It’s official! We will offer pastors training in our next new city – Gonaives – this February. Over 300,000 people live in this city situated on the west coast of Haiti. Gonaives is a 90-mile drive north from Port-au-Prince, a 60-mile trek southwest from Cap Haitien, or a three-day sail from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (I don’t think many people make the boat trip!)

We will fly into Port-au-Prince then catch a charter flight with Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF) from Port-au-Prince to Gonaives. Flights to/from and within Haiti have become more expensive and more complicated because of COVID-19 and recent unrest in Haiti. For example, U.S. airlines now fly only to/from Port-au-Prince – no other Haitian cities.

But the Lord is good! Over a year ago, we formally affiliated with Missionary Flights International (MFI), an aviation ministry based in Florida. To date, we have used MFI to ship our training materials and medicines to Haiti. Going forward, we will use them for our U.S. mission team flights as well. We also can fly with MAF in Haiti, which we’ll do in February. Both MFI and MAF are fantastic mission organizations with a long history of facilitating the Lord’s harvest. They’re a joy to work with!

Our partner pastors in Haiti tell us that church leaders in Gonaives are waiting eagerly for our training in their city. We had a few pastors from Gonaives at our training conference a year ago. They had traveled for many hours over rough, dangerous roads. They were one of several groups of pastors who asked us to bring PPI training to their city. We thank the Lord that we can do that beginning in February!

ACCESS to training is a huge problem in Haiti and other developing countries. For so many front-line church leaders in places like Haiti, the financial, family and geographical barriers are insurmountable.  But with the Lord’s strength and your partnership, we’re doing something about that! Partnership of Pastors International offers short-term, high-impact ministry training in accessible locations. Our courses are “traveling Bible college” or “circuit-riding seminary” in cities like Gonaives.

Training 110 church leaders in this new city will cost PPI about $100 per person, or around $11,000 total. That’s over and above our U.S. mission team fees and expenses. The cost of Thompson Chain Bibles in French make up half of our per-pastor cost – $50 per Thompson Bible for purchase and shipping. Would you invest in training pastors in Gonaives? You can donate HERE.

Rena and I just got back from a ministry retreat in the Colorado mountains. We had a full summer and an especially full three weeks before the retreat. Honestly, we were tired and frazzled. I was ready to bail out of the retreat – and said so to Rena –  but the Lord had good plans!

The Sonscape Ministry Retreat in Divide, Colorado, was just that – a retreat. Our leader couple focused on our personal walks with God and our rest in Him. I arrived ready to get feedback on our plans for the next two years of developing PPI. Instead we talked with the Lord and each other, walked the foothills of the Pikes Peak range, and rested.

It was just what we needed after these past 16 months of change and new Kingdom adventures. I read this week:

“If you will take care of the depth of your life and ministry, God will take care of the breadth. If you will stay focused on the root, He will produce the fruit.” (The God Ask by Steve Shadrach)

Jesus said it simply: “Abide in me . . . . Without me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5). It’s easy for any of us to get so caught up in the opportunities and responsibilities of life that we miss our Savior’s invitation to lead our lives and give us rest along the way. He says to us, “Come away and rest awhile.” That’s what this past week was for us, and we are grateful!

Now we are back home in Michigan, and have resumed climbing the mountains before us here! It’s an exciting, joyful trek and our steps are lighter. Will you pray for us as we:

• Work toward our next pastors training in Gonaives, Haiti in February
• Contact and meet with churches and individuals to develop partnerships with PPI
• Continuing pastoring First Baptist Church and assist in the church’s search for its next permanent pastor

We don’t want to lose what the Lord reminded us of on the mountain!

How are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? Romans 10:14-15

PPI completed its first year of Kingdom work on September 15. And what a year it has been – thanks to our Haitian partners, all of you, and a global pandemic!

A Great Start

We officially launched Partnership of Pastors International on September 15, 2019, by mailing our first ministry newsletter, unveiling our ministry website and Facebook page (welcome to the 21st century), and organizing a U.S. mission team for our training conference in February 2020.

You have encouraged us so much – praying and giving to get PPI off the ground! Thanks!

Our First New City 

In February 2020, we took our first step of growth by offering training in a new city in Haiti. We equipped over 100 pastors in Cap Haitien, Haiti, a strategic city of 250,000 people on the north coast of Haiti. Lord willing, we will lead another training course there in July 2021. CLICK HERE to support our next training conferences.

Responding to COVID-19

We had to cancel our training conference in Haiti in July because of COVID 19. Instead God led us to provide food, medicines and Creole Bibles to Haitian believers in our “home base” city of Ouanaminthe. With the hard work of PPI friends -you! – and our partner pastors in Haiti, we put together over 500 food packages and 2500 medicine packets over the last four months. We also provided 234 Creole Bibles to pastors there. God continues to use these resources to save lives, invite people to Jesus, and strengthen churches. CLICK HERE for more on COVID-19 in Haiti

Looking Ahead to Year Two

We have hit the ground running in Year Two! Rena and I will take part in a pastors/missionaries conference in Colorado in early October. We are praying that God uses this retreat time to prepare us for fruitful, Spirit-led ministry this year and beyond.

We are focusing on developing church and individual partnerships this year. To do that we are sending PPI info packets to 30 churches each month, then following up with each church to set up in-person conversations. We have started with churches in Michigan so that I can continue as interim pastor at First Baptist Church in Bad Axe for the next several months. CLICK HERE to learn more about partnering financially with PPI.

We are also working toward training conferences in Haiti in February and July. Although COVID-19 has complicated travel to Haiti (and elsewhere), the Lord is opening doors for us to provide training courses in Haiti in 2021. Please pray with us for these Kingdom efforts.

Thank you for standing with us. We praise God for a good first year of Kingdom ministry, and we are trusting Him for greater impact for Christ in Year Two!

Would you pray for believers in Haiti with tropical storm Laura bearing down on them right now? Haiti is especially vulnerable to natural disasters because of its location and its poverty. 

When a tropical storm hits the United States, we see video of people boarding up homes and businesses, stacking sandbags, and then escaping the area in their cars. None of that happens in Haiti.

Karen Davis, long-time missionary in Haiti, wrote yesterday:

I do know we are supposed to have another storm heading our way.  And yes, it’s supposed to turn into a hurricane.  So, what do the people of Haiti do to prepare for this??? THEY PRAY!  They open the churches for concentrated prayer.  They can’t buy ahead what they need, since they can’t even buy what they need daily.  They can’t “move” to another place…no where to move to!  But they can PRAY, and boy, do they pray.  And the Lord has heard them before in times like these, and He’ll hear them again!!

Would you pray with us for our friends in Haiti? Pray that God will protect them from the worst effects of this storm. Pray that the Lord will assure His children of His presence and care. Pray that He will give them opportunities to point to the hope of Christ through this fearful situation.

Thank you for lifting our friends to our Father of mercies.

Ken

Rena and I have quoted James 4:15 a lot lately: If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. AD 2020 has been that kind of year for all of us, hasn’t it? It certainly has for us!

A While Longer

For starters, I will continue a while longer as the interim pastor at First Baptist Church in Bad Axe. The church has been actively searching for its next permanent pastor for the past 10 months. One final candidate withdrew from consideration, and the Search team decided not to go forward with the second final candidate. We trust the Lord’s guidance in this – the search process is working! We restarted the pastor search  last week and already have some good prospective candidates. Please pray for our Pastoral Search Committee and the congregation as we move forward together. If the Lord wills, FBC will call its next permanent pastor by early 2021.

Developing Support – A Little Slower

As we continue with First Baptist, we take joy in knowing the Lord is working out His timing for the church and for PPI! As planned, we will start developing church support for PPI in September – just a little slower. Instead of devoting full-time to contacting and meeting with churches this fall, we will do it part-time with focus on Michigan and the Midwest. We trust the Lord’s timing in this change! Many churches likely need more time to regroup after the COVID-19 outbreak before talking with a new potential mission partner (us!). If the Lord wills, we will be able to meet with and partner with a number of churches this fall. 

Family Time and Pastors Conference

We enjoyed some vacation time last week with our kids and our grandson, Hunter. Since our kids live out of town – like many of yours – these times are especially precious to us. We talked life, cooked food, swam, walked and played games. We enjoyed a day at Oak Beach in Huron County – one of our “finds” from living part-time in Bad Axe. We’re so grateful to the Lord for our children and grandson! If the Lord wills, we will be together again for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

In early October – if the Lord wills – Rena and I will take part in a pastors conference in Colorado. We’re looking forward to the time together and conversation with other pastors and missionaries. We are asking God to refresh and re-fire our hearts for the season of Kingdom work ahead. We desire to encourage, train and resource church leaders in Haiti and other developing countries – beyond what we could ask or imagine –  if the Lord wills . . . Invest in pastors training HERE