Mountains of Fond Parisen October 2012

10-10-12 Leaving for Haiti early Wednesday morning for 5 weeks. Please pray for relationships to be built, and the love of Jesus to be poured out upon all we encounter. My team of 5 will be sharing the gospel thru stories in a mountain village. We have been warned that our mode of transportation will be the same as Jesus as he rode into Jerusalem during Pentecost. We will be building cooking stoves and training nationals how to build them as well and planting vetiver grass on the mountain side to prevent erosion. You can follow our journey on Facebook at embark now. Gazing at the mountains in Haiti that I will be climbing and living in for the next 4 weeks. It will be an adventure and I am asking for lots of prayers to be sent for strength in climbing on Tuesday. So far we have been on easy street, staying in nice hotel and now at Victory's base. Times will be changing. God is good and faithful. 10-21-12 Trecked down from the Mountain in Haiti early this morning. I am now at the Victory Base for a week before heading back into the mountains for another 9 days. We had an amazing God-filled. Met wonderful people and I miss them already. Please keep the prayers coming. Will try to post more in the next few days. Blessings! 10-23-12 Update from Haiti: My team has spent a few days at the Victory Base in Fond Parisian at the mountain base resting from our 12 days on the mountain. We met amazing people. One family has given up 2 houses for us to sleep in and has been very generous in helping us cook, cleaning up our muddy rooms, lighting our charcoal fire, and helping us learn the language. Here are some of my highlights, if it's possible to name a few. I rode a very nice mule up the mountain, that is until he decided to fall down and rip the whole back of my pants off. Then he got to close to the other mule and I got kicked twice. The mule driver was quite amused and I made quite a sight riding into camp with no back on my pants. We spent the first days getting to know our family and starting to build relationships with them. They are very sweet people. Grandpa is 70 and he build all the houses. His son, Jotosse is the area police and has helped us met others and keep us safe. Janet, papas daughter, and her 2 year old son Orlanda run the place. Janet is a hard working lady that never sits down and makes wonderful meals for us. She has taught us many things about cooking but her rice and beans always taste the best. She starts our fire every morning after she saw how long it was taking us. Many of the family members left a few days after we got there, I'm sure it wasn't personal!! The children had to go back to school. One of our projects is to build rocket stoves. A clay stove that uses much less wood and is much more efficient than the fires. Our 2 trainers worked very hard, but the clay wasn't as good as they hoped. After much trial and error we think we found a mix that will work. Many villagers came and were trained on how to make their own stoves. We will bring forms to them and our hope is that some of them will start their own businesses. Many village children helped gather mule dung, grass, and clay that we needed for the stoves. We are also building an oven in Janet's kitchen in which she will be able to bake fresh bread. Unheard of in this mountain village. We also planted vetiver grass on the mountainside in order to help with erosion. We only planted a small amount but will bring much more next week. The neat thing with the vetiver grass is that you can cut the grass and make brickets to use as fuel in the stoves. That will be a future project. I preached in a church on Sunday and was very blessed by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We have made many connections in surrounding villages. Sharing Jesus' stories and praying for them. Many people are receiving Jesus and the Lord's healing touch is present here. We have been very well received and welcomed into homes, including the witch doctors house, whose wife is a Christian. When we return to the mountains on Oct 29th we will be using our training on orality and sharing Bible stories with our new friends thru story telling. We are studying very hard so we will be ready. It's so exciting. Our last night on the mountain, we had a worship service. Our host invited about 30 male friends and we sang songs, American and Creole, and then shared the gospel. It was a beautiful closing. God is certainly changing hearts. Both ours and theirs. Please keep my team in your prayers. For open hearts and for open ears to hear of God's love. 10-26-12 Another update from Haiti. We have been in a tropical storm for the past three days. There has been much rain and flooding. The town next to us has 5000 people without homes. I am safe at the base but the road out is flooded out. Please pray for the rain to stop and things to dry out and repairs to be made. Thanks! Nov 8, 2012 Back on state side. Wonderful 5 weeks sharing God's love in the mountains of Haiti. I am missing my new friends already and can't wait to go back. Lots of stories to share. God is so good!