MTinHaiti

One Truck and One Crate
You have heard of two men and a truck for moving well let us tell you how to furnish a house with a truck and a crate.
The longer we serve as missionaries the more God shows us how we can do with less and still be perfectly happy.
As you know Teresa and I started with a new mission in February this year.  In the mission house there were two rooms available for us to claim and furnish and make our “living quarters”.  We made one a bedroom and one a living room/office.  With some funds from us, family, and friends and a lot of hard work and expertise of Danny, Teresa’s brother, along with a little help from Sams and IKEA, we found out you can furnish two rooms quite well from a crate.
In seven days we painted the two rooms and a bathroom. Danny built a bed, 3 shelves, a desk, 3 towel racks, 3 clothes racks, a pulpit, a picture frame, refurbished a vanity and fixed the plumbing. Teresa and I assembled 2 chairs and foot stools, 2 rocking chairs, a closet, 2 …

I know I do not blog every day….so finally…. here is a little bit about —-
The first 6 months of 2010 may go down as the busiest of our lives.  January 4 found us on a plane back to Haiti after spending the holidays with our family. By January 6 we were hosting groups from Ohio and Indiana who were tirelessly trying to finish up the sewing room. The dust had hardly settled from them leaving when the earthquake hit on January 12. The next two weeks will never be forgotten as we tried to put together plans to help  the people of Port-au-Prince as well as our own Haitian family members who had lost love ones and friends. — Putting together a plan in the U.S. is tough to say the least so trying to formulate a plan in Haiti is compounded 100 times over.
By the end of February air travel was restored and groups begin to pour into the mission again which brought lots of helping hands and big hearts as well as lots of work and supervision.  Over the next 5 months we would have around 500 …

Wow, how important it is to do just that. Since January everything about and around us has been a whirlwind.  So much has happened and is still happening that I feel like I haven’t even been able to come up for air.  I have felt so far behind — behind in blogging, emails, pictures, and everything that we are “required” to do.  But ministry doesn’t wait for those tasks — when it is put right before you you just do it.  God has given us a ministry here in Haiti and it is not for the faint of heart.  As we have said before, Haiti is the hardest ministry both physically and spiritually that we have ever done but it has definitely been some of the most rewarding.
Over the past 4 months so many things have happened — the earthquake, changes in physical and spiritual needs, a new grandbaby to help with, shipping of needed supplies via the shrimp boat, speaking engagements in Nebraska, groups and more groups, medical groups, completion of a new children’s church building, completion of the sewing room, almost completion of a new campus house, start …

Trading shrimp for relief supplies.  This has been 45 days in the making.  David Bates, owner of Capt. Scott B, said to Danny Jordan (Teresa’s brother) that he really wanted to be a part of the earthquake relief by bringing supplies into Haiti using his shrimp boats.  With that the wheels began to turn.  My son-in-law (John “Phatrok” Lancaster) then called Janeil and thus was the beginning of this adventure.  When the plea for supplies was put out after the earthquake, the churches and people responded.  They began to pour in and there was no quick way to get them to Haiti.  But God does provide and now we have a shrimp boat converted to haul these supplies.
With the generosity of the people at Port Canaveral a warehouse space was donated to house the tons of supplies pouring in from all over the country.   It is amazing as you watch what people and organizations have donated to help the people of Haiti.  Orlando Drum donated 340 plastic barrels to be used to haul donations and protect them from the weather.  On this shipment alone there is 80,000 pounds of meals …

You know it is hard to imagine that we are only 150 miles from Port au Prince, in a world that is not governed by the TV, mass media, Face Book, and every other technical gizmo that you can imagine.  You would hardly know that your country had changed,  that hundreds of thousands were dying, hurt, homeless or that an economic earthquake was headed your way.  There is the mouth-to-mouth accounts of the events in Port au Prince but it is not in our faces like it is in the states.  But make no mistake we are very aware of the seriousness of this situation and of many difficult days to come.
In the past few days instead of Mike and Vogly going to Port au Prince we have been able to send people from our area who wanted to go and look for lost loved ones and to bring hurting family members back to the Northwest.  Elisnel, one of our church members, was able to get 10 of his family members back to the NW.  His brother had died but his sisters were alive.  Pastor Irenel found his brother and …

I cannot believe how fast 2009 has come and gone.  As I look back over an entire year and all that has taken place I am amazed.  Our campus in Beauchamp has grown considerably with more growth schedule for 2010.  There has been 4 new churches planted in the northwest zone with the adoption of 10 new ones.  We now have “running” water on the campus when the cisterns are full — we went from bucket baths to showers in 2009.  I know a lot of travelers to the Beauchamp campus are happy about that including myself.  There were new additions “animal wise” to our campus.  We now have 2 donkeys, 1 horse, 1 colt and a kitty that we did not have previously.  Although I am sad that in 2009 we lost all of our dogs.  First Bandit, then Katie from the main campus had to be put down and while in the states I have learned that Cody and Belle (the dog) died.  It will be sad going back to Beauchamp next week and not having anyone to greet me at the St. Louis campus and the Beauchamp …