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We want to wish you a wonderful year 2012 filled with the Lord's blessings. We would like to encourage you with the verse in Psalm 37, verse 4: "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart!" We've experienced this many times and the Lord has always been faithful. Here's a little bit of what we've done in December and January.
Our Leadership Training
Carl went to do a Leadership Seminar in Cap Haitian. Here is one of the estimonies we received regarding the leadership training:
My name is Emmanuel Olizard, I consider myself young, but God has called me to the ministry and has entrusted me a big responsibility. I am responsible for two churches in the North part of Haiti (Limbe and Pisgah) and God has started to use me to accomplish His purpose for His kingdom in those two areas. Whenever I have an opportunity to go to a seminar, it’s like a blessing from heaven. This was my second time in this leadership seminar. The first time was so beneficial that I decided not to miss this one. We had a few very difficult leadership issues in our two churches, one of them was the unwillingness of the church members to follow through with their membership responsibilities. After the first seminar, I gathered them and did a training session for them. This opened their eyes on biblical truths they never considered before. Now, our members are very involved in the church ministries. In the other church (Limbe), we had a lot of family issues. So we gathered the families and did a training session for them. Now we are rejoicing in seing families starting to reap blessings from the seminar. We thank the Lord for this initiative which has already brought a lot of fruit.
Besides the Cap-Haitian seminar, Carl participated in an NGO Summit at Dan & Joy (our field directors) and he also attended (partly) a Leadership Discussion led by Pastor Buddy, South Carolina district superintendant.
The month of January was quite busy for Carl. He had three seminars to do and will attend the international Conference of the Wesleyan church in Panama. One of these three seminar is (#6), which is the last seminar for World Relief group. In March we are planning a grandiose Graduating Ceremony to celebrate our first batch of trained leaders. We can't tell you how excited we are!
This month, we also received the visit of Pastor Jim Agrell (pastor of Kings Valley - friend of ours) and Jayme Hall (pastor and founder of outflow ministry). They are spending a couple of weeks with Carl. Pastor Jim is taking a month sabbatical and decided to come see our ministry in Haiti. He has also helped Carl teach a few seminars. He & Jayme will be involved in the Children's Program in Babaco this coming Sunday.
Finally, Carl changed the format of his seminars. He now teaches 3 days as opposed to 2 days seminar. The extra day allows more time for questions and to prepare what we call "a plan to change". On a big piece of paper, each person writes a plan of one thing they will change when they go back home. Then we take a picture of each person with their plan so that we can do follow up on them during the next seminar. Our leaders are very excited about this new initiative.
Our Building of the Babaco Community
Update on the school
Carl has been leaving the house at 6am a lot of mornings to supervise the Haitian crew that is working on finishing the school in Babaco. They are progressing well. Our goal is by 2013, Compassion Haiti will be able to support many children in that school. Please help us pray that we will reach this goal.
Shoes for the children
Robert emailed me in October to ask me if he and two friends could come and help us out for a couple days. I quickly said:"Of course! Babaco is waiting for you!" A few days prior this email Mme St-Fab (pastor's wife) told us that many kids could not come to church because they had no shoes, so i told him that if he has access tshoes, that would be good. A few weeks after, he emailed me back to say that he had 445 pair of shoes donated! What an answer to prayer! The kids received shoes on the 23rd as well as a "surprise bag" that Moncton Wesleyan had prepared for them.
Briana
I received an email from Briana's mom not too long ago to tell me that Bri did not want any Christmas gifts this year. Instead, she decided that all gifts should be sent to the Joseph Feeding Program. I could not help but think how selfless of a 12 years old girl to choose to give her gifts to another child. What a model for us to follow! Because of Bri, many children will have a hot meal!
Christmas Offering
Our Home Church - Moncton Wesleyan, decided that part of their Christmas offering will go towards paying for a qualified teacher for the Babaco School. We are so proud of being part of such a generous congregation. Thank you Moncton Wesleyan and may God continue to give you abundantly so you can give to others!
God gave to us ... not to live abundantly but so we can increase our giving.
- Safety in the Christmas Season. Usually, around that time, criminality increases in PAP. We praise the God that kept us safe!
- Bethsaina was able to travel with us. Our lawyer said that Bethsaina will most likely not be able to travel this time since she did not have the required Government paper (again!). God showed us differently as He opened all the doors, one more time!
- Family -my (Maya's) family has been spending a lot of time with the girls since our arrival. It is nice to count on them!
- Carl almost drowned when he went swimming on his way to his Bainet Seminar. A current took him (and his two friends). Thankfully, God had put the right people near the beach so they could save them. A few seconds more and I would have lost my husband. God is good! He saved him.
Prayer Requests
- Opportunities to teach seminars on the the Radio - for free!
- Opportunities in training school teachers so they can teach their students (Grade 10-12) the Equip Curriculum.
- Safety! Please pray that the Lord will keep Carl safe as he travels all over Haiti, Panama & Canada.
- New and renewed Faith Promises - Please continue to give generously!
- Maya's end of pregnancy & delivery (Aaliyah is expected on February 7th) ONLY 2 WEEKS TO GO!
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