Journey to Slidell- The Background

Wow, two posts in two days! All I can say is that I'm feeling motivated :)

A week after I returned home from Haiti, I had the priviledge to travel to Slidell, Louisiana with a team of six other people from Church of the Saviour. It was a little crazy going from trip to trip, but as God said to Paul, "My power is made perfect in your weakness." And boy did I see God's power on this trip. Before I jump too much into what happened while we were in Slidell, I need to cover some background...

In March, I was asked by Pete, a leader at my church, if over the 4th of July week I would be willing to lead a group from "Quest" (people at my church between the ages of 18-25) down to Slidell, Louisiana to help out with a Vacation Bible School at Faith Bible Church. I was a little hesitant accepting, since I would be traveling to Haiti just a few weeks before. But it seemed as though most of my responsibility would be just getting people down there and making sure no one sustained a serious injury, also I'd been wanting to get down to LA sometime to help in the relief effort there. So I prayed about it and felt at peace with accepting. Over the next month and a half, we waited for the droves of people to sign up for this awesome opportunity. In the middle of May I started receiving emails from Faith Bible Church saying that they'd reserved us space for 15 to 20 and wanted to get a final count on how many would be coming. We only had one person sign up, Kristin, and she wasn't even in Quest! Kristin had been to Slidell numerous times before, so she knew the ins and outs of planning transportation and communicating with the church there (she is the first huge blessing that God gave this trip). Pete told Kristin and I, "If you guys can find anyone to go, then go, otherwise, we'll cancel the trip." So seven weeks before we are suppose to leave, Kristin and I send out an APB to the whole church that anyone who would be interested in going needed to commit to it within two weeks. Two weeks later after a good bit of time on our knees in prayer, God provided us with a team of 9, which later got boiled down to a team of 7. That was huge blessing number 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6! We went from two to 7 in two weeks!!

So now we are less than 5 weeks from leaving (and I leave for Haiti in a week and half) and we are over the big hurdle. We have our team, Kristin has put together a good transportation plan, and everything seems to be great. Then bomb number 2 drops. With 4 1/2 weeks to go, Kristin and I receive an email that makes it clear: we are not going down to help Faith Bible Church put on their VBS, but we are expected to plan and implement the whole thing ourselves! And we should expect up to 80 kids! Kristin and I freak out a little bit, tore our clothes, and put dust on our heads, and cried "this is not what we signed up for!!!" When we picked ourselves up off the floor, we realized that this came as no suprise to God and that if it was truly His work, He would give us the strength and ability to complete it. After all, he gave us a team of people just a few weeks before we were leaving. So we started to get to planning.

Now as a leader, my typical MO is to be a control freak, take as much responsibility as I can, and then micro-manage the rest. But I was leaving for Haiti in just days, so that was not a possibility. Instead God began to teach me what it really means to be a leader, a servant-leader. At this point, I began to see how God had hand-picked each person that was on this team. These were not just 7 bodies that were filling up space on a team, but God had brought together 7 specific people with specific abilities, gifts, and experiences.

Each person on this team humbly and diligently gave of their time over those last 4 weeks to plan, organize, and aquire supplies for this trip. When I came back from Haiti, 90% of the planning for the VBS was done! I want to give special props to Kristin, who organized all the trip logistics (transportation, housing, food, etc.), and Kim, who was in charge of the overall direction and planning of the VBS. While the whole team poured their hearts and souls in to getting this all together, those two took on an especially large chunk of responsibility and both did an amazing job. Thank you!! I also want to thank Danielle, who wasn't able to go with us to LA but helped out with a lot of the planning, and Ellie Greenhalgh at COS who helped us with general direction and really gave us great encouragement in the beginning of our planning when we were feeling very overwhelmed.

God did many other amazing things during the preparation of this trip. To quote St. John, "If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written." To just mention a couple, ask Al how we received over a hundred beanie babies for FREE and ask Kristin how we were able to build parts for 80 tool boxes in just days before we left (that meant 640 cut pieces of wood and over 2000 holes drilled). All in all, God used the preparation time to really build our faith in Him. He gave us exactly what we needed, exactly when we needed it. Not too much or too little, neither too soon nor too late. It was much like the experience that Gideon went through in chapter 7 of the book of Judges.

I hope you've seen a glimpse of the way God worked before we even left for this trip. Join us in praising Him and thanking Him for His faithfulness. Now let's talk about what happened on our journey to and through Slidell, Louisiana...


Our Group (from left to right): Kristin, Kim, Jess, Me (Ben), Al, Paul, and Mike

Journey to Slidell- The Adventure

While I know it's long, I hope you were able to read "The Background," but if not, here are the highlights. Seven of us crazy people went down to Slidell, Louisiana to do a Vacation Bible School as a part of the community outreach of Faith Bible Church (faithbibleslidell.com). In the preparation for the trip, we saw God work in a number of ways that strengthened our faith and trust in Him and brought us closer together as a group. Praise God!


A photo of our group on July 4th, from left to right: First row is Kristin and Jess, Second row is Myself, Al, Kim, and Paul, and in the back is Mike.

To get to Louisiana, three people flew and four drove (including me). The drive went great and was a good time for Mike, Kristin, Paul, and me to get to know each other. And even though we kept it near the speed limit, it only took us 18 hours to go over 1,200 miles! That's four and a half hours quicker than what Mapquest said it would take!! Another little known fact about that stretch of road, it contains the most words with the letter "J" than any other stretch of road in the entire world (sorry, it's an inside joke). Thank you all for your prayers as we traveled, and thank you God for your constant protection. When we arrived in Louisiana, we took a jaunt over to Gulfport, Mississippi to pick up the other three from the airport. On the way back we took a tour of some of the damage along the shore. It was unbelievable. Where entire subdivisions of houses had been, there was nothing. Most of the debris had been cleaned up by this time, so it street after street of just foundations of houses. The emptiness of it all was eerie. Then every now and then you would see a random boat on the side of the road thousands of feet from the ocean. The hurricane had literally just picked them up and plopped them down in the most random of places. We even saw one that had landed on somebody's house. And then every now and then there was a house that was untouched, as though the hurricane went right around it. I didn't take any pictures; they wouldn't have done it justice anyways. It was a lot to take in, and we were still pretty tired from driving through the night before, so after dinner at a good Mexican restaurant, we headed back to the church and went to sleep. Well, actually we were planning on going to sleep, but a bunch of us went crabbing instead! Yeah, real down on the bayou crabbing. It was a good time and Kristin caught one monster of a crab.


See how excited Jess is to go crabbing!

Sunday we had an awesome time of worship at Faith Bible, and then at night we went out to the neighborhood where we would be doing our VBS and handed out fliers and invited kids to come the next morning. It was cool to see the park where we would be working and to get an idea of the neighborhood we would be serving. The neighborhood is middle class and underwent severe flood damage during the hurricane. Flood waters filled the first 8 feet of the whole subdivision for over 3 days. Since most of the houses where one-story, these families had lost everything, and when we arrived they were almost all still living in FEMA trailers that had been installed on their front lawns. After seeing all this damage, we knew that kids that we would be working with would need a lot of love and attention. But how would we provide the one-on-one time they needed if we had 80 kids and there were only 7 of us?


The park where we held VBS


Kristin cleaning out the port-a-potty where someone had left us a special suprise. Kristin rocks!

Well, on Monday morning, we saw God's faithful provision again. We had only 6 kids come for VBS! At first that seems a bit disappointing, but God knew that these kids needed extra special attention. Most of their parent's time is spent working on their houses and other tasks, so their time with an good adult influence is limited. By God's gracious plan, the seven of us were able to spend an enormous amount of time one-on-one with the kids. The most kids we had at any time that week was 15. The week before a team of 60 people had come down to do another VBS at Faith Bible in a different area; can you imagine if they only had 6 to 15 kids come each day? It was just another example of God working out His plan in His way. And what a blessing it was for us to spend so much time with these kids. Each day we would sing songs, have a skit, do some crafts, and play some great games. We were also able to share the gospel with them through a time of Bible teaching and through the love we showed them every minute of the day.


Tyler and I building tool boxes, where we put our "tools" like a children's bible, a prayer journal, and a gospel bracelet.


The awesome skit team, from left to right: Hammerinski,
Plierson, Wrencher, Jigsaw (who really loves jumping jacks!), and Coach Parking Lot (aka Mike) who did an awesome job preparing and leading the skits!


Our morning ralley where we sang songs, had a skit, and did our Bible teaching

The best part of the week was getting to know our kids. It was such a blessing to get to know them and to see their personalities come out over the week. These were the most respectful and fun kids I have ever met. Let me introduce you to some of them:


Monica. This was the cutist girl. The first day, when her mom came to pick her up, she exclaimed, "Mom, this is the best camp you've ever taken me to!!" Her mom replied, "Honey, this is the only camp I've ever taken you to."


D'Sean. She is possible the most athletically talented young girl I've ever met. She also was extremely giving and thoughtful. One of my personal favorites :)


Tyler. He was a bit of trouble some times, but with a bit of extra attention and positive reinforcement, we saw the best come out of him.


Robbie. This one was all smiles. And he loved to show people his "huntin' hat


James. He lived across the street, and after some coaxing joined us in the VBS fun.


Kyle. This little fella was full of energy, and while at first very shy, he became very attached to Mike.


Hadi. His family is from Syria, and while he only spent about a half hour with us before he ran home, we later learned that it was the first half-hour he had ever spent away from his mom and dad.


D'Lane. As you can tell from that smile, this was one awesome kid. He loved to play ball-tag and was always willing to help out.

When we weren't hanging out with these great kids, we were helping to prepare a site where another group would come the following week and do VBS for a different neighborhood. Also, on the fourth of July we were able to take the afternoon and night off and enjoy a great time of fellowship and fun. A family from Faith Bible, the Benoir's, invited us to a BBQ at their home complete with swimming in their pool! that was an extra special treat since it was so hot. Then that night, we traveled to downtown New Orleans to catch the fireworks and to see some of the city.


The very generous Benoir Family


New Orleans


Jess and Kim watching the fireworks.


Ohhh!


Ahhh!

To cap off the week, we held a big block party bash on Friday night at the park. Many people from the neighborhood came out and we celebrated with music, cotton candy, sno cones, and a big bouncy blow up thingy (you know what I mean). Also the kids that attended the VBS sang the songs they learned and we presented the park benches that we built and the kids painted. It was a great time to meet more people from the community, especially the families of the kids we'd been with the whole week.


The kids singing


One of the benches we built and the kids painted

As you can see, the week was an amazing blessing from God. He provided in so many ways. One of the most obvious was the weather. We had no back-up plan if it rained, so if the weather did not cooperate, VBS would be canceled. And until this point, there had been no rain for over 40 days, but the week we showed up it was suppose to rain everyday! So we prayed and we prayed and we prayed. We claimed the promise from James 5, "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. 17 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years." Relying on the righteousness that Christ has given to us, we prayed in faith and God answered. It rained everyday and nearly all the time, but never during our VBS. And on friday it was suppose to pour all night, so we prayed. not even a drop fell. It was amazing. I could write on and on, but I won't, so if you want to hear more awesome God-size stories, please grab me and ask!

I hope from what I wrote above you've gathered about 100 different things to praise God for. Some things to pray for are:

1. The seeds of the Gospel that were planted in these kids. That they would make Jesus their foundations.
2. For the encouragment and the salvation of their parents.
3. For the reconstruction effort and sustained work of the church in the Louisiana and Mississippi area.
4. For God's blessing and continued direction with Faith Bible Church.

I would like to give a huge thanks to the team for an awesome week. The unity we had was amazing and the times of fellowship and service we had together were an enourmous encouragment to me. Thank you to all those who supported us through prayer and financial giving, especially my family and Church of the Saviour. Lastly, thank you God for seeing it fit within your plan to use us in this way and for loving us so much that you sent your Son to redeem this world from destruction and death.

The Haiti Update

It's been about a month since I've returned from Haiti. In some ways it seems like eons ago, and in other ways like it was just yesterday. On this trip, I had the blessing of journeying with two other guys, Luke (right) and Matt (left). I was introduced to Luke through Crossworld. He's landscape architect student at Temple University in Ambler. Matt is a friend of mine from Church of the Saviour. He's been to Honduras a few times and is seeking where and how God wants to use him in this big world.


We left early Friday morning and a good friend drove us up to New York to catch our flight out of JFK Airport. As seen above, Luke spent most of the drive up sleeping and Matt most of the drive laughing. Although we hit some traffic on Coney Island, it was a nice drive, with some good views. That friday we flew from NY to Port-au-Prince, Haiti and then took a small "hopper" flight up to Port-de-Paix in the northern part of Haiti where we would be staying. As in my previous trips, we would be staying with Bruce and Deb Robinson, who are American missionaries serving in NW Haiti. While we were a bit worn out when we arrived in Passe Catabois, God gave us great traveling mercies and all of our travels went smoothly.

The purpose of this trip to Haiti was multi-faceted. Firstly, it was an opportunity to reunite with and encourage the friends, both missionaries and Haitians, that I met when I stayed there for six months. It was such a blessing for me to spend time with many of the people that I had previously met. The second day we were there, I had the whole day to walk around and visit people as the rest of the group was out with Bruce touring the area. I spent a good part of the morning helping Frayer August peel and open mango seeds that would then be planted in the mountains as a part of the reforesting effort. Then I walked around and talked with some people in the community. It was really good to have a day with no "program" and to just get out and meet the wonderful and hospitable Haitian people.

I was also able to return to visit the Haitian family that I previously lived with for several weekends. Matt also came with me and enjoyed and we great Haitian meal and some good porch conversations. We also were able to visit their church which is in serious disrepair; Matt and I encouraged Abdias to trust God to provide the right building for their church. Please pray that God would provide for them and that He would protect that congregation and hold up that building with His angles. Toward the end of our evening with them, Abdias went to his garden and took out a couple stalks of sugarcane for us. What a treat! Introductions of the Abdias family: the mother is Da, the father is Abdias, and their son is Abdial.

Matt, myself, and the Abdias Family


Matt and Abdial playing around


The Church at Cabaret which is in serious disrepair


Matt and I chowing on some sugar cane


On one of the Sundays we were there, Luke and I returned to the church at Moulin where I attended when I lived there. We borrowed back the scooter/motorcycle that I had before (see the post title "The Hog") and Luke put his trust in me and God as he road on the back of the moto. Hey, he only fell off once! It was an awesome blessing for Luke and I to worship with the congregation there and our presence was a great encouragement to them. Here are some pictures of our visit there.




The Moulin Congregation



Pastor Bernicks and myself


Two of the ladies in the Choir singing a song during worship.


Some of the Moulin People, also Luke is in the back right. He's the white guy ;)

Secondly, the purpose was to bring along two guys (Matt and Luke) who are seeking whether missions and community development is where God is calling them. God has blessed Bruce and Deb's ministry in amazing ways and it's a great place to see what God can do through the gifts of engineering and construction. Matt and Luke were also able to have some good talks with Bruce and draw from his wisdom and experience. On a personal note, it was awesome to go with these two guys. It got lonely when I lived there by myself for those six months. It was really a blessing for me to be able to journey with these guys and share with them a place that holds a dear place in my heart. We are even thinking about bringing another group of students/young professionals who are interested in missions down next summer. It would be a great introduction for them into how God can use community development (and them!) to transform a community. Pray that God would give us guidance as we pursue this avenue.

Lastly, I went to Haiti to set up the office there with some engineering software and to train a Haitian Engineer that was working with them. God worked in some big ways to give us this engineering software which is called AutoCAD. AutoCAD is a software that is used to design project and create detailed plans which can be used to obtain grants and to construct a project. It is a great tool and one that we needed to complete some projects and to work on some new ones. The problem is that the software costs over $5,000 per license and we needed two licenses!! Well, we applied to the AutoCAD company to receive a software donation. Shortly after we applied we received a letter stating that there were 4 reasons why our application did not meet the donation requirements and would not be approved. The primary roadblock was that groups promoting a religious faith were not eligible to receive a donation, and we were a missions organization with an expressed purpose of spreading the gospel. But after much prayer and some correspondence, we received confirmation that our application was approved and that 2 copies of the software were in the mail. WOW! God made it happen! So, I brought the software with me to Haiti and installed it on the computers there. Then I spent some time training the Haitian engineer and working on some of the engineering projects that are on-going. Now that we have this software, I have much work to finish here in the States, so please pray that I would have diligence and the time to complete the work on the water system that I started last summer. Also, the Haitian Engineer that I was training is no longer working with Bruce and Deb. Please pray that God would bring them another Haitian Engineer who is called to live and work in that area for the long term.

It was an amazing two weeks back in Haiti, and I truly appreciate your prayers and encouragement in sending me there. Below are some more pictures of what went on during that two weeks. Thank you again for sending me and thank you to God for so graciously using this feeble man in his glorious work.


Matt, Luke, and Boss Remi's team working on some plumbing


Matt and I with Gaston, Boss Aletude, and Frayer John Walter


One of the many sunrises that we got up early to watch


Luke with his new machete and the guys who made the wooden handle for the machete


Neemy (the Haitian engineer) and I hard at work in the office.


On one of our Saturday's we went to the beach for some great relaxation


The kids that live with the guard of the shop yard


One of the dams that Bruce and his guys built in order to irrigate some gardens


Matt's going to kill me for putting this picture up here ;)


more horseplay with the kids. we even played red light green light for a while!


More beautiful sunrises


On our way home we had to take a boat to cross the river to catch our plane


the three of us with Madam Chrisbon who cooked us an awesome lunch each Sunday


Matt the Crocodile Hunter


N'aweh! (see you later!)