Leaving Tonight!!!

We are all packing up and preparing to head out this evening!!! We will be taking a "red eye" flight from Seattle to Florida and then tomorrow we will fly over to Port au Prince! All day today and yesterday I have personally just been overcome by God's joy and excitement over His nation. It is amazing how much He loves us all! He has placed an excitement within us all to go and be with the Haitians! Everything is working out and the Lord is just orchestrating everything now!

He is SO good!

Well, I have to go finish packing!

We are thankful for all your donations and continual prayers!

Love you all!!!!

Four Weeks Until Take-Off!!!

It is hard to believe that there are only 4 weeks (plus a few days) until we leave Seattle to head to Florida...and then Haiti!!!

God is working so powerfully among our team as of late breaking bondages, rooting us deeper in His love, and building our relationships with one another... it's SO AWESOME! The song that says "Our God is greater, Our God is stronger, Our God is higher than any other..." (Our God is Greater- Chris Tomlin) is so true! The LORD is releasing His mighty power and healing among us as of late. He has been highlighting strongholds that we have in our lives and teaching us what it means to give Him all control and flee from trusting in ourselves.

Diana shared today about how the Lord called her to get rid of some of the distractions in her life and in obedience she threw them all away! Now, a tooth ache (a mighty bad one at that) that she had been experiencing earlier in the week and that the dentist could not explain is HEALED! She has NO more pain! PRAISE THE LORD!

So, as a team, we have committed to eliminating the distractions in our lives. They come in all sorts of shapes and forms (people, TV Shows, music, eating, exercise). Not to say that these things are bad... but it depends on how they permeate your life and are affecting your heart. For me personally, the LORD awakened me this morning with the conviction that I needed to let go of my control. I have suffered with eating disorder issues in the past which brought a lot of anxiety into my life as I felt the need to control my body. This resulted in a lactose intolerance, gluten intolerance, and pretty much any type of food intolerance. Last summer the anxiety was prayed off and I felt free... but over the last 6 months I began compromising and the intolerances and anxiety flooded back in. So, this morning, Katelyn and I prayed and the LORD has set me free with the knowledge that he has broken all bonds and lies and has shown me the path to walk in the opposite path of control. (He is SO good!) Our God heals!

The LORD has given us boldness, power, authority in His name! We are called to go out and be disciples to the Nations; but how can we do so if we are trapped in fear and other bondage that is keeping us from living out God's love in POWER? For we are told in John 4:18 "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear..." HALLELUJAH! As believers, Children of God, our Papa gives us POWER in His mighty LOVE! He sends us out to share the good news of salvation in His Son! Our Daddy loved us so So SO much that He sent His Son for us to die on the cross! He loves ALL his children and He longs for them to come and rest in His embrace. He is coming for Haiti. He is rebuilding the nation and restoring His people. He is setting the captives free and delivering them from the hopelessness, the depression, the darkness over their lives!

Something on my heart...

Hello Everyone!

It is hard to believe, but there are only 6 weeks left until our team leaves for Haiti!

It has been amazing the past 4 months growing as a team and God has definitely cultivated a heart within each of us for one another and for the Haitian people (and is continuing to enlarge our hearts more and more!) Our Father's love is being revealed in mighty ways day after day and it is so great because His love NEVER grows old!

This past week we have been increasingly encouraged as the Lord continues to bring forth the provision of money, hygiene supplies, and encouragement!

As a reader/ subscriber to this blog I would like to challenge you to be praying for the Haitian football (a.k.a. soccer) team. Apparently, the under-17 team had to withdraw from the big tournament as some team members have contracted malaria. Though there are only a few team members who contracted malaria, once those individuals return home it is very possible that an outbreak of malaria may occur due to lack of vaccination (be thankful to live in the U.S. and receive the vaccinations we do!). The fact that the living conditions of Haiti are still very poor and lack proper sanitation practices means that the spread of malaria is likely if a mosquito (or other carrier) sucks the blood of one of the infected individuals and then goes on to suck more peoples blood. However, we know that our Lord has His eyes on the Haitians! He sees the situation and nothing is out of His range of control!

I feel extremely blessed to live in the U.S. You see, when we are young most people receive vaccinations against such viruses that cause measles, etc. That is why, with the recent case of measles in Portland, there is not a huge worry because the majority of individuals have been vaccinated and are therefore we are not at risk for contracting the disease. Isn't that funny? That a few shots we get before we can hardly even speak can save our lives?! We are so blessed to live in the place we do! Therefore, let us take this blessing that the Lord has placed on our lives (ya, that's right, He has put you where you are for a purpose!) and take action! Let us pray for the protection of His people that do not have the luxuries that we have (yes, shots are luxuries... crazy right?! Bet you never thought about that one... and if you did, very nice!) Let us pray for the children, for the adults, for the elderly, for the workers, for the tent cities. God is coming to redeem Haiti. His plan will be made complete in his timing. His will will be done, on earth as it is in heaven!

We thank you for your prayers and your support as we prepare to leave! You are as big of a part of this trip as we are! Please feel free to share anything on your heart about Haiti and/ or our team (or anything! We would love to hear from you!)

God Bless!

Hygeine Kits!

Well, things are getting pretty busy here at PLU's campus - spring semester started yesterday, and I speak for myself at least when I say it's going to be suuuuuuuuuper busy! But more importantly, things are also starting to really get rolling for the Haiti trip! WOOOOO!

Our team has been preparing ourselves in prayer these past couple weeks, asking God to hone our hearts and focus towards Haiti - hard to believe the trip is only two months away! Now that we've got our basic project plans solidified (as Dan detailed in the last post), we can get to figuring out the details, and one of the first things we're getting started with is the hygiene kits. We'll be taking a portion of our budget and putting those together ourselves and bringing them over to Haiti with us. 

But wait! Those of you looking for an easy way to get involved in the effort alongside us, you can help us out immensely by contributing supplies towards these kits. The more kits we can put together, the more people we can give access to these essential hygiene tools in order to stop the spread of disease.

Here's a list of the items we're collecting for each kit:

1. Wash Cloth
2. Hand Towel
3. Shampoo bottle
4. Anti-bacterial Soap bottle
5. Toothbrush
6. Toothpaste tube
7. Comb
8. Neosporin tube
9. Nail Clipper
10. Nail File

11. Bandaids

For those of you who are somewhat near Tacoma, you can drop the items off with one of us or at PSCC (services 8:30, 10, and 11:35 AM on Sundays). Otherwise, if you can't get supplies to us but still want to help with the hygiene kits specifically, you can use the online form on the blog's main page and specify that your donation is to go towards the hygiene kits in the comments section. Just so you know, that part doesn't appear until the third page of the form, and this is what the it looks like:

There's a lot more going on in our prep work right now in addition to this. For instance, we're going to be spending time soon learning how to lead worship so that we can get the most out of the seminar we're leading - I'm excited for that! But I just wanted to highlight the hygiene kit thing so as to give a concrete example of exactly what we're doing this April!

Thanks for all your prayers and support so far! We've had some amazing instances of God providing financial support for our team - just in case we needed any more proof that God moves in mysterious ways!

Thanks for reading! 

In Christ,

 - David

Mission to Haiti

This mission is a group effort by Puget Sound Christian Center and the body of Christ at large to send 13 young adults to Haiti, a country in despair, to proclaim the message of Hope and healing in Jesus. We are going to serve-to serve the people of Haiti, the Haitian churches, and orphanages under the established Foursquare Mission Base and the relationships they have already developed. 

We will be the hands and feet of Jesus in humble service,
"Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many." Matthew 20:28

We are blessed tremendously to have Foursquare missionary Chad Isenhart and his wife Jordyn as part of our team. This will open doors, mostly relationally, that we would not have had otherwise. We will be involved in various projects and will fill in where the greatest needs are. 

Projects:

We will be hosting a worship seminar where we will teach the local church contemporary worship songs in Creole, their native tongue. These seminars are also open to the public and often attract a variety of people because of the music. This will be an opportunity to train the church but also lead people into worship and introduce them to Christ. 

We are preparing hygiene kits with basic hygiene tools including items like toothbrushes and soap that many don't have easy access to. ( Bad hygiene is one of the leading causes in the spread of disease). 

Along with hygiene kits, we will distribute water purifiers, which is particularly important right now to help slow down the recent cholera  outbreak. We will distribute these to orphanages, to individuals, and families through the Haiti Foursquare churches.

In all these projects our team will have many opportunities to connect, serve, encourage, and build relationships with the Haitian children, families, and adults. Our goal simply and plainly is to make Jesus known and all of our projects are practical ways to show the love of Jesus and introduce people into a relationship with Him.

13 will go. Many will pray. Many will encourage. Many will give. All can take part. We are asking you to pray about how you can help. Take time to watch the video's on the left column of this blog and let your heart connect with God's and with His plan of redemption for the Haiti people.

Lord bless Haiti, bring salvation and have mercy on the souls, hearts, bodies, communities, families, government and entire nation of Haiti in Jesus name.