SUMMER WEDDINGS

Special day for special people

Through out my years as a missionary in Haiti I have become good friends with many of the young high school and college students who come work with GAP Ministry. Some of these young people actually have been on their mission trips with people they end up marrying later on after college. So my wife and I receive several wedding invitations every year, some close by others out of state. This summer we have gotten three wedding announcements and will be able to attend two of them. We would have gone to all of them except I will be in Haiti during August and miss one that will be out in up state New York.

Last evening we were able to attend the wedding of Wendy Weimer and Stephan Dingeldein. I first met Wendy when she came on a mission trip to Haiti in 2003. I think what cemented our relationship was on a hiking trip into the mountains we were knocked off the narrow trail by a donkey carrying a wide load of sticks and wood. On one side of the trail was an irrigation canal on the other where we were walking was a very steep mountain slope. The thing that saved us from sliding off the mountainside was we grabbed hold of each other and between the two of us kept our footing. Wendy and I have been together on three more trips since then two in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic.

In April of 2008 she brought along her boyfriend from Indiana Wesleyan University, Stephen Dingeldein. Later that year they became engaged and set a date to get married after graduation in 2009. After returning from their honeymoon to the Bahamas they will be living in Cary, North Carolina where they have both found employment. These fine young people are representative of the many we see who make missions a priority in their lives and marriage, we wish them the best. In God's love , steve

COMMUNITY GARDENS

The Son Shine Garden

This Spring and Summer gardening has been making a BIG come back in communities across America. These aren't new innovative ideas but a rebirth of historical concepts that were once important to communities around the world. The phrase community garden might be relatively new but during the depression years of the 1930's Greenbelt communities were an innovative concept to community self sufficiency. WWII brought us Liberty Gardens and into the 1960's and 70's the back to the land movement was born. The past several years has seen a resurgence of and interest in ideas with the phrase "Green Living".

My own church here in the states started a community garden called Son Shine Garden. The idea is to use some of our 40 acres to allow church members and others from outside the church to have garden plots. Excess produce will be made available at our food pantry and inside the Church Narthex on Sunday mornings. Some individuals and Sunday school classes have plots just for these worthy purposes.

These ideas have encouraged me to jump start some ideas I have long had about agricultural projects in Haiti. In fact part of the concept and one of our objectives for the new "Feet Across the Mountains Ministry" we have started is about developing innovative ways to help in food production in Haiti. Quite a bit of my postings over the next several weeks will be about this new ministry outreach , stay tuned. In God's love , steve

CELEBRATING: BIRTHDAYS AND DREAMS

Stephenson Jentry

Last evening Shirley and I along with Haitian college student Erve Joseph who is attending school here in N. E. Indiana attended a surprise 21st birthday party for Stephenson Jentry who arrived from Haiti last Friday evening. Stephenson was last here in the U.S. in the summer of 2007 and lived with several other Haitian students in our home. This time he is staying in Warsaw, Indiana in the home of Amy and Travis Turk. Possibly about 16 of us gathered at the Turk home to eat pizza, cake and ice cream and celebrate his birthday and arrival in the U.S. for a six month stay.

The Turk's worked very hard over the last 2.5 months in there effort to get Stephenson a visa to travel to the U.S. He is currently enrolled in a study class to enable him to achieve his short term goal of passing and receiving a GED. His long term plans are to get accepted in a vocational school and learn a viable trade he could pursue in Haiti to help his family. Amy was very adept at researching the various options of helping Stephenson receive a visa so quickly especially considering she did it all from the U.S. Her knowledge in the procedure will be a great asset in helping others through this often difficult process.

Erve also has some celebrating to do. He arrived here in the U.S. last year in July so he recently completed his first year of college. Once he finishes summer classes he will have 33 credit hours of completion. He will attain another 12-15 this coming Fall semester before he starts attending school in Branson, Mo. He recently was accepted at The College of the Ozarks with a full ride scholarship. His short term goal is to get a 4 year nursing degree. Long term he hopes to go to med school if that doesn't happen maybe a nurse/practitioner. These two guys represent the hope and future of Haiti and we wish them both success in reaching for their dreams and God given potential. In God's love , steve

TAKING OFF

The Quadracci Pavilion and Burke Brise Soleil

Yesterday evening Shirley and I arrived back home from our nearly four day trip to Milwaukee, Wisconsin . After my final two meetings on Monday morning it was time for us to take off from this year's NACCC annual meeting. I really found yesterday meeting's possibly the most beneficial of those I was involved with.

My first one was strictly among us missionaries supported by the NACCC Mission Society. We were able to learn what I would refer to as protocol the expected and required procedures to work with the Society. We also brainstormed and discussed ideas among ourselves on running and promoting out individual organizations. Seeing how the meeting's theme was Doing a New Thing I find myself pondering some new ideas already.

My last meeting was what is referred to as setting on the hot seat where you spend a hour being interviewed by the Mission Society. This is a time for the Society members to get to know you as well as find out more about your ministry and organization. The other side of the equation is you get to promote your work and seek the Society's help and assistance.

Now about those photos of the first Santiago Calatrava designed building completed in the U.S. This is the center piece and welcome center of the Milwaukee Art Museum . It sets right downtown on the shores of Lake Michigan on their miles of extensive lake front park system. The building takes on the appearance in my mind depending on where you stand of a giant airplane taking off, or a large sword fish and in some respects the Nautilis from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

It does have a wing span of the size of a 747-400 and the mast that supports the wings weighs more than 300 elephants. The wings have 2 electronic wind sensors that will automatically close the wings when speeds reach 23 mph. The wings also open at 10:00 am, close and reopen at noon and close at 5:00 pm.

Next year the annual meeting will be hosted in Anchorage, Alaska. My wife and I are seriously considering whether to attend and will be praying about it in the coming months . This years event though was well worth our time and financial investment as I feel much was gained and learned. You go away feeling recharged and ready for a new take off for higher altitudes.

In God's love , steve

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CONGREGATIONAL CHRISTIAN CHURCHES, MILWAUKEE 2009

The Wyndham Hotel, Milwaukee

The Resource Room set up for mission displays

The Sunday morning church service

Behold I am doing a new thing !! Isaiah 43:19

We arrived here in Milwaukee Friday afternoon for our first ever NACCC annual meeting, this is their denomination's 55th annual meeting, though their history goes back hundreds of years. We have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of this great event and being recognized as one of their 14 mission outreaches.

We were recently accepted as a mission outreach for their churches to use as short term missions in Haiti. Besides getting to talk to interested church pastors and individuals about arranging stm trips it has been stimulating to network with other mission organizations from around the world. Talking with missionaries from Mexico, Philippines, Burma, Bulgaria Cameroon, Kenya and all across the U.S. has been an encouragement to me to even work harder.

Our message at this morning's church service was "Willing to make a new start" and the theme of this meeting is "Behold I am doing a new thing", what an appropriate message. Time and time again I have seen missions and churches fail because they have been unwilling to change ,to make a new start and to do a new thing. I will be sharing some more things about our time here in my next blog but i'ts time now to head to another meeting. In God's love , steve

BE EXTRAVAGANT

DOING THE UNEXPECTED THING!!

This past Sunday our pastor shared a message he titled: The Unexpected Thing.
His sermon was based on Matthew 26; 6-13 where the woman anoints him with the costly perfumed oil. Those who were with Jesus on that day thought this anointing to be an extravagant act, a waste of money. Pouring the costly oil on Jesus body wasn't the expected thing to do. Yet Jesus was the unexpected: He did the unexpected , He taught the unexpected and challenges us to do the unexpected. The Bible verse ends with this scripture" I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world what she has done will also be told, in memory of her." Pastor Johnny challenged each of us to stretch ourselves and get out of the same old rut of always doing the expected "same old same old".

Possibly it was for that reason as I was heading home yesterday afternoon that the unexpected display of love and devotion on the billboard picture caught my attention. I'm sure this man's extravagant act of love for his wife is the talk of the town of North Webster, Ind. What this man did to show his devotion for his wife will surely remain etched in the lives of many who pass by this billboard. It is an example to all of us to do the unexpected. Yes flowers and an elegant meal out is the usually expected anniversary celebration , but soon fade in our memories. Whose to know how far this extravagant act may go in the way other men and women show appreciation to their spouses, children, friends, co workers and even strangers.

Our pastor challenged us to stretch ourselves to be extravagant, to do the unexpected. Maybe it's reaching out to someone we may not know very well, a non Christian, someone we have a problem with or they with us, someone hurting or suffering, someone we are close with but haven't shown our appreciation to lately.You never know what might happen nor how far that unexpected act may go in changing lives. In God's love , steve

LOOKING AHEAD BY LOOKING BACK

The Long Road

At the end of this month, June 26-29th, I will be attending the annual meeting of the Congregational Christian Churches of America in Milwaukee, Wisc. This is a big event for us as we will be recognized as the mission outreach for their churches to work with in Haiti. Attending such an event requires more than booking a hotel room, doing a Map Quest and packing a suitcase. It seems like I have been in contact and sending info to the C.C.C. headquarters regularly the past several weeks. They needed a bulletin insert with pictures about G.A.P.to hand out to all attendees More recently they requested a list of prayer needs to be submitted.

When I put together the bulletin insert I realized that I also needed to reevaluate who we are and what we do. When we agreed to move to Canaan in 2005 and started operating a guest house the distinction between G.A.P. and Canaan became somewhat confusing to many of our teams. This process of evaluation was a good thing out of it has come three new brochures that I will be taking to Milwaukee with me. Our old brochure was designed in 2002 and so much has changed since then. One of our new brochures tells the G.A.P. story and briefly describes each of our 5 ministries. The other two describe specific ministry outreaches.

I thought it might be a good thing to share a little about the G.A.P. brochure. First our logo actually represents some specific things about the Go and Produce Ministry. G.A.P. Ministry comes out of the Bible verse John 15:16 where Jesus tells His disciples that "He chose them and gave them this work to do: Go and Produce fruit that will last". The tree in our logo is representing something that can bear fruit. The five branches of the go and produce tree (a hand) represent the five ministries of our work in Haiti.

Our five ministries:

** G.A.P. Ministry-- a mission agency that organizes, arranges and leads short term missions (STMs)opportunities for individuals, churches and organizations to Haiti. The fruits of these opportunities result in construction projects, medical outreaches, education, evangelism and many other things for those who we partner with in Haiti.

** Feet Across the Mountains--- creates community partnerships to improve the quality of life of the Mountain People while preserving their unique culture and lifesyles. This ministry has it's own brochure describing its goals and objects.

**GLAD Ministry--- means Giving Love And Dignity. This ministry provides a way for churches and individuals to give boxes of specified items to needy families in Haiti. It also has it's own brochure listing the accepted items and how to participate.

** Canaan Community Clinic--- G.A.P. is raising the funds and overseeing construction on a new community clinic in Montrouis, Haiti

** Bible Distribution--- G.A.P. is the contact representative and distributor for World Missionary Press of free Creole, French and English Bibles and tracts in Haiti.

Sometimes being forced to step back and take a look at yourself can be a good thing. In this instance it has made me realize God has "indeed blessed us and enlarged our territory" the prayer of Jabez I prayed so often as we started 10 years ago. It also encourages me to stay focused on Jesus because without Him we wouldn't have ever made it to this point on our own. In God's love, steve