Team 4 & 5 News Update from Haiti

A small 5 person team from Cedar Rapids, Iowa flew into Port au Prince on March 7th and were met at the airport by Ken Drowley, missionary from the Ebenezer Glenn Orphanage and his son Max. Bags were loaded, supplies purchased, before the 3 hour drive North to the Artibonite Valley. Bruce Vandersanden, Shawn Lewis, Dave Soper, Ev Krug, and Bob Streeper formed this team.

                                       

This team accomplished much. The girl's bath and shower house received 2 coats of paint, inside and out, the gable end was enclosed, the plumbing was installed, and a trench was dug for a water line to the baby dorm to make it easier for the laundry and drinking supply. Good team co-hessian prevailed and God was glorified in all that was done. Thanks you team!

                                                              

                                                         

Bruce & Ev returned on March 16th, while the other 3 stayed to welcome a new team on March 17th that would work the next 6 days. This group cleaned and painted the cooking area in the kitchen, scraping off dirt, soot, smoke, and dismantled the old wood-burning stove before applying paint. They enclosed the eves on the girls bath and buttoned up everything that was started by the earlier team. Lots of work crammed into 6 days, so thanks go out to everyone on this team. Lamar Graft, Megan Lewis, John Williams, Jamie & Aubrie Soper, Paul Staebler, and Joshua & Emily Bicknese. Thank you team for your hard work!

 

Thought for Today: When short term teams visit Haiti, the unifying element that bonds team members to each other is their personal relationship with Christ. If one has placed their trust in Christ for their righteous standing before God, then each person will know that they are sinful and totally dependent on Christ's death on the Cross. They live out the Christian life through holy behavior and an expectancy for Jesus return. Team co-hessian is evident and glory is given to God for their work rather than to themselves. This pleases God!

However, if one has not trusted Christ for their salvation, then the only hope they have is in their good works and trying to earn their way into heaven, thinking they will be able to add one more good deed to their resume before they die. Without the Holy Spirit residing inside of them, they rely on the Law of Moses for their obedience and justification before God. As a result, they continue through self-effort rather than faith in Christ. The fruits of this are foolish talk, bitterness, rage, anger, slander, along with every kind of malice. This displeases God!

"For it is by grace you have been saved through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast" Ephesians 2:8

Remember, it's grace that saves you, not your good works. It's what Christ did on the Cross, not the law of Moses. If you trust Christ, then you will no longer live like the world lives, darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. You must understand what justifies you is grace, not works! Everyone who trusts in the law is under a curse (Deut. 27:26), since you can't keep the whole law (Deut. 28:58). And, the law can't save you, because it's based on doing, not believing (Lev.18:5).

The Good News: Christ died for you. Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." The Bible says Christ took the penalty that we deserved for sin, placed it upon Himself, and died in our place. Three days later Christ came back to life to prove that sin and death had been conquered and that His claims to be God were true. What must you trust Christ for? You must depend on Him alone to forgive you and to give you eternal life. Just as you trust a chair to hold you through no effort of your own, so you must trust Jesus Christ to get you to heaven through no effort of your own. But you may say, "I'm religious, I go to church, I don't do anything that's really bad, I'm a good person, I help the poor, I go on work teams to Haiti." These are all good, but good living, going to church, helping the poor, or any other good thing you might do cannot get you to heaven. You must trust in Jesus Christ alone, and God will give you eternal life as a gift. Romans 10:9-10 says, "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."

What do you do now? Tell God what's on your mind through prayer (Philippians 4:6-7).  Read the Bible daily, to learn more about Him and learn from Him (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Worship with God's people in a Bible believing church (Hebrews 10:24-25) and tell others about Jesus Christ (Matthew 4:19). Your thought for today.