“Father, your will is for your ways and your saving power to be known among all nations.” (Psalm 67:1-2) I awoke this morning with this prayer on my lips. This amazing opportunity to gather church leaders, open the Scriptures and train them in Biblical pastoral ministry is God’s work, not our idea. I’m convinced of it!

The Lord is answering all of our prayers! We began our first day of training this morning with 115 pastors – our absolute maximum – and several on the waiting list. The pastors are eager to learn, and the Lord continues to teach us how to be clearer and more effective in equipping them. At the end of the day, we asked Pastor Christoph, the president of the Gonaives evangelical pastors organization (FRERH), to tell the pastors about the association and to close our first day in prayer. He took more time to share how the Lord had answered their prayers in bringing PPI training to Gonaives. He said, “We are privileged to participate in such a high level of training that also speaks to their hearts.” Praise God!

Will you pray for our continued strength, love, joy and wisdom as we continue the next two days of training? Please ask the Lord to keep these church leaders healthy each day – that’s not a given in Haiti – attentive and receptive. Pray especially for them to continue to use the Thompson Bible in their ministries long after we leave, to grow in their love for God and His Word, and to shepherd their churches humbly and effectively. 

As promised, here’s another faith story from Haiti.

Love draws hard people to Jesus. 

Pastor Ulrick is a member of our ministry team. He speaks passionately about how PPI training has helped him and his church grow in Christ. He says he now focuses on teaching the Bible simply, clearly and to the heart of his congregation.

Ulrick’s church is located in a very poor part of the city of Ouanaminthe. He  realized early on that many families were too poor to send their children to school. Parents must pay for their children’s education, even in government schools. But the Lord continued to nudge Pastor Ulrick about the need to help families in their neighborhood. So Ulrick and members of his church established a small elementary school and invited families to enroll their children without cost. This was a big step of faith for them because they have very little money themselves. But they believed the Lord wanted them to take this step and trust Him. 

This act of love with no strings attached has drawn children and their parents to Christ. Ulrick told us that, on the Sunday before our training conference in Cap Haitien, a well known witch doctor from their neighborhood came to church. He sat near the back. Ulrick saw him and immediately walked to him and welcomed him to the service. Congregation members watched uneasily. In Haiti, witch doctors and their disciples often show up at baptisms and church services to heckle believers and drive people away with their curses. Not a few Haitian pastors have told me about open demonic activity at these times. Christians here naturally are concerned when a witch doctor shows up!

As Ulrick smiled and gripped the man’s hand, the witch doctor thanked him for allowing his two children to attend the school even though he could not pay. The church is praying for this man’s salvation. The love of Jesus, warmly and freely expressed, draws even those far away from Christ!

A few more pics from our first day of training in Gonaives below.

“Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His mercy endures forever.” Thank you all for praying for the bank situation in Haiti. That hasn’t changed as of this morning. SOGEBANK is still closed so we don’t have access to our account. But the Lord provided a way for us to get money to Pastor Esau this morning so he can pick up our shipment of Thompson Bibles, course workbooks, and other training resources. Our Father in Heaven answered our prayers! Here’s what happened:

A friend emailed me on Tuesday afternoon to ask a question about our upcoming conferences. Brent works for another mission organization serving missions in Caribbean countries, including Haiti. I replied to his question briefly, sent the message, then thought “I wonder if he has any insight on the bank problem in Haiti.” I emailed him again to ask. 

Brent replied,

Ken,

We have not heard about new problems with the bank in the last couple of weeks, but are generally aware that there are often difficulties with bank services. Oh, the things we take for granted here!  We don’t make this public knowledge, for obvious reasons, but we do periodically help get funds to missions who are having problems accessing their funds in Haiti. If you want to pursue this option, please contact our VP ******** with your request.  I have copied him on this email for your convenience.

Brent

I thanked Brent and immediately contacted his mission’s vice-president to explain our situation. I had no idea this mission organization provided such an option. They have helped PPI in so many other ways, but this is above and beyond! We talked yesterday (Wednesday) morning to work out the details.

The specific answer to prayer is: A representative of this mission organization will give Pastor Esau $4000 this morning (Thursday) at Cap Haitien Airport. Esau and Jasmin will have the money they need to pick up our shipment of conference materials and put down deposits on our lodging and conference meals. Thank you, Lord! We sent a check for that amount to this mission organization to reimburse them for this Kingdom advance. 

Thank you all for your encouraging notes and your fervent intercession! Your faithful, specific prayers to the Lord of the Harvest on our behalf provide the “supply line” we must have to serve on the front lines of Kingdom work in Haiti and other developing countries. We’re in this work together, and we couldn’t do it without you. I’m reminded again of the strength and joy of the Body of Christ working together for the mission of Jesus. There’s nothing like it!

Can I ask you to pray for two more specific requests? First, please ask the Father to fill us and every church leader attending with His Spirit of wisdom, love and joy as we participate together in these two training conferences. Second, please pray that PPI funds in SOGEBANK would be intact and available soon so we can begin working toward our three training conferences in July/August. This is the Lord’s money, and we don’t want to lose a penny of it.

And be encouraged again that our God in Heaven delights to answer our prayers – big and small – as we seek first His Kingdom and righteousness.

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His mercy endures forever! Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble. (Psalm 107:1-2)

I’ve been learning more Creole and have discovered that ann with any number of verbs means let’s [do this]! For example, Ann ale means “Let’s go!” Ann manje means “Let’s eat!” and Ann priyè means “Let’s pray!”

I want to make a request of all of you: Ann priyè pou Pastè Esau ak Celina, madanm li. Let’s pray for Pastor Esau and Celina, his wife. Esau and Celina have prayed for a baby for four years. Celina lost a baby close to full term three years ago, a heart-breaking loss that affected Celina’s health long afterward.

The young couple has saved money so Celina could see an Ob-Gyn doctor, and many friends have been praying for them including us. Last July our U.S. mission team gathered around Esau and Celina, laid hands on them and asked the Lord to give them a baby. Esau told me earlier this week that the Lord has answered our – and many others’ – prayers. Celina is pregnant! We are so excited for them!

But, as so many of you know, health care in Haiti is usually expensive, sometimes substandard, and nutrition is fragile. Please pray specifically that the Lord will protect Celina and their baby for the full term of her pregnancy, that our gracious and almighty Father will help Celina to deliver a healthy little one at full term. That is Esau and Celina’s heart’s desire.

Esau and Celina are much loved, special friends. Pastor Esau serves as PPI’s representative in Haiti. He works hard behind the scenes to help us coordinate all details of our training conferences before we arrive, and he serves as our main translator and key coordinator when we’re in the country. PPI pays Esau monthly for all his work on our behalf. He told me last summer that his family has not missed a daily meal since he began working as PPI’s representative in Haiti. Praise God! Esau also teaches French at a school in his city and co-pastors their church. Celina sells items from their porch in their neighborhood. They are a hard-working young couple who love the Lord and serve faithfully in His church.

Your faithful support of this ministry helps us provide a stable – and well earned – monthly income to these partners in ministry. Thank you! 

So ann priyè. Let’s pray for Esau, Celina and their unborn baby. I will meet Esau next week in Haiti. Along with four other Haitian brothers, we will offer two training conferences in two cities over two weeks. I’ll update you on all that as we train pastors, and I will keep you updated on mom and baby’s progress. Mèsi anpil pou lapriyè. Thanks so much for praying!

Missionaries and churches – they should strengthen and sharpen each other. It should be win-win. In our calling to train pastors in developing countries, the Lord made two things clear to me. First, He called me to give priority to the poor. I realized I couldn’t be a full-time pastor here and an effective Kingdom worker there. I’ve pastored long enough to know what it takes to shepherd and equip believers well – though I’ve realized time and again how much I still have to learn about doing that effectively. And I have spent enough time with pastors in developing countries to know what it would require to take a big swing at encouraging, training and resourcing international church leaders. I couldn’t do both effectively. As Howard Hendricks said, “The secret of concentration is elimination.” God made it clear to us that He wanted us to give priority to the poor.

Second, He called us to encourage and strengthen the American church. Early on in this journey, I told a missions friend and mentor: “I’m not a career missionary. I came to this by a different road – through 24 years of pastoral ministry in American churches. And I believe part of God’s call to us in developing PPI is to encourage and strengthen American churches.” Wow, has that proven true!

Over the last nine months, we’ve had the privilege of spending time with a number of pastors and churches in Michigan, Tennessee, Kentucky and New Jersey. Our first prayer has been to encourage and build up brothers and sisters in Christ, to be a listening ear to church leaders and, as appropriate, advise in a Kingdom direction. Then, of course, we have asked the Lord to help us present PPI well and guide the church in whether or not He wants them to partner with us in training church leaders in poor nations.

We’ve met gifted, faithful pastors and leaders. We’ve talked with many committed followers of Christ. God has His people in every community! Our appreciation and love for Jesus’ church has grown. Our passion for churches to sharpen their focus on making disciples of all nations has been fueled. I’m convinced that our greatest need in the United States – as in Haiti and elsewhere – is for every believer in Christ (well-equipped by church leaders) to clearly, compassionately share gospel truth and to live out that truth every day in our families, neighborhoods and workplaces. This is Job One for Jesus’ church. Everything else is background noise.

That’s our heart. That’s our desire as we continue to develop Partnership of Pastors International. Learn more about joining our support team HERE.

So what a joy to spend the last two Sundays with New Life Christian Fellowship in Saginaw (see pics below)! We loved partnering with Pastor Ken Cline, Brooke, Tom and Ashlee on the Hub for Haiti. The Lord strengthened us in Him through worshipping the Lord with this family of believers. We were fed by Pastor Ken’s practical and passionate biblical teaching. We were encouraged in our conversations with many brothers and sisters. Our prayer has been to encourage and strengthen these friends in Christ, and it gives us great joy to think that God has used us in some way to do that. As the Apostle Paul said, we should be mutually encouraged by one another’s faith (Romans 1:11-12). That’s the win-win of God’s Kingdom!