Dear friends, Sunday night late, somewhere in the Bermuda triangle

The age old question of what to give first, the good news or the bad news is my dilemma now. Life here is always a roller coaster ride, no more than this weekend.

Friday night, one of our students at Grace Emmanuel School got a really bad fever. This 10 year old boy, Jordens, passed away before morning. Not only is the loss of life so sad, it is sad that it was probably preventable. This past week we had 19 in our home of the 24 who were very sick with headaches and fever. We have the possibilities for medicine and ways to cool them down. This little boy didn't. And we received no call for help. We always let the students and parents know to call if someone is sick.

I am glad I can take care of those in my house the proper way, but so sad to see a parent who can't, and loses a child. This mother had lost everything in last year's hurricane and we let her and Jordens stay in our school for a bit. When school started, Jordens started school. Today he was buried and we pray he is in the arms of Jesus. That is the downer.

The exciting news of the day is today was our first service at our property for Victory Bible Church. I didn't sleep well the past few nights from the excitement of this day. WE met at 8:30 a.m. at the site of the church we rented on Saturday nights. Only about 80 showed up but that didn't damper my spirits. We made our mile walk singing praises to God. (and yes, I walked the whole way)

We arrived at our church tent and each person received cold water and we started church. In the next 40 minutes or so, over 200 more people came, people who missed the march, but still came. I had figured we could hold 250 comfortably in our tent. Our attendance today was 298 at the time I counted about half way through the service. A dozen or so more came after my count but I am sticking with 298, as our first service total and our record attendance for VBC, tent style.

We had about an hour of praise and worship and I spoke for about 20 minutes. Not really preached, just shared the excitement of what God was doing and what lies ahead as far as: youth group, sports, midweek service, leadership training and much more that we could not do, having a building only 3 hours per week.

Another hour of singing than pastor Roger closed with a short challenge. We fed everyone a couple of hotdogs and a cold juice. It was a very exciting day for me, my family, our staff and our church folks. You could feel the excitement in the air.

I hope you enjoy the photos from our first service on our property.

It has been quite a week preparing for this service. Besides having 19 sick ones, our generator was down for 2 days and we had NO power. No power means no water, no fans, no cold drinks, no ice, no lights, no nothing. I sent two of the boys to the hospital, Shadrach and Dearson, and they got prescriptions which we had filled to cover everyone. Tonight, they all go to bed healed, not one sick. Praise God!

Now maybe things can get back to normal with school up and running and now Victory Bible Church on the move. I might even get some sleep. Thank you all so much for your prayers and financial support. This move to the mission for our school and church has cost several thousand dollars NOT in the budget but God has provided. I am short for the next couple weeks of September and am praying that God continues to supply to get us caught up and moving forward. Thanks in advance to those of you whom God will use for this purpose.

I did hear my Michigan Wolverines are undefeated and my Detroit Tigers are in first place with two weeks left so all is well on that end. Take care and may God bless all you do and stay in touch, tominhaiti