April

                               APRIL

Well we ended our 2 week crusade and 371 people came forward to accept Christ and receive discipling in the future.  This was very exciting to do right before Easter in these tent cities.  One new village doesn't have a church with in 3 miles of it in any direction and if they can get land we would like to build a church there as they need one where they can walk to it since no one has cars. There were 16 in this village that received Christ.

We are still working on our local church here in Titanyen and hope it maybe close to being done around the end of the year, as it is a very large church.  The old church sanctuary holds 1000 people and is over flowing every sunday, this building and others on the property will be turned into a seminary to train up new pastors in Haiti, which is very exciting and very needed!

I spent a few weeks doing maintence on the well machine that I have been able to use. Last week I started back drilling to find water at the new church. I drilled one hole just 50 feet away from a well that gets pumped 24 hours a day by hand and hit no water (295') deep.  Wow thought for sure we would hit some. I started a new hole Monday and haven't hit water yet, you can be so close but not in the water. Please keep praying for safety, wisdom and God's discernment on where to drill. (We hit water at 250' Wednesday!!!! This will bless our church, seminary, and 3 different schools on the property!!!)

Kristie and the kids caught a caterpillar last week and fed it until it made a cocoon then about 14 days later they watched it hatch out, they are learning so much being home schooled here in Haiti, and learning how to pray and watching God answer the prayers in different ways.

It is starting to get hotter, seems the house is around 96 degrees inside each evening, it wipes you out, and I drink about a gallon of Gatorade a day working in this.  We are so blessed to have cold water and Gatorade to drink daily as most of this country has to work so hard just to get a drink of water from a well some where.

Ellie's been having a hard time reading from a distance of 5' or more (we knew that she would need glasses in the future but the need came sooner than expected) and I knew we needed to take care of this, we prayed and went to a church close to where we thought an eye doctor lives and he was the leader of the church!  PTL!  We took the 1 hour trip back up the road to see him the next day and got Ellie's exam at their mission and glasses also.  So thankful for New Vision ministries help for Ellie.

Its only April and its already 96 in the house!

Ellie getting a eye exam one hour up the road by a mission who is a eye doctor as shes having trouble reading from a distance. Couldn't get the power to work in the building so he put a box under her so she would be tall enough for the exam

Ellie's first set of glasses! Thanks to New Vision ministries

Our workers have planted acres of garden but it hasn't rained in a while and over 100 every day, the kids are helping them carry water to water some of the plants to keep them alive

Xander's a big help in getting the well machinery repaired and ready for Nicky to drill







Nicky drilled for 3 days before they finally hit good water.   They were drilling behind one of our schools, right beside a well that had could not be repaired







Getting ready to start drilling on the other side of TiTanyen.



PRAYERS

• For our safety and health
• For our visa's
• For a tow-able boom lift
• For our declining support
• That we keep taking time to learn Creole

PRAISES

Great crusade with 371 saved
We got Ellie glasses here in the country for free

Crusade Time

                                                CRUSADE TIME

We have an evangelist here for 2 weeks doing crusades and preaching multiple times a day in different tent cities and churches.  This week Nicky has been working hard working his normal duties on the compound and having the crusade in the evening wearing him out, but to see over 200 who came to Christ the first week, we keep pressing on.

We have stopped our well drilling and things that might pull our focus and prayers from the crusade, so we can spread God's word, as we have been working the ground before the evangelist got here in tent cities where we drilled wells.

The kids have got into a routine with home school now, and that is a blessing. We have seen 3 families in the past 2 months who have left Haiti to get their kids schooling back on track as the mission field especially in Haiti draws the parents to compromise on family priorities and get burned out and kids schooling get behind.

 I want to run this race as a marathon and not sprint ahead and loose focus of what our main goal is in raising our kids. God has allowed it to take 12 years for us to get to Haiti, full time, and in that has shown us how we need to have the prayer support and finical support to not be so over whelmed by many things pulling us away from ministry.

It is a full time job raising support to do ministry on the field as no one passes the plate for most missionaries each week, its many individuals giving to allow us to do our part in making disciples here. It would be a blessing to have individuals to help us get our support up to 100% by sharing us with others, doing a fund raiser each year, yard sale, car wash, walks for water, water grants, these all add up to Kingdom building and souls saved here, we can only drill wells when we have the funds to do it as is with all our ministries. Please pray and ask God how you may help with this. If your reading this you are probably already doing this because your invested in our lives and ministry. MANY TIMES IT FEELS AS IF WE HAVE HUNDREDS PRAYING FOR SOMEONE ELSE TO HELP US.

We thank you all for your prayers and support!



 This a link to a video of our crusade ( a 40 second clip)

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=488242391238098&l=970898086956102441

Xander holding a boy at the crusade

Kristie and Ellie holding kids, Ellie has a big audience



                                    Look who else is reaching out to people, but they don't have the truth! Have you shared Christ's love with someone today?  Others are out there sharing love but it doesn't lead to Heaven! This is a tarp on a tent by one of the wells we drilled 2 weeks ago.

This is at a Croatian orphanage where we drilled a well, they had 3 hand dug wells with the water in them at the surface of the ground, also 3 septic systems right by the wells like in the picture behind here polluting the wells, resulting in many sick.

This is becoming Xander and his Haitian friends past time when they have free time. Chicken hunting, (they catch them alive) this chicken went to one of our workers. We have a flock of chickens running around on the compound that will not leave so the kids are slowly helping out, but they multiply quickly, at least our workers are enjoying feeding their families with them.

 PRAISES
Safety and health
Had a great turn out for our crusade and 147 came to Christ in the tent cities where we drilled 2 wells 2 weeks ago
After 4 months we got a chance to get away as a family for 2 nights at a beach 1 hr away


PRAYER REQUEST
That we keep our family close and time with our kids
Health and safety
For a towable boom lift to do high work
For our support as it has fallen since we came to Haiti
For reliable affordable internet

Drilling for clean water

   We have had a busy few weeks with teams and drilling. For two weeks we had a three men here to change an engine on a well machine.  Nicky helped them change it and make other needed repairs. They hadn't planned on drilling but finished the repairs on the rig sooner than planned.

 Well drilling for clean water is a big need here in Haiti.  The list for those that want a well is long but having people to drill the wells and funding is the problem.  This was such a blessing for these guys to be here.   They spent time with Nicky showing him how to run the machine, about the formations and problems that could happen and thankfully they had problems for him to learn by while they were here.
 
    It's great to have a rotary machine to drill with (this machine is faster) along with our cable tool machine (our Haitian crew drills with). In a near by tent city both machines had drilled dry holes, these people were having to walk at least 2 miles either way to get water. Most of the land tent cities occupy are open land on the sides of the mountains with no wells anywhere.

Nicky tried a 4th well in between the dry holes and hit good water for the community.
Two of the wells are located in a tent city where a crusade will take place starting
Sunday.  As we gave them clean water now we can share with them the living water.  Please pray for the ground to be prepared as the seeds are sown over the next two weeks as an evangelist comes to share the gospel.


PRAYER REQUESTS:
We have an evangelist here doing a week long crusade near on of the recent wells.
For good internet
For our visas
Towable boom lift

PRAISES:
Nicky started drilling wells after a well driller spent 2 weeks with Nicky teaching him to use a rotary machine they are allowing him to use
Kids are settling into a good routine in school as Kristie teaches them








Praise God for water! Lots of water being sprayed out of this hole.

Hit good water!

Cleaning a well with the air compressor to get the mud and cuttings out!

A base being poured on a new well!

                     Last day of language class


We have had our last week of language classes and now its time to put it into practice and keep learning more words. Kristie has excelled in learning creole. This class gave us a chance to learn the rules of the language how to speak and the sounds.

We had a chance to go to a prayer luncheon last wed with 16 other ministries and got inspired to pray more specific for our ministries, country and world. Met some ministries like one who has a goal of sending 70 Haitian missionaries out of Haiti by 2017 to french speaking countries, and another ones translating the Bible into creole in a easier to read version and so on. Haiti broilers put the luncheon on and will keep this going every 2 weeks, this company is out of Jamaica and the company has values like Chick-fil-a in the states. They give back a lot to missions and have some great setups for orphanages or ministries or communities to set up coups and sell eggs or broilers at 6 weeks old to help support ministries or individuals. The plant happens to be across the street from our place, well 2 miles away.

We had a youth conference for the last week giving 200 youth a safe place to learn and worship Christ while the mardigras carnival went on.

We have a group or well drillers here to repair a rig, put a engine in one and maybe get a few wells drilled in the next couple of weeks.

We also have 2 teams coming over the next 2 weeks. One is 2 families that have 12 people between them to help out then a team from Virgina the next week to help here on the compound. Our youth camp the Brumleys run here is finishing toilets to go with the youth worship building that was left on site by another disaster relief ministry. 2 guys dug the hole 28 feet deep for it. I think it was 10' wide by 8 feet, one big deep hole.

For the last month a couple Tom and Rachel Lambert who are praying where the Lord would send them on the mission field have been serving here and will for the next month are a huge blessing everyday with keeping the behind the scenes work done.


                           Prayer request

For us to keep learning the language
For good Internet
For a towable boom lift to safely work on lights, high painting and church building
For us to take some quality family time here
For more communications in our ministries (phones and Internet don't always work here)

              Praises
Formal language classes are finished
Had a great youth conference

Praise we got the rest of our stuff out of customs Tuesday!
We have had some busy weeks with teams back to back, one that led a pastors conference and bible school one week and a team last week that worked behind the scenes here fixing many things from computers to hydraulic cylinders on trucks, repaired wells and so on helping us get some much needed things done so our ministries keep going on the front line.  We also had a mechanic from another ministry stay a week before he went out for 2 weeks to another location helping us on some vehicle repair. Still have lots of that to do so come on down and help us if you can!
This is such a diverse ministry that we really need all talents that God has given everyone, from accounting to computers to mechanic to plumbing to electricians to well drillers to people just willing to help in between allowing us to share with others and to make disciples in this nation.  We finally got our computer we do news letters on fixed by this team and have one coming out soon. 



Prayer request
We have a week long youth conference in a week
We have a big crusade we are doing for 2 weeks early in March
Keep praying for us to find the right Internet
For our support to get to 100%  we are at 76%
For a tow able boom lift to safely do repair work and church building
To be able to finish our Visas

 

 

 

 

 

2 young men building a swing set for a church and school they support beside the dump just outside of Port a Prince where they scavenge thru the dump for plastic to sale, this will be a great blessing to those who have nothing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a picture of the church our supporters are helping build!

 

 

 

 

 

This was the 80 pastors who finished a John Maxwell leadership conference

Crickets, fire, and language

No spell check or review of this so just read the best you can

We had 2 weeks our workers were off and this allowed us to get our porch screened in and fix up with stuff we brought in from the USA and build some counters, shelves for our office/ homeschool room and a table for the dinning room and most of those matelrials were donated PTL. We also had a 2 conferences during this weeks. Didnt seem much like hoilday time but we are thankful to have alot done as January is a busy month with back to back teams conferences, guest housing, well drilling,  church building and mantinece.

We just got a opportunity to take a language class at a compound close by which we thought we never would get the opportunity. It is from 1 to 5 every day for 5 weeks we believe. We spend 2 to 3 hours a day also reveiwing the class work. For anyone that knows Nicky he doesnt enjoy school and would rather be out fixing and working instead of this but is determined to learn the language to give the Lord more opportunity to serve him here. Kristie is doing great in the class like usual.

We had a big fire Sunday and wernt ready for it. We usuallyhave plowed a 30' fire break around our property but just hadnt done it yet this year. So Nicky got on the tractor and started plowing infront of the fire and the smoke was so bad u couldnt see him but he was determined to keep it from burning the compound the tractor have 5 plows behind it and after many trips. Back and forth with fire jumping up to 200 yards. The old fire truck that was donated helped put out the hot spots and keep another fire on the lower side of the property away. Chris Brumley run many loads keeping that fire away and then we put out the last of the hot spots and only lost 15 acres to the fire that burned over 1000 acres in a few hours. People burn off there farm plots and it gets out of control and some try to burn off the evil spirits also.

Also we have been inidated with so many crickets jumping into the house when we open the door. Its a daily chore cleaning up the crickets that have been smushed.

No picture this time as we have no internet that works right now and we used our phone for this.

Prayer request
Pray for us to learn much of the language in class and stay focused on it
Pray we get our UTV out of customs with a reduced rate
Pray we. Get good internet soon. Just none in the area.

Praises
We get to take this language class
No one or anything was damaged in the fire
Got alot of the house fixed up
Kids are doing good

Getting ready for Christmas Celebration!

We have had another big week working to get our container off the chassis and where it will be our storage place for many years. Friday I called a crane service and found the best price and did, a friend had recommended them. I had to go pay them Friday before they would come Monday. Nicky spent from 11 am till 4 pm looking for the business and never found it and called for directions and no one would ever answer. Called them Sunday and they said they would send it and we could write a check. The crane got there by 10:30 and a semi truck came to move it into place, when the trailer they were hauling unhooked to hook up ours the trailer collapsed to the ground. They moved our container into place and the big crane was scared to lift the empty container off the chassis, the cranes winch wasn't working right. So I called the company and told the the driver wouldn't lift it off he told them to come back and get another crane and be come back, they didn't make it back. Mean while the container that fell the owners worked all day trying to jack it up to put it on the truck but never could. Crane came back Tuesday and lifted ours off and slowly into place and the semi pulled the chassis out of the way and parked the truck on a hill and walked away. I went to show them where to park the chassis and the tractor and chassis start rolling away fast but no ones in it so I run and jump in it and found the brake and got it stopped. Equipment is wore out in the USA then shipped to Haiti instead of being sold for scrap metal evidently. We then set 20 24' trusses on the church we are helping the community to build. It was the same price to rent the crane for 1 hour or all day.
We've spent a lot of the rest of the week putting stuff together and sorting out what goes where and loading extra into the container for storage and getting tools straightened out in the shop.

We got a call Thursday that customs is charging almost 100% for our UTV and trailer. We can't pay that kind of money and wont. We are asking everyone to pray God will move and reduce this to a acceptable amount so we can use these tools for work on the compound and well ministry as Nicky's work vehicle.

Saturday morning Nicky lifted the doors for the youth worship building, huge metal doors. We have our first activities Christmas eve from 2pm till 6 AM Christmas day with a big meal at midnight and the youth dress up for that. Exciting for them to have this place to be blessed and hear the Gospel at. These youth are from the local churches. The youth program is called Camp Barnabas here at Global Outreach Haiti.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kids like hanging on Nicky

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kids handing out gift back packs full of goodies

 

 

 

 

Trusses we set at our church in TiTanyen 1/2 mile away from the compound

 

 

 

 

 

Our youth leaders helping move the big doors to lift them up

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nicky lifting the doors into place



PRAYERS

Pray that God would move and drasticaly reduce the price to get our UTV out of customs
For the youth Christmas celebration Christmas eve
For a towable boom lift to be donated


PRAISES

Our container is in place and loaded with our extra items for the future
We are getting our house in ourder slowly (painting and screening the porch and puting stuff where it goes
Getting to use our donated tools has made nickys work alot quicker and easier. THANKS