Hiking to Jericho

A few years ago, I heard about a village in Haiti called Jericho – a small, remote village on top of a mountain that needed some help.

After loading some bags up with basic medicines, a group of us decided to head out there to see what the situaton was like.

Getting there was a challenge. We drove several miles over rough road and then into and up a river (some fun driving!).

When the river got too deep, we had to park and hike.
After a couple hours of hiking in knee deep (and sometimes waist deep) water, we arrived at the small mountain we would need to climb to reach Jericho at the top.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, we arrived.

The people were so grateful to see us. The medical professionals with us began treatment for several chronic conditions they saw and we gave toiletry kits to many who needed them. It was a great day.

As were wading through the water on the way there, I remember wondering – when are we gonna get there? It seemed like it was taking forever.

But the Lord got us there. He allowed us to serve his people in Jericho that day and then he got us back home again.

A Similar Journey

In a lot of ways, this support raising process has felt similar to that trip up to Jericho. It’s taken longer than we thought and it requires a lot of work, but our vision of what is at the end propels us forward:

Future pastors at STEP Seminary that need a leadership and Bible professor.
Moms in the neighborhood that need a mentor.
Kids that Grace, Lydia and Joshua will play with and call “friend”.

As we raise our support, sometimes it feels like we’re cruising down the trail, other times it feels like we’re wading through waist deep water. But with each new person the Lord brings to our team, we get one step closer to those students and moms and friends.

Progress So Far

This past month has been one of the best months of support raising so far.

All told, we now have 44 individuals, familes and churches partnering with us in monthly giving. We’ve also raised 85% of the set-up funds we need when we make the move there. Praise God! Those of you who have been giving so faithfully – thank you so much!

Looking ahead, we need roughly 35 more partners in order to reach 100% of our monthly budget and leave for Haiti.

Prayer Needs

As we move into March, and as we come close to shifting our support raising focus from Texas to New England, would you pray with us?

Stamina – These are long days. I’m busy at work and Becca is busy with the kids. While I get the benefit of leaving my office at 4:30, Becca never really gets to punch out. Whatever free slot of time we find, we use it for supoprt raising. Would you pray the Lord continues putting gas in our tanks?

Connections – We’re making lots of phone calls and requesting meetings with people to talk about support. This has been going well. Would you pray we are able to have continued success here?

Peace in Haiti – Over this past month, protests and strikes have continued. Would you pray for a peaceful and satisfying resolution to the political situation that seems to be causing much of this?

Some more pics from our trip to Jericho. I believe this was in the Spring of 2007.

The river was mostly lined by these cliffs. High up on the cliffs, men were mining limestone by hand and letting the rocks fall into the water to be collected later and hauled by truck into Port-au-Prince to be sold. The Haitian you see in the very back, behind me was the man we hired to be our guide through the river. His job was to call out to the men above so they wouldn’t let any rocks fall on us.