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
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 Many of you won't know this, but I was able to talk to a ton of people last Sunday at New Hope Diamond Head via skype while they were in church. What a blessing to see so many people !! Thanks to Lei Rol for setting it up and for all those who stopped by to say hello !
The Lord continues to bless the work here and we are always excited about what God is doing. Over the past couple months we have made a strong connection to the tent city close by our church. The community leader, John, has become a good friend and we are always glad to see each other. A team from Canada was here recently and one of the ladies on the team spent a lot of time talking to John about the Lord through an interpreter. Up til now John has been nice and willing to work with us, but not too open to the gospel, at least not until Canada hit Haiti ! Two Sundays ago John gave his heart to the Lord and wants to start a Bible study with Jonas (the school teacher) in the new school we built. Praise God for that !! John looked very happy after church that day and we are believing that God will use John to influence his tent city community for Christ.
This last Wednesday we had a wonderful concert in the tent city with a team here from Tacoma Washington. They sang songs, did a skit, Jonas gave his testimony to the tent city and everyone had a great time. A couple people from one of our teams did an impromptu medical clinic for a bunch of the tent city people who came to the concert. A few of the people should have been in the hospital, but often people don't go to the hospital (even though it might be free) because they can't afford the tap-tap money (bus money) to get there. One mother had put some awful looking liquid detergent on a bad wound on her child's leg in an effort to clean it. Our nurse took quite some time to properly clean and bandage it. What a great time to connect to this community that is so close to our church. We hope this will be one more step in ministering and reaching this community for Christ.
And then there are chickens !!! YEAH !!! This past week we finally got chickens to start our little chicken farm. The chickens are one of the self sufficiency projects that we want to teach to the local Haitians. Not how to raise chickens (because most Haitians have had some experience with chickens) but how to do it "right" where the chickens are producing eggs, we fertilize some and raise chicks for layers or for meat. A week ago we got 36 chickens and they laid 30 eggs the first day ! (great job "ladies" !!). Our two Haitian men are learning how to care for the chickens, collect the eggs and clean the coup. This will be a fun adventure for us as well as we learn more about chickens ourselves.
This was fun ! The small hands are from some little girls from the tent city who stuck their hands under our security door at the church. We were working on the inside and the kids stuck their hands through to play tricks with us. One of the ladies from the Canada team (Christa) happened to have finger nail polish with her so when the girls stuck their hands through again, Christa touched one of their nails with the polish. The squealed and yanked their hands back, but as soon as they realized what was happening, they all put their hands under the door to get their nails polished. What a great time !! We never saw their faces and of course we couldn't talk to them since they didn't speak English - but a connection was made nonetheless !! 
Here's the Base Camp "team" - Craig (far right) then Aaron, then Jara and me - all trying to pose serious working on the schedule for the week and another team behind us (the Canadians again !) waving their arms and making faces. It was tough to be serious with the Canadian team !
The concert we held at the tent city. This is the school we built for Jonas and his "kids" and we added a shed on the back for people to sit under - worked great for the concert. By the time the concert was over there was about 200 people hanging around. Sang and worshipped as well as prayed for many people who came up for deliverance and prayer for all kinds of needs. One of the best times we've had yet with our "Haitian family" !! 
Praying for the Haitians who came up front at the concert. These people are so open to the Lord, it's easy to talk to them and pray with them for their needs.
If you ever visit my Facebook page, you will see that one of the most exciting events this year happened on Friday !! The container with our new church building structural steel arrived Friday afternoon. Over FIVE MONTHS in customs, but it's finally here !! There was lots of singing and shouting when the truck finally pulled in the church parking. We have been praying and working and waiting to get the building out of customs since the first week of October !! Many, many trips to the customs office and the dock for Pastor Guy and others, but it's finally over and now we can start erecting the steel as soon as we can get our crane and crew together. When Pastor Guy made the announcement at church this morning, the church erupted into shouts of praise !! We are so thankful ! Once the structure is up, there is still so much more to do to get it outfitted and ready to use for worship services, but even all the work still to be done can't dampen the excitement ! Hopefully we can have our first worship service in the new church building in a couple months.
One of the Foursquare pastor's here in Haiti is Pastor Bellande. He has a church a few miles away from us in a rented building. But he also has an orphanage in a rented home way up the mountain that takes an hour and a half to get to (and that's on a good traffic day !) Pastor and his wife Merland both work in separate jobs and travel those long distances every day. Recently a US church donated the money to purchase a very nice piece of property near their current church so we could build a new church and orphanage for the congregation and orphans. The property has a beautiful stream running through it and it is so close to the current rented church building it will be easy for the congregation to move to the new site. As we we've been talking about the property we realized it would also be nice to have the adjacent property as well for gardens, and our fish and chicken projects - but it was not for sale for anything reasonable. However, the next property over (on the far side of the one adjacent to ours) is also nice. We've been praying for the Lord's direction on the purchased property but to date we haven't been able to get any construction started. But just this week, Pastor Bellande found out that the "next property over" belongs to a teacher Pastor Bellande had in school. And, because he knew Bellande, the man is willing to sell his property to us for the exact same price he paid for it !! Praise God ! Now we have to pray for the middle property owner to decide to sell cheaply or switch properties with us so we can have two adjacent properties (or maybe even give his to us !). What an opportunity for a church and orphanage site with tons of room to grow and expand. The other day I was there with a group from Canada and they walked the entire property including the adjacent properties and prayed for a miracle - and now we are seeing that miracle develop before our very eyes !! Thank you Lord !
Every day is something new and interesting ! And even though there are continual setbacks, obstacles and difficulties - it is obvious that God is doing something special here. I am honored and humbled to be a small part of what's happening.
More this coming week.
God bless you all
Mark
Nothing is ever dull here in Haiti. After getting home from Jeremie we jumped right back into working with a large team of men from South Dakota. They came "ready to build" and went right to work at the church property. We are building a "guest house" there for other pastors who come in from the outlying regions for meetings, schooling, seminars and the Haiti Foursquare Convention. The National Foursquare convention for Haiti is at the end of April so the timing for this building is perfect. This team also built a kitchen on the bunkhouse so large teams can have meals prepared here instead of going back to the main base camp. And this team also built the school for the tent city that our friend Jonas will be using. They "busted their backsides" working here and we are very appreciative.
As I mentioned last time, the tent city school is for the very underprivileged children and should be a real boost to the community in this tent city. Sunday we dedicated the building with prayer and some songs with the children (about 25) and about 10 of their parents. Jonas began teaching in the new school this past Monday.
Two weeks ago we went to a near-by girl's orphanage and then again last week. It is pretty disturbing to see how these girls live. Their lives are entirely in tents - and not just since the earthquake ! - It's been like this since the beginning - some tents to sleep in, one to eat inside and others for storage. The kitchen is two small charcoal stoves under a small plywood shed with the pots and dishes stored in piles on the ground since they don't have any shelves in the kitchen area. We gave them some clothes, barrettes, shoes and new toothbrushes as well as some of our "Mana-paks" (rice food in packets) and hand sanitizer. When we got home we designed a simple kitchen / dining structure that we hope to build there in the next few weeks so they can at least have a place to cook, eat and store supplies. This orphanage has been in existence for about 15 years and some of these girls have been there pretty much their entire lives - a very tough life. But we are very excited about the possibilities of connecting with this orphanage and helping them with their needs this year. God willing, that will happen.
Looking forward to what else God is going to do this year in Haiti.
God Bless you all, Mark
Aloha everyone !
Well, the Jeremie team came back to Port-au-Prince last Tuesday (the 1st) and headed back to the USA. I flew out on Monday to celebrate the completion of the church/orphanage structure. There is still tons of things to do before it's ready for the children or to use for worship services, but we are 75 % of the way there. And it's making it's mark on the community already. Most all the neighbors are so happy about the church being built and spent much of the two weeks the team worked just sitting and watching it all happen. One man came up to me on Monday afternoon and almost couldn't control himself - saying over and over "Bel Travay, bel travay" (beautiful job !). He was so excited about the building. It may not look like much yet, but when you see the photo of the existing church, you can see why they are so excited. Pastor Casamajor is also thrilled and can't wait to get the children moved in to the orphanage. The building will be a church downstairs and orphanage upstairs. We hope to stucco the outside in the next few months if we can come up with the money. For now, it will be like it is and we'll probably paint it to protect the wood.
Monday after the construction team packed all their tools up and got ready to go, we met with the pastor, the team, some of the children from the orphanage and prayed over the building, the land and the light for Christ that this church and orphanage will be in the surrounding community. Last week our next door neighbor to the church came down to our base camp and wanted to talk to me about buying his property with a partially completed house on it. I said no since we don't need it and I suggested he finish his house that he started on the property and then attend our new church. When I came back on Monday he was working on the house and I heard his wife wants to attend our new church that's only 100' from their new home. The church hasn't even opened yet and it's already making an impact ! Praise God for that !!
When we got ready to go to the airport, we couldn't get the tap-tap truck we expected, so we hired 8 motorcycle taxis to take us all to the airport. Pastor Casamajor and a couple church leaders went on two other motorcycles and we headed off. You can't imagine how funny we looked ! Ten moto-taxis driving down the gravel road to the airport with huge heavy baggage on the front, on the back and in between the driver and us ! And half way there I think a few of the drivers decided to race. I know my driver got our motorcycle up to 60 mph trying to catch the others - bumpy, loose gravel and even streams to cross - not to mention the kids, goats, chickens and other motorcycles we passed along the way. What a riot !! One motorcycle we passed had a driver, a passenger and a fish - the fish was at least four feet long strapped crossways on the back of the motorcycle ! What a site !!
Back at Base Camp we received new teams from the US who are here to build, minister in the orphanages, tent camps and churches. Saturday we took a team over to a little school run by a young Christian man who runs his school completely on faith. His name is Jonas and he's been teaching "underprivileged" children in Haiti for years. I say underprivileged because these are the poorest of the poor and would not be able to attend school at all if it weren't for Jonas. He receives no money, no payment for his classes and asks for nothing. Currently he meets with the children in a small room of a house close by our base camp. We are building him a small school building in the tent city next to our church. We dumped some gravel there a few weeks ago and a team, along with numerous Haitians who walked up and volunteered, raked the gravel and spread it out flat for the new school building. More on that later this week.
Love you and God bless,
Mark
This is Pastor Casamajor's current church building. Children's Sunday School is outside on the left.
And this is the new building we built over the last two weeks. Like I said, not much yet, but it's light years ahead of the current church building - even if it IS unfinished !!
This is the current kitchen in Casamajor's orphanage along with the two wonderful cooks who work there.
The team, some of the children and Pastor Casamajor (squatting down in the center).
Praying over the church, the pastor, some of the children and the community surrounding the new church.
