Hello Friends and Family,
Summer is drawing to an end and so is a very busy season of work and
ministry. We have had a variety of projects and outreaches both here in
St. Marc and in the 5th Section.
We were able to build 2 duplex houses, providing homes to 4 families that lost
everything in last year's hurricanes and flooding. We also were able to
spend a week doing medical clinics in the 5th Section. All of these
projects have been backed up with time spent in one-on-one ministry
through house to house Bible distribution and prayer for individuals in
their homes. As we have moved from disaster relief into road repair and
bridge building, and now into "Homes of Hope", we are seeing more and
more openness to the Gospel.
We were also able to build a 3rd duplex here in St. Marc for 2 single parent
families. The first was a widow and her children who are members of a
local church fellowship. The second family is a widower and his children,
whose wife had been a member of the same church, but he had refused to be
involved with the church in any way. On the day that we were dedicating
the completed duplex, the widower expressed his gratitude for his new home and
asked if he could ask Jesus into his heart. The pastor of his wife's
church, Pastor Wilson, was on hand and led the man to the Lord right
then. The following Sunday was a powerful time of praise and worship as
Pastor Wilson and the church acknowledged God's goodness and faithfulness.
Our newest development on the base is the beginning of a Prison Ministry.
We had been making visits and passing cell to cell, talking and praying with
the inmates. (Cells are approximately 15' x 30' and house 20-24 grown
men) The commandant opened the door for us to use their classroom and
begin to have weekly classes. It's a bit overwhelming at this point since
there are 240 inmates and the needs are great. But we are starting slow
and adapting some of the Dunklin curriculum to work in this setting and
culture. The challenge is training our YWAM staff to minister in this
venue. Please be praying for us. Our hopes are high, the challenges
are great and the fields are ripe unto harvest.
I'll turn things over to Shelly now...
Hey everyone, so good to talk with you again. As I think about the
above story of the man who accepted the Lord after receiving his house,
I'm reminded of the scripture in Romans 2 that God's kindness leads us to
repentance. We don't know why that man had hardened his heart toward God,
but God's kindness toward him, building him a house, broke through that
hardness and brought him to repentance. Wow...God is so good.
Kid's Church has been booming. More and more new kids every Sunday.
I went ahead for the summer and opened the doors to whoever wanted to come, and
the response has been amazing. As they are preparing to start school, I
felt like it was important to feed them on the pure Word of God. They've
been learning scriptures such as The Lord's Prayer and Psalm 23. And they
keep coming back for more. Haitians have an amazing capacity for
memorization. They learn everything in school by memorizing. The
downfall to that is that it's almost pure memorization with very little
understanding. We are teaching them what the Word they are learning means
and why it's important to learn it. They are soaking it in, please keep
praying for them that God's Word goes deep and bears fruit.
As many of you know we will be leaving
Also, I would like to put something before you all for prayerful
consideration. I have been working with most of these kids for 3
years. Although we often have new kids, I have a core group that has been
faithful the entire time. Every Christmas I have tried to provide
something special for them. I have been blessed to be able to give them a
Children's Bible Storybook last year, along with some candy and little
things. This year I would like to do something a little
different. These kids never get anything brand new. Any little toy
they have is always second-hand, and very used, and usually broken. The
little girls almost never have dolls to play with, and the one or two broken
dolls I've seen passed around are white. We are talking little girls that
are ages 5 up to 10 years old. I would love to be able to bless them with
a doll. But not a white doll, a black doll. My little girl, April,
has a black baby doll and the few times I've used it in a teaching the little
girls are amazed. They never see black dolls. I know this is a
little out of the ordinary for what I usually write, but it has been so on my
heart to bless these kids. The boys all love soccer, and usually the ball
they kick around is deflated and often isn't a ball at all, but just something
round they find to kick. I would love to give the boys a new soccer
ball. So here it is...would any of you be willing to donate a new black doll,
either a Barbie doll or baby doll or a new, deflated soccer ball (we will
inflate them here)? I would need at least 30 dolls and 30 soccer
balls. We can collect them while we are in the states and bring them back
with us when we fly back. If this doesn't sound like something you want
to do, that's fine and I understand, but if it touches something in you and you
feel like God would lead you to help then I would just say "thank
you". I am not looking for any one person or church to provide them
all. If you want to do this, please e-mail me and let me know.
We sure do love each one of you, and look forward to seeing as many of you
as we can while we are home. Your prayers and support have been such
a wonderful blessing. Our prayer for you is that God will continue to
meet each need and pour back into you all that you've poured into
us..."pressed down, shaken together and running over."
All for Jesus!
Freeman, Shelly, Rebekah, Caleb and April Nettles