Praying for Haiti

By now we are all aware of the horrible wreckage done by the earthquakes in Haiti on Tuesday, Jan 12th. This is horrific and breaks my heart personally, so I do not mean for the following to sound insensitive or belittling to the hugeness of the tragedy.

Last summer July 13 - 18 2009 during our Adventure Week aka LegoLand we challenged are kids & families to collect shoe boxes for kids and fill them with toilet tree stuff, books, toys, etc. We ended up collecting over 400 boxes. We worked through an Orlando based ministry called New Missions, check em out @ http://www.newmissions.org/ The goal was to deliver them for Christmas. But God always has the big picture in mind. Through unforeseen circumstances a team of missionaries headed over to Haiti to deliver our shoe boxes along with 9,600 others this past weekend and yes they are still there (pray for a safe return for them). So a total of 10,000 shoe boxes just arrived just outside Port au Prince just before the earthquakes. How God is that! No one is able to get in or out for aid but God is using our measly old shoe boxes to let Haitian families know they are not alone nor forgotten. I'm not dumb or being insensitive. I realize that a shoe box is a shoe box and it's not going to fix everything in Haiti. But I couldn't help but praise God when I found out that our little notes of love, prayers, and encouragement are hitting the people of Haiti during a time they need it most. Please continue to pray for the victims and families in Haiti and find ways to help by going to New Missions site @ http://www.newmissions.org/

Backyard Missions?

I'm in the process of praying through some ideas for FOkids to serve our community this fall in a BIG way. I'm looking to set up opportunities for our kids and families to simply love and serve our community. I'd love to hear some of your ideas. Either ideas you've done, heard of, or ideas you thought would be cool to try. Obviously different communities have different needs but I'd still like to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

Day #4: Awesome

Today was another day at the worksite. It's been neat to step back and see 50 missionaries in teams just serving their hearts out in the hot sun with no complaints and "get r done" attitudes. This team has been a joy to work with and I believe God is going to use them in a huge week. We'll see soon. Friday is our outreach carnival and gospel presentation. Pray for Pastor Chad as he'll be presenting the gospel. Chad has been rockin this trip and as a close friend it's been great serving alongside him. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. Thanks and once again, hey TJ, love you and the kids. Hang in there. PS: for better updates on the trip head to www.chadharper.org

Mission Update

At Camp Bahamas Mission Trip and it's been awesome so far. We starting the labor work today as we are finishing up building 6 cabins for future campers to sleep in. Yesterday Chad and I spoke at a Haitian church. Chad spoke in the morning service and did awesome. I spoke in the evening service. We spoke through a translator and they laughed several times when I didn't say a joke. Now I'm curious what the translator translated. The trip is good, the kids are working hard and a good group. Keep us in your prayers as we continue to minister the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Bahamians. PS: I don't get any signal with my phone and I think our internet my orlando house is down so I haven't been able to talk with TJ and the fam so if you see them and are reading this tell them I love them and miss them. If you are reading this TJ know I love you lots and miss you and the kids so much. I wish you all were here and can't wait to see. Please give the kids a big huge for me. Love you guys lots. Cya Dustin