Jacob teaching baseball

Doesn't he have a great smile. He is one of our newest, he says he is 6yrs looks like 4 yrs to me. 

Nathan's grandmother is in the middle, her sisters on either side. She is 82, her sisters are 80 and 84. The life expectancy for a Haitian adult is 52. Amazing!

Nathan and his grandmother :)

Hello,

It is hard to believe we have reached the midpoint of summer. I am not sure I am ready for fall and back to school yet. Our summer got off to a late start this year.

I know it is also the start of back to school supplies being both available and on sale. We would greatly appreciate your picking up some extra supplies for our children when you pick up supplies for your children. There will be over 800 children this year that you will be helping to go to school. 

We have a small team coming today. They have had some flight delays. Please pray for safe and on time travel for the rest of their trip. They will be doing some medical outreaches. Stephanie will also be updating the medical records of the orphans in our Children's Village. I am looking forward to spending time with her. She lived with my daughter Rebecca and her family for a year and then with our family for a year. She also spent 2 months here in the Children's Village.

Last weekend Nathan, Mike and I went to Arcahaie for a crusade and wedding. Mike preached twice and Nathan preached once. Nathan also led worship once and directed the choir. There were 5 salvation's the night Nathan led worship and Mike preached, also about 25 came forward for prayer. This particular church does not usually have ministry time afterwards so it was a new experience for them. 

Rebecca took possession of her house in Gonaive on Monday. We are working out the legal paperwork at the moment so she will be able to start taking children who are still trying to finish school, but are aging out of the Children's Village soon. 

Everyone here is also working hard to finish Dita's transitional home for the girls before the school year starts. They are pouring the ceiling/roof today. After the cement is set they will start laying the blocks for the walls of the second story. 

I think we may have seen the world record for the most live goats carried on a motorcycle. Would you believe 14 goats. It was an unbelievable sight. 

My waiting list for sponsoring an orphan has been fulfilled. 

I have three new orphans to sponsor out, so if any of you are interested in sponsoring an orphan please send me an e-mail and I will send you a photo and give you more information. 

Thanks so much for all of your prayers. 

Many Blessings,

Chris

Chris holding Jonas' baby boy.

Jonas and Nathalie with their baby boy.

Mike with Jonas' baby

Dita's home, our transitional house for girls aging out of the Children's Village.

The back of Dita's home.

The front view.

A side view.

With grateful hearts

Hello again,

Hope you are having a wonderful summer Sunday. Mike is preaching in Marotte and Nathan is preaching in Pass Rien. And I am home with my 8 year old son Joshua. He has the chikungunya virus which is spread from mosquitoes. Most of Haiti has it or had it. According to what I've heard It came from South Africa. I thought we had managed to avoid it, but I guess not. You mostly get a fever, rash and bad joint pain. So we would appreciate your prayers please. 

We had a great night in Pass Rein. Nathan led worship, Mike and Rusty preached, Joann and Mike from the Anacortes team shared their testimonies. And best of all five women were prayed over and set free. I am constantly in awe over God's love. He continues to allow us to participate in bringing his light and glory to the Pass Rein area. 

So I am sitting here with my 6 year old daughter and I asked her what else did the team do lately? She looks at me and says, painted my nails, sang songs, played with me and played with Dieka. I guess her perspective of the important things the team did is very different from mine.  Hmmm I wonder what God would deem most valuable. Something to think about.

Yesterday, Nathan and Mike rented a big bus and took the teachers and school directors from all of our schools to a beach near Arcahaie. Nathan's wife made a beautiful meal for them to eat. They talked about how the school year went and what they want to see for next year. Then they spent the day relaxing. It was constructive, but also a thank you to them for the work they do.

Mike also took the team to Saint Marc yesterday, they were such a blessing to all of us in the Children's Village. He will  take them to the airport Tuesday morning. Please pray for safe travel for them and for on time flight connections. 

On another note, a very exciting note for both us personally and for the ministry. My son Jacob and his wife Amber along with their family of 3 and 1/2 little ones arrive in Haiti Tuesday, along with my daughter Rebecca, soon to be followed by her 9 year old son (who will be staying with his other Grandpa and Grandma for a week or so). Her husband Andrew will follow in about a year. He has

some commitments to finish up with first. We are excited personally to have some of our children and grandchildren ministering with us. It has been so hard being far away from family. But, we are also excited for the ministry as the two families will be running transitional housing for our aging out orphans. Jacob and Amber will be running Dita's home and the ministry for the girls and Rebecca and Andrew will be running the home and ministry for the boys. We are excited because they are not just providing a house, they are providing a true transition into adult life. This program is offered to those children that are trying to finish high school or vocational training. They will also receive training in cooking, cleaning, laundry, purchasing food, budgeting and inductive bible study, along with other life skills. We are so thrilled to be able to offer a life giving alternative to being put out on the streets.

The venture of transitional housing was the focus of our May fundraiser headed up by our daughter Amber, she along with Mia, Jesse, Jacob, Melissa and Dustin and a few others, worked hard to raise funds for this project. This project was also the focus of our very faithful friends, Bob and Rose Crabtree's mission store. They hold a mission store for us each summer with a particular theme. They invite their friends to a picnic lunch and share, sometimes they have a store set up of actual items needed, this time they focused on transitional housing and it was very successful. We received many notes telling of how enjoyable the time was. Rose asked our son's Jacob and Jesse to speak. Jacob spoke on the transitional home and his family's calling to minister in that area. Jesse, whom we adopted from Haiti 25 years ago, spoke from both his heart and his perspective. We are very proud of them. We are also very grateful to Bob and Rose and their friends for their help and support.

Thank you for reading my thoughts and thank you for your prayers and support.

Blessings,

Chris

Mike planting coconut trees and cherries around the inside perimeter of the Children's Village.

One of our helpers.

Coconut trees produce 50 to 200 coconuts per tree per year. 

Our June team  from Anacortes CTK.

Joanne frosting the birthday cake.

Three goats playing on the statue of Dessaline's in the downtown center of Gonaives.

Hello,

I wanted to send out an e-mail thanking everyone for praying for me. I am still trying to catch up on things. It has been almost 4 weeks since my surgery and I am finally feeling back to normal. I think I felt better the first week instead of the next two. Probably because I rested more and had less to do during the first week. I am so grateful for your prayers. Between the long intense pain episodes and losing my vital signs in the ER, I know your prayers were covering me and that God was protecting me. I also really appreciated all of your notes letting me know you were praying. Mike shared them with me. We are so glad to be back together again as a family. God is good and works everything for our good. 

We had a great team from Anacortes arrive Monday. They have been very loving and serving. On Tuesday the team spent time with the children. Playing guitar, singing, painting the girls fingernails. In the afternoon they went into Gonaives to the market and into the city center to see a little bit of history.

On Wednesday, Rusty and Mike helped my Mike fix one of our water tanks. We have only had two 1000 gallon tanks the last couple of months. It will be so nice to have 3 tanks again. The team also helped organize all of the donated clothing that arrived in the container. Thank you so much for all of the clothing you donated it is much appreciated. The organizing took a couple of hours and I appreciated the help very much. With out their help it would have taken me a day and a half. In the late afternoon we had a birthday party for the May and June birthdays. We missed the May birthdays because I was so sick and then had surgery in Florida. So we combined the birthdays. After the birthday party 1/2 of the team went to Pass Rien with Nathan for bible study and the other 1/2 stayed here in Marose for church. Rusty preached and the girls shared their testimonies. They did a great job. 

Today, the team started off the day by helping to pass out clothing and shoes to each of the children. They spent time with each child helping them to find things that fit and that they liked. It took almost four hours to help everyone. Even the mama's (nanny's) picked out some things. Afterwards some of the team took the children to the river, or maybe I should say the children took the team to the river. It is lower than it should be this time of year, but they still had fun. In the late afternoon the girls on the team met with the older girls in our Children's village. They shared with them about life and life choices. We have been having some great devotions up on the roof each night. It is so cool and refreshing up on the roof. Tonight after devotions the team spent time praying for us, which was really nice.

Tomorrow the team will travel up to the mountain village of Perou. They will pass out some more clothing and shoes and they will also pass out some Days for Girls kits that they brought from their church. They will also spend some time praying for Wadner and visiting his family. If they have enough time they will visit one of the areas in Perou where sugar cane is made into syrup. Please pray for the team as they travel and minister in Perou. In the evening they will be going to all night prayer and worship in Pass Rein. Again the team will pass out clothing and shoes. Please pray for the team as they minister and for Nathan, Mike and Rusty as they preach. Also pray that the Spirit moves and hearts are made new.  

Again, blessings to each of you as you pray for and come along side of us to help the poor, the needy and the orphans. 

Many Blessings,

Chris

Update ... June 2nd

"The power of prayer to God, is so much more productive than all of our human resources or mental efforts could ever be." 

    We have endured the fierce battle daily, and have seen the strong tide of darkness being pushed back all week. We had such an amazing Sunday. We started at 6:30 am at the church at Pass Rien. People from 4 churches gathered to be baptized. Even though they had attended classes, I shared with them about the spiritual significance of this obedient outward display, and the transformation that Jesus and the Holy spirit were doing inside of each one of them. We had a big parade 100 strong, with marching band for about 1 1/2 miles down to the river. We baptized about 40 mostly young people. One demon manifested but was quickly extinguished in the presents of the Holy Spirit. What a great witness for the community looking on. We marched back up to the church for a 3 hour service which included our Good Shepherd coral, a couple of singing groups, an "over the top", glorious worship time by Pastor Nathan, and a message by yours truly. We had an amazing ministry time that lasted 2 hours and delivered 5 ladies and brought 13 new people to salvation in the name of Jesus. It was so powerful that you could just feel the presents of God. Altogether we saw 35 salvations this week, and many deliverances and healings. 

  "This is the power of your prayers for this ministry!" You have persisted in prayer until the Lord would graciously move in victorious power over the strongholds of Haiti. Thank You and Bless You....Mike

P.S. Chris is doing very well and looking forward to joining us in Haiti on Saturday. Thank you all again for your amazing outpouring of love and support and prayers for Chris and I and this ministry. We could not do this without you................Bless You................Mike

Glory May 29th

  Chris came out of surgery this evening at about 5:30 eastern time. The surgeon said things went well. He said that he took a good look around and everything else looked good. He said that the gallbladder was totally inflamed and looked like a sack of marbles. He had never seen one like that before. Chris is resting now, and much releaved that it is mostly over, but a bit lonely without her family. Tomorrow she will get to go to the home of our dear friends who have sacrificially gone out of their way to take care of her in our absence. Thank you God for them. And thank you God for the outcome that we have all been praying for. She should get to come home to us in Haiti in one week. Yea!

   I so humbly want to thank ,all of you, who have been earnestly praying on our behalf for Chris's recovery. We are so appreciative of your rich expression of love to us. I do also strongly believe that with God there is always more to the story than we know. We may never know how many relationships were healed during this time, or how many people who knelt down to pray to a gracious God that they didn't really know all that well, felt something that they had never felt before. We may never know how much power and authority was exerted "in the name of Jesus" to deliver and to heal and to break the chains of oppression or open the eyes of those who had never seen the truth before. You, most likely, will never know how He has used this little struggle of our lives to advance the Kingdom of God, and defeat the kingdom of this dark age. We may never know......

   To GOD be the Glory, Forever and Ever,  Amen......

 Just spoke to Chris this afternoon. First thing this morning she went into the hospital in Tampa for a full CT Scan. She was told that it would be Wednesday before her test results could be given. But God is wanting to be graceful to Chris in all this, so they called her a few hours later and said that they had them.

   The doctor said that the tests showed that she had several large Gallstones. They have made an appointment with a surgeon for Thursday morning. She is resting well with minimal pain at this point. I'm not all that familiar with the ramifications of this, but it seems to me like a relief, and answered prayer. 

   Please pray that despite my lack of knowledge on all of this, Chris remains in the caring hands of Jesus, until she is healthy and home again with her family.

   I will be preaching up at Pass Rien tomorrow night. It has been very intense up there all week. We have seen 13 salvations, 4 deliverances, and many healings. On Sunday afternoon we will baptize over 60 people who will proclaim to Haiti and the world that they are followers of Jesus. Please pray for a strong continuance of the power and authority of Jesus over the darkness that has oppressed the people of Haiti.

                    "INDEED, GOD IS BREAKING THROUGH!"

Thank You and Blessings on you all.................Mike 

 Just a quick up-date on Chris's status. First of all, Thank you all so very much for standing in there with us, in fact holding us up when we are just too week and afflicted to be up on our own. 

Somehow, I kinda think that's the way He designed it.........

   Chris flew from Port-Au-Prince, Haiti this morning to Miami, Fl. and then on to Tampa, Fl. She was met at the airport by a good friend and medical professional and our daughter, Rebecca's mother in law, Deena. She was rushed to a clinic that is connected to the hospital there. She saw a Dr. who ran extensive blood tests and has also scheduled her for a CT Scan. She is resting with minimal pain at this point and we will keep you up-dated as we are.................Thank all of you for your prayers. Some of you have responded so wonderfully and prayerfully, it is humbling to have such quality friends.............Mike

May 25 2014

 Good Morning; It has been a very good and yet very hard week here in Haiti. Last Friday night there were 7 new salvations and several  demons cast out. One man had been pursued by the witch-doctors for the past few years to become one of them. He did not want to be a witch-doctor, but they would not leave him alone. They had put many curses on him until his health was failing him. They told him they would restore him if he agreed to become a witch-doctor. He felt like he was down to his last straw. Friday night he was completely set free and is now telling his testimony of what Jesus did for him all over town.

   This morning as I prepare to go up to Perou and preach the gospel, my wife and partner in this mission is boarding a plane to go to Florida to go to a good hospital to undergo some testing. She is sicker now and in much pain. Maybe gallbladder, we don't know. I will be here with the kids and hold down the fort, only with God's help.

   Please hold us up in your prayers as we continue to walk out this mission that God has given us. 

   "Where else will we go Lord, For you have the words of life."  .....Mike

Spiritual battles

 Well it has certainly been quite a week or so here lately. We don't usually mention these kind of attacks, for fear that some might not really understand them, but right now I feel a strong need to let you know how things are sometimes in Haiti, and ask you to join us in this battle. This past week we have not had much sleep. Many of our nights here are filled with the drumming and chanting of ra-ra, witchcraft or party houses. (This week, more so than usual.)  And we have been kept up either because we have been sick, or we have taken sick children in from the orphanage to our house. Several times we have been called out in the middle of the night to transport sick or hurt people to the hospital, and a few other things. Last week Pastor Nathan was in the hospital with stomach pain. Nathan, Mike and Chris, (if they have managed to fall asleep at all,) have been fighting bad dreams with demons. Nathan says he even knows some of them by name; Lier and Deception. This makes a lot of sense to us, since that is the oppressive spirit that many Haitian people live under.      

    Chris became very sick last Saturday night with some kind of stomach flue. (Saturday was my first night I was back from being in the states for two weeks.) Throwing up and diarrhea all night long. She slowly got better over the next several days. She was not fully recovered, but feeling good enough to work in her garden yesterday, but that night she ate something that did not agree with her and she began feeling pain. But the pain was hard to identify and felt like it was in her chest or back. So she took some ibuprofen. Later when the pain was worse, she took some Tylenol. Then the pain became extremely worse. I was up all night praying and trying to help her, and we also had little Leah on the couch with a high fever which persistently returned every 3 to 4 hours.  So I felt like I was running from one to another. I was frankly beginning to worry about taking my precious American wife to one of the worst hospitals in Haiti. At 5:00 Nathan came to pray and saw what we were dealing with. I told him that I thought it was time to go, but did not know where. He called a Dr. he knew, and then took us to a good clinic on the other side of town. One that I did not know existed. The Dr. gave her medicine by IV, to not make her stomach even worse. She is resting now, but not fully recovered yet. Several children are still sick here at the orphanage. 

     All of this is happening at the same time as a powerful move of God is coming over our churches. Many are coming to Jesus for salvation and healing. On June 1st we will have a baptism again with over 60 wanting to declare to the world that they have decided to follow Christ. 

   While Nathan and Mike were out of town the Madam, (The witch-doctor from Pass Rien), decided to have a huge celebration and parade and offer up a whole beef in sacrifice to Satan. She invited everyone to come, enticing them with the free meals of roasted beef. But she was frustrated when most said that they don't follow Satan any more, and would not attend her parade. Then to top it off, the beef died the day before the parade. Furious at how things had NOT gone, she went back to her house in Gonaives with out any celebration at all.

     We are clearly seeing the victory of Jesus in the light of day, but it has been a real battle all night long. We would humbly ask that you join with us in this victorious battle, and pray unceasingly for us, and those in this ministry, doing the will of God here, and for these precious people in Haiti, trying desperately to break free from the evil that has kept them in the chains of oppression for so very long..................Mike

Preparing to pour concrete for our transitional house.

Klaudy replacing pipes to the kitchen with lots of help :)

Waltese smoothing the outside walls of the children's village.

The new garden gate Lucsene is making.

Digging the holes for coconut trees.

The path in our new garden.

The new plantings of ornamental grass for hedges.

Another view of the growing garden.

Further up the pass with an incredible view.

This reminded me of the book Heidi. It was a little mountain oasis. To the left we could see mountains.

The path we walked on had totally different greenery then I have seen elsewhere in Haiti.

In the oasis this is what we saw to the right. I think we were literally on the peak as we could see mountains on either side of us as we walked.

Going back down the mountain pass we saw this path that led down a steep incline to a little mud hut. Not sure I would want to walk that path on a daily basis to get water and supplies.

Our customary flat tire on the way down the mountain pass.

Looking down at the road we were on the view was amazing.

Hello,

Hope you are doing well and loving the spring weather. I know some of you are still experiencing winter weather. Mike flew into Chicago first to attend Orphan Summit. He said it was in the 40's. I miss the seasons, but God is good and brings other pieces of beauty my way.

Mike is now back in Lynden, for our annual fundraiser. The dinner is tomorrow, Saturday evening. I hope you will be able to attend. Mike would really love to see you and he will be telling stories from Haiti. There will be Latin ballroom dance performances and prime rib. This morning he was telling me about some of the auction items. One is a two night stay in Semiahmoo. There is also a brand new beautiful leather chair. I have even heard whisperings of a week in Whistler. The event will be held at North County Christ The King in Lynden. You can call Mike for more info. at 360-305-9070.

I wanted to share a poem with you that has blessed us, it was written by a team member who visited us last month. As many of you know Mikes first team devotion is called "What did you go out to the desert to see?"

What did you go to the desert to see?
A bruised and broken and wind swept reed?
Why did you travel so many miles
To a crowded place, foreign and wild?
What did you expect to see?
Just poverty, corruption, pollution, disease?
Yes, I saw the poor and oppressed
Struggling to survive in a land so distressed.
But rising above the blanket of doom
Were servants of God proclaiming good news.
Caring for orphans, the widows, the lame,
Giving sight to the blind in God's holy name.
Claiming a village in Jesus' name.
Spreading the gospel that our Lord reigns
With power and strength to save and redeem
From demons that want to imprison and chain.
I awoke each morning to the glorious praise
Sung passionately by children to start their day.
They sang and danced to the rythym of drums
For the eternal hope that will someday come
When God restores His kingdom of peace
When all our struggling and strivings cease
And we live each day with adoration and praise
To our heavenly Father face to face.
What did I go to the desert to see?
I saw God's love for humanity.
He sealed it for me with sunsets rare
On a tropical beach with fresh breeze in the air.

Karon
CTK Snohomish

​While Mike has been gone one of the projects that I have been working on is a small garden in between the front gate of the Children's Village and Nathan and our apartments. The first thing I needed to do was get all the rock, there is no dirt, dug out. Then I had 10 dump truck loads of soil brought in and spread. In Haiti you can't just drive to the nearest nursery and find the plants and pots you need. So I have been slowly gathering plants from friends and planting seeds and cuttings in whatever containers I can find........So now for the adventure. I gathered up most of my children and an extra tag-a-long and asked my friend if he would help me find some ornamental grass to hedge the garden with. My first idea was to visit the farmer's co-op in Ma poo (most likely spelled wrong). They had a few items they could share with me, but had no grass and did not know where we could find any. I had seen it grown successfully at one of my friends in Gonaives so I called her. I did not recognize the name of the village she said she found it in, so I handed the phone to my friend. He told me that the village was very far away, about 2 hours north in the mountains. I said OK  meaning I understood. We started driving towards Pass Rein, I assumed that he had another idea, about 20 minuets later we passed Pass Rein and I realized that when I said OK he thought I meant I wanted to drive up in the mountains to the village. We were about 40 minuets north by then and I was up for an adventure so we just kept driving. The mountain pass was absolutely beautiful. It was a total gift from God, my spirit raised as the mountains raised. The village was located at the peak of the pass. When we got out and asked for directions to the place where the grass was, we were told to hike up a little path. What we found was a little oasis that reminded me of the book Heidi. I even found Queen Annes Lace, and what I think is a cousin to raspberries,  I had never heard of berries growing in Haiti. I also was pleasantly surprised to be shown real grass, the kind we would use for a lawn in the states. I know these things may not seem like much to you, but you need to remember like the poem says I live in a desert :) But, alas there was no ornamental grass and I did not know the accurate name for it, I was trying to use one of the younger boys that had tagged a long, to interpret because Lucsene and I communicate at a pretty elementary level. He knows some English and I know some Creole. But it is more in the every day terms, not botanical. The funny part was that Kevins, the one who tagged a long kept having to use my daughter Janae to translate the numbers and his first language is Creole. I called my friend in Gonaives back. We then proceeded to have a conversation involving her on the phone, Lucsene, Kevins, Janae, three village men and myself. After three more phone calls to my friend in Gonaives and the phone being passed from me, to Lucsene, and to one of the villagers we finally realized the ornamental grass I wanted was back in Pass Rein along the river bank. It was all around me and I did not even know. Go figure. We had a good laugh and started back down the mountain. We had our customary flat tire on the drive down the mountain pass. When we arrived back in Pass Rien we found a man who said he would find the grass for me and have it ready Saturday.  So we will see what we get tomorrow. The day was very enjoyable, but reminded me of a quote I painted a few days ago to help remind me that my perspective is just that, my perspective. It goes like this...."What screws us up most in life is the picture in our head of how it is supposed to be".... I tend to have that picture in my head and need to remember that it is not the only or the right picture. God amazes me how through the same circumstances he is taking some one else through with us, he can teach us each very different lessons. I guess it is kind of like feeling a sermon in church was spoken specifically for you, but knowing others are thinking the same thing. God is so awesome at meeting each of us where we need to be met. 

On that note thank you so much for your prayers that carry us and keep us. 

Blessings,

Chris

Starting the garden

One of the 10 dump loads of dirt going into the garden area 

The rocks have been removed and now the dirt is coming :)

Some of my boys helping when the men weren't around

Having fun

The two youngest wanted to get in on helping

These guys did the hardest part for me