"There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brother and toward the poor and needy in your land." Deuteronomy 15:11

I just finished reading "The Hole In Our Gospel" by Richard Stearns, President of World Vision U.S.
(Thank you, Sandy, for sharing it with us). What a powerful testimony of a man who surrendered to the call of God on his life. 
While living in this town of Port-de-Paix, Haiti for the past 3 months, Ron and I have seen a small part of the 3 billion people in the world who are desperately poor, a small part of the 1 billion who are hungry, and my soul cringes to think how many of the millions we've seen who have been trafficked into human slavery. Ten million children in the world die needlessly each year, wars and conflicts are wreaking havoc, pandemic diseases are spreading, one of which is cholera. We have personally seen the effects of this. Our neighbor was taken to the hospital today with cholera. She left two small children and an older daughter behind to go to a hospital which is probably over-crowded with cholera patients. The hospital itself is not like any we could imagine. I pray for the Lord to have mercy on her and heal her so that she will be able to come home to her family. Come home to what? She and her family live in a guard shack with no door. Their kitchen sits in the front of the shack, the dishes sit on the ground where they cook, when they have food to cook. Right now they have no food. The smaller children eat here and at the girl's home. Their yard is a cesspool of green slimy water. Their pig lives outside the house. There is no husband that we know of. They carry water from the main road and wash their clothes in front of our garage and lay the clothes on the ground to dry or on the rock wall along the road. This is the life this lady will come back to if the Lord allows. Though she lives in these conditions, she is always smiling and waving at us and she sings quite often.
Ron and I have been blessed to be a part of the ministry of In the Father's Hand. The children here have their own personal story to tell. Some have parents or a parent, some don't. Some have brothers and sisters, some have even lost cousins recently to cholera. Can you imagine having to give your child away because you couldn’t feed that child? Some of the children here were abused so badly that they were one big bruise when they were brought here. All have been saved from a life of starvation, abuse and hopelessness.
You may be thinking that we have the same situations in America. Yes, we do. The difference is that in America there are government agencies to help the poor and abused. Here, the government is a lot of the problem. The government is so corrupt that they don’t want the people to live in better conditions. They want to keep them “under their feet.” They want the wealth for themselves and so the poor continue to live in extreme poverty here.
There are many needs within the ministry. Some of the most urgent needs are money for food and water and shoes and socks. It takes a lot of rice and beans to feed 100 children. It also takes a lot of water to provide baths and drink. Would you please pray with us for these needs to be met. If you feel that you would like to help in some way any help would be greatly appreciated. I would be glad to give information on how to help.
I mentioned at the beginning of this blog about the book I just finished reading. In it is a story, a parable, that made me think about what a difference one person can make in this world of impoverished people.
It's about one man and a million starfish.
"One early morning, after a fierce storm had hit the coast, I strolled to the beach for my morning walk. Horrified, I saw that tens of thousands of starfish had been washed up on the beach by the winds and waves. I was saddened by the realization that all of them would die, stranded on the shore, away from the life-giving water. Despairing that there was nothing I could do, I sat down on the sand and put my head in my hands.
But then I heard a sound, and I lifted my eyes. There, in the distance, I saw a man bending down and then standing up, bending down and standing up. Curious, I rose and walked toward him. I saw that he was picking up the starfish, one at a time, and throwing them back into the sea.
"What are you doing?" I yelled.
"Saving the starfish," he replied.
"But don't you see, man, that there are tens of thousands of them?" I asked, incredulous. "Nothing you can do will make a difference."
He did not answer me but instead bent down, picked up another starfish, and cast it back into the water. Then he smiled, looked me in the eye, and said, "It made a difference to that one!"

You may not be able to give much, and you may think that you can’t make a difference, but it doesn’t take much to make a difference.

 

"Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless;

Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.

Rescue the weak and needy;

Deliver them from the hand of the wicked."

Psalm 82:3-4

"Many of those who heard the Word believed." Acts 4:4

“This message came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “I am the Lord, the God of all the peoples of the world. Is anything too hard for me?” Jeremiah 32:26-27
Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
The first 2 weeks of school have gone well. Most of the boys have uniforms now. There is still a huge need for socks, underwear and backpacks.
The school cooks lunch for the children each day, and there is a program here through the U.N. and the World Hunger Program who has donated rice, beans and oil to the school. This provides a meal to all the children who attend Grace Christian School and for a lot of the children it is the only meal they get for the day. Through this program we have also received rice and beans to give to each family who has a child in the school. They will receive enough food for each family member periodically. The details haven’t been worked out yet, but it is truly a blessing to know that there is enough food to feed many families who are in great need.
Last week Pastor Andy held a church-planting revival across the river to the west. The area is even more impoverished than Port-de-Paix. We had been unable to go along because the river has been very high and too dangerous for us to cross. There is no bridge and we would have to drive the truck across. Sunday was the church dedication so we were finally able to go and oh! What a blessing. There were about 100 people there for the dedication and 30 people accepted Christ throughout the week. Praise God for Pastor Andy’s obedience to plant the church.

  These are some of the 30 who accepted Christ.

                                     


We have a team here from our home church, Stevens Street Baptist Church, which has been exciting for Ron and me. Dr. Alex Case and his wife Rhonda, who left Saturday, were among those who came, and brought enough medicine to conduct a 3-day medical clinic for the community here. What a privilege it has been to work beside them in ministering to the sick here. There were 430 patients seen and 23 salvations and an untold amount of medicine handed out. Thank you, Alex and Rhonda, for giving your time and love to these people. You are already missed!

　                                 

                                      

                                

                                 

                                 

Ron and I are doing good. The heat is draining as well as the daily struggles with the living conditions, as anyone who has been here knows, but we know that Father has placed us here for a purpose and every day when we look into the eyes of these boys, we know we are where He wants us at this time. We thank you for your prayers as we continue to serve here. We know that through your prayers we receive strength. May God be glorified by all we say and do.

                                    


“I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart and I will glorify Your name forevermore."
Psalm 86:12

“Your Words were found, and I ate them, And Your Word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O Lord God of Hosts.” Jeremiah 15:16

Today (10-11) school started for the Haitian children and young ladies and men. There has been much excitement, a little apprehension in some, and a few who just did not want to go. There are no uniforms yet for our boys. The young men should have theirs tomorrow. The rest of the boys will have theirs soon. The girls are so colorful with their hair bows and ponytail holders. I love that all the students here have to wear uniforms. That makes them all equal to each other when they are in school. Even here there are some who have more than others and the ones who have less are looked down on. Jesus said “There will always be poor among us.” Praise God that in His eyes we are all equal.

This year the Lord has provided another building for the children, as well as the one they have been using. The pre-schoolers are in the most recently rented building. It has been very crowded in the past. Now there is a little more room. There are about 206 children attending now but that is expected to increase to about 300 in the next week.

As I sit here writing this, I hear children in the school closest to us singing. It brings joy to my heart.

M prayer request for our children is that their minds and hearts would be open to desire to learn the most that they can. So many here can’t read or write very well. It is a struggle for them to learn. Many haven’t had the opportunity to go to school until they came here. Please pray that their hearts would be filled with the desire to read so that they will be able to read God’s Word with understanding.

                                        

There has been much work going on in the boy’s home. We have been working on the classroom, hoping to be able to use it for English classes, Bible studies and meetings very soon. It will be much easier to work with small groups in a more controlled environment. This work had to be put on hold for a short time so that tables could be built for the preschool children at school.

                                         

Pastor Andy has been praying for 8 years for a cross for the church. That prayer was answered this week as a cross was built, painted, lights attached and the cross mounted. Praise God for answered prayer. The smile on Pastor’s face was priceless! There have also been 2 other crosses with lights mounted recently. One is above the main gate to “The Land” (the boys home) and the other is overlooking the sea at the other side of the home. We are so thankful for the cross and what it means to us.

                                   

                                   

Apparently money is coming into Port-de-Paix for rebuilding. There is a lot of road work being done downtown. It almost looks like a battle zone. Buildings are being torn down to widen the roads. In our neighborhood we have new road signs! So exciting to see!

We have a team here from the states for a week which includes Tiffany (Keith and Cindy’s daughter), M’lin, Tiffany’s husband and their baby (for those who don’t know them). The baby is so beautiful. The pictures just don’t do justice!!!. There is another team coming Sunday for 2 weeks from our home church. They will be doing medical clinics and rebuilding part of the seawall. We are so grateful that there are people willing to serve here. The needs are great!.

Pastor Andy will be traveling to a small community across the river next week to do a revival. Please pray for that time of sharing the Gospel with the people there. We are also planning to take the Medical team there, maybe 2 days. This is a much poorer part of the country than even Port-de-Paix. We are excited to see Father work there.

I will close for now with these words from my devotion today: From Psalm 84:5,11

“Our hope is in the omnipresent Lord God, who travels with us each step of our journey. He is the one who sheds light on our dark path and protects us from evil. His grace and glory make our wilderness a place of refreshing springs with pools of blessings. Because He will not withhold from us any good thing, we can have peace in His faithfulness to supply all we need.”

School starts in one more week!

We found out yesterday that school starts for our children on the 11th.  We thought it was the 6th but for some reason it isn't until next week.  We got our hopes up only to have to wait another week.  I don't know about the boys but the adults here are excited for school to start.  Maybe we will have a little quiet time in the mornings.  Right now there is noise from daylight until way after dark. 

Starting Monday we will go on our school schedule, which means that the boys will get up at 6 a.m.  and go to bed at 8 p.m.  No movies until Friday night. 

Grace Christian School was founded by Keith Lashbrook and is run by Pastor Andy, who oversees Lashbrook Family Ministry.  There will be approximately 300 students attending.  This includes the children of Grace Chapel, the children in the neighborhood who can't afford to go to another school and the children in Lashbrook Family Ministry.

Today, which is Saturday, there was a prayer, praise and worship service at the church to pray for the children who will be attending the school this year.  It was amazing.  2 1/2 hrs. of prayer and singing and praising.  The church was full of children and some adults worshipping the Lord.  What a great time of honoring our Father.  It is so nice not to have a time limit on our worship here.  I think it should be that way everywhere!

Our boys here still need socks, shoes and backpacks for school.  We are trusting the Lord to provide all that is needed.  There is also a financial need.  As you probably can imagine it is not cheap to send all these children to school, but we know that the Lord has it all worked out.  It is exciting to see how He will supply.

This has been a great day.  Good news from my son, who had outpatient surgery and ended up in the hospital for 2 days afterward.  He is much better now and at home.  Praise the Lord for answering our prayers there. 

As I am writing this I am looking out over the sea and there is a magnificent double rainbow.  It goes from one side of the island, across the sea to the other island.  There is no artist greater than our Father. 

Hmmm... I just read the story of Noah and the ark last night to the little boys....Our God is Awesome.

"His glory covered the heavens and the earth was full of His praise."  Habakkuh2:3

The past month has been such a blessing for us.  We have seen the Lord work in so many ways.  We serve an awesome God and we are so thankful that He has called us to serve Him in this place.  Everyday has been an experience that we will never forget.  We love watching the boys grow to trust us and respect us.  They call Ron Won, because they can't pronounce "R".  They call me Kawen.  We hear our names being called all day long. 
I think the fighting has slowed down, at least for today.  They don't like to have to sit all day for fighting and they don't like to have to follow Won awound all day when they get in twouble.  Won works them cleaning the outhouse and lots of other things.  Well, I think they did have a good time cleaning the bathrooms.  Ron cleaned and they carried water.
Every day there are new wounds to doctor.  I have accused the boys of getting hurt on purpose so they get a little extra attention.  It has been a good way for us to have one on one time with the boys.  Everybody needs a little extra TLC when they get hurt. We love to love on them and they love being loved on.  Some show it more than others.  I just wish it didn't involve pain.  We've had some pretty bad wounds.  It seems that the boys don't have any concept of danger.  They just play as hard as they can each day without thinking about safety.
The heat has been unbearable most days, with only a shower here and there.  Until today!  It rained this morning and cooled off this afternoon with overcast skies and lots of the boys had sweaters on.  It was funny.  I finally felt comfortable and they were freezing.  I hope tomorrow is as cool.
Two new interns arrived today.  They will be working with the girls. We are so excited for the girls.  It seems like the boys and the toddlers get so much more attention.  The interns are just out of high school so they will be good for them.
We took some of the boys to the river on the other side of town the other day.  I had never been there and I'm not sure that the boys had been there.  It was interesting.  There were people crossing in trucks, cars, boats, motorcycles and on foot.  The water was very brown and cows were drinking in it and lots of people bathing and washing clothes.  There is a bridge being built to cross but it is in the very first stages of the building process.  It will be a great day when it gets finished.

Some of the boys went fishing last week and caught several fish.  They had a great time.  Most of the fish were very small but they cooked every one of them.  They were cooking all afternoon.  They were very happy boys.

It was so cool to watch Ron give out marbles.  They made a line and Ron put all the marbles in a bucket and the boys had to pick one at a time without looking.  They were so excited they could hardly be still.  When they got one that was especially good they would dance around to the end of the line.  Amazing what joy marbles can bring.  There's always a down side, though.  They get in trouble sometimes for fighting over them.  When they play marbles they play for keeps, so it can get competitive.  All in all, much fun!

Some of the boys are into flying kites.  Since we live on the ocean most days there is some wind, so kite-flying is good.  They make their own kites out of pieces of plastic that they find and small sticks.  I love to watch them.  They really know how to work the kite string. This picture is Massa and the kite he made.

Some of the boys build carts out of pieces of wood and scraps of whatever they can find.  They had some old roller skates that they took the wheels off of and put on the carts and they push each other around in them.  They get leftover paint and use that for color.  There is quite a bit of talent within these walls.  We just need to encourage their growth.  There just isn't a lot to work with here.

I had a birthday this month.  It was a very good day.  Special meals and gifts and many friends.  It was hard being away from my family, though.  I don't think I've spent a birthday away from them.  One highlight of the day was that one of the boys here, whose name is Massa,  is now sharing my birthday with me.  He came here with no information about who he is or when his birthday is.  He said he was seven years old.   Since there are no other birthdays in September we decided that we should celebrate Massa's birthday this month and since mine is the 13th,  well, I think that's a great day for Massa to have his birthday.  Now he is eight.  One of the boys asked me yesterday if he had a birthday and I told him yes.  He asked Massa how old he was and with a huge smile on his face, Massa held up 4 fingers on each hand.  I am so happy for him.

As you can see we stay quite busy here.  There is always something going on.  It seems that the days are very long and the nights are very short.  Rest doesn't come easy.  The boys are up at daylight and they go strong until way after dark.  Their bedtime is at 8:30 and 9:30 and our bedtime is 10:30 or 11 on a good night.  I have taken a few naps but it's usually too hot to sleep. 

The natives are getting restless and I must go and tuck them in so I will close for now.  We do need your prayers desperately as we battle each day against the powers of evil, the heat and the living conditions.  We see much change in the attitudes of the boys but there is still much work to be done.  Please pray that our gracious Father would replace the hurt and anger in their hearts with His peace, joy and love.

God bless you and goodnight for now.

Hot, Hot, Hot!

Well, It is really hot.  It's hot when you sweat while you're taking a bath with cold water.  Actually it isn't cold.  I miss the cold water we had in April.  I'm not sure what happened to it.

Things have been very exciting since we've been here.  The boys are adjusting to us and accepting the new authority in their lives.  It's great to see the changes in them from day to day.  I love getting hugs from the ones who use to be too shy to come to me.  Lots of work is being done.  Many old rules are being enforced and a few new rules have been put in place. 

Ron has become Dr. Ron.  He spends hours every day doctoring cuts, old wounds, new wounds and scrapes.  He works on our boys and some of the boys from outside the compound.  The boys love all of the attention. It's amazing how many little scratches and cuts they can find to put a bandaid on.

The menu is about the same as before.  There are a few meals that are new but the food supply has gone down quite a bit since April.  There are a few more crates coming.  We really need some canned meats.  Last night we had chicken and dumplings without the chicken.  That required lots of maggie (chicken boullion).  It was very tasty.  Lisha is a very good cook.  She has lots of practice feeding many people here.

We got to take the boys to the beach last week but were not able to go to the nice beach that we planned to  go to.  After a very long ride, crossing a river and a pond we had to turn around and go to another beach that wasn't as clean because the road was washed out and a big truck was stuck.  We couldn't get past.  One of the boys said,  "If we don't get to go to the beach the boys will cry in their hearts."  My heart melted.  Some of the older boys wouldn't get in the water where we went because it wasn't real clean but most of them got in and had lots of fun.  We took peanut butter sandwiches and water and the pastor and his wife stopped and bought sugar cane and bags of "cheese puffs".  All in all it was a very good day.

There is a mother and daughter here for 2 wks. to work with the girls and they have also been spending time with the boys.  There is also a young man who was here with a team in April while I was here who is staying for 3 mos.  He is a huge help in getting some projects done.  He and some of the boys who live here built a cabinet for Madame Pastor for all of her medical supplies. A couple came in today for 2 wks. who are looking at possibly working with the girls.  They are also looking at a few other places.  We are praying for Father to give them a heart for Haiti and allow them to stay here and serve.

There are a lot of battles each day that we would ask for prayer about.

One is the generator.  It seems that it is a great struggle to keep one running each night.  We are in constant prayer over that situation.

Another is the relationships between the boys.  They seem to have days when all they want to do is fight with each other.  It seems to be an every day thing to break up fights.  Some are not as bad as others but it is not good for them to fight each other.  I know brothers fight and boys will be boys but I am praying that the Lord will bring peace and love for each other into their hearts that they will not want to fight.

Finally I would ask for prayer for Pastor Andy.  He has not been feeling well and the drs. have found nothing wrong with him.  He has decided that it is a spiritual battle that only prayer can heal.  We are in agreement with that.

These requests are only a few of the many battles before us, but our Lord is in control and we know that we can conquer through Him and with prayer.  All the powers of darkness can't drown out a single Word.  He reigns!! 

Thank you for praying with us as we serve.

It's already been a week!!

Can't believe it's already been a week since we got here.  It has gone by very fast.  Probably because there has been so much going on.  Revival was still going on last week.  We were getting to know the boys again after being away for awhile and getting settled in to our home away from home.  Saturday was a day of fun and lots of preparation for the celebration at church Sunday.  It started with 32 people getting baptized in the ocean at 6 am.  Then a cow was killed for the feeding of the community after the 4 hour church service Sunday.  There are always things going on with the boys so I wouldn't have time to mention all of those.  Sunday was a wonderful day even though we fought the powers of evil all day and into the night.  The generators quit working so there was no power at the church for a while.  The tarp in front of the church kept blowing away. There was a fight in church with one of our boys and another boy, and 2 other fights with our boys.  One of the street boys fell in the yard and gashed his brow.  It took 4 butterfly stitches and it really needed the real thing.  He ended up getting new shoes, clothes and a cap so his pain was not in vain.  Through all these things the Lord provided enough food to feed close to 1000 people.  What a blessing to see all those men, women and children being fed.
This has been a hot, humid week but today we had some relief.  There were bands of storms that came through from the hurricane that went by us and provided some much needed rest from the heat. 
We have been in the process of re-inforcing rules and regulations that have been in place but not enforced.  This has been an adjustment for all but it seems to be working well.  The boys aren't in school yet so they have lots of free time during the day.  We are working on filling some of that time up.  There is never a dull moment here and not much spare time to relax.  We are taking the boys to the beach about 10 - 15 miles away tomorrow if the weather permits.  The rain may flood the roads that we have to travel on so that would prevent us from going.  We are all looking forward to it so God willing that will be our day tomorrow.
Now it is time for a bucket bath with water that I really wish was cooler than it is.  (Can't believe I said that :)
Please pray for peace and brotherhood between the boys.  There has been lots of fighting between several of them.  It's hard to know what kind of lives they had before coming here but now they can know the love of their heavenly Father and His grace and mercy in their lives. 
Please pray for Ron and I to receive wisdom and much patience as we learn to love and care for these boys.
Also pray for strength and continued good health for all here.
We love you all and truly need the power of your prayers as we fight the battles before us each day.
God bless and keep you well!