Sunday, June 19, 2011

Planting a Church in Haiti


Here is a short 2:45 video commemorating the beginning of the new church in Nouaille, Haiti. We thank you for praying for us over the last month, it really does make a difference. If you would like to share the high quality version with your church, we uploaded this to our iDisk's public folder at https://public.me.com/tom4coop  Hitting the link, then the New Project.m4v file and download button will take less than a minute and will go into your Download folder and unzip itself. 

Regina and I have been involved in six church plants, four in Cuba and two in the Dominican Republic. Every church starts with challenges, blessings and unforgettable memories. We have started churches under tree's, under a bridge, under a tent, under tin and just sitting in the sand on the beach. You don't need a pulpit, sound system or even a building to get things started but you do need God's word, the power of the Holy Spirit and willing hearts.

I thank the Lord we had all three as we started our seventh work in Haiti under a big blue tarp. I read II Corinthians 4:5-8, introduced our group, prayed and Pastor Clifford came and preached his first message on Matthew 11:28 "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest". It was beautiful. Everyone enjoyed the services and a bible study was organized just a few days later. The next day Veterinarian Darren Woodson had a clinic and just about every animal imaginable showed up. This provided a great opportunity once again to share the Gospel with the community and Pastor Clifford made some excellent contacts.

During this trip we continued building and have now completed the exterior security wall, fill, plumbing, footer's, column's, and floor of our second project at the back of the property. God is blessing. Up next is a third building 5,000 square feet (Phase 1) with three more talented construction groups on the way from Florence, South Carolina and Farmington, New Mexico. We have worked hard at cutting the budget down for Florence as much as possible without jeopardizing the integrity of the long term impact of the project. Please pray for us. We have posted 100 photographs of this trip on our Facebook page at this
link. and will be raising some additional funds to cover the installation of a Well, Septic System. basic site work. ect. and are excited about what God is doing and trusting Him by Faith to make our vision a reality.