Joanne and her sponsor child

Praying before the baptism

Rusty, Nathan and Mike baptizing

Coming to ask "is there any reason I should not be baptized today?"

Explaining Jesus to him

Baptizing him, to God be the Glory

Hello,

We wanted to send you an update on the team here in Haiti. The team arrived safe and sound, thank you so much for your prayers.  They are doing great. They arrived on Wednesday the 24th. 

The team went to the revival in Pass Rein Thursday night.The revival has been a lot of fun. Pass Rein loves to worship. There has been prayer ministry and salvation's this week.

Saturday morning the team started off by sharing at the pastor's conference. Then part of the team played with some of the children from the  Children's Village in our play and prayer room. In the afternoon we attended a baptism in Pass Rein. The baptism took place in front of a small waterfall. There were some interested observers from above the waterfall and when we were finished baptizing, one of the young adult men observing said "is there any reason why I should not be baptized today?" Pastor Nathan said no reason, but first you need to accept Jesus into your life. So Joel, one of our church leaders explained the gospel to him and then led him in a prayer to accept Jesus. Then he was baptized by Pastor Nathan, Pastor Rusty and Mike. God's timing is just amazing. He was at church the following morning, along with the others who were baptized.

Saturday evening Pastor Rusty preached and shared a physical example with the people at Pass rein. They loved it. The example was shared again by Nathan on Sunday morning.

Mike preached Sunday morning in Pass Rein. Then Nathan did an interesting thing with the giving. He created a competition between the women and the men by challenging them to out give each other. So the giving was put into two separate baskets. It was hilarious watching them try to out give each other. By the end of the morning the women had won and Nathan said the challenge would continue again that evening. 

In the evening not only did the challenge continue and become even more competitive, but as some of the groups came up to sing for the church he interrupted and asked the congregation if they wanted to pay for the different singers to not sing. It was so funny watching as people reacted spontaneously, people paying for their friends to not sing and then the reaction as the singers realized they were out of the singing group because someone had paid them to not sing. It was one of the most fun giving ideas I have seen. So much friendly teasing interaction. It was such a blessing watch them interact as a community that loves each other. By the end of the night the men had won the challenge.

After church in Pass Rien Sunday morning, we went to the Poteau church. After praying for people in the church, one of the team members was able to meet the child they sponsor from the Poteau school. It was a pretty special meeting :)

This morning, Monday, the team visited the medical clinic and then spent time with the children in the Children's Village. Tomorrow they will be spending time in Gonaive, visiting the market, some historical landmarks and the older boys transitional home where we now live.

Please pray for the team on Wednesday, as they will be climbing Prayer Mountain and putting up one of our large white crosses that will be seen from the village in Poteau and from the main road to Cap Haitian. It is a large white steel cross, the cross in Marose on the mountain behind the Children's Village was wooden and needed to be replaced with a steel one, which will last much longer. We are in the process of replacing the wooden crosses in each of our other villages as they do not hold up in the humidity here. This requires the crosses, which are very heavy to be carried up the mountains, along with the post hole digger, cement, gravel, sand and water to set them with. So prayer would be much appreciated. 

Again thank you so very much for your faithful prayers.

Blessings,

Chris

Hello again, 

Bazelais has arrived and is doing well, he is a pretty quiet boy. We appreciate all of your prayers, please continue to lift him and our family up as everyone adjusts. I put a couple of photos on the blog which you can access by clicking on the blog link below. 

Mike loves birds, so for his birthday I bought him a pair of turtle doves. There is both a male and a female. They are really sweet and have such a distinctive coo. We just brought them home today and they are settling in. There is a photo of them also on the blog.

Thank you so much for your prayers.

Blessings,

Chris

Three new additions :)

Two of the newest additions to our house :)

Our newest boy joining the transitional house,

receiving one of Mama Becca's quilts

Reading the Action Bible together

A old Lincoln Continental, notice the huge tree growing through the windshield ?

Thank you for the new mattresses

Putting on the finishing touches 

Sewing on the edges

Working hard

24 so far Yahoo!

Hello,

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer. It has been beautiful here in Haiti. The past couple of weeks it has been in the 90's during the day and then it has rained during some of the evenings. I love the rain, I grew up in Seattle, what can I say. The rain seems to freshen the air and bring life to the plants. At first some of my children here laughed at me when I said I could smell the rain coming. Now they are beginning to smell it too :) I can actually smell the wet soil coming with the wind, and I love it. We can hear toads, and see dragon flies, both of which also love the rain. Glimpses of beauty in a dry and parched land. God is good.

Our mattress team here in Haiti has made about 1/3 of our new mattresses for the children. I will post some more photos on the blog. We are excited to get them. It has been a blessing to the men making them and will be a blessing to the children when they receive them. Thank you so very much to each of you that contributed to the new mattresses.

We just finished up this week in our schools. 11 of the children in our Children's village have passed the 6th grade national examination. There are almost 60 children that have passed the national examination in all of our schools put together. We are so proud of them. Statistics say that  60% of Haitians never get further then the 6th grade. Which is why we believe education is so important here in Haiti.

 

We have another older boy who will be aging out of the Children's Village and moving into the transitional home with us. This transitional home provides aging out young adults with the ability to continue their education and learn life skills, even though the government says they are too old to continue living in an orphanage after they turn 18. We are trying to help them obtain the skills needed to take care of themselves, their families and be instrumental in the future of Haiti. Bazelais will be joining us tomorrow afternoon. We would appreciate prayers for him and our family as he adjusts to living here. 

On Wednesday we have a team coming from Anacortes. We are excited to see them. Part of the team has been here a few times. Please pray for safe travel for them. Their team will overlap two different revivals while they are here. The first one starts this Sunday in Pass Rein and will last one week. The team will have an opportunity to participate in both of the revivals. The second revival will start Sunday July 5th in the village of Myan, which is between Marose and Gonaive. 

We still have a few children that need to be sponsored. Sponsorship is $30 per month. We really want to help these children, but we can not do so with out your coming along side and helping us to. Please contact me if you are able to help one of these precious children. Thank you so much.

Blessings,

Chris

A tribute to Rebecca

I would like to take a just minute of your time to give a much needed tribute and to sincerely appreciate someone who has been an instrumental factor in our ministry here in Haiti. Our daughter Rebecca. Even from childhood Rebecca has always been a very determined and purposeful force for whatever she puts her mind and heart towards.  Haiti has definitely been her sincere passion for the past 7 years.  She joined us on many of our earliest trips to Haiti, when we were just trying to get things established and build some positive relationships. Her heart for the people of Haiti grew very quickly.

Rebecca was instrumental in the beginning revival movement of God in Pass Rien. She established a powerful and dynamic women’s ministry in a country where women are not considered to be ministry worthy. Time and time again we saw the power of the Holy Spirit working in miraculous ways with these dear women. Her inductive Bible studies were a cultural breakthrough for the women of Haiti. Setting them free to read and study the word of God for themselves. Healings and deliverances were a common occurrence among them. Rebecca set in place women’s ministry leaders in our Life-Giving churches. Her leaders loved her and were always asking for her, and still are. Some of my best memories are of Rebecca and I baptizing many women and youth together in the rivers of these villages.

   Rebecca was also instrumental in establishing a transitional ministry for aging out orphans. She has travelled the world and seen firsthand the destruction of young people when they are put out onto the streets before they are able to support themselves in a healthy way. Rebecca was determined to create a better way, with real Life-Giving opportunities for these kids that we have invested so much in at the orphanage. A year ago her and her supportive husband Andrew bought a house in Gonaives about 15 minutes from the orphanage for the very purpose of ministering to these older boys aging out of the orphanage. Integrating these boys into a family atmosphere where they will continue their education, gain much needed life skills, and find an identity in Christ that will sustain them for all eternity.

  As with all great “doers of the word” successful ministry comes with a heavy cost. Haiti was very hard on Rebecca. She was sick much of the time she was here, and being apart from her family took a great toll. In December Rebecca made a healthy and wise decision to return to America, and spend time at home with her family, directing her passion to rebuilding what God gave her first. Her personal relationship with Him, her health, and her family. Andrew and Rebecca have very generously donated their house to insure that her “Ministry Continues.” And it will. God used Rebecca in a mighty way, and we pay tribute to her for that. We join together in prayer for her and her family, for all that she has given to advance the Kingdom of God in Haiti………

Bless you Becca, We love you……..

Becca and Mike baptizing 

Baptizing in Pass Rein

Ministering together

Painting one of the witch doctors houses

Baptizing more believers

Some of Becca's women's ministry leaders

The first boy arriving at the transitional ministry home

Spreading the material out

Cutting the material for the mattress covers

Working hard

Tonya and one of our children

Ronnie and Tonya

The South Carolina team

Hello, 

Hope all of you are enjoying the first few days of June and summer. We have had a lot of new things happening. 

 

When I wrote last, Mike was getting ready to fly to the Orphan Summit, and then on to our annual fundraiser. He is now back home in Haiti. Our annual fundraiser was a very successful and enjoyable evening. Our Canadian appreciation evening was a wonderful event also. Thank you to all who attended these events. We are so thankful for all the wonderful family and friends who helped to put the two evenings together.

A few days after Mike returned, we had a visit from our South Carolina team. This team is primarily made up of preachers and they preached at our pastors conference, youth conference and at 5 of our 6 churches. They nearly preached around the clock. They had a great trip, I will post some photos of their team on the blog. 

One of the items we are excited about is we have a team of Haitians making new mattresses for all of the children in the Children's Village, and each of the mama's (nanny's). We will post photos of the progress as we go. They are being made in locally here in Gonaives, it is so fun to be able to bless young businesses with orders big enough they need to hire other local people to help with the work. I will also post some photos on the blog of the team beginning to work on the mattresses.

Last Friday night we had an all night prayer and worship celebration at the location of a new church plant for us. Please pray for direction of this plant over the summer. 

Near the end of this month we have a team coming from Anacortes, please pray for them as they prepare for their trip. We also have a couple named Mary and Ian who will be arriving with the team, but they will be staying for 4 to 6 months. Please also pray for them as they prepare to come along side of this ministry. Pray for direction, adjustment and the cultural differences they will experience.

Please also pray for us. We have had no power in our home in Gonaives for a month now. Which effects almost everything, from food storage, to pumping water, and functioning in the evening, even something as simple, but important as charging our phones for communication. We bought a used generator, but the cost of gas is around $5 a gallon. So we try to not to use it. It affects the internet  which requires power to run the router. Also people cut the line for the internet weekly thinking they are cutting into the power line to take power. We have been told by the power company that they are not going to repair the line or the transformer for our street. So please, pray for discernment on how we can solve this problem.

Thank you for hanging in with us as we minister in Haiti. We really, really could not come along side of the Haitians with out your help.

Blessings,

Chris

Decorating

Setting up

Ironing the wedding clothes

Nathan brought more decorations

Nathan and Steph

The hat

The hair

Flowers

All ready

Kegan and Steph with the flower girls

The first bite of cake

Bubbles for the send off

And they are off :)

Hello, 

The wedding bells have rung !!!!!!! Steph and Kegan are married!!!! 

We were very blessed to have Steph and Kegan choose to come to Haiti to be married. Steph lived with us in Lynden for a year. And Steph has spent quite a bit of time in Haiti with us. She recieved the nursing hours she needed between LPN and RN school in our medical clinic here in Haiti, along with many short term mission trips. So we were pleased they chose to get married here. Mike officiated the wedding, Nathan and Chael also spoke. It was mostly American in style, but had bits of a Haitian style wedding also. Two of our little girls were the flower girls. They blew petals all the way down the isle. Steph had brought some decorations, but Nathan surprised her and Kegan by getting more decorations for them and having them all set up when she came to look. Steph was so blessed she started crying. There was a mix of English and Creole worship songs. Also Nathan's choir sang for them. They said vows they wrote and Haitian wedding vows. All in all it was a pretty special day. They stayed the night at our house and flew back to the states the next morning. Jason also flew back with them. They arrived back home today. Thank you so much for your prayers for their day.

Mike will be flying to Tennessee on Tuesday. He will be attending an Orphan Summit for a few days, then flying on to Lynden. He will be there for our annual fundraiser dinner on Saturday, May 2, in the Jansen Art Center in Lynden. Please remember to pray for the evening. Mike will also be sharing at the Canadian appreciation evening Friday, May 8th. This will be held at Gary and Wendy Nyboer's home. He is looking forward to seeing each of you. 

A few of you have asked if you could help with our new play and pray room. Yes you can! I would love it if we could get some black (not white or hispanic) Barbie dolls and baby dolls. Doll clothes for both Barbie and baby dolls would also be appreciated. Another item that would be greatly appreciated is Duplos made by Lego. Also games like Candy land, that do not rely on understanding English would be great. If you think of other items, drop me a note and let me know. 

On another note, we have 8 new children in the Children's Village who need sponsors. Please let me know if you are interested and I will send you photos and information. We have both boys and girls and multiple ages. These children need someone who will stand in the gap for. Will you????

Many Blessings,

Chris

Hello,

I wanted to write to you again and share some stories from Pass Rein. 

The first story reaches back to when the (witch doctor) Madame ruled over Pass Rein. One of the activities that she controlled in the area was the cock fighting. Her cock fighting was so popular that she even had government officials participating and betting. The cock fighting was held on a piece of property uphill from the church. The problem for her is that along with the church and salvations in the community, the Holy Spirit showed up and she has not been able to perform her voodoo rituals, keep her prostitution ring going, the cock fighting, etc. She has left the area and now resides in Gonaives. Since she has left, the man who owned the property the cock fighting was held on, decided he would try and resurrect the cock fighting. He tried twice and failed both times. The Spirit of God had other plans for the land. A little while ago this man got sick and died. In the meantime Mike felt like we were supposed to put a cross up on the hill in Pass Rein, like the cross on the hill behind the Children's Village. We also have one on the hill in Perou. Mike actually had our welder make a cross.  So now, a distant relative inherits the land. This relative just came to Nathan and said that he wanted to donate the land to our Good Shepherd Church. He said he felt like the land was supposed to  be used for a place of prayer and worship. It just so happens that this land is part way up the hill in Pass Rein. The perfect place for a cross and a perfect place for someone to spend time praying and worshiping as they look up at the cross. The plan now is to build a gazebo type structure for protection from the sun and a place to sit. God is amazing and He IS in the redemption business.

The second story happened just the other day in Pass Rein. Madame Berline one of the more committed women to the church in Pass Rein told us that she had a dream during the night. It involved 5 crowns and 5 women of God. She said she asked Jesus in the dream if she could see heaven. She said she spent time with Jesus in her dream and saw heaven. The next morning she told Nathan and a few others about her dream. By the afternoon she was so sick, she called some of the leaders and told them she would not be at all night prayer and worship that evening because she could not even walk she was in so much pain. One of the main leaders, Bashmi, felt like she was supposed to share her dream with the congregation so he  walked down to her house and carried her the 7 blocks uphill to the church. She shared her dream and the church prayed over her for a long time. She was completely healed and after church was able to walk home. God is so awesome and compassionate.

Please continue to pray for the Madame (witch doctor) that she would turn her life over to God. Also, please pray for the church in Pass Rein, that they would continue to hunger and thirst after God. Please pray for safe travel for Mike as he flies next week. And please pray for our fundraiser in Washington on Saturday, May 2nd and our Canadian appreciation and thank you evening on Friday, May 8th. I know Mike is looking forward to seeing you.​

​Blessings,

Chris​

Keagan building puzzles with the children

Don't all medical people measure oil and water for cakes with a syringe?

And then grease the cake pan with gauze 

Steph's birthday party

Christina and Brooklyn helping to set up the new play and pray room

Hello,

Hope all of you are looking forward to our annual fundraiser in the U.S. It will be held on Saturday, May 2nd. Mike will be there to share and would love to see as many of you as possible. 

Also in Canada we will be holding a Canadian thank you dessert reception on Friday, May 8th. Again Mike will be there to share and would love to see you.

As usual we have a lot of things happening here in Haiti. We have had two more small teams since I last wrote. The first team in April was Tyler, Christina and Brooklyn. They are a blessing when they come. They spent most of their time playing with the children. They made a small swing for the little handicap boy, as he is not able to swing in our regular swings. Tyler helped with some electrical things and Christina helped me to get the new play and pray room set up. I will post some photos on the blog. You can access them by clicking on the blog link below. 

Right now we have Jason, Steph and Steph's fiance Keagan. They all are in the medical field. Jason is a tech, Keagan is an LPN and Steph is a RN. They have done physical's on each of the children in the Children's Village. They have worked in the medical clinic and Steph assisted our doctor in performing minor surgery. Steph celebrated her birthday for the 3rd year in a row in Haiti, this Saturday. She celebrated along with four of the children who also have April birthdays.Tomorrow the team will travel to Perou and spend some time with Wadner and his family. They will give Wadner a medical physical also. 

Our really exciting news will happen this Thursday. Both Steph and Keagan have chosen Haiti as their wedding destination. Everyone here in the Children's Village is extremely happy to be sharing their special day with them. The Good Shepherd Choir wants to sing for them, as well as another singing group. Mike will be speaking and officiating, along with Pastor Nathan and Pastor Daniel. I will try and post some photos of the wedding. Please pray for them as they take their vows and begin their new lives together.

Also, our truck is broken and we would appreciate prayers for the repair, it has turned into a major repair of the engine. We depend on it for the teams, ministry and personally.  We feel better knowing that there is a truck available for sick or hurt children or for members in the community that need a ride to the hospital. 

I will try and write again tomorrow, as I have two stories to share from Pass Rien. Thank you for your prayers. 

Blessings,

Chris

Playing puzzles

Reading books

Playing with more puzzles

Spirograph

The new play/pray room

Hello again,

I wanted to write some more and try to catch everyone up on what's been happening. Sometimes things become so busy here.

Our fourth team in two months actually flew into Haiti with the kids and I.  They were a huge help with our luggage, of which the children and I had 26 pieces.  Their help was very much appreciated, to say the least. Greg, Mac and Terry were a huge blessing in our Children's Village also. Greg and Mac fixed one of our three 1000 gallon water tanks and arranged the tanks so that there is room for 3 additional  tanks. The additional tanks will be used in our new garden project. This is something we have been wanting to do for a few years now. It will include raised beds for vegetables, we will be also be incorporating chickens, turkeys and Tilapia fish tanks into the project. Greg and Mac also built a foot bridge over a ditch in front of the entrance to our Good Shepherd Church in Deberres. They also went to visit another garden project in Mirebalais and our truck broke down. So now it is in Mirebalais with our machanic, who is trying to rebuild the engine. All in a day in Haiti, sigh!

We had a family of 8 give their lives to the Lord last night in Pass Rein. So far this new year we have had 99 people come to the Lord in Pass Rien, including the youth during Carnival weekend. It is just amazing watching God work.  

Some of you have been asking for an update on the two new handicapped children in our Children's Village. They are doing well. We have hired a mamma (nanny) just for them. We have also moved them into one of the rooms in the 4 bedroom apartment in the Children's Village. The floors in the apartment are white ceramic tile and easier to keep clean. Which is a better environment for them. It has also been a great teaching opportunity for the other children, one that shows them the value God places on these children. We need diapers for the children, and would appreciate it if any of you feel led to donate cloth diapers for them. The simple prefold type. I think some of the new type of diapers would be a bit fancy and complicated for them. If you have any questions you can email me. Disposable diapers here are for the wealthy and priced accordingly.  Also there is already to much trash in Haiti, we do not want to add to it. 

We are privileged to be part of a new test pilot program that we are sooo excited about. Mike was talking to a lady named Karen, who is responsible for the Arizona Kids Against Hunger program. We have received boxed food from them in the past. The food is free to our ministry, but we have to pay the $12,000 dollars shipping and duty on the 40 foot container to get it here. Our mission statement has always been To come along side the Haitian people to help them help themselves. We have an all Haitian staff, in our Children's Village, churches, schools and medical clinic. We hire Haitians to do building, painting, etc. One thing that has weighed heavily on our minds has been that the food relief we have received from the states has helped us to be better stewards of the funds given to us, but then does not support the local economy in Haiti. So Mike and Karen have come up with a plan and we are privileged to be the test pilot so to speak.  We are just now receiving some of the traditional boxed food. But, Karen has also sent us a shipment of the soy and the fortified nutritional packets that go into the boxed food. We have been working with the local rice growers here in Haiti, and will be buying local grown rice to bag up with the soy and nutrition packets. We will be training Haitians to bag the products up like they do in the states. This way we will be helping the Haitian economy and being wise stewards at the same time. Like I said previously, we are soooo excited to see this work and so is Karen. We really want to see this program help the people of Haiti, instead of hurting their economy. If you are interested in concepts like this a good book to read is When Helping Hurts. 

So in closing I can not stress enough how valuable your prayers are. Thank you and many blessings.

Chris

Hello,

 

Its been a while since I have written. The children and I returned to Haiti on the 10th and have been settling in to life in Haiti again. Mike returned to Haiti 6 weeks before us. The extra time for me was very good, I was able to visit family and catch up with some of you. We had two grandchildren added to the family and I was able to spend some precious time with them. The extra time was good for my health also.

Mike hosted two small teams while I was in the U.S. One of which I had written about. The second team was sent by Logos Bible Software. We were honored to be chosen as the field ministry for their "making a difference" 2014 conference. So Josh and his helper Joey spent a week filming different aspects of the ministry. They put together a video for Logos Bible Software. They also will be putting together a couple of videos for our ministry. A short 2 min. video and a longer version around 20 mins. 

For Carnival this year we provided an alternative again for the youth. For three days and nights we had activities, worship and speaking. Over the three days 49 youth gave their lives to the Lord. Please pray for them as they learn to walk out living a new life style. 

Please pray for for Haiti, these weeks between Carnival and Easter are filled with many dark traditions. Satan works overtime during this season, it is a very oppressive time.

Thank you ahead of time for your prayers.

Blessings,

Chris