Greetings loved ones! We’re so excited about this new year
and new season we’re stepping into. The Lord has been speaking to us in
so many ways, confirming, supporting, encouraging, and directing us. As
He reveals the next step in the greater vision He’s put on our hearts, we
eagerly plan and pray for those He’s called us to reach. At the beginning
of this process, the Lord put on our hearts a list of 41 people. These were
people we’ve built relationships over the years who are unchurched, and
in most cases very distant from God. However, the relationship is there,
and when we’ve talked about our vision of the future, they’ve all expressed
a desire to be a part of “that type of church.” Most of these are younger
folks. A handful of them are actually children of the elders of GCF who
have distanced themselves from the church as a whole. We know their
parents have been praying for them to come to know the Lord, and there
is certainly favor there.

We began meeting with the first of our 41. After praying about
who we should meet with first, the Lord put one person at the top of my
list. His name is Michael, brother to the girl Larena has been ministering
to (Aine). He is an elder’s son, used to play the drums, led worship on the
keyboard, and was part of our young adults ministry years ago. I shared a
lunch with him and caught up a bit. It had been a couple of years since we
had chatted, and I knew he hadn’t been going to church for some time. So,
I asked him about that, whether something had happened, or what. He said
it was just “philosophical differences.” I didn’t feel led in that moment to
go deeper into it, so I kept it light and shared what our plans were for the
church plant. He was actually very excited for what we are doing. Without
even asking, he told me he’d love to be a part of the church, and if we ever
need a drummer, he’d be willing! Praise God.

I’ve seen Michael grow over the 8 years we were running youth
and young adults at GCF. When we first started he was a youth on the
fringe. He didn’t fit in with the others and barely came to youth, but over
time his heart softened. He began coming to young adults small group at
our place, then helped us lead worship in youth and young adults, and
eventually gave his heart to the Lord. He even led worship on rotation for
Sunday services at GCF! However, he started to fade away again at a time
when we were transitioning out of young adults ministry. In his case, I
think the community he began surrounding himself around gradually led
him away from God. There is hope for him though. I see it.

As I said, when Michael was younger, he’d barely come to
youth ministry. What was funny was that anytime he DID show up, there
happened to be another youth who rarely came but just so happened to be
there when he was… every time. It was like a running joke that they
subconsciously coordinated. This other lad’s name was David. He is also
the son of one of the elders at GCF, eventually served on the youth leadership team, attended young adults at our house, and played keyboard
for worship as well. Like Michael, David was one of our favorites. We
loved him like one of our sons. His family often invited us over for
holidays and we became very close. He never gave his heart to the Lord,
but I have a sense that he’s on a journey and God is working on his heart.
We had David and his girlfriend Egle over for dinner a few days after I
met with Michael. It was great to be able to catch up with him as well.
David and Egle both loved what we shared with them about the church
plant. They’re both extremely creative, and offered to help me create a
vision casting video we could send to churches in the States. Please keep
David, Egle, and Michael in your prayers, that they might come to know
the Lord and be a positive influence on those who are around them.

I had one other very important meeting with a gentleman who
I have known for many years. His name is Jim, and he’s an accountant.
Jim used to attend GCF as well, and has helped other churches set up their
charitable status. Jim helped me wrap my head around the steps needed
to work towards setting up the church as a non-profit and offered his
assistance in each step! What an amazing connection there!

One of the main reasons we’ve been able to really get the ball
rolling at the end of this month was because we have a special visitor who
has come to assist us. Madisen is the daughter of our pastor at Living
Hope Church, and she has graciously decided to come and serve here for
8 weeks! She is fantastic with kids, and being that we have two high
energy children with no real support for them, she’s been such a Godsend.
Madisen has been helping with Liam and Anora, which in turn has freed
up Larena and I to get caught up on non-profit paperwork, projects around
the house, and of course given us the ability to meet with more people
than we otherwise would’ve been able to! What a huge answer to prayer!
She’s such a joy as well. When she first walked into the house, it was like
there was a peace that came with her. We’re so thankful for her.

The church plant planning and preparations are underway. I’ve
been able to get into town, chat with letting agents, identify our need for
the first phase of the city center location, and create a budget for it. The
space we are looking for will be used as an office and a place of meeting
for small groups and alpha courses. We’re also hoping to use it as a
launching point for other outreaches we plan. The project will cost about
$33,000 to set up and start. Please be in prayer for that amount, that we
can make some connections with churches in the States who might be
willing to partner with us. Ultimately we know that God will bring
together the funds to cover exactly what He’s called us to do. Thank you
for continuing to pray for our efforts, our protection, and provisions.
You’re truly an army of prayer warriors interceding on our behalf and we
cherish you for it! God bless you all.

Chris (Larena, Anora, & Liam)

Mission to the Children

“Changing our world one Life at a Time”

Two years ago today, Imelda went to heaven. I am thankful God healed her completely. She was a great wife, great mother, best friend, and a very Godly woman. Her life impacted many people, and she is greatly missed. Thank you, Imelda, for all you did for us. 

Our ministries are continuing to grow, and tomorrow we will have a special baptismal service at the ranch. We will Baptist between six and ten people.  Our baptismal pool broke and we are borrowing one for tomorrow. If you would like to help us buy a new one, designate your gift to the Baptismal fund; it will cost around $160. I am sorry to keep asking for money, but our ministry is out of money.  So far this month we have only received one donation. Please pray for our financial situation.  

 Our children’s class continues to grow and now we need to open a nursery and toddler’s class. We will use a, “gofundme”, account to try to generate funds.  This past month we had four new people join our congregation at the ranch; Praise the Lord.  Our men’s ministry had its first meeting last week; We are going to try to reach more men in our community. Please pray for this new ministry.  In March me and Lis will be doing a series on Improving your Marriage. We will meet every Tuesday night in March. We had planned on meeting in a house that would hold up to twenty, but due to the great response we had to move to a larger place. Keep this new ministry in your prayers. Thanks to your support we continue to grow. Please pray for us daily. I am planning to come up in April, please let me know if you would like me to speak to your Group.

Please make donations to Mission to the Children PO BX 211322 Bedford, Tx 76095 or go to:https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/missiontothechildren

Church

December was a very busy time for the Church. There were children’s programs and special activities. My favorite happening though was a very special baptism in the ocean.

Baptism in the ocean. Don’t you love the fishing boat in the back ground? Matthew 4:19 – And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men

Kidnappings

As many of you have heard there are gangs taking over the country since the president was shot in July. They are kidnapping, raping and killing people. They are asking high ransoms for the release of the person and even then they do not always release them, they will kill the kidnapped person and also the person that delivers the ransom. 17 missionaries were recently kidnapped and held for 2 months. 5 were released because they were sick. The rest escaped during the night and walked for miles to get away from the gang members. God preformed a miracle just in time for Christmas. Sadly, one of our special friends is now very concerned as neighbors are telling him that gang members are asking questions about him because he has a house, a car and American friends. He is very frightened for his wife and 2 little children and himself. Please join us in prayer for the situation and gang members in Haiti. 

School

The children have been attending school, although not always in uniform to avoid being kidnapped. We are so happy as we had several new children sponsored in the last few months. One was a Christmas present for their dad. Another sponsor took on 2 more kids. As food becomes more scarce all the time, the lunch served at the school is all too often the only food the children have for the day. School is in session from 7 am till 1 pm. This gives the children time to get home and study while there is still day light as very few of the homes have electricity and now there is no fuel for generators. It is not easy being a student in Haiti.

Animals

We had several animals born in the last few months and several more ready to be born. We are most excited that several sponsors decided to give “their family” an animal for Christmas. And beyond excited that a church group in Ohio decided to collect money to buy animals for families in Gonaives. And whenever possible the animals will be bought from our families in the animal program! This program is doing what it is supposed to do! Helping families help themselves.

Containers , earthquake victims and blessings

Jackie hurt her knee in October and had to have emergency surgery done in November. Then there was a recovery period so she knew she wouldn’t get much done as far as Haiti was concerned. God had other plans!! First she was offered a whole container of soup mix to ship to Haiti. After finding several other groups to share the cost on the shipping container plans are under way to send this load out as soon as the arrangements can be finalized (the area where the food is has been flooded so it is difficult getting the container in and out on the muddy roads). We are more than excited about the thought of one million meals being sent to Gonaives and La Gonave Haiti!! Then a church in Florida has reached out and asked if we could safely get supplies to the earthquake victims. Ariol, our young man who is such a blessing to us, said he wanted to take it, There was so much stuff that he had to rent a truck!! Tarps, rice, beans, powdered milk for the babies, Bibles and so much more. They had to pass through an area that was controlled by gangs and ended up taking dirt roads to get around them. They arrived late so spent the night and the next morning Ariol spoke to the people about Jesus. They were eager to receive Bibles and listen to him. After everything was distributed they headed back over the mountain. And Ariol’s brakes messed up on his car. It started rolling back down the mountain and he knew he was going to meet Jesus very soon. But the car rolled into a big pile of dirt and stopped. It was getting late and the car would not drive so a stranger came by and offered to let them stay at his house for the night. They did and the man even helped fix the car and followed them all the way back to Port au Prince to make sure they were safe. What a blessing he was! But while the car was sitting for the night it was broken into and Ariol and the other guys things were stolen. Ariol did get banged and bruised up from this so we are praying for a quick recovery for all of them. Dr Leggette will be traveling there in January to treat people in the tent camps. We are also lining up 2 containers which will load the middle of January if everything goes right. If you are a sponsor and have a gift for your child please get it to us quickly. We can also use lots of loading help because several of our people have had surgeries, broken bones etc.