They're Home!

Yesterday our team made it back to Denver! Thank you all for your prayers, love & support.
They'll all be home soon... I can't wait to see them & I know you are too!
Thanks for praying & journeying with us.

Much Love,
Kate
(Foz's little sis)

Updadte week #6

Hello friends and family of the Haiti Team,



From all of us I want to say Happy Mothers Day to all of our wonderful moms who have raised, loved, prayed, put up with us and made us the God fearing men and women we are today. We love you Mom.



Well we have had our first of two weeks in Saint Marc, and it has flown by. They really do not mess around in Haiti, they always put you straight to work. Monday morning Katey and I took half of the team to YWAM’s clinic/ tent city ministry just down the street from their base. This clinic was once used as the main place to come for an abortion as well as a euthanasia clinic. It was later deserted and people began to squat in it, literally! Terry Snow the leader of YWAM Haiti came in and said if no one is going to use this facility then I will open a clinic. So they sanitized it, re plumbed it, brought in a tank to filter the water, prayed over it, and started using the clinic to offer health care to the Haitian people. It is not fully running yet, they need an administrator. So if you know anyone have them give YWAM Saint Marc a call. Right now there is also a tent city on the property of the clinic made up of a little over 100 people. During our week of working with them we were able to help them complete digging the trench that will be the foundation for a security wall. The trench was 3ft deep, 1.5ft wide and almost 100 yards long. The other great thing about this project is that YWAM Haiti is able to pay some of the refugees living in the tents on the property to work along side of us in digging the trench. Every afternoon we would also do kids programs, including a bible story, puppet show and some arts and crafts time afterward to apply the lesson. In the evenings we held bible studies out in front of the clinic. This time was incredibly fruitful, we would have worship, a devotional and then afterwards a time to pray with the people as well as just talk to them. Every night God showed up giving us words of encouragement, and incredible conversations with the people who attended the services.

One story: There is a kid named Guiness that has Tuberculosis and it has almost completely consumed his body, he is confined to a wheel chair and lives a life of constant pain. Yet he brings joy and encouragement to everyone brave enough to sit down with him for a minute. I was talking to his father one night through an interpreter, he said this, ”I feel like I don’t have any future sometimes. When this guy got sick we started selling our possessions to help him, soon there was nothing left, but I still prayed. God brought along these white people to help us and we moved into a room in the clinic, that is the only reason he is still alive. Without prayer there is no life.” These words coming from a man living in a tiny room with his family of five and one son with TB said those words. A man in a sea of men who father children that they will never know exist much less meet has given everything and continues to give everything for his son, that he might live to play soccer again. This man knows without a doubt that without prayer there is no life. That without God there is no life. That is just one story of one man in one tent city, there are so many more. Your prayers are changing things and affecting hearts in Haiti. Believe that!







The rest of the team is there this week and they have already had an incredible time of kids ministry acting out the story of Jonah and the whale. They will be there until Wednesday afternoon. The crew of us that were at the clinic last week will be working at the YWAM base doing work duties and helping with logistics while all of the other teams are out in tent cities. We are excited for this chance to serve. Thursday and Friday we will debrief and then very early Saturday morning we will begin our day long journey back to beautiful Denver, CO! This will be our last email from the road, and for those of you parents who have not heard your kids do still love you they are just not allowed to use the Internet while here in Saint Marc because there are way to many people on the base.



Please pray for a safe trip home, for the second round of extreme traveler’s sickness to go away, and for all of our guys that swim in what the Haitians call caca lake to listen to reason and just use the pool!



Much love



Foster and the Haiti Team









For more info about the clinic check the YWAM Haiti page: http://www.ywamhaiti.org/ywam-clinic-established-in-st-marc/

update for week #5!

Hello friends and family

Well, it is getting hotter, here in Haiti and the rain is becoming more violent. But that is not stopping God from moving and doing some amazing things with our team and the people of Haiti.

This was our final week to work with YWAM Port au Prince. We stayed in Carrefour which is about a two hour drive from YWAM PaP´s base, it was our second week with Pastor Dezahm who I mentioned in my last email. On Tuesday when we started working he got half of the team out to the job site and then said "Well thank you for everything that you have done for me and my church, US Aid is coming to tear everything down and taking it away." We put our blood and sweat into breaking this place down for a week, only to put a dent in the whole project them to be told that an organization decided to come in and do it all in one afternoon instead of for the next year teams coming and only doing it little by little. So we dug out some books, and saved some musical equipment instead. It was still a huge blessing to the students that they got to see all of the rubble cleared out and now the pastor can begin to rebuild right away, God really provided in a huge way for his partner!

The other half of our team went back to the orphanage every day to work unloading containers of clothes, medical supplies and food for the Haitian people. There were six completely full containers, and it took us the entire week to unload and sort them. The amazing part of getting to work on sorting these containers was two fold.

First the people were so incredibly blessed by the items Americans send to Haiti, and this orphanage gives it all 100 percent to the people minus the peanut butter that they said our team could have for unloading. We missed good peanut butter they actually make it spicy here!

The second blessing of working on the containers is that we were able to restore relationship with the orphanage, we got out there and worked our little butts off for them, served them and meet a need that they had. The payoff is that the person who was causing all of the dissension was incredibly blessed to get all of her supplies off of the containers, and saw our team´s heart to serve Haiti and not just see us when we come home and want to unwind from a hard day.

Thank you, God for that. On Friday morning we got up early and left the pastor`s home for the last time, he gave us a heart felt good bye but what was really amazing is that all of the women who took care of us for the two weeks, were crying when we left. It was so incredible their hearts for hospitality and for us that they were moved enough to cry as we waved good bye. Then we went to the orphanage and said our good byes to all of the YWAM Port au Prince staff there were some incredible relationships built in our time with them and I hope that many of the students do keep in touch with these people because we really got to share our lives with them.

Now we are here safe and sound in Saint Marc. It is a huge change for us as a team, we are going from working with a smaller pioneering YWAM base in the middle of a disaster torn city, to a well established, very large ministry in a smaller town that has taken in thousands of refugees from Port au Prince. Here we can walk the streets and talk to the people without translators, even. Many speak English and are very excited to have us here, they carry on conversations with us. Others only see us as the source of a dollar and when we do not give money on the street they call us Shesh or in English selfish. This is becoming a bit of a discouragement for the students but they still press on. and fight for God´s heart on this outreach.



We also got to hear from Terry Snow the director of YWAM Haiti today and that was a real honor, he has been through so much here and has so much respect with the people. In the last twenty years he has endured the embargoes, civil war, hurricanes and the earthquake. Still he is here, still this ministry grows, and still the people of Haiti are coming to know God. Terry belives that Haiti is destined to be a nation that is a blessing to the world, and I believe that God is moving the people in that direction. Church this evening was called on a count of rain, quite possibly the biggest rainstorm I have ever been in. The area we had our tents flooded despite the trenches that we dug and so we are sleeping in under construction apartments tonight. Starting this week half of the team is going down the street to live in a tent city and facilitate everything that goes on, it will be very exciting. The other half of the team will be doing projects around the base and city. A few of the guys are getting to go on a scouting trip with Terry Snow to look for land to help some men start farming coffee beans.


There is never a slow week in Haiti, God always has something lined up for us. Please pray for us we are feeling the forth quarter last of the trip blues but fighting to finish strong. >We really want our time in the tent city to be fruit full as well, and that God would lead and guide us as all of the students are coming with at least one idea of something to do with the people in the tent city. Finally for unity as we are splitting for ministry again the last two weeks. Pray for Kelsey too she twisted her knee a bit jumping off a cliff at a waterfall, we went to with some orphans last weekend.

God Bless

Foster and the Haiti Team

*Thanks to the YWAM Haiti website for both photos & thanks for praying for my brother and his team. I love you all!

update #4- from Foz!

Hello Friends and Family,

It feels like just yesterday we were sending you our last email and then again so much has happened. I want to thank all of you for the words and scriptures that you have received from God and then shared with all of us they have really hit home.

We did split the team in half this week Josh and Abbi took half of the team to a mountain village. While Katey and I took the other half of the team to Carrefour to work with a mission that completly crumbled in the earthquake.

The mountain village was a great time of building relationship with the people doing some work projects, and playing with the children. They ate some very interesting food mostly involving goats, that sounded like a true cultural experience and a great exercise in watching your face when you eat! The team apparently loved goats so much that they decided to buy one and bring it back with them. The unfolding of the story as I am told is they heard three goats bleating in the mornings one was deep, one was high pitched and the third sounds like a baby being tortured, I know this because that is the one that they wanted! So when I called to check on them Josh said that they were on their way down the mountain with a goat, I said we need to find it a new home. They agreed I asked the pastor that we are working with and he said,"No problem, we kill it and have it for dinner." HAHA Cam, Stefan, Joachim, and Hannah are the partners in owning the goat and they said the pastor would have to wait to kill the goat until they left. So for the next week we have Henny as our mascot. The pastor in the mountain village told our team the last night they were there that they had been praying for years that missionaries would come and spend time with them, it is so awesome that we got to be an answer to their prayers. God is moving.

The rest of us have been spending our tme in Carrefour the mission that I mentioned earlier had a clinic, a school and a church building at their main location. They had several other schools and clinics in several areas of Haiti. Everything was destroyed, praise God there were no people in any of their buildings, but they did loose a few staff and students during the earthquake that were in their own homes. We have worked been clearing the rubble where the school and clinic once stood, it is very hard and taxing work. We will not get to see this site cleared but we get to be a part of it. The other night the pastor shared with us his story, how he first started following Jesus when he was 28. He then spent 14 years studying in the US, and then has been building his ministry this mission for the past 27 years. Everything that he built up in 27 years was destroyed in under a minute, and still he says,"I praise the name of God. Still I have no complaint with God." He is rebuilding now almost 30 years older but he still has the same vision zeal and trust in God. He is an amazing man and we are honored to work with him.

This weekend we are going 6 hours south to visit with some orphans that were sent from Port au Prince after the earthquake. There are some beautiful waterfalls that we will get to go to with them and then Monday morning we will come back to Carrefour to work with the pastor of the mission and continue removing rubble for him. Then of Friday we leave for Saint Marc, and we will spend the last two weeks of our trip there. It will be over in the blink of an eye. I am not sure I am ready for that. The people here have become very dear to us. As I write this email at an internet cafe I hear our students standing outside the door lovingly explaining to a man Jesus' love for him and the reason we came to Haiti. The people here want truth.

As always thank you for reading and for praying for us on this trip. We have not experienced any voodoo really in Haiti but I know that satan is at work to divide and discoucourage us please pray that we will continue to be open and honest with eachother in our struggles, it is not easy here. Please pray that satan would have no room in our relationships with our contacts either, there have been some struggles in this area and all we can really do is ask God to vendicate us. As we humble ourselves and choose love I pray that our new friends will too. Please pray for safe travels and a great impactful last week with YWAM PaP.

Much Love

Foster and the Haiti Team

Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. Ecc. 7:3

As I was praying and trying to wrap my mind around what Foster and his team are seeing and dealing with I came across this VODcast from Pastor Mark Driscoll who visited Haiti days after the earthquake hit. He and several other pastors were there to offer help and support to the body of Messiah in Haiti in whatever ways they could. It is so eye opening to understand on a much more personal level what happened there and what the YWAM team is dealing with the effects of on this ministry trip.

I'd really encourage you to watch this sermon with video footage and interviews from Haiti. It has given me a greater connection to my Christian brothers and sisters in Haiti and has pushed me to pray even more for them.

http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/special/32-hours-the-church-in-haiti

Love!

Update #3 This time from Josh!

HEY YOU! HEY YOU! HEY YOU! (a greeting from the local kids as we drive by),



Wow, week three… which at times felt like week seven and other times like day seven. Either way, we were busy and having a blast.

After a relaxed weekend involving a trip to the market Saturday and a trip to church and dominos pizza on Sunday, which seemed to reenergize the team, Monday we headed down to Leogane (lay-oh-gone) for some good, hard, manual labor. We continued to tear down walls, cut re-bar, move bricks, and shovel rubble at a school/clinic there. The work has been very tough and hot, but the whole team has rocked out with their socks out.

Tuesday we went to a tent city that we hadn’t yet visited where we prayed with the leaders of the community and for the community as a whole. Walking past family after family as we made our way through the maze of tents I really felt as if we were just being seen as tourists until one of the leaders said, “You guys being here with us means so much, you just showing up means a lot. Our government and police only show up when they want to try to kick us out and tell us that we have to leave.” Very encouraging that just our presence here is a good thing and makes a difference. While walking through the tents we came across a 99 year old woman and another woman who was 115. The sad thing is that the 115 year old woman was given a food card which was stolen from her… pretty hard thing to hear.

Wednesday we headed back to Leogane for more hard labor. It really is amazing to see how much can be done when a group of about 30 people work their butts off. There is a LONG way to go, but a huge dent has been placed in this project. NOICE! NOICE! NOICE! That’s for Murph, Big Country, and Jebberdooski.

Thursday morning we drove about an hour up the beautiful mountains where we then hiked about an hour into the beautiful mountains to a village in the Furcy region. When I say beautiful, I mean absolutely breathtaking. We had lunch and then did a few dramas and testimonies, hung out with kids and pulled out the Art for the Nations bags. You can tell Lisa that they’ve been a huge hit here, even though the kids seem to enjoy giving the artwork back to us when they’re done… not yet sure what that’s about. The village we visited will be where Abbi and I are taking half the team and staying from Monday to Thursday, so it should be a good time of building relationship for ourselves and YWAM P.A.P.

Our final work day of last week was at the spot that Foster and Katey will be leading the other half of the team next week, a city called Carrefore, which is right outside of Leogane. We began the hard work of removing the rubble where the school, church, and clinic buildings had all completely collapsed. Seeing before pictures made the whole thing seem so surreal. There is A LOT of work to be done there, but a huge dent was done on Friday and spending all next week there will no doubt be productive.

After a crazy week, Foster, Katey, Abbi and I sat down to do a mid-debrief with the students. I was once again reminded of how much I hate meetings… loved the snacks and time with the students, but a different team every hour from 11am-7pm meetings is just insane. haha Very productive and encouraging though, the students shared what we as leaders have been feeling and discussing: things are going amazing and God is moving in some sweet ways in us and through us.

So, we love ya, mean it, and hope ya see it… orevwa,

Josh, Foster, Abbi, Katey, and 23 fantastically awesome blessings/hooligans.

Prayer requests:

1) Foster’s salvation

2) Good health. The diarrhea seems to be long gone and we don’t want to see or hear about it again. The students seem to enjoy sharing about bowel movements more than Jacob Green.

3) Safety during work times, lots of heavy lifting, cutting, smashing and crashing. (Good rhyme).

4) Focus. Students are mentioning homesickness and it is strongly affecting some of them

5)There is a gas crisis here, if the ship does not come soon then ministry will be difficult and life will slow to a hault for the Haitian people