Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Some news!

Greetings to you our faithful supporters. While we don't have a lot of news to share with you, we figured any news would be welcome with regards to the Hope Village project.

When we returned from the US, we received news from the people working on the first step of our paperwork that they were ready to move on to the next step. So we are planning to meet with the local government where the land is when we go there next month. We don't really know what this means as far as our time line goes, but I'm hoping to know a lot more after meeting with the officials in Port Margot in December. So, continue to pray for the project, for the paperwork and for patience (that's 3 P's, that should make it easier to remember). If we hear anything else before then, we'll let you know!

Thanks for your prayers and encouragement.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

About the Details

Unfortunately, we've still not heard anything about the paperwork, so we continue to pray for God to work out those details in His own good timing. In the meantime, however, we've been very encouraged to see God working out other small details in preparation for our new project. Some of these details include working out some issues among our young people, preparing all of us for the long road we have ahead of us. But one detail God worked out this past week had to do with 4 young boys who had been abandoned at the HOH over the past few years. (For more on how they left the HOH this week read the HOH blog at: www.houseofhopehaiti.blogspot.com ).

The day the visitors from the mission up the road came to ask us to allow them to take and care for these boys, we felt like God had sent a group of angels directly to our home! We all were riding high on a cloud for the rest of the day. We had been praying for a long time about what God wanted us to do with these boys. We didn't feel like we could leave them behind at the HOH when we eventually leave, but at the same time, they didn't really fit into the vision God had given us for Hope Village. We were making plans to make them fit into Hope Village, praying about having a small home in the village just for them, and trying to find someone who was trained and skilled in caring for special needs children. But we were really seeking God's will in all of that, as it added another dimension to the project that we weren't really sure about.

In the end, God saw fit to take these boys who He has entrusted into our care for the past several years, and give them to another group of His servants. These people are skilled and trained to care specifically for these children, and it was a blessing to see their home for these children when we took them up there this morning. They have everything we only dreamed of being able to provide for these children, and the love and desire to help these boys develop as much as they are able to.

Another small thing that has happened is the starting up of our website. It is really simple at the moment, but our introductory newsletter is posted on there so you can point other people in that direction if they are asking questions about the new project. The address is: www.hopevillagehaiti.org . We hope to add more and more to the website in the coming months, so feel free to take a look there occasionally.

So praise God together with us as He continues to work out the details of our project. And continue to pray with us as He brings it all together...

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Introduction Letter

Greetings from Haiti! Just a quick note to let you know we have finished the Introduction letter, telling people what Hope Village is all about. We hope to have it posted on our website in the next week or so, but for now we had to send it out via e-mail. If you did not receive it but wish to, please let us know and we'll send it in an e-mail to you. Thank you so much for your prayers together with us as we continue to work on the paperwork.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Newsflash!!!

Wow, two updates in two days, it's gotta be a miracle--certainly a first for me! It just came to my attention that I needed to let you all know a very important piece of information...

While Linda and I are changing locations, and expanding our ministry in this new direction, we are not changing mission organizations. I am remaining a missionary under CrossWorld, and Hope Village will also be under CrossWorld. CrossWorld is supportive of our new venture and while they are not yet able to receive funds for Hope Village; as soon as our government paperwork is in order, they will begin doing that. So that is why we are working hard on getting the paperwork completed, and ask for your prayers for this to happen quickly. Again, if you have any specific questions feel free to contact me directly.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

A tiny bit of news!

When it's been a while since there's been any news, even the smallest bit of news is exciting these days. So we thought we'd share it with you...

While the paperwork has not moved at all, we did hear this week that there is some activity going on there. We are in the process of finding someone to help us with this step of the process. He is in the process of reviewing where we are, and will hopefully give us some feedback soon. Please pray that this will be the contact we need in order to give our paperwork the right shove to get out of the rut we've been in!

In the meantime I thought we'd share some more pictures of the property with you. The picture on the header of the blog is one picture of the beach where the property is located. This is a view of the beach in the other direction (towards the East)...







Here are a few shots of the actual land/property... You even get to see my shadow as I'm taking the picture!











It really is a beautiful piece of land, and a beautiful location. We thank God for the work he has done so far, and ask you to continue to pray as we work to get our paperwork in order so we can begin this project.

I will be working on an introductory letter for the project hopefully this coming week. There is so much information we need to fit into a small amount of space, so I'd really appreciate your prayers as we work on this. And thanks so much for continuing to hold us and the project up in your prayers. We continue to wait on Him to bring these things about...thanks for being in the journey together with us.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

In His time...

A big hello to all of you from Haiti. It is time to start updating you on the progress of Hope Village, thank you for your patience over the past few months as we've been working through different things in order to make it a reality.

The biggest thing we are working on right now is the paperwork with the government. It is proving to be a lot more time consuming that we had hoped, and at this point is what is holding us back in the whole process. So the first thing that we would like for you to pray for with us is this whole realm of paperwork. Please pray for the people helping us fill it out, they are very busy people, and this isn't a priority for them. We are very thankful for their willingness to help us out, so we just ask you to pray that they would take the time to get it done, so we can move forward on the next step.

In the meantime we are making progress in the planning stages. The group of young people who will be ministering with us at Hope Village continues to meet for prayer and fasting on a weekly bases. We have lately been having planning sessions as well, to discuss many different facets of the new ministry. We are all very excited about what is ahead, but we also realize that we need to be patient as we wait for God to work out things in His time.

As always, if you have specific questions feel free to write and ask. Little by little we will be getting more news out there about Hope Village and our plans for the future. But we want you to know we greatly appreciate your prayers and support at this time. Many people are asking what they can do to help out, and at this point prayer is the biggest thing we need, so thanks for partnering with us in this way.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Jen & Da