Thanksgiving in Haiti. The Denningtons

It is Thanksgiving evening and I am sitting here beside Bud as he reads me the unbelievable statistics on this Cholera epidemic. They are saying we will be in it for years. 60,000 have been sickened. 25,000 hospitalized and over 1400 dead. We have had so much going on here. Violence has been occurring in the streets between the UN and the people. They are angry because it is believed here that the UN is responsible for this epidemic. Also we have elections going on and that can set off the people as well. They have so much to be angry about. They are tired, discouraged, hungry and now sick or know someone that is sick. Fear is a terrible thing and it can make any of us do things we do not want to do. As we slipped away to enjoy dinner together it is sobering to think that just a few yards away one of our houses is filled with children hooked to IV fighting Cholera. We have 13 pt right now and expect more tomorrow. Julie, Hannah and Dr Rodney have done an amazing job setting this up. Bud and I helped to facilitate and set up the clinic. We are using whatever we can find to take care of as many as we can.

Tomorrow we will look for more beds and set up more rooms. The cases increase more and more each day. You have to wonder how much more can this country take. We ended our day singing to the children and praying with them along with their parents. Talk about a helpless feeling. In times like this it is easy to feel inadequate. Praise God His is. We need all of your prayers once again. It is amazing in the mist of all of this just mention the name of Jesus to those who believe and see their faces change. This is another opportunity to help others to find Him.

From their daily blog: http://bjdennington.blogspot.com

Penn Gillette Gets A Bible

I saw this video awile ago and it challenged me. Pen Gillette is one half of the comedy team Penn & Teller. Mr. Gillette is usually extremely hard on Christians and skillfully debates them on matters of faith. This video was from his after show blog. This particular evening, he met a fan after the performance that truly made an impact on him.

His statement about half way through the vid blog is what stopped me cold. "How much would you have to hate someone to withhold information that could alter their eternity?" For fear of turning people off...we tend to say nothing about Christ, the Cross and the burden that man has to respond to Jesus' life and death. This vid is worth watching.
-pmike

An Opportunity to Serve in Thailand

Here's a note from Steve Cable serving in Thailand.

If God would put it on your heart to come to Santisuk for a month or more please write. We have just completed our 2011 calendar. In both March and April classes will be Monday - Friday and only 3 weeks long (instead of 4) meaning you don’t have to be away from home so long. Also, April 30 – May 2 we'll have our 5th annual Sports Camp. Short-term ministry in Thailand continues to be a great ministry opportunity - you focus on people not things, and you really make a difference in people's lives. We guarantee you a month at Santisuk will change your life! You can view our video about short-term ministry at SES at the new Converge (BGC) website http://www.convergeworldwide.org/give/108739 or http://vimeo.com/10269102. You can check out our website at www.santisuk.org/serve or http://www.santisuk.org/.

Some Things To Consider About Missions Work.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of confusing and sometimes contradictory talk going on about God's call to missions. Beware of the extremes! Some require you to have had your own mystical "call" or voice from God. I don’t deny this happens, but don’t let others over-spiritualize the process, then force it on you as normative. Other Christians approach it from an overly rational, dry, mathematical model that gathers the facts, prays, and then makes a logical decision. What are some of the ways that God leads people into missions?

Path 1: A few people really will have some kind of personalized call, vision, powerful encounter, or voice from the Lord.

Path 2: Other friends tell me theirs is not a matter of a "personalized call" to missions. It’s more a matter of obedience to God. In some cases the wife saw that her primary call of God was to marry this man, knowing that he was (and therefore, they were) going into missions.

Path 3: Still others find that they end up in missions after a serious evaluation of prime factors: deep commitment and obedience to Christ, plus a personal assessment of interests, gifts, experience, and dreams, combined with a heart of compassion for the lost and the poor, and an opportunity to serve and to make a difference in the world. These all converge to form a path into missions.

Path 4: Some report that the prime factors leading them into missions were rather simple: a radical obedience to Christ that meant a willingness to do anything, go anywhere, pay any price, plus an identification of their gifts and other’s needs.

William Taylor

Prayers for the Joe Harvey Family

Please offer prayers for the Harvey family. Here's a note we received from them this morning. We just found out this evening (Wednesday) that Becky's mom, Sylvia Waneta Jones, died peacefully around 6:30 AM Wednesday morning, November 10, 2010.

Prayers are needed that Becky can make the necessary arrangements to get back to the states and for comfort for the family.

News from Erica Thompson in Haiti.

The brother of the former pastor of Flavil, Pas. Schubert, died this AM (Tues.) with Cholera. Yesterday, it was reported that there were 10 Cholera deaths in Cap. More now... The funeral will be Sat. afternoon, so I will try to go. Please pray for the family, as this was Pas. Schubert's only brother. I don't remember his name, or know his age, but I am certain he was relatively young. It is very sad how quickly it is taking lives. It seems that so many personal hygiene habits (bad mostly) need to change, which requires a mindset change too...not always easy. Pray for those living so closely together in Cap. It seems to spread fast and little indication that one is infected until it is so advanced. God knows...shocking! PRAYING for Haiti to get a break!!

Erica

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A Day in the Life of Grace Missionaries

Fenda’s mother, Satou, who’s health had been failing for several weeks now, passed away on Saturday. When Geguuta came by on the Thursday before to work on translation, with a smile on his face he explained that on Wednesday Fenda, her sister Saney (also saved) and their three daughters gathered around Satou’s bed and carefully went over God’s plan of salvation once again. Keep in mind that for the last five years, most Sunday mornings Satou sat in her bedroom while church was going on in the sitting room. She has heard the Word time and again, and has witnessed the changed lives of her family. On that morning she said that she agreed that what Christ did on the cross was for her and she was no longer trusting in her old ways. She asked Fenda to throw away the traditional fetishes that people had brought to help her. We sure rejoiced with that news! So when we got word that she passed away three days later, we continued rejoicing in the knowledge of her true rest. Despite the grief of the loss of their mother from this earth, Fenda, Saney, and a third sister, Yaana who is also saved, are at peace in their hearts.

We also rejoiced when Fenda and her husband, Geguuta, demonstrated their faith in the presence of those that came to the funeral. They explained that they would not be complying with a certain Balanta tradition called ‘Dimbaya’.
To understand the significance of this, we have to go back more than thirty years to the time Satou became a member of ‘Dimbaya’, a women’s society for those who have trouble conceiving. After Fenda was born, there was a longer than usual time until the next child. This prompted the necessary rituals to initiate Satou into the society, a sort of alliance with the ancestral spirits. These rituals include wearing a burlap sack, sitting on and rolling in the dirt, and eating a meal with sand mixed in it. Not long thereafter she began bearing children again and so these children are considered part of the Dimbaya. That would be Saney and Yaana. For the closure of the funeral, the Dimbaya members from surrounding villages came expecting to ‘undo’ the alliance for these two children of Satou. Fenda, with Geguuta by her side, stood before the group and announced that because her two sisters are both trusting in the Savior, God has said, ‘Old things are passed away, all things have become new’ so there was no need to ‘untie’ the alliance. This is the first time any Balanta Christians have had to deal with this cultural clash. The reaction of the Dimbaya society? They said, “This refusal to conform will surely bring some kind of misfortune!”

So we are praising the Lord for a saint who is in the presence of her Savior, and for the steadfast testimony of this family in spite of pressure to continue in the old ways. As a follow up to our last update, share in this joy with us! From Dave & Tippy McKee in Senegal.

Haiti Needs Our Prayers.

The picture says it all. Hundreds of thousands of people living in tent cities completely vulnerable to the storm that is racing their way. PLEASE take a moment to pray for the people of Haiti. Here is an update from internet news sites.

As tropical storm Tomas speeds toward Haiti, threatening to turn into a hurricane before it passes just west of the island Friday morning, some 1.3 million people are virtually trapped in Port-au-Prince’s flimsy tent cities. In the countryside, hundreds of thousands more Haitians still live in tents following the 7.0 earthquake the leveled the capital and surrounding areas in January.

Authorities have advised anyone living in makeshift camps to seek refuge in sturdier buildings, but many say they don't have that option. “The majority of people have nowhere to go,” says Stefan Reynier, the head of mission for Doctors Without Borders in Léogâne, 18 miles west of the capital. “Those people will not be protected.”

Tent cities ordered to clear out
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami on Wednesday night issued a hurricane warning for the coast of Haiti. Tomas is expected to make landfall on Friday and dump to 10 inches of rain across the island, according to the NHC.

Whatever the storm's incarnation, “it will create a bad situation for people living, and good conditions for cholera spreading in the water with the bad sanitation, with the movement of population,” adds Dr. Reynier.

The Haitian government has told citizens to evacuate their tent shelters and find secure housing – a tall order, considering the January earthquake damaged or destroyed some 200,000 homes in Port-au-Prince. Because of the city's poor drainage, streets strewn with rubble, and lack of trees or vegetation, flash floods could hit and rush through the dense tent camps.

Hurricane Tomas Eyes Haiti. Please Pray!

Tropical Storm Tomas strengthened over the Caribbean Sea as Haiti braced for the system to hit as a hurricane at the end of the week.

Haiti’s government, the United Nations and humanitarian agencies are working on a response based on a projection the storm may affect 500,000 people, according to a statement on the website of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The nation is already reeling from a cholera outbreak and a magnitude 7.0-magnitude earthquake in January that killed an estimated 300,000 people and caused $7.8 billion in damage.

Please pray for this desperate country as it faces yet another potential crisis. Remember our missionaries who are serving on the island. Bud and Jane Dennington, Kate Zlotnicki and Erica Thompson.

A Day in the Life of Dr. Joseph Harvey