Summerlins

Gene and his wife Terri are in Mirebalais this week. Their son Trey has been there since early June. Gene has been to Haiti multiple times. This is Terri's first trip. Pray for them. Also, Gene is visiting with the Partners in Health Haiti director today. PiH has been very helpful in giving us input and insight as we put together plans to build our community health clinic in Mirebalais.

Here are some pictures from Gene's fb page:

Pictures of Trey Summerlin in Haiti

Trey loving on the Haitians and leading an American group.

Don't Forget Haiti

Six months is a long time in our sound-bite, media-clip, reality-show-lovin', sensational-driven culture.  I have one simple message today: don't forget Haiti.  Her problems today are as great as ever.  See the following:

Six Months After Quake, Haiti Still Suffers (CNN)
Haitian Orphans Have Little but One Another (NY Times)
Haiti's Camps of Despair (Montreal Gazette)

At Grace Chapel, we are focusing in on building a medical clinic in Mirebalais:

http://www.gcanet.org/update/clinic/update1.html

We invite you to get involved with the building and the furnishing of the clinic.  If you have questions about the project, contact Gene Summerlin at gene@osolaw.com or me at mike@gracepca.com.

Blessings,

Mike

Building a Medical Clinic in Mirebalais

At Grace Chapel, we are focusing in on building a medical clinic in Mirebalais:

http://www.gcanet.org/update/clinic/update1.html

We invite you to get involved with the building and the furnishing of the clinic.  If you have questions about the project, contact Gene Summerlin at gene@osolaw.com or me at mike@gracepca.com.

Blessings,

Mike

Update on Michelle! Hallelujah!

Some of you might remember a little girl we met in Haiti back in February. Her name was Michelle and she had a fibrous tumor. Here's my blog entry from our encounter:

http://hsumike.blogspot.com/2010/02/michelle.html

Our ministry partners had not been able to locate Michelle until recently but I just received this report from Gene Summerlin:

"Just wanted to let you know that the girl with the abdominal tumor we saw by the dam has been treated and fully recovered.  The pastor got in touch with Marcel last month and GCA got her to a hospital for surgery.  She is home and doing fine!"

Hallelujah! Thank you to all who prayed for Michelle!

June 18th Update from Trey Summerlin

I received this e-mail yesterday from Trey who is currently living at the Guest House in Mirebalais:


Hey man, I'm doing really well. Frank's keeping me pretty busy, I've mostly been helping with medical teams that have come down and helping a Haitian guy Ricarto around the guest house. It's really beautiful; you won't believe it when you see it. I can't figure out how to send pictures on this thing but they're all on my facebook under mobile Uploads. I've been on dental for the past couple of days. Today the doctors from Cross Bridge saw more than 460 people not counting dental. It's been pretty awesome so far. We didn't get back till pretty late so I'm a little tired. I think I'm gonna head to bed. God bless, brother, say hey to Chris and Ben for me. 

Dedication of the GCA Guest House!

I thought you might enjoy some pictures of the completion of the Great Commission Alliance Guest House at the Mirebalais property. The bottom picture was taken in February when Trey Summerlin, Gene Summerlin, Chris Tran and I did food distribution at the site. The second picture was taken in late March when our group of 34 traveled to Mirebalais. And the most recent picture was taken at the May 30th dedication of the Guest House.

For more pictures of the Guest House, goto:

http://www.gcanet.org/update/guesthouse/update1.html

NPR's "This American Life : #408 Island Time"

Recently I was driving up to Walthill to serve on the Omaha reservation.  I had two hours on my hands and a lot of beautiful Nebraska country in front of me as I traveled North on I-77.  I listened to a one-hour podcast put out by NPR's "This American Life."  This piece reflects on some of the complexities of implementing in Haiti what the typical American might think of as "simple business solutions" for productivity and growth.  It is a worthwhile, provocative and challenging piece, a must-hear for anyone interested in doing ministry in places like Haiti.  But it will involve a commitment of time (one hour).

You should can listen to it on streaming audio:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/408/island-time

Otherwise, it is available for 99 cents on Itunes:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/408-island-time/id374328413?i=374329329&ign-mpt=uo%3D6

Trey Summerlin Leaves for Haiti Tomorrow

Hi Friends,

Trey leaves for Haiti tomorrow.  He will spend a couple days in Ft. Lauderdale and then travel to Port-au-Prince and then Mirebalais.  Trey was with me in Haiti in early February.  He plans to serve in Haiti with Great Commission Alliance through August.  Trey's main responsibilities will be to accompany and serve various teams as they come to Haiti.  Please pray for Trey.  He asks prayer for wisdom and direction on how best to be a vessel of the Lord's love and mercy while he is in Haiti.

Thank you!

Video of March Trip, by Ben and Renee Welstead

Haiti 2010 Sights and Sounds from Ben Welstead on Vimeo.

"Rescued," by Soledad O'Brien, CNN

I was sent this CNN video recently.  It's very powerful.  I love the vision of this group I had never heard of before, Lighthouse Orphanage.

Thank You!

Thank you for your prayers for Gene and me.  Our time with Brian Kelso and Frank Maiorana of GCA was a very fruitful, productive and encouraging time.  Thank you!

Prayer

Hi Friends, Gene Summerlin and I will be traveling to Ft. Lauderdale this Monday for two and a half days to meet with Brian Kelso and Frank Maiorana of Great Commission Alliance. We will be discussing the nature of our partnership with GCA as we look to serve in Mirebalais. We are looking forward to our time, and we appreciate your prayers.

Shirts from Lincoln to Croix Des Bouquets

Last Christmas, Grace Chapel put together a project raising funds for t-shirts and multivitamins for the children of Haiti.  GC member Ben Welstead owns a screen-printing business and made shirts charging us less than his personal costs.  The shirts are now being used as school uniforms for the kiddos at Ebenezer orphanage in Croix Des Bouquets:

Here are a couple pictures of the kids in the shirts:

http://binkshirts.com/2010/04/14/shirts-become-school-uniforms-for-haitian-orphans/

Here's a video of Ben making the shirts (from an earlier blogpost):

http://hsumike.blogspot.com/2010/04/binkshirts.html

Team Photo Sharing Site

Our various team members are now just starting to share their pictures.  Here's the website if you are interested:

http://gcmedical2010.shutterfly.com/

Renee Welstead Photos

If you want to see our time in Haiti through the lens of a professional photographer, one of our team members, here you go:

http://www.reneewelstead.blogspot.com/

Easter Message

I gave the Easter message at Grace Chapel last Sunday.  After a lengthy opening Scripture reading and prayer, I start the message talking about some of our experiences in Haiti last week, and I close the message with some reflections on our time as well.  I wrote the message not just with the Christian in mind, but the nonChristian as well.  It is written for the religious, the nonreligious, the churched, the nonchurched, the believer and the agnostic alike.  I hope whether you embrace the message of Christ's cross and resurrection or not, you might benefit from the message:

http://gracepca.com/podcast/2010-04-04.mp3

Or if you prefer to go straight to the Grace Chapel website to download the April 4th message:

http://gracepca.com/index.php/sermons/

Ben Welstead Making Shirts for the Kids

I just came across this video of Ben Welstead making the t-shirts for the Ebenezer kiddos.  It's pretty sweet.  Here's Ben's website: http://binkshirts.com/

Just Landed in Omaha

It's 11:30pm!

Nebraskans

What do you get when you have a group of 34 Nebraskans who really like one another, have spent the week together in a life-shaping environment, have been sleep-deprived and are traveling together through airports ALL DAY?

Let me just say this, I feel bad for the other people on this last plane between Dallas and Omaha. Man, are we a loud bunch! :-)

Landed in Dallas

We just landed in Dallas. We fly out of Dallas in about an hour and a half and should be to Omaha by 11:30pm.

Just Landed in Miami

We board our Dallas flight in about an hour. It's about 4:30pm Miami time.

Coming Home ... Leaving Port-au-Prince

Katie Loos, Ben Loos, Kristine Fry, Carla Pisel-Nixon, Rob Hemmer

Driving in Haiti

One of my favorite things about driving in Haiti is that sometimes the oncoming traffic is in the same lane as the one you are driving in. This is taken from the front seat of our SUV.  I'm in the passenger seat if you are concerned about me driving and blogging under the circumstances :-)

Tanya and Tanya

Tanya met a "Tanya" at Ebenezer.

Some of the Ebenezer Kiddos

Seeing Some of My Buddies Again

These guys remember you. They were saying, "Mike!" We were here for four days in early Feb.

Carrie and Renise

It might have only been a thirty-minute stop, but it was worth it. Carrie Davidson is hugging Renise. Renise is the little 13yr. old girl who had a baby recently. Renise's story was documented on 60 minutes on March 21st: Lost Children of Haiti Video.  Carrie spent a week in January following the earthquake and a week earlier this month at Ebenezer.  The kids absolutely love her.

Selling Bread on the Streets of PaP

Driving through Port-au-Prince

Here are some of the tent cities in PaP. Jerry and Patria Rector, Carrie Davidson, Tanya Hsu and I left early for the airport to go to the Ebenezer orphanage of The Global Orphan Project in Croix Des Bouquets. We wanted to see the kids as Carrie and I have been there since the earthquake and Jerry and Patria are very involved with The Nebraska Global Orphan Project.

If you want to see the 60 minutes piece on Ebenezer and the story of Pastor Moise Vaval, here it is: Lost Children of Haiti Video.  We are meeting Moise in a few minutes.

We just dropped off Frank Maiorana at the airport and now our Haitian friend Marcel Baptiste is taking us to Ebenezer. We will meet up with the other 29 of us at the airport to catch our 12:15pm AA flight back home. We will see many of you soon!