June 09 Trip Update

Hello Everyone! I am very excited to bring you all this update on what God is doing in Haiti through Project 127. A group of nine of us just returned from spending a week in Haiti. There were 3 staff members from Rehobeth Baptist Church in Social Circle, Georgia, 4 of us from King's Way Baptist Church in Concord, NC, and 2 young ladies from Central Church of God in Charlotte. The main purpose of our trip was to deliver the money to the builder that Rehobeth had raised for our bakery and second level construction. This building project is made possible because of this donation and another large donation from an individual. Praise the Lord! You guys are awesome.

We arrived in Haiti on Wednesday, June 24th and drove the 4 hours to our orphanage in Aquin. We said hello to the kids and prepared for our first day of ministry. On Thursday, we hired a boat and went to a very small island off the coast about 30 minutes away. We gathered all the people from the village around and had a great service. They sang for us; we sang for them; we had a competition for the kids, and Pastor Frank Penley preached. It was awesome to see how the people responded and several people gave their lives to Christ. One young man in particular stepped out of his spot at the back of the church and came up to the front so we could pray for him. This was a huge step for him, because he left all his buddies at the back of the church.

On Friday, we drove up into the mountains and hiked about 30 minutes to a remote church in the village of Leje. We sang some songs in English, some in Creole and had a time of worship with the locals there. Pastor Frank preached again and we saw God move through the people that had came out. Several members of the group stayed back at the orphanage and prepared for the opening night of our "special" youth shack service. That night, we had a great service with our kids and the community surrounding the orphanage. We sang some more and Farrell Burton preached a message through our translator.

On Saturday, we spent some quality time with our kids and prepared for the final Youth Shack service. We had challenged all the kids the previous night to bring visitors with them. At the service we gave out special gifts to the people who had brought the most visitors, and everyone that came got a little gift as well. This was a special service because we got to witness how our Youth Shack kid's church has grown into a legitimate church with kids and adults, that is led completely by our kids. Belony, our 14 year old pastor, brought the message, and our lives were touched by witnessing the Spirit of God on him.

Sunday morning, we decided to have a special time of testimonies and songs with our kids. We sang in English, Creole, laughed, and cried as each member of our group and each child at the orphanage stood up and shared what God has done in our lives. It was a special time for all of us. After church, we headed to the beach for a day of fun with all of our kids.

Monday was a ground-breaking day of ministry for our group. Each time I have visited Haiti, I have stared out at the large island that sets off the coast of Aquin called Gwo Cayes. It is a large island with thick vegetation and lots of forests and trees, which is actually unlike most of mainland Haiti. I have always wondered what it would be like to visit this island, but had no way to get there, as it is very isolated. We decided as a group to try and visit this island and hold an open air meeting where we would sing some songs for them and then Pastor Frank would share with them. After locating a guy with a small boat, and waiting over 3 hours for him to prepare his little boat, we boarded for the 40 minute ride to the island. As we approached the island, I think we all became a little nervous. We sailed up to the coast and into a narrow waterway that snaked back through a grove of trees. It didn't help any that the boat captain told us on the way over that it was breeding season for sharks in the waters right under our boat! We got out of the boat and waded through knee deep water, then walked through tall grass and trees until we came to a small village of about 15 huts. We gathered everyone around and sang for them, and Frank shared with them and challenged them. It was awesome to see how attentive they were. Most of these people had never seen outsiders, as they had never left the island. It was truly tribal missions. After we finished, this one man stood and said he would like to say something. He said they didn't have a church anywhere on the island, and they would love to learn more about Jesus, but they didn't have anyone to teach them. He said he had been praying for someone to come and tell them and we were an answer to his prayers! WOW!!!! We were also fortunate to have taken several of our boys with us to this island. As we were leaving, we asked Belony if we would put a church on this island, would he be willing to visit several times a month to teach them. He jumped at the idea! This may be a little way out, but we are praying about how to work out the logistics of this. It looks like God may be leading us to start our second church in Haiti! On Monday night we gathered everyone around in the street outside our hotel and had a street meeting. We sang again, and I preached a message to them on the importance of preparing for God's Team.

On Tuesday, we returned to Port au Prince and checked into a hotel and relaxed for our last night. We left early Wednesday morning to return home, each of us being greatly changed from the person we were when we left home. This is why we do missions: not only to help people, but to see how God uses that to change our own lives and draw us closer to Him. Now we get to share this with everyone at our work, schools, and churches.

Thank you so much to everyone who has been praying for us and our ministry. We are seeing God open some big doors in Haiti. Please continue to pray for the following things:

monthly budget (almost $2000, of which we are almost always short)

construction of addition and bakery

leadership of bakery

our church in Haiti (we need to build a permanent structure for them to meet in)

possibly starting our second church on Gwo Cayes

God bless you all,

Steve Horne

Project 127 Haiti

*If you would like to help in any way, respond to steve@project127.org or email donations to Project 127 PO Box 321 Harrisburg, NC 28075.