Thursday, July 18, 2013

Train Them Up

Hannah & Esther have been busy too. And it's awesome to have them as part of the ministry we're doing, and knowing all the things that they're learning and experiencing will stay with them, hopefully for a very long time. They've added an extra something to the visiting teams we're hosting (everyone loves them!) and to the people we're visiting, whether co-workers, passers-by, or others we're sharing with.

Right now, they're busy playing in big bowls of water in the bathroom, and I'm trying not to think of the mess they're making. Instead, I'm glad of a bit of time to write and catch up before the next team (with Dynamic Women in Missions) arrives in a couple of hours.

[OK, so it's now a few days later, and the Dynamic Women in Missions team has been great to work with here. More on that later.]

So here's an update on what the girls have been up to:


Checking out the construction site at Petite Anse. And chasing the bobcat.


And generally just looking cool in the back of the truck...



And while I take photos like these 
(of Radio 4VEH's 63rd Anniversary Soccer Match between Pastors & Priests)






The girls are taking pictures too...

And posing for them...



Love this!



Cheering for the Pastors (who lost, ooops...)

Esther bravely agreed to have her photo taken with these little guys,
who were calling her Ti Blan (little white girl)


And Hannah's fascinated with geckos, taking (way too) many photos of them.


Saturday, July 13, 2013

Power of a Testimony: Martin

I had just left one group of young people from our Kentucky/Indiana team, having taken plenty of photos of them as they shared the Gospel with several different households in Dérac, a dusty town near the Dominican Republic border.



They were well prepared to share the Gospel, but needed a little help with some of the more conversational aspects to meeting people and beginning a dialogue about faith here. "How are you?" "How's your family?" "Do you have any children?" "How many people live with you here?", "Are you part of a church?" "Is there something you'd like us to pray for you about?"


Part of those conversations helped us learn that this lady had four children, one of whom had been in hospital for two months with some leg problems. She spoke about attending the local Catholic church, her faith, and of holding firm to God and following Him. Though she didn't have a Bible, she talked about the importance of knowing and hearing God's Word. We were able to pray for her and for her family. She was very glad to have the solar radio/audio New Testament we left with her.

I'd been engrossed in these conversations (at times translating) then remembered that I needed to photograph some of the 4VEH staff that had come with us on the distribution. I wanted to get some photos of Haitians (4VEH staff) ministering to Haitians (people receiving the radios), to try and balance out the foreigner focus that is a natural outcome of taking photos when visiting teams are here.  


I found Elijah (from Columbus), Martin (UK team) (from the left), and Elima and Rosa (from the right) in conversation with Jacques (blue shirt). Rosa translated for Martin and Elijah's benefit, saying, "Jacques wants to accept Jesus." Great, I thought, got here just in time.

As the conversation moved into the man's home, and he continued sharing his story, my eyes started welling up with tears as I recalled the conversation Martin and I had had in the back of the truck on the way here. Martin had been a drunk, neglecting his family, until he ended up in church (where his wife attended) and heard the Gospel for the first time. His face beamed as he told me how God had transformed his life.

Now standing at the door of this man's small home, I'm having a God moment. You know, when you realize God's in this, He's planned this, His fingerprints are all over what's going on right now. Why? Because Jacques was having troubles in his marriage, and he knew he needed the Savior. Martin shared powerfully how God had transformed his life, his marriage and his family - not overnight, but slowly as Martin lived out the new life he had found in Jesus. And Jacques came to Jesus.

And who knows 

but that you have come to your royal position

[...to Haiti on this mission trip...to this village...to the place that you, reader, are at...]

for such a time as this?  



And Martin was there to witness Jacques making that life-changing decision for himself, as Elima led Jacques in a simple sinner's prayer.

What joy!

Rosa and Elima (both 4VEH presenters) show Jacques how to use
his new 4VEH solar radio/audio New Testament, letting him know when he can hear them on the radio.
They also took his phone number to stay in touch, and urged him to connect with the local church for support. 
If there's one common theme that I'm seeing and learning during our time here, it's the power of our testimonies, of testifying to what God has done and is doing in our lives. What about you? Who are you sharing your God story with?

Thursday, July 4, 2013

The Four Hour Trip (that took 10...)

We were glad to have a bunch of adventurous people with us recently.

We'd planned with Stewart Dawson (working with us in the Resounding Hope initiative) that the team coming to Haiti with him would be 'guinea pigs' and come with us into a new area for evangelism & giving out solar radios. Four guys from the UK were also here at that time, so with three guys from our church in Columbus, the youth team with Stewart, Medson (head of our evangelism/radio distribution program), a few co-workers, translators and us, there were 30 of us on this adventure.

Our destination? Our partner (downlink) station 4VEN in Mirebalais, in the Central Plateau region. It's the newest of 4VEH's downlinks, started in 2011, and this trip was our first opportunity to meet Kevin & Tracy Bolin with 4VEN, and their partner ministry Global Vision Citadel Ministries. And our goal? To take 100 solar radios tuned to 4VEN, and work with them to share the Gospel and give out the radios in an area they had already identified.

But the challenges had begun before we even set off on this trip, the main problem being the arrival of the solar radios from our partners at Galcom. With challenges on their end with production, then set-backs in shipping to Miami (the radios were held up in customs in Miami), then praise God, they were released in time to get on the weekly cargo flight to Cap-Haitien, then another customs set-back in Cap. Someone did not want those radios to get here.

So, by the time we got in the truck and van early Saturday morning, we were ready for our adventure. Just didn't realize how much of an adventure it was going to be.

The first hint that things weren't going to go as planned - this high river crossing at St. Raphael. When we saw that even the big trucks were turning around, we knew we'd have to do the same.  The van would never make it (though there were guys willing to be hired to lead/direct/carry the van across :)
 So, we headed in the direction of St. Michel de l'Attalaye, somehow thinking it was a similar length route than the one we'd planned. Not too long after, we had to stop again.


Another high river? Nope, a collapsed bridge. It occurred to me (not for the first time that day) that perhaps we'd be just turning back to where we came from and admitting defeat. Nope.

What's going on??

Turns out, the guys at the collapsed bridge were working on a solution.  Knock down part of the bridge that had not been destroyed, and create a path through the riverbed and up the other side. Sounds simple. It was not....

Stewart Dawson's passion for telling people about Jesus was not hindered by the delay.   On the contrary, he had a captive audience and didn't waste a minute. As we later reflected on our day, it was perhaps for this opportunity to speak with these people that God has sent us on a different route.  

It was good entertainment watching the local guys destroying a bridge and watching a bunch of "blans" (foreigners)  watching the local guys destroying a bridge. 
Ok, so there's barely enough space now to squeeze the van through the mud/stream and up the other side, avoiding the tree, the side of the bridge and the hundreds of people wanting a closer look. Glad Storly was driving and not me. 

Push!!!!

Pull!!!!


Pull!!! (Good job, Rob Simpson!)

So, the van and then the truck squeezed through, and we're all set to continue the journey. 

About five minutes later, our guys got in position again, this time to pull us (in the van) out of the mud.

The kindness of strangers! It's true that Medson knew him, so when we stopped outside his wood shop, he welcomed 30 of us into his yard in St. Michel de l'Attalaye so we could eat our packed lunch. As we were leaving, he wanted to show us the best way to continue through the high rivers. His 'best way' was to walk through the river, showing us the way. What a gesture of grace! 

 Many more rivers to go through, many other opportunities to pull others out of the middle of the river.




Yep, that's us in the van! (Thanks to Rob and Elijah Simpson for some of these photos)

After our guys pulled us through the river, they helped this guy who'd been stuck a while too. 





All the visitors with us got to see a lot more of Haiti than they'd anticipated. 

After recovering from all the river encounters, I managed to get some shots of the gorgeous countryside. 

...including the rice fields of the Artibonite, Haiti's "rice basket". 

Man, were we glad to finally reach Global Vision Citadelle Ministries (Radio Vision Globale 4VEN) in Mirebalais.

Good to meet Kevin & staff of 4VEN!  (Not so good to look at the map and realize just how far - the long way round - we had come).

Storly with the 4VEN team. 
 So, we'd arrived at our destination, exhausted. Our plans had been changed. That happens sometimes. We were still thrilled to hand over the 100 solar radios to Kevin, who was more thrilled than we were. (Kevin: "We just gave away our last 4 radios last week, then we heard you were coming to bring us these new ones! We know exactly where we're going to give these out.")

There's still more to this adventure, but I'm exhausted just thinking about it. It was a good reminder of just how hard it can be to travel in Haiti (and other places in the world). Not just for us, traveling with visiting teams. But for everyone, traveling to get a sick kid to a hospital, or crops to the market. A night of rain can stop you in your tracks. Wash out a road. Force a change of plan. We had another option, albeit a long, challenging, wet option. Many people have no other options.