Psalm 34:8- He is so good!

"Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!" Ps. 34:8

On the road to PAP
Our team of 21 got home from an incredible trip to Diquini, Port-au-Prince on Monday evening. This is the place where the young man from the OMS seminary, Junior, has been living since February. He is in the process of planting a church in this city on top of a mountain in western PAP and has been working very hard at discipling new believers in this area(around 600 since the earthquake). He has been living in a tent by himself, makes frequent visits to the people in the community, leads bible studies every morning from 5 to 6, church services every night of the week, and then Sunday mornings as well. He would never complain to anyone, but I know he gets worn out and very lonely at times. Please continue to pray for his ministry there, for his physical, emotional and spiritual well-being, and that God would call at least 2 other people to Diquini to help Junior in continuing to carry out the plans God has for this area.

Our purpose during the 3 days we were there was to encourage and lift up Junior, to put on a VBS kids program, and to hold an evangelism crusade. On Thursday morning, 8 of us missionaries, and 13 of our seminary students loaded up in the back of an open-topped large truck. The rain had poured the entire night prior and all that morning and for the first 3-4 hours of our journey. This however did little to dampen our spirits. The minute we were on the road the whole group, which consisted of a mixture of Haitian/American/Enlgish/Irish folk, began praying, singing, and worshipping together in both English and Kreyol. It was beautiful! I can't say I enjoyed every one of the 8 hours that it took us to get there, but we were all excited and eager for what the Lord was going to do and it was a great first bonding experience together.

Our team

From left to right: Front row-Franz, Nicole, Hannah, Julie, Kate, Josephine, Jacob, Devicoeur, Bellonie, Seville, Jean-Baptiste, Yolen, Denny
Back row- Pam, Jean-Marie, Simeon, Waldeck, Rachelle, John, Rosalvo and Bonaime

The trip down

When we finally arrived in Port, we had to drive through most of town to get to Diquini. There are tents everywhere, some even in the middle of the road dividing traffic. What really amazed me most though was not the crumbled buildings, the number of tent houses, or the rubble everywhere. There were buildings that were completely demolished that were in the middle of perfectly stable, seemingly untouched buildings. It was a really bizarre sight to see.

View from Diquini

Diquini is located on the top of a mountain and the view from up there is amazing! At the very top there is a building that at one time used to be a guest house of some sort. It is basically empty and without electricity or running water, so most of us just pitched tents outside in the back. I was perfectly content with that, especially since as soon as you stepped outside of your tent you were hit with the spectacular panoramic view of all of Port-au-Prince. I was able to catch a couple gorgeous sunsets and sunrises and praised God for the beauty of His creation, even in the midst of ashes.

Sunrise/Sunset

Thursday night they showed the Jesus film in the church, using a projector and a white sheet. The church is located right outside of the gate that surrounds the guest house. The church consists of 2 tarps held up by bamboo poles, homemade benches, a table at the front, and rope holding it all together. Friday morning at 8 kicked off the Evangelism crusade and the kids club. Nine of the seminary students participated in the evangelism during the days, while the rest of us put on the kids program. Being that we are missionaries from a completely different culture, we had decided not to be directly involved in planning how the program should be run. We wanted to let them take ownership of this whole trip, and simply be there for support. We started off the sessions with singing, praying, then a bible story that included flanel board visuals, memorization of a bible verse, and then teaching them a song in English. Friday morning we learned about Abraham and his obedience to God, that afternoon we looked at Jonah and the result of his disobedience to God and then on Saturday morning was the story of Jesus life, death and resurrection that illustrated His obedience to his father. Our last session was Sunday afternoon and we had a special program where we did an overview of all the stories, revisited all of the verses, sang all the songs we had learned, and handed out treat bags filled with the gospel of John, coloring books, crayons, soap, sweets and crackers. We had a quiz time near the end and it was amazing to see how well these kids retian information! The majority of them had memorized all 3 of the verses and could recall most details of the stories we had learned.

During the time we were doing the childrens program, the rest of the seminary students were out evangelizing around the town of Diquini and encouraging the new believers. Then every night at 5:30 or so we had services that the students planned and led with singing, praying and the message. The church was packed with around 200 people inside and we think 100 or so gathered around outside of the church.

Side view of the church
It was so encouraging to see the seminary student's passionate love for God in everything they did and said. The Holy Spirit was so obviously evident during the entire trip, and the total number of people who surrendered their life to Christ was over 100! All glory and praise be to God alone!

We had the opportunity to get to know some of the students on a deeper level by listening to their incredible stories of how God had called them into ministry, and witnessing their authentic and surrendered hearts. They are truly living out what they believe and they encouraged and challenged my faith in ways I never had never experienced before. It felt like we were all family, and the type of bonds that we created can only be made through sharing something so deep as an intimate love for the God who created all things. I am so priviledged and blessed to have been able to experience God's presence and faithfulness through this trip! There are many other stories I could share with you to attest to this truth, but this is already a novel so I will just stop here. But I hope this gave you an idea of how God worked powerfully in and through all of us this weekend!

Junior with his fellow seminary friends

Buds