Another BLOG from TERAH

There is a little girl in my preschool who is six years old. She is technically to old to be in the nutrition program but since she doesn't have enough money to go to school she gets to stay another year.

All the kids in my class will graduate in June. That means they move to the school. Sadly, if they don't have enough money or aren't sponsored they can't go to school.

Rose's story is a lot like any other Haitian child she has a younger sister named Carline (also in preschool) and her mom is struggling to feed them. She is soooo smart and full of energy. It makes me think about how in America school can be mostly free all kids have the can go to school. Here they can't. But they all have a right to go to school. Be thankful for what you have.  

PS
For those reading this blog and may be interested in supporting Rose, please email my dad at barnesinhaiti@gmail.com

Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world...

I have to share:

Hut to Hut is a ministry we to participate in at NWHCM 

On the short Hut to Hut is an evangelistic ministry where Mission Teams come in and purchase food at the local market in St Louis du Nord.  After the food is purchased we then go, led by the Holy Spirit, to find those in need to give the food to.

Now to our personal moment...

On Tuesday we came across a home in which that had a yellow and red flag tied at the bottom of a tree near the house.  Our Interpreter and my dear friend, Johnny, told me that this was a sign of Voodoo or satan worship.  I asked the team with us to begin praying for Holy Spirit to move mightily.  Then Johnny and I began to share...

The first thing we did was to expose Satan for the liar, thief, and accuser he is.  Sharing his purpose and plan was to destroy their soul and the soul of future generations of this particular family.  As we were sharing the neighbor looked over the fence and begin pray aloud for the movement of God, as he was a follower of Christ.  We then shared the truth of who Jesus is; truth, comfort, peace, etc.  

As a crowd grew outside the house, we asked the family if we could move inside their 12x12 home.  Johnny and I stepped in the home along with a few of the team members and the family.  We continued to share the truth of Jesus with them.  Wrapping up we asked them if they understood and Johnny led them in a prayer of repentance.  

Wanting to rid the house of any visible signs of Voodoo, we asked if we could cut the flags off of the tree and burn them.  You will the evidence of their answer below...

Please continue to pray for this family as we follow up with them in the weeks to come.

PERSONAL CONNECTION 

On a final note, what areas of our life do we have “red and yellow” flags tied.  What sin are we still holding onto or what areas is Satan still falsely claiming.  Realize that if we are in Christ, we are new creations the old is gone and the new has come.  That we are no longer a slave of sin but a slave of righteousness.

For GOD’s GLORY alone!

A Day in the Life!

As I write the blog, the sound of Come thou fount of every blessing from our Haitian workers and staff (or choir) echos through the mission.

  

 I remember day after day for years  I would wake up with Haiti on my heart and go to bed the same way with a yearning and longing for this country.  I used to think that I’d left my heart in Haiti a thousand times over.  Now that I live here, nothing has changed!  

     I love that it feels completely natural to watch Moleon, our security guard, wearing a shower cap as he sings and dances while doing his job, the NWHCM kitchen staff come to John’s protection and defense when his moto driver crashed, or our sweet Edna (the cleaning lady) say Bonjou zamni mwen blow me a kiss and embrace our children.  

Last night I went to bed so filled...I would love to share an average day of our life in Haiti.

John wakes up a little after 5:30a.m. to pray and then if there is a 6:30a.m. staff meeting goes to it.  We all rise and Terah gets ready for devotions before she assists Ashley with the haitian preschool.

John may have meetings set with missionaries here or haitian pastors and I get the children ready for homeschool.  The last two mornings I’ve got a morning laugh because Zebby (the Owens 1 year old) yells “Dad! Dad!” (copying the our kids to John) at our home window so that he can come play trains.

We go to the eating area and share our morning with a missionary family of various passions and personalities but I am certain that this Haiti family are some of the most incredible Jesus followers that I’ve ever had the gift of sharing life with.  Then everyone separates to their daily tasks and ministries.  

I decided to go to the baby orphanage before homeschool with the little ones because one our haitian workers said she missed seeing us in there the last couple of days (We’ve had a few mission teams here and between daily random stuff and homeschool we hadn’t gone over).  We played with precious babies and then we sang with haitian nurses.  I am learning more creole and they just love to talk and sing.  So together we sang, Because He Lives...I can face tomorrow... awesome.  They the asked if they could pray over me for John and our family.  They did and then I prayed for them and their families-powerful.

We did homeschool and then Terah comes home.  We have lunch with our Haiti mission family.  Kids running together; Haitian and missionary kids.  Oneness, joy and freedom... a testimony.

After lunch, naps for the younger kid and gear up to homeschool Terah.  John met a local DJ who was so hungry for the gospel and was encouraged by meeting with him for awhile before working on his sermon for Tortuga island this weekend. 

When the teenagers who live here from the orphanage in Salines Mayette get home from school in the afternoon, John is usually doing math with TK so that I get time with them and then get some bible study and quiet time done (the ladies on the mission are going through Ephesians together and then on Sat afternoons we have youth community group with the males and females).

A team called Epic is here and they do water filtration systems!  When you buy an Epic watch, the proceeds go to clean water in Haiti!  They did afternoon courses on sanitation and water purification and then we got to see the victory on faces as families with disabled children walked off the mission with their new bucket sanitation systems for their homes and families!

Then the beginning of the surgery team got here and the excitement of our week of surgeries and miracles is stirring as we continue to pray for all God has in store.  On a side note, Maureen, our campus medical nurse is incredible and a wonderful grandma to us all and we praise God for her.

Dinner with everyone with laughs, business, intimate conversations, getting to know mission team members...

Then, a mission from Mirebalais got here to drop off six new Miriam Center orphans!  We got to visit with them and be introduced to our new family.  A few of them have really stolen my heart.  From hospice care to rescue of these special needs children; they are given help, a voice, hope.  

The Epic crew did a glow stick party with the Miriam Center and I got to sing with many of them.  

We then bathe, pray with and put our children to bed (with the exception of Terah who got a movie that she needed to write a paper for for homeschool) then got to pray with one of our teenage girls who has a sick grandma who is lost and then listen to the girls practice for a Christian concert they perform in Port au Paix on Sunday.  

John and I get some share time before praying and climbing in to bed thinking, “This was another beautiful day in Haiti.”  

Daily we get to live out Matthew 25...kingdom living is beyond words.  Keeping our eyes on Jesus we love fearlessly and know that the prize is eternal.

Today is the Day...

      Everyday there is a deep sense that apart from HIM I can do nothing.  Every morning we sing "This is the Day that the Lord has made" with the kids and truly every day is.  Today is the two year anniversary of the Earthquake and a day of prayer and rememberance for Haiti.  I've just been blessed today by a blind saint and devoted father that they call Seniola.  He writes his own music.  His job with NWHCM (and his talents from the Lord) is to lead music at the haitian staff devotions and to go to the various ministry programs and play music in order to bless them.  His son leads him around.  Today I was the one blessed by the deep, beautiful passion and pain of his songs and lyrics.  I was moved as he played his guitar and sang a song that could be the heart of Haiti.  In creole his words are an anthem here. It is a song to God to give him a Word as he sings out that it is hard for him to find food to eat.  He has deep humiliation of being hungry are the words he sang as haitians and Americans gather around to hear his testimony through music.
Today, we will remember those who still grieve and suffer the loss of their lost ones.  It's still so odd that in eight days we will celebrate "gotcha day" the homecoming of our Ava from the tragic earthquake.  That's what the Lord does is bring beauty from ashes...

Today-This is the Day that the Lord has made

Finally home with Northwest Haiti Christian Mission

This is our home in Haiti.  We stand in awe continuously at how God has gone on before us, provided and blessed...

We have done a lot of painting

We enjoy our bedroom - TOGETHER :-)

We love our beautiful porch. God is good

Last night we had our first house full and it was awesome to have a home to use for ministry.  Grant and Natasha (the missionaries at La Bay) came to St. Louis and we have had the sweetest time getting to know them.  We wake up every morning with the glory of the Lord surrounding us and thank the Lord that he called us to minister to a beautiful people on a gorgeous island with a kingdom focused mission and warriors of living out the gospel surrounding us as our new Jesus family here.  We are blessed; we are settled and we are ready.  We need prayer to be bold, learn creole and continue to build both American and Haitian relationships.

3 things I have learned already...

Bonjour

We are finally at NWHCM and we are in our house.  You all should come over some time, we would love to show you around!  :)

Let's jump right in...3 things I have learned or have been reconfirmed in the last 36 hours:

1.  God's Scripture is so powerful..."sharper than any double edge sword"  The word is a so revealing of who we are but more importantly who Christ is!  The Word brings freedom, conviction, peace, etc.  We are resonating  to the words that Jesus stated that "man does not live by bread alone but every word that comes from the mouth of GOD.!

2.  Satan is real.  He is actively engaged in the destruction/distraction of what is going on.  But oh the power of knowing that "He that lives in us is greater than He that is in the world."  

3.  We live among radicals.  

This mornings after our 6:30 am meeting with the family here at NWHCM, I was able to spend some time with a radical named Courtney Pierce.  Courtney's act of obedience to Christ at NWHCM, in her own words is to; 

"I oversee a facility set up for all those who have limitations living in the Northwest zone of Haiti. We currecntly have a disability residential care (Miriam Home), a residential care set up for those who are terminally ill and or just fragile (Rou's Corner), an Outreach Program for families with special needs kids (For Jonathan Sake Outreach), Special Education Program (Luke 2:52 School) and a Deaf School and Outreach (Prince of Peace Deaf Ministry)

We are so blessed to be walking among followers like Courtney here at NWHCM.  Here is a 25 year old that have forsaken all to find that which Jesus is in and in the midst of.  To hear her share her love for the the children here blow me away and I could not help but here the words of Jesus as she was sharing; 

"Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these."  

We miss you all and love you dearly, thank you for being part of the journey