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