The Lord continues to open doors for us to train church leaders in Haiti. If I said that in a home group meeting, odds are good that my sweet wife, Rena, would point out that “The Lord opening and closing doors” is close to “Christian-ese” (nonspecific things we Christians say that really don’t mean much). She would ask: What does that really mean? Fair question.

It means that, as we do our best to follow the Lord in keeping with His Word, God leads us specifically through circumstances.  He brings opportunities to us (=He opens doors), or He removes opportunities from us (=He closes doors). Figuring out whether God is opening or closing doors in our life begins with doing our best to follow the Lord in keeping with His Word. Step 1 for us is always asking, “What has God said about this in the Bible,” and then finding out through personal study and godly counsel.

We have to be careful not to skip this step. God always guides us through the Scriptures. His Word is His will. In my years as a pastor, I’ve seen too many believers make decisions more in line with the world than God’s Kingdom by making two serious mistakes: 1) They interpret circumstances alone as God’s direction, or 2) they equate their feelings with the leading of the Holy Spirit. Both errors leave out Scripture, and both distract us from seeking first His kingdom and righteousness in making decisions (Matthew 6:33).

But it’s still true that, as we do our best to follow the Lord in keeping with His Word, God can lead us through opening or closing doors of opportunity. The Lord continues to open many doors for Partnership of Pastors in Haiti! 

Pastor Brave Laverdure will travel with me to Haiti in February. Brave is a Haitian-American brother, who leads Haitian Alliance Church in Atlanta, Georgia. He was born in Gonaives, taught in Evangelical Bible College in Cap Haitien for a number of years before moving to the United States.

Some 12 years ago, Brave led his church to establish a “daughter church” in Port au Prince. The Lord has given Pastor Brave passion to strengthen and encourage pastors in Haiti through his half-day challenge, Sowing for a Great Awakening (SAGA). In February/March, I and our Haitian team will lead Course 1 of our PPI training and Brave will lead his SAGA challenge. This will provide four days of training and challenge for 220-plus church leaders in both Cap Haitien and Gonaives! Church leaders who complete the three days of PPI training will be awarded a Thompson Bible, Creole Bibles, the book God Pleasing Worship (in Creole) as well as other ministry resources. We’re excited and we’re working hard on preparations.

PLEASE PRAY for these preparations – for the Lord to open doors for us to encourage, train and resource church leaders effectively.

Esau, Jasmin and Michel – our key Haitian partner pastors – travel to Gonaives tomorrow (Friday) to distribute our conference info/registration forms and make final arrangements for our team to come. Pray for their safe travels – they’re literally traveling across the country by taxi – and success in their preparations. 

You may remember that we had planned to offer PPI training in Gonaives last February,  but had to cancel our trip because of the new CDC international travel restrictions. We promised them that, Lord willing, we would come to Gonaives in 2022 to offer PPI training. Esau told me that pastors there “are making me crazy.” Many have called him to make sure they can register for this conference. They know we limit our training to 110 pastors, and they want to make sure they can secure there place. They will be very happy to see Esau, Jasmin and Michel on Friday!

We will finalize preparations for our Cap Haitien conferences in early January. Please pray for these details as well.

Our new Course 1 workbooks are printed and stored at Missionary Flights International (MFI) ready to be shipped to Haiti in February. We worked through a revision of the Creole translation of this workbook to make it more effective in training pastors. As a result, we set up a Haitian “translation team” to revise the translations of Course 2 and our resource, God-Pleasing Worship. (The team completed these two revisions a couple weeks ago. Now it’s on me to make the revisions to the file and reprint the resources. Pray for me on that!) This team will also work with me on the translation of our next course workbooks and pastors’ resources. I’m so thankful for Esau humbly recognizing his limitations and working with me to put together an excellent Haitian translation team.

I could go on and on. The Lord continues to open doors for us to train church leaders in Haiti! 

Isn’t that the lesson of Christmas? The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world – good news that He wants the world to hear and believe. So He sends “a multitude of heavenly hosts” to announce it. He commissions shepherds to share it. He directs wise men to support it. And He sends us to every nation to announce it: “Jesus Christ was born to be the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. He can change your eternity and your life here and now. Repent and believe the good news!” That’s the powerful gospel that will change Haiti and our country, too, and it begins with godly, well trained church leaders. That’s why we do what we do.

Merry Christmas, friends! May you have sweet times with your Savior and your family and friends. Thank you for your part in helping us walk through open doors!

I was in Dallas/Fort Worth last week and ran into a long-time friend and missions colleague. What a joy! Andrew Spurgeon and I found each other at the Evangelical Theological Society conference in Fort Worth. I’ve been a member of ETS since my student days at Dallas Seminary and have been fed and challenged through the years by the Society’s commitment to Scripture and serious biblical/theological study. This year’s theme “Wealth and Poverty” particularly got my attention in light of our work in Haiti. 

Andrew and Lori and Rena and I met at seminary many moons ago (we looked a little different then!) and quickly realized we were part of the same church in Mesquite. Not long after, we started a home group together and grew together in the Lord as good friends in Christ.

Andrew and Lori are special servants of God. After graduating from DTS, they taught for many years at a Bible college in India and now serve in Singapore. Andrew has written and edited a number of books and commentaries from an Asian Christian perspective. He also serves as an adjunct professor at Dallas Theological Seminary. 

I also spent time with our daughter Katie, another special friend in Christ! Many of you know that Katie is in her second year of study at Dallas Theological Seminary, pursuing a master’s degree in evangelism and apologetics. She worked out a part-time remote position with her company in Ann Arbor. The Lord is providing for her and leading her in her next steps in Jesus’ mission. Katie loves God with all her heart, mind and strength and desires to be used by Him. We are so proud of her! 

I’ll always be “Dad” to Katie and our boys, but as they grow as young adults, we also have become friends, peers and increasingly colleagues in Christ. Katie and I had a lot of conversation about Scripture, theology, life and church as we enjoyed a day in Fort Worth. She’s a BFF and definitely my favorite daughter (you’ll get that later).  Rena and I have no greater joy than to see our children – and now our two grandchildren – walk in Truth (3 John 1:4).

I’m so thankful for good friends in Christ, including all of you! What are you especially thankful for this Thanksgiving season?

No doubt you’ve the heard bad news from Haiti. President Jovenal’s assassination in July. The earthquake in Les Ceyes in August. To top it off, on October 16, an armed gang kidnapped 17 American and Canadian believers traveling with Christian Aid Ministries near Port au Prince. The gang, 400 Mawozo, has demanded a ransom of $1 million for each person. Ugly events. Bad news. And we’re right to pray faithfully for believers, churches and political leaders in Haiti. We’re right to do whatever we can to alleviate the largely unnecessary suffering of people precious to our God.

But I want you to hear some GOOD NEWS from Haiti. I don’t want God’s powerful, gracious work to get lost in all the bad press on Haiti right now. 

Les Ceyes – After the earthquake, PPI Board member, Tony deBari, traveled to Les Ceyes to serve on a medical team. Pastor Jasmin Joseph, one of our key partners in Haiti, rallied evangelical churches in three departments of Haiti to raise funds for food, water and shelter in Les Ceyes. We put the word out about Jasmin’s work, and many of you responded with a special gift. One supporting church especially responded to this need. Thank you, friends!

Ouanaminthe – Pastor Esau Paulema told me earlier this week that Christians in his city joined together for three days of fasting and prayer for Haiti and especially for Port au Prince, the capital city. A group of our partner pastors there founded a Bible college last year and continue to offer classes each Saturday to around 50 pastors. They told us they were inspired to build upon the training they received from PPI.

Cap Haitien – This week, believers representing over 200 evangelical churches walked peacefully through Cap Haitien. They prayed for their nation, worshipped and heard from Scripture through their pastors. God is stirring His people to prayer, love and good deeds! This is good pastoral leadership that results from solid pastoral training like that offered by PPI.

PPI pastors training – We will offer two pastors training conferences in Haiti in February/March. On the advice of many friends in Haiti, we will postpone our training in Port au Prince until the city is more secure. We plan instead to offer training in Cap Haitien and Gonaives. Please pray for us as we work out all the details of these next two conferences. As the Lord wills, we will lead three (3) more training conferences in Haiti in 2022 after that. We’re excited, thankful and depending on the Lord to continue to make us part of His mission of Good News in Haiti.

Thank you for partnering with us to make that happen! ***DONATE HERE***

We returned to Michigan from Haiti on July 30, and our next conferences there will be Feb 20-March 5, 2022. What’s happening in the mean time? What do we do between training conferences? A lot! Here are some examples of what we’re working on right now:

• Purchasing Bibles – In the past two weeks, we purchased 336 Thompson Bibles and 500 Creole Bibles for our upcoming training conferences. This requires phone conversations with people in France and Haiti, verification of invoices and shipping details, and payment. Pastor Esau received the shipment of Creole Bibles today (pictured) and will store them in his home until we use them at our Feb/March conferences. 
• Replenishing conference materials – Rena created an inventory of conference materials several months ago. (If you know Rena, you know that she is super organized and administrative.) This is a brilliant tool! We’ll re-count all conference supplies, update our online inventory, shop for best prices, then order needed materials for our next training conferences.
• Planning our next training conferences – Lord willing, we plan to offer PPI training in two new cities in Feb/March – Port au Prince and Gonaives. I am working on all the details right now – dates, specific locations, coordination team members, transportation, lodging, shipping, etc. That involves a lot of prayer, conversations and coordination!
• Revising course materials – Pastor Esau and I are improving the Creole translation of Course 1 and our resource book God-Pleasing Worship. That‘s taking some time, but will make these tools more effective with Haitian church leaders. (One of 29 revised pages of Course 1 pictured.)
• Communicating with PPI friends and supporters – We call, email, text or meet in person with PPI friends and supporters every week. We update all of you through our newsletters and online posts like this one. That’s so important for this “Ministry Team” of workers and supporters – all of us! – that God is putting together to encourage, train and resource church leaders in Haiti and other developing countries. 
• Contacting and meeting with potential supporters – We continue to contact and meet with potential supporters. I returned from a trip to New Jersey a few weeks ago, where I met with pastors representing five different churches. I also met with a number of individuals. I leave for Kentucky on Monday, where I will present PPI to 150 pastors at the annual meeting of the Liberty Baptist Association. Most Sundays these days Rena and I present PPI in potential supporting churches. We have met so many wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ!
• Preaching, teaching, speaking – Besides presenting PPI, I have the privilege of preaching, teaching or speaking at supporting churches and other ministries. I’ll speak (via pre-recorded video and live Zoom) at a men’s breakfast of a potential supporting church in New Jersey in early November. The Sunday after that, I’ll preach (in person) at a supporting church in mid-Michigan. I’ve been invited to take part in Dallas Seminary’s missions conference in March. Since we have lived and ministered in our community for over 17 years, Rena and I continue to meet with and encourage others in Christ in our local area. I’ll lead a funeral in Saginaw on Thursday.
• Praying, reading, studying and writing – I’m reading/listening through the Bible right now and soaking in Galatians, Paul’s defense and application of the one true gospel. I’ll preach a message from Galatians in early November. Besides my go-to news source (The Economist magazine), I’m also finishing a book on developing a new ministry. I’m also working on a couple writing projects related to our work in Haiti (stay tuned).
• Special projects – We put together two special Haiti Missions Projects for next week’s pastors meeting in Kentucky – and for all PPI friends and partners. This involved planning, writing, revising (many times), and coordinating graphics work (see picture) and printing. We’re really excited about these projects! More info to come in early November.
• Spending time with family and friends – All this keeps me hopping for 40-50 hours each week on average. Rena invests around 12 hours each week in administering PPI’s finances and office needs – in addition to her part-time job at United Financial Credit Union. But over our years of ministry, we have learned the huge importance of initiating and protecting time with God and time with family and friends. That includes project time and down time together. That also includes calls, texts, video time and visits with our kids and grandkids. It includes holiday and vacation times. These are gifts from God that we don’t want to miss or minimize!

So that gives you a snapshot of what we do between training conferences. Check out COMING UP on the PPI website for more specific dates and details.

Thank you all for your part in the Ministry Team that enables us to lead the charge in encouraging, training and resourcing Haitian church leaders. We couldn’t do it without your faithful prayers, encouragement and financial investments. Together God can use all of us to make an eternal difference in Haiti for Christ!