haitiwest

Soccer in Cap Haitian.

As many of you know, Jacob was invited by Coach Jerome Peterson, President of H.Y.D.E. Soccer Association in Haiti to participate in an All-Star tournament in Cap Haitian this past week. Monday we loaded up on a commuter flight from Port au Prince and we returned on Thursday. It was an amazing week of soccer for sure!

When we arrived, Coach Peterson was waiting for us at the airport. He whisked us away in his car to go to a practice field for Jacob to meet the team members. They had been practicing for three hours so they were very tired, hot, and sweaty. They were so very nice though. Each one of them came to each of us and shook our hands and introduced himself. They all visited for a few minutes, then we went to the hotel. The hotel was right across the street from Coach Peterson’s house, so it was very convenient. It didn’t take us long to realize that we are very spoiled in Ganthier. Ha! The little air conditioner in the room did not work very well and most of the time the power was off all together. The bathroom had cold water only, and it didn’t have a door on it but rather just a curtain. Needless to say Vladimir is  officially a member of the West family now that we have experienced such “togetherness”. Ha! The hotel restaurant served very good food, but they were very limited. For instance, they would not serve coffee only for breakfast. We had to order a full breakfast of eggs, toast, avocado, and coffee for breakfast or nothing at all. Of course, it was very good and cheap as well, so most of the time we took advantage of it. On our first day, we were told that we could only have two towels. Now we love one another very much, but we just couldn’t imagine sharing two towels between the three of us. Since Coach Peterson is good friends with the owner, Joe, we had Joe’s phone number, so we quickly called him to make sure his staff understood that we needed four towels. Quite the first impression, I gotta tell ya! All-in-all, it wasn’t so bad. After all, we ARE in a third world country. Like I said, we are just spoiled at Hope Center, and the experience made us all the more thankful for what we have.

Anyway…on the first night, we went to watch a soccer match at the big stadium. There was a full crowd, and it was lots of fun. Jacob became pretty excited about playing the next night. On day two we were pretty lazy. We slept late, ate breakfast, and went back to bed until about 2:00 in the afternoon. I guess we were all exhausted from our trip over. Around 3 we went to a press conference at a restaurant on the edge of the water at the port. They had great food and great atmosphere. There were many dignitaries and famous soccer players there. Coach Peterson was at a table with several players from the national team, a couple of former pros, the mayor of Cap Haitian, and the Adviser to the President of Haiti. We got to meet all of them and hang out there for a while. That was pretty cool. Next, we went to the field and got ready for the game. On the way, however, there seemed to be some confusion and the driver of our car thought we wanted to take a tour of the World Bank there in Cap Haitian since they had opened up especially for the Presidential Advisor, Roro Nelson. Once we finally got it across to them that we needed to get to the field, they rushed us out of the bank and over to the stadium. Jacob joined his new teammates in the dugout area and Tony & Vladimir & I went up to this rooftop above the locker room, overlooking the field. They set us up on these nice benches they brought out just for us. We felt very special. Several other Haitian spectators joined us up there, and we began to watch the game. Coach explained that the team coach would probably put Jacob in after we got a point or two on the board since he didn’t yet know how well Jacob could play. By half time, we were up by 2 points, so he put Jacob in. Jacob got a pretty good bit of action with the ball, but he also found out that the refs aren’t too fond of American white boys playing Haitian soccer. He had to be very careful or he would get called for a foul for the slightest thing. One cool thing was that the uniforms they were wearing were green – yes, JFC green. Even though his loaned uniform was a bit snug on him, I must admit it was good to see Jacob back in green. We felt like he played very well. Jacob, on the other hand, wasn’t too pleased with his play. He felt awful, and kept thinking he was going to get sick. (He actually did get sick in the locker room after the game.) However, we couldn’t tell it at all except for one time when he seemed a little winded. However, we give MUCH GLORY TO GOD that Jacob was able to play without any pain in his ankle at all. As a matter of fact, Jacob said that after he and Esther prayed over his ankle, he had not felt any pain at all and had no concerns whatsoever about playing on it. Hallelujah! God is our healer! He did wear his brace though to prevent any injury to the ankle, and he actually came very close to getting a goal. One cool thing was that every time he got the ball and started dribbling it down the field, the crowd in the stands went CRAZY. Unlike the ref, they were thrilled to see him play. The coach liked what he saw too because the next day Jacob started and played the entire game! They even honored Jacob with the #10 jersey which is Pegeuro’s number – he is currently one of the most honored Haitian former pro players (Jacob got to meet him earlier at the restaurant). We ended up winning this first game 2-1. At one point in the game, Tony even got a chance to be the team doctor. One of the players hurt his wrist, and they called Tony over to help him. Tony gave him Ibuprofen and he was feeling great in no time. After the game, we went out to eat at a Haitian BBQ place with our driver, Denny, and then headed on back to the hotel for some much needed rest.

The third day was even more interesting. After having a HUGE lunch on the balcony of Coach Peterson’s home with his parents, sister, and some cousins, we traveled to a little remote village outside of Cap Haitian to a field out in the middle of farming land for another soccer game. There was a highway on one side of the field and rows and rows of some sort of crop on the other three. There was a little grass on the field, but mostly it was dirt. We watched a U14 game first while throngs of children crowded around to love on Ody. Yes, Ody is a hit in Cap Haitian as well as Ganthier. Jacob and Vladimir hung out with the team while we watched the game. I am SOOOOO thankful to have had Vladimir on this trip with us. He is not only a very good friend to Jacob, he was Jacob’s only ability to communicate socially with the team and coach. We are glad Vladdy hung close to Jacob’s side. As time progressed, we began to realize the fans for this local league were VERY loyal yet hostile fans. Towards the end of the game, a rather robust Haitian woman in spandex approached me and Tony and told us to give us our dog because she was hungry. When we refused, she demanded we give her our water. We probably should have given it to her, but because she was so mean spirited, we refused. She proceeded to cuss us and make rude gestures, so we decided it was time to move to the other side of the field. She was drawing a rather large audience and feeding off their laughter, and we knew we did not need to hang around. We politely said we needed to move on, and as Vladimir approached us, she moved on herself. Whew! That was a close one. Shortly afterwards, Jacob’s team took the field. They gathered in a circle around their goalie and had prayer together before warming up on the field. We realized this was not going to be your typical game when one of the opposing players elbowed one of our players in the face 30 seconds into the game. I began praying for not only Jacob’s safety, but the safety of our entire team. This team was obviously going to play dirty, and these refs were not going to give Jacob any protection or chance with the ball here either. He played great though. He held his own, and when disruptions occurred on the field, he just moved aside and juggled the ball by himself off to the side until things calmed down. Let me explain. You see, Haitian soccer in the village is quite different than anything we have ever experience. Before the game began, there were no less than 40 people on the field screaming over a contested player. They thought he was too old to play U17 soccer. As the game began, we noticed that the fans stand directly ON the field line and sometimes even stand ON the field when the play is happening on the opposite end of the field. A man walks along the line with a big stick beating people off the field. Most of them refuse to move and there is a stand-off. The adamant fans usually win because the guy doesn’t want to use his stick. When the opponents scored, the entire fan base poured onto the field and celebrated for no less than 3 minutes. Finally the fans trickled back to the sideline so the game could continue. At half-time, they all poured back onto the field and gathered around their team and listened in on the half-time speech their coach was giving his team. Finally the second half began and about 15 minutes into the half, someone sent three goats and a sheep onto the field. Someone said it was a voo-doo curse. We just decided they were delaying the game to prevent us from scoring. About every 45 seconds one of their players was flopping onto the ground saying he was hurt, or one of their players would clobber one of ours, and we would have to wait for him to be helped off the field. At some point in the second half, I believe I began praying that we would NOT win. I realized it would not be a good thing at this point to win. I can tell you that I have never in my life WANTED to lose, but I knew that if we did win, we might be in danger. We ended up losing 1-0, and our tired, beat up players dragged themselves off the field, huddled up for a team photo with Jacob. At the end of the game, the players were asking Jacob if he could continue to be on their team. What an honor! We said our good byes, then we rushed back to our vehicle to get on back to the hotel. It was a night we will never forget. Ha! We thank God for the opportunity He gave Jacob to play some amazing soccer with some super friendly guys. When it came to playing on the field, language barriers didn’t matter. Sure, it probably would have been nice for Jacob to have been able to communicate verbally with them more, but they all played very well together, and we are PRAISING GOD for Jacob’s healing, safety, and great experience with Haitian Soccer.

The next night we went to yet another soccer game at the BIG stadium, but this time it was a HUGE event. All the dignitaries arrived in a grand parade. There were two Haitian bands playing their hand made instruments in two different parts of the stadium. MUCH FESTIVITY! They had us sitting in our box seats again, and after the game, we were going to get the opportunity to enjoy a concert by Haiti’s most popular current rap star, Izolan. During the game, a deluge of rain came through, but most of the fans hung in there and braved the storm. The teams on the field never checked up. By half way into the second half, the rain cleared and we enjoyed watching some amazing soccer in this finale to a BIG event. The team Jacob was pulling for won, and it was now time for the concert. Once they got all the sound issues worked out, I realized that the seats they had for us were not just front row seats; we were ON THE STAGE. I was literally sitting 5 feet from this rapper who was singing stuff I had could not comprehend, but the beat was great and the fans were going crazy! Ha! At the end of the concert, he let two young rappers that were around 12 years old have a rap-off (which was my favorite part) and then it was over. One of the big pro soccer players (Pegeuro) had taken a liking to Jacob and he made sure that Jacob got his picture made with Izolan at the end of the concert. After pictures were made, they whisked our family out through a back door to a car that was waiting for us and took us to the hotel. I told Tony I felt like Elvis or something. It was pretty crazy.

On our last day in Cap Haitian, we packed up, ate a good lunch at the hotel, and got ready to go. One of the young rappers came by after we finished eating to say hello and get his picture made with Jacob. After that we went back over to the Jerome’s house to say goodbye to Coach Peterson’s family, and then off to the airport we went. The flight home was much smoother than the flight over, so Vladimir has decided he actually enjoys flying.  Ha! All-in-all, I think it was an amazing experience for Jacob and lots of fun for all of us. Coach Peterson said that he likes the way Jacob plays and he is very fast. He said that he believes Jacob has a long future ahead of him in soccer and he looks forward to being able to give him more opportunities to play in Haiti.

Even though we thoroughly enjoyed the experience, getting back home to Ganthier was wonderful. Tonight we ate spaghetti with our new friend from Thirst No More, Gary, and we sat outside eating watermelon from our garden and  enjoying a spectacular lightening display way up in the mountains. Tony and I went up on the roof and enjoyed a cool breeze and tried to get pictures of the lightening, but my camera wasn’t fast enough. Tomorrow we are planning to go to Pastor Mathurim’s church up in the mountains. I am looking forward to that very much. Slowly but surely, we are making ourselves at home, and that is a very good feeling. Thanks be to God for all of the GREAT things he is doing. Sometime this week I will try to get in a post with pictures and a report on some of the patients Tony has seen.

Thank you all so very much for following us and praying for us. Your prayer support is AMAZING!!!

Blessings to you all!

Mickie

While all the boys continue to work on Esther’s kitchen, I thought I would try to post a few pictures from last week….

It will only let me load a few at a time, so I will post these and post more later.

We had over 160 children from in and around the village attend VBS this week. Hearing them singing outside my window in the morning was a beautiful sound! So precious!! 

Even Ody got a name tag for VBS. He was not very cooperative with it though. He complained until I took it off. Ha. 

This is a picture of the Great Bridge team. They were a joy to work with as our first team to host at Hope Center! 

Sandi, Kristi, and Gabby painting cabinets…or rather Kristi painting Gabby. Ha! What fun we had working together! 

Jonathan, Brianna, Chris, and I planted seeds for our garden on their last day here.

Wow. What a week it has been! It seems like we have been here much longer than one week because SOOOOO much has been accomplished!! As a matter of fact, I am just now getting to blog because we have been so very busy! Every night I have tried to sit down and recount events and I am so exhausted that I just have to go to bed. Tonight I was determined to get the kitchen cleaned earlier and write a post. 

When we arrived on August 2nd, Jonathan, Chris, Brianna, and John were already here and had considered helping me unpack some things from the 12 suitcases they muled over, but when they discovered how disorganized I had packed them, they decided against it. Ha! It was nice to see that they had all settled in though and were making themselves at home. We discovered a fun surprise when we looked on the dining room table and found a beautiful cross plate and candle that was left by the First Baptist Church Brandon team who was here the week before we arrived. What a precious house warming gift!! I LOVE IT!!!!

We quickly got busy unpacking, making home improvements, preparing for VBS, getting to know our first team to host – a GREAT group of folks from Great Bridge Baptist Church in Virginia, etc. Some of these team members led VBS, some helped Tony organize the clinic, and some did construction. Jonathan, Chris and Brianna and I also planted some of the seeds I brought along to begin our vegetable and herb garden! Wait until you see the before and after pictures! In three days most of them are already ready to transplant to the ground!! I can’t wait to be able to actually eat vegetables we have grown in our own garden!!!

The plate and candle First Baptist Church Brandon left us. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

I do need to detour and share a neat story of how God’s plan is always so perfect and He knows our every need. One member of this team, Dave, had been struggling a few months ago because he really did not know what his purpose was for going on this mission trip. He knew God wanted him to go, but he had not quite settled it in his mind and heart how God was going to use him. However, once he got here, he discovered that we desperately needed cabinet work done in both our house and Esther’s kitchen. Well guess what, Dave is president of the National Cabinetry Association and, as we have discovered, is a master carpenter!! Of course, it has been quite an adjustment building cabinets Haitian style, but Dave and his apprentice Gabby (“G” for short) have worked day and night to create fantastic cabinets for both kitchens. Dave decided on Wednesday to have his flight changed from Friday to Monday so he could stay and finish the cabinets. When we started looking for flights that night, nothing was coming up! Every flight available was over 20 hours long because they wanted to take him through Panama before going to Miami!! Crazy right?! Well, that night Esther, Dave, and I prayed that God would work it out and that Dave would be able to get his work done. The next morning we found out that there was ONE seat available on a flight Monday that would have him home by Monday evening and it was less than his original flight, AND it’s First Class at no extra charge! Wow!! Our God is an AWESOME God!!

So back to recounting events….We had a WONDERFUL time with Jonathan, Brianna, Chris, and John, but we had to say goodbye to them on Thursday. I cannot tell you how hard it was for me to tell my son goodbye and send him off to college knowing I won’t see him again until November. My heart ached just thinking about it. It’s nice though to be able to still text him through iMessage and Viber and we can  just pick up the phone and call anytime as well since we have a Mississippi number! Isn’t technology amazing!? And the Lord has had me VERY busy to keep my mind off of it as well. I do want to say THANK YOU to the four of them for helping us move in here. They sacrificed a lot to do that. They drove all night to New Orleans for their flight on August 1st, then their flight home wasn’t until Thursday evening, so they didn’t get back New Orleans until 10:45 at night and had a 3 hour drive back home from there! Jonathan called me when they got home and it was 4:00 a.m. Haiti time which was 3:00 there. I know they must have been exhausted. 

So the activities carried on and we had a great week with our first team to host. Tony ended up treating about 13 patients during the week even though the clinic wasn’t officially open, we built and painted lots of cabinets, the team built a house, we went into the village several times visiting people we have met throughout the week, and we had over 160 kids come for VBS! The team gave out soccer balls on the last day to every child who had been able to cite John 3:16 for one of the workers. It was quite the spectacle giving them out too! I will post a picture tomorrow of a young brother and sister, Roberto and Shayla, who not only recited John 3:16 for us again, but sang us two songs as well! Those two are adorable!!

Yesterday the team from Great Bridge left (except for Dave) and Esther and I went grocery shopping. This turned out to be an exhausting experience. We went to many stores trying to get everything on our list – both groceries and hardware – and while we were out, the guys were building shelves and cabinets. This morning, our plan was to continue the work, but Tony woke up with a terrible headache and nausea. He has only run a low grade fever once today, but he has stayed in bed all day. This became a problem early this morning when the first patient arrived as instructed for a follow up visit. I asked Tony what to do and Vladimir and I went to clinic with our first patient. I redressed his wound and we prayed for his healing. I returned to my cabinet painting, and not long later another patient arrived! I redressed her wound and asked her to come back Sunday afternoon for Tony to check it. After she left, I fixed lunch for everyone and not long after we ate, another patient arrived! This was a 70+ year old man with terrible swelling in his legs. After advising him as Tony instructed me, I prayed for him while holding one of his feet in my hands. After we prayed, he lifted his other foot and asked me to pray for it too! 🙂 Such a precious, precious gentleman. It was such a blessing ministering to him! Throughout the day, we have checked on Tony, and by this evening he did eat a few crackers and take more ibuprofen. He didn’t have any fever, so we are hoping he will be free of illness tomorrow. Please pray for him throughout the next few days and ask God to give him the strength and health to do the work God called him here to do. Thank you. 

Well, it is now VERY late, and I REALLY need to get to bed. We are going to Pastor Liverance’s church tomorrow. I wish I had time to post all of the pictures I want to post to go along with this blog post, but I will have to do that tomorrow. It takes too long to upload each photo, and it’s past 3:00 a.m. now. 

Thank you all so very much for your prayers!! We know it and feel it constantly. 

Please feel free to call us any time!! Our number is 601-499-4111

Good night!! Enjoy the first few photos I uploaded before I decided to hit the hay!! :)………….

Here are a few pictures from the first couple of days…

Chris lounging on the couch

Jacob and Vladimir decided to go ahead and plug up the xbox and play a little FIFA. They have since played every night before going to bed. Ha!

Jacob and Vladimir playing FIFA – the xbox has since been moved to Jacob’s room. They play every night now. Ha!

Brianna and John got busy making a set of shelves and the wall desk that I am now working on in our dining room. Later on in the week, one of the Great Bridge team members, Dave, added a blue formica counter top to it. It’s very nice! 

Brianna and John Blackwell team up to install a wall desk and shelves in the dining room. Thanks so much!!!

I will post more pictures tomorrow!  

Good night everyone!! 

God Bless You!!!

Departure Time!.

I only have a few minutes to update you all, but I wanted to share our plans for the actual move. 

Our oldest son, Jonathan (along with Brianna, Chris, and John) left at 2:00 this morning and drove to New Orleans for their flight to Haiti. They had 12 of our bags with them and they are well on their way to Haiti. Their flight from Miami is at 2:40 this afternoon and they will arrive in Haiti at 4:45. Thank you all for your prayers! So far their flight down has been without incident. 

Today, we are finishing our packing and storing and errands and will head to the airport in Jackson at 4:00 in the morning. Our flight leaves out at 6:00 a.m. from Jackson airport. We will arrive at 4:45 in Haiti tomorrow afternoon. Please pray for us as we have LOTS of things on our “to do” list today that MUST be done before we move. 

It’s almost time!! Although we dread the last “good-byes”, we are so very ready to have the transition over with and have the opportunity to get settled into our new home. We love you and thank you all so much for your prayers!

~The West Family

Oh, and By the Way, our home number in Haiti is 601-499-4111

Yep! That is a MISSISSIPPI – LOCAL – number!! God is good!! Call ANYTIME!!! 🙂

Overwhelming Response.

In the last week, we have been overwhelmed by the response from so many precious friends offering encouragement, prayer, and support as we prepare to go. As of today, we have 17 days until we leave! Wow! It’s just so hard to believe it is finally almost here! Slowly but surely, we are beginning to see the floor again in the house, and the mini storage is being packed up as tightly as it possibly can. ha!

I wanted to send this quick note because we have received many emails in the last week asking how people can help support our family financially. I can’t tell you how this blesses my heart. I know how tight things are in this economy we live in, and so for anyone to desire to help us financially, I am just blown away with gratitude! As we have prepared to enter the full-time mission field, I think the hardest thing for me has been accepting the generosity of others – not because we don’t appreciate it – we do appreciate it very much – but we have just never been in a position where we were completely – totally – dependent on God’s moving in people’s hearts to support us. We both resigned from our jobs and sold everything we have in order to be able to afford to do this, but in order for us to continue after our cushion is gone, we will have to raise support. We have absolutely no doubt that God will provide, but if we don’t share our needs, people won’t know what God is calling them to do or how to help. So here goes…..

Because we no longer have a permanent US address, the best way to contribute to our ministry is to send a check written to But God Ministries mailed to the following address:

God Continues to Provide.

First of all, let me say, “Bonjou, zanmi mwen!!” This is creole for “Good morning, my friend!” (I have been working on my creole lately every chance I can get. Ha!) The days are steadily ticking by, and we have a little over three weeks until we board our one-way flights to Haiti! So much has been happening, I just don’t know if I am going to be able to recall all of it to post here! I have been longing to record it all, so I decided I better sit down right now and do just that – not only record it, but SHARE it with our friends and family who have been walking with us on this journey.

Every where I look in this house there are boxes and suitcases. Preparation for moving is steadily moving forward. We have already taken two truck loads of things to the storage building, started filling suitcases for the move, and had a garage sale to clear out MANY things in the house that we do not need to keep.  As for the storage building, as usual, God out-did himself! We ended up with a 10×10 climate controlled storage unit in a very good location. Praise God for his provision for our needs once again! The boxes have come in handy, and slowly but surely, we are reaching the bottom of the pile. We have been labeling our boxes with orange duct tape and arranging them in storage by priority so that if Jonathan needs to get anything out, it will be conveniently placed in there for easy access. For those of you who have not heard the story about the suitcases, brace yourself for yet another testimony of God working things out….

About two weeks ago, we booked our one-way flights to Haiti for August 2nd. I went through the process I usually go through in booking our flights.  After going through the process and confirming the tickets, I noticed that American Airlines had automatically placed us in First Class! I was so confused that I decided to call AA to make sure I didn’t do something wrong. I certainly didn’t want to pay a lot extra for First Class when we didn’t need it! After comparing prices, the agent just said that it apparently booked that way at no extra charge! I just thanked her and laughed at how amazing it is that God would arrange to take us to our new home in style! A few minutes later, I discovered WHY He had arranged to send us in First Class.  I read the baggage information for the flight, and I noticed that if you fly First Class, you get to check THREE suitcases, and they can weigh 70 pounds each!! God wasn’t just sending us in style, but He was once again providing for our needs! In Economy Class, you can only check one bag at 50 pounds. Any extras cost $40 each to check! This meant that between me, Tony, and Jacob, we could take NINE large suitcases with us when we move over there. Discovering this nugget of information was particularly helpful because we are not the only ones going over to Haiti the first week of August. Our oldest son, Jonathan, his girlfriend Brianna, her father John, and Jonathan’s friend Chris are all going over to Haiti the day before us on August 1st to help us with the move. We had already put some flights on hold for them, so I decided to check into upgrading them to First Class as well. I found that all I had to do was upgrade one leg of the flight and they, too, could take advantage of the extra baggage option. Because theirs is round-trip, the cost to upgrade their flights was $75 each. However, instead of only being able to take one bag each at 50 pounds, they can now take 3 bags each at 70 pounds. So they will be taking 12 bags for us over there the day before we leave. In all, we will be taking everything we can fit into 21 bags and moving it all to Haiti – our new home – in two days!! This is amazing! Once again, we are reminded that our God has already planned our steps and made provision for our needs before we even go. Thank you Lord!

In the last week, God has also once again reminded us that He has planned everything out in advance for not just our move as a family, but for each one of us, including our son, Jacob. I have asked many of you to remember Jacob in prayer particularly because, as a sixteen year old, uprooting yourself and moving to a third world country can be pretty devastating. God has prepared Jacob’s heart, however, and he has been nothing but positive throughout the whole experience. Over the last few months, however, I had been sensing that Jacob didn’t really have a clear vision of his specific purpose in this move. He knew that God was going to use Tony in the medical clinic and me in helping host teams coming to Hope Center, but I just felt like he only saw his part as just going along with us because he is our child. However, God has been pointing out to me in recent months that He has a plan to use Jacob in a mighty way there too. As a matter of fact, He has made it clear to me that He has been preparing Jacob for this time in his life ever since he was 3 years old! If you read the post about our calling, you know about how God showed us when the time was right to share our calling with the boys after the soccer coach with the Haitian National Team called my cell phone out of the blue to talk to me about Jacob playing soccer over there. Well, over the past months, Coach Peterson has called us numerous times checking on Jacob and the progress of our move. Last week, he called and said that he will be in Miami on August 2nd and he wants to book his return flight to Haiti on the same flight as ours so he can meet and get to know Jacob better. He asked me if I thought it would be possible to get Jacob to Cap Haitien on August 15th because he wants Jacob to PLAY in an All-Star game that day before a crowd of thousands!! See, Coach Peterson has been conducting soccer camps this summer all over Haiti, putting together youth teams and having them play one another in tournaments. As the tournaments have progressed, he has selected certain players that he noted had exceptional talent, and he has put together this All-Star team. He is arranging to get all of these players to Cap Haitien on the 15th to play on teams against one another in a final tournament. He said that this will be the largest crowd Jacob has ever played before. Imagine how blown away I was after hearing this news!! I couldn’t wait to tell Jacob. Of course, Jacob is pretty excited about this opportunity as well.

You see, God has given Coach Peterson a vision to help his country by locating exceptional talent for college recruiters in the U.S.  As young Haitian soccer players are given the opportunity to play for colleges in the U.S., they will receive a college education that they can take back to their country to help improve the condition of the entire nation of Haiti. If you recall, God had given Tony a similar vision when He told Tony that we would eventually build a school at Hope Center. Tony’s vision included partnerships with colleges in the U.S. that would agree to offer scholarships to bright, young Haitian students so that they could receive college degrees and return to Haiti to help begin to lift their people out of the oppression they have been living in for centuries. Thankfully, Coach Peterson is a Christian, and he recognizes that God has crossed our paths for a reason! Coach Peterson told me last week that there is not a youth league currently in our area of Haiti, and in the months to come, he would like for Jacob to help him locate talent in our area and put together a team that will train for future tournaments such as the one Jacob will be playing in. So there you go! God plans to use Jacob not only as a player in Haiti, but as a recruiter and a trainer that will move God’s plan forward in helping the people of Haiti improve their lives! As always, we are finding that God’s plan is so much bigger than we could have possibly imagined!!

As I conclude my post today, I am asking you to PRAY for us in our move and in the months to follow as we make Ganthier, Haiti, our new home.  Throughout this entire process, we have not had to ask people for help financially because God moved ahead of us and provided our support for the coming months through individuals giving and the sale of our house. He had also already begun speaking to certain individuals about helping us in various ways, and those people have graciously obeyed God’s calling to them to help us. For this we are so very grateful. Upon the urging of our affiliate organization, But God Ministries, we recently sent out over 400 letters to area churches and corporations about partnering with us in one way or another, whether it be through prayer, sending teams, sending supplies, or sending financial support. We know that as more and more people hear about what God is doing through us and But God Ministries, God will lead them to partner with us in one or more of these ways. We have such a peace about all of it because God has CLEARLY shown us that it is best to be completely dependent on HIM to provide for us. HE will move those who He intends to use, and HE WILL PROVIDE. All we ask of you is to be in prayer, and if God calls you to be involved in some way, that you will TRUST Him as we have, and let Him show you how He wants to use you, then you will ACT on that call accordingly. Those that He calls to pray, will PRAY. Those He calls to GO, will go to the But God Ministries website to plan and book mission trips, and those that He calls to GIVE will contact us or go to the But God Ministries website and contribute. Our particular ministry is designated as the Nursing Ministry, so if you are led to send support, it needs to be designated to the Nursing Ministry specifically. Again, let me make it clear that this paragraph is not a plea for money. It is simply to inform you if you are feeling led to be involved in some way. We have had many, many people ask over the last few months how they can get involved, so this paragraph is simply intended to answer that question in case someone reading it is wondering. Our email address is tnmwest@gmail.com and the But God Ministries website is http://www.butgodministries.com.

Thank you once again for joining us on this beautiful journey! God is moving in a mighty way, and it is so exciting to be a part of it. We are so very thankful for you, our friends, and we look forward to many exciting and miraculous things to report in the coming months!