LOTS TO DO BUT A LOT DONE

It has been a whirlwind month here in Haiti, non stop activity. We have had 3 work teams, 2 medical teams ( one surgical another doing clinics in the mountains) and visits from individuals and couples. Add in a week ling visit from the Director of Cross Cultural Ministries, Don Dennison which involved some traveling both by vehicle and foot to visit churches and have meetings. Then there is the ongoing business of dealing with the government in reestablishing the status of Project Help- Haiti as exempt from paying Customs fees.

Last Sunday the Snyder family our missionary family here at Borel finished up their 2 month internship and flew back to the states on Monday morning. Due to needing to get their girls enrolled in school they reluctantly had to leave me hosting a large work team this week. Thanks to the help of my Alaskan friend Melissa Mochek who came back to Haiti after a 2 year absence and the help of my Haitian girls, Clona and Fabiola we have been able to get by pretty well. Everyone has been well taken care of and lots of projects completed by the Barkeyville, Pa. Church of God team.

Today is our last day at Borel, this afternoon we head down to Pierre Payen to overnight then the team heads back to the states on Sat. morning. Melissa and I also fly out on the first flight. Clona and Fabiola will stay at P.P. several weeks then head off to the A.C.E. school in St. Marc in Sept. They have a room rented at the school but will stay with Shirley and I at Borel on the weekends to continue helping out with teams as needed.

I unfortunately I haven't concluded all the business with the government on the PH-H franchise
( tax exempt status) which will allow us to get our vehicles and container out of Customs, we await the final ok from the Director of Cults. This will allow us to take possession of our vehicles and container, that means I will need to make a short trip back in Sept. to finish this long process up. So much for Shirley and I getting to take a few weeks to vacation in the States. None the less we will be traveling quite a bit for PH-H business in the states during Sept. and Oct.

It is because of the daily duties and responsibilities of my PH-H position that the G.A.P. board of directors recently confirmed Pastor Heather Elyse to become the new director of the Go and Produce Ministries. She is currently employed as the Children's Ministry pastor at Olive Branch Church of God in Indiana. She will be concluding her contract with them later this year but will keep her Indiana home and Olive Branch Church of God membership after her move to Haiti. Heather and I are in contact several times a week as we transition her into her new position. So I encourage you to once again start checking for new and interesting posts from the G.A.P. blog site, Welcome Heather!! In God's love , Steve

As I look back at the last time I blogged on this site it was into the second week post earthquake. Jan. 12th forever has changed Haiti and those who live and work. If you work in missions and haven't made adjustments in your organization and added or dropped some ministries you may soon find yourself sitting on the sidelines.

When I agreed to take over as director of Project Help-Haiti late last year my desire was also to keep GAP Ministries going as well. I thought maybe I could direct both ministries, the earthquake and resulting disaster in Haiti quickly proved me wrong on that thought. I had suspended writing this Blog during the medical disaster as I could barely find time to write the Project Help-Haiti blog. So it is good to be starting the blog back up and once again be sitting here writing to are followers. Many have told me they keep looking to see if we have posted and how disappointed they are to not find something.

Today marks something new for GAP Ministries and a major announcement. First: it became apparent I needed to relocate GAP to another location from where we had been based since 2006. I talked to my boss at Cross Cultural Ministries about this and we agreed that we could have GAP run from out of Project Help-Haiti's Borel Campus. Much like our previous arrangement in the Montrouis area with another organization we would partner with PH-H in bringing teams and funding projects. Another agreement was that Gap has several ministries that would be beneficial to PH-H rather than they starting similar ministries. This solved a major stumbling block for keeping Gap going.

Second: I needed help in running the day to day operations of Gap in Haiti and the states. This was much more difficult than one might think. Finding good missionaries can often be the downfall of many organizations. God can open doors we never even know about, He can and He did. So I would like to announce GAP's new director Miss Heather Elyse. On July 20th she interviewed and met the Gap board of directors a week later by e-mail vote she was unanimously approved. Heather and her 7 adopted children will be moving to Haiti early next year, they have been here with me in Haiti since July 23rd but will fly back to Indiana where she can finish up her duties as Children's Ministry pastor at Olive Branch Church of God. She brings a lot of good things to our ministry, besides being a children's pastor she works in production, and has a large network of people to call on for help and is a great public speaker. She grew up as an MK & PK (missionary & Pastor's kid) and has a passion for children and helping the lost and downtrodden of the world.

Heather will be starting to blog on the GAP site soon and time to time I will as well. I will continue to remain as executive director of GAP. This bog will also be linked to our new Project Help website at www.projecthelp-haiti.org along with several other important blog sites. We also will be updating and changing some aspects of our GAP website which will also have a link to the PH-H website. Many of you have told me you can't get enough of following what is going on in Haiti so hold on were about to launch an awesome communications network to keep you. updated. In God's love , steve