“This goes well with my prescription…it says: Take with a meal and shake well” Tom Turner

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

“The wicked wait in ambush for the godly, looking for an excuse to kill them, but the Lord will not let the wicked succeed or let the godly be condemned when they are put on trial. “ Psalm 37:32-33

Our first night was a little chilly…such a blessing to have AC!! We all had set our alarms for 5 AM so we would have time to get ready for the 6:30 am Sunday service at the church in Les Cayes, however when we got up, we found out there was no water….just one more opportunity for us to be flexible, make do with what we have….and also for some funny remarks to come up with:

“Go now…..flush later” Craig, after finding out we had no water.

Since we got in after dark on Saturday, we were not able to appreciate the amazing view we have from this guest house. But this morning we did! The first introduction is the sound….the sound of the cow—affectionately named by Tony “Ranasal” because it sounds like she has nasal problems-- mooing right next to our window, or the rooster crowing (no, not just in the morning…through the whole night). There are roosters, chickens, pigs, dogs, and cows all hanging out outside of the house in the morning. The house is on hill, overlooking the countryside of Les Cayes. We are surrounded by beautiful green mountains, and we can even see the ocean! The house has security…one or two men with a very intimidating shotgun (loaded with blanks). Our house has a kitchen, a meeting room, 4 bedrooms with 3 double bunks each, a bedroom “suite” for the married couples--in our case Ed and Cathy--and even the call center, a source of revenue for the church where they post advertisements on the internet. Down the hill of the missionary house, the ice/bakery factory is located, as well as the orphanage, school and clinic. This is a newly-renovated house, which used to house the older orphans, but has now been transformed into the missionary house (in the past, the missionaries would stay at Pastor Louis’ house).

We headed to the “big church” (the one in Les Cayes) for our first church service at 6:30 AM. We feel so honored to be able to worship and sing praises to our Lord with them!! Their energy and passion during worship is amazing and contagious. The music has an islandish undertone, and they are not afraid to dance and move around while they celebrate our God! Their voices are not only amazing, but powerful! And everyone who steps on the altar sings, at one point or another, with beautiful voices! As a special treat, there was a young woman who sang “This is my story” …..her voice was beautiful and captivated all of us.

Pastor Louis welcomed us in front of the whole congregation and gave Craig the opportunity to introduce us as a team, explain our mission, and share the message of the good news with them.
We were absolutely blessed to hear Pastor Louis preach from Leviticus 19:2 about sanctification—he did the sermon in both Creole and English. Pastor Louis reminded us that we need to be separated from “all the trash the world brings”….and that the only way to remain holy in this world is through the word of God. He used a great analogy of a man who used to work in a septic tank facility but now works in a perfume factory, and because of that he could never go back to smelling or even hanging out with his old buddies from the septic tank ….”His eyes are open now.” But we must also remember that “once we become holy, we become God’s servants, and we are called to go back to the septic tank and STAY there with our fragrance….not an easy call, but God will reward us.”

What a great, empowering message! We felt charged up and ready to start our week!
As a team we partook in communion and saw 5 people in the church come forward to accept Christ as their savior after Pastor Louis’ sermon! Praise God!

After the service, we came back to our house and Dr. Phil drove us up the hill…however the ride up that hill was not easy. It’s very steep and full of rocks. It shakes you pretty good… Of course by now we have learned to expect a funny commentary from Tom after things like these. Some of his remarks after driving up that hill have been:

“You know, in some places you have to pay for rides like these” Tom

“You go ahead…we are still trying to get our pieces together” Tom

“This goes well with my prescription…it says take with meal and shake well” Tom

After our first car ride adventure we had a wonderful breakfast with eggs, bread, bananas, and peanut butter. And now we were ready for our next service, but this time in the Cambry Church, down the hill from our house. We were walking down the hill when we noticed all the kids at the bottom waiting, and then they ran toward us and grabbed our hands. We were blessed to walk them to church, and sat with them through the service. This time we didn’t seat together, but spread out and sat among the people and the orphans. There are 260 orphans in this location, and they all reach their little arms to feel our touch. One hand is not big enough to hold the five little hands wanting to be touched and loved.































Pastor Louis did not attend this service and so there was no translation. However, the presence of the Holy Spirit was so tangible that there was no need for translations! We shared communion as a body again and enjoyed two hours of beautiful, energetic worship. It’s overwhelming to realize that despite everything, these children have such a loving and serving heart: the little girl that I walked to church and sat with, had such a sad expression, was extremely slim, and didn’t look healthy…yet when she saw me sweating, she ran her little fingers through my face and neck and wiped off the sweat, and then used her dress to clean the sweat! She did this a couple of times throughout the service!

Tom was sitting behind a little girl, and was admiring how beautiful her hair looked ….but when he looked closer he noticed the bows that adorned her hair had writing on them. Puzzled and now curious he tried to distinguish the letters without being too noticeable and then realized they were actually the satin tags from clothes made into bows…the writing was the description of the clothing size….

After the second service we went to downtown Les Cayes to Nami, a Chinese restaurant, and had some rice and beans, chicken, goat, and plantains. In the restaurant, we met a missionary couple from Michigan, and their three children , who have been living in Haiti since February and are also doing medical work here.




At the port of Les Cayes
























We all came back to the house and hang out for the rest of the afternoon. And when the power went out again, Tom grabbed his guitar and we tuned our voices and enjoyed some worship time in the darkness of the night with just a few flashlights and the moon lighting on us.

Craig went to the Sunday evening service so that he could meet with Pastor Louis and pick up the medical supplies which were in the storage room at his house. He was blessed to hear an incredible service with an hour and a half of worship music (including dancing in the aisles) and a continuation of Pastor Louis’ sermon on holiness. After church he picked up the medical supplies and returned to the guest house where the team organized the supplies for the coming week.