PARTNERS IN THE JOURNEY (again)

This was reposted because it got deleted .

This post will conclude highlighting the last of the teams that visited Canaan in Jan. The eleven members of team III arrived on Jan.24th. from northeast Indiana. Since team leader Dennis McKee owns a construction company I knew I would use his group to put rafters and a roof on Pastor Henri and Gladys' new house. Others on the team welded security grills for the windows and worked on painting projects. Angie Smith who has made nine trips to G.A.P. ministry since 2002 spent much of her time evangelizing the communities around Canaan. Dennis & Lisa McKee and Angie stayed on at Canaan after their team headed home to work with the last team of the month the Bunker Hill Church of God from Illinois. My wife and I visited this church a year ago to share the G.A.P./Canaan story with them and encourage their missionary efforts. Friends and team leaders Chip and Jodie Moodie no strangers to Haiti led the team. It was great to see the eagerness and serving attitude of the team as they worked to complete many of the projects started by other teams. I look forward to partnering with them in the years ahead with the work here at Canaan. I want to thank all those who joined us in Jan. for being partners in the journey.

PARTNERS IN THE JOURNEY

MORE JAN. TEAMS

We had 4 teams arrive in Jan. with team member coming from four states and 12 different churches. It's always very rewarding to see Churches come together on a team and work to accomplish God's work in cooperation with one another. Our second Jan. team came from Orchard Free Evangical Church in Arlington Heights , Ill. They were our smallest team with 9 members ,the 5 ladies helped out in the clinic, taught school and stained cabinets. Several of the men built cabinets and one guy who was a mechanic worked on several of our vehicles as well as plumbing and electrical projects. The other male team member spent much of his time taking photos and video footage , he is putting together some dvd's to help us recruit more work teams and also several videos for our website. As with all our teams, we gave them a day away from Canaan to get a better perspective of the country and it's people. they chose to take the boat trip to the largest island off Haiti's coast La Gonave. This is the large island that we Canaanite's can see out in the beautiful Caribbean each day. It is part of Haiti many never get to visit but is home to around 100,000 people, it is appr. 37 miles long by 12 miles wide. You have 2 ways to get there, by boat from Carieres or by small airplanes from Port au Prince. Our only option was the 17 mile boat ride because the boat dock is only a 20 minute drive from Canaan. If you have never been on large bodies of water in high seas with no life jackets this trip isn't for you. I think for those of us who went that day it was a memorable experience. Once you get there travel is limited to few either hiking or a few short roads traversed by motor scooter and tap-taps. I'm pretty sure I will be seeing many more teams from the this church in the coming years.

Out of the Comfort Zone - Path Evangelism

Out of the Comfort Zone - Path Evangelism 

Those you of you who have been partners with G.A.P. Ministry may already know Diesmy Garcon  ( Jasmin ) . I first met him about 8 years ago when I moved to Montrouis, he was 16 years old. It wasn't long before I recognized the immense potential God had placed in this young man. Jasmin founded, organized and led  the G.A.P. youth group for 3 years. He has at times referred to me as his mentor in Christ but I'm  more comfortable with friend and partner in the journey. He recently shared with me that it was our early attempts at evangelizing that has inspired his interest to this day. Jasmin is a natural at evangelizing and everyone who goes with him soon recognizes that. This summer after the hurricanes he did volunteer work with those who were affected and suffered the most . I thought my readers might enjoy reading this recent account about him.   

CATCHING UP

On Tuesday evening I arrived back home in Indiana after 5 weeks of work in Haiti. Several times while there at Canaan I tried to upload photos to my blog site but for what ever reason they wouldn't load. So now that I'm home I will get some of our Jan. team and work photos uploaded. So what will I be doing while back home? Well yesterday was spent down loading photos and organizing them , sending e-mails, and writing and choosing photos for the March newsletter. Some other things I will be doing this month are getting our personal taxes done, putting down loadable info/applications for work teams on our website, meeting with a team coming in Apr. and speaking at a church in Eaton, Ohio that hopes to send a team later this year. I also have the possibilty of picking up some construction work for the next several weeks that will help with our own personal finances. Plus I will be purchasing things that need to go back down to Haiti with me in early Mar. Of course I also hope to get together with as many friends and family as I can in the next month.

NO REST FOR THE WEARY

Sorry for the long delay in posting a blog, my intentions were good in doing this at least weekly but I ran out of steam the last 2 weeks. On the positive side the wireless internet has been working in my house for the last 12 days making internet access much easier. The negative side is that I started to get wore down from the 29 straight days of hosting and directing teams without a break over the last 4 weeks.
I usually start my day by getting up at 5:45 to make coffee for myself and those on the teams who like good Haitian coffee, by 6:30 people are arriving at my door to come in and drink coffee and talk before we go down to breakfast at 7:00 after that we start our work projects or for some go teach or go to the clinic. We usually quit for the day at 4:30 or 5:00 to clean up for supper at 5:30. At 7:30 the teams arrive back at my house for devotions and conversation, later they go back to the dining area to play with the kids , do e-mails ,watch movies and play card games. My days are kept busy by keeping the team members supplied with tools, parts, materials and advice and direction. This often includes multiple trips into Montrouis or St. Marc. sometime around the first week of Feb. I was starting to look forward to a break when I could once again set my own schedule. The last of my Jan. teams left on the 7th and as I drove back from the airport on Sat. it was all I could do to stay awake . Nephtalie, Celian, Beliha and Loveline slept in the cab of the truck and all I could think about was getting back home and taking an afternoon nap.
No chance of that as we pulled up the drive I noticed one of our teenage girls sitting off by herself crying and as I got up the drive I saw the father of Charna who had just turned six 2 days earlier. After setting and talking with him for a short while I went down the drive to try and cheer up the girl who had been crying as I arrived home. I'm not convinced this is one of the gifts or talents that God bestowed upon men, but I think he blessed me in this particular instance.
After that it was off to purchase some diesel fuel so we could run our generator later that night, which is no small task as after 5 weeks we still don't have fuel in either of the 2 stations in Montrouis, the closest fuel is 10 miles away. After supper I did some hand laundry and started to organize the house. I think I may have went to bed at 9:00 or 9:30 I do know I slept in till 6:00 am since it was Sunday and the last of my coffee drinking companions for the month had headed home. Now that the teams have departed for awhile some of my special Canaan girls and boys are showing up at my house in the evening to hang out and with me before they have to go to their dorms for bedtime. Such is my life at Canaan.