Flabbergasted

We. Are. Here .... We are actually, finally, here. I almost can not believe the words as I type them and sit in a room and overlook some scrawny horses as they graze at the foot of the mountains in Jacmel, Haiti. Most of us have been up for 30 + hours, and a few of us has got some winks of sleep on the plane, but all of us know without the shadow of a doubt that this is where we are called to be at this time. We made it through customs and our plane flights without any bumps (praise the Lord) and took a four hour van ride from the airport in Port Du Prince to Jacmel in the hotel where we will be staying. The ride was culture shock, to say the least, we have first Navigated through busy streets of Port Of Prince and then the windy and narrow roads that led us over the mountains to Jacmel. The van ride alone was enough to exposes us to every condition to be found in Haiti and, ladies and gentlemen, this is truly a third world country.

Kerry G: I Prayed and Prayed that God would show me something, ANYTHING, in Haiti ... little did I know what I was truly asking for. The minute we stepped out of the airport I got what I asked for. There were soldiers with guns by the doors yelling for us to move and keep going. Right across from them were tons of men just yelling, asking us if they could drive us. The way they looked, it was as if they Had no joy in their lives. Not one of them had a smile on their face. Every last one of them had a face that was hardened by years of this life. I've seen poor people, I've seen homeless people ... but this was the first time I had ever seen poverty. True, genuine poverty. It's something that someone should never want to see again, yet something no one should ever know. We got in the bus (these people are crazyyyy drivers, by the way ) and people would just jump on the back of our van holding their stomachs and holding up one finger, just begging for a dollar. They'd come right up to us in the middle of the street with cars, vans, motorcycles and flying in every direction, and stare at us through the window with something in their hands, usually a fried plantains, as if that was fried plantain The only thing that was keeping them alive. Little kids were just running The Streets by themselves, no parents. Pigs were in the market eating fruit that was being sold off the ground .... and when I say "pigs", I do not mean a little pig, I mean something the size of a huge horse in the shape of a pig. It was the biggest pig I have EVER seen. Trash was lining the streets on fire ... they burn their trash to make room for more. The houses here were sometimes walled rooms, maybe with no door, maybe with no furniture. I never knew my heart could break so much from complete strangers. I had so many emotions and thoughts running through my heart and my head that I was pretty much numb. Words cannot describe what I saw with my eyes, and they definitely cannot describe what I felt in my heart. It was just so overwhelming. God showed me what I asked for. He showed me that in a world with no love, this is what happens. He showed me how truly blessed I really am and how I take that for granted every day of my life. I will never have to walk the streets alone because not only do my friends and family love me, but my God loves me and when everyone else is gone, He'll be there. My desire is to share that with everyone I encounter here. God has shown me that I am to love these children, these people, just as much as He loves me ... and even though I do not fuly comprehend the extent of His love, or How to Demonstrate that, I know that He's going to use each and every one of us on this team to love ... we simply love his people. I hope that at the end of these 9 days, the children here will know that even if they do not have love at home, there is a God who loves them and He will NEVER abandon them. Not ever. Tomorrow they're going to be hit with a wave of love. :) I mean, who does not want to be hit by that?:) VBS is going to be AMAZING! We're all so pumped. Right after VBS we'll be having a soccer tournament, too. The people here, they love soccer.
We Prayed for 2 flights safe. We arrived unharmed.
We Prayed that we'd come to the hotel safely, with the drivers going 70 on a dirt road at the top of a mountain, that sometimes Seemed impossible .... but we're here ... every last one of us. And boy did we see some breathtaking sights along the way. God's beauty can be seen in these mountains.... His beauty shines through in a country that is so hard, so cold. It's undeniable.
We Prayed over VBS tomorrow .... and I know, come tomorrow, that prayer will be answered, too.
I ask that you keep us in your prayers. Keep the people here in your prayers. And keep the drivers here in your prayers too.

When God Shows Up and Shows Off.

Last week the Haiti team found themselves face to face with a terrible monster; The final payment for the trip was due and those who couldn't make it faced the imminent possibility of not being able to make the trip!

Although most of the people on the Haiti team had raised the needed requirement to go, there were two or three others who had worked hard and still fell short of the amount needed by upwards of hundreds of dollars while the deadline was the next morning. *gulp*

So... as you sit here, white-knuckled, on the edge of your seat, wondering 'what"..oh what will ever happen to these poor little missionaries?', I will be so rude as to refrain from telling you how it all ends, and pause for a moment to let you hear it from one of those little missionaries herself: Emily Fischer. Take it Emily!


"I sat in on our last Haiti missions meeting and knew that I was not going to go, not with 910 more dollars to raise by 2:00 pm tomorrow. After the meeting I talked to our group leader. I actually told him, "Yanni, I'm not going to Haiti and don't try to talk me out of it." He asked me if I had the money would I go, and I said yes that I still wanted to go, but I just did not have faith in this and did not really know if God had wanted me to go in the first place. He asked of me to not give up until the deadline and called Melissa Johnson (the other leader for the trip) for me and set up our meeting.
I drove to her house in Oakwood and we sat in my car through midnight processing through some stuff- through the real reason why I had given up. If this did not happen then it would feel like God would not hear me. I could not bare thinking my God did not hear me, so I just removed myself from any risk. Mel J told me that we should pray for a yes anyways, and we did. From midnight through early morning I prayed and begged and waited. I have never felt so desperate in my life. By 6am I had seen God manifest his love and presence- I had the entire cost of the trip pledged. I spent the next day picking up sponsor checks and walking in awe of what God had done. He showed me that He does hear me- He specifically hears my voice. So much has happened already in me and we have not even left yet- I know that if God has made himself known this intensely so far, then Haiti is going to be something else, something completely God ordained and awe-inspiring."

Emily Fischer
12/14/09

So... there you have it folks. God is really somethin' isn't he?? Like Emily, the other members of the Haiti team who were short were provided for completely in one night. And everybody is going on the trip- not one person excluded!

I heard something beautiful from someone once that this reminds me of. This person said that as he was training to be a lifeguard one thing that he was taught when rescuing a drowning person who is strong and resistant is to wade by the person as they thrash around in the water... literally... to tread water three feet away and carefully watch until the drowning person is at their weakest and ready to give in to the waves. Then, and only then, can the lifeguard swoop down and rescue the person, because had the drowning victim been any stronger surely they would have pulled both the lifeguard and themselves to watery doom in their panic.
I find that this is a lot like our relationship with Jesus sometimes. There are times when we think we are left alone...abandoned to drown and be consumed by waves (waves of money deadlines, for example). All the while Jesus is treading water with us three feet away and waiting carefully for us to be weak enough and let go of our ego and pride and fear and just shout between gasps of breath,"Jesus! You are Lord! You alone can save me!"... and then, he swoops down and saves us. And thank you, thank you for that sweet rescue.

Our Daily Bread

This past Sunday night we had our fourth group meeting. For the first time the Haiti team gathered in a home environment. We jumped right into the night after nibbling on some tasty dips&chips. The thoughts that follow are some of what we talked about:

A chunk of the evening was spent talking about spiritual warfare since it is a real matter and a possibility that we will deal with it in Haiti. It is a very exciting topic even though often times people avoid talking about it. Why exciting? you may ask. well....WE WIN!As long as we are prepared for the war that is coming. Ephesians 6:10 and on paints a great picture of this “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil” (Eph 6 verse 11) So we talked about how to do that. Ultimately through prayer and fasting. This is a very real matter, and we cannot afford to take it lightly. We invite YOU to join US in prayer as we gear up for what is coming in preparation for and while in Haiti. As many of you know it is a dark place, and we will encounter some unique circumstances to say the least. “Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.”(Eph 6 verse 19) Paul asks that from the church in Ephesus and we gratefully ask the same of you.

Another topic of the evening that I now want to expound on a bit is the subject of bread and provision. Recently I realized how much bread is talked about in the Bible. There are over 300 verses in the scripture talking about bread, so I did a little research on this matter. Back in Proverbs 30:7-9 we find the following: "Two things I ask of you, O LORD; do not refuse me before I die.Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.Otherwise, I may have too much and become independent
and say, 'Who is the LORD ?' Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.”

A very loaded verse, bread is synonymous with survival. That with too much in this life we forget our Provider by becoming independent and with too little we become desperate and fall apart.Just give me enough to live- says the author. All throughout the Old Testament the presence of bread communicates the same. From heavenly manna given to the Israelites to Elijah being fed bread and meat by ravens we see this distinctively.

A few hundred years later. In the city of Bethlehem(house of bread in Hebrew) Jesus is born. Then, He starts talking about bread.“Give us this day our daily bread (Matthew 6:11) he teaches during the Lords Prayer(survival). Also after satan asks him to turn rocks into food. “It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD. "(Matthew 4:4). Jesus proclaims that there is more to this life than just survival through bread. It seems like he is setting something up here. We see this again in John 4:32, the disciples were worried about Jesus and asked him to eat something. He responds with “I have food to eat that you know nothing about”, and later explains that the food he is speaking of is to do the will of the Father who has sent him.

Later on in John chapter 6,Jesus finally gives them the big answer. I wonder if He was waiting for them to figure it out. After feeding the five thousand, his disciples have some more questions for Him. The response is golden (John 6:32-35) “Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven."For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world."Then they said to Him, "Lord, always give us this bread"Jesus said to them,” I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.”

So we see bread all over the place. From the beginning of ultimate survival to when Jesus proclaims that He is the bread of life. We now look ahead to Haiti and the needs that have to be met. We recently found out that the price of the trip increased $235 per person to $1735. By no means will we let this scare us, not even a little. We have an ultimate Provider. We will not let an ounce of fear be instilled into our hearts. We have a fierce Protector. The 2009 Haiti team trusts in the Bread Of Life. For survival, for strength, and to do the will of our God who has sent us. We once again ask that you will join our side in prayer as we seek to fill the gap of the last few thousand dollars that need to be raised before the beginning of December. Some of you may be led to financially give and if that is you please email us at haiti.we@gmail.com . Also the following are the members of the Haiti team, feel free to pick one and pray over them as often as you would like.Thank you for reading , and your friendship. It means the world to us.

Xristos Sotir

Yanni

Eric Echols- trip pastor

Yanni Illiadis- trip leader

Melissa Johnson- trip co-leader

Sarah Rice

Katie Klempner

Emily Little

Deidrick Overby

Emily Tuten

Holly Colgan

Corbin Klett

Emily Fischer

Sam Laubscher

Joshua Bohn

Steven Link

Our New Friends!

Greetings!

Yanni here. I wanted to take this opportunity and share with you some of what has been going on lately with the Haiti team. In the process of preparing we have been presented with an unexpected and pleasant friendship with a local Haitian church. Just a few weeks ago we attended for a great experience.The French, Creole, and English languages were used interchangeably throughout the morning. We were blessed to be a part of that day, may I add that worshiping in French is an amazing journey(it truly is a beautiful language). After the service was over, some of the women in the church had prepared a Haitian feast for us. We ate some incredible food and enjoyed some encouraging conversations with our new Haitian brothers and sisters.

This is just the beginning. Pastor Joel and the leadership of the church were thrilled to have us and invited us back.As a matter of fact, us visiting them and sharing our plans to go awakened the members to have more of a missional mindset, they are now planning future trips with their church to Haiti and around the world. Who would have thought that we would inspire a Haitian church to actually go back to their homeland and proclaim the good news of the gospel. Incredible, refreshing, and life changing stuff! They will be packing a supply of items for us to take on our trip to give to the local people while we are on the ground. Things like soap, toothpaste, socks, towels, etc. We will be visiting with the Haitian church again soon for a "training day" where they will teach us some practical Haitian etiquette,dialect, and cultural awareness type information as well as how to best reach the children through some of the VBS work we will be doing(Melissa our co-leader is owning that and doing a fabulous job). We will also be joining the church one more time in December for a Sunday morning service. We are so thankful for our new friendship and bond with this community. If you see them around 12stone soon, be sure and say hello.They are likely to visit us at Waters Edge.

In the post to follow tomorrow we will be talking with you about some of the current happenings including this past Sundays group meeting,as well as some recent last minute needs. Looking forward to sharing the following entry with you all, it will be titled "Our Daily Bread"

Xristos Sotir

Yanni Iliadis

CIA: Compassion In Action

Last weekend was an exciting one for team Haiti, as it was 12 Stone Church's CIA (Compassion In Action) on Saturday- The first time the Haiti team worked together! Last saturday over 1,O0o volunteers sporting matching gray CIA shirts were deployed to various locations in Atlanta and Gwinnett to do some kind of work in communities that need them the most. As for the Haiti team, we were among several who were sent out to a rough neighborhood in East Atlanta to pick up trash and tires that littered the road where children played and gangsters converged. As we worked that day, we were encircled by children of the neighborhood on donated bikes that they had earned by picking up three bags of trash each. It was like watching the embodiment of God's hand at work there through the O'Mara's bike ministry. The couple that hosted us for that day (and made a mean bowl of chili at lunch break) named Becky and Tim O'Mara, had moved into that neighborhood specifically for the purpose of cleaning it up and shining God's light into the dark places that dwell there and on Saturday we were blessed enough to do a little 'shining' there too.

We began by meeting at 12 Stone Church, all 1,O0o of us, to be debriefed and led through an amazing time of worship then be given the location we would be carpooling to, and set off by the carful to begin our work in the East Atlanta neighborhood. Once we arrived there we were given work gloves if we had none, and pepper spray in lieu of any grumpy dogs we might encounter along the way. After testing the pepper spray in the air by giving one "harmless" squeeze of the bottle, we rendered it extremely effective after the invisible mist of pepper spray hit a few of the Haiti team members in the face who were hanging out down wind, and sadly caused some extreme discomfort and watery eyes for about twenty minutes. But don't worry, it was pretty funny. :)

Becky and Tim gave us a map of the neighborhood with a course plotted for us to walk, picking up trash that's on the side of the road and bagging it along the way. Trash bags and claw-grabber things distributed, the Haiti team made good time as we quickly and efficiently rid the small neighborhood of its garbage, all the while laughing and joking along the way as we were in the presence off good company. We found all kinds of "treasures", and our own Deidrick Overby and Corbin Klett had a trash collecting contest... I'm not sure who won, although Deidrick did pick up a dead squirrel. Yuck!

It was a beautiful thing to see that day: college kids- a generation normally so caught up in themselves and egocentricity, now defying the stereotype in the name of Christ to take a Saturday morning and pick up trash in an impoverished neighborhood. The families saw what we were doing for their neighborhood and, I'm not gonna lie, it felt good when they thanked us. Here's a little bit of what they were seeing:

The Currency We're Dealing With

Hello, Danielle here. I’m hijacking the blog from the normal author for a few moments because something is pressing on my spirit. We as a team are desperately calling to Jesus. Our airfare money is due in 7 days exactly, and if the money is not in—then we will as lovingly as possible be drawn off our mission team.

I’d like share a story from the book, Voices of the Faithful.

“Fourteen women stood in a circle as we prayed for the young Costa Rican woman who was about to leave as a missionary to a Muslim country. All of them were committed to pray for our church’s first international missionary. But what brought tears to my eyes that afternoon was not their commitment to pray.
In many evangelical churches across Latin America, God’s Spirit is raising up a missionary movement from areas that have traditionally been our mission fields. From our small church in San Jose, Costa Rica, He called out “Farisa” to go to one of the darkest corners of Central Asia.
When Margarita’s turn came to pray that afternoon, she prayed, ‘Lord, You know our family’s commitment to the faith promise offering so that Farisa can go to another land. As I’ve told my children, ‘First, we will give the offering, and then if there is anything left, we will eat.’
She continued her prayer, but I didn’t hear the rest. Tears flowed as I realized that this woman, whose husband was dying of cancer, was truly committed to the high cost of reaching the world for Christ. She was teaching her children where a Christian’s priorities should lie.
In the United States, the vast majority of those who support missions do so out of relative wealth. But the missionary movement from the Two-Thirds World (outside the U.S., Canada, England and Europe) is being supported in most in most cases out of dire sacrifice.” – Wilma, pg 305

WHAT DOES THAT STORY DO TO YOU?!

When I read it I immediately felt God telling me that the vision for this Missions Ministry is still much larger then we have made it to be. We are in obedience of God by pursuing this vision. EVERYTHING so far has been set in place by his hand. I have NO interest in pursuing my own plan. I only want Jesus’ glory to be made magnificent among us and the whole world in huge, glorious ways.

The question that we are asking ourselves is, “Is our missionary work worth Margarita’s family’s food?” Is our work THAT valuable, that we could accept an offering like that?

The honest truth is that as a follower of Jesus—redeemed fully by him. Our body could die tomorrow and we would be okay because we would finally be with Him, but there are lost nations. There are pre-redemption stories everywhere we look. Don’t think that this mission work is not valuable… I would be hesitant to accept Margarita’s offering, but she understands something about the dire need to further the kingdom of God through the world. She understands it so deeply, that she will not feed her family until it happens.

How do we make this personal? Please pray and give generously and sacrificially to these mission efforts. Allow the Holy Spirit to “break your heart to the point of giving to missions with exuberance, not only because of the vast lostness and depravity of the peoples of the world, but because the supreme sacrifice of redemption has already been made for their salvation, of only they hear. Amen.”

“For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints.”
2 Corinthians 8:3-4

Children in Liberia at one of the poorest orphanges in the country.

PS: If you'd like to know how to give, please e-mail haiti.we@gmail.com

Our Second Meeting!

Last night we congregated together once again for the second meeting in preparation for our mission trips coming up in December. Just as last time, the teams entered into the room at 12 Stone Church to find aesthetically-pleasing decor resembling their countries origin on their team's table, this time accompanied by tasty foreign snacks. I myself couldn't help but break into a box of coconut cookies, while others on the Haiti team all passed around a liter of pineapple soda. I was only awakened from my state of coconut bliss when people began to stand up all around me; it was time to worship.
After a few amazing worship songs led by the talented Katie Morgan, we all felt spiritually awakened and ready to receive the message that pastor Miles Welch of our Water's Edge ministry was about to give. As he spoke, his message unfolded to be about opportunities in our lives... "How you make, manage, and miss opportunities will determine your life", said Miles. He went on to prepare us for "7 Opportunities in Short-Term Missions", and get our hearts and minds ready to be molded in ways we may not expect (or even want) when God does his thing on this mission trip. I won't write all seven of the points he made about opportunities we would see on this trip, but a few of my favorites include:

The opportunity to re-clarify our life's purpose for Him on this trip. To solidify God's calling on our lives. While on this trip, we will be asking ourselves "Is this more important that anything I could be doing at home?"

The opportunity to experience God as a provider. It's amazing to see him provide the finances and resources for this trip that we could never provide by ourselves.

The opportunity to grow in our servant heart. "When we begin to go to church to serve, and not be served."

And the opportunity to deepen and sharpen our prayer lives. "Pray because there is a God with the answers!"


I only put those few up for the sake of brevity, but each of the seven opportunities rang deeply within every one of us going on this trip, as a new commission to those who have never before done a mission trip and as a needed reminder to those who have. After Miles was done speaking the teams split up into their own groups, and got together for some team-only bonding time. It was then when we shared our testimonies with the rest of the group. As each one of us told our testimonies of how Christ came in or moved in our lives, we got to know each other just that much more, and we got to see how God is such an amazing person to each one of us in his own individual way. Each meeting the group continues to grow a little bit and get to know each other a little bit more.

Thank you for reading, and please continue to pray for us on the Haiti team. Please pray that we will continue growing and maturing and never stop seeking God in everything we do; all the way up to the day we board the plane and after. God Bless you all, and have a great week.