Since the end of June, 2010, 40 teams have used the base God helped us build in Leogane to reach out to the Haitian people. This base has 12 beds, showers and toilets with a septic system, good food, and a wonderful partner named Roody Joseph. Roody meets every team at the airport and connects our teams with tent cities, villages and towns all around Leogane, Haiti. Some 2,000 professions of faith have been reported, over 2,000 transitional homes have been built and 42 permanent homes have been built. Over 5,000 medical patients have been seen, and multiple thousands have heard about the Great Physician. We know of at least eight Voodoo priests that have been saved in the last year. I personally verified two weeks ago that two of them did indeed leave their temples after coming to Christ weeks ago! As this is being written, 60 pastors and lay folk are attending our second installment of Bible “College” at our compound.
Please continue to pray for this work and the churches taking part. We believe this will last several more years. Your prayers, Arkansas Baptists, are vital. And thank you so very much for your gifts to the Cooperative Program and the Haiti Relief Fund.
Please pray also for our friends at FBC Lavaca. In addition to the 40 teams mentioned above, they use the base monthly as they reach out to a local orphanage. God is blessing their work!
We are working now on some new strategies the Lord is leading us to implement for 2012. Your prayers are vital. God bless you!
Bob Fielding
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Since our report last April, the Lord has been at work through these teams:
A team from Independence Association served from April 22-29, 2011. They built five more houses for those who lost their homes during the quake, and shared the gospel with many! Associational Missionary Ronnie Toon is pictured here handing keys to Peter E. (click any picture to see a larger size)
On May 6-13, 2011, the Park Hill Baptist Church sent in a construction team as well. This team built sixteen permanent homes. They also discovered that the church at Bas Miton had started what they called a "kids club", inspired by the Holy Spirit to do so, according to their testimony, after the work that the Stuttgart/Dewitt team had done in April. That kids club was meeting under a tarp. The Park Hill group built them a meeting place and conducted a dedication service on May 12. There are now (August 2011) three kids’ clubs within a few miles of our base with over 350 children attending every Saturday. Our goal is to help local Haitian churches enlist 1,000 children in their kids clubs within the next six months! Please pray with us!
Wellspring Church in Walnut Ridge traveled May 13-20. They helped start the second kids club and had a great week sharing the gospel with children! Pictured is one of their meetings at the new club!
FBC Dardanelle served from May 27-June 3, their second trip to Haiti. They posted a video report here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwUu-_nDdsk
North Park Van Buren took in a team June 3-10. Associate Jay Baker writes: "Our primary purpose was evangelism. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we went on street evangelism walks through tent cities in Leogane and Darbonne. Wednesday and Thursday night we organized crusade events in Leogane and Darbonne, respectively. We were able to witness 35 professions of faith over the course of the week. In Darbonne, we met a large group of young people who voiced their inability to go to church because they do not have nice enough clothes. We rocked their world when we stopped everything and had an impromptu service then and there. We sang worship songs, presented the Gospel, and then celebrated over 7 professions of faith among those young people!” The two men in the middle of this picture had just made professions of faith.
On June 17-24, Pastor Mike Love of Heber Springs Baptist Church took in his second team to Haiti. He writes: “We took A/V equipment and the Jesus Film with us and showed the film four times to an estimated 900-1000 people. Due to the conditions, we could not register the number of professions of faith but the sheer numbers of people who were so receptive and appreciative of our presence was encouragement to the Team and Roody Joseph. The equipment was given to Roody to use with future Teams. We had eight professions of faith by one-on-one witnessing in the Tent Cities with many other opportunities to share with others. We went to an orphanage and played with the children. Also, we went to a Kids Club in the area, played with the children, shared the eCube, and later in the afternoon showed the Jesus Film with children and adults."
June 24-July 1, an evangelism team from Central Baptist, Jonesboro, experienced an incredible outpouring of the Spirit, with some 1,000 professions of faith! Read their story here, a first hand account from the team leader, in the Arkansas Baptist News.
FBC DeQueen took a team to Haiti on July 1-8. Justin wrote: “Our group really got to grow as individuals in their walk with Christ and grow together as a team. Seven people went to Haiti to make a change, but Haiti made a change in 7 hearts. Each of our team members want to return to Haiti, and after our church report, several other church members expressed interest in going.”
Epoch church of Little Rock served from July 22-29. They used music to touch many hearts, writing one day, “Epoch Church Band played at this new community with over 200 people in attendance. Please pray for hearts to be touched and lives changed. This is a hard community for the gospel to take root. There are a lot of children and youth here as well.”
Central Baptist Church of Jonesboro fielded an optometry team July 29-Aug 5. That team fitted some 500 persons with glasses and led many to Christ.
Compass Church of Batesville was in Haiti, August 5-12. One team member wrote: “In Haiti, Day 6. Another 3 converted today in a tent village! Many others said they would come to our church service tonight to learn more about Christianity. This afternoon, we led a children's Bible Club. The last count was 152 children! It was amazing! As we began singing, we saw a little boy cowering in the corner alone. Carla carried him over to the other boys. Tom noticed he began to cry, so ...he got an interpreter. The little boy had fallen in a creek as he walked to the club. His pants were soaked so an older girl had hung them up to dry. He couldn't reach them so he had no pants and was ashamed. Tom got the boys pants for him & put them on (not too wet). That little boy did not leave Tom’s side the entire time. As we left, he ran out to the car & waved "bye-bye."
August 19-26, Ron Baker and two other agricultural specialists comprised our second agricultural team to go to Haiti. Ron is an expert in teaching farmers SALT (Sloping Area Land Technology.) Hurricane Irene was threatening (but never touched our base at all), so the farmers in the mountains met our team half-way. Using an ingenious system of sticks and a weight, a farmer can learn how to terrace his land to slow or stop soil erosion, learn which indigenous plants can serve as hedgerows, and how/when to clip those plants for free fertilizer. Next year we hope to introduce goat improvement and more to this process. In this picture, Ron Baker trains a farmer in using the SALT apparatus.
Please pray for the teams scheduled for the rest of this year, and wisdom in scheduling 2012. Pray for kids club training that we are planning now, and for churches to be planted. And please pray for the Bible college team working now.
Thank you!
