Dear Friends and Family,                                                                                                                                                                      October 1, 2010

 

Well time has certainly flown by, and we realized that it has been a while since our last update.  

 

We are happy to report that the Discipleship Training School (DTS) has completed their classroom training and are now on Outreach.  These are the 13 men and women that came through Freeman's Pre-DTS program that began in January.  These are the same men and women that experienced a catastrophic earthquake 2 days after their Pre-DTS began.  They have continued on, completing what they started, and God has been doing amazing things in and through them.  During this last 3 months of their DTS classroom phase, they have experienced God in a fresh new way.  They have confessed sins, broken down walls of pride, broken generational curses, and been soaked in the presence of God's Holy Spirit.  Freeman and I can only look on and feel so honored to have been a small part of this process.  And we are so blessed by all that God is already doing through them during the first weeks of their Outreach.  

 

Right now they are on a mountain, in an area called Font-Baptiste.  Freeman has been back and forth from there delivering the team and supplies to their camp.  The children and I had the opportunity to ride up with him.  It was especially nice for me, as I had spent a month in that same location back 20 years ago when I worked with YWAM before Freeman and I married.  It was great to see the people and places that we worked with back then. And to see this team, 20 years later, working in the same location.  It's a hard, bumpy, cliff-hanging 2 hour ride up the mountain.  But the kids loved it and the DTS was very happy to see us.  For some of them it is the first time they have been outside of St. Marc.  It is quite a bit cooler up there, and their teeth were chattering, but they were all smiles and good reports.  They have seen many salvations, they've helped put a roof on a clinic that is being built, and they are making incredible relationships with the people up there.  

 

Next week they take a boat across to the island that is right off of our coast called LaGonave...it's still part of Haiti.  

 

We were blessed a couple of weeks ago, as a mission, to be able to spend 3 afternoons in a time of reflection.  We took a look at all that has happened over the last several months, and where that has left us, and where we feel God is taking us from here.  It was a great time for our whole staff to be able to share, and re-focus and get perspective.  At the end of it, I guess I would sum it up, that although many things have been propelled forward at a much faster rate than we would have believed at the beginning of January, we are still on course.  Still doing the work that God has called us to both as a mission and as individuals.  Where just a couple of months ago it seemed that our world had fallen apart, really in the end we see that nothing actually fell apart.  The only things that have gone are those things that needed to go, and God has refined our lives and our mission.  We are still here, we are still standing and we are moving forward.

 

We still cannot thank you all enough for your prayers that have sustained us!!

 

So just to kind of sum up the final "Earthquake" tally:

 

Our mission hosted over 900 people helping with Earthquake relief.

We distributed 19 tons of food; and countless other supplies and provisions.

Opened 3 tent cities; closed 2 now by providing permanent housing to those living there; and in process of doing some community development in the last tent city, as well as, providing permanent houses.

Recently hosted a week long crusade, with local pastors and evangelists, and had capacity crowds in our YWAM arena.

 

But the most important things are these, many are coming to the Lord, many are being healed and many are asking for further discipleship.  Despite what you may have heard in the news, or through other sources, God is moving in Haiti and changing lives.  And we are honored to be only a small part of what He is doing here.

 

We love you all, and pray that God moves in your lives in a mighty, life-changing way!

 

All for Him!

The Nettles' Family