Mary and I will be leaving on Saturday for Gonaives. A team from our home church, consisting of our Pastor, my sister, and some dear friends, will be going with us. Mary will return with the team on the 21st and I will be staying until the 5th of Feb. We continue to be excited about what God is doing in Gonaives and specifically in Jubilee. We are looking forward to seeing what God has done and continues to do in and through His servants there, as relationships grow in dept and number for the Kingdom of God. Please note the change in our stateside phone number.
In the past weeks I have had the opportunity to talk with several people who are going for the first time. As many of you who have been, the common theme for the first time is nervousness. As I have pondered this, I recognize it is in nervousness and the unknown places, that our dependance must be on God and not from ourselves. We have a great desire to know the future, and therefore, it is the unknown of our futures which, in our American culture we seem to have everything under control and able to handle everything, so we do not need God's dependence. In Haiti, you never know what the next hour or minute will hold, so you can develop a lifestyle of depending on God and looking for His presence. My prayer as we take this time in Haiti, that we depend on God each moment and look for his presence and may we never return to a place where we go though a day or hour where our very survival and livelihood is not totally dependent upon our Savoir. May our plan "A" be to depend upon Him and our backup plan "B", be to depend upon Him. Please pray that this time for us will be a time of spiritual transformation and an awakening to His ever presence and awareness of His desire to live in relationship with us.
We have received additional funding from Cross International to continue construction on the housing project. We should be able to place 8 more families in homes while we are there. Brian Smith will arrive in Gonaives with us in order to lead this effort. We are very thankful for Cross International and those who support their idea of serving the poorest of the poor. Please continue to pray for us and this process, along with the recipients.
In addition to this housing, church in Gainsville Ga. has constructed several pre-fabbed homes which were shipped over on the containers. Butch Bennett will be Visiting Gonaives next week and we plan on erecting some of these. We are thankful to Gainsville First United Methodist Church and Their contribution to the work in Gonaives.
In addition to the above projects, we will be starting the foundation for the medical clinic. The clinic will have 6 private exam rooms, 2 birthing rooms for the midwives to use, , lab, a pharmacy, office, waiting area, and restrooms. It will be a great benefit in the service of the Jubilee community, not only for service, but also in job skills training for medical professionals. We are grateful for those of you who have contributed towards this. We will need an additional 90,000 dollars to complete this project. Please keep this need in your prayers.
Kylie has been in Atlanta for the past two weeks for treatment. Her doctor reported that her MRI showed a decrease in the size of the Tumor. While The family and I rejoice with this news, she still has a long way to go. Please continue to keep Kylie in your prayers. Yesterday at 11am Kylie's brother was born. Mother Rebecca, and baby are doing fine. His name is Aiden. He weighed 6lbs 15oz and 20 inches long.
Today marks the 2nd anniversary of the earthquake in the PAP area. They are estimating 316,000 lives were lost from the earthquake. The country is taking a time of remembrance today. Please pray for these families.
