Letter from Missionaries in Haiti

Many of you may have recieved my lastest email update. I used to send them out monthly while in Bible College, but I have decided to send out update letters for large events and new prayer requests, while sticking to blogging as a way of keeping you weekly updated! Below is a letter we have recieved from JeanJean and Kristie, the missionaries we have the priveldge of meeting in just a few months as we prepare to go to Haiti! Check out what God is doing in Haiti now!

Dear friends in the Gospel;

We wanted to thank you again, both individuals and churches, that have been praying for UCI.  Your support is greatly appreciated and we see the Lord working. 

Many of you know that the season of Easter is also a time for many voodoo ceremonies.  Starting on Easter, Andre, a witchdoctor that lives in the neighboring community, decided to hold nightly voodoo ceremonies.  He wanted it to last the entire week.  We have talked to Andre several times about his life and about Christianity.  God has also given us the opportunity to help him medically and materially through the giving of food and clothes.  We have invited him several times to our Sunday afternoon service, but there has always been excuses.  When we heard the voodoo drums on Easter night, it was such a disappointment.  JeanJean suspected it was Andre and was burdened for his soul.  God put it on our hearts to pray right then for Andre and the others in the area that would want to participate in the ceremony.  We prayed mightily for the men and women that have recently come to know Christ.  We prayed that they would not be tempted to revert to their old practices.  We prayed for our youth because so often the youth search for things to do and end up dabbling in evil just to check things out.  JeanJean then had a chance to talk to Andre on the Tuesday after Easter.  Andre told us that he had planned to have the ceremonies each night for a week but was stopping them because no one came!!!  He just couldn't understand why no one wanted to participate.  JeanJean shared with him about our prayers and again invited him to come to church on Sunday with us.  He told us he may just do that.  Please pray for Andre.

Also, many of you have been praying for Francois Joseph from the non-believers class.  He has been coming to our Sunday afternoon service ever since that class.  He gives us strong testimony of how he saw the power of God even when he was in voodoo.  As we talk to him, we pray that Francois will truly grasp the power of Christ for himself and his family.  He is so worried about providing for his family.  But, we want him to be able to trust God to take care of his family and all other aspects of life.  Francois will continue to come to our service to learn about Jesus.

Pray for our youth group as well.  The more times that we meet together, the more God places a burden for these young people on to my heart.  It has been a lot of fun to teach them how to study their Bible, do 'sword' drills, games and work together.  And it has also been challenging to see the problems that these kids face. 

Thank you again for your prayers! 

God bless,

JeanJean, Kristie, Tana and Kerri Mompremier

"End of the Spear" movie night!

Last year around this time when I was at Bible College in Peru, we got to watch "End of the Spear," a true story about the 5 missionaries who went into the jungles of Ecuador to minister to the Waodani Indians when they were speared by them, and the continuing story of the wives and children who went to continue their husband's/father's ministry. We watched this as well as "Beyond the Gates of Splendor," the  documentary, to prepare us for son of Missionary Nate Sate, Steve Saint, who continued his father's ministry living in the jungle and came and spoke tous at the Bible College. 

This experience changed my life forever! As Steve Saint explained the story of his life and how God continued to use him to minister and bring change to the lives of the Woadani, God loudly spoke to my heart of the depths of what a human life can do to impact a whole tribe for his Glory! (Check out the photo of Steve Saint and us Bible College students from Spring semester 08).

I recently bought these two movies that we watched a year ago at Bible College, and I am so excited to be able to share with others this amazing story! Tonight at the house, we are having a "movie night/potluck" open for anyone who is available to come and watch this movie together! :) SUPER EXCITED! Please check out the movie trailer!!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeEF_3J0ZY0

Contentment

A couple entries ago I told you about John, the man we met at the Community Group I get to lead on Tuesday nights. He met as at church on Sunday for Easter and joined us for the service. It broke my heart when he told me he couldn't sit next to me because he smelled and decided it would be better to sit in front of us. I insisted that it wasn't a problem, but as he moved I have to admit it was a blessing to me that he sat in front of us because I got to witness his excitement and praise as he worshipped the Lord clapping and dancing like a care-free child! :) He didn't come this last Tuesday to the community group, and I feel that we will cross paths again, but I can't explain to you the dent he has made in my life in the short memories I have of him so far!

So contentment... I'm still learning what this looks like for me lived out. Weird to say, even after being back home for four months, I feel like I'm still learning scheduling and how to balance... and with that, Phillipians 4:11, and 12 (remember this one from the previous post?). Great friends of mine, Tony and Alison, have been such a blessing in my life in teaching me that boundaries help make balance! Simple concept, right? Living it out works wonders! I started this week by making a weekly calendar color coordinating it to different events, and then making "green" the color I would use to represent the things that give rest and relax you.  I have been thinking a lot about this "green" block this week and thinking what things help me to relax. I talked to a variety of people asking how they relax or what they enjoy doing, and each answer was so different: playing pingpong, video games, playing guitar (these were all guys), then: baking, exercising and washing dishes (these were some of the answers from girls). I could relate to some of those things, if only I could turn my brain off while doing them..

I listened to an old MercyMe CD and it really blessed me... maybe music is my green? The Song is called "Here am I, send me." Take a look!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU8jqYgFnPA

I can relate to this song in so many ways! I felt like Isaiah in chapter 6, crying out "Lord, here I am, send me, use me! I want to be able to serve your kingdom!" The it clicked! This is where I feel refreshed! Living for something that is so much bigger! There is just something about serving that changes focus and blesses my heart, taking it away from being concerned with the things of this world and onto something that is eternal. I read this book "90 minutes in Heaven" this last week.. and that is another story, but that also blessed me in thinking less of this world and refocusing my thoughts to those that are eternal! The last part of the verse from Philippians is the one I have been focusing on... "I can do everything through him who gives me strength." 4:13. That's the thing... finding green in my life is when I find my strength in Him, and not in myself! Only in Him can I find true contentment... and green! I hope this video encouraged you! :)

Good Friday... GREAT FRIDAY

Tonight at the worship service, God spoke to my heart. I could imagine singing to my savior and standing beneath his cross with the image much like this picture shows. I imagined a look of compassion on his face and shame in mine seeing my past, present, and future sin holding him to the cross. It makes sense why some people may be confused why we call this day "Good Friday" from just this picture alone making it hard to see this as anything good. But tonight we were reminded of what happened on that cross... we received justification as God took on flesh through Jesus and became our substitue so sin could be paid for and righteousness could be departed on us. Righteousness! SO crazy that God see us as righteous because of the blood of his son that covers us! Then on that day at the cross we received reconciliation. All of the junk between us and God has been removed setting us free so that we can stand in Him. We no longer need to find approval from this world, because we are approved by Jesus! Propitiation... God's satisfaction on our behalf. Because of our sin we feel we should be punished, but God through Jesus tells us that we are not what we have done or what people have said...  we are forgiven! And finally, regeneration. We are a new creation in Christ! Our old is gone, and there is death to the flesh! There is now a hope for change and a power to overcome! Through our faith in what Jesus did, we can be made brand new, and God will continue to make us new over and over again! So we can rejoice in this day on the cross and the death of our savior... because His death gave us life eternally with Christ and a relationship with God! We can have hope! We can see the big picture... we celebrate His death today, because we rejoice in His reserection on Sunday! Not only is this day good, but it is GREAT FRIDAY! 

Content- Happy Tuesday

Lately my prayer has been to be learn how to be content in every situation. I have decided to take one more semester off Bible College and stay in San Jose and I'm super excited to the relationships the Lord has been growing here, but at the same time my heart longs to be serving in a physical needs ministry some day. Tonight at a community group called Coffee/Study through the Awakening Ministry, a group of us were sitting and talking when a homeless man named John came in and was asking for money. Some of the guys there bought him something to eat and drink and then John sat with us and share his testimony in what the Lord has been doing in his life. It was such a humbling experience and divine appointment from the Lord. He actually goes to the same church, WestGate, that we all attend. John came in with crutches and told us about the pain in his spine, but when someone offered to give him advil, he told us that he knew that God would heal him permanently, and he continues to pray for it. He shared with us his joy for today from the Lord, and called it a happy Tuesday for the ways God constantly provides... "Not just today though, tomorrow will be a happy Wednesday!" he told us. As we were walking out with him, I was so blessed by his contentness in life and his apprecitation for today. I am so thankful for how God placed John in my path; an answer to prayer in seeing contentness lived out! Please lift John up in prayer!

"I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength."

Philippians 4:12,13

15 Years!

This last week April 1st, marked 15 years that my mom has passed away. For my dad it still stands as a difficult day, especially with his birthday just days before. I can honestly say that the Lord has used this event in our lives for His glory and it has been so amazing to see now and to know that He will continue to use it! My relationship with my dad has been growing so much since I have been back home from school, and I feel blessed as a family and for the strength the Lord has given! I often wonder what kind of person I would be if my mom was still here, and if we would be in the same areas of faith with the different roads that would have followed. There are days when I will think about this more, but for me, it has just become a reality! :) I'm just thankful for where God has led me to be now in this place in time and to be able to have a relationship with Him!!