AUGUST NEWSLETTER

Our six weeks in Arkansas went by in a hurry, but we had a wonderful time catching up with family and friends, fundraising, and enjoying some much needed rest to help us get over whatever virus we had right before our travel. Now we are back on the ground in Haiti and resettling into our routine here in the Mole. We’ve spent the last couple of days scrubbing our floors with disinfectant and re-washing all of the clean laundry we had left behind. Leaving the house unoccupied for six weeks naturally creates a nice quiet setting for the mice and rats to take a number two. Including all over our clean clothes and our bed. Thankfully after a deep cleaning our little house is looking (and smelling) less like an outhouse for rodents and more like our home again. 

One of the main objectives during our recent visit to Arkansas was fundraising for the feeding center at the school in Mole St. Nicolas.  With the help of so many generous people, our ministry put on our very first official fundraiser. The fundraiser featured a fun night of trivia, a meal, raffle prizes, and also gave people the chance to hear a little bit about the vision for the feeding center. It was incredible to see the body of Christ come together and give so generously. Through the fundraiser alone we were able to raise $6,000 toward our $20,000 goal. Apart from the fundraiser, additional funds were given by other donors that allowed us to come back to Haiti with all $20,000 raised for the construction of the feeding center. All Glory to God!! Among those generous donors is a  young lady named Camryn Rowlett in our home church’s youth group who gave away her earnings from the “World Changers Award” which she was awarded earlier this year. Camryn and her mom treated us to lunch and presented us with a check to help fund the construction of the feeding center. We and the people of Haiti are so grateful for you, Camryn!! We also were given a check by the First Baptist Rogers kid's ministry who raised money during this year's VBS that will be used for the construction as well.

Finally, in addition to all of the great news regarding the feeding center, we also received word from the same generous family who funded last year’s teacher salaries that they would once again be funding them for the upcoming 2019-2020 school year. We are in complete awe at the faithfulness of our God and His working through the body to provide for these needs.

Trivia night fundraiser.

After lunch with Camryn!

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As our visit to Arkansas came to a close, we were blessed by the company of some dear friends. Being surrounded by these brothers and sisters and hearing their prayers go up for us and our ministry was a very special time. We always hate saying “bye for now” but the encouragement and support of our family and friends is what makes leaving a little easier.
 

In just a few short days four of our dearest friends and ministry partners, David and Loren Bullard and Rusty and Trisha Williams will be flying in to join us for a little over a week. We are so looking forward to the time we will get to spend together here reaching people for Jesus and exploring future ministry opportunities. David and Loren plan to put their creative bones to work capturing video and photos for our ministry website and also doing family portraits for our church members.  Please join us in praying for traveling mercies for the team as well as for a fruitful week of laboring for His glory.

The Bullards, Williamses, and Myerses, with our friend Sonnier, from a previous trip.

• Pray for the upcoming school year that we would be given divine appointments to share Jesus with our students. 

• Pray for the team coming to work with us Aug. 29th-Sept. 7th.

• Pray for our pastor, Pastor Kenan. Particularly for good health and for wisdom.

JULY NEWSLETTER

Well, it's been a while since our last newsletter, y'all!! The past month has been a doozie around the Myers homestead. A mysterious illness that put us both down for twelve or so days coupled with the hot, hot, heat of Haiti made for an exhausting three weeks for the two of us leading up to our travel to the U.S. Chris got sick first with fever, headache, body aches, and a painful rash all which prevented him from sleeping for several nights. Exhaustion and persisting symptoms made us decide it was time for a visit to the doctor in Bombardopolis about an hour away. The doctor ruled out the more common mosquito borne viruses but also discovered through urine tests that Chris had a urinary tract infection that although unrelated to the symptoms he was having, still needed to be treated. He prescribed a common antibiotic that normally would be taken orally but was only available by injection at the hospital. Be it that we live an hour away from the hospital, they loaded us up with syringes and vials and sent us on our way. Thankfully there is a young lady who attends church with us who has experience in the nursing field and was willing to come by and give Chris the injections each day. So after a series of twenty injections over a period of ten days, plus a very sore rear end, Chris’s infection cleared up. However, about the time Chris was all better, Cassie began showing the same symptoms Chris had shown previously and she was down for well over a week right up to the day we were scheduled to travel to Arkansas. Meanwhile, as all of this was going on, our passports were in the hands of the Haitian immigration being prepared with exit visas that would allow us to travel to the U.S. Just one day before our travel date we received a phone call from the passport office saying that due to all of the current unrest in Haiti, transportation had been limited and only Cassie’s passport was ready for travel. This forced us to change our travel date to the following week in hopes that Chris’s passport would be ready and available by then. Thankfully it was, and despite never figuring out what we were sick with, the silver lining was that Cassie had a few more days to rest from being sick before we traveled to Arkansas. We are thankful to currently be stateside for a few weeks, resting up and visiting family before school starts back in September. A big thanks to all who were praying over our health and travel issues!!

One of our main focuses while being in Arkansas over the next few weeks is on our upcoming fundraiser for the kitchen/feeding center at Faith Baptist College (The school where Chris works.) The original idea behind the kitchen was to be a permanent structure at the school that would serve as an area for food prep and storage, as well as a dining area for the students who attend the annual youth conference put on by our church each spring. However, seeing on a daily basis the effects hunger can have on the students both physically and academically, a new vision was born to employ the kitchen as a daily operation where hungry students can receive a hot meal. One particular story comes to mind about a little boy named Makenly. One day while observing a class Chris was standing next to the classroom window and glanced across the way into a neighboring classroom where the elementary students were gathered. As Chris continued to look on he noticed Makenly emptying the contents of his backpack onto the classroom floor. Chris then watched as Makenly began digging into the bottom of his empty backpack to gather small crumbs of an old cookie. After licking the tiny crumbs off of his finger he laid his head on the desk and fell asleep from weakness. It’s multiple stories like these that leave us broken and have moved us to take action in eliminating hunger within the school and our prayer is that the kitchen could become a reality in that effort.

Makenly is pictured on the left.

As you can see in the pic below, the construction of the kitchen is at a current stand still due to the lack of necessary funding to move forward with it’s progress. That is why we are reaching out to our friends, supporters, and anyone else who will listen for help. We’ve decided to use this month’s newsletter to really highlight our trivia night fundraiser that will be put on by our team of folks at Least Of These Family Ministries. The trivia night will feature ten rounds of fun, family appropriate trivia questions. There will be prizes for winners, food for purchase, t-shirts for purchase, a gift card bundle raffle give away, and chances to hear more about the feeding center. This is all taking place indoors in a nice, air conditioned building so if heat and bugs aren’t your thing, no worries! We got ya covered! We ask all of our friends and supporters to please pray and consider being a part of this event that will help us move toward our goal of feeding hungry school kids on a daily basis. To sign up, head over to our Get Involved page!

As always we are so grateful for you taking the time to read our newsletter. We are equally thankful for your prayers and support that allow us to assist and reach people with the Gospel in Mole St. Nicolas, Haiti. It's because of you we are able to do what we do. We pray that God would cover you and your family with His richest blessings!

APRIL NEWSLETTER

Well, we’re a little late getting our letter out this month due to some recent internet trouble but we are nonetheless happy to share with you all that has been happening around the mission here in Haiti. Last week schools all across the country were closed in observance of Holy Week leading up to Easter. Every year during that week, the voodooisants (voodoo worshippers) come together in public street ceremonies called a bann rara, where they dance, chant, and play instruments worshipping satan and celebrating the death of Jesus. They will often perform these ceremonies all day long without stopping to rest or eat. Voodooisants believe that Jesus’s disciples did indeed steal the body of Christ from the tomb and that He never resurrected therefore they observe Good Friday as a day of celebration and victory for satan. Christians however come together and invite others to nightly services and various other activities to make much of Jesus and discourage people from participating in public activities that may turn any kind of attention to the bann rara’s. Our church did our part by holding nightly services and showing the Jesus film one night. It was a blessing to see both familiar and unfamiliar faces in the services. While the voodooisants took to the streets, we took to the kitchen where Cassie made treats that we delivered to our fellow church members. With schools being closed we decided to take advantage of the free time and cool mornings to go visit and pray with some of our dear brothers and sisters and invite folks to our Easter services.

A bann rara street ceremony.

Sister Capton aka "Marenn", one of our beloved church members who is mostly house ridden. She was one of our several stops while out delivering the baked goods.

While we held the fort down in Mole St. Nicholas, Pastor Kenan spent Holy Week in Port au Prince with our associate church, Nerija Baptist, for an Easter service and for a baptism service where thirteen new believers were baptized. Praise God!!!

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One of our favorite times of the school day is story time with the preschoolers. Every morning we read a Bible story that concludes with an illustration of how each story points to Jesus. We have just begun our second round through the book for this year and it’s so heart-warming to see and hear how the children are retaining different details of each story. We’ve also come up with questions that help them remember the main points of the stories too. After Bible time we also have a short English lesson where they learn vocabulary and counting. They are learning so much and we are so proud of their progress!!

To top off this month’s newsletter we get to report the best news about our little sister Dahana. In previous newsletters we had written about Dahana who lives next door to us in the mission house. She is fourteen years old and practically an orphan. Her mother died when she was just seven months old and her father, who she barely knows, moved away to the Dominican Republic. Over the last several weeks we had been engaging in conversation with Dahana about her faith life and came to realize she was mostly unaware of the details of the gospel and what it means to be saved. We began to pray for her and continued engaging in conversations about Jesus and salvation. One day while Chris was sitting outside reviewing the children’s Bible storybook that we use to teach the preschoolers, Dahana approached with interest in the stories and with questions. Flipping over to the story of Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection, God began speaking to her heart through the story and our continued conversations. A few days later there was a knock on our door. It was Dahana saying that she wanted to be saved. Seeing that she was still unclear about some important details, we sat down with her to watch a gospel presentation followed by more conversation. In those moments God was really working on her heart and she realized her need for Jesus and placed her faith in Him. We are beyond thrilled that the Lord saved this young lady who is so special to us.  All glory to Him!!

With Dahana at one of our Easter services.

MARCH NEWSLETTER

Well, this week has been a week of being really late or really early to everything on our normal schedule. If you’ve ever been to Haiti or from what we understand, any third world country, you most likely are familiar with the fact that time and punctuality have little meaning to the folks that live there. Throw that in with the recent time change and a collective indecisiveness as to when we are going to start following it and you have a mess of confusion and missed appointments.  We’ve just decided to accept that there are just some things about Haiti life that we will never get used to. However, what we ARE getting used to very quickly is having our own place to live. We are beginning to remember what it’s like to prepare meals without interruption or having to wait on the stove/pots and pans and counter space to come available, shower under an actual showerhead that doesn’t occasionally surprise you with a worm or tadpole bath, and have actual storage space as opposed to living out of five gallon buckets. Life is grand and we are so thankful to be in our little house!!  

This month we want to highlight two young people who are very special to us. Pastor Kenan, for years, has taken young people into his home to instill them with life skills and assist them with their education. Djud and Dahana are both fourteen years old and are the two most recent additions to the mission house. Djud’s older sister, Sanfa, has lived in the house since 2012 and is like a little sister to us. Now it’s a huge blessing to have little brother Djud here as well, going to school, learning the ropes around the mission, and tackling projects together. Dahana is here too receiving her education while learning how to prepare meals, clean house, and take care of other responsibilities that are expected of Haitian women. Dahana’s mother died just seven months after Dahana’s Christmas day birthday and her father whom she barely knows, lives in the Dominican Republic where he was obligated to go to find work. Both Djud and Dahana are from a small village called Pellier, about a three-hour drive away where our mission has another church and school. These two have become like our little brother and sister as well.  They are both wonderful helpers, well mannered, and easy to engage in discipleship. It has been an absolute joy for us to share life with and pour into these two young people!!  

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There is a sweet elderly woman in our church whom we all call sister Flerimone. Sister Flerimone is a devoted woman of God and a faithful soul winner. We recently received news that while on an outing to evangelize in our community, she had the privilege of leading an elderly man to Jesus and the next morning after putting his faith in Christ, the Lord called him home. We rejoiced at this man’s salvation but did not realize until we attended his funeral that he was actually an old friend of ours named Edanier (pictured with Chris in the photo above). Edanier and his family used to live just down the road from us on a beach front property but they were forced to relocate after hurricane Matthew completely destroyed their home. Sadly, since then, we don’t see them as often. Edanier was a gentle soul who suffered from several health conditions that were never properly treated. Our memories of him are of a quiet man who suffered in his earthly body and spent most of his time sitting or laying in pain watching the ocean through his failing eyes. But now, as we think of Edanier, we can think of a man whose soul is with Jesus and will live pain free in his glorified body for all of eternity. We are reminded by his story that life is indeed so fragile and that eternity is so near. Our next breath is never promised and Edanier was just hours away from taking his last when he said yes to Jesus. “Today is the day of salvation!” Have you said “yes” to Jesus?

We always love to get to share about one of our students responding to the gospel. No one in Haiti has made Chris laugh more than a young man in the seventh grade named Rubens. There are many times in class where Chris has to force himself to not look his way because it always results in disruptive laughter. Rubens only stands about four feet tall and has a quick-witted personality. Most of the time he’s too busy making jokes to engage in meaningful conversation but recently the Lord arranged for Rubens to hear the gospel. Chris and Djud were up in the higher parts of town one day when they found Rubens in the street carrying on in his usual character. After several minutes of comedy, conversation opened up about eternity and what that meant to Rubens. Rubens was sure he would go to heaven based on his church attendance and stated that he needed to go more often so that he wouldn’t go to hell when he died. Thankfully, this opened up the conversation for the real gospel to be shared. After a good long talk and sharing what the Bible really says about going to heaven, Rubens said he wanted to trust Jesus as his Savior. Glory to God!
 

Garvenly and Rubens at school (Rubens on right.)

We thank you for your interest, prayers, and support for our ministry and appreciate you taking time to read our newsletter. It means so much to us! We pray that God richly blesses you and your family.

For His Glory,
Chris and Cassie Myers 

• Pray for the development of partnerships that will allow for the financial support and advancement of our mission. 

• Pray for Cassie to learn and retain the Creole language.

• Pray for the funding necessary to complete and operate the feeding center at our school in Mole St. Nicolas.

FEBRUARY NEWSLETTER

Well, we are writing our first official newsletter from the kitchen table of our very own home!! A little after three months of work, our “ti kay”  (little house) has mostly been completed.  Chris has been assembling furniture while Cassie has been putting her new kitchen in order and we are so thrilled to be in our own living space now! This afternoon we finally got to hook up our stove. With all that had been going on in Haiti the past several days we hadn’t been able to send for supplies and refill our propane tanks but thankfully as things have begun to calm down throughout the country, Pastor Kenan was able to get to Port de Paix yesterday to get propane and some other needed things. We are extremely thankful for all of you who reached out to us and have kept us in your prayers over recent days. As many people have been misinformed, the rioting and protesting in effort to try and force President Moise out of office is being organized by paid protestors and is not the popular choice of the Haitian people as President Moise is favored by the majority.  There is a long history lesson as to why that we will spare you in this newsletter but we try to combat the circulation of fake news that we know has a lot of folks misinformed about Haiti’s current situation. The truth is, poor, hungry, thirsty, people don’t destroy everything and block all of the roads for days that only keep them from going to work or school and accessing the supplies that they already so desperately need.  These protests are organized and carried out by paid villains. Anyway, we thank all of you for the prayers and for checking in on us and we would ask that you continue praying for Haiti and that these protests would cease completely and life could return to normal. 
 

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Last month, because of the generous giving of our supporters, our ministry was able to purchase 2019 edition Bible study curriculum books for Sunday school members in our church. In the past, due to lack of funds, only those who teach the classes were given the curriculum. However this year, Sunday school members are able to follow along at church and study at home in a book of their very own.  Our sincerest thanks to our supporters who make things like this possible!!   

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Also because of the generosity of others, we were able to buy fabric and pay a woman in our church to tailor school uniforms for some of our preschool kids who have been attending school all year without one.  Because school uniforms are a really big deal in Haiti, some of the kids had stopped coming to school out of shame and embarrassment because they cannot afford one. We again express our sincere gratitude to those who gave and made it possible for us to help these kids buy uniforms. 

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Last Sunday we celebrated the birthday of our good friend, brother in Christ, Pastor and president of our mission, Kenan Molme. We are so thankful for this man whose love and fear for the Lord inspires us daily. We consider it a huge blessing to work alongside him in this ministry. We love you, Pastor Kenan and pray for God to bless you as He continues to use you for the sake of the gospel throughout Haiti.

It is always a joy for us to report to you how your prayers and support are being used to further God’s kingdom here in Mole St. Nicolas, Haiti. We thank God for you and pray His richest blessings over you and your family. Thank you for reading our newsletter and we look forward to reporting again next month.

For His Glory,
Chris and Cassie Myers 

• Pray for God to calm the hearts of the Haitian people and bring to justice those who organize, provoke, and fund violent protests.

• Pray for the development of partnerships that will allow for the consistent financial support and advancement of our mission. 

• Pray that we would find the funds to complete and operate our school kitchen that will be used to feed hungry students. 

• Pray for the upcoming youth conference and VBS in March that young people will be saved and hearts changed forever.

• Pray as we seek an effective method for Cassie to learn the Haitian Creole language.