister in, throughout the week.

Today the team is working with the children in our children’s village. They all had dental checkups earlier today. Also they each received a medical checkup from Steph and Kat, both nurses. Right now, as I write, David and his team are hard at work filling cavities and performing other procedures on the children’s teeth that needed the extra help.

It is amazing how God puts together each team knowing what will be happening at the time and what the need will be. He is so good.

Our daughter Janae is a social bug to say the least. She is conquering the language quickly and has already mastered one whole song in Creole’. She was worried about leaving youth group and dance and some of her more social activities back home. She is really enjoying being here; it is like being at youth group 24/7. Thank you so much to all you who have been praying for our family.

Tomorrow we will be holding the dental clinic in the village here in Marose, along with the women’s health teaching and the women’s bible study teaching. Please pray for God to really show up here tomorrow. Pray for the revival fire to spread to Marose. Also, thank you so much for praying for Pass Rien. God is still bringing people to the Lord each day in Pass Rien. He has so much grace and mercy.

Blessings,

Chris

Hello,

I  am writing to let you know that the March team flies out tonight. Please pray for safe travel and on time connections. 

I also wanted to share a bit of some stories that Mike has been compiling. Someday they may be in book form, Many have suggested he write a book. For now he is just trying to save them, so we do not forget all that God has done and is doing. So here is an excerpt from one of the stories, it pretty much sums up how amazing God is and how he has been moving here in Haiti. 

"By the time church was over 30 people had come to salvation in Jesus. That night 35 more people gave their lives to Him. The Spirit of God was so heavy in Pass Rien,  that all could feel it as they entered the area. This began the revival of Pass Rien. I don't use this word lightly. I hesitated using it for quite some time. But when there is a move of God that brings people who have been steeped in Voodoo and witchcraft to their knees in repentance and 4 to 6 people to salvation in Jesus Christ every day since our first day, it can only be called a revival. And this is exactly what has been happening.  I am writing this 5 months later and it has continued every day. 

The people of Pass Rien have begged us to have church every day. So we have. We have encountered such a move of the Spirit of God that some nights we don't even start worship or preaching before some are asking "how they might be saved." They never like to end the meeting either. Their favorite meeting is the Friday, "All night prayer and worship." We start about 7:00 pm and go till 5:30 am. And the people literally pray and worship all night until 5:30 in the morning, then they go to work."

There are many stories, too many to share by e-mail. Along with the salvation's there has been many healings. 

God is on the move. We thank each and every one of you that has prayed for Pass Rien. 

Along with the amazing victories there has also been spiritual hardships, I guess you get one with the other. Please pray for health and protection. Please also pray for understanding and communication. We are trying to come along side of the Haitian people. Coming along side is harder than just doing things ourselves, our way. Please pray for wisdom and discernment. Thank you so much we are so thankful for your prayers.

Blessings,

Chris

Hello,

We wanted to give you an update on what has been happening since we left Washington. We arrived safely at the children’s village, after enjoying a great meal at Madame Nathan’s.

We are staying in one of the short term missionary stay rooms right now. Our children seem to be adjusting pretty well. They are completely worn out by the end of the day though between the other children and the heat.

Last Sunday at the end of church another 10 people committed their lives to the Lord, one of which was a witch doctor. Praise God!!!!

Tuesday evening we visited a home group from the Pass Rein church. Picture a hard packed dirt yard in front of a cement block house, about the size of a small kitchen and dining room in North America. There is a wire from this house with a single light bulb hanging from it going to the generator we brought. There are about 125 people packed in the yard. We brought a sound system for the music and speaking. Two of the speakers are within 5 feet of us. They are turned up and there is a chicken in a coup another 5 feet away at the most.  Poor chicken. Worship is a full on celebration. They asked Mike to share a message. After the message about 25 to 30 people came up for prayer. Then there was another time of worship. Besides the single light bulb you can see the full moon rising into the evening. God moved so powerfully and it was so amazing to be outside in the night in the Haitian countryside and seeing everyone so full of God’s joy. The couple volunteering their yard were probably in their late 60’s and are new Christian’s. They had perma grin on their faces (if there is such a thing).

A friend from another ministry came to visit us up at Pass Rien and had a dream the next night. In his dream he saw two little girls who looked like twins come to him. As they greeted the little girls they noticed marks on their backs, symbolizing voodoo. As they prayed for the girls the symbols disappeared, breaking the curse of voodoo. A few nights ago as Nathan returned from Pass Rien he opened the truck to let two little girls who looked like twins out. He said that their father was a witch doctor and had just died. The mother of 10 children was unable to care for them. This, team has spent much time praying over the girls and believe that they represent the breaking of the spirit of voodoo at Pass Rien. Please remember to keep praying for the people of Pass Rein. God is so on the move.

Today the team climbed prayer mountain. It is a place where there is always someone praying for Haiti, 24/7. The mountain is shaped like a pyramid, and about a ½ mile climb straight up.

Tonight the team will go back up to Pass Rein for another “all night prayer and worship” time. Nathan and Mike want to keep having the “all night prayer and worship” celebrations every Friday night as long as the revival lasts. So many people are accepting Christ as their savior.

Thanks so much for your prayers.

Blessings,

Mike and Chris