While our responses to the recent tragedies in Japan and Alabama continue to unfold, ministry continues in New Orleans, Myanmar, Peru and Haiti. For updates go to touchglobal.org/crisisresponse
Four men gathered. Four prayers offered. Four languages spoken… Lingala, Czech, Creole and English. This was God at work in Haiti last week. I traveled to Haiti last week to connect with Pastor Ibengi, a missionary sent from the Congolese Evangelical Free Church, and a short-term mission team representing several churches from the Czech Republic. When Ibengi, Daniel ( both pictured) from Prague, and I visited Pastor Enoch, of Gressier, Haiti, to share and pray, it was a beautiful expression of God’s Kingdom, and His humor, since we found French, none of our native tongues, to be the most effective language for our conversations.
Pastor Ibengi arrived in the first week of April, and will be in Haiti until early June. He will be joined by Pastor Fidele, also from Congo later this month, also for a two month stay. Ibengi has been received as a ‘star’ of sorts, from another continent, yet seen as brother. They will spend time learning about the Haitian church and culture, which Ibengi described and “just like home”. They will also do some teaching and pastoral training, build relationships and determine if there would be a call from God for them to return to Haiti early next year to serve as long term missionaries.
Daniel was making his second visit to Haiti, and was talking about his 3rd and 4th in the future before he left. His team was an amazing blessing. Here’s a brief summary of all they did:
• They started the work on a new clinic facility near our house in Gressier. It is being constructed by our partner Haiti Health Ministries. HHM has been providing quality medical care in Haiti for over 20 years, but since the earthquake destroyed their facility, they have shared a small space with our neighboring ministry. They built a permanent latrine facility and helped get the building foundations started. Our prior week’s team actually laid the first block for the entire project. We are blessed to be able to help this partner in the long term project. Come and be a part of this work!
• Another ministry we have been serving is Macombre Christian School. The ’quake collapsed all the school structures, except the administration building, and a large concrete water tank. The tank was severely damaged and rendered unusable. So last year, we installed a temporary clean water system for the 800 kids. But we also had a dream to be able to restore and reinforce the tank and be able to supply safe water for the community as well. Through partnership with Valley Church (CA), funds were provided for the materials, yet we lacked the team with the needed skills to complete the work, until the Czechs arrived with several concrete and block tradesmen. More work will be needed, but the Czechs completed the bulk of the repair.
• They also continued to support the ongoing community shelter project. They did some work on the shelters, but did a lot of community relationship building, prayer and house blessings. Wes said we we're now approaching 900 shelters completed, that’s a roof over the heads of 4,500 people. (Pastor Stanislaus pictured.)
• They also had a man on team that came considering adoption through our ministry partner, Operation Love the Child Haiti (Jasmine’s orphanage for those who’ve served with us).
• And, they invested time in ongoing construction work on our house.
May God multiply the ministry in Haiti, and around the world through our international partner relationships.
Four men gathered. Four prayers offered. Four languages spoken… Lingala, Czech, Creole and English. This was God at work in Haiti last week. I traveled to Haiti last week to connect with Pastor Ibengi, a missionary sent from the Congolese Evangelical Free Church, and a short-term mission team representing several churches from the Czech Republic. When Ibengi, Daniel ( both pictured) from Prague, and I visited Pastor Enoch, of Gressier, Haiti, to share and pray, it was a beautiful expression of God’s Kingdom, and His humor, since we found French, none of our native tongues, to be the most effective language for our conversations.Pastor Ibengi arrived in the first week of April, and will be in Haiti until early June. He will be joined by Pastor Fidele, also from Congo later this month, also for a two month stay. Ibengi has been received as a ‘star’ of sorts, from another continent, yet seen as brother. They will spend time learning about the Haitian church and culture, which Ibengi described and “just like home”. They will also do some teaching and pastoral training, build relationships and determine if there would be a call from God for them to return to Haiti early next year to serve as long term missionaries.
Daniel was making his second visit to Haiti, and was talking about his 3rd and 4th in the future before he left. His team was an amazing blessing. Here’s a brief summary of all they did:
• They started the work on a new clinic facility near our house in Gressier. It is being constructed by our partner Haiti Health Ministries. HHM has been providing quality medical care in Haiti for over 20 years, but since the earthquake destroyed their facility, they have shared a small space with our neighboring ministry. They built a permanent latrine facility and helped get the building foundations started. Our prior week’s team actually laid the first block for the entire project. We are blessed to be able to help this partner in the long term project. Come and be a part of this work!
• Another ministry we have been serving is Macombre Christian School. The ’quake collapsed all the school structures, except the administration building, and a large concrete water tank. The tank was severely damaged and rendered unusable. So last year, we installed a temporary clean water system for the 800 kids. But we also had a dream to be able to restore and reinforce the tank and be able to supply safe water for the community as well. Through partnership with Valley Church (CA), funds were provided for the materials, yet we lacked the team with the needed skills to complete the work, until the Czechs arrived with several concrete and block tradesmen. More work will be needed, but the Czechs completed the bulk of the repair.
• They also continued to support the ongoing community shelter project. They did some work on the shelters, but did a lot of community relationship building, prayer and house blessings. Wes said we we're now approaching 900 shelters completed, that’s a roof over the heads of 4,500 people. (Pastor Stanislaus pictured.)• They also had a man on team that came considering adoption through our ministry partner, Operation Love the Child Haiti (Jasmine’s orphanage for those who’ve served with us).
• And, they invested time in ongoing construction work on our house.
May God multiply the ministry in Haiti, and around the world through our international partner relationships.
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1 comment:
It's great to hear what's been happening there. We just shared with some of my colleagues today and now reading this makes it seem so near even though we still have a year to go. Thanks for the update, and Praise God and the work he is doing in Haiti.
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