Dear friends on the other side of the country,

Hi, I am in Seattle and loving it. I got off to a rocky start with the time change, 3 hours, and the brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, cold of Seattle, a blustery 60 degrees, not counting the wind.

I had a hard time sleeping the first couple nights, went to bed at 12 midnight here, which was 3am where I am from, then by 7am, my body is on 10am time so I got behind on the sleep.

That just lasted a couple days, Sunday was awesome as I was able to speak and share our ministry with Brookview Church in Seattle with Pastor Jason Huguenin and his wife Jen.

This is a pastor who is doing it right. The church is growing at a wonderful pace with vibrant, exciting Christ followers. It was an honor to share with them what God is doing in Haiti, and have them express a deep desire to partner with us. They actually have already been helping financially in a huge way for the past year. Thank you Pastor Jason.

Monday I had the chance to explore Seattle, and this beautiful area. I used to rank Michigan of course as the most beautiful, wonderful state in the union with Indiana 2nd and so forth. Well, this area, the Pugent Sound, pacific northwest has jumped from number 49 (of course New Jersey is last) to number 2 on my places of wonder.

Seattle is a city of deep history and so fascinating. Yesterday we took a "uboat" like the boats used to storm Normandy beach, which is converted into a bus, to tour Seattle. Then, after driving the city streets for an hour, the bus suddenly drove down into this huge lake. We continued to tour Seattle in the boat, and saw the nearly 500 houseboats docked around the lake. I don't mean your daddy's houseboat; these are houses like yours that are actually boats; just fascinating.

We later went to the top of the Seattle Space Needle and what a thrill that was to see this beautiful area from some 600 feet in the air. The mountains all around, Mt. Rainier, the islands, the ferries (boats), the ocean, lakes, houses, downtown Seattle and so much more; just majestic. If you have never been to Seattle, you gotta see it to believe it.

We then took a monorail downtown and I had my first Starbucks ever, at the original Starbucks. Then it was off to a local favorite restaurant "Joey's" which was pretty fancy, and I was treated to dinner by the band The Classic Crime, who just visited Haiti two weeks ago.

We had a great time laughing and remembering the times in Haiti. It was an awesome night.

Today I am taking a ferry on a tour of the islands; hopefully I'll see the fortified Bill Gates home and much more. A community meeting tonight sharing Haiti, then tomorrow we go underground. Yes, 100 years ago Seattle was flooded so they raised all the streets and left underground was a city; a city where people lived secretly for a long time. Tomorrow we tour that.

Thursday is Thanksgiving and on to Minnesota to continue the JiHM world tour. We have decided that about every 6 months, I will be making a world tour for a couple weeks to share this ministry so if you would like me to come to your neck of the woods, let me know. Just need to be able to share the ministry in your church and a home presentation or two. Maybe you can move into that coveted number 2 spot on my state list.

I am in contact with my staff and family everyday and although they claim they miss me, all is well.

Pastor Jason and the Christians are dealing with a new thing here in Seattle. Some strip club owner started coffee shops on every corner, drive thru ones, with nearly naked ladies running them. You pull up, a near naked lady fixes you coffee and off you go. The lines of cars are long. Pastor Jason spoke at a city council meeting to try to help stop this very obscene new business.

I do have one huge prayer request that is weighing heavy on my heart. My younger brother Mark was diagnosed with prostate cancer and is in the beginning stages of figuring all that out. Please pray for Mark and his family as they deal with this. He is a wonderful, Godly man whom we all love so much.

Thanks, take care, drop me a line and have a very Happy Thanksgiving! tominseattle

p.s. In the "yes she said it" department: I was at a bookstore today and the clerk said, "did you see the new Michael Crieghton book, he wrote it after he died, seems many authors are doing that." I kid you not, she said it.

Dear friends,

I want to thank all of you who answered my little survey about "cursing" in church. About 50 of you responded and most all of you shared comments. I was very interested to hear your comments, thank you so much.

Of those that responded, 65% of you said cursing never should be allowed in church, 35% said yes, depending on the situation. I could do the political thing and play it safe playing both sides but you know me, for better or for worse, I say what I think.

I grew up in a day when the Lord's house was just that. When we went to the Lord's house we had a great respect for the fact that it represented a holy place. We dressed up out of respect to the King of Kings. Cursing would never have happened, for any reason, in God's house.

Having said that, I know that we have to be creative and we at times need to do drastic things, to reach the lost. I have often said I would cross over into hell to save a soul and at times I have done that. As the church at times, while maybe not crossing the line all the way, we need to put one foot inside hell to reach someone. I could see things done and said at an outreach type event, to reach the lost that might be close to that line. Jesus did a few line crossings in His day.

I loved one comment from someone who said "son, why did you curse, where did you hear that?" The little boy said "in church." It puts a different light on the subject.

I will have more questions from time to time, thanks!

I am in my last day in Ohio. Tomorrow I head to the great state of Washington, Seattle to be exact. I am looking forward to sharing the ministry of what God is doing in Haiti and meeting new friends.

It has been a wild week here at the Jeanty's. Calvin goes to school at 8, Kk goes at 12, they both get picked up at 3, Marco goes to college 1-4, DeAnna works 11pm - 7am, Marco works 430-10pm............and so on and so forth. I have tried to give relief to Marco and Dee by doing the driving so I have been busy.

They are doing a wonderful job with their family and doing what it takes to support them and get an education. I don't know how they do it.

I will mention that they so badly need another vehicle as they would save so much gas from taking each other back and forth. If you are within driving distance of Cincinnati, and have an older car that is not in use that you would like to donate, that would be such a huge blessing to them. Let me know will ya?

Little Kaylyn goes to therapy today, (she had a stroke when she was young) and is getting a leg brace. She is worried about that but will be fine.

I am in daily contact with my staff and family in Haiti and they are doing fine, although they claim they miss the old fat white guy for some reason. Take care, tom

Hi from Ohio,

I left Haiti Thursday morning, taking 3 planes to finally arrive in Cincy at 7:30 p.m. The flight from Haiti to Miami was nice but wow, from Miami to Charlotte I thought I was going to die. The turbulence was horrible, the whole flight. One rather large man got up to go to the bathroom and the flight attendant yelled "sit down, this is dangerous," he said "fine, but let me warn you, I am going to wet myself." I was happy to land. My face to face will have to wait.
I haven't done much but rest and enjoy my 3 grand kids, and Marco and DeAnna. Marco is working at a brand new Wal-Mart, as the produce guy, and DeAnna is working 6-7 nights per week as a nurse in a nursing home, 3rd shift. They have recently moved and are very happy with everything. The big news is that they have child number 4 coming in March. He is a boy and I suggested the name "Taj" but they haven't loved that one.
I am always really excited to come to the states and to see such wonderful friends but, with all that’s going on in Haiti at our new property, I was a tad nervous about leaving. I challenged my staff to step up and replace my hours while I was gone. I know they will.
Thursday at leadership, without me, 120 young adults showed up and Jony had 260 kids at youth group on Friday. Jony was supposed to travel with me but was turned down for his visa attempt. I thought he would be really depressed but he said "now I get to see why God kept me in Haiti, and for what purpose."
The boys were sad to see me go, as I was sad to leave them. Towards the end of the week I will be going to Washington to share the ministry, and then on to Minnesota for a couple church visits, home presentations and much, much more.
The main reason I made this trip is to raise funds for our church/school building. Things have been really tight the past couple months with the move to the new property and all the new expenses that added. We were even a tad short in October. If you are able at all to help us get caught up and get ahead so we can keep moving forward, please do so. I don't know of a better investment you could make. Please pray about this, maybe a year end gift, like a Christmas present to Haiti, how's that? tominohio

Question of the day: I was at a church in Cincy today and they did a play onstage. In the play one of the "unsaved men" cursed. Is this acceptable to you or should this never happen inside the walls of a church? Just curious if your take matches my take.

Dear friends,

We just finished one of our best weeks in a long time. A music band called The Classic Crime was here, from the Seattle area.

I had no idea what to expect as we have never had a band here before but wow, what a week. These men were incredible, loving, humble servants of God. They encouraged and blessed all of us so much.

They performed songs from their albums on 3 different occasions and shared their faith. Thursday at our leadership/discipleship class we had 150 people. Hearing this "different" kind of music for the first time, the people just listened, but enjoyed it.

Friday at youth group, over 200 kids really enjoyed the band. Sunday they performed during Sunday school sharing their testimonies, gave a drum lesson and played some more songs. During church I interviewed the leader Matt McDonald about this faith and the ministry the band does, then they performed 3 more songs.

Our crowd of 490 people just loved them and their music even though it was in English. The Classic Crime gave our family a sneak debut of their new album which won't be released until spring. As good as their music is the personal side of these men is what shined bright, in all the points of light.

They even got to see a baby pig with a hole in its stomach at the dump, being cleaned of maggots, treated with iodine and bandaged up.

It took me all week to figure out what the "classic crime" was. I finally know the classic crime is that more folks don't know about this group, and listen to their music.

The Classic Crime is getting ready to do a country wide tour in January with other Christian bands. Thank you Matt, Justin, Al, Skip and Robbie, you guys are the best and...my new favorite band.

On another note, our generator of 6 years went down and we were without power on and off for a week or so. A church donated the money and we bought a brand new, $13,000 generator which has 33% more power than the one we had. More good news is we are getting parts for the old generator and will be moving it to the mission when repaired to be used for many more years, we pray. Praise God!

This week I am leaving Haiti to visit two places I have never been. I will be presenting our ministry in Seattle, Washington, and near the Twin Cities of Minneapolis. It was a coincidence the band was from where I am going in Seattle.

This will be about a 3 week trip, sharing the ministry in new locations, and raising much needed funds to finish our church. We have not started construction but need to have all the funds before starting so we are working on that. We don't have exact numbers yet but I feel we are about $80,000 short yet of building and finishing our school/church.

It is 80 degrees here so I am hoping it is at least as warm in Minnesota and Washington when I get there. Will you make this happen Pastor Jason and Pastor Dave?

All is well here, numbers in all our ministries are up, and momentum is great. God is really moving in all the points of light.

My family is great but getting sad that poppy will be leaving for a couple weeks. I told them, if someone sends a check for $80,000 I won't go but that hasn't happened so duty calls.

Thanks again for all of you who so faithfully support this ministry with your prayers and hard earned money. We are doing our best to be good stewards of what God gives us, through you wonderful folks. May God bless, tominhaiti

hi from Haiti, Sunday afternoon

Greetings from the big island. A busy week update!

Politics: Haiti's senators fired our prime minister, but President Preval quickly named a replacment who should be accepted. This is very important because Haiti has been on a good road to recovery, thanks some in part to our friend, Bill Clinton.

Victory Bible church: Today was a beautiful day and a great service. We had 390 people with 150 kids in junior church. Everything is going like a well oiled machine on Sunday mornings thanks to a great staff of about 40 helping me.

Leaderhship/discipleship training: This past week we had 85 young adults show up for our Thursday meeting. This really excites me to see so many people wanting to be trained for Christian service.

Youth group: We had our first youth group in the tent Friday night with 150 teens showing up. Jony did a great job with a giant tug of war, other games and a great lesson.

The dented table: With apologies to some wonderful men who spent a week making us a beautiful, 24 seat table, it is dented all over.

A few months ago, for a birthday celebration, the boys began to use spoons and plastic pop bottles as drum sticks during the singing of happy birthday. It was a hoot.

This began not only a birthday tradition but a bi weekly praise and worship time. The boys sing praise songs and over 20 of them, including the little ones, bang on the table with the bottles and spoons. Last night it happened again after supper. What a sight to see so many people, banging and singing and praising God.

I normally just sit and listen, and sometimes shed tears. Last night I noticed something I had never noticed before as the light hit the table just right. Thousands and thousands of marks, all over this table from the beating it has taken. Not broke or damaged, just marks.

Normally I might have thought we ruined something but as I looked, I realized that the marks these boys were leaving on the table, was only a glimpse of the marks they will leave on Haiti, for the next generation and beyond.

The marks and dents looked very beautiful as I thought of the joy around the table. I also thought that not only are these great memories for me, these boys will never ever forget these expierences and I can only pray and hope that some day, they will all have dented tables in their houses.

This is a busy week coming up. We have a band called Classic Crime coming and we are so excited to see how their ministry here in Haiti unfolds. You can find them on YouTube, several of their vidoes have over a million views.

Thanks again for YOUR part in this ministry, and for allowing me to be Jesus in Haiti, supported by you. May God bless all you do and touch and never forget to be Jesus where you are, shining that light, for a lost and dying world to see, starting where you live, work and play., tominhaiti