Haiti 2009

2009-03-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

Sunday Morning Service

2009-03-10T12:41:00.000-07:00

Pastor Fred and Wilem preaching

2009-03-10T12:14:00.001-07:00

Kent Lawson singing for
the worship service

2009-03-10T11:30:00.000-07:00

Sunday Morning Service

2009-03-10T08:34:00.000-07:00

Praise the Lord, we are home safe! God blessed us with safe travel and we arrived at the church around 1:30 am. Leaving Port Au Prince was quite exciting for a few minutes, Bill Clinton was coming in and they had the roads closed to the airport. There were men in uniforms along the streets with big guns! (and people everywhere) Willem was able to talk to one of the guards while we had to pile into one vehicle and the truck with our luggage to get through. It was like something you would see on TV!

Sunday morning church was a great way to prepare us for coming home. The singing was wonderful, they sang with such passion! Kent Lawson shared a few thoughts and then sang
" Above All". Pastor Fred preached with Wilem interrupting. I wish we had video the service because it was just amazing to see. The presences of the Lord was there from the beginning to the end!
I will be adding more pictures to the blog so keep checking!

God Bless and thank you for your prayers!
Louise

2009-03-07T17:53:00.000-08:00

This is the window that Brad Lawson built...

2009-03-07T17:31:00.000-08:00

Putting finishing touches on the house...
To God be the glory!

2009-03-06T03:54:00.000-08:00

Angie playing with the kids.

2009-03-05T18:31:00.000-08:00

2009-03-05T17:53:00.000-08:00

We are placing the prayer blocks around

the home

2009-03-05T17:14:00.000-08:00

This picture was taken on Wednesday when we were
doing the footer and leveling the ground.

There is so much to tell you all but it is so hard to put it into words.

Working on the house has been quite an experience. There is a lot of

people there to help us and several young boys. There are two women

who work all day long. they have walked this narrow path that was at an

at an incline. They carried buckets of sand on their head, and then today

they carried cement blocks on their head. The whole family has worked

on their home. Today the walls went up and we got to put the prayer blocks

in blocks and surrounded the home with your prayers! That was such a

blessing. I will add some pictures of the home for you to see.

2009-03-05T13:47:00.000-08:00

This is something Tracy Sarris wrote ( she is here with First Baptist Church) after our experience on the plane. I believe you will enjoy it.

Louise

Monday morning 3 a.m. came too quickly for our Haiti Mission Team. Fourteen willing and eager Believers heading out to do something to reflect God's Glory. Things started out with prayer, donuts and hot coffee. The ride to the airport held an air of expectation and laughter as team members started their journey toward Haiti and lifelong friendships. Stories of previous trips mixed with reassurances for those on their first mission trip. The Spirit was there and was beginning to prepare us for things to come. Throughout the day God showed His Presence. He was there is the last minute need to check oversized carry-ons without having to pay the $200 in fees. He revealed Himself in the scales falling from the eyes of American Airlines staff allowing them to realize that those funds could be used for the work in Haiti. He exposed His Power in our rush to a connecting flight delayed just long enough for the Team to arrive. Another God moment was when the mechanics discovered a gas leak on the plane that we had just boarded. Our spirits remained high as we waited for a new plane on which we would finish the last leg of this journey,seeing God at every turn, feeling His Touch. Yet again God preparing us for what was to come. Constantly revealing that He was there. You see, that last plane almost went down. The storm that was bearing down on Haiti during our descent caused the plane to careen from side to side as we attempted to fly into Port Au Prince. The feeling was that of a poorly planned amusement park ride. Instead of hearing the reassuring sound of the landing gear making contact with pavement, the plane went up quickly, the nose at a 45 degree angle as the pilot pulled the over 200 passangers and crew of flight 803 back into the sky. THe view from the window as runway lights, lightening and nothing but clouds. Later we learned we were less than 500 feet from the ground. If that pilot had not acted so quickly we would have been the latest story on CNN, statistics...number on a chart indicating lives lost to air travel in March 2009. Talk to anyone on that flight and one word keeps coming to the forefront...prayer. The crew did their job that day and for that we are thankful, but ultimately it was The Hand of God that lifted American Airlines 803 to Port Au Prince out of that storm. His Plan March 2, 2009 did not include a loss of life but if it had we WOULD NOT have become only statistics, numbers or names on the news. We would have given testimony, glory and honor to our Lord through obedience unto death. That night five mission teams, over half of that passenger list, lived out and almost died Paul's statements in Phillipians 1:19-21. And for that and the courage provded as only God can in times af great trial...I am thankful. Blessings, Tracey "I will have suffiicent courage so that now as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death

2009-03-04T18:29:00.000-08:00

We are tearing down this house and
building a new one that is a little bigger
for the family. There are 12 people who
live in this home.

2009-03-04T17:58:00.000-08:00

Here is our luggage loaded and ready to take
to Willem and Beth's.

Deboarding in Port Au Prince

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2009-03-03T14:51:00.000-08:00

Monday at 4:30 am just before we leave for
airport

The Trip (as told by Tricia)

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All I can inform you of is my brief phone conversations with my parents on their trips. Their flight left from Indy fine Monday morning. In Chicago they were faced with an hour delay which put them barley in time for their flight in Miami. They were not sure if their luggage was going to make the flight but they were happy to be on it themselves. Upon taxing out to the runway the plane was turned around due to a problem that is unknown to all. But this did give everyone time to eat and luggage time to catch up. Their flight eventually made it off the ground from Miami to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The flight is ruffly an hour and a half so upon departing into Port-au-Prince their was a bad storm which created so turbulence on the plane and the pilot could not land the plane. He circles around and eventually turned around and went back to Miami while he still had the gas. The members of the team had to go back through customs, uncheck all 30 pieces of luggage and stay the night in a hotel in Miami then board a new flight at 7 o'clock this morning and are now happy to say they have made it to Haiti. But the "God"ness in it all is that last night on the flight from Miami to Port-au-Prince when the turbulence got horrible and Mom was scared my Dad reminder that is was shortly after 7pm and the church was praying for them. Mom will update you with more information and I know they already have pictures they are excited to share.

Sunday Morining

2009-03-03T06:46:00.000-08:00

Lori Watkins announced that see will be leading prayer meetings every evening of the mission trip for the mission team. The meetings will be held at 7 pm and everyone is invited to come and lift the team in prayer. If you are unable to attend we hope you set your alarm at home to pray for the team especially at that time. Then the entire team came forward and the church surrounded them in prayer.

2009-03-03T06:41:00.000-08:00

As a church we gathered around our mission team and prayed for their safety and that God would make them his hands and feet in Haiti. We continue to pray while they are gone but hopefully the image of the mission members surrounded in prayer by their church is enough to remind us that we are all going as a church not just a mission team.

2009-02-27T08:46:00.000-08:00

“Exciting News”
Do you remember seeing that heading in the bulletin or in a letter that you received? Exciting News, Oregon Baptist Church is planning to send a group to Haiti on a mission trip! That seems like a long time ago and a lot of work has gone into this mission trip. Our Fund raising started with an Ice Cream Social then went to a Bean Dinner/ Yard Sale followed by selling blocks and ending with the Concert/ Dinner and Silent Auction. Together we, Oregon Baptist Church raised the funds needed. We are on our way! Our main project is building a home. We may be finishing a home that is already under construction and leaving the funds to provide another home. I am looking forward to seeing the school and the Children’s home. Our team has changed a few times, due to sickness or other reasons we have lost some who had hoped to go. We will miss them and be thinking of them this week.
This blog is to help us share our experience with those who has made it possible for this to happen. Thank you for all the support and please continue the prayers this week. I am new at this blogging thing, so we’ll see how it goes.

God Bless,
Louise

Here are a few pictures to get us started.

2009-02-27T08:38:00.000-08:00

What a beautiful site!

It takes a 1000 blocks to build a home in Haiti.
We sold paper blocks for $5.00 each to help raise
the money to build the home in Haiti. Here is a picture
of all the blocks that were purchased through donations
and our Concert. Dinner and Silent Auction.
Some of the paper blocks have prayers
or blessings for the family recieving the home.
These blocks will be placed it
the real blocks of the home, surrounding
the family with our prayers.

2009-02-27T08:24:00.000-08:00

Pictures from
February 7th Concert/Dinner and Silent Auction

2009-02-27T08:18:00.000-08:00

Behind every successful dinner is a
outstanding kitchen crew!

2009-02-27T08:09:00.000-08:00

Verizon network has their people.
Haiti mission trip team has theirs!
Thank You for being there for us!

2009-02-27T07:58:00.000-08:00

Brad Lawson ,a member of the mission team,
shares why he is going to Haiti.

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Courtney Francis - A member of the Mission Team tells what she is looking forward to on the mission trip and shows a slide presention on the Mountian Top Ministries

2009-02-27T07:46:00.000-08:00

Pastor Fred
Also a member of
the mission team,
shares his thoughts
and goals for the
mission trip.

2009-02-27T07:42:00.000-08:00

Concert by " His Love"
Kent Lawson, Mark Tobey,
Kevin Wolf and Laurance Cross

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