September Praises and updates

Our God Provides

    One of the most exciting and invigorating parts of our mission is watching how God provides for the needs of His children.  We are so blessed to sit in the front row and watch this happen time and time again.  Over the month of August, we got to see our God at work once again.

    You may remember that at the beginning of the summer we put out a request from a missionary for backpacks.  She has received items from Haiti Care Mission before and asked if we would present the idea to our sewing groups.  She needed 600 backpacks for the beginning of the new school year.  We really appreciate the boldness of this missionary to ask for what she needs.

    As the summer progressed, we had heard from several sewing groups that were interested in making backpacks but we had no actual commitments of the number of backpacks each group would make.  So, we waited and anticipated that God would provide….and He did!  This week, we packed up 600 backpacks to ship to Haiti.  Praise God!  He has provided for more than enough. 

     The handmade backpacks are amazing.  The ladies who made these backpacks poured love and prayers into these works of art.  Each bag is unique and each carries a special blessing to help these children remember that God loves them and they are special. 

     In addition to the homemade backpacks, we had one sewing group that had extra resources but were short on time, so they purchased backpacks for this project.  They had the front of the backpacks printed to say “Jezi renmen ou” so all who saw them would read “Jesus loves you.”  This group is very committed to helping us and we are grateful for their contribution. They made an investment of their resources and we know they will be blessed for their  gifts.

     Jehovah Jireh is the name of God found in Genesis 22:14 when God provided the ram for Abraham when he was preparing to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice.  We are not facing this same situation today but our God is the same, yesterday, today and forever.  We believe that our God is Jehovah Jireh and He is the provider of all of the needs of our family, this ministry and the children of Haiti.  We are blessed to be witnesses of His provision on a regular basis. It is our hope that others will see God as their provider.

 

And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh. As it is said to this day, In the mount of Jehovah it shall be provided.

Genesis 22:14 ASV

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Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever.

Hebrews 13:8 NKJV

Praises and Prayer requests

 

Praise God for His provision of backpacks and helping hands to make them.

Praise the Lord for the missionaries that are working hard in Haiti to touch lives and bring hope.

Please pray for the people of Haiti.  As the tropical storm season is in full swing, we pray that God’s mighty hand will protect Haiti from future storms.  Also, pray for strength as they rebuild from the storm damage from Tropical storm Isaac.

Please join us in praying for Haiti Care Mission.  Pray for new partnerships and opportunities to share the love of Jesus.

 

We are grateful to have a powerful prayer team who prays over our family and this ministry.  Thank you for your prayers.

 

 

Hope was baptized this month.  We are so proud of her commitment to live for Christ.

These pictures were taken by our friend at HIS Home for Children in Port a Prince.

Picture taken during our Spring trip to Haiti.  

 

Living Victoriously in Christ,  The Anderson Ministry team

 

August Updates and Prayer requests

      To say that we had a blessed trip to the Midwest is almost an understatement.  Our trip to the Midwest was really quite incredible.  We had plans to receive items for Haiti Care Mission.  We had plans to visit with churches and share our vision for Haiti Care Mission. We had plans to update our supporters and share our stories from Haiti, but we were not prepared to be blessed as much as we were.  Everywhere we went, we were showered with love, gifts and blessings. 

     We started the trip with a stop at Harvest International in Ocala, FL.  We have been partnering with Harvest for previous shipments and they were ready to receive more items to ship to Haiti for us.  This is a really great connection for us.  Harvest International has missionaries in Haiti and has been shipping to Haiti for 20 years.  They are a rich resource of information for us as we look at new ways to ship to Haiti for less cost.  We are very blessed through this partnership.

    Our next major stop was in Chicago, IL.  The Macedonia Tabernacle Baptist Church ladies have been sewing for Haiti for 2 years but did not know how they were going to get the items into Haiti.  Then one day, they found Haiti Care Mission on the internet and we became connected.  We were thrilled to be able to stop and meet many members of the church.  They treated us to a great lunch and time of fellowship.  They produced over 500 dresses and collected many other items which we will take to Haiti to distribute.

     We were very happy to spend several days in Wisconsin with family and friends before we moved on to Iowa to speak at several churches. We were eager to share how God is using Haiti Care and where He is taking this ministry.  Each church blessed us with new items for the children and we were very humbled by their gracious reception of us.  We made several new connections and even watched as God made connections within the churches through us. 

     Throughout the trip we had the privilege of seeing many friends, supporters,  and family members.  We were never short of people who treated us to a meal, took us on fun outings, or had a place for us to stay.  We were blessed that every need was met in abundance.  The girls were thrilled with the number of people who took time to talk to them about Haiti or spoil them with a little extra something.   We are grateful for all of those who came out to meet with us and encourage us.  We are honored to be in relationships with people and churches who see God’s vision for the nations and strive to be a part of it. 

     Overall, we traveled for 21 days, covered 4500 miles, spoke at 6 churches, and collected over 3000 new items for the children of Haiti.  That is what we call a BLESSED trip.

Praises and Prayer requests

Praise God for safe travels this last month.  We spent 21 days on the road and we felt His protecting hand.

Praise the Lord for a very successful trip for Haiti Care Mission.  The mission has 3000 more ways to bless the children due to all the hard work that was done for the children of Haiti.  We are grateful for all of these Kingdom workers.

Please pray for us as we press forward to serve the children of Haiti.

Please pray for the people of Haiti.

Please join us in praying for open doors for Haiti Care Mission.  We are always looking for new opportunities and new ways to serve .

Thank you for your faithful prayer support.  We appreciate each pray that is lifted up for us.

Please let us know how we can be praying for you.

Living victoriously in Christ, The Anderson Ministry team

   

A few pictures from our trip....

The ladies from Macedonia Tabernacle Baptist Church

 The cake at Clear Lake Christian Church for our reception.

 The girls had animals to play with almost everywhere we went.

 Our friends, the Mottingers, treated us to a day on the lake.  What fun!!

July updates and Prayer requests

     It is hard to believe another month has passed by.  We have been very busy this month with many activities both as a family and in the ministry.

     We have spent a lot of time this month preparing for our trip to the Midwest.  We have several stops to make on the way so we are working to coordinate all of the details. We will start the trip by dropping off several hundred dresses with a ministry in northern FL that is filling a container for Haiti.  And on another part of the trip, we will be sending diapers to West Virginia to be loaded in a container for another ministry.  The best part of these partnerships is that they take the items and ship them for free for us.  These are amazing partnerships from God and we are blessed to be in a relationship with these organizations.

      We are very excited that we will be picking up close to 2000 items for the mission during the trip.  Sewing groups in Iowa and Illinois have been waiting for us to come and receive these items.  We are really looking forward to meeting these hard working groups and thanking them in person.

    We also look forward to meeting with our support team.  We have many pictures and stories from Haiti to share with all of you.  We hope you will make the effort to come see us in Iowa City for an open house or call us so we can get together in either Green Bay or Clear Lake.

     Between packing and planning, we have been busy preparing a dress sizing guide.  During our trip in April, we realized that we had a very inadequate method of sizing the dresses.  When we were in the field trying to distribute the dresses, it was hard to organize the dresses and distribute them efficiently, so we have developed a much simpler method of sizing.  We hope this will make the distribution easier for the missionaries and for ourselves when we are back in Haiti. 

     As a family, we have been busy as well.  We  all took part in Vacation Bible School at our church.  Grace and Hope did an amazing job as worship leaders.  They had a blast singing and dancing.  It is a joy to see them in their “zone” praising God.  Lance served as our “back up” man who was there to fill in the gaps.  I (Lynn) helped in the leadership of the week.  As a way to motivate the kids to learn their Bible verses, I allowed the kids who memorized all 5 verses to throw water balloons at me on the last day. They took it very seriously and I got soaked.  It was a very fun and eventful week. Praise God!  

     We have also been busy enjoying summer vacation from school.   It is quite an adjustment having the whole family here in our office/home.  We are very grateful that our girls understand the mission and embrace it.  We enjoy having them work by our sides.

Prayer request and Praises

Praise God for the response to the need for backpacks.  We have 2 groups already started on the project.

Praise the Lord for His provision. He is always providing for us. We are constantly amazed at His ways.

Please pray for us as we travel this month.  We will be working on raising funds and developing new sewing groups. Pray for open doors and hearts to respond to God’s call.

Please pray for our sewing groups. Join us as we pray for the blessings of the Lord to be poured out in their lives for all the work they do for the children.

We are grateful for all those who faithfully pray for our ministry.  We hope to many of you soon in the Midwest.  Thank you for partnering with us.

Living victoriously in Christ, The Andersons

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Romans 15:13 NLT

June updates

     This month we have been working hard to process all the new information we received during our trip to Haiti.  We learned so much and we are spending time finding the best way to meet some of the new needs that were shared with us.

     One of the new needs is that of shorts for boys.  While it was wonderful to give dresses to the little girls and share with them,  it was very hard to see the boys and not have much to give them.  We did share some candy and stuffed animals with them so no one went home empty handed but it was made evident to us that there are needs for boys shorts as well as dresses for the girls.

    We took down a few pairs of homemade shorts for the boys to check for proper sizes and styles.  In the future we want to be able to bring something significant for every child, so we are now starting to open up the sewing groups to start making boys shorts.  The boys shorts will mainly be for play since they wear pants to school and church, so the style needs to be relaxed and comfortable.  Anything that resembles a type of athletic short will work well.  If you are interested in making boys shorts let us know so we can have an idea of how many are being made.

     We also found that we have a need for dresses in larger sizes.  The pillowcase dresses are a good fit for most school children, but, in Haiti, some children start school later than 5 years old.  Therefore, when they reach 6th grade they can be as old as 15 years old.  We need dresses that will fit young women, not just the school girls.  The girls in the schools and churches we visited were very happy to receive the new dresses we had for them but some will be wearing them as long-style shirts instead of dresses.  They were happy to receive the items but next time we want to be able to give them something they will be able to feel comfortable wearing.

     The third need that was revealed to us was a need for drawstring backpacks.  With school starting in the fall, we received a request from one missionary for 600 backpacks.  We really hope we can find some sewing groups that would take on this project.  The children need something very simple to take their things back and forth to school.  They do not carry much to school but it would be great to share the love of Jesus with them in a very practical and tangible item.   If you would like to take on this project, please give us a call.  We would really love to see each child at this school receive a backpack to start their school year.

   With the growth of Haiti Care Mission, we expect to see changes in the needs on a regular basis.  It is our desire to meet the needs in whatever way we can.  If you are interested in helping make these new items, please give us a call so we can give you more specifics.

June Praise and Prayer request....

Praise God for His hand on this ministry.  He is leading the way for us to serve more children.

Praise the Lord for new sewing groups.  We added 3 more sewing groups to the ministry this month.

Please pray for us as we prepare to travel this summer to promote Haiti Care Mission and raise funds. Pray for doors to open and hearts to be willing to respond to the needs.

Please pray for the people of Haiti. Pray that they will hear and receive the message of Jesus.

Thank you for your faithful prayers. Please let us know how we can be praying for you.

 More pictures from the trip.

 

 

Blessings and happy summer, Lynn for the Anderson Ministry team

Our Blessed and Productive Trip to Haiti--Thank you God!

   This month has been amazing for us.  We spent the first part of the month preparing our luggage, our itinerary and our hearts for our first family trip to Haiti.  We prayed, packed and planned.  Every moment of preparation paid off as we experienced a very blessed and productive trip.

    From the time we arrived in Port au Prince to the minute we left, we submitted ourselves to God’s plan.  Our main objective of the trip was to bring in Haiti Care Mission items and share the love of Jesus with the children of Haiti, but God had plans to bless us as much as we could  bless others. 

    Our hosts, Rev. Tom and Bev Brumbley and Pastor Lamartine and Patricia Liberus gave us several opportunities to do just what we planned to do. We traveled to 5 churches/schools in their ministries.  It was a huge blessing to distribute the items to the children and tell them that Jesus loves them.  They helped us learn a little Creole and translated for us so we could communicate with the children.  It was wonderful to see the joy on their faces when they received a dress, toy, pair of shorts or candy.  They were very grateful and we shared many smiles.

    During our trip we traveled extensively throughout Port au Prince and surrounding areas.  We went to Ti Goave, Meyer, Fort Parisen, Fort Dieu, Las Cahobas and Fort Jacques.  As we traveled, we saw the beautiful countryside, the in town traffic, the enormous amounts of people, and the devastating poverty.  We feel blessed to have had wonderful hosts who patiently answered all our questions and gave us feedback about our mission and how we can serve more effectively.

     In addition to focusing on Haiti Care distribution, we also were able to help with a few small projects.  We helped to deliver a generator to a brush arbor church.  This will be the first time the church and pastor’s house will have any source of power. Lance loved the opportunity to work with a “man toy”.  He also helped on Saturday to get the construction team started on pouring a floor of the new kitchen at the EWO headquarters school.  Since the earthquake, a small car-port has been the school kitchen and the children have been eating in the classrooms or play yard.

      On Sunday, we traveled to a church in the mountains where Lance had the privilege of sharing from God’s Word.  It was an honor to speak to the church. They are a very faithful group of believers and they have endured so much.  Our prayer is that they will continue to walk in faith and share their hope with others.

    We were very blessed to have our girls travel with us.  Grace and Hope really enjoyed the trip.  They commented quite a lot about how beautiful Haiti is.  They never complained about the living conditions of the people, they did not look down on them and they were never afraid.  They lovingly embraced the chances they had to interact and spend time with the Haitian people.  When we started our trip home, they both agreed that they would like to stay longer and return soon.

  We have much more to share but we will save that for when we are with you personally. 

This month's praises and prayer requests....

Praise God for His protection during our trip.  He watched over us and took very good care of us.

Praise the Lord for the missionaries we stayed with in Haiti.  They taught us so much.  God really blessed us with their friendship and partnership. Please pray for increase in their ministries.

Praise the Lord for clear vision.  He showed us many things while in Haiti that will help us improve Haiti Care Mission.

Please pray for us as we lead Haiti Care.  There is so much to be done.  Pray that we will stay focused on the important things.

Please pray for the people of Haiti.  They are very strong people but they live in extreme poverty. Most of the tents they are living in are worn out. Pray for protection during the rainy season.

Please pray for the missionaries we partner with.  They are serving in a difficult country.  Pray for strength and God’s favor in everything they do.

Thank you for your faithful prayers. Please let us know how we can be praying for you.

Thank you for partnering with us.  

Blessings, The Anderson Ministry team



April updates, praises and prayer request

March was a very busy month of planning, packing and preparing. Early in March, we decided that it was time for us to make a trip to Haiti as a family to build connections, bring items to the children and investigate new shipping avenues.

Now, the plans are set and our trip is all scheduled. Here is a snapshot of what we will be doing. We will be in Haiti for 6 days at the end of April. We will be staying with two different missionary friends in Port au Prince. One missionary will be taking us to two of their schools to distribute dresses and meet the children. The other missionary will be taking us to the villages near his home/church to share the love of Jesus with the children we meet. We will also meet with the families after church to fellowship with them.

We are very excited about this trip. This trip will be the first time to Haiti for Lynn and the girls. We are eager to visit the country and the people we have a God-given love for. The girls have been working to find stuffed animals, toys and books that they would like to bring for the Haitian children. Their hearts are bursting with joy as they look forward to “blessing” the children as they have been blessed by so many generous people. We are very anxious to get our feet on the ground and see how God is working in Haiti.

As we prepare for this trip, there are many details to consider and Lance has been working diligently to make sure that everything is covered. He is a great planner and leader. Since he has taken several teams in the past, we are confident that he will have everything well planned.
We are preparing to take over 700 items in with us to distribute. It will be a very rewarding experience to see the hard work of the sewing ladies, the tireless work of the ironing teams, and the difficult task of planning/packing come together in a moment of sharing the love of Jesus with the children of Haiti. Please pray for us as we travel.

Update from the past- Many of you that have been reading our newsletters in the past may remember the story of how Lance helped to get an Army truck over to Les Cayes, Haiti for a missionary friend. This month we received pictures of the truck being used in Haiti(see back page) and an open invitation for Lance to come drive it. Unfortunately, we will not get to Les Cayes this time but hopefully on our next trip we will.

Praises and prayer request

Praise God for His provision and guidance. Through divine connections we have processed all 5000 dresses from Atlanta and they are on their way to the children.

Praise the Lord for helping hands who are sewing and ironing for Haiti Care. They are a blessing to us and the children of Haiti.
Please pray for us to hear God’s voice as we lead. We do not want to be one step ahead or one step behind where God wants Haiti Care Mission to be.

Please pray for us as we travel to Haiti at the end of April. Pray for travel mercies, divine health and favor as we travel. Also pray for our hearts to be prepared for the opportunities God brings us.

Please pray for Haiti Care Mission. Pray for God’s protection and provision to continue.

Thank you for your faithful prayers. We appreciate you.

March prayer request/praises

February was a very busy month for us. We were blessed by many visitors and had the help of many work groups. We were very productive on preparing many, many items for delivery. Thank you to all the workers who helped lend a hand last month. We are very grateful for your service.
It was also a very busy month for making connections. This month God brought us into many new relationships and partnerships for Haiti Care Mission. We have secured new avenues of shipping and made several new missionary connections. We prepared and send several shipments. The total number of items we have sent to the mission field is 3000+ items in 2012. We are so excited because we feel like this is just the beginning. There is so much more yet to come.

Thank you for partnerning with us and for praying for us. We are very thankful for all the prayer lifted on our behalf.

Praise God for the way He takes care of all of our needs. He is working mightily to provide for our medical expenses.
Praise the Lord for the wonderful servants who helped us this month. They have blessed us immensely.
Praise God for new connections and relationships. Every relationship is helping lift Haiti Care to a new level of reaching people for Christ.
Please pray for our family as we continue to serve. Pray for wisdom and favor as we take this mission into new relationships and stretch to meet more needs.
Please remember the children of Haiti in your prayers. Pray that God will meet every physical, emotional and spiritual need.
Please pray for walls of protection around Haiti Care Mission. The enemy would like to stop our efforts but we know our God is bigger.

Here are a few picts of last months fun work groups and items being distributed by our missionary partners.