The Ministry Continues!

After our great summer kick off with over 600 people seen during a eye clinic, Almando headed directly to Jacmel with a team of 16 ready to work hard to encourage a local pastor there.  If you want to read all about their week of ministry, click HERE.  It was Monday of that week, when I started feeling a little stiff and sore.  I knew what was coming and asked some friends and family to pray.  There is a virus going around here in Haiti that causes a fever, rash, and joint pain.  We all have had it at this point and are all doing better.  And the good news is, once you have it you can't get it again--kind of like chicken pox.  I called Al at 6 am on Tuesday morning and he decided to come home for a day to help with the house and Bityah so I could just rest and recover.  He left a couple of our staff guys in charge with the team.

The ministry continued without any hiccups even with Al not there.  This tells me a couple of wonderful things:  1. We are not needed for effective ministry to occur.  God takes care of that!  It is HIS work after all--He just chooses to use us.  2.  Our staff guys are more than capable of leading teams on their own.  We have been working toward this for a long time and we are so excited that we have so many solid staff members that when something like this happens, our wonderful Pelican staff can handle it!

This week, there is a team in the country, being led by another one of our Praying Pelican Missions staff from the states and the ministry is continuing to go well!  We have so many full weeks still ahead of us as more and more teams are coming into the country, so we are definitely busy preparing.  Praise God for all He is doing and all He will do here this summer.

Friends, be praying for all of our teams, local pastors and churches, and our staff as we continue on an incredible adventure all over Haiti.  Pray that our pastors will be encouraged, lives would be changed, and that we and our staff would continue to be shining examples of Christ-centered, servant-hearted leadership!

The Great Summer Kick Off

It's the middle of May.  The time for confirmations, graduations, Mother's Day--love you, Mom--and the beginning of trip season for us here in Haiti.  We have been preparing for this for months in meeting with pastors,training our staff, and praying that God would do a big thing in Haiti this year.  So, here we are:  May 13th, in Les Cayes, Haiti, and already two days into the first trip of the summer.

I have been getting very regular reports from Almando and the other staff members about how the trip is going--Bityah and I nearby as she is recovering from a bout with fever.  There are 32 optometry students here this week trying to share the love of Jesus by checking people's vision and distributing glasses.  Yesterday, they saw a great crowd of people and even had to turn some away--a daunting task for our assistant trip leaders.  There simply wasn't enough time.  Later in the afternoon, they invited the kids in the area for a short program.  They didn't know over 250 children would show up!  They are doing the same thing at a different church in the area today and, from what I have heard, there are many people again.

Talk about a big day for our team and for our staff.  We know that many have already been touched by the love of God this week and are praying for many more lives to be touched and won for the Kingdom!  It's going to be a great summer of ministry.  I believe that God will do mighty things!

Please be praying for us and our staff as we begin to minister with and to our short term mission teams.  Pray for those of us who are feeling under the weather with a fever including Bityah and Almando.  Pray that this great summer kick off would continue into a great summer of ministry and encouragement.  Pray for rest when we can find it.  We will have groups in the country from now until mid-august.  We will not be leading all of them, but we will be making sure they all go well.  We look forward to all God has in store for this summer!