We’re back… long overdue MBC update

Wow, it has been WAY too long since we’ve blogged.  The truth is, we’ve been so busy, there has been no time to blog!  June was full with 2 teams, Drew’s Kindergarten graduation and preparing to leave for 3 weeks to go to the States.  The first 3 weeks of July we were in the States.  Then, when we returned to Haiti, we hit the ground running.  You know when you get behind on something, it’s hard to catch up?  Well, that’s how I feel about blogging right now.  So much has happened these last 2 months.  I want to share it, but I don’t know where to begin!

I think I’ll start with the team we had the last week of June from our home church in Florida, McGregor Baptist Church.  We were so excited to have this student team and excited for the opportunity to minister together as a family with them.  They were based here in the Cayes area for the first few days then we went out to the Retreat Center and did ministry locally there.  Our week was full of evangelistic services, both in the church and outdoors, food distribution, and yard-to-yard evangelism.  The neatest part for us, was that whatever the team did, our whole family did with them.  It was so much fun and so exhausting!

The team arrived on Friday.  On Saturday, we jumped right in!  We went to 2 different churches, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  The churches were asked to have their 50 most neediest families in the community at the church for a service and then distributed a box of food to each family.  We asked that they not be all church people… we wanted this to be a way for the church to reach out to the community with the gospel.  Afterward, we split into 3 groups, each with one translator and one person from the church, either the pastor or a deacon, and did yard-to-yard evangelism.  That was the coolest experience, walking around these different communities, sharing Christ.  We did this model with 3 to 4 more churches throughout the week.  Decisions for Christ were made each time we shared. We also enjoyed church services and held an open air evangelistic service, in which 40+ kids made decisions.

Food distribution:  It was fun to see people arrive with a small plastic shopping bag and go home with a big box of food.

 

Yard-to-yard Evangelism:

 

Open-air evangelism service:

 

Overall, 100 people made a life-changing decision to follow Christ during the week!  The best part, is that Haitian church leaders were there, right beside us, following up on these salvations, making sure people understood their decisions and ensuring that discipleship will happen!  It’s what I love most about ministry with RMI—it’s about enabling the body of Christ to come together and minister to one another and with one another.

 

The MBC team took one day to do a service project for RMI as well, by painting our guesthouse.  It’s looking much prettier these days!

And you know we had fun as well!  We had a few nights where we played group games, and we got a chance to enjoy the beach and the retreat center.

 

The kids were exhausted when the week was done, but they sure had fun being a part of it all.  The day the team flew back to FL, we were on their same flight with a final destination of NJ.  Trying to pack for an extended trip amid all the fun with the team upped my stress level a little.  I’ll not plan that way again!  But I started packing and getting ready before they arrived so it worked out.

MBC student team, you were an awesome team to have!  Thanks for letting our family minister with you!  It was such a joy.  We miss you!

~Becky