February 14, 2004 -- E-mail from Randy and Kim
Greetings,
The events of Saturday begin with breakfast and then a trip to the Promised Land. A tract of land soon to be purchased by New Directions International for the transplanting of a now existing boys home run by Jehu. The Promised Land is 22 acres of mostly farm land and a man made water canel. The purchase price for this land is $150,000 U.S. dollars. This place also quickly became a potential site for the July mission team. Though it wasn’t one of our locations to look at, we are now considering it as our priority location.
Then the group separated into two teams. One heading to the Baptist Mission and the other to several other possible locations for the July youth team. The shop funds at the Baptist Mission go toward ministry projects. The other team went to Carfeu where we viewed a guest house that could potential house our entire group. We then went to Christianville, another possible site further south, down the coastline.
In the evening one team head out for a church crusade meeting being led by Jean Baptist, a pastor here. During the meeting a Christian movie was shown in Creole. Dennis, one of our team members from Charlotte, introduced himself and is preparing to preach there Sunday night.
A every turn there never ceases to be something amazing. Just when you thought you saw it all, something else comes along to amaze you, or to break your heart for these people. The need here is tremendous and the opportunity is even greater. The kids here flock you us by the dozens and even more.
On Friday afternoon, some of us stood in the home of a Voodoo priest who has contemplated Christianity but will not convert because it would cost him his means of living. Wes, our director, mentioned that he could by out the Voodoo priest so that money wasn’t the issue, but he would not rob him of the chance to place his entire faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. What wisdom and truth. How many of us have been robbed of the chance to place our entire faith in our Lord and how many of us have been bought out?
We have learned so much about faith here in Haiti and of sacrifice. The Christians here live only by faith. Each day is a leap of faith for them. They depend each day on the Lord to Provide each and every need. We could all learn from this.
We Love you all and are praying for you,
The Vision Team
E-mail composed by Randy Starkey and Kim Proctor