This was a first for me in my 12 years of traveling to Haiti. The Lord’s mission is always an adventure!

Our flights from Detroit to Fort Lauderdale then Fort Lauderdale to Cap Haitien went well. We arrived at the Cap Haitien airport yesterday (Saturday) with a full plane so it took time to work through entry requirements. We exited the plane on the tarmac as usual and walked to the airport building about 100 yards away. At the entrance, two young officials looked over our COVID test results, took our temperature, made notes on a form and gave it to us. Then we stepped inside to join the queue. At the first booth, we showed a young women our passports and paid the required $10 USD entry fee. (Despite time and inflation, this fee has stayed the same in all my years of coming to Haiti!)

Then we moved to the next booth where we submitted our passports and completed VISA papers to another official. She reviewed everything carefully, took our picture and gave us back the part of the form we need to exit the country. We gave a fourth official our health forms as we entered the luggage area. Finally we were ready to pick up our luggage – we thought.

We checked five bags in total – including the rechargeable speaker we use in our training and its stand. The speaker stand travels in a padded PVC tube specially made by a PPI friend for just that purpose. We stood at the luggage carousel for 30 minutes as the suitcases and duffel bags flowed past us and their owners hoisted them off the carousel. We were getting a little concerned and said we hoped Spirit put our bags on the right flight. Then the PVC tube appeared. Relieved, we waited for the rest of our luggage. It never came. Luggage handlers shut off the carousel and closed its outside doors. Now we were really concerned! “I have enough clothes with me,” I thought, “I can get by. We can do without the speaker, but we’ll be hoarse after three courses!” But if Charles Spurgeon could proclaim God’s Word to 10,000 British workers without amplification, we could train 336 pastors without it, too!

We spotted two luggage handlers at the top of the carousel and started toward them. Suddenly Brian said, “I see one of our suitcases!” Several suitcases had been taken off the carousel and piled on the floor, probably before we got to the luggage room. We found all four of our bags in the pile. Thank you, Lord!

We handed the customs officer our final form, worked through baggage check with just a little pressure to pay customs on the speaker, and finally exited the airport. Pastor Esau found us immediately. He greeted us with an apology. “The car’s not good,” he said. No vans had been available so he had hired a tap-tap. This would be a first for us – though our Haitian friends regularly use this mode of transportation. “It’s okay,” we told him. “Thank the Lord we don’t have to walk.” He smiled.

A tap-tap is a small truck made into a people-carrier. It’s genius really. Workers weld narrow benches on each side of the truck’s bed. The benches extend just over the bumper, welded to a frame that features hand-rails and a small step. Thin pads give travelers just enough cushion to make a short trip bearable. We loaded our luggage and climbed in, ready for the 1-1/2 hour ride to Ouanaminthe. We enjoyed the ride, catching up with our Haitian friends and rejoicing that the Lord brought us together once again to encourage, train and resource church leaders in Haiti.

Enjoy the pictures below from the back of our tap-tap –  a first for me in all my years of coming to Haiti.

Today we attend Pastor Jasmin’s church, where I’ll preach the message “God’s Great House” from 2 Chronicles 2:1-5. After lunch our team will meet to pray and begin preparations for our three courses. Thank you for your continued prayers for us!

Later this morning, a DC3 plane carrying all our training materials will land in Cap Haitian. Will you pray for Esau and Jasmin as they pick up materials, negotiate Haiti customs (not an easy task), and hire a truck to carry the materials to our two training locations? They will pick up 24 boxes of PPI materials weighing 660 lbs. in total. This shipment consists of 14 boxes of Thompson Bibles, 3 boxes of course workbooks (345 copies), 1 box of God-Pleasing Worship books, 3 boxes of conference supplies, and 3 boxes of gospel tracts in Creole. Esau already has 700 Creole Bibles at his house for our July training.

Brian and Dawn Clark and I fly to Haiti via Florida this Friday. Will you pray as we go? Your faithful, fervent prayers are one powerful way that God uses you to SEND us to train pastors in Haiti and other developing countries. Ask our Father in Heaven to give us reasonably on-time travels, energy and health in the heat, and especially love, obedience, peace and joy so that we serve Him well as we encourage, train and resource 336 church leaders in two cities in Haiti. Pray that the Lord will keep the pastors healthy and attentive throughout their training and give them open hearts to His Word. Pray that they will be excited and determined to put into practice all that they learn. Ask our powerful Savior to protect us from the attacks and schemes of Satan.

Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord Almighty. (Zechariah 4:6)

Apart from Me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4:31)

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” ³ Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. ⁴ So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went . . . (Acts 13:2-4)

We will lead Course 2 and Course 1 back to back in Ouanaminthe on July 11-16 (Mon-Sat), then we’ll travel north to Cap Haitian to lead Course 2 there on July 18-20 (Mon-Weds) before returning to the U.S. on July 21. We will also visit two Haitian churches (I’ll preach for one), lead a Bible College class, and spend time with a group of young adults learning English. We’ll have full days as always!

Please pray for us! Your prayers move the heart and hand of the Lord as He sends His laborers into the harvest fields. These fields are ready for harvest, and we look forward to rejoicing together when we return. Thanks for being part of our Sending Team!

GIVE toward our July training conferences HERE.

“Do you have an idea how many people PPI training reaches?” A PPI friend asked me this question recently. He was thinking not only of church leaders who take our courses, but people in their churches and beyond. It got me thinking – and excited!

The short answer is, Only the Lord knows how many people PPI training touches for Christ. I don’t. And that’s a good thing. But it still got me thinking.

We typically train 112 church leaders in each course. Every pastor who completes Course 1 receives a Thompson Chain Reference Bible. Each church leader who completes any PPI course receives at least two Creole Bibles. To date, we have entrusted over 1200 Thompson Bibles and resource books to pastors in Haiti, around 3000 Creole Bibles and gospel tracts beyond counting.

But how many people? Roughly 10% of church leaders enrolled in our courses come from the same church. So, approximately 100 churches are represented in each PPI course. And each church ministers to 100 people in its congregation and neighborhood, some more.

It’s not a stretch to think that 1000 people are reached with the life-changing truth of God’s Word through each PPI course.

Let’s paddle this canoe a little farther: This July, we will offer three (3) courses to 336 church leaders in two different cities in northern Haiti. By His grace, the Lord could use our training to touch the lives of more than 3000 people with the truth of the gospel. Let’s keep going: As the Lord provides funding, we plan to offer three more courses this year and 11-12 courses in Haiti in 2023. God could allow us to reach 15,000 people in Haiti this year and next? You begin to see the multiplying Kingdom potential of encouraging, training and resourcing front-line church leaders in Haiti and other developing nations!

It’s good to gaze at the horizon once in a while, but let’s not stay in these clouds, friends. God has called us to faithful, daily and one-by-one ministry. Each course deserves our best in preparation, prayer and implementation. Every church leader who attends needs our respect, encouragement and personal instruction. Each trip requires our best spiritual and logistical preparation.

In whatever we do – in whatever you do – in Jesus’ mission, let’s be faithful, daily and one-by-one. This is the mission strategy that God used to spread the gospel, disciple believers and plant churches across the known world in the first 30 years of the church. It’s proven effective!

DONATE to PPI’s mission HERE

You know those times when you’re puzzling and praying over the best way to do something – and then the light goes on? That happened to me in Gonaives, Haiti, a few weeks ago, and I’m excited to tell you about it! But first an update on our latest training conferences.

Conferences

From February 21-March 4, a total of 223 pastors in two northern cities in Haiti completed PPI’s Course 1. Pastors were excited to be part of the training and were specially attentive and hard-working. Many spoke about the value of this training to their ministries. They also asked me to thank all PPI supporters for providing Thompson Bibles, Creole Bibles and other ministry tools. So on behalf of Haiti’s pastors: Mèsi anpil anpil! (Thank you so very much!)

They further implored us to come back soon (one pastor asked about next month!) to offer our next training courses. By God’s grace, we will return to Haiti in July and in December 2022 to train around 600 church leaders.

Clarity

What became clear on this trip is the best way to achieve our goal of training church leaders in all ten Departments of Haiti. (A “Department” in Haiti is like a large county or a small state.) Here it is: We will lead our six courses in succession in two key cities at a time over three years. We will offer PPI training in the “chief cities” of each of Haiti’s ten Departments. Six courses in two cities at a time over three years.

This strategy allows us to train pastors in each key city twice a year. That frequency maximizes pastors’ learning and ministry skills, deepens our relationship with them for more heart impact, and enables us to better mentor our Haitian ministry teams to lead PPI courses themselves. And three years is the amount of time Jesus took to train His disciples! Six courses in two cities at a time over three years – That’s our strategy.

So beginning in February 2023, as the Lord provides, we will travel to Haiti four times each year to offer 11-12 training courses. That schedule works best for our Haitian ministry teams and allows us to train over 1200 church leaders every year in Haiti. It also enables us to expand our training beyond Haiti, as the Lord leads us.

For more info, join us at our PPI update (Rasanble) on Tuesday, May 3, at 6:00-8:00pm. We plan to livestream this even for those of you who live outside this area – technology permitting. CLICK HERE for more details. 

Commitment

We’re ready to go! Will you help us do it? Here are ways to partner with us in training over 1200 church leaders each year in Haiti:

• PRAY FOR US as we continue living out God’s calling to give back to church leaders who lack access to ministry training and resources. The Lord opens doors through the faithful prayers of His people.
• CONTINUE TO SUPPORT US. We thank the Lord for so many of you who “remember the poor” (Galatians 2:10) by investing faithfully and generously in training church leaders in Haiti and other developing countries.
• JOIN OUR SUPPORT TEAM. If you have not yet committed to regularly supporting PPI, please consider it! This is a step of stewardship and partnership in Jesus’ mission. Get more info on partnering with PPI HERE.

I heard a Christian leader say, “If God’s vision for your ministry doesn’t give you butterflies, it’s not yet God’s vision.” Our vision and strategy for training pastors in Haiti and other developing countries give me butterflies. By God’s grace and with your help, we’re ready to go!