The team here for the 2nd half of January

Hello,

We wanted to let you know that our January team travels home tomorrow (Wednesday). They will be leaving about 6:00 AM. Please pray for safe travel. I have posted photos on the blog of some of the activities they have participated in. They have been a huge blessing. 

Chris

  Friends: We wanted to give you a quick up-date on our container loading for our Christmas Giving to the Good Shepherd Children's Village in Haiti. The loading has begun and several of you have responded generously with donations of items that you have collected or had around the house or work place. Some of you have contributed towards the purchase cost of items or the shipping cost to get these needed supplies to our Children s Village. We are so very thankful for your help. There are still a lot of items needed. We would like to fill this container by mid February in order to get it on the boat. 

   Please prayerfully consider this up-dated attached list of items. I'm sure that this list will have a way in which you can help us. Most of these supplies are very hard to get in Haiti. Some are just too expensive for us to buy. Some of these items are saving the lives of children daily. Please consider how you can help them. Please feel free to respond to us with your questions.

Mike

New serving table for the dinning room.

One of our new sewing machines for our sewing class

One of the sewing class students

One of our sewing classes

Monique holding a baby goat

 

 

 

Mixing the colors

 

Mac

A little paint everywhere

A big help

Kacie

 

Working together

Two of the boys enjoying drawing

 

Monique and Kacie teaching VBS

Some of the boys making their pots or people after watching Kacie and Monique making a pot during VBS

 

 

Hello,

Just sending an update on what is happening here.  The team has been great. Yesterday we painted the church Nathan's grandparents attended when they were young. The team jumped right in to help with the painting. We were out numbered by community members wanting to help. The neighbors made Haitian coffee for us and even a meal. Haitian coffee is grown here and made with about 1/3 coffee, 1/3 sugar and 1/3 sweetened condensed milk. It is really good, but not so good for you :)  It was nice to be working side by side with everyone. Times like these are little glimpses of heaven. I believe God's heart is for all of us, regardless of nationality or age, to be joined together in all we do. Whether it is play, work or worship. 

Yesterday Monique and Kacie did some more VBS with the younger children. They used a small potters wheel they brought. It was a great teaching. 

Greg and Mac have spent a lot of time with the middle age and oldest boys, one on one time, talking about life and perspectives.

We appreciate the time they have poured into the boys.

Today was a very full day. We really appreciated your prayers. We started with church at 7:00 in the morning in Pass Rien. Mike taught and Nathan led worship. Many came forward for prayer. We also had one salvation. We then headed for church in Marose. On the way we had a flat tire. Mike was supposed to be teaching, so we sent him ahead, along with one of the translators. Then we sent the tire in the opposite direction to be repaired. The rest of us stayed with the truck  until the tire was fixed and put back on the truck. We arrived at the church as Mike was finishing up, just in time to pray for people. Later in the afternoon we went to our church in Marotte. They were having a celebration and had asked Mike to come and speak. It was very good. They had 5 different groups share songs. One of them consisted mostly of men and another one was all men. These two groups were excellent. They sang acapella, with very rich, deep voices. Again many came forward for prayer and there were two more salvations. It was a very full, very good day. 

Tomorrow Kacie, Monique and Becca will be going to Pass Rien to teach the women from both Pass Rien and Poteou. Please be praying for them and the women. We will try and get photos of the sewing machine class tomorrow in Pass Rien also. 

We have shared with you in the past about starting a market place. I wanted to give you an update. Andy taught business classes again while he was here. And our oldest son Steven has designed a logo for the market. We have shade cloth for the covering over the market place. We are now working on putting together an association for the market place. We would love prayer towards this venture. Prayer for a good solid foundation, prayer for a good model and prayer for the pieces of the puzzle to all to come together. 

Rose one of our prayer partners shared with us about a blessing she was part of, I would like to share it with you also. She writes....

Wanted to share a blessing I received today.

Went to Fred Meyer to get some twin sheets that were on sale $3.99.

So I bought several sets and put them up on the checkout belt. Of course when  you have a lot of one unusual item, the clerk comments so I explained they were going to Haiti to an orphanage. She was appreciative of the effort but was blessed when the lady in line behind me gave me a $20 bill to help with expenses of shipping.

That $20 was easily worth many times more to me to have a complete stranger validate what my heart does. Thank you, Jesus 

Thanks again for your prayers. We really appreciate them very much.

Blessings,

Chris

Hello,

We have had a series of small teams this month. The teams are all doing well. Deena, Rick and Andy are safely home. Greg and Mac are still with us, as are Becca and Felice. Also Kacie and Monique have joined us in the Children's village. 

Greg and Mac have been working on various tile projects through out the orphanage. They tiled a table our welder made for the lunch room. It will be big enough for the cooks to serve all of the children's dishes on. They are also tiling a new vanity for the medical clinic bathroom. 

Kacie and Monique have been teaching their own version of VBS. Kacie teaches doctrine classes for children and teens at her church. They have a huge heart for the children. 

The children have been so blessed this month. Because of all the small teams who have come and gone, the children have had team members all month spending time with them. 

Thank you for praying for me last Sunday as I gave the message at church. It was stretching for me to speak in front of that many people, especially trying to connect culturally.  

Monday, Andy, Rick, Deena, Becca, Felice, Greg and Mac went with us to photograph the school children in Perou. This was very helpful, we needed to get updated photos of the children. It is quite a few hours worth of work, even with more than one camera.

This morning, Greg, Mac, Becca, Kacie, Monique and Mike hiked up Prayer Mountain. It is a mountain between Poteau and Pass Rien. Many people hike to the top to spend time in prayer for Haiti. In the afternoon Greg and Mac took some of the children swimming in the river. It is a great way to spend time with them. 

Tomorrow we will be painting a church in the community of Poteau. It is the church that Nathan's grandparents attended when they were very young. Nathan felt like this was a community outreach project. Please pray that we are a good witness to the community. 

Please pray for Mike this coming Sunday. He will be starting the day out early, preaching in Pass Rein. The whole team will then go to Marose where he will preach again. Then in the afternoon He will be preaching at Marotte during a special anniversary celebration. It will be a busy day.

 

Monday and again on Wednesday Kacie, Monique and Becca will be teaching the women how to do inductive and deductive bible study. Please pray for them also.

I guess that is all for now. Thank you so much for your faithful prayers.

Blessings,

Chris

Hello,

We wanted to thank each of you for praying for us, as we traveled home to Haiti. We are safely back. And, we are settling in again. It is amazing the amount of dust on everything after only 1 month. Dust is even visible on the sheers covering the windows, the sheers help keep bugs out of open doors and windows and still let air and sunlight in. Greg and his son Mac flew out with us and will be here until the end of the month. Greg stayed with Mike for a month last winter before the children and I arrived in February. They both are a huge help around the children's village and are also great at relating to everyone here, both children and staff members.

Our daughter Rebecca and her son are still here in the children's village. They have been here since mid-November. Becca's husband Andy, flew out from Seattle on Christmas day to join them. Andy's parents Rick and Deena also are here with us. The children are enjoying spending time with them.

Besides the women's inductive and deductive bible study teaching that Becca is doing, she has had a heart for the children aging out of orphanages. Most of the world's orphans have to leave their orphanage at the age of 16. In Haiti we have been able to stall off until they are 18. We currently have two children that are in that situation, and will have two more before next fall. All of them are trying to finish high school and need a few more years to have the education or job skills necessary to support themselves and a possible future family. We do not want to send these children out into the streets and so have been stalling off. Andy joined Becca and their son here in Haiti, with the intention of finding a house they could fix up allowing them to provide transitional housing for these children. Andy also has taught business and micro savings and loan classes here in Haiti. He would like to do more business training. So they have been praying, looking and praying again. God has been moving amazingly. Today they signed papers on a home. They will take possession of this home July first. We are so excited, along some of the other ministry's we are in relationship with here in Haiti. God is so very good!

We have another exciting event happening here. Charity one of our prayer partners felt like she was to give each child in the children's village a special gift. One that fit each child in particular. She has had family and friends join in and help her to bless each one of the children. She brought the gifts to us before we left, so that we could bring them back to Haiti with us.  When we were unpacking the gifts I felt like we were supposed to bring each child into our home individually to receive their gift and spending time praying for them. We have been in this process for two days now and are only half way done passing out the gifts. What a blessing this has been. There has been many different emotions displayed. The older boys in particular have been touched, some to the point of tears. The gifts have been a catalyst to their hearts. I believe God is doing amazing things with the children internally. I am excited to see what some of the fruit will be. Mike,our daughter Becca, Deena and I have been praying for them. Please pray that as we continue to give out the gifts and pray that God will really touch, heal and bless the children. 

Tonight between praying for the children, Nathan called from Pass Rein and said that the people in church asked if instead of Nathan or Mike preaching this Sunday, I would be willing to share. I was surprised to say the least. I had finished Mike's sentence with Becca's name. So I have a HUGE prayer request, would you please pray for me, as this is not in my normal scope of ministry. I do share scripture and words occasionally, but I have never given the message in church before. I really would appreciate your prayers. In thinking about it, I am reminding of a quote I have shared with you before. " God does not call the equipped, he equips the called."

Many blessings,

Chris

Hello

Happy New Years! Hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas. We have really enjoyed being able to see family and friends. Christmas is my favorite holiday for all kinds of reasons. 

Last Sunday Mike was privileged to preach for Cooks Hill Community Church, where some good friends attend. We enjoyed staying over in their home and seeing friends who have been to Haiti with us.

This Sunday Mike has been asked to preach at Sonrise Baptist Church. This is where one of our son's and his wife attend. It is also the church where many of our children attended the Awana program. We are excited to be able to visit there. Please pray for Mike as he preaches. 

God has continued to move in Haiti. During the revival in Marose the past couple of weeks, God strongly moved in the hearts of the teens and those in their early twenties. All together there were almost 40 salvations. There were also many healings. 

Our daughter Rebecca has been teaching the women inductive and deductive bible study in the village of Marose. She also has been teaching the women in the other villages. It is amazing to watch the transformation. Becca has also been spending time with the youth in Marose and she has been teaching them as well. The youth group is growing and so is their hunger and thirst for understanding. This is amazing as the youth in Haiti is so vulnerable, even more so in Haiti then in North America. Most have little or no education and with unemployment around 80%, most have no hope. God is changing that. We believe that the next generation in Haiti will make a difference. 

One of the stories from the revival in Marose involves a small boy who is 8 years old. He was born deaf and has never been able to hear at all. In Haiti there are not facilities to help a family with a child who has disabilities. This family heard that a revival was happening and brought him to church, fully EXPECTING God to heal him. They brought him forward for prayer and God DID heal him! He hears now and is beginning to speak! It has caused quite a stir in Marose and has built faith. The whole community has known this little boy all his life. They knew he could not hear at all and now he can hear! It has taken faith stories from someone else's story, to a reality, because he stands in front of them. He is in their midst. They cannot deny that God has healed him. This is changing lives. It has changed his life. It has changed his family's life. And it is changing the lives of others in the community. It has shown them that God is alive, he cares, he sees, he heals, and he loves.  

We pray this story and others build your faith also. We pray that you begin to EXPECT God to show up. We pray that you begin to EXPECT God to move.

Blessings,

Chris