February

In this is Love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1 John 4:10

Dear Friends in Christ,

Our loving Savior is full of power and mercy, He can do what we cannot and He will walk with us when He calls us to things that are far above our abilities. We can attest to this as we are in the midst of such a calling in our care for Woodson! Jesus is able when we are not; and we are learning to rest in Him knowing He is fully in control at all times.

Last month, was OSM’s 28th year anniversary! We failed to mention this and wanted you to celebrate with us another year of serving the Lord! It is our privilege to be working in Haiti and Mexico with you. Thank you so much for praying and encouraging us through many years with OSM. You have stood beside us as we are growing in our faith, while endeavoring to share our Savior with others along the way. Thankfully, God uses us wherever we are in our walk with Him. If we have learned anything along this journey, it is constantly realizing how dependent we are on Jesus Christ alone!

This has been another great month for our school in Haiti. Nady and Amadeau shared pictures of the children singing and celebrating in the classrooms. They had a 3 day winter-break and are now back on schedule with classes, preparing for mid-year exams next week. The children are doing very well, getting fed each day, physically and spiritually. We pray that the children will grow to embrace Christ as their Savior, which is our whole reason to have the school there. They live in a very difficult area, full of voodoo. This causes jealousy, fear, and uncertainty for the families who live in this village. We have many opportunities to share Christ’s love and patience with the children, their families and even with our teachers.

The last few years have been very challenging with the difficulty of the gangs bringing so much violence to Haiti. It has put extra strain on our schools and us as we haven’t been able to have our administrators checking in on the schools as much as we would like. We know the challenges we are facing working in areas that have voodoo so heavily mixed into the culture that it seeps into the “religion” as well, many times even unknowingly. Sadly, Christianity is often mixed with voodoo, especially in these remote areas. This month we have reached out to one of the pastors in Haiti that we sat under when we lived there, Jimmy Cartright. In one of our past newsletters, we shared about him with you. He was born in Haiti, came to the states as a teenager, then the Lord called him and his wife back to Haiti as young adults. They have been a huge blessing and help to us in trying to understand some circumstances we are experiencing with some of our teachers. We are grateful for this opportunity to grow in our love to our teachers and for Jimmy’s help in communication and understanding. The distance and differences certainly make communication challenging. Please pray with us for clear communication in our teacher relationships, and most importantly for Christ to be glorified through it.

Along with the boys soccer team the school is excited to be starting a girls soccer team! We have been looking forward to this for a while. The girls are loving this exercise and great time together! These sports teams are extra special for our students as many children in that area do not have an outlet like this for enjoyment. We are looking forward to seeing this little soccer team develop!

One of our teachers, Amadeau (u mod ow) had a motorcycle accident and is recovering. He injured his shoulder and leg. We do not yet know the details of the accident, except that he collided with a car. Amadeau is not married and has 4 children that he is raising on his own. He has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders and now an injury on top of everything else. Please keep him and his children in your prayers for healing and strength. We have grown to appreciate him very much as a caring and committed teacher and a dear brother in Christ.

We hope you enjoyed the newsletter about Woodson last month. This month, on Feb. 17th, he turned 6 years old and his story continues. We needed his parents to go to Port-au-Prince (PAP) to sign guardianship papers. Getting there was especially difficult this month. Besides the normal gang problems, Haiti had a government transition and this caused even more confusion and chaos on the roads. Eventually, they were able to get there safely. Woodson was glad to see them and they were happy for a couple of days with him. When they arrived, they went straight to Haitian immigration to sign papers. Pastor Bertho sent us copies of the signed papers. We saw some mistakes and immediately brough this to his attention. The next day they went back and signed the corrected papers. This was a miracle that the Haitian immigration would correct this so fast and allow them to come back so quickly to sign the papers again. Praise the Lord, what a mighty and amazing God we serve!

We are now waiting to hear if the papers they signed will meet the requirements of St Jude’s Children’s Hospital, their legal team is making that decision. We are preparing his visa application as we are writing this newsletter. It has been difficult, as we are putting fictitious dates into the form, guessing when he will arrive and leave the states. The US government is mostly looking to be sure he has a well-planned exit date and that his expenses will not be a burden on the government. Thankfully, with the Lord’s and your help, that is not a problem. Yet, we have to assure them of this and that Woodson will go back to his home and family in Haiti when the procedures are completed.

The Haitian government does not want Woodson to come to the states and disappear, being used for human trafficking. Sadly, this has been a huge issue for Haitian children, especially just after the earthquake of 2010. Many precious children were taken out of Haiti and “lost in the system.” Understandably, they want to ensure that children taken out of Haiti are cared for and treated well. We are excited about the progress that we have made, yet we still have a way to go to get Woodson the help he needs. Please keep Woodson, the paperwork, and all these details in your prayers.

Pastor Santos and his wife, Fini, are staying busy with their church and the Ranch of Faith. They continue sharing their hearts and lives, ministering to the people of Nava. This will always be a dear place and time in our ministry for us. We were blessed to be a part of that community in Mexico for many years through OSM. During that time, we met and served with many of you. We continue to support Santos and Fini, the Dorcas House ministry, and our dear Sister, Maria. We are grateful for you helping to make this happen each month.

As we walk through the ups and downs of our life journey, we are deeply grateful to have many of you beside us. You encourage us through your kind notes, faithful prayers, and financial support for the work we are doing. We truly cannot do this without you. We can’t tell you how many kind texts we’ve received this month from our prayer partners. At times, we’ve felt ready to abandon the job of getting Woodson help, and yet your faithful prayers and words of encouragement keep us focused on Jesus and His undeserved love we receive every day. Thank you so much for all of the faithful prayers and encouragement!

Serving our Savior with you,
Ken and Debbi