Video Update 3

My final evening finds me sitting at the keyboard a little perplexed. After 6 hours of footage, over a dozen interviews and nearly 1200 still pictures, I am finding it difficult to digest all I have captured with my cameras, my eyes and my heart.

Images of stark poverty contrasted with people who are rich with what very little they have. With eyes filled with fear and desperation contrasted with eyes filled with love and hope.

Make shift shacks surrounded by garbage, foul odors and polluted water ....

Contrasted with beautiful mountains, green pastures, white sand beaches and quaint villages.

With Witch Doctors and evil spells, contrasted by dedicated pastors, the Holy Spirit and hundreds of children singing glory to GOD.

How does one ingest this all and sort it out with any sense of order? Only by understanding that we all were created in GOD’s image and that HE created this earth beautiful, yet all have fallen and are in need ofa Savior. That this is not a battle of flesh and blood, but of evil powers, principalities and wickedness in the spiritual realm. And it is these good men and women of the mission field, their support teams and pastors that lead the fight, by bringing the truth of Jesus Christ that will win this battle for the people souls.

In HIS grace
Andrew P. Collar

God's day....

Today has been a beautiful day here in Cap Haitien! We shared a great hour or so in reading devotions and discussion before readying ourselves for church. We made our way across town to Pastor Saintil's church where we experienced a true Haitian worship service. Pastor translated much of his sermon for us which was quite touching and powerful in message. The music was amazing and God's presence was surely felt by each of us as we worshiped together with this beautiful family of God. Pastor Saintil started the church 25 years ago with only seven people in his congregation. Today he has 1400-1500 people attending his church each week. Last month he baptized 53 people and 103 people committed their lives to the Lord after a 40 day revival. This revival involved 3 hours each evening for those 40 days praising and teaching in his church. What a testimony!

We will be headed out to 4VEH (the Christian radio channel) missionary church service momentarily...making the most of our time visiting and worshiping our Lord with brothers and sisters here in Haiti! God is so very good! It is amazing to worship Him finding that no matter where you are, when you find other passionate lovers of Christ, it is so very inspiring to our Christian walk!

We thank you for your prayers and are looking forward to a trip out to Terrier Rouge tomorrow and a visit with Pastor Noel and his beautiful wife, Marie! Updates tomorrow....

Laura

Good Morning from Cap Haitien!

Well, it has been a wonderful trip thus far and listening in on some of Andy's interviews of our local pastors here is simply a glimpse of what God is able to do when we as His instruments make ourselves available to Him! Some of the commentary was enough to inspire tears of awe of the God we commonly love and serve!

This morning we have some down time and will be headed to the beach for a time of relaxation in an hour or so. We are all physically well, spiritually seeking and finding God in some awesome places here!

As we continue our journey with Him here in Haiti, I ask for your continued prayer that we remain in His mighty shadow, eager and willing to serve Him in all that we are privileged to do for Him!

Enjoy the pics from Andy...we will stay in touch!

Laura

Video Update

Day four found me on the shoreline at 5:30 am waiting for the sun to break the crest of the horizon. A brilliant red glow painted fishing boats as young boys pulled their nets to check the evening catch. It was special to hear the morning awake around me, a dog barking in the near distance, the call of a rooster, voices beginning to fill the air as people made their way out onto the streets. I am so blessed to be able to catch the sights and sounds of the Haitian morning with my camera.

After breakfast and our morning devotion we headed to a local village in the country side. My camera was at my side – literally as we made our way thru the Haitian streets.

Cameras tend to draw attention in this part of the world – and not in a positive way. Many times I caught a nasty stare or was verbally scolded for stealing the image of someone’s life or their surroundings. It’s understandable – it must be hard enough to live the life in reality – let along seeing a foreigner try to etch it in the archives of video forever. But that’s what I do, and I need to bring a part of Haiti home for everyone else to see, to feel and to understand. I was able to capture great images of our team at work, see to the elderly, visiting children, handing out crocs and observing the structures and lives that have been change as a result of sponsor programs like that at FEFC. Day five was more of the same – beautiful rides through the country, capturing the beautiful smiles of small children and listening to the beautiful hearts of the pastors that serve these communities.

I spent the remainder of the day shooting interviews with team members and our host Pat. It is very special to hear how this mission has affected each person’s life so differently.

How the love of Jesus and fellow man is the common thread. I can’t wait to bring this story home to share with everyone.

Love in HIS grace to all
Andy

A busy day!

As we began our day we were indeed saddened by the news from FEFC about Tara. As we share in the grief our church family must be experiencing, we knew we also needed to head out as God had planned us to do.

There were many blessings in store for us today as we divided and conquered! Enoch, Alain, David, Cory and myself headed out for the day. We started with a visit with Rose Guerlande, our little girl who has now undergone a few surgeries and anticipates more. She looks beautiful!! She was in the hospital undergoing tests with anticipation of her next surgery in another few weeks. It was a real treat to see her accept the doll from Emma, Mary Russell's granddaughter with such a beautiful smile! She is truly a little angel that God has placed His hand upon and allowed us to be a part of her physical healing! I can't wait to see her grow into a young lady with love for our Lord!

Then we were off to the Universite Chritienne du Nord D'Haiti and had a nice visit with Steve and Nancy James, the couple that I stayed with while in Haiti in December. Steve is a wonderful physician, having practiced medicine in Haiti for the past 25 years. He has been my mentor, teaching me how medicine is practiced in Haiti. Enoch then gave us a nice tour of the University grounds including the Botannical gardens that he himself had planted 10 years ago.

I will let Andy share his perspective on our visit to LaSoudre where Mary R.visited some of the elderly from the Feeding Program, Mary Veilleux colored and sang with the children and David and I held a blood pressure screening. Valerie is the fine young man who stood by my side as my assistant!

On our way home we stopped to visit with a wonderful family. Jean Claude and his wife Monica have taken in 10 orphan children. Monica has recently been in the US for initial evaluation and chemotherapy session for breast CA and has a bit of a journey ahead of her. Through our development of Maine Haiti Connection, we were able to reach out to this beautiful family while here and visit with these beautiful children and Jean Claude, pray with them, encourage them and take pictures that we will put together for Monica to have while she has her long weeks ahead in the U.S. away from these precious little ones. They have some young adult Mennonite helpers living with them at present and it was amazing to feel the love of the Lord in this home! If you would, please pray for this beautiful family!

After another wonderful meal from Claudette, we headed out to the Children's Home of Cap Haitien and shared CROCs with upwards of 75 kids and in so doing, added a splash of color to a quite gray background! This will be another mission field Mary and I decided, reaching out to Bob V. with love and encouragement as he shares his love with these children in heading up this home!

Tonight, we gather together for fellowship and devotions. Our perspectives on the day are shared. We kick back and relax and look forward to tomorrow and what God has in store for us! Please pray for God to use us where He needs to be. Pray that He will touch each heart of those on our team, our missionary family we are with and those we touch each day.

God is blessing us,
Laura

Touch Down !

The first leg of our mission trip went quite smooth. Flights were no hassle, baggage all arrived and no one was lost. A small snafu with a rent-a-car made the evening drive to Fort Pierce an extended adventure. Laura's rent-a-car had electrical issues and had to be towed away - getting us into Fort Pierce after midnight. After a short nap we were on the road again and headed for the MFI airfield. No snafus there either, and after a four hour flight we touched down in Cape Haitian. Again we were blessed with a clean pass through customs and shortly we arrived by tap-tap at the mission. Fellowship has been good around the dinner table, and planning sessions have been completed for the next few days. Pat & Clark were very happy with the new laptop, all the medical supplies, crocs and necessities the team has brought down. Tomorrow will be house projects, painting and repairing. We are sticking close to the house due to possible civil unrest in the community tomorrow. No worries – just a precaution. The video is going well and I have captured some very nice images for you all. God bless you all and thank you for your continued prayers.

We've arrived...

Hello everyone from Cap Haitien!!! We arrived safe and sound at about noon today after a travail yesterday! Our flights went well but once arriving in Orlando we found out that Allan (and Lauraly) Standford and Corey Fleming had a fender bender. Fortunately no one was significantly injured and Lauraly was able to drive the vehicle home safely. The other 7 of us decided to get a bite to eat and thinking we would then be at our hotel and off to sleep within another hour or so, came out of the restaurant to find we had no headlights. Well...long wait, made short for your benefit....Tim, our tow-truck driver delivered a replacement vehicle and we finally arrived at our hotel just after midnight.

This morning after weighing in at MFI in Fort Pierce (wow, were we heavy...ok, the baggage was) we loaded into our cargo plane and we were off to Haiti! The weather is sunny and 80 degrees with a nice breeze! We arrived by noon and waited for the Customs Officer(s) to deliver the bad news...after all we weighed in quite heavily with MFI. The next hour's wait was worth it. Between Pat Moore, Pastor Saintil and Alain, our Haitian friends/family, we left the airport with ZERO dollars in custom's fees! Can you say Praise God??

Really, God has been good to us so far this trip, through the ups/downs of the past 2 days. We have a wonderful group and I know we will have a wonderful time getting to know each other better and working for our God and King! Andy should be posting a few pics for you all to enjoy later.

Pat and Clark, Alain and Enoch, Valerie, Jovite and Mene and Claudette are all doing very well. They are indeed family to us here! God has taken us and brought us together as His family from different places and experiences. And it's all about Him!

So tomorrow we will be hanging at the house doing some work projects due to a change in plans. Pastor Noel stopped by today to say that there was a chance that there might be a manifestation (protest) in Cap, which meant that we could be stoned or hassled if we were to try and drive through and out of town. It is a political season with elections around the corner so, taking his concern in stride, we will head to Terrier Rouge on Monday instead.

Please pray that our work here never outways our shining for God...our part in glorifying Him. Pray that all we do will be a blessing to Him whom we love and serve and to the people we encounter each day. Praise to Him who has carried us here this day for His purposes!

Laura