Sunday, April 11, 2010

Update #2!



Hello Friends and Family,

Well the second week as has gone by just as quickly as the first. Not as much manual labor this week but the days are still very full and rewarding. The rainy season is upon us, mostly in the evenings and so it does not interfere with ministry which is awesome but it makes us all a muddy mess, everyone is doing a great job dealing with it all though and I am very proud of them.

Before I update all of you on what happened this week there is one thing that I realized I forgot about in my last email. Our first Saturday here we were able to go to a private beach for the day, and while we were there we had a baptism service in the Caribbean. Josh, Jenny, Brad, Alli, Laura, Lisa, Thomas, and Ethan were the ones that were baptized and yes most of were all about back flip baptisms like on Jesus Freaks, it was an amazing time with the team and an honor to baptize my friends and share in this awesome expression of their faith.

This week started off with a bang and I mean a literal one Josh, Katey, Abbi, and I were meeting in the orphanages outdoor dining hall and heard a loud bang! It scared us half to death, we thought either the armed guards finally shot one of the dogs that wont stop barking or something very large fell down and serious damage had been done. Josh and i went to investigate Katey and Abbi huddled together for safety and then a Haitian orphanage worked walked up laughing hysterically with a mango in his hand, pointing to the tin roof to let us know what really happened.

Easter Sunday we were invited to the Brazilian Armies UN base for worship and communion. It was incredible to spend Easter with men who are trained soldiers, and they worship God with incredible zeal and invite the Holy Spirit to fill the room. We were also able to share some testimonies and do the Forgiveness drama while we were with them, what an amazing opportunity.

For the first half of the week we were able to go door to door and talk to people that have made their homes in the park across from the palace. We were able to let them vent their frustrations, and share their stories. We offered them our prayers and every home that we visited we gave them a bible. It really makes you realize how precious God's word is when people who do not know when the next time they will eat receive a Bible hold it to their heart and say thank you this is my life. Other teams came back from the tents and told stories of people accepting Christ for the first time, and really seeing that they need him. Josh, Joachim, and Roxanne were praying for a woman's hand, it was stiff and she could not open and close it, they prayed and it was fine! The word spread and people came to be prayed for and 25 people were healed from: headaches, there was a one year old little girl that could hardly breathe, she was wheezing and her mother said that she had a chronic cough Roxanne prayed for her twice and the her breathing was perfect! The mother was amazed and grateful, and those are just a few of the 25 miracles that our Jesus did that day. When the time was over our guys were high fiving and telling everyone it was not us it was Jesus, they looked at their translator and said, "Wasn't that amazing?" and he very nonchalantly replied, "Yeah, God is good!" It was an incredible experience, one that none of us will soon forget. I have never been so encouraged by someone else's faith.

That was what most of us did for the first half of the week, Brad, Raphael and Thomas had the opportunity to fly into the mountains with a German pilot from Samaritan Air. They took some aireal photos for Red Cross and then were dropped at an orphanage in the mountains to play with children and build some shelves. The orphanage is run by a 65 year old American woman and two other Haitian women, they care for 21 young children mostly all under the age of 4. It blesses the woman to have men come in an spend time with the children and to have conversations in English.

The second half of the week when we were all back together again, our contact and the leader of YWAM Port Au Prince felt that we needed to slow down as a minsitry, regroup and ask God for direction. So we took two days and we prayed for the growth and direction of their base here. It was an honor for us to get to partner with them in this prayer time, all the students sought God and came back with incredible words and got to see that if you don't stop and make sure God is the center of your ministry then you are missing it. I was so proud of our team and their devotion to seeking God and hearing His voice. In the evenings we went to a different tent city and shared testimonies and dramas, after the YWAM PaP guys lead worship. We also were given bags of ramdom food and toiletriesand stuffed them in our backpacks, and went to certain tents of people who were not receiving as much as other people. We asked to come in and pray for them and then we would slip them a bag of food, if people saw us giving the food to some and not to others it could start a riot, so yes we were like Robin Hood. In this one tent city there are over 7,800 people.

There is so much going on here, and the work that needs to be done is a constant reminder to me of how small I am and how big God is. I know that he can and will continue to bring hope to the people of Haiti and i am honored that we get to be a small part of such a huge effort. Please pray that as the rains come we would continue to have great attitudes and adapt to the mud and puddles. Also please when you pray for us meditate on 1 Thessalonians 2:8 "We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us."


Thanks for reading


Much Love


Foster and the Haiti Team

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