Update from Haiti

Here is probably the final update we will get from A's mission team. We are thankful for these tiny tidbits. We miss him so much, but are so proud of all that he is doing. Please note the prayer request for tomorrow in the voo doo village. We are prayerful that in this area of darkness that many would see light. It will likely be a place unlike anything that "A" has ever seen.


Hello everyone,

You are receiving this email as a mid-week update from our mission team in Haiti. Thank you for your prayers for them. We are having a great time in Haiti.

We arrived safely and with only a slight delay on Saturday. After our flight was delayed a little over an hour, we got to Port au Prince (the capital of Haiti). It was a great trip with zero problems. Thanks for your prayers!

Sunday, we went to church at Darbon Chateau. We were able to provide the church with a generator, which helps them have LIGHT! Imagine the excitement of having lights in a village without electricity! The Pastor, the congregation, and the community were excited! After that, we went to the church at Darbon and were able to give them a generator as well! What a blessing!

After lunch Sunday, we had a creole lesson, went on a walk through 2 Haitian villages, and then sorted our supplies. We brought in enough supplies for over 70 bags. We made "Family Bags" which we will be distributing as we work this week.

Monday was a day of preparation. We prepared our items for our teacher's conference. We have some teachers on our team and they are doing a great job helping the Haitian teachers. We have brought school supplies magazines, which the Haitian High School teachers have been able to look at and make a "wish list" for future trips. We brought in information for science class, social studies/history, and even computers! Through generous donations, we were able to bring in 10 laptop computers, which will be given to 10 High School teachers. The teachers are going to use their computers to build a Computer Lab for students, and the teachers will take the computers home every day. How awesome to think we are helping them in an area like computer skills! AMAZING!!

Today we presented our teachers conference to the teachers and each one was thoroughly blessed. They are getting ready to eat lunch at the mission and each of our missionaries are working hard to take care of them.

Please pray for us this week. We will go tomorrow to the village of Au Bon Pair. It is a new village for New Missions to be in and we will be going to there to do Village Ministry and give out the bags we made. Au Bon Pair is one of the local VooDoo strongholds. We know the gospel message is met there with opposition and have even heard that the local VooDoo priest has been complaining about the New Missions school and church. We ask you pray for the TRUE LIGHT to be seen in this dark area. While we are safe physically while we are here, we desperately want our minds and Spirits to be strengthened as well! Thanks for your prayers...

This week will see us visit with sponsored children, the sponsored children of friends, and going to many villages. Thanks for praying for us and remembering us while we are here. We look forward to seeing you when we get back to the states. Make sure you ask us about our trip...you might be surprised at what we saw!

Mesi Jezi...
The Haiti Mission Team

Talked to A today!!!

We actually heard his voice today!!! What a blessing! He was getting ready to go into church when we got through to him. He sounded great. Said that he got to spend all of last Sunday with his little boy, Bendy. Gave Bendy's family lots of groceries and other gifts and got to attend church with him.

Before A got on the phone with us, our buddy Brent told us that last week that A shared the gospel "with great clarity" at a Vacation Bible School and that 60-70 kids were saved!!!! He also told us that in the hut to hut ministry in villages that A is the first to go in so that he can share the Good News of Christ with the families in Haiti. We are overflowing with gratitude to the Lord for the work that He has been doing in A this year.

Please continue to pray for God to use him in sweet ways in Haiti. As his parents, we are also praying for his continued safety and health while there. We'll keep you updated, but don't expect to hear from him until we receive him at the airport :)

E-mail from A's Mission Team (Long)

Got this today :) S0 happy to hear from them all!!!!!!!!!! We still haven't heard a word from A personally, but it was WONDERFUL to hear from the team! Can't wait to see his sweet face next Sunday!

Bonswa Everyone!!!! (for those of you not in Haiti... that means Good Day!)

Haiti has been amazing!!! God has truly gone before in every situation. We landed in Haiti on Saturday to beautiful weather, and a very calm airport!
Which is always a joyous gift in Haiti. We arrived @ the mission safely, and ran to the beach to love on some beautiful Haitian children!!! Those moments are what make this trip UNFORGETABLE!!!! On Sunday we went to church in Ti Riviere -where the pastor brought the WORD, and thru the help a translator - even the American's got fired up, and we all worshipped as ONE... different colors, different languages, but worshipping the same God with all the LOVE in our hearts. It was beautiful. After church, we began to sort the over 7500 pounds of supplies that we brought in. We also began planning and organizing for our
1 day VBS that would happen on Tuesday.

Monday, we went to Con Crab (which has a new pastor) which opened the door for us to come in and do ministry that we haven't been able to do it before. God truly ordered our steps and used our team to minister to this village, and there are 25 Haitians that will now join us all in Heaven; trust me... it wasn't just the Angels celebrating - we were celebrating right along with them! We also passed out tickets for Rice, and our team came back and immediately set up for a rice feeding. It was so sweet to get to do evangelism with that village, and then be able to bless the entire village with enough rice to feed each family for a month or more. It was such a sweet sweet moment.

Tuesday, we got do a one day VBS @ Fond Jacques. We had to hike a small mountain.. and when I say mountain - I mean MOUNTAIN. But @ the top - it was beautiful, with some of the sweetest kids we have ever encountered. We were able to have 100 children come thru VBS, and we had over 70 of them receive Christ!!!! WOW!!! Is all I can say! God is so good. After VBS we got to go into the village of Neply, and do village ministry. This was so exciting - because this village had not a missionary group do work there in over 9 years!!! Our team is now FAMILY with the entire village of Neply. Then late last night - we were able to see the most beautiful meteor shower ever!! A true picture of God's blessings showering down on us! He is just so sweet!

Wednesday, we got to go back to Ti Riviere where we got to do hut to hut village ministry; where we saw many come to know Jesus as their personal Savior!!! We even had a group help deliver a baby! Praise the Lord it was the group that had our nurse in it. Crazy how God works those things out... huh?!?!? We have learned today... to never expect anything normal in Haiti. Then we all arrived back to Mission to see our sponsored children. That is always people's favorite time. We had lunch with them, played with them, lavished them with love, and cryed for hours after they left. After time with our kids... we literally ran to set up for another rice feeding - where the village of Neply received enough food for each family for a month or more. And, now - we just got out of one of the most wonderful and beautiful church services ever! We sang, we danced (yes.. I said dance!), we worshipped, prayed, and got to love on some more beautiful babies.

So, as you can see our days have been filled with lots of work, but the blessings are overflowing. I know that all your friends and family members will have a million stories and 3 million pictures to show you. Please continue to pray for the team as go to Vieux Court village tomorrow to do evangelism and prayer with all the church members. Then we will be back to the mission to meet
50+ of our
friends sponsored children and lavish them with gifts and love. And, then on Friday - we get to sit back, exhale and breathe, and try to process all the things we have done this week while sitting on the beach! It is hard to suffer for Lord some days!

We love you all, and miss you so much. We will be back in the states on Saturday; so, please pray for safe travels! ok.. so, the only thing left to say is... BON WI!! (Which means Good night).

The Mission team!

A Little Word is better than no word

Here is all I have from the team that is in Haiti. This message is not from A, but from another person on the team. Keep praying that God will use him for His purposes and will continue the work He began in A.

everyone is doing great! They arrived safely everyone on the team is well and the team is going non-stop. They are doing the teachers conference today and are doing a make shift VBS one day. everyone is safe and sound!

Leavin' on a jet plane

"A" leaves on Friday for Haiti! Please be in prayer for him as he travels. We are specifically praying that God will continue the work that He began in him this summer. We are praying for safe travel, and good health. We are also praying that God would work in the lives that A is ministering to while he is there.

We'll keep you posted :)

Just to clarify

I still have to run to the grocery for fresh fruits and veggies. No scurvy at my house :) HA HA!!!

Saved (in more ways than I expected)

Okay! Many of you know that we have been on the savings wagon with groceries and clothes. As the mom of a large family, I am always on the lookout for ways to cut costs around here. We do hand-me-downs from one child to the next and from many friends.

I decided that this month, I would attempt to plan my meals and shop for a full month. Here's how it went down...........

After a couple of hours of planning and then a couple of hours of clipping, the girls and I went to Kroger. We had two buggies overflowing. The girls were a touch mortified, and refused to get a third buggy and therefore got creative with where they stuck stuff. Pretty funny. But, let me tell you, they are way into this grocery savings bit and were up for the adventure....

Total Bill for one month for a family of seven ages 7 to 15....ages recorded so that you know they aren't little people who eat nothing.

$620.00 (I was secretly hyperventilating when the total rang up)........then came the savings..............$177 and change in Kroger card savings..........$104 in coupons for a grand total of $339 spent for the entire month. (plus or minus bread and milk).

Can you believe it????? Neither could the check-out lady whose mouth had dropped at the $620.00, but dropped further with the $281.00 in savings!!! Whoop! I love www.thegrocerygame.com.

Pretty impressive I think! and we aren't just eating beans and cornbread either!!!

Second savings moment............we went shopping at the thrift store. There is a really big one in our city. It is in a heavily Hispanic section of town, so the kids practiced interpreting Spanish today. Very few of the workers speak English and the majority of all the signs were in Spanish. Very funny :) We bought:

Three pair of jeans (Levi's and Gap still with tags) for various kids
Two pair of Gap dress pants for K
One Gap skirt
One pair of church shoes for Little J
Five T-shirts for A's trip to Haiti
Two long sleeve dress shirts- one Ralph Lauren and the other Croft & Barrow
a wallet (for Big J)...weird, I know, but whatever...it was so cheap
Five other long sleeved shirts for A (he is very into shopping thrifty...prep for college)

All for $55!!! When I added up what the cost would've been in a store, we determined we would've spent $290.00 brand new!!!

Very exciting...........

To top it off, I overheard A talking to a friend of his about his adventure. He said, "Well, I got loaded up today at the thrift store. Now all the money that would've gone for clothes can go with me for Bendy (the little boy he sponsors in Haiti). I know that I should be saving for a car, but God will work all of that out. Bendy's family needs it far worse than me."

Humbling to hear...we are so proud of him. So proud of all our frugal little savers :)