Kentucky's Great Commission Task Force will meet Thursday at the Kentucky Baptist Building in Louisville.

Please be in prayer for Kentucky’s Great Commission Task Force as it meets March 11 at the Kentucky Baptist Building in Louisville. The committee’s February meeting was snowed out so I am sure they will be looking to make up some lost ground if possible. At this month’s meeting, the committee will hear from the heads of a number of the agencies and institutions of the Kentucky Baptist Convention.

The committee was appointed at the KBC’s annual meeting in November after messengers approved a recommendation to form a committee to study “how Kentucky Baptists can work more faithfully and effectively together in serving Christ through the Great Commission.” The task force will work throughout the coming year to study the work of the KBC’s Mission Board, agencies and institutions, and will report any recommendations it might have to messengers attending the 2010 annual meeting at Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington.

Members of the Kentucky committee are:

• Hershael York, pastor of Buck Run Baptist Church, Frankfort. York is chair of the committee.
• Paul Badgett, pastor of First Baptist Church, Pikeville
• Charles Barnes, member of Hurstbourne Baptist Church, Louisville
• Joy Bolton, executive director of Kentucky Woman’s Missionary Union, Louisville
• Jeff Crabtree, director of mission for the Warren Association of Baptists, Bowling Green
• Rusty Ellison, pastor of Walnut Street Baptist Church, Louisville
• Greg Faulls, Bellevue Baptist Church, Owensboro
• Chad Fugitt, First Baptist Church, Monticello
• John Hale, a deacon at First Baptist Church, Mount Vernon
• Bill Henard, pastor of Porter Memorial Baptist Church, Lexington
• James Jones, pastor of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, Campbellsville
• Bill Mackey, KBC executive director
• Don Mathis, 2009 president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention and staff evangelist at Eastwood Baptist Church, Bowling Green.
• Jessica Milburn, member of Union Baptist Church, Union
• Sam Rainer, pastor of First Baptist Church, Murray
• Kevin Smith, pastor of Watson Memorial Baptist Church, Louisville
• Dan Summerlin, pastor of Lone Oak First Baptist Church, Paducah

–Robert Reeves

Keith Inman

As I have shared here before, one of the powerful ways that Kentucky Baptists are reaching the world for Christ is through the international missions work of Baptist Campus Ministry. Each year, thousands of students from countries around the world come to U.S. colleges to receive the benefits of American higher education. Many will be returning home to take on leadership positions in business and government. Their presence on our campuses gives us a wonderful opportunity to minister and share the Gospel at a time in their lives when they are open to listening to and considering new ideas.

In this guest post, Keith Inman, collegiate and young adult ministries director for the Kentucky Baptist Convention, shares about how this important ministry of Kentucky Baptists:

The World is Coming to Kentucky’s College Campuses

Every week it seems as if I hear of another international student coming to faith in Christ through our Baptist Campus Ministry on our university campuses. There is a reason for this news.

Ten years ago, Tommy Johnson, currently our campus minister at Western Kentucky University, shared a dream of reaping the harvest that God was bringing here to our state from countries all over the world. The Cooperative Program and Eliza Broadus Missions Offering make this possible. I am so grateful to Dr. Bill Mackey and Joy Bolton for supporting a vibrant international ministry on the campuses.

Currently, we now have committed semester missionaries on various campuses specifically for the purpose of international ministry. Under the influence of Riley Byers, a former International Mission Board Journeyman and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary graduate, the KBC Collegiate and Young Adult Ministry Department, in partnership with students from SBTS, has one of the best international ministries in SBC collegiate ministry. A committed base of lay ministers provides a support that makes our efforts so much easier and effective.

According to statistics gathered by the North American Mission Board, more than 623,000 international students are studying in the United States today. Below is a brief snapshot of who is coming to our country to study on our campuses:

International Students in the U.S.

These statistics are from The Institute of International Education which publishes Open Doors, Fast Facts.

Top 20 countries of origin for international students 2006-2007, 2007-2008.

1. India (over 94000)

2. China (81,000)

3. South Korea (69,000)

4. Japan (almost 34,000)

5. Canada (29,000)

6. Taiwan (29,000)

7. Mexico (almost 15,000)

8. Turkey (12,000)

9. Saudi Arabia (almost 10,000)

10. Nepal (9,000)

11. Thailand (9,000)

12. Germany (9,000)

13. Vietnam (9,000)

14. United Kingdom (8,000)

15. Hong Kong (8,000)

16. Indonesia (7,700)

17. Brazil (7,500)

18. France (7,000)

19. Columbia (6,600)

20. Nigeria (just over 6,000)

These countries contain some of the least reached people groups. Just the top 5 countries send 49% of all international students, with 15% from India, 13% from China, 11% from South Korea, and 5.5% from Japan.

The number of students from India increased by 13%; the number from China increased by 20%. Increases South Korea were 11%, Saudi Arabia 25%, Nepal 15%, and from Vietnam 45%.

According to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Web site, Kentucky has between 2,000 and 4,999 students currently studying on our university campuses. The Baptist Campus Ministry is the most consistent witness to Christ of any ministry in our state.

Recently, I received this e-mail from Brian Combs, our campus minister at Northern Kentucky University which is indicative of the intentional effort to reach these international students.

“We (NKUBCM) are meeting with Dr. J.D. Payne, director of the Church Planting Center at SBTS to develop a strategy of reaching international students for Christ and discipling/training them to be prepared to start a contextualized church at home when they return.  The thinking is that we have so many students coming to the US from countries of unreached people and if we can reach those students while they are here and send them back prepared to share the Gospel, we will be able to continue to make a difference for Christ around the world.  fyi…JD and I grew up together in Corbin, went to UK together…  He’s a great guy that is seeking to follow what the Lord has laid on his heart and I look forward to partnering with him and seeing what God has in store.”

The command to “go” is obviously intended to extend to the “uttermost parts of the world.” In the 21^st Century, the “uttermost” is coming to our back door! This is creating an interesting dynamic: students going overseas on mission are coming back with an awareness that these same people groups are studying with them on their campus. Furthermore, as these Christian students “recruit” others in our effort to be intentional in building relationships with our foreign friends, students find a new desire to go overseas.

International students in the university culture are very open to hearing the Gospel because our students genuinely befriend them and help make life easier as they adjust to a new country. The Gospel is presented, the message is shared, and the presence of Christ is manifested in love. New brothers and sisters are born into the family of God because of a Great Commandment and a Great Commission intersecting in friendship with peoples from around the world.

Dr. Ronnie Floyd, chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Great Commission Resurgence task force presented an interim report from the group to the SBC’s Executive Committee in Nashville earlier tonight. The report itself was not available live but Floyd had previously recorded a version of the report for the web that has just been released.

Click here to view the report on the Great Commission Resurgence Web site.

You can also click here to see the report on Vimeo.

Click here if you prefer to read a text version of the report.

Here’s the story about the progress report from Baptist Press:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–Southern Baptists must be gripped anew by the lostness of the world, repent of their self-centeredness and focus their local churches on taking the Gospel to those who have yet to hear, the chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Great Commission Resurgence Task Force said Feb. 22.

GCR Task Force chairman Ronnie Floyd presents the group's progress report to the SBC's full Executive Committee Monday, Feb. 22. Photo by Morris Abernathy.

Toward that end, Ronnie Floyd, pastor of First Baptist Church in Springdale, Ark., presented a “progress report” to the SBC’s Executive Committee on the task force’s work that included six “components” of a vision they believe Southern Baptists will rally around and experience renewed passion for the Great Commission — making disciples of all the world’s people groups.

To open his 90-minute presentation, Floyd drew on Joel 2:12-17 to deliver a challenge about the need for urgent, wholehearted repentance if Southern Baptists are to participate in the evangelistic harvest that will accompany the outpouring of God’s Spirit in the last days — and can be seen already beginning in some parts of the world.

“I believe with all my heart that God is calling us to return to Him now in deep repentance of our sin, in brokenness over our sin, denying our pride and selfishness and returning to God with complete humility,” Floyd said. “The boasting, ego and pride that goes on in our lives, our churches and our denomination is unacceptable to God. The disunity in our churches and in our denomination is so wrong and sinful. We need to repent and return to God.

Click here to read the full story.

Dr. Ronnie Floyd

Please be in prayer for Ronnie Floyd, chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Great Commission Resurgence Task Force as he presents an update of the committee’s work to the SBC’s Executive Committee in Nashville on Monday night, Feb. 21. As soon as he finishes that live report, a previously taped video version will be released on the task force’s Web site at approximately 10:30 p.m. EST.

Although the task force has not yet fully completed its work, this report is expected to be a pretty solid overview of what the group plans to present to Southern Baptist messengers attending this year’s convention in Orlando in July. The report will also be the first concrete information that the committee has released to Southern Baptists about its proposals.

Disaster Relief Team Member Billy Hobbs of Arizona drives rebar into concrete to strengthen walls at a house in Fagasa, American Samoa.

With all of the focus on Haiti since the tragic earthquake that struck there on Jan. 12, it’s easy to forget that Southern Baptist Disaster Relief is also working right now in American Samoa to help the people there recover from a devastating earthquake-generated tsunami that swept the island last September. The needs in American Samoa are great, however, and Baptists have a wonderful opportunity to share the Gospel there by being there for the people during this difficult time when they are feeling a bit forgotten by the world.

Kentucky Baptists have sent two of our very best disaster relief volunteers — Larry and Elaine Koch — to the island to serve as coordinators for all Southern Baptist work through April. Larry is retired as disaster relief associate for the KBC and Elaine, a nurse, is a seasoned disaster relief volunteer. The couple is coordinating volunteer teams from Southern Baptist state conventions for the North American Mission Board and assessing the remaining needs of the area.

Click on the map to enlarge.

Thus far, the work in American Samoa has been relatively slow. The American Samoan government limits the actual number of volunteers that are allowed to go to the island at a given time and financial resources are lacking as well. The people of American Samoa are generally very poor.

“It is possible that people (in the United States) consider this as an island paradise and may think the people here are rich which is definitely not so,” Elaine reported in a recent e-mail. “Fortunately bananas, coconut, avocados and papayas grow in the yards so that, along with rice, makes up most of the food.  They do also eat a lot of taro.  They seem to just roll with the punches.”

Please be in prayer for the people of American Samoa, for Elaine and Larry Koch, and for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief teams that will go to the island. With the current difficulty in getting traditional disaster relief teams into Haiti, it might be that some disaster relief teams could consider plans to work in American Samoa until access in Haiti becomes greater.

Because of the distance, teams probably need to plan for at least a two week trip. A team from Kentucky is set to arrive on Feb. 28.

Gifts directed to the work in American Samoa are also needed at this time and can be made through either the North American Mission Board or the Kentucky Baptist Convention.

Kentucky State University BCM students

If Southern Baptists are to be a part of seeing the Great Commission fulfilled, one of the barriers we must ultimately overcome is that of racial prejudice. Much progress has been made but Sunday morning continues to be one of the most racially segregated times of the week in America. In this guest post, Curtis Woods, the Baptist campus minister for Kentucky State University in Frankfort, Kentucky, shares how Baptist Campus Ministry students are helping to bring people together on the campus of this historically black school.

KSU BCM: A Story of Hope

“The people of God are not merely to mark time, waiting for God to step in and set right all that is wrong. Rather, they are to model the new heaven and new earth, and by so doing awaken longings for what God will someday bring to pass,” says Philip Yancey.

This quote well captures the mission of the KSU BCM to “Keep the Savior’s priorities our Undying passion.” We summarize this purpose statement by teaching our students to “love God and love people.” In fact, one could say that our principle unit of thought concerning missional thinking and discipleship is pursuing “omnigeneous” (all people) rather than homogeneous (one people) relationships. This has proven an extremely difficult task in light of the “racialized society” in which we live. I borrow the phrase “racialized society” from Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s, associate professor of sociology at Texas A&M University, work entitled “Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States.” In essence the word connotes “a society wherein race matters profoundly for differences in life experiences, life opportunities, and social relationships.” Or, put another way, it’s a society that has socially structured walls of separation which keep image-bearers from experiencing the beauty of unity in the midst of ethnic or economic diversity. A society that shuns the Lord’s High Priestly prayer that we become “one” as He and the Father are one united by the Spirit (John 17:22).

What are we to do?  Give up and long for the return of Christ without playing our role in bringing all people to the throne of grace in intimate relationships? May it never be. Rather, we must use our influence on the campuses of the world to change hearts and minds for God’s glory and our good.

A Kentucky State University small group. Campus Minister Curtis Woods is up front.

Last year, I saw a glimpse of heaven on earth as students from multiple cities, states, and countries came together under the umbrella of unity to campaign for one of our former student leaders, Elisabeth Martin, who felt led by God to run for the most coveted prize at Kentucky State University—University Queen. This may not seem like much to the casual reader until you understand that Elisabeth, a young Caucasian female from Waddy, Kentucky, believed that she could serve as the first Anglo American female Queen in the history of Kentucky State University, a historically Black College and University. Yes, she trusted God, and her peers, enough to attempt what many labeled as “dreaming the impossible dream.” As an active BCM member and International student leader, she believed that campaigning on the cross-cultural platform of love and unity would give her a chance to be heard and fully known by her peers. The campaign week was arduous. Her campaign manager and spokesperson, Casper Camau, a former BCM president and native of Kenya, provided Elisabeth with the nuts and bolts to become politically dexterous, meeting with and loving on students from urban centers and rural areas around the world. They all believed in her dream and passion, even though she made it known that she believed that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. Obviously, as a Baptist campus minister, this brought great delight to my heart as I observed her unresolved commitment to the one True God in the public forum; a rare quality, indeed, for those who desire political correctness over Christian theological orthodoxy. Amazing! Humbling! Inspiring!

The sea of multi-ethnic students who worked in one accord to assist Elisabeth waited on Election Day with anxious expectation. They wondered what would take place. The numbers were counted…She won by a landslide!!! I believe it was around midnight when I received the call. It was the voice of Elisabeth Martin, panting and cracking as a result of tears of joy. She said, “Brother Woods…Brother Woods, we won.” I didn’t catch it then, but once I reflected on it the next day. The impact of her words hit me. “We won…” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.” The KSU BCM intentionally seeks to build relationships with all image-bearers in order to introduce them to the blessed hope of the gospel found in Jesus Christ alone to the glory of the Father by means of the Spirit. This is our ultimate joy.

Kentucky Great Commission Task Force at its first meeting in January

Please be in prayer for Kentucky’s Great Commission Task Force as it holds its second meeting today at the Kentucky Baptist Building in Louisville. The committee was appointed at the KBC’s annual meeting in November after messengers approved a recommendation to form a committee to study “how Kentucky Baptists can work more faithfully and effectively together in serving Christ through the Great Commission.” The task force will work throughout the coming year to study the work of the KBC’s Mission Board, agencies and institutions, and will report any recommendations it might have to messengers attending the 2010 annual meeting at Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington.

Much of the early work of the task force will be focused on gathering information to enable members to better understand how Kentucky Baptists carry out the work of fulfilling the Great Commission. In today’s session, the committee will hear presentations from the team leaders of the Kentucky Baptist Convention Mission Board staff.

Dr. Hershael York, the committee’s chairperson, recently spoke to the KBC’s Mission Board staff about the work of the committee. Here’s the audio of his encouraging words:

Members of the Kentucky committee are:

• Hershael York, pastor of Buck Run Baptist Church, Frankfort. York is chair of the committee.
• Paul Badgett, pastor of First Baptist Church, Pikeville
• Charles Barnes, member of Hurstbourne Baptist Church, Louisville
• Joy Bolton, executive director of Kentucky Woman’s Missionary Union, Louisville
• Jeff Crabtree, director of mission for the Warren Association of Baptists, Bowling Green
• Rusty Ellison, pastor of Walnut Street Baptist Church, Louisville
• Greg Faulls, Bellevue Baptist Church, Owensboro
• Chad Fugitt, First Baptist Church, Monticello
• John Hale, a deacon at First Baptist Church, Mount Vernon
• Bill Henard, pastor of Porter Memorial Baptist Church, Lexington
• James Jones, pastor of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, Campbellsville
• Bill Mackey, KBC executive director
• Don Mathis, 2009 president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention and staff evangelist at Eastwood Baptist Church, Bowling Green.
• Jessica Milburn, member of Union Baptist Church, Union
• Sam Rainer, pastor of First Baptist Church, Murray
• Kevin Smith, pastor of Watson Memorial Baptist Church, Louisville
• Dan Summerlin, pastor of Lone Oak First Baptist Church, Paducah

A fitting wrap-up of the Dateline Haiti series is this video dispatch just released from the International Mission Board from an interview of Butch Vernon, the chaplain of our 10-member Kentucky Baptist Convention Disaster Relief medical team that arrived home earlier this week. If you’ve been following the series, you know that Butch was the author of the posts from the field.

For those who may be reading this on a platform that doesn’t allow you to see the embedded video,  click this link to go to the video on the IMB Commission Stories Web site.

Vernon was also featured today in a story in The State Journal in Frankfort, Ky. Here’s the story from writer Keren Henderson:

A newborn was placed in a copy paper box, when no other spot could be found at one of the makeshift hospital’s in Port-au-Prince.

Editor’s note: Butch Vernon, the pastor of Thoroughbred Community Church in Nicholasville and the chaplain for the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s disaster relief team, returned last week from Haiti. The 10-member medical team treated hundreds of patients each day in a makeshift hospital near Haiti’s collapsed national capitol. Butch recently shared his chaotic story with The State Journal, explaining that hundreds more Americans are working in similar hospitals across Port-au-Prince. This was his third trip to Haiti.

Desperate and malnourished, the 15-year-old Haitian girl dragged herself to the makeshift hospital.

“Please help me die!” she repeatedly screamed. “Please help me die!”

Linda had been pulled from the wreckage of her home two days after the earthquake. Once free, she discovered that all 11 in her family had been crushed and killed.

With nowhere to go, no one to take care of her and no food, she was wandering Port-au-Prince. Even the shirt on her back was not her own.

“She wanted to die,” Butch remembers. “All we had to do was show her a little love, a little compassion, and that was enough to get her through the day.”

After hugs and some warm food, Linda was smiling again.

Her story describes the daily struggle of one million Haitians who live in squalid tent camps and eat an average of one meal every three days.

The makeshift hospitals are bare bones – merely a series of tarps hung over street signs. At Butch’s hospital, the surgery room is a desk with a mattress on top. Newborn babies are placed in whatever’s available – in one memorable example, a cardboard box – giving mothers a few hours to rest after labor.

“We had a lot of toes and fingers that were gangrene,” Butch said. “Most of what we were dealing with was revisions of earlier amputations.”

However, the surgeries he witnessed can’t be compared to those during the first few days after the quake.

“A lot of initial amputations were done with hacksaws, Black & Decker tools, and in a couple instances, chainsaws. And there was no anesthesia, just a stick.”

Currently, the greatest needs are hunger and stress related.

“Nearly everyone is suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder,” Butch said.

Someone to listen

When he wasn’t assisting the physicians, Butch listened to stories similar to Linda’s.

“They just needed someone to listen,” he said. “I would listen as a dad was telling me, ‘I watched my wife and infant daughter and 4-year-old son crushed in front of me. My business was destroyed. I lost everything. What do I do now?’”

Sometimes, there weren’t any answers, so Butch prayed with each person he talked to, asking God to show them his presence in some way that day.

“As Americans, our response is ‘It’s going to be OK.’ We don’t know that. It’s going to get worse in Haiti before it gets better.”

Desperation has driven several to violence.

“They’re on their last nerve,” Butch said, reiterating that large families are living on top of one another in tent villages with very little food. “It doesn’t take hardly anything to cause a violent outbreak.”

It wasn’t uncommon for doctors to get distracted from treating quake victims to respond to gunshot and knife victims after a fight.

At the same time, Butch says, it’s easy to mischaracterize the Haitians as they go through this struggle.

“They are some of the most resilient people,” he said, praising their ability to withstand incredible pain.

He remembers one girl who – without any painkillers – looked up at his camera and smiled as a doctor scrubbed out bone-deep wounds on her leg.

One of Butch’s main goals was to care for the doctors and nurses – to help them process the things they were seeing.

Watching people suffer and starve was emotionally draining, especially for the women on the team, Butch says.

Most of the children are malnourished; many of their mothers died in the quake; and the mothers who made it can’t feed their infants.

“There aren’t a lot of cows running around Haiti,” Butch said. “Hardly any grocery stores are standing. It’s difficult sending a child away with a few boxes of formula knowing that when it’s gone …”

So, Butch, who has earned a reputation for his love and compassion under even the most stressful circumstances, kept encouraging his team to keep a short-term mindset.

“We got them through today,” he encouraged.

A hope for the future

Butch is also thinking long term.

He carries thousands of stories of loss and tragedy, but greater than that is his sense of hope for the rebuilding.

“Every time I come back, I have had a feeling of hopelessness, that things are never going to be different. This is the first time I came back and didn’t have that feeling.”

That hope is being administered by churches and Haitian pastors, he said.

As has been widely covered, the national government has no ability to help the people. The only social structure still standing is the church, which has spearheaded relief in Haiti for decades.

“If we’re going to make a difference, we’re going to have to work through the faith-based organizations,” he said.

Related to that is the importance for Haitians to give up voodoo superstitions, which exacerbate their posttraumatic stress, Butch says.

Voodoo beliefs place great emphasis on taking care of the dead.

“If you do not treat the body of a dead relative with respect, that relative will return as a spirit and kill children or cause mischief,” he said, adding that in a nation where families make $200-$300 a year, they will spend as much as $2,000 to $3,000 on a funeral to make sure they are not haunted.

“The end result is horrific posttraumatic stress,” he said. “They have witnessed dump trucks driving through town dumping bodies in holes. The people are horrified that their spirits are going to come back and pay them back for not treating them with respect.”

So, as Christians are feeding the homeless and helping the injured, they’re also preaching the Gospel.

“The tragedy is going to grow worse, but the end result could be very positive,” Butch said, summarizing his hopes. “But the birth pains will be horrific.”

Nurse Nancy Clark with patients

This is the sixth of several guest posts from the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s disaster relief team in Haiti. The 10-member medical team arrived in Port-au-Prince Monday and began ministering through a makeshift hospital on the edge of a tent city on Tuesday. In this post, Butch Vernon, pastor of Thoroughbred Community Church in Nicholasville and the chaplain for the group, shares about the group’s final day of work.

I’m writing to you on our last night in Haiti. Our prayer this morning in the van on the way to the hospital was that we might finish strong. Praise God He allowed us to do just that!

We had three babies born this morning and it was crazy hectic. My day was really different. The doctors suggested that I take pictures of the wounds up close so that we might use them later on in clinics to teach Haitians how to do their own clinics. To say I was out of my comfort zone in the surgical area as fingers and toes were amputated would be an understatement. However, God didn’t send me here to be comfortable, He sent me here to be obedient.

The day went by quickly. We were all so busy that time just flew by.

Linda with nurse Chris Lee. Linda was the only survivor from her family of 11.

There is a picture here of a little girl named Linda. She is about 15. Linda came in today malnourished and despondent. We found out that she had been buried in the rubble of her home for two days before being dug out. When she was finally freed she discovered that her family of 11 were all dead. Since then she has been wandering the streets with no where to go and no one to take care of her.

The little girl in the arm cast and leg cast was also involved in the quake. She was injured but treated. She came to us because the wounds were dirty. We cleaned them but even before we started she was crying hysterically. We couldn’t figure out what was wrong. We eventually got the idea that she thought we were going to amputate her leg. She never truly settled down until after we gave her some toys and gifts and allowed her to limp off with all her limbs intact.

We had another little boy who came in complaining of an ear ache. We couldn’t get him to allow us to touch it so we had to sedate him. The doc dug in his ear and pulled out a bean that had gotten stuck in the canal. It was one of the few light moments of the day.

A doctor ministers to a girl with a broken leg and arm.

Just as we were closing up and sitting around cutting up to release built up pressures, we heard all kinds of screaming and hollering and suddenly people were being rushed into the room. We found out that there had been a knife fight and four people were injured. It reminded us that we must always be ready to respond to what God sends our way.

It is a relief that as we leave there are other teams already in place to fill the gaps. Slowly but surely things are settling down to the point that we might be able to begin planning on sending other teams in. Please be praying that God will work out the logistics so that we can reach out to the Haitians while they are still the most receptive.

May God continue to allow His holy light to shine upon the people of Haiti.

A Haitian brother and sister at the hospital

What a day! We thought the hospital was losing 50 staff today but it ended up being more like 90. Yet we saw as many patients as we did any day this week. When we found out this morning how many people were gone and how thin the ranks were, Glenn Hickey, our team leader, and I went aside and prayed.

Before we got here another medical team had shared a testimony about how they prayed for God to stretch their medicines and God never let the suitcase run out of what they needed, although they kept track and knew that they had given out considerably more than they ever could have had. I felt led to pray the same thing for our two medical teams. I asked the Lord to let it be like we had extra doctors and nurses and to send in extras as we needed them. It was amazing! God allowed us to do more than we could ever have imagined and then when it seemed we were going to have to turn people away, He sent fresh doctors from nowhere! It was awesome. Our God rocks!

We got in this morning and there was a little baby who had just been born under a huge mosquito net. What a blessing. Then we had another gunshot victim come in that we were able to stabilize in the parking lot and get to another hospital. The docs think he will probably make it.

A Haitian child

We also did several amputations and wound cleanings today that were pretty nasty. You never get hardened to the pain, but you learn that you can’t afford to be squeamish either. We had the cutest little girl come in today and she had two huge chunks out of her leg. I’m pretty sure it was bare bone I was looking at and if it wasn’t, it was really close to it. As surgical tech John Brickey began to clean her wound she looked up at him and smiled the biggest smile of appreciation you could imagine, although she had to know how much it was going to hurt. The Haitian people are amazing.

The Florida team just got in yesterday and today we threw them directly into the middle of the fire. It was really edifying to see how God took some of their initial fear and their obvious discomfort and just walked them right through it. They did an amazing job as well and it was a joy to work alongside them.

We came here with an expectation of doing a bunch of wound cleaning and amputations. This hasn’t been the case. What we are seeing more of than anything is stress and hunger related issues. The teams coming after us really need to reconsider what they need to bring. Please pray for them that God would give them wisdom as they pack.

Dr. Thomas McKechnie and a young patient

We were so busy today I was running non stop pretty much most of the day. Around 1:00 I realized that there was something I really needed to pray about and got alone with the Lord for a short, but really great time. I cannot tell you how much everyone here appreciates your prayers. There is no way we could be doing what we are doing without the prayer cover of our brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Well, we have been in aftermeetings pretty much all night and I’m going to crash. Tomorrow is our last full day doing medical work and we will probably be slammed. Please pray that we can make a difference for the Kingdom in our last little bit of time here.