Pray for Léléne Celestin today. Right now. Léléne is 25 years old, lives in Port Au Prince, but is currently undergoing life saving surgery here in Cap Haitian. Pray that the Doctors will have wisdom and she will come through free of infection.
The details: After almost a month of not doing any clinical stuff or first aid, God has brought opportunities to my doorstep to help some girls in the village. Honestly, I was not really looking for these opportunites. I am NOT advertising myself as a clinic or anything, mainly because I know if I do I will have 900 (Not an exaggeration) people at my doorstep with various maladies. Last week, while walking through the village I saw a little 10 year old girl rubbing her eyes. She removed her hands to reveal not one, but two very red, infected eyes. I found out her name, bebe love (I'm thinking this is more of a nickname than actual name.) And told her I would return with some Gentomycin for her eyes. After digging through about 6 suitcases I finally found it and was able to deliver it to her on Friday. On Sunday, I went to go look for her in the village and see how she was doing. I came across a girl, Erline (age 18), who was limping and had some minor cuts and scrapes on her leg. I asked her what happened and if she had been cleaning it. She told me she was in a motorcycle accident, and no, she wasn't really doing anything about it. So I asked her to stop by later and I would put some bacitratin on it and clean it well. She immediately asked if she could bring her sister, Léléne, who was much worse off than she was. Expecting more cuts and scrapes I said, "Sure! Bring her! See you both later."
Here is their story:
These girls were born in this village. Erline is 18 and has a 2 year old. Léléne is 25. She is finished with school, she has no money, and no job. She currently lives in Port Au Prince, but she was here visiting her family. The girls were fooling around with some guys and riding on their motorcycles, which led to an accident, because usually when boys show off things get dangerous. Erline just had some cuts and scrapes, but nothing major. Léléne got hit directly with the other motorcycle. It looks like a chunk of her leg is just missing and the other parts needed lots of stitches. They went to the hospital in Limbe the day of the accident and she got some stitches there. There is a line of stitches above the main wound and a line of stitches below. The accident happened on Tuesday (so 7days ago.) On Friday they got it cleaned and dressed again. On Sunday, I saw Erline in the village walking with a limp and I asked her what happened. She told me that she had been in a moto accident and showed me her scrapes, which looked like they needed to be washed well. I told her to come see me that afternoon and she said that her sister was much worse, so could she bring her as well? So I told her to come along with her sister.
When they got there I saw Léléne's foot. It was very swollen and looked extremely painful. I took off the dressings and immediately knew, not only was it out of my scope of knowledge, but she needed some real help. The more I looked at it, the worse it looked. It smelled very bad, and was obviously infected. It was incredibly painful for her when I was cleaning it, and since I didn't have the right equiptment, or knowledge, or sterilization, I didn't want it to get worse. I decided to put an incredible amount of bacitracin on it and told her that I would talk to the doctor's I know and get back with her. But then as I thought about it, I realized she needed to just go to the real hospital. So I told her this is very serious and explained that she needed to go to the hospital first thing in the morning. But I was worried tha because of their money situation they wouldn't do so, but if they didn't I knew she would be indanger of losing her foot. I went and reported to Gersan what I thought and he walked up and said, "She thinks you will have to have your foot amputated."
Immediate fear. I couldn't believe he said that straight out to her, but then he explained to me that she needed to be scared in order for her to actually take us seriously and go to the hospital. After he walked away they said, "Do you really think I need my leg amputated?!" I told her that I didn't think that she would for sure need to get it amputated, but if she didn't go to the hospital it is likely she would lose her foot. I explained to her that she had a serious infection and it could travel further up her leg and get into her blood, and that if it got into her blood she would die. So while I didn't want her to panic, I kindof did. She neede REAL help. Lots of it. I slathered bacitracin on it and we took her home for the night. Sunday morning Gersan drove her to the Good Samaritan Hospital, a Baptist hospital in Limbe. He sent her with Windel, one of the guys that works here at camp. Windel, is the sportscaster for limbe and a local celebrity, and because he was with her, the hospital took her right away. Gersan said that the hospital was very full today, but because of our local celeb affiliation they treated her immediately and gave her their attention. The doctor gave her some antibiotics for the infection as well as some pain medicine. They cleaned it and dressed the wound again and asked that we take her to the General Hospital in Cap Haitian. But by this time it was getting late and Gersan was not able to take her to Cap Haitian (which is about an hour drive).
They had spent all day at the hospital. Gersan had taken them very early in the morning and didn't pick them up until late. As I mentioned before this is a very poor family, and the reason they didnt go back to the hospital in the first place is because they have no money. They spent ALL DAY at the hospital with nothing to eat because they have no money at all. When Gersan went to pick them up tonight he gave Windel money to go buy food for them. Then Gersan took the hospital bill and drove them home for the night. She needed to be spending the night in the hospital so she could be monitored and given pain medicine, but more often than not, what you need in this country isn't what actually happens. This morning, before I even thought about being awake, Gersan took Léléne to the General Hospital in Cap Haitian and left her with enough money to pay for her hospital stay and a ride back home. tomorrow. Today, probably right now, she is undergoing surgery to remove all the dead and infected skin from the wound. They will also be taking a skin graft from her upper thigh to place on her leg to reduce scarring and help it heal.
This surgery is saving her life.
The village is very impressed with the way that we handled this situation. They had all been talking about the girl, but doing nothing because they knew the family had absolutely nothing. Gersan already held a tremendous amount of respect from the people here, but I think this guesture, really showed them a new part of his heart. And God's heart. Praise Him that we were able to help.
-Pray for the doctors
-Pray for Léléne
-Pray for her family
2.22.2011
2.21.2011
Prayer Update: Souls
So much has happened this week that I barely know where to begin.
Since I've already talked about the church and the voodoo drums I'll start there.
Church: Gersan's class has gone so well! Praise the Lord! Thank you for all your prayers! However, it is not over so please keep praying, as it is always a struggle here to speak truth into the lies that they have believed for so long! Gersan had taught them about Eternal Security and they understand it in the classroom, but then when you apply it and say, "If you got angry and went to bed angry and you died in the night. What would happen to you?" They will all respond that you've lost your salvation.Pray that we can break through the traditional thoughts with the truth.
There were, on average about 20 people that were attending the class. The core-group of the church. They are committed to learning and gowing, but there are daily struggles in life, and with the class. For example, the pastor of the church here has not been attending, and is therefore not learning the same things as the people. In this culture, it is very common to teach Bible plus tradition. The pastor here is doing just that. Pray that he will begin attending these classes so that he will learn and have a better foundation to speak only the truth. The plan was to have an all-day class this past Saturday, but there was a death in the village. In this village almost everyone is related in some way to the Colas family. On Friday, Grandpa Colas passed away, which meant that 98% of the class was attending the funeral because they are all his grandchildren. This caused the class to be cut short a little bit, but God is still being glorified... On Sunday, Gersan was a little bit late to the foundations class, and he said when he showed up one of the young men was doing a review of everything they had learned in the two previous classes. Including answering questions and drawing diagrams that Gersan taught with. This man's name is Tolem, he is 24 years old and has a hunger for the truth of the gospel. Pray that God will continue to grow him into a leader of integrity and truth. He is already doing so much for the church, he leads a prayer meeting every morning, he works with the kids on Sunday afternoons, and helps lead worship on Sunday mornings. He has enormous potential and Gersan is hoping to start discipling him into becoming a more godly, and strongly rooted, leader.
-Pray for Tolem.
-Pray for the class and the truths they are learning.
-Pray for the Colas family as they mourn their loss. (I'm not 100% sure, but I do think he was a believer, so Praise God for that!)
Voodoo: A lot of you have sent me messages and questions about the voodoo priest and the ceremony that has been going on. To be truthful, I'm not really sure what is going on. But, I'll tell you what I do know, and what I think. The ceremony started on Monday afternoon. The voodoo priest was doing this ceremony for himself, but those from the village came to participate. He had somewhere around 20 chickens, 10 goats and a cow that he was going to offer to the spirits. Not to mention lots and lots of rum and alcohol. This is why the village attended! They offer the animals to the spirits, but my understanding is that they still eat the animals. In a country where everyone is suffering from protien deficient malnutrition, they are not silly enough to totally waste that much meat! The ceremony lasted all week long. There were many nights that the drums and chanting didn't stop until around 5am, and there were a few nights that they didn't stop at all.
There was speculation in the village about why? Why did he do that? Why was it all week? Why did he offer EVERYTHING he had and now has nothing left? Is it because he wants to come to Christ? He's been telling Gersan for a long time now that he wants to become a Christian, but he is being held back by fear and lack of faith. Fear of the spirits and what they will do to him if he leaves them for Jesus. And lack of faith that God can not only protect him, but provide what he needs without the income of voodoo. People in the village said that he was about to become a Christian, but he wanted to make the spirits happy first. He wanted them to be full of meat and drunk, so they would not bother him anymore and they would willingly let him go. But that is not the way to become a Christian. Jesus takes you right where you are. You don't need to clean your life up, you don't need to appease the spirits. They are going to be unhappy no matter what you do, because they do not love you and they do not care about you. Gersan was planning on saying all of this to him this week, but then things came up, and got busy, and Gersan also decided that he didn't want to be seen around the vicinity of the ceremonies. Gersan said another possibility is that this man will die soon if he doesn't come to Christ. Now he has fattened up the spirits and given them lots of things, but now that they have more they will expect more. He gave away everything he had for this ceremony, so if the spirits come back asking for more he will have nothing to give, except his life.
-Pray for this man. Pray for his heart. Pray that God gets him. Pray that he gets Jesus!
-Pray for this village. That they will be released, one soul at a time, from the fear that grips them so tightly!
There are so many more things to talk about, but I realize that most of you have not read many of the words in this post. This was much longer and wordier than I would have liked, but I wanted you to have the details!
Please pray for these people. And look for my other updates coming in the morning!
Since I've already talked about the church and the voodoo drums I'll start there.
Church: Gersan's class has gone so well! Praise the Lord! Thank you for all your prayers! However, it is not over so please keep praying, as it is always a struggle here to speak truth into the lies that they have believed for so long! Gersan had taught them about Eternal Security and they understand it in the classroom, but then when you apply it and say, "If you got angry and went to bed angry and you died in the night. What would happen to you?" They will all respond that you've lost your salvation.Pray that we can break through the traditional thoughts with the truth.
There were, on average about 20 people that were attending the class. The core-group of the church. They are committed to learning and gowing, but there are daily struggles in life, and with the class. For example, the pastor of the church here has not been attending, and is therefore not learning the same things as the people. In this culture, it is very common to teach Bible plus tradition. The pastor here is doing just that. Pray that he will begin attending these classes so that he will learn and have a better foundation to speak only the truth. The plan was to have an all-day class this past Saturday, but there was a death in the village. In this village almost everyone is related in some way to the Colas family. On Friday, Grandpa Colas passed away, which meant that 98% of the class was attending the funeral because they are all his grandchildren. This caused the class to be cut short a little bit, but God is still being glorified... On Sunday, Gersan was a little bit late to the foundations class, and he said when he showed up one of the young men was doing a review of everything they had learned in the two previous classes. Including answering questions and drawing diagrams that Gersan taught with. This man's name is Tolem, he is 24 years old and has a hunger for the truth of the gospel. Pray that God will continue to grow him into a leader of integrity and truth. He is already doing so much for the church, he leads a prayer meeting every morning, he works with the kids on Sunday afternoons, and helps lead worship on Sunday mornings. He has enormous potential and Gersan is hoping to start discipling him into becoming a more godly, and strongly rooted, leader.
-Pray for Tolem.
-Pray for the class and the truths they are learning.
-Pray for the Colas family as they mourn their loss. (I'm not 100% sure, but I do think he was a believer, so Praise God for that!)
Voodoo: A lot of you have sent me messages and questions about the voodoo priest and the ceremony that has been going on. To be truthful, I'm not really sure what is going on. But, I'll tell you what I do know, and what I think. The ceremony started on Monday afternoon. The voodoo priest was doing this ceremony for himself, but those from the village came to participate. He had somewhere around 20 chickens, 10 goats and a cow that he was going to offer to the spirits. Not to mention lots and lots of rum and alcohol. This is why the village attended! They offer the animals to the spirits, but my understanding is that they still eat the animals. In a country where everyone is suffering from protien deficient malnutrition, they are not silly enough to totally waste that much meat! The ceremony lasted all week long. There were many nights that the drums and chanting didn't stop until around 5am, and there were a few nights that they didn't stop at all.
There was speculation in the village about why? Why did he do that? Why was it all week? Why did he offer EVERYTHING he had and now has nothing left? Is it because he wants to come to Christ? He's been telling Gersan for a long time now that he wants to become a Christian, but he is being held back by fear and lack of faith. Fear of the spirits and what they will do to him if he leaves them for Jesus. And lack of faith that God can not only protect him, but provide what he needs without the income of voodoo. People in the village said that he was about to become a Christian, but he wanted to make the spirits happy first. He wanted them to be full of meat and drunk, so they would not bother him anymore and they would willingly let him go. But that is not the way to become a Christian. Jesus takes you right where you are. You don't need to clean your life up, you don't need to appease the spirits. They are going to be unhappy no matter what you do, because they do not love you and they do not care about you. Gersan was planning on saying all of this to him this week, but then things came up, and got busy, and Gersan also decided that he didn't want to be seen around the vicinity of the ceremonies. Gersan said another possibility is that this man will die soon if he doesn't come to Christ. Now he has fattened up the spirits and given them lots of things, but now that they have more they will expect more. He gave away everything he had for this ceremony, so if the spirits come back asking for more he will have nothing to give, except his life.
-Pray for this man. Pray for his heart. Pray that God gets him. Pray that he gets Jesus!
-Pray for this village. That they will be released, one soul at a time, from the fear that grips them so tightly!
There are so many more things to talk about, but I realize that most of you have not read many of the words in this post. This was much longer and wordier than I would have liked, but I wanted you to have the details!
Please pray for these people. And look for my other updates coming in the morning!
2.19.2011
Saturday: Week in Review
Well I haven't been online much this week because my internet has been so painfully slow. Also, my dad and sister, Grace have been here all week, so we've been hanging out too! I've enjoyed them being here so much. They brought a little bit of home with them along with lots of laughs.... and chips and salsa!!
The weather has been strange this week. Pouring rain. It has made lots of mud that slowly and steadily crept into my house. This morning I did some major cleaning because I just couldn't handle it anymore.
My dad has been such a help around camp. He built 5 amazing picnic tables, some really awesome shelves for our storage area, and designed a linen closet for all the sheets and blankets that we are beginning to accumulate. I'm so glad that he got to come and meet the people I spend my time with and see where I am and what is actually going on here. Unfortunately, because of the rain, the school was closed or finished early every day, so I only had class once this week. They got to meet my older, and much smaller class and observe me teaching a class.
Gracie has been so fun to have around too! He has been helping me with random things that need to be done, and provides the humor to get me though the day. Today at breakfast she made me laugh so hard I almost choked on my peanut butter. She happily made valentines for my entire class on Wednesday afternoon, but then when we showed up for school all the kids were gone. I am planning on giving them their valentines on Monday, but I wish they could all formally meet Gracie and my dad too! The other nice thing about Gracie being here is that she is taking lots of pictures!! Which I love!
Last Saturday I traveled to Port Au Prince, so that I could be there to pick them up from the Airport. I think this was my first time to travel solo in this country, but it went really well. Thankfully my Kreyol is getting better. While we were waiting for my plane to leave I decided to bust out the camera and take some photos. Last week I printed some pictures that I had on my camera of me, and some of the other team members with some of the Haitian Staff here. I didn't realize how everyone else would get jealous... or at least pretend to be. So here is the picture I'll be printing out for Boss Varis... along with the one from when he retrieved my keys!
On Sunday afternoon after getting Daddy and Gracie from the airport. Gracie ran so fast to hug me that she forgot to not headbutt me in the process. Although it gave me a headache, I took it as a compliment, and a sign that she missed me!
This is Tuesday afternoon preparing for school. I made Daddy and Gracie help me make Valentines for my students. I printed out a few Bible verses on paper and then we decorated!!
Jan 3:16 "Paske, Bondye sitèlman renmen lèzòm li bay sèl Pitit li a pou yo. Tout moun ki va mete konfyans yo nan li p'ap pedi lavi yo. Okontrè y'a gen lavi ki p'ap janm fini an."
1 Jan 4:7 "Mezanmi, se pou nou yonn renmen lòt paske renmen soti nan Bondye. Moun ki gen renmen nan kè yo, se pitit Bondye yo ye. Yo konnen ki moun Bondye ye."
1 Jan 4:10 "Men kisa renmen an ye: Se pa nou menm ki te renmen Bondye, se li menm pito ki te renmen nou, ki te voye Pitit li a pou nou te ka resevwa padon pou peche nou yo, gremesi Pitit la."
I know it looks like I am forcing these little girls to take a picture with me... We are still working on smiling for photos instead of frowning.
Or maybe they just like Gracie better?
On wednesday I showed up to teach school, (with 60 valentines that Gracie made) only to find out that they were let out early, so everyone was gone. We stayed and played with the 5 or so kids that were there for a while, then decided to head home. While we were there I was taught the ancient game of "roll the wheel using only the stick." I'm really pretty terrible at it... If we are being honest.
Also this week I got to learn how to make the best jam/jelly in the world. It is made out of the rind of grapefruit, and I am obsessed with it. I've been dying for Alicia to show me how to make it for like 3 weeks now, and yesterday and today she showed me... Here are a few pictures that I made Gracie take, (So glad she's here!), along with some basic directions. These are not exact. TIH.
Soak rinds in water overnight, or until they are a little clear-ish.
Squeeze excess water out of rinds and set rinds aside.
Add a ridiculous amount of sugar (about 5 cups). Maybe that's why it tastes so good!
I'm not sure wheather this sugar is white or brown. Its the color brown, but has the consistency of normal sugar... like beige sugar maybe?
Add about 5 cups of water, stir together and put on to boil. I'm not sure how long these were left to boil, but it was until it had the right consistency for jam/jelly. Not too soupy, but not too thick either.
It has been a wonderful week and, like I said, I have immensly enjoyed having my family here. They have been a total blessing!
I'll be posting a prayer update very soon.
Be looking! Thank you for all your prayers!
2.18.2011
10 on Tuesday... errr. Friday: Guest post
Since my lovely seester is here I've decided to let her guest post!!! Suprise!
Gracie, I love you and I'm excited to share my blog with you!
So I would just like to say that this week has been fantastic! I could not imagine a better week! Noelle has been super fantastic and I can really tell she cares for the people of Ti Guinea. It is so fun to watch her talk with the people and see her laugh and joke in a completely different language! Pretty crazy:) (Every time Noelle walks by kids that can see her, they all start shouting "noelle! NOOelle! noELLE! NOELLE NOELLE NOELLE!!!" Cutest thing ever!) ('nother side note: I have earned the title of Ser Noelle..aka sister of Noelle...I am pretty pumped about that one!) Okay, enough of the pre-blog! Here it goes!!!
1. First day in Limbe, Noelle, Dad, and I hiked up the "small" hill to see Noelle's house! This picture cannot even begin to show you the vastness and beauty of God's creation! So AWESOME!!
2. I don't know if you have heard, but a picture is worth a thousand words.
10. My little friend from picture 9 and Bebilov would not let go of my hands on the walk back to camp. I didn't really mind though. :)
2.16.2011
Prayer update: Solid Foundations
It's 3:36 am.
Yes you read that right. Earlier it was torrentially raining and my internet wasn't working. When I say torrential I am not kidding. I was shouting at my sister, Grace, who was less than a foot away, because of the noise. When the rain stopped I think the silence woke me up... or the almost silence.
Drums. Chanting. This appears to be the marathon of voodoo ceremonies. Currently they are somewhere between hour 12 and 13. I'm actually really suprised they didn't stop for the rain!
Because I'm up, and because the rain stopped, (but really because I'm so excited about it) I figured I'd do a short ish update on what is going on here spiritually. I am so excited for this upcoming week and would love for those of you that see this to commit to daily praying for the church here!
Gersan, the pastor that I am partnered with is here in the village this week and will be going through a foundational class with the church members and others who are interested!! I can't even begin to tell you how much they need this. This is a very basic, but important class that Gersan teaches in Port Au Prince to the baptism class in order to be sure that people understand and have a good, solid foundation in Christ. But here, he is doing it with the whole church!
Here is where the church is now: They have a body of members that loves the Lord. They really do. They Love Jesus and call Him their Savior, and love that God is their Father. But the vast majority of them have no idea what any of that means. They don't know why they need a Savior, they don't know that you can't lose your salvation. They think that Salvation is by works and baptism, and they don't understand grace and faith. They are not recieving sound biblical teaching from their pastor, nor is he setting a half decent example of living a life of integrity and character. He is muddling the gospel and honestly has told some of us that he would rather be doing other things than pastoring this church. To add to the problem, many people in this area cannot read, and if they can its only Kreyol. The Kreyol Bible is not the best translation, in many ways it is more of a paraphrase or interpretation like the Message, and so they do not have the resources to feed themselves God's word, but are relying on the church, which is not delivering well. And there are many other struggles that they face as well.
I have been praying since I got here that God would raise up a man who fears God ONLY, who lives and breathes God's word. A man with leadership and boldness, with love and wisdom, someone who can speak the truth to these people and love them fiercely. I have been praying for a man of integrity to rise up from this village and shepherd and disciple this flock. Someone who will pour God's word into their hearts and help them gain a firm foundation. Their houses are built not on rock, but on sand. And, as we have seen tonight, the rain does come! (and so do the earthquakes! but not tonight thankfully)
How to Pray: This week, while Gersan is here he will be teaching this foundational class. His first class took place tonight and he said there were about 20 people there. Pray for him, and for the students as they walk through this class together. After class tonight Gersan said that one of the most difficult things may be for him to go slow enough to make sure that everyone understands.
This is a class with NO spiritual background in truth, but rather lies and distortions of truth. Even after hearing the truth it is very hard to change the thinking and ideas that people have had for years and years. Pray for wisdom for Gersan, and for open and soft hearts towards the truth for the people. Thankfully truth shines greater, peirces further, and stands stronger than lies. Gersan is a man that loves the Bible more than anyone else I've ever met. He loves God and loves truth. Pray that God will give him wisdom to speak truth into their hearts. Pray for the body, and for each individual. Pray that they will understand! One of the beautiful things about Christ is that faith, while we make it so hard sometimes, is really so simple! Pray that they will grasp that. Pray that God will be raising up in this village a man, after God's heart, full of truth and wisdom, and love and patience.
Just pray.
If you want to commit to praying (and getting your friends to pray too, hint hint!) it would greatly bless me, the Valcins, and most of all the church body of Ti Guinea. I would love to know that you are praying daily! I promise to post more updates as the week goes on. Leave a comment or Facebook me and let me know that you are praying!
Also, it is 4:19 and appears that the voodoo ceremony is over. That aspect of life here is a million prayer requests as well. But for tonight, I'm finished.
Goodnight.
Yes you read that right. Earlier it was torrentially raining and my internet wasn't working. When I say torrential I am not kidding. I was shouting at my sister, Grace, who was less than a foot away, because of the noise. When the rain stopped I think the silence woke me up... or the almost silence.
Drums. Chanting. This appears to be the marathon of voodoo ceremonies. Currently they are somewhere between hour 12 and 13. I'm actually really suprised they didn't stop for the rain!
Because I'm up, and because the rain stopped, (but really because I'm so excited about it) I figured I'd do a short ish update on what is going on here spiritually. I am so excited for this upcoming week and would love for those of you that see this to commit to daily praying for the church here!
Gersan, the pastor that I am partnered with is here in the village this week and will be going through a foundational class with the church members and others who are interested!! I can't even begin to tell you how much they need this. This is a very basic, but important class that Gersan teaches in Port Au Prince to the baptism class in order to be sure that people understand and have a good, solid foundation in Christ. But here, he is doing it with the whole church!
Here is where the church is now: They have a body of members that loves the Lord. They really do. They Love Jesus and call Him their Savior, and love that God is their Father. But the vast majority of them have no idea what any of that means. They don't know why they need a Savior, they don't know that you can't lose your salvation. They think that Salvation is by works and baptism, and they don't understand grace and faith. They are not recieving sound biblical teaching from their pastor, nor is he setting a half decent example of living a life of integrity and character. He is muddling the gospel and honestly has told some of us that he would rather be doing other things than pastoring this church. To add to the problem, many people in this area cannot read, and if they can its only Kreyol. The Kreyol Bible is not the best translation, in many ways it is more of a paraphrase or interpretation like the Message, and so they do not have the resources to feed themselves God's word, but are relying on the church, which is not delivering well. And there are many other struggles that they face as well.
I have been praying since I got here that God would raise up a man who fears God ONLY, who lives and breathes God's word. A man with leadership and boldness, with love and wisdom, someone who can speak the truth to these people and love them fiercely. I have been praying for a man of integrity to rise up from this village and shepherd and disciple this flock. Someone who will pour God's word into their hearts and help them gain a firm foundation. Their houses are built not on rock, but on sand. And, as we have seen tonight, the rain does come! (and so do the earthquakes! but not tonight thankfully)
How to Pray: This week, while Gersan is here he will be teaching this foundational class. His first class took place tonight and he said there were about 20 people there. Pray for him, and for the students as they walk through this class together. After class tonight Gersan said that one of the most difficult things may be for him to go slow enough to make sure that everyone understands.
This is a class with NO spiritual background in truth, but rather lies and distortions of truth. Even after hearing the truth it is very hard to change the thinking and ideas that people have had for years and years. Pray for wisdom for Gersan, and for open and soft hearts towards the truth for the people. Thankfully truth shines greater, peirces further, and stands stronger than lies. Gersan is a man that loves the Bible more than anyone else I've ever met. He loves God and loves truth. Pray that God will give him wisdom to speak truth into their hearts. Pray for the body, and for each individual. Pray that they will understand! One of the beautiful things about Christ is that faith, while we make it so hard sometimes, is really so simple! Pray that they will grasp that. Pray that God will be raising up in this village a man, after God's heart, full of truth and wisdom, and love and patience.
Just pray.
If you want to commit to praying (and getting your friends to pray too, hint hint!) it would greatly bless me, the Valcins, and most of all the church body of Ti Guinea. I would love to know that you are praying daily! I promise to post more updates as the week goes on. Leave a comment or Facebook me and let me know that you are praying!
Also, it is 4:19 and appears that the voodoo ceremony is over. That aspect of life here is a million prayer requests as well. But for tonight, I'm finished.
Goodnight.
2.15.2011
Rain Check...
Due to an enornous amount of rain, and internet the pace of a paralyzed snail, we are going to call a rain check for the 10 on Tuesday.
But I do have an exciting suprise for you when the monsoon subsides. Check back for updates!
And while you are at it pray for my house to stop leakin on Gracie's bed, and not have any more leaks. And also for all my Haitian friends tonight, who I know are getting very wet!
But I do have an exciting suprise for you when the monsoon subsides. Check back for updates!
And while you are at it pray for my house to stop leakin on Gracie's bed, and not have any more leaks. And also for all my Haitian friends tonight, who I know are getting very wet!
2.13.2011
Kè Bondye
There is somthing so cool about God. (I think that is the most elementary statement about God I have ever made. And cool doesn't seem like the right word, but its all I got right now.)
I have been so blessed to experience and know God in a different way here. Here his name is Bondye. I really and truely MET Bondye here in Haiti on January 13th, 2010. Exactly one year and one month ago today as a matter of fact! I had just spent the entire day living in mass heartache and pain, both physical and emotional. The day ended with me watching a beautiful teenager die in my arms, and watching her boyfriend as he freshly grieved his loss. I left the clinic that night and didn't know how to feel. My heart was broken, But I wasn't feeling a pain I had felt before. I started to pray, but didn't know where to start...this is what came out... Sobbing... "Oh Bondye!"... More sobbing. A garbled half Kryeol, half English, all sobbing prayer came out. And as I was praying to Bondye about how sad I was and how could this happen to people I loved so much and didn't even know... I realized He CREATED them. Loves them and KNEW this was going to happen. I realized I was not praying to my white skinned, middle-class God, but the God of Haiti. The God of all of this.
This is something I knew in my head, but its like reading about or seeing pictures of a beautiful beach, and then actually going there... two very different things!
This past week I have gotten to spend some more time with Bondye. Remember how my kids at class on Thursday were telling me that I spoke Kreyol well? Well after class they asked if I would pray in Kreyol to finish up class. Nervously I started, "Good afternoon, Bondye. Thank you for this day. Thank you for my class. Thank you for each student here. Thank you that they are all so smart. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you for me being here. I love you. Amen." (I don't really know how to pray ask for things, so it was all thank you's... which is kinda cool!) But afterwards, I realized that I just prayed my first, full Kreyol, non sobbing prayer in all words that made sense and blessed my students. It is so neat to see differents sides of God's heart!
Today in Church we sang :
"Notre Dieu est un Dieu Puissant
Il règne au dessus des cieux
avec sagesse, puissance, amour
Notre Dieu es Dieu puissant.
(Our God is an Awesome God.)
It took my breath away. Partially because the lady next to me was singing her heart out, and she had an INCREDIBLE voice. It was just so great. It was another moment that I really felt like God was not just God, but he was also Bondye.
I'm praying for more opportunities to get to know God's heart... Kè Bondye!
Because it is Beautiful.
I have been so blessed to experience and know God in a different way here. Here his name is Bondye. I really and truely MET Bondye here in Haiti on January 13th, 2010. Exactly one year and one month ago today as a matter of fact! I had just spent the entire day living in mass heartache and pain, both physical and emotional. The day ended with me watching a beautiful teenager die in my arms, and watching her boyfriend as he freshly grieved his loss. I left the clinic that night and didn't know how to feel. My heart was broken, But I wasn't feeling a pain I had felt before. I started to pray, but didn't know where to start...this is what came out... Sobbing... "Oh Bondye!"... More sobbing. A garbled half Kryeol, half English, all sobbing prayer came out. And as I was praying to Bondye about how sad I was and how could this happen to people I loved so much and didn't even know... I realized He CREATED them. Loves them and KNEW this was going to happen. I realized I was not praying to my white skinned, middle-class God, but the God of Haiti. The God of all of this.
This is something I knew in my head, but its like reading about or seeing pictures of a beautiful beach, and then actually going there... two very different things!
This past week I have gotten to spend some more time with Bondye. Remember how my kids at class on Thursday were telling me that I spoke Kreyol well? Well after class they asked if I would pray in Kreyol to finish up class. Nervously I started, "Good afternoon, Bondye. Thank you for this day. Thank you for my class. Thank you for each student here. Thank you that they are all so smart. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you for me being here. I love you. Amen." (I don't really know how to pray ask for things, so it was all thank you's... which is kinda cool!) But afterwards, I realized that I just prayed my first, full Kreyol, non sobbing prayer in all words that made sense and blessed my students. It is so neat to see differents sides of God's heart!
Today in Church we sang :
"Notre Dieu est un Dieu Puissant
Il règne au dessus des cieux
avec sagesse, puissance, amour
Notre Dieu es Dieu puissant.
(Our God is an Awesome God.)
It took my breath away. Partially because the lady next to me was singing her heart out, and she had an INCREDIBLE voice. It was just so great. It was another moment that I really felt like God was not just God, but he was also Bondye.
I'm praying for more opportunities to get to know God's heart... Kè Bondye!
Because it is Beautiful.
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