Mud, mud, I love Mud…

In the popular children’s song and book, the song goes, “Mud, Mud, I love Mud, I’m absolutely positively wild about Mud.”  I’ve read this book too many times and therefore I’ve been known to sing this to myself (Please don’t tell anyone).  But, the teachers and kids at the Lievre school were tired of the mud.  The school was built, a roof was put on, but the first step out of the classroom was often into mud.  Not now!
Petersburg Bible Church decided to change the reality of that school. Now, they have a very long and helpful sidewalk as they leave school.   You can see the water, but now they have a dry place to walk and get around the mud.

Goats Galore…

Thank you to Petersburg Bible for your generosity when it came to providing relief after Hurricane Sandy went through last fall.  The people of Lievre are very appreciative!
The pastor in Lievre wrote…  “We are very happy from the bottom of our heart to thank you for the important help and we want to express our gratitude to you for the goat project. This project was very necessary for us because Hurricane Sandy had destroyed our livestock and gardens. For many of us the church family, we received some goats to replace what we lost. As you know the goat is a source of income for us to help our kids with school and school supplies.”

Activities in Lievre- June/July 2011

God is at work in Lievre and the church is on fire for the Lord!  Pastor Onore Toussaint gave us this report of the recent and upcoming activities in the Church.  A Regional Conference is starting today so be sure to keep them in your prayers as they meet together.

In the month of June we had a conference for all the churches in our district. Then the last week in June we had a seminar for the men in the church.

As of May we we didn’t have the money to pay the salary for our teachers but we are thankful to God that he provided money for us to be able to do so. Last month the students in sixth and ninth grade finished with their official exams which allow them to be promoted to the next level of education. At the beginning of July we had a picnic for our students to celebrate the end of the school year.  We are grateful to God and to our Sister Church for the help that they provide our students.  It is a great blessing to us and we say thank you.

This month, we are having a regional conference, July 15-17th.  Before the regional conference, all the pastors and deacons in the region had a seminar, as did all the regional directors and superintendents.  

We are very excited to see how motived the church is and how dedicated they are to work for the Lord.  Please pray that the church will continue to grow and that a great move of God would continue to be at work in the church. 

Effects of the Rain

Rainy season in Haiti is a mixed blessing.  Its always hot and dusty and the earth is parched so when the rain comes its celebrated.  But at the same time the majority of the Haitian people depend on gardens and livestock for their sustenance and many of Haiti’s roads are unpaved and with lack of proper drainage systems throughout the country, too much rain and gardens are lost, livestock drowns, roads become impassible and flooding occurs.  Waterborne illness it is also often spread through the rivers as they rise. At the beginning of June it rained nonstop for more than a week.  While Haiti needed the rain the inundation of water did cause some damage.  Here is what we currently know from our Sister Churches:

Pestel:
Crop loss, building damage and loss, and the spread of waterborne illness which has led to some deaths in the area(while it has some symptoms which are similar it doesn’t appear to be Cholera).

Fond D’Heron:
Livestock and crop loss

Corail:
Crop loss

Lievre:
Livestock loss (6 cows, 2 mules, 5 goats, 3 horses, 18 donkeys, 12 sheep and several chickens.)

Baradere:
Livestock and crop loss and one human causality

Les Anglais:
Crop loss (peas)

Please keep these churches and all of our Sister Churches in your prayers.  There has been a good bit of rain over the last few days but has been mostly falling at night.  The days have been breezy and slightly overcast with even hints of sunshine.  While the weather right now is quite lovely, hurricane season is upon us which often brings with it days of rain, heavy winds and the damage that follows.  Please pray that God’s hand of protection over Haiti in the coming days and weeks.

Activities in Lièvre- Month of May

Pastor Onore Toussaint stopped by our office and gave us a little information about the activities of his church.  You can keep the church in your prayers and pray specifically for the events and services as they occur. 

Brothers and Sisters,
We greet you in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ.

We want to give you a quick idea about what’s going on here in our church in Lièvre. Our schedule for this month is this: we have a service Sunday morning and Sunday night, on Tuesday night , and we have Thursday night Bible study.

We have an open air service once a month and we also take every 4 days in each a month to train the ladies, youth, and children about the Bible.  We do take one day for each group.

Thanks to God everything is working well. Our request prayer for this month is just to keep us in your prayers as we know you do.  We will also do the same.

With Great Love,

Your Sister Church Lièvre.

A Pastor's Letter of Introduction

From: MEBSH Baptist Church at Lievre

To : Lakeline Church, USA

Subject: Introduction letter

Dear Beloved,

I greet you in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? How are you doing in your church? I hope that everything is going well for you.

It is a pleasure for me to write this letter to you just to present myself and my family to you as the new Pastor of the Lievre Baptist Church. My name is Pastor Onor Toussaint. I am 55 years old, and I have been Pastor for 20 years. I was the Pastor for 3 churches before I came to the Lievre Baptist Church as pastor and also the Director of the District.

My wife's name is Yanique Toussaint and she is 35 years old and a nurse. She is a servant of the Lord working with the ladies in the Ministry that God entrusted us.

God has richly blessed us with 2 beautiful children and their names are:

Bina Toussaint - 10 years old and in the fourth grade (Primary school).

Altama Britney Toussaint - 4 years old and in the second year of Kindergarten.

I bless the name of the Lord for bringing me here. I realize that I have a lot of work to do for him here seeking more souls for him, working with the people in the community, and doing outreach every week. I am very happy to work with Lakeline as my sister church in the US. Since I arrived here, the Christians have told me many good things about you. They told me how you helped our kids with school and supported the churches in the district in many ways. I would like to say thank you for that and I believe that God will bless you.

I am looking forward to meeting you as Brothers and Sisters in Christ. Do you have a trip planned for 2009? I am praying that God will provide a way for me to see you next year.

May God richly bless you and protect you all!

Your Brother in Christ,

Pastor Onor Toussaint

Report from the MEBSH Church at Lievre

The road from Vieux Bourge in the Aquin area to Lievre is in very bad shape right now. We have had a lot of damage in the Lievre area. Praise the Lord there was no loss of life but many of the church members lost their gardens and animals. As a general report for the whole district we have:

· 60 damaged homes.

· 70 gardens washed away.

· 65 animals died.

The most important need we have for the District Church and the Satellite churches now is home repairs and food.

Pastor Onor Toussaint