Friday, March 28, 2008

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.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

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

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

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.