THE day

Today was a great day. It was day that left us dazed and amazed. It was a day to sit back and just marvel at the way God works, and then lift up our hands to give Him all the praise. Before I explain what happened, I should back up a little and share what has been going on for the last year and a half for those of you who don't know.
Since I started to lead teams to Haiti I noticed that there was a problem in Haiti. It seemed as if even though there were missionaries everywhere, the missions for the most part were ineffective in Kingdom advancement. After I read the book Reveloution in world missions (which if you have not read, I highly recommend you order your free copy from gfa.com ) I understood the problem. Instead of relying on missionaries from America to spread the gospel, we should be raising up missionaries from within Haiti itself. God gave me a vision of training centers to train Haitians to be missionaries to their own people.
A couple months later I shared this vision with Troy Livesay, the missionaries we have been working with in Haiti for some time. I was not sure what he would think as he is a missionary in Haiti. To make a long story short he is completly sold out on the idea, so we started to pray and discern if this was truly the path God wanted us to go. After this summer we had no doubts this was God's will.
So where do we start? The thought of even starting a mission like this is overwhelming. We would need lots of start up money. We would need to find land and build the center and dorms. Where would we do this. Who would run it? How long would it even take to get started? To even think about all this is overwhelming, let alone knowing where to start. Still, we knew this was God's leading so we gave it over to Him.
In October Troy was meeting with Gladys from Caanan. Those of you who have been there with me know it to be an amazing place and Gladys to be a powerful servant of God. In the course of the meeting Gladys told Troy that her dad had started a chain of churches called Ebenezer and that they had the idea of starting a training program for missionaries and pastors, but that it had never taken off, and were now looking for someone with a passion for this to try to start up a training program. Troy had never mentioned our vision to her before, so when he told her we were praying over that exact idea she about fell over and it was obvious it was a God ordained connection.
A few months went by and nothing happened so we were both sort of wondering what was going on, but then a couple of weeks ago Gladys was married to Henri (also from Cannan ) and invited Troy and Tara. Because the family was here for the wedding they decided to go look at the property a few days later. The property is in Petit Guave, about 1 hour south of PAP. Troy called me that night overwhelmed at how awesome the property was. There were still some questions whether the family would allow us to use the property, what they would let us use it for if they did, and many other questions. Still, it was amazing to see things seemingly unfold before our eyes.
We set up a meeting for today to go look at the property again with Gladys so we could look at it, and also sit down with her and talk about the vision, and see what she was thinking. I took a lot of pictures and will have Brenda put them up tommorrow. The property, though, is perfect. The "house" could not be set up better for dorms, but also can easily be used for a team house. It is steps from the ocean on a quiet street. There is an awesome gathering place that will be perfect for worship services and group meetings. It has a large yard with plenty of places to pray and meditate.
After looking at the house, we sat down with Gladys to talk about the plans. We were not sure what she was thinking, and did not want to "steamroll" our vision to her. Within 30 seconds though we knew, again, that it was a Holy Spirit meeting as she started sharing what she would like to see happen with the place, which was EXACTLY what the vision was that God gave us. We just kept shaking our heads at how God was orchestrating all of this. Our passion is to see people sold out for Jesus Christ, forsaking all for Him, with a passion for the lost. People that are not concerned about material things, but seeing the Kingdom of God advanced in Haiti, who are self supporting, relying on God for their needs, and not the white missionary.
When the question was asked how much money will be needed to use the property, the answer was, " I don't think any of us are thinking about charging". Also we were given permission to take stay there with teams, and Gladys even offered to have her kids from cannan interpert for us!
After we left the house we went over to the church. The place is HUGE. To give you an idea they used to worship there with 1000 people. Again, a perfect place for a training center. Also, perfect for VBS. The town is beautiful. The people walk by and don't stare, the kids say hi and walk on. It is clean and peaceful. Absolutly amazing.
So Gladys is having a meeting with her board on Saturday where she is presenting this to them, but she said she is basicly in charge, so let's go! She wants to know when we can start, and the sooner the better! Here is one more cool thing. Yesterday Troy and I sat down to talk about team trips and do some visioning for the mission. We were not planning on doing this, but we ended up coming up with a questionaire for pastors. So at the meeting Gladys said " you know if you had a questionaire I could show the board Saturday that would be great". Well, we just happen to. God is SO great.
Okay, I know this is a book already, and I have left SO much out, but what I really want to enphasize is this. It does not matter if you know what you are doing, if you have the funding, or the ability to accomplish a task. What does matter is knowing that God has called you to it. Be sure of what God wants you to do, then trust that HE will provide the means to accomplish it. Faith is not knowing how something will be accomplished. Faith is knowing God is calling you to something that you cannot do without Him, and moving forward in that knowledge so that HE recieved the glory when HE accomplishes it. I would like to take this opportunity to praise Him, because ONLY He is worthy. He is mighty in deed. All glory to His holy name!!