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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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!