Port a Piment 2009 visit

The town of Port a Piment, Haiti is blessed to have a sister church like Second Cape May Baptist from Marmora, New Jersey.

On March 7th, 2009 RMI pulled out of Les Cayes, Haiti with the Second Cape May team and headed for their sister church in Port a Piment. Our first stop was the beach in Port Salute for a quick coke and a chance for the new team members to get their first opportunity to stick their toes in a Haitian beach.

Upon arrival in Port a Piment we were greeted by the church brigade who marched through town announcing our arrival with the team following close behind. Many team members were touched by the greeting that their sister church gave them.

This was followed by a time of reacquainting with old friends and making new friends.

 

Sunday morning was a great time of worship and fellowship and the three hour service didn't seem like three hours.

Sunday evening was a time of sharing testimonies and showing a film called "The Solution".  This is a film about a man who starts having many problems in his life and goes to a witch doctor for solutions. After following the witch doctors advice, he loses his family. However his children are involved with a church and know Jesus. As a result of visiting their dad with a Christian friend the father comes to know Jesus. He then visits the witch doctor's residence and breaks the ceremonial bowl. The witch doctor tells him that he will not live through the night. The next morning, the man is fine and word comes that the witch doctor has died. The message of the movie is that Jesus is the solution.

 

Monday morning brought a trip to the satellite church of Dolian. We left Port a Piment and drove up a riverbed as far as we could and then began the climb up the mountain to Dolian.

At Dolian the U.S. team worked side by side with Haitian masons to build the walls of the church. There was even a missionary kid involved.

And everyone pitched in to help carry blocks.

Pastor Bry takes off his supervisor's hat!!!!

While some worked on the church, others worked with the children, teaching them songs and telling stories.

Debbie Moses got attached to a Haitian baby.

The people at Dolian were very excited and grateful for the progress made on their church.

The following day we made a trip up the riverbed to the church at Guilluame to see how they were getting along and what help is needed there.

Meanwhile back at the church the 2nd Cape May ladies had a tea time with the Port a Piment ladies. They had a time of fellowship and devotion. One of the ladies had her husband help her with the illustration of Jesus coming to get his bride the church.

The food was excellent and some of the team acted like pigs at meal time.

On the way out we had a reminder that the roads of Haiti are rough. They are very hard on a vehicle. Without planning and flexibility a team can get stranded on the road. It is a good reminder that without RMI there is no sister church. So remember to support RMI as well as your sister church.

One last thing to note is that even though Wendy Bry wasn't able to come along with Pastor Jim Bry, he reminded everyone that he missed her greatly by keep her memory close everywhere he went.

And I mean EVERYWHERE!

By Billy Moses

Concerning Jules

I received this update about Jules from Dan Shoemaker on March 18th:

Jules has seen a doctor. From what I could tell from the types of things the doctor had him do, they did a complete physical on him. He had to do some blood tests as well. Some things were not right with the blood tests so he has had to do them over again. They took 5 xrays. Next week he will see the DR. again and get the results of the xrays and the blood tests.

Then he will probably have an MRI done for the back issues. THEN he will have to get back with the specialist to determine what will be done. So it looks like he has several weeks yet to go before anything final is determined. He is still in a lot of pain but now he has some medicine to help with it.

Letter to Calvary Baptist

From:       The MEBSH Church at Dame-Marie

To    :       Calvary Baptist Church

Subject:   Greeting and Information.

The Administration and the congregation of Dame-Marie Baptist church greet all of you in the Precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We are happy to write this letter to you just to thank you and to share some information about how our church here is doing and also to give you a response to your first letter.

We were very happy to receive your letter and know that the team that was here with us had a safe trip back home to their families. I want to let you know that your presence at Dame-Marie last year made a spiritual, economic, and social impact on each of us. It was a blessing for me personally to have you here and spend time with you even though I was sick. We are very happy to hear about your church and the progress you are doing for the kingdom of God. I want to encourage you to keep doing well in His work. I am sure that your work will not be in vain.

Here at Dame-Marie everything is going well day after day as we progress for the Lord. The church meets every week for our different services. We have a strong Sunday school and a lot of people that had left the church in the past have now returned.

The ladies in our church organized a conference for 8 days in December and it was a great success for the town. We had many people come to Christ and now they attend Dame-Marie Church.

The school is doing well also. We had some kids that were sick but praise the Lord they are better now and they have returned to school.

The district churches are doing much better now. I have almost visited all of the district churches this year. Some of the churches in the district I visited had a lot of damage. Please pray for them. It is my goal to see all of them get repaired.

We have a new committee in our church that are doing a great job. Their job is outreach so more people will come back to church. Every Sunday we have more and more people coming to be with us. From January to today we had about 100 people that came to know Christ. Please pray for those people so that they will stay in the presence of the Lord and grow in their faith.

I am preparing to have a conference for the Easter season. The church choir will have a big Spiritual concert, the ladies group will visit Dezòmo church which is one of our district churches.

We spend a lot of money to buy gasoline for our services. I would like to share a project for you to add to your list. We would like to buy a solar panel, batteries and inverter just to provide energy to the church.

We always pray for Calvary Baptist Church and especially for little Joshua and his family. 

May the Lord who has all the power to provide all your needs and bless you all.

In Christ,

Pastor Saint Julien Hyppolite

The Mule

Several years ago Great Valley Presbyterian Church in Pennsylvania wanted to purchase a mule for their sister church in Cance, Haiti. They purchased the mule and it was given to the Satellite church of Forgé.

Several years later during a sister church visit, the new pastor at the Forgé church requested a mule. After much confusion we learned that the previous pastor at Forgé had taken the mule with him when he left.

Recently Great Valley decided to buy the Forgé church another mule with the understanding that it is the church's mule and that the pastor can use it. This mule was purchased last week and a very happy pastor rode off into the sunset! However, the mule has no name.

 

Mr. Bourik No-Name

Update on Jules

(info from Dan Shoemaker)

As you know he has had major back problems since late summer. Early this year he was treated in Haiti by a chiropractor on one of our teams, but with little success. He went out with that team but had to return early as he had no relief. He pursued some help in Port a Prince without much success either. He is now in New York with family trying to get to the bottom of the issue and get it treated.

He went to the emergency room and saw a Dr. there. X-rays were taken and the Dr. felt that there were some severe issues with some disks in his lower back. An appointment with an Orthopedic specialist has been made for March 11. Jules will probably have to have an MRI done. There is a good chance he will have to have back surgery to fuse some disks, etc. from what he says.

He is in just about constant pain. He can hardly walk to the bathroom, etc. He has some medicine for pain, but they only do so much. Please pray for him.

If you ave any questions, you can call me at 972-499-4158

Billy

TWO PRAYER NEEDS

Pastor Jean Chery

Pastor Jean is our MEBSH pastor and liaison with the MEBSH churches and leadership. Many of you know him as the figurehead out at the churches that "runs" the show.

Lately he hasn't been going out with the sister church teams as his wife is sick. We have been told that she has stomach pains and severe headaches. As a result she hasn't been eating much and doesn't sleep well.

Pastor Jean's father's death in December and now his wife's illness has put a tremendous strain on Pastor Jean. Please pray for his wife's recovery and for his peace from God.

Meverd Orame

Meverd is a mechanic and driver for RMI. He has a great attitude and is always available to help with whatever is wrong. In fact we refer to him as Mr. Wonderful. Meverd has a new baby, and wife at home as well as chicken pox. Please pray that he will be healed and his wife and baby don't get sick.

 

Billy

One RMI team member wants to get the word out about HFKz.

The blog below was originally posted by JD Griffis of New Church Georgetown, Texas. His blog can be found at: http://500milesofhope.blogspot.com/2009/02/introduction-and-background.html

Hello, and welcome to my blog... Thank you for taking the time to read some of my posts, and please make sure and visit the Hope For Kidz website (also linked below)... The kids need your help!!!
The starting point for understanding what this blog is all about is my involvement the last few years with the people of Haiti. Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, and the third poorest nation in the world. Despite that, the people there are a wonderful and friendly people. In particular, the children of Haiti have an amazing energy, and will capture you with their smiles and laughter. I have participated in annual trips there going back to 2005, and have grown to love the country and its people.
The second half of the equation is my passion (i.e. obsession) for endurance sports. I have been doing marathons and triathlons for a number of years, and each year I seem to escalate the level of insanity... There is a benefit to being healthy, both physically and mentally, but overall these pursuits can become a fairly selfish thing.
So, in an effort to balance my more selfish pursuit of marathons and triathlons with the less selfish goal of helping the people of Haiti, I am dedicating my racing this year to raise awareness and funds for a wonderful program that provides an invaluable service for the Haitian children.
The program is called "Hope For Kidz", and it provides desperately needed education for the children in Haiti. That is really the main source of hope for Haiti; their children simply must become educated in order to break the cycle of poverty and hopelessness. There is no free public education system there, and most families cannot afford to send their children to even the most minimally priced schools that are available. It is not uncommon to see children in their teens who have not gone beyond a first or second grade education. However, for only $200/year; Hope For Kidz provides a child with a full year of elementary education, all school books, two uniforms, a pair of shoes (often their only pair), medical checkups where available... and HOPE!
You can directly sponsor a child, or you can contribute funds to the program to help with the school facilities, supplies, teachers, training, etc. By the way, if you can't sponsor a child by yourself, consider teaming up with other family members, co-workers, church groups, etc. Every little bit helps!
I'm calling this campaign "500 Miles Of Hope". The 500 miles represents the over 500 miles of swimming, biking, and running that I will be doing in my racing events this year (see below for details). Keep in mind, that is just 500 miles for the actual races... In order to be able to accomplish that goal, I am estimating that I will log approximately 5000 miles or more in training. Not that such foolishness should be rewarded :) ... but hopefully it can at least serve a useful service and bring attention to some kids that really and truly need your help!
As I move forward through this year's journey, I'll be keeping this blog current with information about my races and training, as well as thoughts and updates on Haiti. So, make sure and bookmark the blog and check back once in a while, maybe even throw in an encouraging word once in a while :) By the way, no need to tell me how crazy I am... where do you think the "pocolocoman" moniker came from???
Please see this website to read more about the HFK program and to make donations:
RMI Hope For Kidz Website Link

Jules Gedna

Many of you who come to Haiti know Jules Gedna as the guy who sits behind the sound board at our various services at Haitian churches and the guy who makes sure the Haitian staff do what they are supposed to. You also know him as the guy with the great big heart willing to do anything for anyone. However, you probably don't know that before you team arrives, Jules is our "go to guy" for just about everything from plane tickets and Passport / VISA issues to help with scheduling all aspects of your visit. That makes him very valuable.

At this time Jules is not doing too well. He has some intense pain in his lower back. We had a chiropractor here with a team from central Florida who looked at Jules and said he has a bulging disk in his lower back. Now I'm not sure if I have described that diagnoses to the level a doctor would understand, but the reality is, IT HURTS!!!!

We have worked with Jules, his brother and his son in the States to get him an appointment with a specialist in Boston. He is scheduled to fly out of Haiti on Wednesday February 13th bound for New York where he will be met by family. He will then continue his journey to Boston. This means that many of you will not get to see Jules on you trip this spring. Please pray for Jules and his doctor as he begins treatment. Also please pray for RMI Haiti as we try to dégajé (make do) without Jules.

Billy

Construction Project at Moses’ Home

Our teams are going to love this, especially when it rains!

Watch in HD (requires a fast connection)

To watch in higher quality, click play below, then hover over the bottom right corner, and choose HQ (for High Quality).

Rob

One church goes beyond funding hurricane relief!

Several of the U.S. sister churches came to the aid of their Haitian counterparts after the onslaught of 4 hurricanes that hit Haiti in the fall of 2008.

Les Anglais' U.S. sister church is Our Saviors Lutheran Church. OSLC answered the call and sent in funds to their sister church. However they also did something else.

OSLC also sent in funds with instructions for RMI to purchase rice, beans, and oil to be distributed in the Les Anglais area. So after purchasing these food staples, our staff loaded up 2 of our trucks and headed out to distribute some food.

They arrived in Les Anglais and gave half of the food to the church  to be distributed by Pastor Dieusseul.

There is another little community that is the poorest of the poor that has been brought to the U.S. sister church's attention by Etienne Francois who is an agronomist in the area and works closely with Our Savior's. For several years now this area referred to as "The beach community" has been toured by the U.S. church.

This year as they did last year, OSLC designated that the rest of the food be distributed to this community. There was much joy and excitement when the RMI trucks and staff pulled up to distribute food. The following pictures don't do justice to their excitement but it is all we have to offer.

Special thanks go out to Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Lake Oswego, Oregon for their tender and generous hearts and spirits!

These are just a few of the people who have benefited from this program.

There were no Americans to be seen during all of this as we felt this was a special time for Haitians to reach out and help other Haitians even though funded by Americans.

Thanks so much to OSLC for your generosity as well as to all the U.S. sister churches that have helped their Haitian brothers and sisters!

New Look for the New Year

With each new year that rolls around, everyone makes resolutions to loose weight, get healthy, spend more time with those we love, etc. etc. etc.

Before I reveal our new look here I would like to describe an old problem that we hope will be solved with the "new look".

On Thursday night most teams that come to visit their sister church here in Haiti, spend that last night at the Moses' house enjoying an "all you can eat" shrimp dinner. Many nights we enjoy the warm Caribbean climate with a time of outdoor fellowship. However there have been many nights when a team of about 10 people along with the local missionary family have to crowd into our living room to eat because of rain. Having around 16 or 17 people crowded into a 16 by 16 foot room to eat kind of loses some of the Caribbean charm.

We have a plan on how to remedy this situation and thanks to a generous donation by a Texas church we were able to do the first phase of our plan.

Interesting! What are those poles in the Moses' front yard?

Look at those crossbeams! Is it possible that?...let's just wait and see!

Oh my....yes, they are covering the front of the yard. But, some pavement would be even nicer.

The new look for 2009 is a shaded protect eating area outside. Come rain or shine our teams will enjoy their last night in Haiti with the outdoor ambiance of the warm Caribbean. Y'all come on down and see us!!!!

Message from the president

This message was sent to me from Dan Shoemaker and is a solution to the drinking water problems that face Haiti and many other third world countries.

Dear SCP Coordinators,

An opportunity has arisen that I want to share with you.  Many of you have shared your concern for your Haitian brothers and sisters and the situation with their drinking water.  They often drink water that has not been purified thus causing them to have various gastrointestinal diseases, etc. that impact their life and the lives of their children.  This is the main cause of deaths in children in Haiti.

I have sought a good solution for many years.  This past year I have been in touch with a company that produces a product they call LifeStraws.  They have several products but what has most interested me is a product called the Family Life Straw.  It is a simple apparatus that filters water, enough for family use.   It looks very easy to use and filters a lot of water pretty quickly.

This is a product that I would like to try with our Sister Churches.  I feel this is quite possibly the answer I have been looking for to offer as the way to provide safe drinking water for our brethren there in Haiti. 

Here is the website address:  http://www.vestergaard-frandsen.com/lifestraw-f-claims.htm     Please look at this as soon as possible. 

PROBLEM:   We have to purchase them in units of 500.  The cost to order them is $25.00 each.  This does NOT include customs, delivery, etc.  I am estimating the actual cost will be around $35 each.

I would like to have 4 churches commit to 100 units each. I do have one church already that has committed to 100 units.  This would cost $3500 or $35 each unit.    They are shipped to Haiti, then we have to pay to get them out of customs (not sure what that will cost) and then deliver them with some training to the churches.  At this point I don’t think it will cost more than this per unit.  Since this will be the first time we have done this, some of the costs are unknown.   

WOULD YOU COMMITT TO 100 UNITS FOR YOUR CHURCH? The first 4 churches to commit, get them!   I want to place an order this month if possible.  Please let me know if this would be possible for you.  Email me or call me on my cell at 239-222-9793.  Thanks.

Building Forever Relationships together,

Dan Shoemaker

Pastor Jean's Loss

Many of you know Pastor Jean Chery. He has worked for RMI many years as our liaison with the MEBSH organization, the churches, and the pastors. He is also very involved with all the teams that come to Haiti to visit their sister church. We turn to him many times to get his input on Haitian culture and how to proceed with many issues that arise here.

Pastor Jean's father passed away early Thursday morning. He was 92 years old and had been sick for some time. They had to amputate his foot, but infection spread so they went back and amputated part of his leg. That was really painful for him and hard on Pastor Jean. Then to add to that pain, Pastor Jean then lost him. The good news is that he is with the Lord now.

Pastor Jean and family have been out a lot of money through all of this and will have more expense with the funeral. If you would like to contribute to him please send funds to RMI Florida with an explanation that it is for Pastor Jean's father's medical and funeral expenses.

Pastor Jean's Father Passed away last night...

Greeting Everyone,

Pastor Jean Chery just called me this morning at 7:30am to let me know that his father died last night. His father had been sick for sometime now and had been going to the hospitals for help but God had another plan and took him home last night. Please pass this information on to others and keep him and the family in your prayers.

May God Bless You All,

Gary McLaughlin

New Horizon and a Haitian Lumber Mill

If you looked from the North across Cité Lumieré you used to see a large "Christmas Tree" looking tree in the vicinity of our house. Those types of trees are called Norfolk Pine. It is said that the wood is so strong, unlike other types of pine trees that they are used to make masts for large sailboats.

This particular tree has long been a type of landmark for the area. You could see it from the main road that goes into town as well as from other places. On a clear day you could even see it from the mountain with a good pair of binoculars. But no more!

We have long feared that this tree, though beautiful was a danger to our home. In recent years it has begun to lean over towards our house. Now where we come from in Texas this would not be a problem. However, there is one big difference between Dallas, Texas and Les Cayes, Haiti. Hurricanes!!!!!!

About a month ago we decided to see what it would take to bring this tree down. After talking with a local missionary we decided to hire someone to climb the tree and cut the top part off section by section.

It was quite a sight to watch this old Haitian man climb the tree, tie off a section and then cut it and lower it gently to the ground.

 

He did this several times until about half the tree was gone and the pieces got so big that they threatened to pull him from the tree.

Several days later a missionary friend brought his chain saw over. We put ropes around the tree to try to guide it safely down during its dramatic timber. You see our house is on one side, a driveway with a big almond tree on the other side, and an ornate metal fence surrounds it all. The problem was, we could cut out a section of fence, but then the tree would have to fall perfectly to miss the house, driveway, and land between a water hydrant and a cement pole used to wind up and store a garden hose.

As you can see, there was very little margin for error.

We tied the ropes and with several guys pulling to try to guide the tree, we held our breath and prayed as we watched our friend start cutting this monster down.

It started to fall! Timberrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!

It landed with a boom that rattled our teeth and sounded like the Walls of Jericho coming down.

We couldn't believe it. The tree had landed perfectly.

 

It was as if God had grabbed it and lowered it to the ground.

It was no sooner on the ground than the man who did the first cutting up in the tree was stripping it of its bark.

One my way home today I noticed that a scaffolding had been erected to make some planks out of the tree.

Waiting for the saw!

Who needs Home Depot? Welll, I would love a Home Depot here, but the Haitian people somehow come up with a way to do things.

I guess necessity truly is the mother of invention and we have a new look to our horizon!

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

Another type of Project

Many of our groups come to Haiti and do or at least start a variety of projects for their Sister Church. The project can be anything from building a school room, to wiring a church and installing fans, to medical clinics, music clinics, evangelical focus, or maybe just developing the relationship.

Sometimes the project continues after the U.S. Sister Church leaves Haiti. Especially in a construction project.

However sometimes a project begins and ends and the U.S. Sister Church isn't there at all. Such was the case recently with Hope E. Free Church from Illinois whose Sister Church in Bomo, Haiti was badly in need of either repairs on or a new motorcycle. The U.S. church decided to repair the old motorcycle and the pictures below are a description of that process.

The unfinished product.

Start with the "bare" essentials!

At least the motor looks good!

Now that all the pieces look so pretty, can we get it back together? Where do all these extra pieces go?

Almost Done!!!!!!

The finished product!

Two proud mechanics and a job well done!

Baradere Letter to Creekside

From: The MEBSH Church at Baradere

To: Creekside Comm. E. F. Church, USA.

May the Grace and Peace of God be with you all! I am very happy to write you this letter just to inform you how Baradere church is doing. How are you doing in your church? I hope that everything is going well with you.

Praise the Lord our activities are going well. Right after the hurricane season, all the Christians met together to praise and worship God for his mercy and his goodness to us. Our spiritual activities are going very well. We always have services on Sunday morning and Sunday night, Tuesday night we have prayer service and Thursday night we have the Bible study. The youth meet every Wednesday afternoon, and the ladies meet every Friday. This month we are going to have convention for the whole district. This will take place at Baradere church. We still have good teachers that help us with the Sunday school. We had 3 people that accepted Jesus as their savior (2 men and 1 woman).

The school is starting again and this year we have 550 kids already in the school and we still have some missing. We would like to say thank you for your help to us because without your help the kids could not go to school. Once again thank you for the money you have sent recently for the kids this year.

I am continuing the work on the Parsonage and the school now. Praise the Lord we are making progress. Please pray for the town of Baradere because after the Hurricanes the Christians are very needy because they lost so much.

I am looking forward to seeing all of you in January and I look forward to the new people that will come and visit us here in Baradere. I am praying that God will give us a good time together in January.

I'll leave you with this verse from the Book of 1 Corinthians 15:58.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

Finally I want to wish you a Merry Christmas 2008 and a Happy New Year of 2009.

May God richly bless you and protect you!

Pastor Leon Bonhomme

Suitcases

It seems that a part of a missionary's identity is tied to suitcases. Suitcases mean travel, planes, airports, delays, packing, unpacking, leaving family, seeing old friends and making new ones, meetings, changing climates - the list could go on!

RMI staff have been traveling quite a bit these days.

Dan's suitcases (along with him) went to:

Haiti in September.

Lafayette, LA in October to see Trinity Bible Church as well as another trip to Haiti.

Chicago, IL to visit The Orchard Evangelical Free Church and Village Church of Bartlett. Then to the northeast to speak at Calvary Baptist Church in Pemberton, NJ and to visit with Great Valley Presbyterian in Philadelphia, PA -- all in November. (There was snow!!)

Lakeline and NewChurch Georgetown in Austin, TX will see him in December. Several new churches in that area and the Waco, TX area will be visited as well.

Rob's suitcases (accompanied by him) went to:

Haiti in September.

Chicago, IL to visit The Orchard Evangelical Free Church and his supporters in that area. He took his whole family, so there were quite a number of suitcases.

Billy & Debbie Moses' suitcases, although recently unpacked, went with them to the RMI office for a week in October. They were there for QuickBooks training and administrative meetings.

Pray the RMI staff as they go about the everyday business of operating RMI. Pray for them as they travel, that God will bless their meetings and the contacts they make, that the trips will be successful and profitable.

A new Partnership

We finally received a list of churches from the MEBSH organization here in Haiti. There is a church in Estero, Florida that is eager to start a new relationship with a church in southern Haiti. So eager in fact that they are already on the calendar for early 2009 without knowing who their Sister Church is. So we evaluated the churches on the list and on a bright and sunny Wednesday in late October missionaries Debbie Moses, Gary McLaughlin, and I hit the road with support from two Haitian staff members Jules Gedna and Jean Chery. We were headed for the town of Cherette in the valley before the last mountain on the way to Zanglais.

After driving through a market that was so crowded that we that we drove about 2-3 miles per hour and still ran over a few peoples' veggies for sale, we came to a road so narrow that we had to pull in the outside rearview mirrors in order to pass. At times we were fishtailing back and forth in mud and at others we were driving in a small river.

We finally arrived in Cherette a small village at the foot of a beautiful mountain. About halfway up the mountain you can see a gorgeous waterfall that looks like something out of a T.V. commercial.

The MEBSH Church a Cherette consists of 3 buildings and a school structure. The parsonage is at the front of the area, and off to the left are the school rooms. To say they are rooms is a stretch. Actually there is a foundation and a roof with some wall separating the individual rooms. Behind this area is an old building that used to be the church but has now been divided into a few more rooms for kindergarten. Next to that is a new building that is the church. It is small but in good shape. However the benches inside were in pretty bad shape.

The pastor and his wife were very gracious and happy to see us. After answering all of our questions they insisted that we sit and have some coffee, bread and bananas with them. We had a great time and feel that this is God's choice as our next Sister Church.

It is always exciting when a new Sister Church Partnership gets off the ground. We are looking forward to Estero United Methodist Church's coming visit to the MEBSH Church at Cherette.

At times the road is so narrow we have to fold the rearview mirrors in.

Driving in a river.

Parsonage

School rooms.

Old Church building.

MEBSH Temple of Cherette

Inside the Church building. Most of the benches are being used for school.

This "zoomed in" picture of a waterfall doesn't do justice to God's beauty in the district of Cherette in southern Haiti.

Letter from the MEBSH Church at Ducis

From: MEBSH Church at Ducis

To: Village Church of Bartlett.

Subject: Information.

  Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We are very happy for the opportunity to write this letter. I apologize for taking so long to write you. I greet you in the precious name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. How are your church activities going? I hope that everything is well by the grace of God. When I read your letter, I realized that your country is facing a financial crisis that will probably affect the members of the Village Church of Bartlett. When we heard that, our church became very concerned because we know our country depends on the economy of the United States. We know the Bible says:  all gold and diamonds belong to God. I don't have to worry because I know that God will take care of you in the U.S. and us here in Ducis. We pray the He will fill our needs.

We would like to thank you for your promise to support us through Hope for Kids even though your country is facing financial problems. That's very important to us because without your help many of our children could not go school.

Our Spiritual activities are going well thanks to God. We had some church members that stopped attending, but the church keeps working very well and the rest of the members are very motivated. The ladies in church had a revival and 32 people accepted Jesus as their Savior and some of the members that left us decided to return back to the church. In November we are going to have a Baptismal Service and we are expecting 20 young people to be baptized.

Last April, one of the district church pastors died. So far we don't have a new Pastor to fill that position. I am currently visiting them once a month for bible study as we wait for MEBSH to assign a new pastor in December. This situation touched me deeply as Pastor and director of the district.

Right now we have 80 kids taking part in our Awana program. We are not doing things the same way as the Awana program does in Port-au-Prince. This is because we could not afford to bring people from Port-au-Prince to Ducis for seminar.

Please pray for us that God will send his blessings upon our church and family here. We promise to do the same thing for you because we know that God will answer our prayer and take good care of us all.

May God bless you and your church abundantly!

Your Brother in Christ,

Pastor Anthony Moise