JiHM

A Blast From the Past - Reprinted from March 2009

2010-04-30T20:31:00.001-05:00

Dear friends,

I read this email the other day and it blessed me, again and I know we have so many new folks reading these, I thought I would send it again. For those of you who have read it before, just push delete, tom

hi from haiti,

Most of you know that life on the mission field is not really fun. Very rewarding, but not fun. Laughter, the way I am used to, doesn't happen.

This and several other things, make life on the mission field very difficult. I worked 25 years in ministry in the states so I have something to compare it to. Daily attacks by satan are the norm, big, small, and everything inbetween. With God's help, you learn to cope. If I had to throw some numbers at you I would say 60% of the days are not great, 30% are really bad and 9% are good. 1% are great.

I don't mean to depress you, not seeking smypathy but feel most missionaries anywhere in the world would tell you this. Just a fact of being here. Doesn't mean I can't have joy in the days that aren't so good, just means they are very tough.

One of the 1% days happened the other day. Many times in my life, things and events have happened that made me say "yes, this is why I exist". This past Thursday was one of those days.

As you know, we sent a team to the Love a Child Mission, run by Bobby and Sherri Burnett, to translate for a team of 27 doctors doing medical work. All 10 we sent I would consider "my sons". 7 of them currently live with me, and the other 3 have in the past. This really was "my team". These are the young men that I have poured my life into, for nearly 11 years.

This was also the FIRST time they had done ministry apart from me for such a stretch. We called this our first mission trip. I dropped them off last Sunday at a pick up point and they went to the Love a Child Mission, which borders the Dominican Republic.

On Monday they and the doctors took a trip in a caravan of about a dozen SUV's and trucks up a river bed to a mountain village. The other 3 days were spent at Love a Child doing a medical clinic. You can check out the pictures at loveachild.com and read all about it.

When pickup day came, Thursday, I was very excited to go pick up my gang. I was supposed to be there by 4 but by noon I was really to roll. I took off to make the hour trip and was there by 1pm. I slipped in the church and saw hundreds of people crowded outside and over 20 work stations in the church/medical clinic.

What a joy to see each of my boys, with a doctor treating people. As I walked around, it was so neat to see each of my boys smile when they saw me. As I passed by, the doctor must have realized who I was because they always stopped and said "is this him, is this Tom?"

Each doctor/nurse warmly greeted me and said "what a boy you have here, what an outstanding young man, thank you so much." I was blown away by the reactions of these professionals. When I slipped in the dental clinic, I saw the doctor down in the patient's mouth pulling a tooth. Bebe had his back to me and was working away. Then he glanced at me and yelled "ohhhhhhhhh." Everyone jumped and I felt bad but he was happy to see me.

For two hours I watched my boys work, doing ministry. It touched me to see young men who were able to give back to God, and their people, for all God had done for them. I was very happy but had no clue the best was yet to come.

A young lady named Ashley came up to me and introduced herself as the director of ALL Joyce Meyer medical teams. She takes teams all over the world, doing clinics in every country you can think of. What she said to me, took my breath away.

Ashley shook my hand and said "Mr Osbeck, I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, this is the best team of translators we have worked with ANY PLACE IN THE WORLD." I stopped breathing. I didn't know what to say. She went on to explain how other translators didn't know english very well, were always sneaking away and really didn't care about the people. They were there for money or free medicine. She explained that my team wasn't just translating, they were doing ministry. She could not stop thanking me and talking about these boys. My heart began to work again after a few minutes but I was in shock.

Finally about 4:30 the clinic ended, we got the church cleaned up and I had to take the boys to the "dorm" to get their bags. Ashley asked me if I could stop back by so the doctors could say good bye. I said sure. We went to get the luggage, the boys had a surprise pot of spaghetti waiting for them which they quickly devoured and then it was back to the church to say good bye. What happened next I will never forget.

We pulled up to the church and one by one my boys filed into the church, as the first one walked through the door, I heard applause, sounding like a thousand people. These doctors, professional men and women from all over the United States were in a circle and applauding the boys as they walked in. They then thanked them for a job well done.

Then Altimae, my praise and worship leader sang a very special song to them. Then one of my boys asked if they could pray for the doctors. My team then raised their hands over the doctors and all at once, out loud, prayed for them. I was watching the doctors and during the song and the prayer, they were all weeping.

When our prayer was finished, the doctors prayed over our boys, we took pictures, lots of hugs, then we were off. I drove home listening to the wonderful stories of my boys, forever touched by this experience.

I know as Christians the only validation we really need is from God. However, to experience this, to know that, yes, we are doing something right, was a huge encouragement. Can't get any better than "the best in the world."

Last note: My oldest son Manel was one of the team. Most of you know he has caused me some major grief in the past couple years. I even lost some financial support because of his actions, people thinking I was not a good leader because of the way I handled things with him.

Well I never gave up. He came home last year after being gone 5 months. Restoration began and he went on this trip. From all reports, he was remarkable. He was even chosen to do some commericals for the Joyce Meyer television show. He came home singing "I am a friend of God" and is a new man. He asked me if he could do this the rest of his life. Pray for Manel. The pull on him from the enemy is great. Pray he will seek God's will for his life.

There you have it, a full report from a very proud poppa/mission director. Our team represented us well. More importantly, they represented God well. Thank you for your large part in making this happen. This is why we do this, to preach the Gospel, to make disciples and TO TEACH THE HAITAINS TO DO THE SAME. This past week, they did the same. Again, thank you for your support of finances and prayer. For some reason, while many missions I know are struggling financially, you have kept the amazing pace going for us and all budgets are being met, and some. Thank you. May God bless you. tominhaiti

Top 5 in the state contest

Minnesota 55
Indiana 33
Michigan 30
Florida 13
California 8

Thanks to all who helped me realize where people are from that are reading these emails. I guess Minnesota is number one, too bad my Tigers beat them 2 out of 3 this week

Tom Osbeck Executive Director
Jesus in Haiti Ministries

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

A Beam from Heaven, Several Actually

2010-04-26T14:48:00.002-05:00

Dear friends, Sunday night

I had maybe one of the greatest days today, of 2010. As you know I have been slowing getting my running legs back as I prepare physically and mentally to go back to Haiti.

This morning through a "God" chain of events, I was invited to an all black church, a baptist church called "Beams of Heaven" located in the hood. A church which just recently got electricity. A simple church, with wonderful people, Godly people, real beams from Heaven.

There was something so simple and genuine about this old, Baptist church. We spent the first hour or so, just praying, singing, Bible reading, then a wonderful Heavenly choir.

I was then asked to share about Haiti. These folks found out about Haiti when a donor of ours was mailing some of our Jesus in Haiti t-shirts. The assistant pastor is the post master and we connected that way. They sold several hundred dollars of t-shirts to benefit our ministry.

Two and a half hours after the start, we were done, and I was ready to go back to Haiti, now. I was refreshed, blessed and not stressed. The pastor gave a stirring sermon from Acts on rejoicing in spite of all we endure. They are planning a mission's trip to Haiti this fall. Pray for Beams of Heaven Baptist church, they are fighting the fight in a very tough place, with very few resources, earthly ones that is.

Our friends the Neal's, the Hassey's, and Jeanty's were all there, then we got treated to Wendy's so it was a great day.

Very exciting news: I just received news that 150 tents are in, and Roger and Claudy will be picking them up in the morning. My first temptation was to have them wait until I get back to pass out, but how dumb is that? These folks are sleeping outside. Roger has a list of 150 families, and the tents go out before Wednesday. Thank you for making this possible with your sacrificial gifts during this tough period. 150 families or well over 1000 people will have homes, and what a thrill that is.

These tents will be temporary, probably a few months, until we get the houses rebuilt. There is a plan in place for this.

I go back to Haiti next Monday, the 3rd. I have a big week with the grandkids, and I am being taken to see my beloved Tigers play Wednesday.

I will let you in on a secret, Minnesota is having an email drive, getting everyone to send emails to put them in first, in the name of fairness, I needed to let you know that so Indiana and Michigan, better fire it up. Thing is, anyone from any state with many friends could rise from the ashes, get 60 people to vote, and your state could win. I told you first prize was free health care for your whole state. Second prize is a NO expense paid trip for everyone in your state, to Haiti. How's that?

There you have it, a full Sunday report. My body is feeling great, my back is almost healed and I am preparing to go back, can't wait. 7 days. tom

p.s. Minnesota is running a power play. They have organized and I received about 25 emails all from Minnesotans just yesterday. The state that produced the great governor Jesse Ventura and congressman Al Franken have kicked it up a notch.

Last Chance

2010-04-24T19:38:00.000-05:00

I have given New Jersey and everyone else a shot and our state location contest is winding down. You have just one more week to make your vote count. Here is the update.

The Hoosier state has come through................... 27
Minnesota close in 2nd..................................... 25
Wolverine state............................................... 23
Sunshine state................................................ 11
California, the left coast................................... 7
Washington, state of....................................... 6
Texas, guess the Bush family didn't vote............ 5
Ohio, so sad, how could one state fall so fast..... 4
The battle of the Carolina's.............................. 2
Maryland and Alabama each............................ 2

With one, single, lone vote, one family representing the whole state...Kansas, New Mexico, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Oregon, North Dakota, Iowa, Georgia, Illinois, Colorado and New York.

Internationally.........Canada, Scotland, Israel and Venezuela.

23 states, 6 countries

Odd fact...The big 3, MN, MI and IN have 75 votes, everyone else 56.

Maybe if I had told you the prize, you might have all voted. The winning state, yes everyone in the state gets free health care coverage. This is being sponsored by your congressmen and women.

All is well with me. Thursday I had my first 24 hour stretch, pain free and good sleep. Thanks to God and your prayers, I think I am on the mend. Ministry in Haiti is going full speed. Jony and David started a new, fun thing. They are taking the portable generator to the dump and villages and cutting hair for free and getting a huge response.

If you didn't read that devotional in the last email, go back and read. It is powerful. I love the part, the people who put the most pressure on you, need you the most. Several other great lines that we can't forget...

That is all, New Jersey, Utah, South Dakota, Alaska......last chance....Tom

This Little Light of Mine

2010-04-21T21:06:00.006-05:00

Hi from O HI O, Wednesday afternoon

Midweek update

Health: I am experiencing what everyone said I would. I have been here 9 days and am still very tired, frequent headaches, very sore back and knees. In other words, I know somewhat the feeling of being hit by a Mack truck, and surviving.

Victory at the Bible Church: This past Sunday we had a full tent and 5 people experienced demon possession during church. The staff handled it gently and well I am sure. These kinds of things go in spurts it seems. We have now had several in the past few weeks. What better place for it to happen, than in God's house? Sort of like having a heart attack in the hospital.

New fund raising idea: I was thinking, if someone had the contacts, I would do some product endorsing to raise money for our ministry. For example, is there any better pizza in the world than....Papa John's? What about the smooth, refreshing taste of a cold Pepsi? And Wal-Mart, wow, they have everything. And Family Christian Book Store...what a thrill to browse and find such inspiring music, books, etc......

I have to admit, I am an addict. I am addicted to Bibles. Yesterday I bought my 9th bible over the past 10 years. I have Max Lucado's study bible, the Quest, the good old King James Version, John Maxwell's leadership bible, the Learning Bible and others. Number 9 was the New Joyce Meyer Study Bible, wow it has great insights.

Some of you will say, "what in tarnation is the purpose of 9 Bibles?" Like I say, it's an addiction, I need help. In my defense, I use them all. I love to read different versions, learn from the author's commentaries and each Bible brings out something different to a passage.

My boyz: I always get a kick out my older boys, all 17 of them. When I am gone they email me telling me how much they miss me and love me. When I am there I yell at them, I discipline them, I am the bad guy most of the time. I would think they would enjoy the warden being gone but they sure cry the blues. Last night I was talking to Matthew online and he said "I miss you so much, I am sad until you get back." My reply was; "why, don't you enjoy the break from me getting on your case?" He said "no, I love you and want you back here today." They are a special bunch.

Grandkids: Little ones don't understand words like: mentally tired, physically drained, decompression.................they just know that grandpa is here and it is time to have fun. I have tried to balance getting rest with enjoying them. Every night they get a story and we play with our glow sticks. They have already asked me to never leave. Little six week old Noah is getting used to me, and not crying when I hold him, as much.

So sorry: I know several of you in Indiana/Ohio and other states have asked if I could come for one reason or another and I would love to. I am humbled that you would want me. However, I have been directed by the board (and I agree) that I need rest. I read a devotional from a dear friend's daily devotional that I want to share with you. It was powerful and just what I needed:

The fewer virgins there are the more valuable a virgin becomes. The less honest men and women there are the more valuable an honest person becomes. The less people there are who say no to what's dirty, what's destructive, what's negative, the more your worth increases. Maybe you've been tempted to cave in. You've got combat fatigue; there's heavy pressure. Don't do it. Not only is Jesus counting on you, but the very people, who are pressuring you, desperately need for you to stand firm, or their only light goes out. Because you're Jesus' personal representative in a dark place, in many ways you aren't like everybody else. But you love them unconditionally. You make them feel important, and doing the right thing without condemning them. You keep doing all of that, and you're going to be, whether they admit it or not, one of the most important people in their life. Because people like you are rare and very, very valuable.

Isn't that good? What hit me was, if my light goes out, so does the light of others who are counting on my light to shine. That applies to us all. May God bless you, tom

And the verdict is................................

2010-04-16T23:14:00.000-05:00

hi from Ohio, Friday Night
Greetings from Cincinnati! I arrived here Tuesday evening and have had a very slow, restful week. I mistakenly told someone "I have been decomposing all week" when I meant decompressing. LOL! (I didn't actually laugh out loud, that was you doing the lol!)

Today I went to the doctor to find out about my bruised kidney/cracked ribs/sore back. What I found out was I had some fractured ribs, 3 of them which were "floating" out of place. The good doc put them back in place and immediately I felt better, praise God.

I did buy a book I have been reading called Leading on Empty which is what I have been doing and it is a very good book for any of you leaders in my position.

Little Noah, a month old, is so sweet. He just stares at me. 2 and half year old Jayden is on me nonstop and of course Calvin and Kaylyn love Grandpa being here. Marco and Deanna want to know every detail of the past few months so they are hearing it.

Tomorrow and Sunday I am going to do something I haven't done in years. The NBA playoffs start and there are 4 games on tomorrow so from 2pm to midnight, Marco and I are going to watch basketball, order pizza and rest. Two days of this with of course church Sunday morning. I don't have this luxury in Haiti.

Also someone is driving to Cincy to take me to Detroit to see my beloved Tigers play. Too bad they play a weak team from Minnesota, the triplets, or twins or something.

I am hearing great reports from the boys and my staff. The biggest problem they are dealing with is Haiti has NO GASOLINE. Thankfully we have 2 months worth of diesel but gasoline we don't keep much on hand. We only use gasoline for the church generator so I told them to guard the 15 gallons or so we have closely. We use about 3 gallons per week so hopefully there will be enough until they get gas back.

The staff is well prepared to keep ministry going while I am gone and is a good test for them. They need to be able to do it on their own and are well trained and very capable. Please continue to pray for Victory Bible Church, Grace Emmanuel School; our New Roads dump ministry, our new Light House Children's home and my home.

On a very thankful note, we have made ministry budget for the past couple months. Thank you so much for your part in this. I will give you the final update on States competition. Did add a couple new states but still have about 25 we have NOT heard from. I knew we would get none from New Jersey because nothing good comes from that state but thought the rest would be checking in. Well, you still have time.

Take care and may God bless you all real good. tominheaven aka ohio

Final update from HAITI..for a short time

2010-04-11T18:26:00.002-05:00

HI Sunday PM at 7:30

Wow, what a week, what a day and since I have nothing else to do, I will give you final update on what is happening here, and our State contest.

Where ya from? What an intense battle between the big 3 up until this point between my home state of Indiana, my birth state of Michigan and my adopted state of Minnesota. After a big lead by Minnesota, the Hoosier folks came through to take the lead. Here are the totals. The question is, after the big 3, who is number 4? Can you guess without looking?

Indiana- 22
Michigan- 19
Minnesota- 17
Florida- 7
Washington state and California tied with- 5
Ohio- 4
Texas- 3 (thought everything was bigger in Texas)
With 2 votes- Alabama, Iowa and Canada

(Speaking of Canada, how do they beat anyone? They are like the attic for the United States. You forget it is there but when you go up there, you see some pretty neat stuff)

And with one vote each:
North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Georgia, Illinois, Colorado, New York, Israel, Scotland, Maryland, North Dakota, and Venezuela.
There you have it, you can only vote once, voting is still open until the end of the month, how do you like that? Five countries represented and 19 states....where are the other 31 states? Nobody from New England, what about Tennessee?

Final church: We had 925 people at church today and a wonderful service. We also had our 2nd baby dedication of 8 children. I gave a goodbye letting them know I was leaving for a couple weeks. I told them I was going to the states, but not going home. Home is right here in Haiti and I will miss my church family so much.

My family: The boys are sad to see me go but school starts tomorrow so that will keep them very busy. I miss two birthdays, Dearson and Manel, and am sad to miss them but will make it up to them. I have good leadership here at the house with Roger and Altimae plus the two women. Also 4 of our older boys have been put in position of leadership so things will be well covered. We will have a family meeting in a few minutes and go over last minute items.
Ministry house: As I told you, we rented a big house for groups. At first this was called the guest house, but as God is speaking to me, we are being led to use this for ministry when groups are not here. For example, neighborhood youth group in the yard, weekend staff retreat with staff, girl's leaders, Bible studies and much more.

A wonderful group of 20 from Kings Baptist in Florida just spent the week at our ministry house and they just loved it. What a great place for a group. We have beds for 22 there right now and could double that.

We have about 15 groups already scheduled for the rest of the year which leaves lots of weeks left. Please contact Linda Neal at heart4haiti@gmail.com and get on the schedule. No group is too small, and we can probably go to 30 or more if need be so come on down, see what God is doing, and assist us in this ministry and be Jesus in Haiti, for a week.

Leaving on a jet plane: Yes, at 6am Claudy takes me to American Airlines and by 9am I am on my way to the sunshine state, the Lord willing. The board has put me in a hotel to stay one night to get some rest before hitting the ground running in Ohio. I am so excited for the hotel and the AC and maybe even......................room service.

Of course I leave with mixed emotions, 30 or so kids who call me dad are left behind. A staff I love and trust so much, and a church family of over 900. Thrilled to be going home, anxious already to come back, figure that one out.

Final thought: This morning I got to church at 8am for a brief staff meeting before I leave. We finished by 8:30 and the staff was getting ready for Sunday School. A grocer that I know owed me some money from a cashed check and I knew he would be closed before I got there after church. I thought, I could buzz over, get the money and be back for church at 10. However I thought, this is not good, missing Sunday School to go get money, on a Sunday. But I did it, wasn't sure why.

After the 30 minute trip to pick up the money, it was on the way back, passing the garbage dump I saw 3 young men frantically waving me down. They said they missed the truck bringing the people to our church, and just prayed for God to provide a way there, although they had money...................and up drove Tom. They were so happy. I gave them a ride to church and we had a great talk all the way there. God knew.

There you have it, a partial report. By the way, my dear Christian friend from Venezuela said "viva la Hugo Chavez" as a joke, telling me I better not put that in my mass email, which of course, I won't. Good night all, I will keep you updated as reports come to me and may even have my staff send an update or two. Keep the love coming at me, to those around you, and to our God above. tominhaiti, soon to be tominthegoodoleusa.

Where are my buckeye and Hoosier peoples?

2010-04-10T20:56:00.001-05:00

hi,

Wow, I have recieved a hundred emails letting me know what territory you are from and so far...................nothing from Ohio or Indiana. The race is between the Wolverine state and the land of 10,000 lakes. Add Washington, Colorado, Vancouver, Florida, Maryland, Texas and Iowa and that is about it. Oh, my friends from Scotland and Isreal. Indiana is my so called "home state" but it is my state of birth that is coming through for me. I await the rest of you..............................tominhaiti

ps- I was not born in Minnesota

Finishing Strong

2010-04-07T08:54:00.000-05:00

Hi from Haiti Wednesday morning

I trust you all had a great Holy weekend as we celebrated what God did for us. As has become the new normal, we have been very busy. Here is an update:

Easter Weekend: We had a 4 service weekend which drew over 3000 people to our mission. Friday night was our biggest crowd as we showed the movie "the Passion of the Christ", followed by a Saturday service, Easter Sunday morning and a wonderful time Sunday night of praise and worship, special music and a drama. It was a wonderful 16 hours or so of honoring our Lord. Sunday morning during an alter call for prayer, 2 young women became demon possessed and we dealt with that during the service. This freaks some people out, but not me. I am thrilled that these women come and can gain Victory, at Victory Bible church. This is one of the reasons we exist

The Lighthouse: Our new Children's Home is doing really well. Our director Anderson and wife Mona are really bonding with these kids and becoming their parents, real quick. They still attend their old church but on Sunday morning we pick the kids up to go with us. Last Sunday we were really late and Anderson called me and said "Hey, where are my kids?"

New Guest house: This past week we rented a house, just a couple blocks from our mission home. This new guest house is where YOU will stay when you come. It is set up so that, when mission teams visit, their funds will pay the rent and for the total operation of the property. Ministry funds will not be used for this house. It is a huge, beautiful place and you will love it.

Our first team, from Kings Baptist in Florida came Monday and these 20 folks are staying there. They brought 40 suitcases of stuff to help stock the house with everything from dishes and toasters to plumbing and such. This house will allow us to have more visitors, larger groups without disrupting life for the houseful that I have.

The really neat thing is, they can walk across the street to the Lighthouse and hang with our kids. Or they can hang out at our house with our boys or be at their guest house. They eat breakfast at home, lunch on the road and supper at my home, with our family. This is working out really, really great.

Please contact Linda Neal at heart4haiti@gmail.com and set up a trip to come see and assist in what God is doing here, in Haiti.

No April fools: Thank you for the nearly 200 emails I received, all but 2 being very supportive of this fun thing. To the 2, and probably more that did not complain, I do apologize if I offended you. I was told by one dear supporter that they would not support me any longer because I wasted 10 minutes of their life and they would find a missionary that was more trustworthy.

That hurts to know that I offended anyone, certainly not the intent. I guess the only downside I see of a yearly April fool's joke is.............if I were to die on this day, and you got an email saying this, there would be a lot of chuckles and "yeah right, good one".

Grace Emmanuel School: Our school has been up and running and we are excited to get things back to as-normal-as-possible under the current conditions of Haiti.

Water, water everywhere: We are within hours of having clean, fresh water at our mission, as much as we want. A wonderful group of folks from Touch Global are working on piping the water from our well to a 1000 gallon tank, then hooking up a solar pump as well as a filtering system. We are hoping and praying to have our own water for church this weekend. What a blessing from God and we are so thankful. You just don't know what water will mean to us.

120 and counting: As I type this, I am in my final 120 hours before getting a break in the Queen City of Cincinnati, Ohio, with my daughter, son-in-law and grand kids. I have lots to do to prepare but feel really good about where my staff is and their ability to keep this going while I am gone. If anything, I am worried they might not need me back.

My grand kids are very excited, asking everyday if "today is the day". Will someone alert Burger King to buy some extra beef for the next couple weeks?

New Roads: We are so excited that the folks at the dump are eating a hot meal every day. Okay, not every day, twice we have had a glitch in our system of getting them supplies but we provided them with MRE's or sandwiches so they have not missed a meal, since we started this program last month.

Your support: I so wish I could write every one of you to thank you for your continued support. We could not do ministry so effectively without your sacrificial giving. People are hearing the gospel daily, disciples are being made daily and over 500 people are eating every day, people who can't care for themselves.................are being cared for by God, via you. Thank you on their behalf.

Closing: That's it, a partial report of a very busy time. Thank you for your prayers. My ribs are feeling much better this morning for the first time since I injured them. Looks like the grand kids might get their jungle gym after all. Keep the emails coming, even if I don't get to answer them all, I so enjoy your humor, your love and your wonderful words of encouragement. ASSIGNMENT: I would like to know how many states receive my email so, send me an email, putting your state in the subject line and I will give you update on how many states I heard from. Also, if you are out of the country, that would be a bonus to know what other countries are connected to us. I am waiting.

tominhaiti

Rough Day at the Ranch

2010-04-01T07:00:00.001-05:00

Dear friends,

Yesterday was one of those days you would like to forget. We had a mass food distribution at our mission and to say it was not a successful would be putting it mildly.

We had given out tickets and over 300 families were to show up to get their food. What we didn't expect were over 800 to show up. Our guards only allowed the people with tickets to come into our mission.

This left us with over 500 people crowded at our gate. At some point in the morning it became very unruly. They began to chant "we want our food, we want our food". Well this ticked me off a bit because I didn't feel it was their food and had no right to chant this.

The morning went on and things only got worse. The crowd was so hostile and so unruly that we could not let the people leave, who we had given food to. We had to hoist them down by rope in the rear of the mission with their food, so they could sneak home.

Near noon rocks started to fly over the wall towards us. This upset some off our staff and with my blessing...we began to toss them back. We didn't intend to hurt anyone but some faces did get in the way and several injuries were reported in the crowd outside the wall.

Very troublesome were a group of ladies with babies chanting and throwing rocks. One of my staff thought it "cute" to begin to throw jars of baby food at them, since they wanted their food so badly. The women didn't like this and became even more upset.

The police finally showed up, tear gas was used and the crowd was dispersed. They even allowed me to fire the tear gas, kind of to show the people who was the boss.

We clearly won the day, and it was kind of a good feeling seeing the people limp home, hurt and bruised. We showed them they could not mess with us.

We only had about 40 injuries and only 6 of these were children. We don't believe any of the injuries will cause a loss of life.

After the melee we fired up the grill and had a really nice cookout. We then drove through the village eating our food chanting 'we're number one, we're number one!"

This proved to be a mistake as they bum rushed our caravan again, mostly by women and old people chanting "down with Tom, down with Tom!"

This time the swat team was called in. They began to fire their weapons and order was restored. The mayor then showed up and whipped out a piece of paper and began to read, he said "I declare this day APRIL FIRST to be April fool's day, a day to fool all Americans."

Okay, did I get you, tell the truth, at what point in the story did you realize this was a "fun email?". I apologize if I "got you" but this is a time honored tradition for me. The response I always get is biggest of the year and it is fun to see who I get and who I don't.

It began with my first one about 7 years ago, me telling how I met a 16 year old Dominican girl and got married. That was followed by Cuba invading Haiti with tanks.

Last year if you remember it was the donkey who came into our church, died and we had to chop it up with machete to carry out.

There are people, okay 2, that do not like my doing this and I respectfully apologize. We can disagree what a joke is. Know this, ONLY ON THIS DAY, APRIL FIRST WILL I EVER FOOL YOU OR SAY SOMETHING THAT IS NOT 100% TRUE. You never ever have to worry or think about this the other 364 days. Simply a joke.

So, you must email me and tell me:

A- I was ready for it, didn't fall for it

B- You had me until.............

C- I fell hook line and sinker you no good...........................

I will tell you, the one thing this annual email does is bring out the mean side in some of you. I have been called some pretty nasty names by those of you who claim to be my friend. I made this year a very mild, soft one, since so many hundred of you are new.

So, although I am told the calendar does not say April fool's day, I still celebrate. It does not say "Tom's birthday" on May 23rd but we still celebrate that. No I don't celebrate fools. I celebrate the sense of humor that God gave us and the fun we can have as Christians. Enjoy your day, only 12 more days until my vacation, and I am counting the hours, tominhaiti

Eve, can you spare me a rib?

2010-03-31T11:54:00.001-05:00

Hi all,

Anyone who really knows me knows I'm not the smartest guy on the block but I have never received lower than an A- for effort.

My effort at church this past Sunday has caused me some problems. I had met a very large body builder a few months ago named Mr. Marluke. He was Mr. Haiti and has won competitions on the world stage so this past Sunday I asked if he would come to church with us and..............show off.

When it came our time in the service, I introduced this very huge man. As he stood next to me he flexed his chest and muscles (all preplanned) and I flexed mine. Then he ripped his shirt off and stood there bare chested, and wow, he was huge. The people gasped and clapped and most were standing to get a better look.

Not to be outdone, I ripped my shirt off but still had on my t-shirt. The crowd went wild. I then walked out into the congregation and picked up a 20 pound boy and held him with both hands, above my head.

Mr. Marluke, as planned, then picked me up, and hoisted me above his head to the amazement and cheering of the crowd. After he put me down, I interviewed him about body building and winning competitions. I also asked him about how to become strong and how long it took and the advantages. I gave a short challenge on how that compares to the Christian life, and being strong in Christ. It went really well...................until.....

I realized he cracked or bruised one or more of my ribs. Since Sunday noon, I have been down and I mean down.

I can't stand up or sit down or lie down or move or turn or lift anything or do anything. Some of you will say "what a dummy" and I will accept that. However, if you know me, I am the type who will do anything to reach people for Christ. I often have described my time here as having one foot just inside hell, trying to pull people to safety.

Guess what, miles from that line, in the safety of your church or house, you will probably never get burned or hurt but once you cross that line, once you are that close, things do happen.

You might say, "do you really think one person will come to Christ because you got tossed in the air?" I don't know. What if someone says "wow, this is a neat place to come" and they come back and they hear the Gospel and receive Christ and............they are in heaven with you and I. THEN YES IT IS WORTH IT. And to tell you the truth as I type this in more pain than a body should be allowed, I WOULD DO IT ALL OVER, IF IT HELPED THE CAUSE OF CHRIST.

Some of you will think maybe it was just God saying "hey bubba (he calls me bubba sometimes) time to take a couple week break on your back before you go to the states."

We did have one of our biggest crowds of almost 1000 people and had a great service. This coming weekend, we are having a Friday night movie, the Passion of Christ, followed by my preaching Saturday night, big Easter morning baptism and service followed by Sunday night service concluding Easter weekend. We might have 5000 people in our tent this weekend. Please pray for the logistics, travel safety and that people will respond to the Gospel.

Also if you can pray for this rib situation to get better before April 12th, I would appreciate it. I have 3 grandkids that like to use grandpa for a human jungle gym so.....................

The family is doing well. Last night I told 17 year old Matthew that his Lakers were playing, did he want to watch them? He said "no, since the earthquake basketball doesn't matter anymore." This is a boy that lived, breathed and ate LA Laker basketball. Today as I write this, he is with the boys holding a mentoring club for younger boys. I think Matthew gets it.

Many of you sent money for us to help rebuild homes. Here is where we are at with this. The government told the people over the radio NOT to rebuild until the aftershocks stop. A month ago I talked to our Esther girls asking if they were ready to have their homes built, every one said "no, wait, wait." And they made a motion with their hands showing they wanted the shaking to stop.

So we wait, your funds have not gone anywhere. We continue to invest in earthquake related problems and I have been very thankful for the resources to do it. The building of approximately 250 homes is coming very quickly and you will be the first to know, and see pictures.

Thanks for all your prayers, you guys are the best and don't forget, our prequake budget still needs a monthly boost as our ministry has exploded since January 12th and costs have gone up here. May God bless you, tominhaiti

p.s. Eve, where is that rib?

A Scrambled Brain

2010-03-24T13:40:00.001-05:00

Hi, Tuesday PM

The earthquake happened 10 weeks ago today. Most missionaries have already been back to the states, had their break and are back in the trenches. My break will come on April 12th as I head to Cincinnati to see little Noah, and my other 3 grand kids, daughter and son-in-law................and rest.

My board encouraged me early on to get a break and have wanted this to happen. I appreciate them for trusting me enough to know when it is time.

This past Friday I was scheduled to speak in Chicago at a huge Feed My Starving Children fundraiser. I so badly wanted to go to the windy city, enjoy the hotels, the food and the people and be a part of this.

I have stayed not because I had to but because I felt it was the right thing to do. These Haitian folks could not jump on a plane and escape; they had to fight it out. They suffered more than I did, and have no place to go for decompressing.

We have had so much going on, I wanted to wrap some things up and make sure we have a good handle on everything. The spiritual explosion at our church has kept us all very busy.
There is no danger of me imploding, burning out or quitting. I have lived through death threats, a revolution, 3 years of kidnappings, an attempted kidnapping on me, hurricanes, rioting and this earthquake. I think I am a little battle tested for this stuff.

My grand kids are already excited and talking nonstop about grandpa coming. They know Chuckie Cheese, McDonald's play land and bowling is on the schedule.

Topic change: All of you know that the earthquake brought 10 more kids into my home. It was the right thing to do and I would do it all over again. Then weeks and weeks go by and the drain of having so many kids gets very tiring. I began to question myself. Dirty bathrooms, trash in the yard, broken sofas, jobs undone and messy living rooms made me question the validity of bringing so many kids in.

Visitors came and it was tough on them. There were kids everywhere, stuff everywhere and probably not the environment they would live in. I again questioned what I was doing. I began to think how I could downsize. I offered 4 of the older boys a nice tent if they wanted to go back to the village. I knew 5 of our school kids who came with me would go to our children's home. I asked another boy to go with relatives. I was on a roll; I was knocking the numbers down. We could attempt to have clean kitchens, clean bathrooms and some better order.

One thing I forgot, one mistake I made. I had begun to lose focus on why I was here, what I was called to do. It is easy with an American perspective to downsize. Not so easy when you are THE CHILD involved.

The four older boys I offered the tent deal to, timidly came to me and asked if they could stay, that they would do better. It broke my heart to think that they thought they needed to do better. The other young man I had asked to go to relatives asked what he had done wrong and why he had to leave.

Fifteen year old Robert last night cried all night, because I was moving him to the children's home. I asked him this morning what was wrong. He said "poppy, this is the only home I have ever had, you are the only dad I have ever had, please don't make me leave my home." I am the one in tears tonight.

This afternoon we brought a lady that I have known for years to come live at the Children's Home, be the cook, nanny and housekeeper. Today I met with Odette and we were almost done with everything and she dropped this bomb "by the way, I have my 8 month old granddaughter with me, the mom abandoned her and went to the Dominican."

My first thought was "what, are you kidding me, you waited this long to tell me that, that is a game breaker, we can't bring a baby here, not now, not yet."

This wonderful missionary you all support said to her "that might be a problem, can she go with anyone else?" She quickly said "yes, I can leave her in the village with friends."

It was not long later when God had a little chat with me, and I listened. I was in my room when I realized this; I raised a little baby from the age of 2 months, to 21 years old. You would have had to kill me to take my baby from me. We have a home for children who have no parents, a safe, clean, healthy, happy place to raise kids. For a few minutes I forgot that, I was willing to allow this little baby to grow up in the village with no mom, no grand mom, no clean water, no bed....no roof over her head. Why? Because she didn't fit into that nice, neat little box I had.

I met with Anderson and Mona, the directors, and shared my heart with them. They want the baby. I want the baby; the grand mom wants the baby..............most important, God wants this baby. I am sorry for my behavior in treating some of these kids like numbers, and not children created by God, given to me, to care for and to disciple.

Remember the email title, scrambled brain. I am not sure I am thinking clearly at all times, the past 10 weeks with no break has taken a toll. Maybe my ramblings are evidence. Please don't hold it against me. It makes sense to me. tominhaiti

Of New Names

2010-03-23T12:31:00.000-05:00

Dear friends,

Monday update

Victory Bible Church: Another great day under the big tent, 803 people came to experience God and that we did. There are those who get on me for always mentioning numbers, say I am obsessed with numbers and guess what, they are right.

It is about numbers, as large of numbers as we can lead to eternal life. Jesus said "For God so loved THE WORLD...." "Go ye into ALL the world......" All is a pretty big number and so the more numbers we have, the more people hear the Gospel and more disciples to make.

Grace Emmanuel School: Our school started today after a nearly 3 month layoff. The plan is to go through the summer, take August off and start up next year in September. The bad news is, on the high school level, the school my boys go to will not be holding classes, until September. That really is a bummer for the boys as they were excited about going back to school.

New Children's home: Thank you so much, we had about 25 name suggestions for the children's home and I loved several you sent in. The winner and name of our new home....drum roll please................The Lighthouse Children's Home. I, our staff and our board agreed on this and we go with it. Today, Fondi from my staff, registered the name with the government and we have to wait 15 days to make sure there is no other organization with this name.

Friday the boys and I moved Anderson, his wife Mona, and daughter Monica into the home. They have been getting settled. Tomorrow we take 10 year old Bony and his sister, 8 year old Kimberly over to get settled in. Wednesday 8 and 10 year old brothers Marckendy and Robenson will move in, then 15 year old Robert on Thursday.

We have already had over a dozen inquiries from the villages asking if we are taking kids. We are going to go slow, do it right and not add until we are able to, unless an emergency comes up.

Church again: Sunday we baptized 15 more in our cistern. After the message Sunday, another 12 or 13 accepted Christ. I tell you this, it will never ever get old, seeing someone come to Christ, knowing at that moment their name is being written in the lamb's book of life, and a new person has come to God. This is why we are here, this is why you write checks, this is why you pray and send stuff. It is fun and right and needed to feed people and help them survive but OUR PRIMARY REASON FOR BEING IN HAITI IS TO FIGHT FOR THE ETERNAL SOULS OF THESE PRECIOUS PEOPLE.

Tonight:Just had a great chicken and rice meal, in a few minutes it is family fun night in which we play games as a family and the boys have a ball.

Good news: In case you were wondering, my approval rating is hovering around the 20 percent mark, which is about 10 points higher than that of the wonderful men and women in congress..................................

There you have it, a short update. Please keep praying and keep sending those checks. Don't forget, God has more loose change in his couch then we will ever need. He just needs you to check the couch. Love you guys, tominhaiti

Who got affirmed after all?

2010-03-18T21:20:00.000-05:00

Hi,

Sunday at church, we surprised everyone by giving every family a ticket, red, white or blue. Each color represented what day they came to mission to get a surprise.

The surprise was a water filter system that works great. I demonstrated in church, pouring in very dirty water, and then drinking the water, as did my staff.

Monday my 20 boys and I packed and put 100 systems together and filled them with food. We filled the bucket system with: rice, spam, toilet paper, juice, veggies, cereal, dry milk, crackers, potted meat, cookies, tuna and other surprises.

Tuesday early we loaded the three trucks and headed to the mission. At 9 a.m. 100 families began to come. They sat in church and sang while we brought them to the school tent.

We had a table set up with Pastor Roger, Altimae and myself. Each head of the household came to a private area and sat down. We then affirmed that person, asked how they connected to our church and asked some their testimony.

It was awesome. One man said "I drove by your mission every Sunday and finally said I had to check it out, it looked interesting. The first service I came to I accepted Christ."

Another man actually was on a tap tap when Roger got off. The man got off and asked, "can you tell me how to become a Christian?" Roger led him to the Lord in front of our mission, and he hasn't missed a service yet.

We did this to encourage and affirm these folks. What happened is we are coming away more encouraged and affirmed than them. What an absolute joy to embrace these folks, tell them how much we appreciate them and love them, then listen to them.

For many, we prayed with them if they were sick or needed prayer. Then we gave them their bucket with probably a month's salary of food in it, and money for charcoal or whatever else they needed.

The joy on their faces and the appreciation are something I will never forget. We met with 100 Tuesday, 120 families Wednesday and another 100 on Thursday. We make up the buckets the previous day.

After we gave them the buckets, we loaded 10 at a time on the trucks and I had two of my drivers take them home with their stuff.

There has been lots of excitement in the village all week from the people who already received their system and food, and the ones yet to come. Of course a few people are not thrilled that they weren't at church and missed this bonanza. Pastor Roger is putting together a list of a few families' who were not there, but are a faithful part of our church.

This has been a busy, tiring, but great, great week. That is just part of my week. Our target of opening our new Children's home is next Monday the 22nd. By the way, we do not have a name yet for it so if you would like to submit one, I will consider it. Click here to visit our website and suggest a name for the Children's home. My board doesn't like my names: The house that Tom built, Tom's Palace, Tom's Tots, King Tom's place......

I interviewed a married couple, and was so impressed; I hired them as house parents. They move in this Friday. Their names are......Anderson and Mona Jeanty. Yes, the same Anderson I just told you about a couple weeks ago. How God works, wow!

This young couple is so excited about this and Anderson told me "We have been praying how we could minister to more kids." God answered their prayer.

Claudy and Manel and I have been running buying beds, tables, couch, chairs, fans, pots and pans, rugs, etc. for the house........... you name it, we are getting it. I couldn't find a stove but found a fridge that was out of my price range, about 700 US dollars. I will continue to look.

Pray for the new Children's home. Pray as I meet with the 5 young ones from my home that will be moving there. I don't want them to feel unwanted. I will make this a win-win. I am hoping to buy a couple of bikes, to give them the first day there. They have never owned a bike. We are very, very excited!

My family is doing really well. I am so proud of my boys as they continue to amaze me with their love for each other, for me, this ministry and their people. We have started picking one of the boys each week to teach the rest of the boys a Bible lesson. Sonal and Dearson have led the teaching so far, and have done great. Sonal was so funny, I asked him to teach, and even gave him an outline to use.

Sonal asked me later that night, "Poppy, how many hours do you want me to teach?" I said, "well 30 minutes would be okay." He had a hour long lession.

Today we had 600 at Wednesday prayer meeting. How many did you have at your mid week prayer meeting.......................what, you don't do this, that is outdated? Sorry.

We have another baptism this coming Sunday with 18 more getting baptized and another 3 week new member class has started. Roger asked me if churches in the states had baptisms every month. I didn't answer that one. I did tell him the New Testament church did baptisms daily so we had a way to go to catch up.

Okay, done for now. I haven't forgotten about the stuff we have planned for the future that is coming. tominhaiti

p.s.- I have been only getting emails from my board. Please, I need some fresh air. I would like 100 personal emails in the next 5 days. Can you do it, Elisabeth, Patti Jo, Morri, Robin, Barb, Becky, Minnesota, Tim, Bud, Carolyn, Bobby, Linda, Len, Jason, and the rest of you? Come on, rock my world. Tell me about your family and how you are being Jesus where you live, will ya?

Of Babies, Survival and the Future

2010-03-11T15:35:00.002-06:00

Hi from New Haiti, Thursday

I bet you are wondering if I am still alive, the answer is yes and loving life. Before I launch into today's fun stuff, I have to share this. In my last email I jokingly said "I haven't even had time for a cigarette." One person was very offended so maybe others were also. Let me clear the record, I might be a heavy drinker, and I do cuss like a sailor but, I don't smoke..........(this is where you smile and say "that tom, what a character.")

SO much to tell, where to start, okay..............

Board meeting: I have the best board of directors any missionary could have. They care greatly for me, my family, God and Haiti, and they are very smart and resourceful. My entire board was here for 5 days and it was nearly nonstop planning and strategizing and boy, what a plan. That email will be coming in a couple days.

They did get a chance to spend a few hours at my home for our world famous chicken and rice supper. Also a couple trips to the garbage dump, our school and church. For me it was incredible being with some of my closest friends in the whole world, as we talked about something we love and believe in.

If the world: Today I visited a large warehouse owned by some dear friends of mine. These men are wonderful Christian men, especially Tarek the manager. As you know one of the largest grocery stores in Haiti fell during the quake. Tarek has allowed that store to bring all their shipments that have come in, to his warehouse. They are selling their goods from upstairs in his store. I told him today, if the world could use you guys as an example there would be no war. Two competitors, sharing the same building, working together.

Speaking of the Caribbean: Today I had a chance to talk to one of my friends from the Caribbean, a young lady who cashed my checks. She shared in detail of the 4 story building collapsing on her, and only the cash register stands stopped the building, and gave her and 8 co-workers a place to lie buried, until dug out later in the day.

Orphanages: As many of you know, for the past few years we have stood in the gap for a Haitian run orphanage called The Good Samaritan orphanage. In the aftermath of the quake, many missions and organizations rushed to their aid. Although we were able to help, it became very clear we were not needed anymore. This week, we have rented a large house a couple blocks from my home, and we are starting our own, Jesus in Haiti Children's home. We are so excited. This house only has the capacity to hold 12-15 children but will be a great start for us. After the one year rent is done, we can rent again or look for bigger place or..................we will have ours built on our mission property.

We will begin with 5 children, 5 that lost their parents in the earthquake and have been living with me. This will give them a home and lighten the burden of having so many at our house. We will add as God gives us little ones. We plan on moving the kids in on March 22nd. Pray for this venture and if you would like to be involved, we need your help. There is about a $10,000 start up fee for rent for one year, furnishing, food, utensils and such.

Victory Bible Church: This past Sunday we had over 700 people and had a great, God filled service. We honored our pastor friend, Victor Honorat, gave out a Lifetime Achievement Award to one of our board members, and our Staff of the Year Award. One of our esteemed board members, world famous speaker Dr. Stan Buck, preached and did a great job. Jony from my staff said "wow that was great, you could feel the power in his voice." Fifteen men and women came forward after the service to receive Christ and have already met for follow up with our pastor Roger. Thank you pastor Stan.

And then there were 4: Will try to make this short but many of you are new and don't know the story of my daughter. 23 years ago I had a foster license in Indiana. I would take boys that were in and out of foster care, and make it work. One of these young men got a girl pregnant, and 2 months after the baby was born, both the mom and dad went to prison. Guess who got a beautiful 2 month old baby to raise? Yup, me! When DeAnna was 11 we moved to Haiti, and a few years later she fell in love with my ministry director, Marco Jeanty and they got married. Two years ago they moved to the states, Cincinnati, and Marco is going to college with hopes of coming back some day.

They have given me 3 wonderful grandchildren, 7 year old Calvin, 5 year old Kaylyn and 2 year old Jayden. Did I say 3? I meant 4. Day before yesterday DeAnna gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, NOAH THOMAS JEANTY, 6 pounds and 15 oz. Mom and dad and grandpa are so proud and so happy for this healthy baby. I can't wait to go to Cincy at some point.

Garbage dump: Okay, I will close with this. Ten days ago we began a daily feeding program at the New Roads garbage dump. It is so exciting to go in there and see the complete happiness simply because they get a hot meal every day, something we Americans take for granted. God has used us for many good things in 10 years but if this feeding program was the only thing I ever had a hand in, I would be very happy. We have 3 ladies making a modest salary who cook 7 days a week.

Closing: Personally I want you to know how much I appreciate your sacrificial giving to this ministry, to God and to these wonderful people. Your sacrifice has made a difference and will be making a difference for years. Thank you so much.

A plan is in place for the relief funds that are still available and I will share that with you later. We do need prayer and help with our general fund. Our monthly post earthquake budget is $15,000 per month. In January and February we took in around $26,000, short of the goal we have set. Please pray we make this budget and continue to grow spiritually as we preach the gospel, and make disciples.

God bless you, tominhaiti

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

Larger Than Life

2010-03-04T15:32:00.000-06:00

Hi from Haiti,

Thursday morning.

I do apologize for being out of touch past week or so. I have been so busy I have not had time to even have a cigarette. (That is for those of you who think I am losing my sense of humor.)

We are in a phase of going from 5am to midnight and very, very busy. Part of that going though INCLUDES family and the needs they have and the time they need. We also have had a couple of large groups here helping so much. Currently, we have friends from Seattle. Yesterday they sorted several thousand pounds of food that we had donated to us.

Today my board of directors arrives. They were originally scheduled to come two days after the quake but rescheduled for today. Because of the air mess, they are coming in 5 different flights at 5 different times so we will be doing some running. Add working with the group here, having a family and making a rice run for 100 boxes of rice...it will be quite a day.

Last night, a dear pastor friend of ours, Pastor Victor Honorat was taken to his Heavenly home. Pastor Victor is the pastor of the church that our church, Victory Bible church rented for 4 years. Pastor was a bear, over 400 pounds, 5' 9" but a very powerful man of God. I have not met many better in my life. He pastored the Wesylan Church, has 10 children, runs a school and....................was Jesus every day. I can't tell you how many times I would "catch" him in Cabaret, preaching and loving on the homeless people, when nobody was watching.

The Quake destroyed his church and so they held worship on the front steps every Sunday from 6-9 a.m. Every Sunday, as I would drive by on the way to our church, he would be there preaching and always would wave to me, while preaching. Then at 10 a.m. he would lumber down and come to our church. This morning, the villages are shedding large tears for a large man who did a large work for a large God. Pastor Victor's reward will be large. (My one prayer is they have coke in Heaven.)

We will be trying to help his family is some small way-- we are already reaching out to his church to see what we can do. They are only a half mile from our church. Pray for a very hurting family, a very distraught congregation, and a village in mourning.

Now some better news. This past Monday we started, are you ready for this, might need a drum roll..... We started our permanent feeding program at the New Roads Garbage dump. We have been feeding them when possible off and on but now, as of this past Monday, 80-some people will eat 7 days a week, until Jesus comes, if God wills.

A young man named Alex from Seattle Washington, had a dream to make this happen. He started a fund raiser called "Simply Haiti" where he challenged people to eat only rice for one week, then save the money to feed the folks at the dump. What he didn't know when he planned this fund raiser last year for the week of January 11th, was that the next day an earthquake would hit, putting his fund raiser on the front page. He hoped to raise $5,000. In a month, this project raised $30,000 with every penny going to feed these people, every day, for a very, very long time.

This week I have been to the dump every day. Tears were hard to fight back as, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THEIR LIFE, they knew they would eat every day. Their whole attitudes have changed so positively. Life has just handed them the golden goose: they get to eat. What a joy to be a part of this. We went from providing 10% of their daily needs, to 100% concerning food and water. We have already been bringing a truck load of water in weekly. Thank you Alex, thank you Seattle, thank you God for loving these folks and allowing us to be Jesus to them.

I wish I could go on and on for what God is doing. Because so much has changed, this weekend the board and I will be planning the next couple years out. The one thing we know has not changed and that will not change now or in the future is what we were doing on January 11th: Giving hope to the hopeless! Preaching the Gospel, making disciples of Jesus, and teaching them to do the same. Some of the rules changed, the game is the same.

Someone said to me we have to make sure we are on top of our game because all the new donors of relief will expect this and that and.................I simply said, we have always done it right, we have always been good stewards, we need to change nothing. Just keep being Jesus to these folks. Only difference may be, instead of feeding 500 with our fish and loaves, we may now be feeding 5,000.

Please don't stop praying, don't stop helping our relief fund, don't forget our general fund. We are rolling and have everything at top speed. We can't afford to slow down a bit, especially because of a lack of funds that God has already placed in our pockets for this.

I am off (no not mentally) physically I am off to get rice then airport runs then meetings tonight from 6-9 and then driving and then maybe some sleep. Pray for this weekend and the next few days. This will be an exciting time for all of us. Tuesday, I promise to take a day off, maybe even Wednesday.

Love you guys, and do me a favor will ya? E-mail me and tell me about your "Anderson" that God has used you to reach out to this week, or last.

tominhaiti

Anderson, The Man, Not The City

2010-03-03T18:19:00.000-06:00

Let me tell you about Anderson. Anderson is a young man who graduated high school. He went to college and got a degree in computer science and accounting. He was hired at a spaghetti factory. He got married and had a beautiful baby.

In other words, he has done it right, every step of the way. He is also a devoted follower of Jesus. I spoke at his mother's funeral 7 years ago. Anderson is 31 years old. He calls me poppy.

The earthquake ended his job and for 44 days he has been looking for work, with no luck. He has been living under a piece of plastic with his wife and baby, for 44 nights. Today he stopped by to check on "his poppy." What I saw was a look of defeat, a look of hopelessness, a man who has done it right, but now sitting with nothing, not even a bed for his family.

My heart broke and I knew right then, right there what I needed to do, what I had to do. I asked him if he would come to work for us. He looked up with shock and said "what, are you serious?" I said yes, could he start tomorrow morning at 9am. I then gave him some MRE's (meals ready to eat) a small advance of pay and off he went.

I went in my room and wept very hard. I thought of a man, who has done it right, sitting on a tap tap, with some money in his pocket, food in his hand, and a job. The first thing I said is "this is one of the reasons I am in Haiti."

Some might say, is that normal business, giving jobs because you feel sorry for someone? No, it is called giving hope to someone who deserves a break, and can fill a hole in this puzzle.

I already have a job description for him. It will involve a couple different hats. He will set up some computer files on our relief efforts recording food distributions. He will work with my board member Dan Neal helping with the website from Haiti. He will do ordering for our church and home for supplies and such. He will be contacting and working with some organizations that may have supplies for us and...............much more.

Anderson, a man of God, doing it right, part of our team. tominhaiti

Anderson, the man, not the city

2010-03-03T12:46:00.001-06:00

Is Matthew 25?

2010-02-25T15:49:00.001-06:00

hi,

Thursday afternoon, somewhere in the bermuda triangle

This morning we sadly dropped off 13 friends from Minnesota who have been with us this past week. What a great group of dedicated, loving people.

Here are some goings on for the past few days:

New Tent: Monday we put our NEW white tent up and yesterday we had our first church service, from 3-6 pm, with over 300 people in attendance. It was a wonderful time of dedication and praise.

Earlier yesterday, starting at 8 a.m. we had our first clinic at our mission. A group of doctors and volunteers from Cincinnati, Ohio, with the organization Matthew 25, spent 6 hours treating over 200 people, all who needed medical care. It was a wonderful day but we were very tired when we arrived home about 6:30 p.m. last night.

Tents: We are working hard on finding tents to ship to Haiti. We are looking to buy 350 tents for our families. Please pray we can work this out and get these folks in a tent before the rains start, in the next few weeks.

Speaking of Tents: Just outside our suburb of Bon Repos, on the way to our ministry area, a new Port au Prince is springing up. Daily probably 50 "houses" are springing up. When I say houses, I mean sheets tied to sticks or cardboard walls.

Last week every time I drove by the new city, I prayed to God. I knew I had the right motive for wanting to visit these families, but I didn't have a reason. What I mean by that is I didn't feel good about walking into the middle of all these people, not knowing anyone. People would think we were there to pass something out or from the UN and we might draw a big crowd, more than we wanted.

I kept praying and Tuesday I found out that several of our leaders from Merjay have built these little "houses." I was thrilled. This weekend we are going in to visit our friends, make new friends and begin to be Jesus in this new tent city. I am ready to call it our 6th point of light but my board may have some questions first. Please pray that we will be accepted and be able to be the hands and feet of Jesus to these precious people.

A special thanks to a young man in Seattle, named Alex, who did a fund raiser to make the dream of having a feeding center at the dump become a reality. Thanks to all my Apple state friends who were part of this.

Power: After 43 days without any city power, yesterday it came back on. And today we have had it most of the day. Praise God for this!

The beat goes on: After a couple days of rest, Sunday is church followed by a team from Seattle coming to visit for a week and do ministry. We are very excited about Pastor Jason and his wife bringing another team. Three days after this our board of directors comes so I will be hopping for a couple weeks. Just the way I like it.

Generally speaking: Our general fund was about $2,000 short for January and February with so much focus on earthquake relief. Our general fund suffered and we need to pray this in quickly. Disclaimer: There are 3 days left in February so maybe, just maybe it will come in and we won't be short. Remember, we had a full slate of ministry and expenses before the earthquake and all that still continues.

Thanks: Thanks for all you are doing for God through this ministry, thanks to our Minnesota friends, thanks so much to Matthew 25 and................to God for allowing me and my team to be Jesus in Haiti, tominhaiti

Will It Ever End?

2010-02-23T22:10:00.001-06:00

It is 2am and we just experienced 2 pretty nice size shakers. Yesterday one hit also. I am sitting in my room with a couple young ones, scared out of their wits. The rest of the families, including most of our 15 guests from Minnesota have taken their cots outside in the yard.

Tonight they were 5 minutes apart, the first one being one of our bigger ones, top 5 probably. Seems odd, we have a big family talk about the quake, then have 3 shakers since then and the kids are scared out of their wits, again. It will end someday, right? Just when I think things are getting back to normal, it happens again.

Monday morning we got our tent up. It is big and it is beautiful. One of our visitors said "I did what I always wanted to do, I built a church." We had our visitors and about 35 of our men working and it was a great morning. We then moved the pews from the old tent into new tent and didn't even fill half the church. We have 33 pews, 10 ordered for this week and get this; we need about 35 more to fill the tent. Do the math, 35 x 70, well, too late and too tired for me to figure but, if you want to help, we won't turn you down. I believe with 80 pews, with 15 or so in a pew, we will have them all full. We may have to put both tents together at some point. All for the Glory of God, to know Him, and to make Him known.

I have to tell you I was touched emotionally today. The ladies from our Minnesota group met with our Esther girls for a few hours. They talked and shared their quake experience. Tonight during our time of reflections, the ladies told me that our girls at the mission all basically said the same thing, "the quake hit, we did this, and then......Tom came."

What a thrill to be able to be the one who went. Thank you for allowing me to be here, being Jesus for these folks. I can't put into words what God is doing and what is happening on a spiritual level. I can't help thinking of those great words "for such a time as this." I do believe that God has prepared our ministry; our teams back home (you) our board, my staff, our church and my family, for such a time as this.

We are ready, whether the earth shakes or not, we are not going anywhere. I gotta go. I have a sermon idea I gotta work on entitled: "I got a home just over the hilltop that will never shake."
As I write this, millions of Haitians are awake, standing around, wrapped in sheets and blankets, wondering the same as me, will this ever end? Take care, tominhaiti

Weekend at Bernie's

2010-02-22T07:18:00.000-06:00

Dearest Friends,
Monday early

There is so much going on in my world, I can hardly hang on, I can hardly hang on.
Last night for the first time we sat the 20 older boys down and let them share their experience, when the quake hit, their feelings afterward and much more. It was an amazing couple hours to listen to them share from their hearts what they felt.

For a dad, tears came a few times but especially when several of them said "the house started to rock, we ran outside and all we thought about was poppy was gone by himself. Then we saw the truck pull up and we said thank you Jesus."

Amazing insight was gained listening to them. Matthew said "I know you won't like what I am about to say but, the earthquake was a good thing for me, I became a man, and I learned to appreciate what we have and what we need to do."

Roger said "just sitting here tonight made me realize why God spared our family and we had shelter and enough food. God needed us strong to help everyone else."

For the record: At 5 a.m. this morning another aftershock, the first in a week or so.

Victory Bible Church: Yesterday the bus we rent broke down so we had no transportation. We still had nearly 600 people, having to walk a great distance. It was a great service. God was glorified and the body was made stronger.

The NEW Victory Bible church: As you know, we had been trying to start construction on our 2 story church building. We could not figure out why we had so many obstacles. Then the quake hit and everything made sense. Yesterday, we drove to Missionary Flights International hangar and picked up a 2200 pound tent, our new church. We have the wheels in motion to set it up this morning, with the help of our visiting team from Minnesota.

This tent is much larger than our current tent. We will use the current tent for junior church and school, and the new larger tent just for church. We are so excited over this!

Matthew 25: This organization named after this great Bible passage, will be here with a medical team Wednesday, doing a clinic, on our property. My staff today is passing out 200 tickets to sick people who need medical attention. Pray for these 24 doctors as they minister.

Weekend at Bernie's: The day after the earthquake I was walking the village, I saw a man who was not part of our church but I went out of my way to go see him. I introduced myself and asked his name. He told me it was Bernie. I then listened as he shared his story about the quake and then showed me his broken down house. I never said where I was from, I never invited him to church, and I never mentioned the name of God to my knowledge. The following week Bernie came to church, he accepted Christ a few weeks later and now his whole family sits in the 2nd row, every Sunday. Bernie wants to be baptized and become a member of our church.

I say that for this reason, I didn't have to invite Bernie to church, didn't have to preach to or at him, didn't have to even mention God's name. I just had to care. I didn't have to mention God, he saw God. Maybe there are people in your life that you are so busy inviting to church and telling about God that you are forgetting to show God. Just saying...

So much more going on but gotta head out to the mission, we've got to get a church up. tominhaiti

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

Another story from Haiti.....To help you know how to pray

2010-02-20T17:58:00.001-06:00

Hi from Haiti,
I received this in an e-mail today and wanted to share it with you. All I can say is wow. How did our Roger and our Jony get in this man's story? As I read this, it brought tears to my eyes. I hope it touches you as it did me. tominhaiti

Steve Spellman is a missionary with Reachglobal to Brazil.

STEVE---FROM HAITI
Day 12-"So, where were you when...?"

There is no need to finish that question...no need at all. Unlike some TV or world event that effects many, if
not most- this was a moment, some 40 seconds, that every single person in Port au Prince remembers, and
will remember, for the rest of their lives. Today, I'd like to share some of their stories. We can get caught up
in the food distribution and relief efforts and teams that are coming and.... and...and it would be wrong to
gloss over what was experienced and what was felt personally by each person. For those of you who come
down in the future could I challenge you to remember this simple question? These personal stories are incredible
in their power, unforgettable for their victims, and will forever mark the lives of those who just happened
to be here at around 5 p.m. on January 12, 2010.
~~~~~~~
Ed is the head of a Mission organization with a school, orphanage and church. He has served here with his
wife for many years and at 5 p.m. on that day, he was standing outside when the earth buckled and threw him
to the ground. His first thought? "My wife, no-no-no, my wife's in the house!" He tried to run but was thrown
to the ground 3 times before he could make it to his house. He arrived bruised and a bit bloodied, but his
house was (mostly) still standing-his wife uninjured. 3 weeks have now passed and they refuse to sleep inside...
~~~~~~~
Less than a quarter mile away Mary and her husband Jim were upstairs in their living room when the house
began to shake and the entire second floor "pancaked" (that's the most common word here for the affects of
the quake) on top of the first floor (in other words, the first floor was no more) and as Mary ran to where the
indoor stairs used to be, that wall collapsed, with only one wall of the second story still standing. Her husband
yelled to her to run for the outside stairway. When they reached that wall they ran out, literally running
from the second floor onto the ground (again, there was no more first floor). As Mary recounted this story,
she said that it was a miracle the second story door was opened, which allowed them to run out. Jim corrected
her by saying "Mary, we didn't run out the door, we ran out the wall!" Theirs is a miracle story of coming
out unhurt, from a two story house with only one wall remaining.
~~~~~~~
Augustine was outside, chatting with friends when the shaking started. His friend started to run for the house,
running "to" shelter. Augustine tackled him...and within seconds the house was flattened. Were it not for the
tackle, this friend would have perished.
~~~~~~~
At 5 p.m., Leunard was cooking dinner outside over an open fire while 8 relatives chatted
inside. Her cooking pots were thrown to the ground and her entire house collapsed. 7
miraculously survived ....but her sister did not. As she recounted "her story" she spoke
without feeling, devoid of emotion-almost what you'd call "numb".
~~~~~~~
Olrich was ending play practice at church with a time of prayer. With Haitian passion and emotion- many in
the group were stomping their feet and calling on the Lord to rain down His power. They felt the ground begin
to shake and ran outside. For a split second they thought they were experiencing an answer to prayer, when
suddenly they knew the truth and ran-ran as fast as they could to their homes.
Day 12-"So, where were you when..."
And then there was Roger's story.
Roger had taken a TapTap (Haitian form of a bus/taxi/van/rickshaw) the 10 kilometers to afternoon classes
at seminary that day, and he was downstairs studying theology. Upstairs were about 40 students with another
30 or so in his classroom on the first floor. At 5 p.m. there was some initial movement, most realized
what was happening, but before anyone could react an entire wall fell on the class, killing several. He
wanted to run but fell before he could stand. Rocks were hitting his head, he couldn't see amidst the cloud
of concrete dust filling the classroom. The girl next to him was screaming and he held out his hand to her,
willing her to run with him to cover. At that moment he looked up and saw the professor, a local pastor,
crushed by a second wall coming down. With tears in his eyes, Roger told how he felt "led" through the
dust and rubble outside, but not before having a hand grasp his leg from a fallen student pleading for help.
He led the first girl outside, and yelled for others to help go back in and save those perishing. A friend told
him that he was crazy, and in the next instant the whole building pancaked before his very eyes...none of
the students in class on the second floor survived...not a one.
Everywhere there were screams and panic, houses and walls and buildings continuing to fall. When the
shock of the moment passed, he too thought of his family. With no transportation available he walked, ran
and walked for over 3 hours to get home. He was bruised and bloodied but all he could think about was
"my family...my family". He could barely speak as he told of running by buildings still falling, devastation
everywhere. In his words: "that day I saw death...I saw death come to me."
Late that night he arrived home to find his entire family safe and sound.
He couldn't sleep that night...but then who could? And he, like many, still finds
it difficult. He went on to tell us how he senses the ground shaking every day,
even when he knows it isn't.
He's a pastor...a theology student and he can't get over the question "Why?"
Why was he spared? Why were the others not? Why did this happen at all?
But he knows there are no answers. He spends a good part of every day just
listening, listening in the village, listening on the hill, listening to the kids at the
orphanage as they tell their stories. For they all have one, and they all need to
be heard.
"But Roger" we asked "What do you tell the people when they ask why?" He responded "I tell them I don't
know ... I tell them I don't know" but then he paused for a moment and added these words: "But I also tell
them to not give up."
And somehow, on this afternoon we see a people who haven't given up. Roger is out listening to others,
Jony just got back from the hills distributing food and money. While walking through a slum, Jony saw a
young girl all alone and totally dejected. After visiting one last family he walked up to this girl, told her to
not give up, prayed for her and then gave her enough money for rice and beans for the week. As he walked
away the girl screamed out "Thank you, Thank you-I had nothing...nothing to eat. You've allowed me to
eat today." No, she won't-she won't give up...not today.
And incredibly, there is one comment shared by not just a few of my new Haitian friends. Roger said
it...Augustine said it....Charles said it...Jony said it as well. The words vary slightly, but allow me to use
Jony's words to end this letter:
~~~~~~~
"I believe this is the beginning of a new Haiti. Pray for us. Pray for us for this to be true."

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

A Perfect Day...Almost

2010-02-18T20:59:00.000-06:00

Hi from Haiti,

Yesterday I did something I had never done (no smarties, not showered) I drove west of Port-au-Prince. For the first few years in Haiti I did not have dependable transportation. Then the kidnappings took over for 3 years and for the past year I have been too busy.

Yesterday I took Matthew and Jovens to see an eye doctor a couple hours away, on the west side of Por-au-Prince with the boys. As you remember Matthew cut his eye two years ago and has had two surgeries but still blurred vision in the eye. Jovens is blind.

The trip took us through down town Port-au-Prince and through Carrefour which is where the center of the earth quake hit. Wow was everything in shambles. It was a very interesting trip and I had a great time with Matthew, Berthony, Georgie, Jovens and our security man, Mark.

At one point we saw a line nearly 2 miles long of women waiting for a bag of rice. Marines were stationed every so often to keep the men at bay. I know many of you are teachers and so I have a problem for your class to figure for me. How many women could stand in a line 2 miles long, if each woman took up 15 inches of space? I await the answer.

The paved road on this trip was cracked and broken in many places. At one point I drove over a 3 foot wide crack I didn't see.

We arrived at a Christian community mission called Christianville. An American doctor checked Matthew's vision and thought if he were fitted with a contact lens, that would clear up the blurry vision and he can do that in two weeks and order the lens. Matthew could have full sight restored within a month or so. Please pray that way. NOT ONE time has Matthew complained or thought it was a problem that he could only see with one eye. I have prayed many times for God to take the sight from my eye and restore Matthew's vision, if that was the only way for him to see.

Then it was time for Jovens. A doctor had visited us and given us hope for what he saw. That hope was drained out yesterday as the doctor explained that some form of glaucoma had stretched his eyes so badly that he would never see, short a miracle. It would have had to have been repaired the first 6 months of his life.

As I looked at Jovens, tears just started to roll down my face, thinking that this boy would never see, unless God intervened. We don't know the future of Jovens, or if his mom will want him back or want him with me, but, we know who holds the future, and we trust HIM.

The ride home was a great time as we listened to praise music, and even stopped by the ocean for some fresh cooked Griot, or fired pork and plantains. And a coke of course.

Today we have our first group arriving around noon, 15 brave souls from Minnesota. Their mission they say is to serve us, build bunk beds and continue our mission of sharing the gospel with these wonderful people of Haiti.

I ask that you continue to pray for Haiti and the spiritual awakening that we see. I told our staff Tuesday that at some point, the momentum will fade. If anyone thinks that the old crusty general Satan is going to hand over his country without a fight, they are not thinking right. As we plan our strategy, you can bet there are staff meetings in hell to stop what has started in Haiti, for God. We prepare for the onslaught and although we know every battle has casualties, we have read the end of the story; we know we win, so we press on.

Much more exciting news on the horizon but I will close for now. Keep us in your prayers. Thank you for your support of our general fund needed to run this mission, and the extra for the relief fund, which is still making a difference, every day in the lives of these wonderful people. God bless you folks and keep being Jesus in your neck of the woods will ya? tominhaiti

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

Speaking of President's Day

2010-02-15T08:00:00.000-06:00

Hi from the island.

Survivor: Yes, I am still here, they did not vote me off.

Weekend of prayer: Haitians by the hundreds of thousands from every corner in Haiti spent 3 days praying and thanking God. What a weekend. Friday and Saturday my nearly 20 teens went to a soccer field nearby from 6am to noon.

Something interesting happened as my boys were leaving Saturday. Those of you who have been to Haiti know that garbage is everywhere. One thing I teach my boys is that no matter what the rest of Haiti does, we are going to try to keep our home and mission trash free.

After the Saturday service of over 10,000 people finished, Altimae and my boys began to pick all the trash up from the soccer field. The pastor on stage grabbed the microphone and thanked them, and everyone joined in this effort. Isn't that neat?

Food getting around: Today as I went to pick up some tents in the city, I saw people carrying bags of rice on their head, and I mean thousands of people. The food is getting out, but there is still a great need for food in the villages we serve.

I did get 12 more tents, although it took about 8 hours, I do have them. Praise God.

Presidential Pardon: We have unofficial word that our President Renee Preval accepted Christ as his personal Savior this past Friday, then shared this at a mass rally, and asked the people to pray for him to lead. If this is true, watch out for Haiti. The Heavens might open up.

Victory: Our church service yesterday morning had, are you ready for this, drum roll please, 1300 people in the morning and 400 at the night service. Here is the exciting part. Ninety people came forward and gave their lives to Christ, having their names written down in the Lambs book of Life. How about that?

Included was the entire family of a man and wife who accepted Christ two weeks ago. Ironic thing is, they were big into voodoo and after the service they went home and smashed all their voodoo stuff. Roger visited today. Roger our assistant pastor was excited because growing up this woman was like a mom to him and he has prayed for her for years.

Grace Emmanuel School: Today we had English class for our teachers and kid's club for our students.

New Tent: One decision the board and I made was to hold off on the start of building our new church. It didn't seem proper with so many people homeless plus the Haitians are afraid to go into a building. A new, much larger tent has been purchased and is being sent. The new tent should hold well over 1000. Between two tents we feel we can seat 2000 people. God is moving.

Eyes: This Wednesday little Jovens, my blind boy, will be going for an eye appointment. A visiting Doctor said he thinks he has cataracts and that it is treatable, pray with us, will ya?

So much good news: Have you digested what you have just read? To me it is pretty remarkable. However, like Fox news, I need to be fair and balanced. Today I had a gut wrenching experience as I drove by the only American fast food restaurant in Haiti, Domino's Pizza and...................it crashed and is no more. A fat guy without pizza, does it get any worse than that? Sorry to leave you on this terrible note.

More: So much more to share but will stop to let you digest just how God is working here in Haiti. Take care, tominhaiti

It's All About Me

2010-02-13T19:06:00.000-06:00

Hi from Haiti,

I have received many questions from family, friends and strangers alike, wanting to know how I was doing, over the course of the past month.

To be honest, I am not sure. The first 10 days or so were pure shock and reaction to what was going on. Time was not on our side so experience and quick thinking had to get us through each day.

The next 10 days was moving more into the recovery mode and making sure all of our points of lights were covered. The past 10 days has been continued relief as well as long term planning.

I suppose the jury is still out on how we did. I told my staff the day after the earthquake that history will judge how we handled this crisis, and the main thing is to not forget why we are here, despite the tragedy. We are here to help the folks who can't help themselves, to share Jesus with people, and to teach them to do the same. For a long time we have been the hands and feet of Jesus, we just continue to do that.

What I didn't expect was the spiritual explosion we have seen, over 1000 one Sunday morning, 700 at youth group, over 200 at prayer service and nearly 100 people becoming followers of Christ, all in one month.

I am thankful to God that my health has been nearly perfect through all this. I have lost 33 pounds since the quake hit but that is like taking 1 brick off a stack of 100, still lots of bricks left.

Sleeping has been difficult, always thinking of how better to serve the people we love. Much of the time feeling inadequate for what we are doing compared to what I would like for us to be able to do. The other night we had our first big rain since the quake and I lay in bed and cried for the million or more people probably huddled under trees, the whole night.

One down side was the family side. Twenty hours per day was earthquake related, with 4-5 hours of sleep, totally neglecting my family, but not by choice. Add 10 new ones in our home who I did not bond with, and the home life struggled. The past few days I have worked hard to correct this as I have let my staff do more of the ministry stuff, by themselves.

Many times I get really discouraged and even depressed at life and struggles here but that has not happened in the past month. It has been a tough month but I have felt full of energy and life. I have seen the 17 young men in my home become men, and take on huge responsibilities for their people. I have seen my staff grow up overnight. I have added 4 new young men to our staff whom have really energized our efforts.

Obviously God is the reason I have made it this month and why our ministry has moved forward. The next greatest thing is............all of you. You do not know the weight of the burden you all have lifted, by your sacrificial giving. The money that has come in has taken that worry off my plate. We have been able to relieve so much of the pain and loss of these people because you gave. What touches me also is the trust that you have placed in us, a trust that we take very serious. Thank you for that.

Also, several THOUSAND emails in the past month have encouraged me and kept me going. Knowing that you cared, knowing that you were praying, and feeling the love you sent really did make a difference.

So many exciting things are happening in Haiti, I get really excited to be a part of it. I still can't say the earthquake was a good thing, because too many people died. I can say with confidence, GOD WILL USE THIS TRAGEDY TO BRING PEOPLE TO HIM, AND TO BUILD A NEW HAITI. I believe that with all my heart.

This weekend Haiti has stopped to pray. Haitians by the hundreds of thousands are crowded in every church, soccer field, park or open space in Haiti, praying for Haiti. These folks are doing this from 6am-12pm then from 3pm-6pm, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Every one of my boys has been up at 5am the past couple days, dressed up and out the gate with a chair in their hand, headed to park Charlie, a nearby soccer field. God will bless Haiti for this. I believe that. Tomorrow, Sunday, our church is meeting from 6am-6pm for prayer and fasting, like most churches in Haiti.

Again, thank you so much for what you have allowed us to do this past month. This week we move forward aggressively rebuilding folks homes, hopefully 10 per week until everyone in our points of light are again sleeping inside. We still need funding, this effort will go for the rest of the year and into next year. At some point when I get caught up, I will send you a break down on how the funds are being spent, you will be pleased I believe. Knowing your giving is allowing people to stay alive and healthy, has to bless you.

Today we had another shaker, which is over 80 aftershocks we have felt. After the house stopped moving, I looked out to the next house and saw Claudy stroll out on the porch. I said "what happened, you didn't run out of the house?" Claudy said "I am tired of running, time to start trusting."

Keep praying. God is working in a big way. Today as I ran to the store, I saw hundreds and hundreds of people walking down the street, all dressed in white dresses and white shirts, most with a Bible in their hand and I thought "wow, wouldn't it be fun to live in a country where this was the norm?" You never know, with God all things are possible. Maybe JiHM will be sending missionaries to..................................your neck of the woods, you never know. Love you guys, skinnytominhaiti

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

MESI PAPA

2010-02-11T20:35:00.000-06:00

Hi from New Haiti, Thursday PM

This has been an incredible week as we continue to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Here is a peek:

Monday: Staff meeting from 9-noon, team then put up 5 large tents for families.

Tuesday: Drove to Love a Child to pick up 100 boxes of rice while staff put up more tents. While at Love a Child, I met Jentezen Franklin, an American TV evangelist. His ministry is the largest supporter that sends food to us, and he interviewed me for about 30 minutes, with preaching mixed in. What an insightful, caring man.

He did mention that he felt God would pull the United States out of its bad economy based on how the American people have given to Haiti, despite their own troubles.

Wednesday: Up at 7am, packing 100 food boxes, by 7:30 packing boxes with my family, by 10 we were off to the garbage dump. We passed out close to 70 ready to eat meals and water, then to our villages to put up more tents, then by 1pm we met 100 of our church families at the mission. They presented tickets they had been given in their home and received a large box of food. Then from 3-5 we had a prayer service. More later on this.

By 6pm we were home for supper, then from 7-9:30 I had a time of teaching with my 19 older boys. It was a great time as we talked about having Godly attitudes in all we do. What a long fulfilling day and I was so proud of the boys.

Thursday: Again, up at seven to box another 100 food boxes. Then the boys left for the mission to put up more tents and distribute the final 100 boxes to our church families. I had work to do at home, along with going for supplies and tents.

This weekend: The government of Haiti has declared Friday as a day to mourn and remember the over 220,000+ people we lost in the earthquake. The Haitian Churches have said this weekend will be 3 days of prayer for Haiti. Many of the boys are walking to a nearby soccer field tomorrow for a huge prayer rally. Sunday we will have a 6am-6pm prayer service at our church. Sunday is also a time of fasting, but we do have over 3000 bags of water ready to drink.

Prayer service: I was tired and was not looking forward to a 2 hour prayer service in the middle of the afternoon. I knew it was important that I be there so I was. I read my Bible during part of it, prayed for must but towards the end someone caught my eye.

Right in front of me and down a bit, a lady, probably 50, with hands toward heaven, kept repeating "Mesi Papa, Mesi Papa" (thank you father). I began to look at her very closely and pondered. I saw a battered pair of shoes, wearing a one size fits all sheet dress, head wrapped in an old bandana. I began to listen to her say "thank you papa."

I thought, here is a lady who will NEVER eat an ice cream cone, who will NEVER sit down in her kitchen with a cup of coffee, she will NEVER see the inside of a mall or a Wal-Mart, she will NEVER see her kids graduate, NEVER ride in a car with AC, NEVER travel more than 2 miles from her home, NEVER take her grand kids to an amusement park, NEVER receive or give a wrapped present. She will NEVER lie in a warm comfortable bed, NEVER have "her shows" to watch on TV, NEVER have a hair appointment. She will NEVER have a dime in her pocket, NEVER go to a buffet, NEVER touch a stove or refrigerator. SHE WILL NEVER HAVE OR EXPERIENCE WHAT WE HAVE YET, SHE SAYS "THANK YOU FATHER." I wept as I heard her say this. How could she possibly say that, and then go home to sleep on the ground on a piece of plastic?

What is inside her that could make her be so thankful for...................nothing? No promise of a better future on this earth, nothing to look forward to on this earth, but so thankful.

Then you got a bum like me who lives like royalty, and what do I do? I complain. I wonder if I say "why father?" more than I say "thank you father." This lady touched me in a big way. She made me think of a faith that could be so thankful, for so little. This is the kind of person that God loved so much, he sent me to Haiti for. These people continue to amaze me. We had over 200 people at that service, with no giveaways and they knew it. They came to pray, to thank God, not to ask, but to give thanks. I am thankful that at my age, I can still learn. Thank you Father! tominhaiti

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