When Pastor Cesar, our wonderful Bible school student joined Bible school, I asked "Why are you here?" He had been through seminary. His answer was, "I sense the Holy Spirit here and I like the way you teach the Word of God." That was nearly three years ago. Every Saturday he came/comes with three other people, which is a hardship for someone who lives just outside Cite Soliel, the poorest section of Port au Prince. He had to make sure he had the money to get a bus to and from (and many times he only had enough to get to school, we'd help him get home).
He became one of our most diligent students and asked us if he could start a Bible school at his church. We approved and he has 40 students to date.
On January 12th, his little church came down, while he was having Bible school. He told me he was teaching, "Knowing Your Ministry." Every thing fell, but due to the humble structure no one was hurt, just frightened.
Twenty two members in his church lost their homes in the quake. When we visited him shortly after the earthquake, the one thing we could do for this faithful man of God was to rebuild his church. We brought in an engineer who told us exactly how to build it, earthquake safe. This venture is not cheap, but Pastor Cesar will have a church to house people during the night, when the rainy season comes.
He already has 43 new converts and his church is going to be twice the size it was before. We are so honored to be the carriers of the funds and overseers of this project. But, it's the people in the States who are funding it. Thank you if you've got any part in this building project. You are truly building the "house of the Lord."
Pastor Cesar said, "I want a baptismal pool. I believe that when they get saved they should be baptized." If you knew the Haitian thinking toward baptism, you'd know this is a powerful statement.
Pray for Pastor Cesar as he is coughing up blood although he does not seem sick. He is seeing a Dr. God is the healer, the Body of Christ needs Pastor Cesar! He will graduate from Bible school in May.
God is continuing to bless us with people to help. This week, Janice Myers, from Family Harvest and Cindy Rahl, from Florida, both teachers. They are a huge asset at El Shaddai. Cindy will stay until the 27th and when Janice leaves on Saturday another Family Harvest person, Mike Harrawood will come in. When Mike leaves, Tasha Witherspoon will join us for a week. We are thankful for this wonderful help. Also, this week, a Wisconsin team from Appleton will arrive (actually today). They are a construction group. Mark Grassman and his team will do some welding, electrical work here then travel to a small village in Jacmel to install a solar powered water filter system.
Dan Joshu will travel in April to attend a conference that will better equip him to lead El Shaddai in the fall. With the teacher expertise we've received and this training, the next level toward excellence will be achieved. I stand back in awe at God answering prayer.
The Holy Spirit is prompting me to add this note: Please be encouraged about your prayers. Are you praying and nothing seems to be happening in terms of answers? Don't give up! God's listening and putting all the pieces in the right places so the answer is powerful and accomplishes His eternal desires. We pray "thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" there are no mistakes, the answer comes and is perfect because heaven is perfect. When He answers the answer is multiplied many times over. We prayed for a second vehicle, we got two more. We prayed for help, we got many more. During the time of praying we kept working and believing. Luke 18:1 says: Men must always pray and not give up. Giving up means caving in. What do you cave in to? Doubt and unbelief that what you are praying will not come to pass. I've heard it said, God will move heaven and earth to answer prayer. Our answer came due to an earthquake. Rather interesting isn't it?
May your day be filled with HIM.
Carolyn
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