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True Love Missions

          We arrived back in Port Au Prince on Saturday, June 25, 2011.  From the moment we stepped out of the airport the mission began!  We were immediately met by our extended family in Haiti, Baba, Charly, and Mike, whom would stay with us for most of the trip.Soon  after we found Pastor Ellie, whose church we would spend the first night at. We were off to our first destination in Petion-ville.  Petion-ville is a very interesting place.  It is a place where many of the few wealthy people of Haiti live, a place visited by tourists, and a place known for it’s clubs and night life.  Amongst the tents and crude plywood homes without any plumbing or electricity are elaborate, beautiful, multi story, luxury homes, with Mercedes-Benz’s parked in the driveway.  Just up the street from such a house, in front of the church we were staying at, we met a group of children who were dirty, naked, and playing soccer with an empty soda bottle.  We spent some time with them, next to the town garbage dump, that they live literally next to.  We invited them to the church for a meal, some clothes, and a prayer. We felt greatly blessed by the sincere smiles on their faces.  After walking around the town with many of the children it was time to go and we were brought to the room we would be staying in.  It was a room about 12 feet by 12 feet with no beds and no furniture, completely bare, but the 7 of us were not phased because we knew the work we were about to do there was far greater than sleeping the night on a concrete floor.  We went upstairs to the sanctuary to feed the children of the town and were amazed to see that this 5 story concrete structure survived the earthquake! We knew God protected his house and his people.  

          We felt honored to meet all the beautiful people of this church and blessed to pray, worship, and dance with them.  The following morning, which was Sunday, Bryan preached a message on the importance of sharing the gospel and the love of Christ.  After, Patty gave the seal of prayer on the message promising the congregation they would return the following Thursday with Creole bibles for everyone and that Bryan would share his testimony with them.  We reluctantly said our Good-byes and prepared to leave.

          We were sad to be leaving this church in Petion-ville, but very excited to be headed to Bizotin, which is where we have spent nearly all of our previous time in Haiti and where we have developed many personal relationships with the beautiful local people.  Once we arrived at the house we would be staying at we were eager to climb up the mountain to “Teplaz” or tent city.  Once there, we emotionally greeted our brothers and sisters whom we had thought of and prayed for everyday since we had seen them last.  These are people greatly effected by the earthquake.  They live in a town made out of tarps,many of which that were donated to them by us,as well as the clothes that they wear, and even the land they live on is borrowed.  Most of the people of tent city had there homes destroyed in the earthquake and now live on this land that does not belong to them.  The land that was completely vacant before the earthquake and is now home to over 1500 people, a church, and a school, is being sold and must be vacated in less than 1 year.  Upon hearing this True Love Missions partnered with an organization called Mercy for the Children to purchase a large piece of land nearby.  We immediately began to flatten the land, which is a mountainside as is much of Haiti.  There is a tremendous amount of work involved in just flattening the land.  The first structure we will build is the new church, which thanks to God needs to be twice the size of the existing church to accommodate the overwhelming growth.  We are so happy to know that this town that we love so much will be rebuilt around God’s house.  In addition to the new church we are building a house for two brothers, Wilson who is 18 and his brother Reginal who is 23.  Upon our last visit to Haiti we discovered these two young men who we love so much and who are such a great help to our mission were basically homeless. These two brothers who lived in a vacant lot filled with trash, under a torn piece of tarp, and shared a baby mattress will now have a real home. Thanks to God and your support these young men will have a home of their own for the first time in their lives. By God’s grace and your support our mission was able to bless another very deserving family. This family we’ve grown very close to, the father of 5 works day and night at the school and church in Teplaz just so his children could attend the school. His family used to live in a very small tent made from ripped tarps, but now they are one of the first in tent city to have a real house. We hope and pray that the other townspeople will look and see what God may do when you serve Him with all your heart. 

          Another place that we were blessed and honored to visit is 4 hours north of Port au Prince and is called Bassin Bleu. We took a public bus which was by far the cheapest way to go and we soon learned why. It was a regular sized school bus and they packed about 140 people in it. For 4 hours we could not move at all, except for when the bus broke down and everyone got out to wait while they fixed it. Eight hours later we arrived at our destination, Bassin Bleu. The pastor took us to his house which is just behind the church he pastors that is also the village school. In his  small 3 room house where he lives with his family of 9, they fed us a meal of goat and fried banana before they would allow us to do anything. After, that we went in the church and began to meet all the people of the village. Old and young they were all mesmerized by the sight of us and we soon learned that we were the only missionaries to ever visit their village. One man handed Patty his infant daughter and told her to take her on the plane, take her to America! After distributing 7 months salary to the 6 teachers and 1 principal of the school, who had not been paid anything for well over 7 months of work, we needed some rest. We were taken to the place where we would be staying and although Bryan and Patty were both asked to preach in just a few hours we were so exhausted from the bus ride and the hot sun that all we could do was sleep. A short time later the pastor returned to get us to meet some very special 

villagers. The pastor goes through his village everyday to pray for people with special needs and today he asked us to accompany him. We prayed for a man who can not walk, we prayed for a blind man, and we prayed for a mentally handicapped young girl.  We could feel the attack of darkness that was on this town. We got back to the church and while waiting for church to start, we met a man that told us he was a voodoo priest for 15 years. But everyday the pastor would tell him “Jesus died for you”! After years, and he doesn’t know why, he said “ok take me to church”! That voodoo priest was saved that day and that night so were his wife and 8 children! We met his beautiful family who had the biggest smiles on there faces and we got to hear them play guitar and drums during worship that evening. Well church that night was powerful ! As Bryan preached the Holy Spirit showed up in such a powerful way ! The whole church was quickly on their feet shouting, lifting their voices to Jesus all the while  Bryan was yelling back at them so loud he lost his voice and doesn’t even remember most of what the Holy Spirit spoke through him! But as he preached, that church was shaking with excitement as the fire and anointing from heaven came down upon that church! Such an amazing day and night and we believe that God changed that town that night and is continuing to change that town even now! We sadly had to leave early in the AM and after an even worse bus ride back to Port au Prince we were still in awe of the previous night. Just how in life the enemy tries to distract us from God with the journey, he tried on this trip to Bassin Bleu, but thanks to the Lord, once again he was unsuccessful.

          We wanted to write this letter as our way of thanking everyone for all their support, both spiritually and financially.  All of the great accomplishments that we have seen in our work in Haiti. All of the testimonies of healings the people have shared with us on how their lives have been changed, is only made possible by the grace of God and you.  We ask that you would continue to sow into this ministry and we believe that God will bless you back 100 fold both in this lifetime and in eternity. God be with you all, peace and love to you all in the name of Jesus.

“The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.  Unrolling it he found the place where it is written:
  ‘The spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’”