I would like to share with you an opportunity that the Lord has opened up for me in my desire to serve Him in missions. As you may remember, I have traveled to the country of Haiti numerous times to teach music and serve the Haitian churches. I have been unable to return there due to severe violence and unrest as well as a deeply damaged infrastructure resulting from several hurricanes. My heart aches for the Haitian people, and I have kept in contact with some of my Haitian colleagues who have occasional access to e-mail.
The project in Haiti with which I was involved is a music recording project. The culture of Haiti is an oral one, and very musical in nature. The most effective means of transmitting the Bible to most Haitians (even those who are literate) is via "storying," which is a chronological, systematic (and non-denominational) method of telling the stories of the Bible orally. The music project went along with the storying project and involved indigenous Haitians in writing original story-songs which went along with each one of the stories. The songs were then recorded in a studio and produced onto a set of CDs; these CDs are then distributed throughout the country -- in buses and taxis, in churches and homes and markets and radio stations -- anywhere where they might be heard.
My church is an active sponsor of mission trips, and in April they will be sending a team of 8 people (including me!) to Blainville, Quebec (a suburb of Montreal). While we will be there to encourage and minister to a tiny group of new believers there, we will also have the opportunity to minister to a church made up of Haitian ex-patriates. I will have the opportunity to share the recorded Haitian story-songs with them, and in turn they will be able to share these story-songs with other Haitian immigrants in their community. There are many, many Haitians who have emigrated to French-speaking Canada and who have no access to the Gospel in their native Kreyol language -- but I can be a tiny thread in God's grand tapestry, another vehicle for His truth to shine into this area of Canada (which is rarely exposed to the Gospel, even in French or English, much less Kreyol). Imagine... traveling NORTH to minister to Haitians! The only downside is that I don't think Quebec has quite the same climate as I came to enjoy in the Caribbean.
I am posting this information in the hope that you will begin praying now for our team, for the believers in Blainville, and for my own heart -- that I might be prepared to effectively communicate Christ. Pray that God will provide the financial support necessary ($420), and that I will remain healthy enough not to use my sick-days at work before then!
Thank you for letting me share my heart with you. It is a high privilege and honor that God would want to use me in His work, and I appreciate your prayer and encouragement more than anything else. If, however, you sense God directing you to contribute financially to our project, you may send a check payable either to Fellowship Community Church; be sure to put my name on the Memo line (it's tax-deductible, by the way) -- or payable to me, and I will use it for meals and personal supplies for the trip (not tax-deductible). Watch this space for updates on our project.
Once again, thank you for praying for me.
-Kris
Fellowship Community Church
225 North Avenue
Norwalk, IA 50211
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