Watermark in Haiti

From team leader John McGee

Our first full day in Haiti has already been a rewarding and joyous day of serving Gods people. We spent the day in Leveque painting houses and collecting trash around the village. We played soccer, introduced duck duck goose and had some great God honoring conversations with the Haitians. We have been encouraged by the way Mission of Hope has established relationships with the people of Leveque and continues to enhance the kingdom of God. We look forward to seeing our friends in Leveque tomorrow!

From team member Jim Wilson…

Wow! The pastor’s conference was amazing!!! Since only John Elmore is a trained teacher, all us guys were very nervous. We prepared diligently, but we  were still nervous because we so wanted to honor God and our hosts. We felt so much prayer support from home and the strong women of our group. Well, it went so well. My brothers rocked in their messages. The audience was very animated and engaged.  The very distinguished looking pastors on the front rows asked such great questions and John handled them biblically and beautifully. I really felt like we delivered the messages regarding confession of sin and forgiveness that we set out to deliver. I am grateful for the experience.

Afterward we greeted the newly arrived WM family group. It felt so wonderful to see friends from home. Then we gathered with our team to receive the most beautiful gift from the ladies (don’t think my brothers would have thought of this).  While we were preparing for the conference, the ladies wrote out cards for each member of the team, putting on them praises for the God-given qualities that they had seen in evidence this week. It was a beautiful thing to hear each brother and sister say out loud those qualities. We have truly bonded as a team, growing in love just as Christ intended. It has been an honor to serve with these men and women.

This morning was a surprise treat. We got to go to a beautiful beach. The contrast between this beauty and the villages where we’ve worked all week is almost painful. But the R&R is sweet. It has been a powerful but tiring week. Memories for a lifetime.  I’ve loved bonding with my team and our time here but I am ready to come home.  See y’all tomorrow.

From team member Eric Mangelson…

Before coming to Haiti, I wasn’t sure how God would show up. Oftentimes I find myself so easily distracted by the daily activities I fill my days with in Dallas. Each morning our group of men start the day with a devotional ranging from confession of struggles to identifying voids in our relationship with God. This sweet time with each other has been such a difference maker in beginning the day the Lord has made.

God has shown His face in more ways than I can count. A few to mention include 1) bringing the power back on during the pastors conference; 2) watching Haitians pray to accept Jesus in their hearts and 3) encouragement after encouragement of selfless acts and prayer from the women in our group as we prepared for the pastors conference.

My prayer this week has been to simply surrender my fear of failure of loving the Haitians as God wanted me to. 1 Peter 5:6-7 reminds us that if we humble ourselves before God and cast our anxieties to Him, only on His timing, we will be exalted. God is great and I’m eternally thankful for His son, Jesus Christ.

From team member Jonathan Tyroch…

We have arrived at Mission of Hope! Our journey has already been filled with great conversations and lots of fun. Wade Nowlin even got to share Christ with someone on the plane. It’s going to be a great week. Excited to see what the Lord had in store!

From team member Susan Vermillion…

Last night our men’s team led many Haitian pastors in God’s truth of forgiveness through God’s story in their lives. We expected several women to also attend and I was humbled by their strength in numbers’s and willingness to learn.

A sweet older woman sat next to me and it was evident she was hungry for God’s teaching – she was so attentive, which made me curious as to why she wasn’t  taking notes. That’s when God opened my eyes to the fact that unlike our bottomless purses, many of these people do not have pens. I didn’t have a pen, but I did have a bag of crayola markers that we had been giving out to kids in the village earlier that day. I reached in and handed her one.

From that moment on she beautifully scribed every scripture that was shared. When the evening closed, and we stood to leave she offered the marker back to me. I shook my head that she could keep it. As I turned, she slid her hand into mine and gave me a beautiful silver and bead bracelet. My first thought was “for a CRAYOLA MARKER!” but then was filled with what God had really given her – his teaching.

Her hunger for God’s word gave me a glimpse of His love & and overwhelming generosity.

“I assure you,” he said, “this poor widow has given more than all the rest of them. For they have given a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she has.”  Mark 21:3-4

From team member Noah Brown…

It is all good in the Haiti-hood!! God is proving himself to be strong and good. Wednesday and Thursday night, we are giving a conference to 150 pastors, so not surprisingly, Satan has been storing up strife and insecurity within our group. However the members of our team have been quick to confess that they are being attacked, and everyone has jumped in with truth and scripture. God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.

This morning we painted the insides of a school in a neighboring village, Minoterie, and played with lots of adorable Haitian children. They all want to be picked up and held and ask, “what your name?”

This afternoon, the guys prepped for the conference while the ladies organized supplies and donations on the MOH campus. The conference went great and the word of the Lord was preached. The women were exceedingly gracious to pray with us and help us with logistical details. The whole thing came together effortlessly and I’m so glad that God has made all this fall in place, and has used this to stretch and grow us and to preach his word to the Haitian people!

From team leader Roseanna…

Today was an awesome day in Leveque. Many of us painted the inside of four houses, while others played with kids and talked with people in the villages. Woody and Lindsey shared Christ with an 18 yr old girl who thought she couldn’t be a Christian because she had a tattoo and didn’t have any church clothes. The Lord used Woody and Lindsey’s stories of grace to reveal truth to this woman, and she is now our sister in Christ!!!

Tonight the men spent some time preparing for the pastor’s conference they will lead Wednesday and Thursday nights from 5-7pm. Please be praying for Eric, Mike, Marshall, and Todd as they speak on forgiveness to about 300 Haitian pastors and ministry leaders.

From team leader, John Elmore…

The Lord did huge things today.  we went to Simonette and Maïssade – two very different villages.  One is what should be, and one is what will be.

Simonette is the hometown of the pastor who preached at MOH on Sunday.  MOH has been ministering to this village for over five years and as a result, they expect 60% of the people are believers.  They recently dedicated the city to Jesus just this past year.  (Don’t miss the gravity of this…can you imagine if the key figures and leaders of Dallas gathered to publicly dedicate it to Christ?)  We prayed in the school bus before breaking into two teams and divided up our “le pity bibs” (little Bibles) that we handed out as we walked through the villages.  Some Haitian pastors can’t afford Bibles so you can imagine how few of the people have the Word of God.  Many people we encountered were sick and asked for us to pray over them.  We certainly did and asked them the diagnostic questions as well to make sure that they would be eternally well, and not just seeking relief in the here and now.  almost everyone we encountered was already a believer.  The women did an amazing job and had everyone in town dancing, laughing and singing.

As we pulled on the the “street” (think unmaintained ranch road) to Maïssade, there was a huge, almost castle-like, house built of river stones.  We were told that this is where the voodoo priest of the community lives.  Maïssade is further out and a relatively new community that MOH is pursuing for Christ. We mixed teams with a church from North Carolina and began walking through the stick/mud huts, cinder block homes and rusty church built of corrugated steel.

Entering the village, we encountered an angry woman who was unsure of her destiny, and became a joyful daughter of Jesus.  A single mother living with her boyfriend, steeped in shame, was comforted to know that she didn’t have to “get clean” before coming to Jesus.  Kelly led her to the Lord and she placed her faith in Jesus.  As we walked down the hill, we could hear the women again running an improv vacation Bible school with all the village children.  They had already done a resurrection skit, taught many songs and the teens and adults watched the love of Chrsti in action with their little ones.  We asked the group of teenage boys how someone gets to heaven and began to share the Gospel with them.  You could see their demeanor soften.  Two stepped out in boldness when asked who would like to place their faith in Jesus.  Others then followed, placing their trust in Christ.  Jim led them in prayer and told them to readh their new little Bibles, how to follow Jesus, to go to church and to tell their friends about Jesus.  Next we shared the Gospel with a large crowd of children under 10 years old.  Because of the excellent job the women had already done, the kids trusted us and were attentive.  We drew a bridge illustration in the dirt and invited them to trust Christ.  Many prayed and placed their faith in Christ.  We had to leave abruptly because of weather and scheduling.

Please pray for the women, children and teens of Maïssade who placed their faith in Christ.  Pray for the men, who were nowhere to be found.  Pray for the voodoo priest.  As we drove back past the compound, we threw a “Satan VS. Christ” tract about the dangers of evil and the victory of Christ on the the compound entrance.  It landed face up right in front of the door.

Save Maïssade, Lord!

From team member Stephanie Woody…

Oh Haiti, how I absolutely love it here!

The second I could smell that familiar trash burning smell, I was reminded of God’s almighty power and His enormous love that is as far as the east is from the west.  (Not to mention being here in February is a plus, not being drenching in a combination of sweat and mosquitoes!)

I was blessed for God to send me to Haiti six months after the devastating earthquake in August of 2010.  For a month, we built numerous temporary 15X15 tarp “houses.”  At that time, we were told the Haitians would probably be living in them for over two years, so I use the word temporary loosely.

I came back thinking I would still be seeing people living in their blue tarp houses.  Our first full day here, we got to tour the village of Leveque.  It is a village that Mission of Hope has helped build.  Their vision is for the village to eventually be self-sufficient.  We pulled up in our school bus to a village of blue tarp houses to my right…and then, to my left, rows and rows of all different color houses!  By houses, I mean ones made out of concrete, with porches, rooms inside, front doors that don’t blow open in the wind, and cactus lining the yard like a wooden fence.  The old blue tarps were no longer occupied – they were EMPTY!  PRAISE GOD!  I could not believe it.

This was not accomplished because of teams visiting Haiti; this was not accomplished because of the work of North Americans or Haitians.  This was accomplished because it is the hand of God.  Through Mission of Hope, through our faith and hope for Haiti, and through our endless prayers being sent up to God – He has sent armies to move mountains!

God is bigger than we can fathom.  He is greater than poverty.  He is greater than starvation.  He is greater than the number of tracts we pass out or even a language barrier.  He is the great I AM.  He is our hiding place, a place of peace and comfort for all nations.

This is what I have been reminded of in the past two days.  Heaven is coming down to earth here in Haiti.  God is wrecking down the walls of not only lack of education or food or shelter, but more importantly of the Haitian’s souls.  They are not only building their homes from the ground up, but God is giving them lives transformed from scratch.  New beginnings, new creations – He is more real than the rubble we stand on, than the air in our lungs and He is inside us all.  No matter where He has placed us, no matter our past, no matter our struggles, no matter our name.

This is the reality of Haiti.  This is the reality of America…Jesus is our reality and we belong to Him and Him alone, every single one of us.

From team member Susan Vermillion…

Bonswa!  On the AA flight from Miami to Port au Prince, I was stunned by the fact that no one boarded the flight with “status” or first class seats; we were entering a 3rd world country together.  Fourteen men and women of the Watermark community coming together to love each other and love others.  Haiti, here we are!

As we walked through the airport and collected our bags (not one was lost!), we praised God for this unfolding journey to Mission of Hope, but more to revealing his presence through this island, these people.

WE crowded the van, which did not have enough room for a few of the men.  Without hesitation, those guys jumped in the box truck with our luggage!  The sulphur stench, the overflowing trash, motorcycles buzzing by and a bustling city whirled past us.  We weren’t in Dallas anymore, driving down Lovers Lane.  Looking into the eyes of need, seeing the depravity of the city overwhelmed my emotions.

And that’s when God called me to look at the sunset.  Over the island, over the ocean, into His beauty.  He is God. Creator. Provider. Lover of souls and I rested in peace with knowing him.

I’m excited for the team to document the stories we share of God’s great love.  “We are writing these things so that our joy will be complete.” 1 John 1:4