REACHING FOR A DREAM

Those of you who have visited Canaan probably know Erve Joseph and Edgard Milace. What you may not know is that they are both living with families here in Northeast Indiana. Erve was accepted at a local community college last Spring and arrived here in July to live with Doug and Amber Walker and their boys Luke & Garrett . Edgard returned here in October from Haiti to finish up his school work and check out local colleges. He is living with Jeremy and Maurine Freeman and their two kids Wyatt and Eden. A group of local people from Columbia City First Church of God formed a committee to sponsor and oversee their stay here in the U.S. They also established an educational fund to help finance the education of Haitian students who exhibit exceptional scholastic abilities for higher learning. Erve recently finished his first semester of college and received A's in all four of his classes. Next semester he will being carrying a full load of five classes. Three weeks ago we visited Grace College and Seminary in Winona Lake, Ind. as Erve looks for a four year university he can eventually transfer to. Through the generosity of Dr's. Ric & Wendy Bonnell , Erve is flying to Dallas, Texas today to spend a few days with them and look at some colleges in their area. Erve's dream is to one day be a doctor but for now he is focused on earning a usable 4 year degree. Edgard at this time is leaning toward automotive or diesel technician school . These two young men are not the only Canaan students pursuing their dream in the United States. Pricilla Mecklembourg is attendng Washington State University with the hope of also attaining a medical degree . These three are first generation Canaan students and are a testament to what you can achieve with hard work, good planning and staying focused on your dream. In God's love, steve

KEEP ON COMING

Well Christmas has come and gone and 2008 has only one more day before it is gone as well. Today has been sunny but just cold enough not to thaw the ground or the ice on the Northeast Indiana lake where we have a home. The snow that gave us such a beautiful white Christmas as well as the sheet of ice that covered our streets and trees has all melted away till another winter storm blows in. Only the most ardent hater of Winter could not fail to see the beauty of it all. I'm often asked how I can leave the warm tropical weather of Haiti and come back here where many nights the temperature is single digit. Yet I can't imagine not being here, even in the winter the beauty of God's creation shines through. It's a time to get together with family and friends to rejoice in the real meaning of the Season. Our family also has five birthdays to celebrate in Dec. and this year we added another with Edgard Milace a Canaan student who is staying here till April . A group of his friends got together and gave him a real surprise birthday party.

In less than a week I will once again return to my home in Haiti and jump back into another culture and routine. The next several months people from Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, Texas and S. Carolina will join me at Canaan. They are men, women, teenagers and even children from not only different states but a variety of backgrounds and careers. Yet they all have one thing in common. They have come to Haiti to be a part of something much bigger than themselves, they come to be a part of the Great Commision. They come with love and compassion and empowered by the Holy Spirit they come to "make a difference". Whether it's through construction projects, ministry programs, teaching, evangelizing , medical outreaches or just being there they leave us with many blessings. Yet in the process they go away being blessed themselves . They go away seeing the world and their part in it a different way. They go back to their homes, families, churches and communities and because they changed the world has changed, they really are "making a difference". In God's love, steve

Pasco Blessing

It has been a lot longer on getting a new blog posted than I thought, but it has been a busy couple of weeks. We have had a team of 31 people here since Nov. 19, they headed back to the states today and have truly blessed us. The group came from Pasco , Washington and was led by Dwight and Vonda Ropp and ranged in age from 14- 72. There were numerous family group combinations which made it interesting in figuring out who went with who. The group's church gave Canaan the money to complete the small boys dorm and the school library. Besides pouring many yards of concrete the dorm roof measures 18 X 68, they worked on plumbing, electrical, door entry sets, painted lines on the basketball/volleyball court, made a ping pong table, played with the kids, and had Thanksgiving with us. We hope to finish up some of the details it takes to get started on the Clinic soon , we will see an engineer on Tuesday and see if he will sign off on our plans. We also have to get a building permit, we hope construction will be under way by the first of the year. Anyway may God bless the Pasco team for all they have done for Canaan. steve

Well I'm back in Haiti after a 3 month absence, I had to get up at 4:00 am this morning to catch a 6:00 flight. That was just one of three that it took to get here in one day,I actually arrived in Port au Prince at 3:40.You could see lots of water still left by the hurricanes that flooded much of Haiti this summer as we flew over some of the hardest hit areas. We drove up the coast and could see another area called Cabere where 60 people lost their lives because of flood waters. In our town of Montrouis the big story is the only bridge across the river is severly damaged, so you have to use a make shift bridge out close to where the river opens into the ocean. We have a large team of 32 people coming right before Thanksgiving to pour a concrete. I think that is the largest group we have ever had ,not sure where they will all sleep yet. I hope to try and post many blogs while I'm here and tonight is sort of a test as we are still fine tuning thebog into the web site. Hopefully in several days I can add pictures once I get some taken. It's been a long day so that' all for now. In God's love , steve

GAP video

This is a video clip of one of our mission teams to Haiti. Hope you enjoy it!

Mossburg Strings

The Mossburg Strings will be performing at our Annual Dinner on November 8. Hope you can make it!

Traditions

Submitted by smossburg on October 18, 2008 - 7:45pm.

Well Summer has come and gone and Fall is here. This October weekend my wife and I are participating in a family tradition we started back in the Fall of 1999. That year we joined with my parents, sisters and their husbands to have a family vacacation in southern Indiana every year since then we have taken our annual trips together and gone north to Lake Michigan. It's shortly after return from these annual trips that I prepare to head off to start a new season of mission work in Haiti. It has only been about 9 weeks ago that I returned home but so much has happened in Haiti since then because of all the destruction and damage from the hurricanes this Summer. We have lots of projects planned for this next season and will also be doing lots of hurricane relief work as well. I will be arriving in Haiti November 10th to get prepared for several of our upcoming projects and make an assessment as to how we can assist in helping with relief efforts in our community. January and early Feb. we will have mission teams arriving and departing Haiti every Sat. At this time we have teams also scheduled for March and May. Many of these Church teams and team members have gotten into a tradition of making these trips an annual event. They are a blessing and I know God is surely blessing them for all they do for us. We still have many weeks that are available for teams to come and help us with the work that needs done. If you are interested just get in contact with me at GAP Ministry and start your own tradition.

In God's love ,
Steve

Blessing from God

Submitted by smossburg on March 28, 2008 - 4:08pm.

I have not always been a missionary, in fact I was into my second career and over the age of 50 when I first got started in mission work here in Haiti. One of the things I noticed early on was the number of people God has put in my path. Everyday most of us randomly encounter lots of people but have forgotten them by the following day. It's not been that way at all since I came to the mission field. I have made some very close friends over the years, other missionaries, short term visitors, people I sit with on airplanes and in airports, at churches I speak at and then there is the people of Haiti.

People who come from the U.S. or Canada to visit us here at Canaan often make the remark when they travel with me here in Haiti that I know or I'm known by a lot of people. It's likely that from Port au Prince North for 90 miles someone might yell my name out as I pass by in my truck or stop in some town to do business. Now Haitians have a fantastic memerory for names and I have encountered people who I may have met eight years ago who still recall my name. They do have an advantage as white foreigners are a distinct minority here in Haiti, but I have a pretty good memory myself so I don't often get caught without a name to go with the face. I have an address book full of names. addresses. telephone numbers and e-mail addresses, so I keep in contact with a lot of people,. we occassionally visit some of them, stay in their homes, get invited to weddings and exchange cards and letters. To me they all represent Blessings From God.

The Lord Has Need Has Need of Us!!

Submitted by smossburg on March 20, 2008 - 12:00am.

Many of you who are reading this may have never heard of G. A. P. Ministries, thanks to a soon to be ready web site and this blog page you can learn about our ministry work. We are are a mission outreach working in Haiti and Canaan Christian Community is the name of the ministry complex we work at. About 125 people call Canaan home and nearly 100 of those are boys and girls who live at Canaan orphanage, the rest are missionaries and staff people. One of G. A. P. MINISTRIES outreaches is providing opportunities for individuals and churches to join with us as we do God's work here in Haiti.

Last weekend you may have read the familiar Palm Sunday passage where Jesus asks His disciples to get the young donkey. Luke 19:33-34 says, As they were loosing the colt, the owners said, "Why are you loosing the colt ? " They said "The Lord has need of him." As bible pasages go that one is not very long and may seem pretty insignificant, but for whatever reason it seemed to really speak to me. This short little verse can be summed up as a donkey fulfilling it's devine destiny. Through out history God has always used someone or something to accomplish His work. Now I'm pretty sure if God created a donkey for a devine destiny then He created you and I for some mighty significant opportunites as well.The donkey had one very brief task to fulfill it's destiny, I've been working on mine for 8 years here in Haiti. The point isn't how long we work at it , but that we discover and embrace it, because God has need of each of us. Eph. 2:10 says He created each of us for a purpose and planned us to live our lives doing them. Here at G. A. P. MINISTRIES we take interest in getting high schooler's 15 years and older as well as encouraging people well into their mid 70's to come to the mission field. Young and old whatever age we may be, the Lord has need of each us.

Steve

G.A.P. Ministries

Submitted by smossburg on March 12, 2008 - 10:14pm.

The goal of Go And Produce (G.A.P.) Ministries is providing and arranging mission opportunities for you to discover and embrace God's will for your life. The focus of our ministries is Canaan Christian Community and the work that goes on there. That includes the orphanage, the schools, the new medical outreach, agriculture, evangelistic and humanitarian outreaches and of course new and ongoing construction projects.