MTinHaiti

In 2009 we did our first Youth Rally at Beauchamp and only allowed the churches to invite 10 youth because we could not handle all the sleeping arrangements and water issues. We had 80 to 90 in attendance. The rally lasted for a couple days and it was a great success.

One thing we know at the Mission is that we need to do more with the Youth in Haiti. The children and the adults tend to have a lot more things offered for them and the Youth seem to be overlooked. So this year we wanted to top what we did last year. We wanted to reach more Youth and to branch out from Beauchamp and branch out we did.

John Lancaster officially known stateside as “Phat Rok,” and in Haiti as “Gros Roche,” — brought in his posse from Huntsville, Alabama and they went to work. They arrived in Beauchamp on Tuesday and on Thursday they were in tap-taps traveling to the mountain community of Pillette hosting the first Youth Rally of 2010. Three of our mission churches attended this rally with 150 youth in attendance. Then came Monday and the gang climbed in — “the Dodgenator,” and bounced down the road to Augustin. Youth from 6 more of our mission Churches were waiting to greet them. The Church at Augustin was standing room only with around 180 Youth packed in to hear the Word of God. Then came Wednesday and it was time for Beauchamp to host the third rally. Youth walked in from 8 more of our mission Churches plus the orphanage. It was a great joy for me to see them having to add benches to the church and then to walk up to the service and see the building packed full with the Youth and their sponsors. I believe we easily had over 300 in attendance.

In each rally the Youth — worshipped, sang, danced, fellowshipped, and ate together. In each rally the Youth learned just how Big and Powerful our God really is. They learned how there is nothing He cannot do. They were challenged personally to dream Big dreams and then to Step out and do Big things for God. They were told to go and change their nation for God. — Look out Haiti only God knows what will happen if these Youth accept the challenge. Please pray that they will.

2009 — one rally with 80 youth. — 2010 — 3 rallies with well over 600 Youth. Thank-you God for bringing the Rallies all together. Thank-you Huntsville for caring about the Youth and for coming to make a difference. Remember our God really is — Big—Mighty—and Strong!

Mike

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 people pass through our home and kitchen, some coming for the first time, many returning as seasoned veterans — all coming with a desire to help the Haitian people and help they did. We had preachers, teachers, doctors, nurses, construction workers, artist and painters, students — people from  all walks of life — Grandpas, grandmas and children who came to Beauchamp to serve. Haitian children and adults were taught the Word of God, medical needs were attended to, food was distributed to hungry bodies, and children were loved on and played with.  Shudders, shelves, tables, doors and even a pulpit were built from scratch. ATV’s were fixed, pumps were made to pump again, electrical work completed, generators repaired, and the Dodgenator was given a whole new look.  Sewing machines were made operational. Gutters and water tanks were installed to catch the precious rain drops when they fall in Beauchamp. A Jr. Church and sewing room were completed. A small house is 95% finished. A parsonage has been started as well as a cement cistern. We have helped build Haitian homes and toilets to help people in the community. One Hundred and fifty goats were given out at Beauchamp and forty donkeys. The Shrimp boat from Port Canaveral brought many supplies with its three trips to Haiti, with some of those supplies making their way to Beauchamp. These supplies consisted of food which has helped to feed many hungry people as well as bring in many school supplies for the community school, along with medical supplies and many personal items that Teresa and I have needed.

During all of this Teresa was still seeing her patients and teaching her women in the sewing class which has grown from 5 to 21, along with helping me in my daily tasks. I continued to teach my leadership training classes which now consist of 35 men, having grown from the 5 men three years ago. February through June found me traveling to preach in our revivals (12 so far in 2010) as well as traveling to our different churches to preach on Sundays. In May we traveled to Mare Rouge to plant a new church and are glad to report that at the end of the crusade they had 45 baptisms.

So in a matter of a few minutes you have read a capsule summary of what took hours, days, weeks, and months to carry out not counting the sweat and tears, joys and heartaches that accompanied all of these activities and projects. We would like to say thank you to all who helped in the work as well as those who have prayed and provided funds to accomplish all this work.

Blogging is not my thing but I know it is important. I have two great stories to blog about and they both have to do with what I love and feel is the most important work in the world — evangelism. Preaching and teaching others about Christ—sowing the seed—letting God give the increase— saving souls is our number 1 priority. There is nothing more important in this world than preparing people for eternity. Satan sure likes us to focus on other things, some are even good things, but may we always remember Jesus’ last words before He departed. — Matt. 28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

Matt. 28:20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Now that my mini sermon is thru on with the two great stories. Last Wenesday we started with our crusade in Mare Rouge. Mare Rouge is out toward the west end of the  northern penisula part of the island. The city is located on top of a high platteau and is very beautiful area that appears to be very lush even though no water is near by. The temperature is very pleasant even got a little cold when we were there as the city is high enough that the clouds passed right through the people as we worshipped in an outside market during the crusade. Georgia folks would feel right at home because the soil is red clay which is what the city is named after. Rouge means red in Creole.

The crusade started on Wednesday and finished on Sunday morning with our first new church plant of 2010. During the day a team of men and women go door to door sharing the Good News and inviting people to the crusade. Calling during the day and singing and preaching at night both make for a great combination in winning souls for Christ. I had the privelge of preaching on Friday night. We started around 6:00 with just a few people present but as the music started playing the people started coming and by the time I started preaching there was around 700 people there. By the end of the crusade 67 had made decisions for Christ with 45 to be baptized on Saturday, May 22.

Not only did we do the crusade, plant a new church but we rented a house for the new preacher to live in so he will be right there with people and the new work. A piece of land was lent to us to put up a shacoon church for a temporary meeting place until land can be purchased and a block building can be constructed. We are off to a good start. Please pray that God will bless this new work.

Now for the second story which makes me sing and praise God all the more. Revivals/crusades — church plants — renting houses — purchasing land — constructing church buildings — supporting preachers cost money. My evangelism budget is very tight and not near enough for what we want to do. I have been asking my Haitian pastors to pray that more Christians and Churches in the states would give more to evangelism so that we might reach more people for Christ. I pray and they pray and God amazed me again. You will never guess where the money came from to do this crusade and church plant in Mare Rouge. Jamaica—Yes you read that right, our Jamaican brothers and sisters who are struggling themselves and who have very little — gave $1,500.00 U.S. for me to use in evangelism in Haiti. This makes me smile and cry at the same time as I think about their love and sacrifice they made so souls could be won for Christ in Haiti. It cost about $1,500.00 to get a new work started — money I did not have but yet we prayed and God provided for this new church plant in Mare Rouge which we had planned for May and the money came from Jamaica in April. — God is so good and I say thank-you and God bless to my brothers and sisters in Jamaica who I am sure gave beyond their means.

As I close I am going to put out a plea to all who read this blog. Yes there are hungry people and sick people in Haiti and we need to help with those needs but more than food and medicine they need Jesus so they might be prepared for eternity. Here is a break down of what it cost to do evangelism in Haiti (which is cheap compared to the U.S.)

Crusade/Church Plant $1,500.00

Revivals $400.00 each

Land for churches $7,000.00

Church Buildings $23,000.00

Preachers 130/mo

We are always in need of communion trays — offering trays/bags, bibles and song books.

As I write this post this morning I am trying to think of some clever thing to say — we’ll it’s just not there so we’ll just talk about the things God puts before us and the work we are really called to do.

Friday morning we are heading out to Mare Rouge — a new church plant.  The crusade starts Wednesday night and will continue through Sunday.  That is the way we do the crusades here in Haiti.  These remind of the days when our Restoration Heritage was started long ago in the United States.  People come to see and hear what is going on and with that the Word of God is preached for many to hear.  These crusades are well received here in Haiti and usually many people are won to Christ during this time.  This is also the way that we begin our new church plants.  We have several of our pastors go to the new area and talk to the people of that community, talk to the leaders of the community and scope out the best place to hold the conference and also look for a place that we can hold church for the first year.  Well, all of that has been done so now it’s time for the “action” to begin.  Oh, but let us not forget that God must be present way before we are.  To come after God is an awesome thing but to try and go before God is futile work.

We are excited about this new plant.  We are striving to strategically place 3 of our new plants this year toward the end of the island in the “far far west” so that there will be the chance for fellowship, helping one another grow, and accountability in the teaching of God’s Word.  Right now we have 1 church out that far and it is Mole St. Nicholas.  That church was planted on Easter sunday 2009 and is thriving well.  We will then head to the Mole for Mike to preach there on Sunday morning and follow-up on how things are going out there.  There are many plans for the area of Mole Saint Nicholas with the mission in the near future so planting churches close to this area will also be of benefit for when groups come in to do ministry,  By the end of 2010 we have hopes of having a total of 4 churches out in the “far far west”!

Please pray as we head that way on Friday morning.  Pray that God is in this venture, that the people will be respond to the Word of God and that souls will be converted and lives will be changed for eternity.  Pray for Mike and Vogly to be an effective tool for God.  Pray for the tap-tap that will be rented to take us there — for safe travel, free of break downs, flat tires or rivers that would be impassable.  Also, pray for us as this will be a 10-hour round trip from Beauchamp to Mare Rouge and then to Mole Saint Nicholas and back.  We will have sore behinds, sore and tired bodies — but we count it all gain if even one soul is brought to the Lord!

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 of construction for the pastor’s house here in Beauchamp, planning the 4 new church plants for 2010, planning the 27 revivals for 2010 and that is just some of what has taken place in 4 months.  So, to be still and let God speak is a difficult thing to do.

Our campus here in Beauchamp is a little different than the main campus in St. Louis du Nord.  Our home is open to all short-term missionaries — in which there have been about 200 since January.  The kitchen for cooking is in our house in which Mike and I do all of the cooking (except for lunch which is Haitian).  We help the groups with the ministry tasks that they want to be a part of — anything from construction to giving out rice and beans to needy families.  We have morning and evening devotions when groups are here.  We do have a small staff of 4 people who help look after the campus, cook lunch for groups, leadership classes and anything else that comes up.  Salla helps with washing dishes for breakfast and lunch.  But as you can see there is little privacy in our home.  Several of our staff actually sleep on the back porch every night.

In a country where life is hard — I mean just everyday survival is hard — both physically and spiritually, the need to meet with our savior is paramount.  This is a dry and thirsty land both physically and spiritually.  If you do not quench that thirst you will die — both physically and spiritually.  Pray that Mike and I find (and take) the time to quench our spiritual thirst.  God is the only one who can fill our cup to the point that we can overflow with His goodness and mercy.

We have 2 weeks without groups and are planning to spend a lot of that time with our Savior in study and prayer.  We have many needed things to complete and supply all of our supporting churches and individuals with.  Please pray that we can complete all of the needed things before us before the next group comes on May 18th.  Let me remember to …be still and know that He is God!

Captain Scott B

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 in the hull of the boat — this will mean 300,000 meals for the Haitians in the Northwest quadrant, 21 crates full of food and medical supplies on the deck, 475 buckets to be used for water purification, four 500-gallon water cisterns, a boat “The Haiti Redemption” that was constructed by volunteers in North Carolina, 5 generators and over 60 barrels full of supplies.

People have worked tirelessly over the last month trying to make this venture happen.  This endevour has hit very close to my heart strings because it is being done by the friends and family of Mike and I.  This is our hometown stomping grounds.  It has made me proud to be a part of this.  Proud to be a Christian, proud to be a Floridian and proud to be a part of the Northwest Haiti Christian Mission’s team.

So yesterday. after the final clearance from the Port Authority at Cape Canaveral, the boat was finally ready to leave out of the port.  The wind was whipping and the weather was chilly as she finally pulled away heading to Haiti.  There is a crew of 4 on the boat and it will be about a 5-day journey to Port de Paix, Haiti.  They will then offload all of the supplies which will take another 2-3 days and then about 4 days to come back home.  God speed Capt. Scott B!

When disaster strikes – the human spirit responds. It jumps in to high gear to help those who have been affected. People line up to give blood. Millions of dollars are given and relief supplies roll in. Rescue teams go to ground zero and see things that people never want to see. They put in endless hours and for all of theses things we – “Praise the Lord!” — Faith must have works and good intentions must have hands and feet.

But there are another set heroes we never hear about in the news or over the Internet. They are the Unsung Heroes. They are the Key to the whole operation. We may not know all of there names but heaven does. — Who are these unsung heroes? — They are the first responders –they are Fearless Prayer Warriors. These warriors guard and gird up the world with prayer. They come in all shapes and sizes. Some old — some young. They are located all around the world and make no mistake they keep “the watch fires of heaven burning.”

These warriors pray and Jesus and heaven stop to listen. When they ask – Jesus takes note. In John 11 we find the story of Lazarus and when a friend comes to tell Jesus Lazarus is sick — Jesus stops to listen. The request was carried – the plea was heard –and Jesus sets His plan into action.

We may not understand the mystery of prayer. We don’t need to. Most of us certainly don’t grasp its true power or we would each pray more. What we really need to know is —when someone starts to pray on earth — Heaven listens and actions begin when the prayers begin. When you pray — Jesus hears and when Jesus hears the world is changed all because someone prayed. — James 5:16 — “…the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”

To all our Prayer Warriors we say thank-you for keeping the watch fires burning. Thank-you for being the first responders and for staying on your knees long after most of us have forgotten. — God bless you.

May we not forget the Haiti earthquake on January 12, 2010 to quickly. — Keep praying.
{Some of these thoughts come from Max Lucado.}

Bethel Church of Christ and Outlook Christian Church

I cannot believe that so much has happened in the 2 weeks since the Bethel Church of Christ and Outlook Christian Church left out campus.  This was supposed to be the first post after they left and then the earthquake hit and everything has been centered around that.

These two groups came to NWHCM and out to Beauchamp to help with the Sewing Room.  We were beginning to wonder if they were going to get to come at all.  January is the rainy season and 2 years ago the rain stopped them from coming then.  We thought that it was going to be a repeat but then the sun came out and the river went down.  It was a long trip to Beauchamp in a very jam-tight Deuce-and-a-half on very muddy roads.  Again, travel is never easy in Haiti.  They arrived with weary bodies but with big smiles on their faces and a desire to get right to work — and work they did.

They were only on our campus for 2-1/2 days but they accomplished so much in that time.  They made shutters for the windows in the sewing room and we now have a cutting table and a storage shelve.  This group also did a VBS, helped with the feeding program, plumbing repair work, and bought goats to give away.

The sewing room will soon be a reality mostly because of these two groups. (We still need some funds to finish the building completely.)  The Bethel church lead the way in donating the first treadle machines to arrive in Beauchamp.  God is really expanding this program.  I cannot wait to see our Haitian ladies sitting at the machines and sewing for their families.  Thank you to Bethel and Outlook.  We hope to see you again!  Take a look below at some of their work!

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 other family members and brought some of them back to the NW while yet others had passed away.  Madam Tipicon brought her daughter to our house today to let us know that she arrived safely.  Ti-Poppa is in PAP right now and just called.  He was able to send his cousin ahead and him and his sister are supposed to come back tomorrow even though he says transportation is hard to find.  Good News – he says the Marines are working and starting to make it a safer city.  We are glad to hear that.  Most families have joy and heartache at the same time.

We went to visit two other missionaries today that live about 4 miles from us — 1 of them is saying the same thing that we have been hearing — that in the weeks ahead the NW is going to be flooded with people and there will be no food because all of the relief efforts have gone to PAP.  So please pray that there will be a way to get food and help to the other areas of this hurting country.

On Sunday Mike’s sermon tried to deal with the crisis we are going through.  He first tried to explain what causes an earthquake, and he is far from being an expert, but our Haitian family has no idea.   He then went on to try to describe some of the things happening in PAP because none of them have been able to see pictures and most have no way to get any news except by word of mouth.  He chose to speak from three passages in Psalms.  He went on to say that although the earth may shake and houses may crumble, heaven does not shake and God’s throne cannot be moved.  He offered words of hope and encouragement from God’s Word, saying at this time we needed to hear God speak. He shared Psalms 46, 42 and 23.  With each of these he added words of encouragement and words of hope from the promises found in God’s Word.  At the end he lead a focused prayer time asking the people to pray specifically for each of these items.  I will not list them all but will condense some of them.  We know you are praying but we also ask that you pray specifically for some of these:

• For those still alive to be found.
• For the relief aide to get to those who need it so badly.
• For all of the broken hearts to be healed.
• For the orphans who have lost their parents and do not understand at all what has happened.
• For order to come to this chaos.
• For a calm to come over the people and for God’s peace to quiet their fears.
• That the world will not quickly turn their hearts and eyes from the country of Haiti.
• That this country will not just be rebuilt but that it will have a rebirth, a new nation will rise from the rubble.
• That people might turn to God and not away from Him.
• For God’s children to be strengthened and to be a shining light in a dark land.
• That the people of Haiti as well as the world will unite to help the homeless and feed the hungry.
• For wisdom to choose the right paths on a long road to recovery.

The rippling effects of the quake are already beginning to be felt.  Today as we sent some of our staff in to Port de Paix to buy supplies to sustain us for a little bit — prices are already escalating.  Odines got the last 100 of 120 bags of concrete at the depot in Port de Paix.  He was told not to buy gas if it was above $60.00 a gallon and it was — it was $80.00 a gallon.  It has doubled in price in two days.  He said that tap-tap after tap-tap was full of people coming to the north from Port au Prince.  We have had several of our staff needing to bring their families that survived the quake in PAP to Beauchamp and the surrounding areas.  They escaped with their lives but everything else is gone.

This is just the beginning of what is to come.  There will be a need for medical attention outside of PAP, for food for the starving who have left with nothing more than the clothes on their backs.  The need is going to be overwhelming.  The toll it takes on you when everyone you see is in need — and their needs are real — but how do you help them all.  I know that you can’t and God will direct our work.  We all need to be aware of the economic earthquake that is heading this way. Please pray that it does not cripple the entire country.  Whatever happens this is just the beginning of a long, long and hard road.

We would like to say that we are proud of our mission staff.  Some have gone to the front lines to help with the  medical needs in PAP.  Jody and other mission staff (Haitian and American alike) have worked tirelessly in getting the groups out of the country.   Janeil, Sam and Pam are trying to run the office as well as set up a major offensive plan for the future.  The phones are ringing off the hooks and the emails are endless.  The good side of that is that people are responding and people are showing their care and concern.

Thank you so much for caring about the people we love and the country we also call home.

Continue to check the main mission website for the best ways that you can help and be involved at the present time.    http://www.nwhcm.org