Monday is our last full day of prayer.  And we filled this day with it!

We began shortly after 8 a.m. when we joined the Ministry Center staff for devotions. They led the singing and Gary led the scripture reading and reflection. Here we are, filling the tables with folks!

After we were done, we gathered the staff for a picture on the steps of the Ministry Center.

After the picture,most of the people went to work and we stayed with Pastor Romulus and staff of the Haitian Christian Reformed Church. After explaining a bit about the Haitian Christian Reformed Church, we broke into prayer for the individuals and then we gathered all of them, surrounded them with our prayers for unity in the ECRH.

When we completed our prayer here, we spoke with the staff of PRIHA, which stands for Perspectives Reformed in Haiti. It is the ministry connected with Back to God Ministries which communicates the Gospel by radio and other media. They have 36 radio stations in Haiti that run their programs without any monetary compensation. Through those programs, they have signed up 4,000 Haitians for correspondence Bible Study courses. They just had a graduation ceremony this last Saturday, but we were not able to attend it.

We prayed for their staff of five people, inviting the power and presence of God to bless them.

This prayer took us well past lunch time, so after a lunch and a short break, it was off to pray for Pastor Lemente and MDK, a development organization housed at the ministry center.

Finally we prayed for PWOFOD (too many initials, in another language, we all get lost!) But we aren't lost when it comes to the Lord's love and care for those working in  his kingdom. Samuel is the director of PWOFOD and during the earthquake, their building was totally destroyed. Their ministry, however, has grown. So there is need for prayer for Samuel as the leader and we prayed for that. We also prayed for Chenet, anointed him with oil for the presence and power of the Spirit of God to fill him and meet the needs of his work and family.

Then we had a break and dinner and then a prayer time with the support staff at the ministry center. Here we are praying for Margaret, our cook and her son who also helps around the ministry center with various other responsibilities. We prayed for six staff members at this time.

Then we had a worship time, Eleanor taking her turn at leading worship. Joining us tonight,as they have done several other times, was a construction team from Ontario. We shared the rooms with them and some meals and lots of conversation as well. It was our privilege to pray for them before we left.

 From the left, Joe, Gertie, John and Jerry. Great guys and Gertie!

We closed the evening with prayer for Jean and for Jon.

And a closing benediction.

Tomorrow, six people leave at 7 a.m. three at 11:30 and two stay. There is one more spot who wants us to come and pray with them in the morning, but this will be the last of the trip diary.

It was a marvelous team and we all marvel at the greatness and generosity of our God who brought us together. We have learned from each other, prayed with each other and for each other and we have certainly grown in love for each other. We thank God and carry these many people and the nation of Haiti in our hearts.

We began Sunday with Evelyn sharing in our devotions about rest and the different sorts of rest God has for us. This Sunday was quite a restful day.

We split up for church. Most of us went to Quisqeya Chapel where we had prayed earlier in the week. Besides, it was at QC where the Messiah sing was going to happen right after church. We don't have any pictures of the QC worship service.

But Jon (me) and Gary went to the Reformed Presbyterian Church which is connected with the Adoration Children's Center which we also visited earlier in the week. I brought the message there with Pastor Octavius translating. What do you know, the message was on prayer! But it was God's timing because they were beginning a month of prayer and fasting and every day forthe next month they are having a prayer service at 6 a.m.

Pastor Octavius leading the worship.

Pastor Jon preaching with Pastor O.

It's about passion in prayer!

After the worship services were complete, we met together for the Messiah Performance at Quisqueya Chapel. Our own Jenny LeMahieu was one of the sopranos. You may not be able to pick her out, but she is there!

When the Messiah was done, we split up again, this time the four folks from Montana went for dinner with the VanDams, who are supported by the Montana Bethel Church. They had a great time of fellowship.

The rest of us went to Jenny's were we too, had wonderful conversation and a delicious meal. It was good to be together. Then, a ride through the PAP evening where the streets were pretty clear, and back to the ministry center to prepare for tomorrow.

We began the day with devotions and prayer for a couple of us. Then it was off to St. Vincents again and the International Day for the Handicapped.

We have been to St. Vincent's before and several of us on the team have had previous connections with Father Sadoni Leon. St. Vincents is run by the Episcopal Church and so the morning began with a celebration of mass led by Bishop Duracin.

Because it was a celebration of the Day for the Handicapped, several students from St. Vincents participated in the ceremony.

A blind girl reading a braille passage.

Blind and handicapped girls singing.

When it was all said and done, we were ushered into another room full of Haitian delicacies!

Although this food seemed to be mostly for the guests and some adults, don't worry about the rest. Their food was brought in by the truckload!

When the food was done, we mingled with the people, praying for those with special needs and experiencing the compassion of the Lord in our hearts for these special kids. Here are just a few pictures.

One special person at St. Vincents is JoJo. JoJo lost both his legs and both his arms. In the earthquake, all his prosthethic limbs were destroyed. But not JoJo's spirit.  JoJo paints with his mouth and with a brush attached to one of his stubs of arms. Here is JoJo and one of his many paintings.

Leaving St. Vincents, which is center city PAP, we traveed up the hill toward Quisqeya Christian School where they were having a Christmas Craft Bazaar and other opportunities for people to spend their money. So we helped them out! There were a lot of purple QCS t-shirts around.

Jenny was singing in the 4p.m. Messiah Concert at Quisqueya so the rest of us meandered back to the ministry center. We had a pizza dinner and then "hung loose" for an evening of fellowship.

Tomorrow is the Lord's Day and we will be separating to different churches to remember Him and worship our Lord. May your day be blest where ever you worship.

As we try to begin every day, we started out today with devotions together on the back upstairs porch. Jim House received some our concentrated prayer this morning.

Let's start this daily dairy with a revised picture of our team.

Here we are! First row is Jean LeMahieu, Gary Wybenga, George DenHartigh and Eleanor DenHartigh. The second row is Tim LeMahieu, Evelyn Huttinga, Jenny LeMahieu, Jon DeBruyn and Jim House. The top row is Leah Chandler, our new team member, and Melody Melzer. We also lost Katie Wiersma.

We had a powerful time of prayer at  Quisqueya Chapel praying for Pastor  Bobby Boyer and Howard and Ruth VanDam. The Spirit of the Lord was right there energizing our prayers and refreshing and empowering each other.

After this prayer time we had prayer for their staff, and here too, we were encouraged by the Lord providing verses from his Word that spoke powerfully to us.

From here we traveled to a Transition House for boys as they need to move out of a boys home and begin to learn a trade or even just what it means to work. David is the leader of the house and he told us of their vision and the need and we had a wonderful time of prayer with him and the boys.

Lunch was wonderful at CRECH. Sorry, I can't really help with the meaing of the word/letters because it is in Creole. But we know what it works at: providing Christian curriculum for the many private Christian schools in Haiti. Presently there are 405 schools in their consortium. We had a tour, a lunch, an explanation and a wonderful time of prayer, us for them and all of us together.

From here we traveled to a ministry of the Presbyterian Reformed Church where we arrived as the youth from their school were completing of Bible study on prayer. Here we divided up into groups of about 8-10, with two our team members with each group. The ministry has the Adoration School connected with the church. They had a tremendous testimony of God's care in the earthquake!

But then we had the fun adventure of the day. This was only for the strong of back. Because a ride through the streets of Haiti is not easy without some cushion! But boy, did we have the taptap (the Haitian taxi) experience! New smells were esepcially available to us here!

It was steak night at the ministry center. Then a time of debriefing and to bed preparing for another full, but different day tomorrow!

Haiti has one thing that most Americans miss: a special alarm clock!

For all of you who have traveled to Haiti, you understand. If you haven't, we could tell you one thing you wouldn't miss, roosters!

We got up early to leave to Leogane in an effort to miss traffic problems. We had a good trip out to Leogane, the epicenter of the earthquake and the epicenter of CRWRC (Christian Reformed World Relief Committee) earthquake relief effort.

We were eager to hear of the work and Suzette, Ken, Jeff and Willys filled us in on the details.

Suzette was really our guide for the day.

Ken is CRWRC international Relief Director from Burlington, Canada.

Jeff is from the Philippines and directs the long term development work in several communities around Leogane.

 We had opportunity to pray for each of these people in various situations. Here we are praying for Suzetter and her husband Willys, who is the program director.

Now for a bit about what CRWRC is doing in the Leogane area. There primary relief work is providing/help put up affordable, sustainable housing for the Leogane area. Although there is much greater need than they can meet, they have still made a significant difference by helping provide and build 2400 houses for the most needy people in the area.

 What they do is put together a group of wood wall panels, roof trusses, plywood and tin. The people who receive the houses have to help put them up and paint them and various other contributions to the cause. Plus they provide family latrines and showers. Here are some pictures of their work.

 A finished house, from the rea, with shower and latrine.

From here we went to a CRECH school and visited and prayed around the buildings. Since this was in Leogane too, most of the school had been destroyed. But the children were still there and full of life and beauty!

 A school room.

And some delightful kids!!

Thanks for your prayers for us all!

Here we go! our team is almost set. We are gaining one more person on Wednesday night, Leah. We will introduce her later.

Here is our first team shot. It is not a great shot, but will allow us to introduce the team to all who are reading this and wondering who is on this team. We do hope to add another later, in the sunlight, of which we have plenty. This was taken Tuesday night.

From the left, Jean, Tim and Jenny LeMahieu, Gary Wybenga, George DenHartigh, Jon DeBruyn, Jim House, Katie Wiersma, Eleanor Den Hartigh, Melody Melzer and Evelyn Huttinga.

We had a good orientation on Tuesday night from Jenny and Jon and a good night's sleep.

Breakfast started at 6:30 am and we were all up and ready! We should add there is a team of five people from Canada who are joining a bunch of Haitians working on the ministry center where we are staying. So that makes the meals more interesting!

 Not all there yet, but this is our table.

We began the morning heading to STEP which stands for a baptist seminary that is a partner organization with Sous Espwa, the CRC mission arm in Haiti. They lost there main administration and classroom building in the earthquake and had 4,000 people staying/living on their grounds.

We had a wonderful conversation with the president of the seminary, John Dorlus, a Haitian trained in Western Pacific Seminary in Portland. He is a great man of God and a delight to talk with and he had to leave so we didn't get a picture of him. But we did have a wonderful time of prayer for him and the seminary. We also prayed for at least six other individuals as a group and while we were waiting for lunch and wandering around and prayer walking the grounds, we had opportunities to meet and pray with some of the students.

From the seminary we headed downtown to St. Vincents, a school for handicapped children in PAP. Of course we have many sights on the way. On of the picturesque scenes is the city and the bay.

Father Sadoni Leon is the director of St. Vincents. Sadoni also works with the Haitian Dunamis and has become a great friend of Gary, Jenny and Jon through that process. It was good to see him again and St. Vincents.

Much of St. Vincents, as we knew it before, was destroyed in the earthquake. So before we take a tour of the new facilities, Sadoni explained a bit of what they do.

When we were done, we had a bad traffic ride back to the ministry center. Tonight we have devotions, introduction of Leah, and debriefing. Tomorrow we leave at 7 a.m. for Leogane, the epicenter of the quake and the main focus of CRWRC reconstruction work.

The day started with waiting! The Spirit airline flight was delayed out of Fort Lauderdale and then came into PAP about the same time as a New York flight. So a crowded terminal in PAP and a waiting for the DenHartigs, House and Huttinga to arrive.

We had a little shade but the team has to take a long walk before they can meet their ride. Finally they empty into a parking lot/waiting area. We wait.

We don't have  a picture of us in the vehicle, but we did drive over to the Sous Espwa offices for lunch and some prayer with the staff. We shared lunch and some organizational prayer requests and we prayed for those as a group. Then we split up and prayed in smaller groups with the staff as they needed. Great time of prayer.

Sous Espwa office staff with our team.

Now back to the Ministry Center and waiting for the last two members of our team to join us. Then dinner and a time of orientation. Pictures coming!

Some are traveling today! The four members of our prayer team from Manhattan, Montana are in the air, headed from Bozeman to Fort Lauderdale today. Tomorrow they arrive in PAP.

Tonight, Jenny is having a party here at the house, in honor of her parents, I think. Anyway, we get to enjoy the good food and "thanksgiving" celebration.r

As you read this, please seek the Lord for blessing on our team, that they may arrive in health and safely and timely, that we may get along and learn from each other and that we may build the Kingdom of God in Haiti through our prayers.

Tomorrow, hopefully,  a picture of our team.

It is always a privilege to be with men and women who are dedicated to the kingdom of God growing around the world.  Such is the situation when you are at a spiritual retreat for missionaries. When you then are called to lead them to a deeper walk with Christ, it is humbling to strive to encourage and teach. At the same time, God has taught and led to understandings that are to be shared. So let me tell you a bit about our time together.

Tim and Jean LeMahieu and I flew into Port au Prince on Wednesday afternoon. Early the next morning we were off to the Haiti-Dominican border in an effort to beat the rush. We didn't make it! The rush beat us. There were three cars and we hung around the border crossing trying to get through all the paperwork and immense traffic jam for five hours! Yes, you heard me right! It was extremely stressful.

Here we are at the beginning of the line.

But we did make it about two hours east of the border to the Barahona area of DR and the Hotel Quemaito.

And then there are the sunrises!

We met for our sessions in an open thatch roof meeting area, long and narrow. We began our sessions with worship with everyone. Then the youth, chiildren and babies went off in special groups and the adults had their sessions.

Our meeting area:

Worship:

Teaching:

 Of course it wasn't all study! Afternoons were free for swimming in the pool or ocean, napping or talking or takng a walk. Meal tiimewas wonderful!

Sunday morning was special worship with communion and then we scattered around the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The trip back was much better.

But now it is time for bed! The Haiti Prayer Mission Trip begins Tuesday!

Worshipping God goes on all the time when we are on a prayer mission trip! But it is also very meaningful to worship God after praying and sharing with God all week. But not being able to understand most of the words in the service, makes the worship much more prayed for, rather than just received.

Sunday worship began at 12 noon! But before that, we gathered on the roof of one of the church buildings to pray for the church, the service and the community.

This is the Gethsemani Church in Xochimilco on the southern edge of Mexico City. It was the church's anniversary so there was plenty of people there. We also celebrated an adult baptism, two children being baptized, a profession of faith and the Lord's Supper. Dave Gifford preached the message and we sang, prayed and danced in the more than two and a half hour service. Then a great meal with a lot of fellowship.

Pastor Odon is a new graduate of the seminary and we prayed for his great blessing in this church's growth in the Spirit and its community ministry.

I had a great time with little Ruth who was so eager to give me kisses! God bless this wonderful girl and use her in your kingdom!

Later in the afternoon we took a ride on the gondola boats on the canals of Mexico City. It was a relaxing time. We enjoyed some music and shopping from the variety of boats on the canals.

Last Monday - A Trip to Cuernavarca

This was a special day as we traveled out of Mexico City, south to the city of Cuernavarca. We climbed over a 9,000 foot pass and then down to Cuernavarca where we met with Abraham and Elaine Lee, Christian Reformed World Missionaries. Abe and Elaine shared their ministry with us and we prayed for the Lord's blessing upon them and their family and work.

We also had the privilege of praying for a Mexican missionary to the Muslim world. He was recently expelled from Morocco and shared with us his situation and we were privileged to seek the Lord for a rich blessing and for direction and provision as he looks to continue his ministry in a different setting.

Above we are praying for Pastor Hector at the El Nazareno Reformed Presbyterian Church and we prayed for a short while around the church building.

From Pastor Hector, we headed out of town to a new church plant at Puente de Ixtla and Pastor Jose Ocampo. We met Jose and we were brining along with us a bunch of candy for a young girl in the new church plant who is starting a candy selling business. So we brought the candy and met her at her unique house, one half of an old box car. Here is a picture of the young girl and some brother/sisters/neighbors. Please pray for her that God would bless her as she works and learns.

We stopped by another family to pray for a woman and her family. She too is a part of the new church plant. She shared a new fruit with us. Interesting!

Then we headed to the property for the new church. It has been purchased and all is set, but the final paper work isn't quite complete. So we went to property, walked around it, and prayed to bless it. Here Carlito is joining me in laying hands on the ground and blessing it.

Then we met with neighbors across the street who are preparing for the new church community. They shared some wonderful rice with us and we prayed for them all!

The final picture above is Pastor Jose Ocampo's family, his wife daughter and grandaughter. We prayed for him and he blessed us by praying for us, AND, buying us wonderful ice cream!

That evening we were blessed with a final meal at the Giffords and had a wonderful time of prayer with their family and finally with Dave and Blanca Gifford. A nights sleep and we were off back to our Grand Rapids starting place.

Thanks to God for his great protection and the tremendous privilege of praying for his wonderful servants in Mexico City!