I'm Back!

Oh my goodness! Have I neglected this blog or what?!

This is an attempt to get back on track and write more. If anyone is still or will continue to follow this blog, I promise to try harder to write.

Much has happened since I last wrote but I'll try to bring you up to speed in a nutshell.

It was one year ago January that we took a vision trip to Haiti, to meet with a pastor and his wife and to get a better understanding of their needs. They care for their 6 biological children and 14 more who were orphaned from the earthquake in January 2010. Since the earthquake, they have been living in their back yard at first in tents and now temporary shacks.

They do all their cooking outdoors on a 2 burner camp stove and eat as a family at a large picnic table, all on dirt floor.

I am so blessed to have met this family! They have become like family to me!

Since I last wrote an update, I traveled to Haiti for the third time last year as part of a medical team. We conducted a 3 day medical clinic out of the doors of the pastor's church. You can read about it here and here.

Have I mentioned the non-profit we created to come along side the pastor and his family? This time marks the one year anniversary of the creation of this ministry called Bread to the Nations. You can check out the website here. Go read about the opportunities God has put before us to minister to the people in Haiti.

Our medical clinic launched an on-going malnutrition treatment program. The program is called Medika Mamba, a peanut butter paste that is used to treat severe malnutrition in children up to age 5. It's called Plumpy Nut in Africa.

We have an American team serving on the ground and overseeing the ministry activities. They live in Haiti about 75% of the time and are committed to serving there long term.

Speaking of long term, when we entered into this work, we did it knowing that this could mean that we would be working there for many years.

Haiti hasn't always been where I envisioned God was going to use me. Serving in developing countries is messy and complicated. But serving in Haiti challenges of its own. When friends and family hear about our work in Haiti, they sometimes get skeptical and sometimes we are told to not go there or asked why there?

Well, it's because God has brought us there. We did not go searching for anything like this, God brought the need to us. After sponsoring the children in the pastor's home, God opened up ways from us to work in the  church community among the poorest of the poor. This area has been almost untouched by outside assistance. To not respond would be turning my back on God and turning my back on what we are all called to do.

If Bread to the Nations had not come alongside families in this church community, most likely many children and some mothers would be dead today from lack of food. In fact at least one mother informed us that she was dying of starvation until our team came along to support her with food. Several mothers that we support tried giving their children up to an orphanage but now can keep their children because they are receiving food from our ministry. In essence, he work of BttN has helped prevent orphans.

Our main purpose of serving there is to bring the Gospel to the people. We pray for people to be transformed and have new life in Christ through physical healing and Biblical teachings. We reach people for Christ through providing for their physical needs.

As a result, we have seen many miracles of lives bring transformed. We have had several mothers and older children come to know Christ through physical healing.

One of the greatest and most rewarding part of this work is to watch how God provides for all the ministry needs. If you would like to follow this journey, please join us on Facebook and/or leave me your email address (will not be published) and I will make sure to keep you in the loop.

At this time we are raising funds to build a home for the pastor, his wife and 20 children. We would really like to get them in the home before the rainy season, which is coming soon! Construction has begun for the first phase but we need more funds to complete this phase. You can follow the progress here.

Raising funds for our malnutrition treatment program is on-going. The more funds we raise, the more lives we can touch. Learn more about this program here. Right now we have a generous donor who will match up to $5,000 for donations towards this program. We only have a few days to raise this, so if you would like to double your tax free donation towards saving the life of a child, go to the BttN website and click on "support the ministry" located on he right sidebar.

I hope to write soon about the struggles and challenges yet rewards of serving in a developing country.

Thanks for reading this far!