Pray for that God Would Prepare the Soil

A participant in Timothy Training shares his Action Plan (how he will use what he learned in his ministry).  The young woman at the left is Monica Petit-Homme, the coordinator for Timothy Training.

One of Jesus' most famous parables is the parable of the Sower, the story of how a gardener scatters seed on four different soils.  On the first three soils, the seed failed to germinate and was destroyed.  However, in the fourth soil, the good soil, the seed took root and gave a harvest of thirty, sixty and one-hundred times.  The parable of the Sower teaches us about the Gospel and the grace of God.  Only in the soils that God prepares will the seed of the Gospel germinate, take root, and produce a harvest.  When you are organizing training activities for Christian leaders, as we often are, this is a difficult lesson to accept.  Why?  Because we would like to think that if you are well enough prepared, the training ministry that you do will have dramatic results.  Of course, there is no excuse for poor preparation, but the reality is that some things are out of the hands of the trainer.  Most obviously, what the participants do with the training after the end of the week is out of our hands.  This is especially true for the Timothy Leadership Training (TLT) that we will do 7-9 May in Port-au-Prince.  TLT focuses on doing what you learn.  However, doing what we learn about the Gospel runs against human nature.  This means that the central characteristic of a successful training is the Holy Spirit working in advance to prepare the "soil" of the heart so that the seed of training will take root and yield a harvest.  Please pray during the week of the 7-9th of May that God will prepare the soil well so that the participants will do what they learn about ministry in our training.

Segaar-King April Update

Dear Friends and Family:

We pray that in Christ you are all well.  This morning while I (Sharon) was thinking, I sang the words of Psalm 34:19: “The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all” (NIV)”  We juggle many activities and ministries like balls in the air.  But then challenges like blackouts and electrical fires (both of which we are having) make things even harder to juggle.  However, God reaches out His hand to help us juggle. Jesus states, ^“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:29-30 KJV).   We pray that all of you who feel burdened from juggling so much can find rest and peace in the Lord.

What we need God’s help juggling:

-Our kids are well overall and we are trying to finish the school year in Haiti strong on May 28.  When vacation begins, we will be juggling a three-month-long summer break since school starts in Michigan at the end of August where we will be for home service.

-Though our family is basically healthy, we are juggling Esther’s persistent cold/cough for several weeks. 

-Ministry needs are piling up.  We are negotiating annual contracts and ministry plans with our partners (a huge job).  Next week Zach will do a Timothy Leadership Training (TLT) conference. Recently, a group of people who are being trained in TLT went evangelizing for several days and reported thirteen people converted to Christ. 

-Problems: Blackouts (43 out of every 48 hours without electricity), increasingly aggressive boys demanding money on the streets, an outbreak of Chikungunya Fever (we call it “Chimichunga Fever”), a dengue-like illness which causes high fever, fatigue and body pains (in addition to a craving for Mexican food—just kidding) for several weeks.

-Perspectives Reformees Pastor’s Conference at the end of May

What God has been juggling for us:

 -A successful supervisory visit from CRWM’s Regional Leader for Latin America and the International Director.  Big changes are coming with the departure of several colleagues.

-Zach is successfully teaching in a new theological training program with our partner, the Center for Integrated Christian Development.  We will do more theological training with the CRC of Haiti in May.

-The construction of the Savannette Church has successfully finished.  Next up is the Savann Plat Church.

Thanks for your prayers and support,

Zachary, Sharon, Hannah, Isaiah, Vivian and Esther Segaar-King

Missionaries to Haiti

Christian Reformed World Missions

 

On the central plaza of Port-au-Prince, new government buildings arise behind the famous statue of the Run-Away Slave.  Most of the government buildings including the National Palace and the Parliament Building were destroyed four-and-a-half years ago.

Holy Week, Haitian Style

Last week we enjoyed another Holy Week in Haiti.  In a society where there is so much death (a very low average age of death among the population) and new life (a very high birth rate per woman), Holy Week is especially poignant.  Zach led a Holy Thursday (sometimes called Maundy Thursday) service at Quisqueya Chapel.  During the service we reflected on the events of Passion Night (i.e., Jesus' anointing, the Last Supper, the Garden of Gethsemane, and Jesus' trials).  Zach preached on Mark's story of Gethsemane, encouraging the congregation to "watch with Jesus" at the foot of the cross and served communion.  On Good Friday, which is a holiday in Haiti, we had an opportunity to climb the mountains outside of Port-au-Prince and meditate on Christ's sacrifice surrounded by fog, green grass and beautiful trees.  Saturday turned out to be an interesting day because several local utility company employees partially cut down a power line outside our home, allowing the remaining portion to make contact with the razor wire on top of our walls.  This had the effect of sending 110 volts through all the razor wire surrounding our home and through the metal gate which serves the main entrance and exit to our home.  All Saturday night, we were entertained by electrical fires and arcing electricity dancing on our walls!  The city power remained on from about 5 pm on Saturday to about 5 pm on Sunday (an extremely rare occurrence), which meant that we were "trapped" in our house by arcing electricity.  On Sunday morning, Zach donned rubber gloves and a wood broom-handle to attempt to push away the offending power line from making contact with our razor wire.  With only a few minutes before the Easter Sunday Service, we finally were able to open the main gate and safely exit our home and go to church!  One of the highlights of Easter is that a group of people from Quisqueya Chapel had taken the cross Zach used for the Holy Thursday service and covered it with beautiful local flowers for Easter (see the picture above).  This picture reminds us of the beauty and power of the Resurrection that not even the powers of death (or those of arcing electricity) could defeat on Easter morning!

A Sign of Peace in Valley

The entrance of the church where doors would soon be hung

The team of local volunteers hangs the doors and windows of the church

Pastor Eli, the foreman of the project, looks at some of the recently laid blocks.

The Savannette Valley has been part of our regular ministry as we have been visiting a collection of small churches nestled in it just outside of the main town of Savannette.  It is impossible to describe the road through the valley, except to say lamas from the Andes and Sherpa guides from the Himalayas would be at home scrambling across the dangerous and narrow two-track road which hangs precariously near the cliff ledges.  For several months now, two organizations, SON-BEAM International and Christ Community Church of Victoria, British Columbia, have been assisting the Christian Reformed Church of Haiti to build a new building for a local congregation.  Our organization, Christian Reformed World Missions--Haiti, has been playing the role of facilitator and connector between North America and Haiti.
Bruneus Merisier, the pastor of the Savannette church, is a patient man.  His congregation sits in the last of the seven geographic areas to receive a church construction project.  For a long time, the problem was communication, as there was no way to contact him or his family.  However, two years ago, Natcomm, a cell-phone company owned by the Vietnamese government, built a tower in the mountains above Savannette.  Viola, communication was established and the organization needed to build a church became a possibility.  It is amazing to see how God has brought evidence of his peace to this isolated valley community.  By God's grace, the new Savannette Church was completed this week (see pictures above) through the labor of local volunteers and materials provided through the funds donated by SONBEAM and Christ Community Church.  We pray that the Holy Spirit will use this new building to advance the work of the Gospel and bring peace to the valley!

The bottom of the Savannette Valley where the river widens out.