We have an amazing opportunity right now. Will you help us take advantage of it? We have a chance to buy Thompson  Bibles at half-price – $25 per Bible versus our regular price of $50. GIVE HERE

As you know, the French language Thompson Chain Reference Bible is our main training tool for church leaders in Haiti. It is not only a good translation of Scripture, but it is also a “mini-library” of study tools that help pastors understand God’s Word and communicate it clearly to others.

But it’s expensive. We typically pay $37-$39 for each Bible before shipping. And our Bibles’ journey from France to Canada to Florida to Haiti adds another $10-$12 per Bible to their cost. By the time our Thompson Bibles arrive at our training location in Haiti, we have invested $50 per Bible – or more.

Enter MLM and ETS

We order our Thompson Bibles through Multilanguage Media (MLM), a ministry based in Philadelphia that prints and distributes Bibles and Christian literature around the world. We have worked with MLM for the last 11 years to purchase Thompson Bibles and other ministry resources for church leaders in Haiti. MLM is a fantastic ministry! Check out their website HERE.

Tim Hurd from MLM called me two weeks ago very excited! He wanted to recommend us to Equipping the Saints (ETS), another ministry long affiliated with MLM. ETS planned to purchase several hundred French language Thompson Bibles. Tim told me that by “tagging long” with ETS’s purchase PPI may be able to get Thompson Bibles at a deeply discounted price.

I was interested! I contacted Keith Jones at ETS that afternoon to get acquainted and explore the opportunity. Keith is the founder and Executive Director of ETS (learn more about ETS’s ministry HERE.) Over the last two weeks, several emails and a few more phone calls, this amazing opportunity materialized. By buying Thompson Bibles together, PPI can purchase Thompson Bibles right now at  half-price. 

264 Thompson Bibles

We’re going for it! My plan is to purchase 264 Thompson Bibles at $21 per Bible plus shipping. 264 is the minimum number of Thompson Bibles we need for our three (3) planned training conferences in Haiti in 2022. We already have the 160 Thompson Bibles needed for our two training conferences this July in Haiti.

Given the size of our combined order, we’re able to get the Bibles shipped directly from France to MFI in Florida. MFI (Missionary Flights International) flies our Bibles to Haiti. That significantly cuts our shipping cost. I’m estimating our total cost to be $25 per Bible.

Will you help?

Will you help us take advantage of this opporunity? Would you consider a special gift so that we can buy these 264 Thompson Bibles at $25 each? DONATE HERE

I resonate with the Apostle Paul’s words this morning:

Pray for us, that the Word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored [in Haiti], as happened among you. (2 Thessalonians 3:1)

Thank you for praying for us and standing with us!

While a pastor candidate filled the pulpit at First Baptist the past three Sundays, we made good progress on PPI’s first office/workroom. We’re converting our daughter’s, Katie’s, old bedroom. For now it’s the best place in our house for the PPI office.

When finished, the new office will provide an office and study for Ken and much needed shelving for PPI conference materials. Since we’re doing all the labor ourselves – with help from family members and friends of PPI – we’re able to build out the office/workroom at a fraction of the cost compared to hiring a contractor. We anticipate completing the project by Easter. Enjoy the in-process pictures!

Today has to be the coldest day of the year in mid-Michigan – 10 below zero when I got up this morning.  Rena and I will venture out for a walk later this afternoon (the Fitbits must be fed). Besides that we’re staying indoors!

What do we do on days like this? We prepare! Making the decision to postpone our February training in Gonaives was hard. We had to rewind a lot of reservations and preparations. And, honestly, it was like being thrown off a horse when I was a kid. I had to get up, wipe away some tears, dust myself off, and get ready to mount up again. Read more in my PREVIOUS POST

So now we’re in preparation mode. The prophet’s call rings in my ears:

Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting, “Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God! ⁴ Fill in the valleys, and level the mountains and hills. Straighten the curves, and smooth out the rough places. ⁵ Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. The Lord has spoken!” (Isaiah 40:3-5)

Clear the way! Make a straight highway! Fill in, straighten, smooth out! Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. John the Baptizer used these words to announce the coming of Jesus, but they also apply to our own preparations for the Lord.

What can you do this winter to prepare for the Lord to work? What preparations do you need to make? Let’s make the most of our time and invest for eternity!

Here’s what’s on the PPI “To Do List” between now and the two upcoming training conferences in July:

• Work out an acceptable, reliable solution to the new CDC international travel guidelines. I tried the first COVID-19 home test we could get with unsatisfactory results. Please pray about this!
• Plan and build out the PPI office/workroom. We’re using a room in our house for this space. More details on this project to come in my next post.
• Contact and follow up with potential financial partners. I will preach and present PPI at Gateway Church in Port Huron on Feb 28.
• Finish writing the workbook for PPI Course 2 – Our Powerful Gospel. We plan to offer this course in Cap Haitien in July, Lord willing. Like all our training courses, Course 2 will be keyed to the Thompson Chain Reference Bible (French version) and translated into Creole.
• Finish editing, formatting, translating and printing the book God-Pleasing Worship. I have a rough draft of this resource completed and, Lord willing, plan to have it ready for printing in English and in Creole by May 1. Check out a SAMPLE of the book here

I’m so grateful to the Lord that I have the privilege of being neck-deep in projects that are life-giving to church leaders in Haiti and other developing countries! I’m so thankful that God chooses to use our preparations, done in faith and love, to reveal His glory. That warms my soul on a cold Michigan day. I hope it warms your soul, too. Give to PPI HERE

Courageous Kingdom Decisions – that was the title of my message two Sundays ago from Acts 11. I didn’t realize then that the Lord intended to use that Scripture to push PPI to a next step that week!

I focused on Acts 11:19-26, and explained that God used opposition and difficulty to move the church out of Jerusalem and into Judea, Samaria and ultimately the ends of the earth. I said:

The Apostles stayed in Jerusalem, proclaiming the good news of Jesus, teaching and caring for those who trusted in Christ. And the Jerusalem church continued to grow. Some estimate the number of believers in the Jerusalem church at 20,000 people. Jewish people. In many ways, the first generation of the church was a Jewish revival – just what Jesus’ first disciples had envisioned. 

But Jesus had given them a mission to all nations. He had commanded them to expand the message and ministry of the church from Jerusalem and Judea (Jewish people) to the hated Samaritans and all the pagan Gentiles (Acts 1:8). That was and is the mission Jesus gave His church. It wasn’t easy for the Jewish church in Jerusalem to look out its windows at the rest of the world. It’s not easy for us.

So God used persecution to move the church beyond Jerusalem. Opposition and difficulty created opportunity for the spread of the gospel. Watch the sermon HERE

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) caused the “opposition and difficulty” that pushed us take an important next step now rather than later – preparing national pastors to lead PPI training conferences.

On January 12, the CDC issued an order requiring all travelers entering the United States by air to show proof of a negative viral/antigen COVID-19 test 1-3 days before their flight to the United States.  These requirements went into effect yesterday (January 26).

That means each person on our U.S. mission team would need to take and pass a viral/antigen test for coronavirus in Haiti and get documented results back within 3 days of flying back home.

I have worked long and hard on a solution to this latest hurdle to our February conference. Over the past 10 days, I have scoured the internet for reliable information. I talked with the CDC, American Airlines, local and state health departments, friends in Haiti, medical professionals, and four pharmaceutical companies.

Everyone is working hard on solutions, but no reliable solution will be available in time for our mission trip in February.  So last week, the PPI board and I made the painful decision to cancel our February mission trip and postpone the pastors training in Gonaives. 

I communicated this difficult decision to Pastor Esaii and Pastor Jasmin, our two key ministry partners in Haiti. We walked through a plan for them to travel to Gonaives to meet with church leaders there to let them know that we had to postpone the conference, to tell them we plan to come there as soon as the Lord allows, and to encourage and pray with them.

We are disappointed – especially the new and “alumni” Haitian pastors anticipating this training. Yet as our board discussed what to do, God began to make it clear to us that we needed to move equipping national trainers to the front burner this year. 

Preparing national trainers has been part of our vision for Partnership of Pastors International from the beginning. And we have taken some good first steps in that area. But with all the time demands of a new mission ministry and “tent-making” as an interim pastor, I had moved the intentional training of trainers to the back burner. God used the “opposition and difficulty” of COVID=19 to move me out of Jerusalem. I’m so thankful!

Last week and this week, I’ve had fruitful conversations about equipping national trainers with my friends and mentors – Chuck Ballard with African Pastors Training and John Jauchen with Help for Christian Nationals. They described their criteria and process for preparing national trainers. They also put me in touch with key ministry partners on the front lines of their equipping of indigenous trainers – David Stevens in Africa and Hector Burke in Central/South America.

I’ll share more as this unfolds. For now we’re working toward going to Haiti in July to lead two back-to-back pastors conferences. And – because God used this opposition and difficulty to push us out of Jerusalem – we are committed to defining a “train the trainer” process and implementing it in Haiti beginning in July.

Please pray for these multiplication efforts!

Give to PPI HERE