Ernie and his crew have been busy at work the last two weeks working on the new technical school building. It is being built on top of the elementary school at Cap Destree. As you know this has been a vision of Ernie’s for many years and is finally happening. Praise the Lord!
Please continue to pray as they continue to work on this project.
Ernie will be writing an update soon, but I wanted people to be able to see the progress.
This past Sunday morning, in the church here in Cap Destree, visiting pastor Silvio preached a compelling sermon on repentance based on Acts 3:19. The Holy Spirit’s presence was evident so afterwards brother Tony gave an alter call for repentance. Brother Daniel, the oldest member of the church, started to move out of his pew. Daniel walks in a stoop and relies heavily on his long cane to help him get around. He slowly made his way to in front of the lectern, painfully lowered himself to his knees then to all fours then he put his forehead to the ground. He began to sob.
The pews emptied as others followed in like kind. I was asked to join the leaders in praying over the repentant. I could not. I had to join those who felt remorse.
Most of the time I hold to the idea that God has sent me to Haiti to give to the Haitians. Quite probably it is the other way around. Knowing Gods economy I am certain it is both.
Ernie
First Edition. That’s what Phenix is calling this first time of revival in Cap Destree, an event he plans now to have every year. The word in Creole sounds like our word for Crusade and lots of work has gone into the preparation for it. The neighborhood has been canvassed and flyers hung and handed out. For weeks now the folks in the area have witnessed almost daily me bringing pews on top of my car.
A dump truck load of river sand was spread to level the ground and a stage was built. Bunting and curtains were hung and a sound system was rented. All afternoon, as final touches were made, we could hear distant thunder on the mountain.
Typically Haitian, the program, scheduled to start at 5:00pm, began promptly at 5:30. Even then only a few people were present to join in the singing. Half of the sitting area was in full sun and those present sat in the shaded area. It was hot and my shirt was soaked with sweat. There was a steady hum in the sound system and it occasionally shrieked in a feed back loop when the song leaders got too close to the microphone. Clouds were forming and there was still the sound of thunder, less distant now. I tried to be optimistic.
People began to trickle in. Church ladies wearing tshirts that said in Creole ‘Women of Faith’ helped people feel welcome and to find a place to sit. Church men in blue vests stood along a wall and tried to look helpful. Church leaders sat in chairs along the front, the chair for our speaker still vacant.
The singing became more enthusiastic and girls with tambourines and all dressed alike got on stage and did a routine along with the singing. At 6:15 several pastors arrived and sat in the chairs where the elders were sitting. One of them sat in the chair for the speaker. The pews were filling up and people were still streaming in.
At 6:30 Pastor Levy, Madame Bail’s brother, got up to do the welcome. Clouds began to grow dark and the wind picked up blowing the leaves off the trees. One of the speakers for the sound system blew over. And as the opening prayer was about half way through the sky opened up and torrents of rain fell.+
Haitians have an observation about themselves. They say that a Haitian would rather face bullets than rain. I can say that is a true observation as I witnessed the crowd scattering. It took a few minutes to get the electronics into my house and dried off. Then I heard singing. I went to my porch and realized that the singing was coming from the church building.
I braved the heavy rain to get to the church. I was amazed to see all of the people in the church building! There, shoulder to shoulder, standing room only, we’re all the people who had come to the revival. Not only were they singing, ALL of them singing, but there was so much joy it bordered on ecstacy.
Without benefit of a sound system, or a stage or of a place to sit or even light to see the revival continued. At 7:00 the speaker opened his bible and while someone held a flashlight read John 14:27. “My peace I give to you…”. The theme for the revival is “Peace in a World Upside Down”.
His sermon went on til 8.
What a wonderful picture of the fruit of the Spirit. I am slated to speak tomorrow night and I am thinking that this is a perfect object lesson to illustrate the peace that Jesus is talking about!
Then I have to chuckle at myself as I ask myself ‘What am I going to teach THEM about peace?’
Silly boy!
This lesson was for you!
Reminiscent of the Beverly Hillbillies we carry the pews over Tapion Mountain on top of our car. One at a time.
Hauling pews one at a time
Changing the landscape of the worship center by bringing in the new pews.
New pews in church
As the project to build pews for the church progresses a student begins assembling the parts. After weeks of training , sanding, cutting, marking, boring, gluing, sanding, cleaning, shaping and sanding some more, it is finally time to put things together! Notice stacks of materials over his shoulder to the right and the glue up form over his shoulder to the left. It is exciting seeing the final product!
For those who would like to help with our continued ministry in Haiti the link for online giving is:
https://texasbaptists.givingfuel.com/um-ernie-sharon-rice
For checks, make them payable to BGCT and send it to the following address with a note that it is for Ernie & Sharon Rice’s ministry in Haiti:
BGCT
7557 Rambler Road, Suite 1100
Dallas, TX 75231-2310
Recently Pastor Phenix Bail’s wife, Marie Raymonde, discovered a lump in her breast and it became painful. She made several trips to Port au Prince to see doctors for consultation and diagnosis. The doctor told her she needs surgery but did not and would not explain what the issue is.
None of us have any confidence in having her treated in Haiti. Consequently steps are being taken to get her care in the US.
Ash Creek Baptist Church in Azle Texas is spearheading the effort. A member of the church is head of a hospital there and is coordinating the diagnostics and consutation. Upon diagnosis we will consider possible options for recomended treatment. Another member has contributed toward flights to get her to Dallas. Another member is looking for Creole or French speakers to assist in translating from the local college. Lodging and local transportation plans are still in process.
Please place Marie Raymonde on your prayer list and enlist as many prayer warriors that you can to pray on her behalf.
We want that Pastor Phenix travel with his wife as she goes through this ordeal. We need financial help for his travel and for their local in-country expenses. Good For Haiti is now operational so any funds given can go there. The couple is ready travel as early as this weekend.
Thank you for you concern, help and prayer!
Pastor Bail and his wife, Marie with Wesley Shotwell in Haiti.
Ernie
I was introduced to this phrase by Pierce Brosnan in one of the movies he was in. I don’t remember the context in which it was used but the sound of it and the meaning of it has caught my attention in recent days.
Pronounced no bless oh bleeg with the g pronounced like the ending sound of garage it is French in origin. It contains the idea that those who enjoy privilege (nobility) should feel an obligation towards the people of the community in which they live.
While I enjoy a relationship with Pastor Phenix Bail in which we are working together almost every day I do not get to see his wife as much. Consequently getting to know her has been a longer process. I have come to realize that noblesse oblige is a powerful motivator for her. She was raised in a family who was and is very active in the communities they live in. She was taught and brought up in a lifestyle of serving. What strikes me about her is that she does not now look at it as duty or something she is expected to do. It is a passion bordering on obsession with her.
As she talks about the condition of the children on Tapion Mountain when she and Phenix first started their ministry here she struggles to control her emotions fighting back tears. It is a mind set of service that motivated her to run for the office of mayor in Petit Goave. Not only does she use the office to leverage national resources to benefit “her people” but she uses a majority of her salary to help fund the school and church in Cap Destree.
Phenix and Marie Raymonde are not wealthy people. In fact they live very modestly as working folks. This duo is not working from a worldly nobility but rather from their inheritance from Christ. You see they know they are of the family of a King. With such wealth how can they not reach out to those who don’t know the King?
I am humbled. I came to teach. I have become a student.
Ernie
For those who would like to help with our continued ministry in Haiti the link for online giving is:
https://texasbaptists.givingfuel.com/um-ernie-sharon-rice
For checks, make them payable to BGCT and send it to the following address with a note that it is for Ernie & Sharon Rice’s ministry in Haiti:
BGCT
7557 Rambler Road, Suite 1100
Dallas, TX 75231-2310
I once saw a cartoon picture of a crane trying to swallow a frog. The frog, already well into the beak of the bird, had his hands around the throat of the crane squeezing his throat. The caption read “NEVER GIVE UP!”
Pastor Phenix, pressed in by the requirements of government and the perils of a budget not yet met, is still adding class rooms to the school. Working with teachers and students in the morning and mixing mortar and hauling blocks in the afternoon he persists in his drive to provide education to a desperately poor community. Even while he leads the worship in a building with stifling heat he works to develop church leaders and is making plans for building a larger sanctuary.
Croix Hillaire marked my beginning of ministry in Haiti and it has once again become an exciting venue for proclaiming God’s word and his goodness. The church and the school, now being guided by Pastor Remy, continues to struggle to survive and to operate. He too is pressed in by pressures that sometimes seem just too hard to bear. Yet he has added an English speaking service to the Sunday schedule to follow the morning Creole service. Classes of English as a second language as well as a school for translators and interpretors are being held weekly at the church.. The English service is to support those who want to improve their English skills and often has more than fifty people in attendence. Pastor and his wife are enthusiastic students and attend the services faithfully.
Pastor Enoch watched a lifetime (over 30 years) of labor come crumbling down in the earthquake. Pushing aside discouragement he has orchestrated the rebuilding of the Good Samaritan campus in the seven years since the quake. Today he still has difficulty, just like the other two pastors, in finding food and funding to continue the school, church and orphanage.
These men, my very good friends, continue to press on!
Consequently several opportunities have presented themselves. And they are making me giddy with excitement. Pastor Phenix has asked we to share responsibilities with him in leading a Wednesday afternoon bible study at his church. And he has asked me to bring the message periodically to the Sunday morning worship.
I am even more delighted at how profoundly satisfying it is to me to teach here. It is so much more than what I had hoped for. I shouldn’t be surprised. Isn’t that just the way God works?
For those who would like to help with our continued ministry in Haiti the link for online giving is:
https://texasbaptists.givingfuel.com/um-ernie-sharon-rice
For checks, make them payable to BGCT and send it to the following address with a note that it is for Ernie & Sharon Rice’s ministry in Haiti:
BGCT
7557 Rambler Road, Suite 1100
Dallas, TX 75231-2310
So much to report! Where to begin?
Yesterday Pastor Phenix (Met Bail to his students) opened the doors of the primary school for the 2017-18 school year. October 2nd was the last possible day to open the primary school without serious repercussions and he did it without having all the money to do so. It was a risk no matter which way he would have decided. If he had not opened the doors:
As a missionary and an American I struggle with the issue of funding for Haitian schools. Most of the schools in Haiti (90%) are owned by churches or individuals like this school. Neither the national government nor the local governments have the resources to fully fund education. That causes the schools and their directors to become dependent on charitable resources from outside of the country. And that contributes to the hopelessness, helplessness, and powerlessness that constitute poverty. It is a necessary band-aid to a problem that begs for a long term solution.
So I ask myself and I ask you: How would WE do it? If this was our problem what would we do to help schools become self-sustaining? How do we employ the awesome education we each have enjoyed in the United States to solve this difficult problem?
This is the place to which I have progressed in solving this issue. I have absorbed some of the passion Pastor Phenix Bail has for education and community development. This passion is rooted in the absolute conviction that no country or community can advance without a relationship with the living God and his son Jesus the Christ. All of our effort is centered and powered by this foundation. Education not only provides a platform to introduce the creator to the community in a spiritual outreach but it also provides for a practical, physical manifestation as well.
When I asked God what I could contribute to the well-being of Haitians he simply told me to give them what he had given me; my faith and my skills! My faith journey has led me to a partnership with Phenix. My skills have led me to the idea of the industrial arts woodworking and business school. And the woodworking school can provide the fuel to fund not only the industrial arts but the primary education as well.
The woodworking school needs to have a production shop, one that produces viable products, in order to provide a practical experience for students enrolled in the theoretical classes. Those products can be sold not only to demonstrate to the students that woodworking commerce is possible in Haiti, and not only to fund the costs of the technical school but it can help to fund the primary school as well. While this idea certainly may not be the only solution to funding nor is it an available option to all primary schools, I am convinced that it is a valid and effective one for us.
So just like the opening of the School of Cap Destree, Good For Haiti and Pastor Bail and myself are poised to launch the project to build the technical school of woodworking and business in Petit Goave, Haiti. Plans have been sketched, the bids are in, and the budgets have been established. September 1, 2018 is the goal for completion date and commencement of operation for the technical school so that the 2018-19 primary school year can be funded.
If you have been waiting for an opportunity to partner with ministry in Haiti now is the time to act. There are two ways to participate; you can support the budget for the primary school this year or with the construction costs and equipping of the technical school. More details are available upon request.
Thank you ever so much for your faithfulness to this Kingdom work in Haiti. Please continue to lift it up in prayer.
For those who would like to help with our continued ministry in Haiti the link for online giving is:
https://texasbaptists.givingfuel.com/um-ernie-sharon-rice
For checks, make them payable to BGCT and send it to the following address with a note that it is for Ernie & Sharon Rice’s ministry in Haiti:
BGCT
7557 Rambler Road, Suite 1100
Dallas, TX 75231-2310
Below is a message from Ernie after this weekend’s event.
During my tenure as a business man I came to realize that proving your integrity is not done by performing flawlessly on a daily basis, although integrity requests it. I found that true character is found and displayed in the way you handle a mistake. It is in the fire of testing that integrity is revealed.
This holds true to relationships as well. When I moved to the slopes of Tapion Mountain the community of Cap Destree slowly overcame suspicion and then opened their arms to me in welcome. As they learned of my mission and my faith they became cordial and warm. As I do my morning exercise by walking the trails and roads of the mountain I am greeted with smiles handshakes and small talk from the folks of the mountain. Awkwardness has been replaced by familiarity.
Of course this could all be superficial and polite and not really reveal the true nature of the relationship. It has not been tested. Until now.
On Saturday night August 5th after I had gone to bed a man broke into my home. He was armed with only a small board. I was alone in the house without a weapon. We postured back and forth for a while as I was trying to understand the word he kept saying in Creole. He picked up a leg of a table I have been building and used it as a weapon against me. I was knocked unconscious.
When I came to my house was full of familiar faces from the community. More circled my home in the outside court yard. Men stationed themselves to protect me and the property. Four ladies attended me holding my hands and my head and bringing me water. I later found out that the shouts of my nearest neighbor approaching probably prevented the thief from finishing me off. Police were summoned and transportation to the hospital arrived.
I was beginning to see the real nature of the people I am now calling my friends. The fire of adversity was proving that their friendship was more than superficial and that it had the steel that only love affords. I was moved. Greatly.
As I was returning from the hospital I began to realize that I too was being tested. Offers were made to me for accommodations in their home for me or for a hotel room. Later I was asked if I was discouraged or if I was going to return home. I saw something in their eyes as they asked me these things. There was something raw there. It was fear. It was a sinking of hope.
In a moment I realized that they were looking to me for hope. They all desperately want to believe in the God and the light I am claiming to bring to their community. And they were collectively holding their breath to see if it was true or if it would fold up and disappear.
I was astonished. And moved greatly. Again.
I assured them that I had no intention of sleeping anywhere other than my own house. That I was receiving excellent medical care and had no need to go to the US. That I was encouraged rather than discouraged and that my God is bigger than a foolish little thief.
It is amazing to me the absolute perfection of the promises of God. He has turned what at first looks like a disaster of giant proportion into a huge leap forward. In a single night the Kingdom work here has advanced what might have taken years to achieve without it.
Great is thy faithfulness Lord, unto me!
Joyfulrices In Haiti 