Hait Day 2

Today was the first day of our pastor's conference. What a blessing to meet these men and to negin speaking Creol with my cheat sheet. "Mewn rele Dr. Paul" My name is Dr. Paul. Listening to these men sing in worship of God is a inspiring experience even though I have no idea what the words mean. My first session introduced Post Traumatic Stress as a description of how people react to tragic events. I also covered how the Bible speaks powerfully to the heart needs of the these men and their people who continue to suffer. I ended by encouraging them that they are able to make a difference in many waysan and by introducing people to Christ. What does Jesus know about PTS? Just think about the cross for it is the ultimate experience trauma and suffering. Then we divided the men into small groups where they could minister to each others hurts.
During break times these men are already coming to me and our team for advice and counsel on how to deal with problems in their lives and the lives of their people. One pastor shared how he lost two of his five children, one was killed on the STEP seminary campus. Another pastor came to me because every time he hears a loud noise his heart begins racing. Other men have told us how they are having trouble sleeping, concentrating and making decisions. Many of the pastors are afraid to enter buildings, are crying, have anger issues, depression, and even having trouble praying.
Tomorrow I will be sharing my second session and continuing counseling for individual pastors.
Orevwa
Dr Paul

Haiti Day One

God is good in getting the first half of our tean here safely. After a tour of the city of Port Au Prince, I am taken back by the extent of the destruction. Everywhere you go there is debris, destroyed buildings, people living in small and large groupings of tents.
Some tent cities have as many as 15000 tents. In many ways I am reminded of Cambodia,crazy traffic, overloaded taxis, trash, high heat and humidity, ineffective and corrupt government,and great number of the poorest of the poor anywhere on the planet. Except Haiti is not only poor, but now in a state of trying to recover from the devastating earthquake. today we went to the Mega Mart to purchase 200 air mattresses since the container with the cots and the large tent is still held up in customs. Welcome to life in the third world. A lot of last minute planning took place today as we adjust to changing logistics. Tonight we spent a lot of time in prayer for the conference wbich begins with my session on understanding Post-Traumatic Stress and a biblically based response. May God do great things to His glory!
Blessings,
Dr. Paul

Container Update

Stuff always happens, and whatever you are doing always takes longer in 3rd world countries. Such is the story with our shipping container. Latest news is that the shipping company itself delayed the delivery into Port Au Prince, and by the time things make it through customs, it will be Monday afternoon by the time it arrives. So keep praying that it gets to the STEP seminary campus before the predicted time! I know, that just contradicted what I said in the first sentence, but our God is an awesome God!

Please pray not only for safety for our team as we travel to Haiti, but also for the expatriate Haitian pastors travelling to their homeland, and for the 200 pastors who will travel to this conference. I hope to be sending you updates daily if I have a working internet connection.

Blessings,
Dr. Paul

Understanding Post-Traumatic Stress

Many of you have asked me what I will be presenting to these Hatian pastors. I am responsible for 4 of the main sessions. In the first session, I will be describing what Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS) looks like, and how to distinguish it from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Next we will focus on what is the current standard for helping someone deal with PTS, and how the Bible and Christ provide a powerful and effective means to reach a person on the level of the heart. In other words, these pastors don't have to be a psychologist or psychiatrist to provide meaningful help to people hurting from PTS.

In a second session, a Hatian pastor will be presenting material I put together called "Jesus in the Tent City," a message based on Matthew 9:35-39. The focus here will be helping these pastors understand how to see as Jesus saw, to feel as Jesus felt, to pray as Jesus prayed, and to do as Jesus did. A third session will be on responding to grief. How can we as pastors help people who have lost so much? The final session I am presenting will be on following the model Jesus provides in His roles of Prophet, Priest, and King (Hebrews 1:1-5) as a way to minister more effectively to the people of Haiti. Within this framework, the pastors will learn very practical skills related things the Bible speaks very powerfully to, despair, guilt, anxiety, fear, etc.

Other members of the team will be speaking to biblical truths regarding faith, hope, and love, listening and understanding the person who is dealing wth PTS, and other insights. All of us will be dependent on translators as we not only communicate in the large group settings, but also as we interact with these pastors in small groups, and as we provide individual counseling.

Please pray that God would speak powerfully to the hearts of these hurting, traumatized pastors who have lost so much in their own lives. Pray that the insights we share will not only minister to their needs, but also to the people of their congregations and to the Haitian people as a whole.

Blessings,

Dr. Paul

Our First Snag: The Shipping Container

On Friday of last week, Churches Helping Churches hit a major milestone in our preparation for this conference: We shipped off a 40-foot container out of Miami.
But now we’ve got problems again: They’re not letting the container off the boat in Port-au-Prince so it can be processed through customs. Originally, we were expecting to have the container clear customs on Monday next week, the day our retreat starts.
The materials inside that container are critical for the conference. Here’s what’s inside:
Proclaimers: In a place where 1 out of every 2 people is illiterate, this is how you get the Word of God to them: solar-powered audio Bibles. Faith Comes by Hearing, the manufacturer of these products, is giving one to each attendee of this conference.
Haitian trauma books: David C. Cook has a 500-page counseling trauma kit. It was adapted to Haiti and translated into Creole. The first versions came off the press on Wednesday and were dropped shipped to Miami in time to ship for the container closing on Thursday. This is a phenomenal resource: Scripture-saturated, group discussion oriented, and knowledgeable. CHC is helping pay for the translation of these materials. Each pastor at the conference will receive one.
Tent: 5,000-square foot event tent and 250 cots: This will serve as one big bedroom where all the pastors will sleep.
Mosquito repellent: Malaria, typhoid fever, and dengue fever. Need we say more?
PLEASE COMMIT THIS TO PRAYER SO THAT WE CAN HAVE WHAT WE NEED TO SERVE THESE PASTORS!
Blessings,
Dr. Paul

How One Haitian Pastor Views the Need in Haiti

The other day the organization sponsoring the pastor's conference I will participate in sent a letter expressing his regret about not being able to attend. He recently returned to his home in Canada from being in Haiti and communicated the following:

Dear colleague in the LORD!
Thank you for this interesting invitation to participate in the May conference in Haiti. I find that it is a very good initiative…
I came back from Haiti last Tuesday exhausted, but happy to have served the Lord in this physically devastated, emotionally traumatized country … despite the big number of evangelicals, and of overcrowded churches. The biggest blessing which our country needs it is that of a spiritual awakening of the church of Jesus Christ, and it will have to begin with the leaders.
Post traumatic disturbances of our Haitian brothers and sisters are very real. I saw them myself, having made [sic] the terrible experience of earthquake in Port-au-Prince on January 12th. Training will be very much useful, but it will also be necessary to consider the counseling for the pastors themselves, because they are traumatized shepherds called to serve traumatized people. …
I give you the assurance of my prayers for the ministry which you are going to do for the glory of our common Lord and Savior. I shall ask that God provokes the necessary workers, and uses the team which will leave as good comforters and counselors.
I hope that this conference will be only the first stage of a plan of action which will touch as much soul as mind of the leaders and of their flock. Needed are new leaders for a new church, a new church for a new society, a new society for a new Haiti.
Brotherhood greetings in Jesus Christ,
F.N.Ottawa, Canada

I think this man captures our heart for the pastors and people of Haiti very well.
Blessings,
Dr. Paul

Pastors Helping Pastors

Imagine losing your home, your church, and members of your family. Imagine you are a pastor, someone people look to for guidance, but you are experiencing the same hurt, shock, and despair many of your people are dealing with. I can't imagine it, but I am about to see it once again as I leave for Haiti with Churches Helping Churches. Our focus will be on ministering to pastors as they have a key role in Haitian society. But as people come to them for help, guidance, encouragement, etc., to whom do they turn to when they are hurting.

So you can call this conference pastors helping pastors. We are going to Haiti to equip and train these men to understand Post-Traumatic Stress. Even more important, we want to encourage, help, and minister to these men of God and the needs and hurts they are trying to cope with. There are four of us who are pastors coming from the US, and another 15 pastors who are Haitian and living in the US. We will provide large group teaching sessions, small group sessions where pastors can share their experiences, and individual counseling with us.

Pray for God's blessing on this conference and even that it would be the start of revival among the peopleo of Haiti.

Blessings,

Dr. Paul