October 2011 Newsletter

Greetings friends!  Martie and I trust that this finds you well and confident in our faithful Lord. We are back in Alabama for a season after a wonderful time in Jacmel Haiti.  I spent nearly three months there and Martie joined me for the last week of my stay.  I am pleased to report that our time there was very productive but only because of the Lord’s intervention.  Our experience in Haiti and on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi has shown us that God’s call is always to something that is bigger than we are.  We believe that is so because He is to be glorified in all we do for Him.  If we could do it on our own it would leave no room for His glory.   

Children’s Hope is the ministry that we have partnered with in Jacmel.  Andy and Tanya Birchfield are the directors.  They have a passion for fulfilling the imperative we are given in James 1:27 – visiting the orphans in their affliction – and they have done just that by reaching out to 18 orphans in Jacmel. Espwa Timoun Yo is Children’s Hope in Creole, the common language of Haiti.

Pathfinder Mission is helping Children’s Hope build an orphanage that will eventually host 60 children. For the past three months we have been converting 5 shipping containers on property near the Jacmel airport into the first phase of the orphanage.  On October first, 18 children who had lived in a tent after the earthquake and then in a rented house provided by Children’s Hope, moved into their new home.  The children are now in school, some for the first time, and are in a home that is clean and safe.  They are well fed and loved.  We are thrilled that we could be a part of making this happen.

For now, the Lord has us serving apart in both Alabama and Haiti.  It’s our heart to serve together and look forward to the day that we will spend most of our time together in Haiti. For the next month and a half we will be in Alabama and California.  We are catching up with doctors’ visits, taking care of ‘life’ issues and enjoying our time together.

Martie and I believe that the Lord has called us to serve in Haiti for the foreseeable future. We would never have believed it if someone told us that we were going to have a passion for Haiti, even two years ago. Psalm 37:4, roughly paraphrased, says that if we pursue God, He will put His passion in our hearts … we will care about what He cares about … and so we find ourselves in this place with a passion for the Haitian people and the plight of the orphans who live there.

November Trip to California. We are going to California to meet with folks in both the Northern and Southern parts of the state.  We are going to meet with folks who are helping us plan the construction of Phase 2 of Children’s Hope, to recruit volunteers to help with the work and meet with a good friend who is developing a portable block press that we can use to make better blocks used in construction in Haiti.  Phase 2 includes 8 buildings, a septic system, the possibility of a second well, and developing a solution for providing power to the orphanage.   Like I said, God calls us to do things that are beyond us do He can be glorified through us. 

At present, I plan to return to Haiti in mid-December.  I will be preparing for two construction teams that are scheduled in January.  They will build a roof and porch for the bath house at Children’s Hope.  I should be back in Alabama before Christmas and then will return to Haiti in February. 

While I am in the States, we will also be raising support for our work.  God provides but He does it through the Body of Christ.  Asking for help has never been one of my strengths … but the reality is that it takes money to do ministry.  We have been living by faith since 2004 and I still choke when I ask people to help us.

Having said that … please pray about your helping us with financial support.  I know that we all are facing tough economic times … Jesus praised the widow for giving what she had to give … it is God who brings the increase .. we are confident that where God guides, He provides.

Martie and I thank God for you and your participation in this work whether it be financially, prayerfully, as a volunteer, or some combination.  Until next month

Bondye Beni Ou  (God Bless You)