Jesus in Haiti Ministries
October 26, 2008
A DECADE IN THE BOOKS

October 26th, 1998 I left my home in Fort Wayne, Indiana and moved to Haiti to follow a call God placed on my life.

Here is a rundown of my first 24 hours in Haiti.9am: Left for town with fellow missionaries,

9:30, the missionary I was in backed into a truck full of Haitians. Within minutes we had hundreds of angry people around our truck demanding money. We sped off and were chased. I wanted to leave Haiti!

11am: The missionary I was with hired a driver of a big truck to take a water heater to our mission, 5 minutes later he told the driver we could not get the heater so we didn't need him. He demanded $100 saying we hired him and had to pay him. The missionary I was with sped off, we were chased. I wanted to leave Haiti!

5:30pm: It was getting dark, and I had nothing to do. No tv, no fan and it was over 100 degrees. The bugs were so bad I crawled in bed with the sheet over my head, dripping with sweat and very hot. I wanted to leave Haiti!

7:30 pm: I heard a commotion outside in the living room. I went out and the missionary I was living with had a very large dog size rat trapped in the living room, shooting pellets at him. I wanted to leave Haiti!

3365 days, 12 kidney stones, 40+ bouts with the gout, one broken wrist, one revolution, country ride rioting and looting, 2 years of Haiti leading the world in Kidnappings, the death of my mother, 20 kids taken into my home, and much more, I am still here and I don't want to leave Haiti.

I moved to Haiti with Brad and Vanessa Johnson who are the directors of Hope Mission. I helped them build and start a school which now has grown to over 1000 children. I helped build and develop the Church of Hope which has over 600 weekly in attendance. I helped start the Hope house orphanage which has over 50 children presently living. Those 5 years were good 5 years and God used us to began to bring real change to Haiti.

5 years ago I left Hope Mission to begin the JESUS in HAITI MINISTRIES. My job at Hope Mission had become an "inside the walls" ministry. My calling was outreach, going where nobody else went, which is why we started the new outreach ministry.

Today we have our 5 points of light which you can check out at jesusinhaiti.org

*We support the Good Samaritan orphanage with over 100 orphans and staff
*A school with 90 very needy children,
*a church of nearly 300,
*my home with 15 young people
*an outreach to a garbage dump which has over 90 people living/working.

One email can't describe the emotions of living in this place for 10 years. If asked to describe the 10 years it would be a mix of "exciting" and "gruesome". I am so appreciative of all of you who stand by this ministry as we share the life changing message of Jesus Christ and care for the "least of these".

I want to also recognize those of you who have been with me ALL 10 YEARS. I don't have an exact list but Jim B, Gay, Patti Jo, Uncle Len, Bud, Les and Becky, Janice and Allyn, Shirley B, the Feltons, all the good folks at Robinson Baptist, Rollins Christian Fellowship, Emmanuel Fellowship and so many more.

I look back in awe of what God has done and never mix up what God has done and what Tom has done. Tom is the one who made the mistakes, misjudged people, didn't follow through on things, was lazy, and failed many times. God is the one who did mighty things, through this flawed old guy.

I look ahead with great anticipation for what God is going to do. Folks, our best days lie ahead. Year 11 will have us moving into our new 700 seat sanctuary which will double as our school. Who knows how many more young people God will add to our home. Who knows how many will accept and trust Christ as their personal Savior. Who knows the struggles, death and frustration that lies ahead. Only God knows and I am very thankful for this.

With God's help and your help, the next 10 years will be quite a ride. I am ready for it, thank you for allowing me to be here and do this.

Just before my father departed to Heaven, he told me "son, you go to Haiti and you tell everyone you see that Jesus loves them". Dad, I have done that for 10 years, and I will do it another 10 years Lord willing.

Thanks again for your support, your friendship and your hard earned money which makes all this possible. Tominhaiti

THIS EMAIL SENT IN MEMORY OF MORRIS AND MAXINE OSBECK, MARRIED THIS DAY, OCTOBER 26TH 1946. MAY THEY ENJOY HEAVEN TOGETHER (mom, leave a light on will ya)

Thank you for your support

Tom OsbeckJesus in Haiti Ministries

Jesus in Haiti Ministries
October 20th, 2008
Hope for the hopeless

Hi from Haiti,

Monday night

I trust you had a great weekend. Everything keeps moving 100 mph here for us but I guess that will keep me out of trouble.

I shared with you last week that we have placed two young men at our school to stay overnight because of break-ins we have had. The names are Dominick and Roger. Today I was at our school, talking to these two young men and my heart was blessed. Both of these men were basically homeless with no hope in life. Today they had purpose and are doing such a good job. Another young man from the garbage dump is going to work 54 hours straight on the weekends to give them a break.

God has allowed me to do many things in Haiti and they are all special but nothing is more special then to give life to someone who has no life. These two guys are up all night watching the school, then guard the gate and supervise the grounds during recess and such. I have set up a schedule so they can get a break but they don't want a break. I am always asking groups who come to bring old cell phones and today I was able to give Dominick and Roger a cell phone. I can get them turned on here for about 10 bucks. They had never had a phone of course and were so happy. I also took them a little tv/radio for nights.

Pray for one small need we have. The break-in cost us $300 worth of new books that we have not been able to replace. Fondi our director says it is hard for the kids that don't have books but I explained we have a budget and the money can't be replaced at the snap of a finger. He understood.

Little Ricardo who I took in from the dump is doing great. He has never been in school so we are going to home school him with Calvin. DeAnna has agreed to do this. Last week a missions team made us this new table for which fits 20 but we only have 19 chairs. It is funny, the past several days we have had exactly 19 for each meal. I'm happy we don't have more chairs. We have reached nearly $17,000 in gifts given for our new church building which is part of the matching grant doubling that total to $34,000, Praise God!

Question for you. Who do you love more, your family or God? How about your tv or God? Okay, sports or God, work or God? I ask this for one reason, we all know that our time tells what we love more so based on amount of time spent with each one of these, who or what do you really love more? Pastor Murph who visited us got me thinking of this and it really is amazing to think about. With our mouth we say we love God the most however our actions prove different. Take a look at your time and see what you really love the most, might surprise you.

President Obama? Is it true, is he really close to nailing this thing? Wow, my big worry was his patriotism and now General Powell supports him, how did that happen? I need you Bill O'Reilly folks and Rush Limbaugh folks to let me know what is going on.

Paid my insurance on my Kia today, $320 for the whole year, boy insurance has went up or is it just Haiti, do any of you pay more than $320 per year for car insurance.?

Saturday night church was great although we almost didn't go. The night before the road to church had several robberies and car jacking so we debated what to do. Church won out and we went, had a great service then drove home 100 mph. Okay, maybe not that fast but I flew. Do any of you women know how to make bread without a machine? How about pizza, is homemade pizza easy?

Okay, hope we got you caught up despite the tricks to solicit emails from you. All is well, we keep moving forward despite several attacks by satan to slow us down. He may slow me down, he may even knock me down at times but hear me well, i WILL KEEP GETTING UP UNTIL I TAKE MY LAST BREATH.

God is good all the time, all the time God is good. Thank each one of you who have given finances, sent up prayers, emailed me or sent stuff. This ministry could not be as effective without each of your contribution. For the 500 or so people we minister to daily, thank you! tominhaiti
Thank you for your support

Tom Osbeck
Executive DirectorJesus in Haiti Ministries

For ContributionsJesus in Haiti Ministries, Inc. Suite 155 10214 Chestnut Plaza Drive Fort Wayne, IN 46814

Jesus in Haiti Ministries

October 5th, 2008

Sunday afternoon

Dear friends,

I had intended to write you this detailed email on how great church was last night. I was going to tell you about a 90 minute Praise time that nearly raised the roof off the packed church. I was going to tell you about me leading "head and shoulders knees and toes" in a circle of over 100 children in Junior church. I had so much to tell, than this morning happened.

One thing I always tell our church folks is "as great as our weekly church service is what happens the other 6 days will determine what kind of church we have and will define who we are, as Christians."

This morning I felt that even more. I told you about a little boy from the garbage dump who God laid on my heart to give a home to. He lives just a stones throw from the dump in a village that is not much better than the dump itself. The poorest village I have been in.

Today I drove into the village and within seconds a crowd of over 100 had gathered around me. I knew more than half of them from the dump. We were standing, talking, laughing, enjoying fellowship when a cheer broke out. I looked up and from his "house" walked Ricardo, dressed in a sponge bob t-shirt and a pair of oversized faded dress pants, and sandals, carrying a book bag on his back. (it was empty) I walked over and kissed his mom and greeted Ricardo. I was asking about a birth certificate (he has none) when his birthday is (march 2nd but not sure of the year) and any other information I would need. As we began the 25 yard walk to the truck, the hundred people or so that had gathered began to cheer and shout words of encouragement to this little boy. One of theirs was getting out, and they were all so happy.

As I was pulling away with Ricardo and Claudy my son, I asked Ricardo if he had eaten today, he said no which I expected. I asked him what he had to eat yesterday he hung his head and said "nothing". With tears flowing, I could not speak, to even ask about Friday. I had many thoughts going through my mind at this point. I did know this! God is using this ministry to do some pretty amazing things. Our school, Grace Emmanuel school opens tomorrow for 90 students who would not be going to school otherwise, packed church of people being discipled and hearing the Gospel, orphans and widows being helped, and much, much more. However, nothing stands above bringing little Ricardo to my home today, giving him life, giving him hope, hearing him say "poppy, thank you".

Just writing this has tears flowing uncontrollably. Never again will Ricardo have to pick through garbage. For the first time in his 9, 10 or 11 years, he will be: sleeping in a bed, eating food every day, going to school, having a family, getting medical attention when needed, and being trained in the things of God. This is why I was put on this earth, to bring hope to the hopeless. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for allowing me to be Jesus to Ricardo, and so many others.

We have a big week coming up. We are grilling 300+ hotdogs at our school tomorrow, my boys start school, we have a group from Indiana bringing a dentist Thursday, the actual blocks start to go up for our church building and so much more.

A very special thanks to those of you who understand Proverbs 21:13 so well. Around $13,000 came in for the flood relief. We have been busy using every penny to bring relief to these folks. We have been helping 58 families with food the past 3 weeks, we have rented homes, built walls and much more. Thank you for responding to this need. When I asked for help, I was hoping for $5000. Then I adjusted that prayer to $10,000. God knew what we needed. Not only were we able to rent homes for some for one year, we were able to get beds, cooking utensils and other much needed items to get them started. Again, thank you for the sacrifice you made, for these folks. Thank you to all of you who sacrifice during tough times, for the Kingdom, for the "least of mine".

As I write this, Ricardo. Steven, Jay and three neighbor boys are playing soccer. Trouble is, I don't see a soccer game in progress, I see living, breathing, smiling proof that God cares for his little ones, and that HE has given us a great responsibility. The curtain continues to open. tominhaiti

PS-
* Marco and DeAnna celebrated their 5th wedding aniversary yesterday, Marco sang a special Love song to Dee during church, she then came up and kissed him and the people went crazy. It was neat.
*Also, Shadrach turns 14 tomorrow and Haslom turns 16 on Wednesday
*Pray for Mommy Tia, she is really moving slow and in pain even with her medicine
*Don't forget our club365 and matching grant available


Thank you for your support,

Tom Osbeck

Jesus in Haiti Ministries

For financial contributions JiHM Suite #155 10214 Chestnut Plaza Dr. Ft. Wayne, IN 46814 Att: Pat Hinen