The Church Is Under Construction!

Aloha family and friends,

The church is finally under construction!! After waiting five months for the church to clear customs and then another two weeks while we assembled a crew, we are now finally erecting the new National Foursquare Church for Haiti. It's beautiful and exciting. The congregation is thrilled and we anticipate that the new building will attract neighbors who might not otherwise come to visit. It's not that tall (only 30' to the peak) but it sticks up higher than anything else in the vicinity and just the structure itself will attract people. I know of one couple who came to our New Hope Diamond Head church in Honolulu just because they saw all the banners, tents, etc. that we set up every Sunday. They eventually committed their lives to Christ and are serving God faithfully in D.C. now! If God can use this building in Haiti like He used our tents in Honolulu, I am all for it!!

Work continues on various projects around the church property, the tent city and the community. Last week, we built some "cages" around the bananas we planted recently at the nearby tent city. Local goats were eating the bananas and they looked pretty bad. Already they are much better. Also went to the Girl's orphanage a couple times and the teams blessed them tremendously, as well as being blessed themselves. I am "Pastor Mark" to most of the children (even though I forget many of their names from week to week) and I love to visit with them as much as we can. One of the biggest problems at the girl's orphanage is security. It is so easy for outsiders to climb over the wall into the girl's compound and it's happened a few times already. Someone on a recent short term missionary team donated $ 1,500 for us to install razor wire on top of the ten foot wall around the girl's property and we are hoping to do that in early May. Razor wire is a common thing to use for security here - including around our own compound and the church property. Security is very important in Haiti as over 75 % of the population is unemployed and many are desperate for food, money or anything they feel will better their lives. At the girl's orphanage, outsiders know us Americans go in the compound all the time so they think the girls have something of value inside and attempt to get over the wall for that reason. Other "predators" want to climb the wall just because the girls are in there. Having the razor wire on the wall will greatly reduce that threat to their safety.

Today I am headed to Florida to visit my daughter, grand kids and mom for a week. Haiti requires that US citizens leave the country every three months - so this is my time. I will return to Haiti next week. I just left and I miss it already. (Although I also miss my friends and family outside of Haiti too - Guess I'm just sentimental !) Our next short term missionary team arrives Wednesday the 27th and the Foursquare Haiti National Convention starts on the 29th. Still lots to do to get ready for that team and the convention, but Aaron, Jara and Craig will handle it well.

God bless you all!

Mark

Here's where the church building construction stands as of today. Another team of steel workers arrives at the end of the month and we hope to finish the building in May. What a blessing the new building will be to the church and local community ! Besides church services, we will have Bible studies, prayer meetings, school for the local children, medical clinics for the community and so much more.

Putting up the structural steel columns of the new church - by HAND !! When you don't have the right equipment in Haiti, you get "resourceful" !!

The existing church works great, but when we move into the new one - what a change it will be!!

Some of the girl's we want to protect with the new razor wire on top of their perimeter wall. Cute huh ?! This tent is the girl's dining room, meeting room and sometimes school room for the younger children