Josh says today was awesome! Everyone is absolutely exhausted though and they have to get up at 4:30 tomorrow. This morning he got to share the Gospel with about 8 teenage boys hanging out. He asked them if they were Christians and they said yes. He then asked them who they thought Jesus was and they said "he was a spirit." Their Christianity is even tied to voodoo. How scary is that? He said they presented as clear a picture of who Christ is as he could, (I'm betting it was amazing) along with giving them a Desiring God tract. I'm sure a seed was planted.
They got a TON of work done as you could see from the pictures I posted earlier. He said, "I can safely say it's the hardest work I've ever done." So it looks like they got the job done and the roof is prepped to get the tin on. I believe he said they worked for around 12 hours today. Tomorrow morning they're going to go out early, as soon as it's daylight, and get started because it will be incredibly hot putting the metal roof on. They hope to wrap the church up by around lunch. They are supposed to have a dedication service around 4:00 with the pastor and church. This is the best thing of all, ( reminds me of what we did at GFBC) they wrote 32 (one on each side of the 16 trusses) passages of scripture or names of God (Yahweh, Jehovah Jireh, etc.) So the building would be covered in scripture! Awesome!
He says Raymond pretty much has the water filtration system done, only a plug has to be wired and it will be up and running. The girls have continued their health surveys in the community. Their big community wide sanitation class will be Friday.
"The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever." -Isaiah 40:8
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Church is coming along
Josh sent an email last night about their day, but I'm just now getting around to posting this. This is a picture that he sent of the church as of yesterday. Although it only looks halfway done in this picture he says that they got all the trusses done at the site. (whatever those are) Sixteen of them took all day to build. Today they hope to start at least some of the sheet metal on the roof.
He tells me that something very interesting happened yesterday. A man stood staring at them for a long time. Mark went over with a translator and asked him if he went to the church. He responded he went to church "Everywhere". Mark then asked if he knew Christ as his savior. He got real fidgety and then turned and left. He said he came back and even helped a little. They started to ask around and find out who he was. He was the local witch doctor. He continued to stare at them with no emotion, until the church leaders made him leave, because they thought he was calling curses on the church. Josh said that's why he got fidgety and left when Mark mentioned Jesus (demons flee at his name!) Spiritual warfare is alive and well! But praise be to God, He is greater than the enemy!
Please pray for today. They are going to take out the Proclaimers and the Creole booklets. Each day they have had a large crowd hanging around watching them work. Josh feels he knows they will be intrigued by the Proclaimers. They also intend to share the Gospel with as many people as they can! Today should be BIG!!!
He said that he doesn't think they will be able to hike to the voodoo village on Thursday because of the much needed work still to be done on the church. But it doesn't really matter, because they are surrounded by a voodoo village. He said, "these people around us all day need Jesus so desperately"
"I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me." - Acts 26:17-18
He tells me that something very interesting happened yesterday. A man stood staring at them for a long time. Mark went over with a translator and asked him if he went to the church. He responded he went to church "Everywhere". Mark then asked if he knew Christ as his savior. He got real fidgety and then turned and left. He said he came back and even helped a little. They started to ask around and find out who he was. He was the local witch doctor. He continued to stare at them with no emotion, until the church leaders made him leave, because they thought he was calling curses on the church. Josh said that's why he got fidgety and left when Mark mentioned Jesus (demons flee at his name!) Spiritual warfare is alive and well! But praise be to God, He is greater than the enemy!
Please pray for today. They are going to take out the Proclaimers and the Creole booklets. Each day they have had a large crowd hanging around watching them work. Josh feels he knows they will be intrigued by the Proclaimers. They also intend to share the Gospel with as many people as they can! Today should be BIG!!!
He said that he doesn't think they will be able to hike to the voodoo village on Thursday because of the much needed work still to be done on the church. But it doesn't really matter, because they are surrounded by a voodoo village. He said, "these people around us all day need Jesus so desperately"
"I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me." - Acts 26:17-18
Monday, September 27, 2010
Busy day
I talked to Josh tonight for a very brief time when his phone started cutting out. I finally told him to just shoot me an email, at least I would be able to understand all of what he was talking about. It seems like today was a very busy day for everyone, so much that I did hear him tell me on the phone that Bryan was asleep by 7:00. He was able to send me a very good email about the day so I just posted it below. Just continue for pray for the team the much needed rest they need.
Initially I'm so overwhelmed by the poverty and my surroundings that I forget that we're down here to actually complete a task. Well today we got to work on that task. My day got off to a bad start when I wasn't able to go to sleep last night until about 2:30, thanks I think to late cup of strong coffee. Then we had to get up at 4:45! Not good. We got out to our job site about 6:00 and got to work......by walking our gear (a lot of it!) About a quarter mile down a muddy trail. The Haitians had built the walls of the new church AROUND the old church, so our first job was demolishing the old church and removing it so the trusses and roof could go on tomorrow. We did that while Richard, Jeremy, and Elise went and got wood.
We got the church demo'd and removed by around 9 and waited (in the 95 degree heat) until around 11 when they got back with the wood. Then the real work started. We had haul 150 2x4x16s, 10 pieces of plywood, and 99 pieces of sheet metal down the 1/4 mile trail (although we had a small pickup to help with a little of it. We then began working on the trusses. That lasted until about 3:30 when we had to pack up quickly to avoid a coming storm. We got everything packed up and our pickup took everything back to the school 6 miles (30 minutes) away.
While we waited for the truck the storm hit. As it began to rain, a Haitian lady who lived in basically a mud hut, invited us to sit on her "porch". There were 9 of us and somehow she happily got together 9 chairs. She was so proud. She offered to let us sleep there with her family if the storm didn't let up. We found out she was a member of the church we were working on. She reminded me of the widow in the Bible who gave the two coins. The Haitian family had absolutely nothing but she offered us all she had.
Anyway, by the time the rain had "let up" we had to make a break for the truck which was up the trail that was literally now a river. By the time we all got back to the truck another "monsoon" had hit. We had the 30 minute trip in the back of a pickup, in literally tropical storm force rains! We went from worrying about heat stroke and dehydration to worrying about hypothermia! We were freezing,
But we got home and the ladies had a meal prepared of beans, rice, and freshly slaughtered goat! It was awesome everybody is extremely tired.
Initially I'm so overwhelmed by the poverty and my surroundings that I forget that we're down here to actually complete a task. Well today we got to work on that task. My day got off to a bad start when I wasn't able to go to sleep last night until about 2:30, thanks I think to late cup of strong coffee. Then we had to get up at 4:45! Not good. We got out to our job site about 6:00 and got to work......by walking our gear (a lot of it!) About a quarter mile down a muddy trail. The Haitians had built the walls of the new church AROUND the old church, so our first job was demolishing the old church and removing it so the trusses and roof could go on tomorrow. We did that while Richard, Jeremy, and Elise went and got wood.
We got the church demo'd and removed by around 9 and waited (in the 95 degree heat) until around 11 when they got back with the wood. Then the real work started. We had haul 150 2x4x16s, 10 pieces of plywood, and 99 pieces of sheet metal down the 1/4 mile trail (although we had a small pickup to help with a little of it. We then began working on the trusses. That lasted until about 3:30 when we had to pack up quickly to avoid a coming storm. We got everything packed up and our pickup took everything back to the school 6 miles (30 minutes) away.
While we waited for the truck the storm hit. As it began to rain, a Haitian lady who lived in basically a mud hut, invited us to sit on her "porch". There were 9 of us and somehow she happily got together 9 chairs. She was so proud. She offered to let us sleep there with her family if the storm didn't let up. We found out she was a member of the church we were working on. She reminded me of the widow in the Bible who gave the two coins. The Haitian family had absolutely nothing but she offered us all she had.
Anyway, by the time the rain had "let up" we had to make a break for the truck which was up the trail that was literally now a river. By the time we all got back to the truck another "monsoon" had hit. We had the 30 minute trip in the back of a pickup, in literally tropical storm force rains! We went from worrying about heat stroke and dehydration to worrying about hypothermia! We were freezing,
But we got home and the ladies had a meal prepared of beans, rice, and freshly slaughtered goat! It was awesome everybody is extremely tired.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Day 1
Josh sounded good tonight when he called. He was able to fill me in on just a few of the things they did today. This morning they went to church and Mark Harrison preached. Josh said it was really good and he recorded the whole thing on the flip. They got to spend some time playing with some of the kids there as well. When they went into town today to get some supplies for the roof they picked up the common staple, "rice & beans"! Although he sounded really positive about the project on the roof, I believe what was supposed to be a 2 day job might be more like a 4 day job. Something like the measurements were not right and it was bigger than first thought. This is what they talk about when they say you have to be flexible when on a mission trip. I believe Kandy, Jenny, and Mallory, are going to start teaching the sanitation and hygiene to women and children in the community tomorrow. So it looks like they have lots of work to get done but have plenty of hard workers to do the job. Lets pray that the roofing job will get done in a timely manner without anything stopping them from getting the job done. Also that the ladies will be able to communicate well with the women and children.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.... Ephesians 3:21
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.... Ephesians 3:21
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)