"There is one body. There is one Spirit. You were appointed to one hope when you were chosen. There is none Lord. There is one faith and one baptism. There is one God and Father of all. He is over everything. He through everything. He is in everything." Eph. 4:4-6
We desire to keep you all 'in the loop' of what is going on here in Haiti. We need your prayers. It is the prayers of the faithful ones such as you that keep this ministry going.
We had an incredible youth day last Friday. We have really enjoyed working with our local youth, even though there are many challenges. Many of the pastors in JeanJean's classes have been sharing with him about how they struggle to get their youth interested in being active in their community and church. When JeanJean told about how we've centered our youth group around Bible, Service, and Fun, many wanted to hear more. We decided to have a youth day and invited the 20 churches represented in JeanJean's class to bring their youth groups. We never imagined the interest this would generate. We thought that since many of these men walk 4, 5, and 11 hours to get to class, they wouldn't be able to take all their youth. Oh no, the man from close to the D.R. border brought 18 youth with him. It took them 13 hours and they stayed overnight in our dorm 2 nights, but they came. The man that comes 6 hours had originally told JeanJean that he wouldn't be able to come. Then he shows up on Friday with 10 kids. We said, "Pastor Jezula, we didn't think you were coming." He puts his hands in the air and tells us, "The kids made me come and they nagged me so much about it that we had to come." We ended up with 351 kids altogether. Our prayer for the worship center has always been for God to fill it up with people who want to know Him more. He answered that prayer. It was a great day of worshipping Him and learning more about His word. JeanJean really encouraged the youth to realize that the church will soon be in their hands--they need to be leaders now for Christ. JeanJean took his message from II Cor. 6: 14-18, and had the kids repeat, "We will not mix!" That is the prayer for us all; we cannot mix the godly with the ungodly.
It was also a great day where our youth took on a lot of responsibility to make the day go well. They cleaned and decorated the worship center, they organized skits and songs, they planned games, the helped with the food and water, they made name tags for all the kids and directed the other kids where to sit, and they gave an encouraging talk about what UCI's youth group is based on. It was great to see these kids, most of whom were not going to church a couple of years ago, talking about how the gospel changed their lives. They encouraged the other youth groups to take their Bible study seriously and to serve others in different ways. We ended the day with the promise that we will turn this one-day event into a real youth camp that will last 4 or 5 days. We got tremendous applause and cheers with that announcement. Pray for 2011 UCI youth camp!
Kristie, along with Martha Rankin and Debbie Nutzmann, participated in a 5-day women's conference last weekend. The theme was 'A life of abundance.' One hundred and fifty ladies were blessed by good, sound Biblical teaching. There were testimonies and crafts. The singing was amazing! There was even a lot of dancing for Jesus! Each of the women received a Bible in Kreyol and a hymnal. When they realized that they would each get a Bible and hymnal, there was a spontaneous dance that we coined, 'The Happy dance.' It includes a lot of hugging and kissing and ladies dancing and rejoicing together. Every night we had a wonderful 2-4 hour service led by a Haitian lady named Erlvie. Many friendships were made. What a blessing it is to encourage our fellow women.
The school roof is poured! We have found that pouring a cement floor in Haiti is a amazing feat that involves a lot of coordination. We enlisted the help of a professional group from Hinche. These 40 men came to our place at 4:30 AM (they would have gotten there at 3AM but their truck broke down in the muddy road!) and they worked hard until noon. The boss was a very knowledgeable man that was able to make sure everything went according to plan. It is a beautiful sight to see the 4 rooms completed. The rest will be finished next week. We have started the registration process. There has been a tremendous interest! We have had to close the registration for the preschool classes as we have reached our maximum of 35/class. We didn't even want to have that many kids but the need is so great. We are going to have 2 teachers per class. One will be a university-trained teacher and the other may not have a college education but they have experience teaching in primary schools. In Haiti, it is not required for a primary school teacher to even have a high-school diploma, but we desire to have strong Christian teachers. It is our hope that they will be able to train other teachers that have not had the opportunity to go to college. School opens Oct. 3, decreed by the Haitian Ministry of Education. Please pray that we are able to order all the books needed and make all the benches before year begins.
Well, we have even more to report but this update is getting long. There are more cement floors and houses built, the irrigation pumps are working, Saul has a new helper to assist him with the gardens and training, the kids in the centers have recently been weighed and their photos have been taken for the Christmas gift give-away. Price gave a wonderful testimony in church...yikes, I put it all in another newsletter.
Kristie, JeanJean, Tana, and Kerri Mompremier
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