Living Water Ministries of the Palm Beaches Email List

Living Water Ministries - Update

2010-08-04T05:25:04Z

God continues to bless and direct Living Water Ministries. How blessed we are to realize that what is happening through this ministry is a direct result of His mighty hand.

Our Food Program Superintendent, Pierre, who closely monitors the distribution and compliance of the usage, presented a list of schools for consideration to Pastor Etienne. Pastor Etienne visited those schools and made the decision that we should add ten schools in La Reserve. This area is near Guinaudee. Those of you who have traveled to Guinaudee know that portions of that road are almost impassable and the road to La Reserve is even worse. Pastor arranged with the people that they will come out to an area where our truck can navigate so they can pick up the food. They will transport it back to their schools via donkey.

We praise God through the financial provisions He gives to us. Again, He has made sure that our supporters donate what is needed to meet another month of payroll. This is unquestioned confirmation that He wants us to do what is being done. Our monthly budget covers the salaries of our 4 Pastors, 28 Teachers, 2 Nurses, 2 Campus Security Guards, and support for 3 schools which comes to $6,500. As you can see, there is a huge amount of ministry happening with a small amount of money. Over the last several months we seldom have more than what is needed. We do have money set aside that has been designated for specific areas that we do not consider as part of our working cash, but God never fails to supply what we absolutely need. Thank you for your continued support.

We have other needs that we are trusting God to provide. A rather urgent need is to purchase books, uniforms and school supplies for the opening of the schools in September ($20,000). Additionally, there is urgency in digging a water well for Ti-Anse ($600), trying to find a way to build a replacement school for Anse Rouge ($50,000), purchase a truck to distribut food to the villages ($22,000), generate enough money to expand our over-crowded churches ($$$), etc. God has been totally faithful in making it possible for us to meet our commitments. We would so much like to see other funds come in to take care of these other projects. We are pursuing various grant opportunities. We greatly appreciate any donations you can make to our General Fund which will allow us the freedom to take care of our obligations. Our financial records are always available for your review.

Kirby Kepner is spending some time in Haiti right now to become acclimated to make sure he is prepared to launch out in full time ministry there. His reports are filled with excitement, praise, and great expectations of the work that God will use him to do. He has been working around the campus to help improve the appearance. He and Beau have been spending time in the villages each day as they minister to the people through singing, testimonies, and Baptism classes. They are teaching him Creole while he and Beau are teaching them English. What a delight to see things advance and the faith of many grow in the knowledge and grace of our Lord. Some days they stay overnight in the villages and some nights they sleep at the Campus.

He has encountered trials, nevertheless, God is in the midst of everything. He mentioned some things that are important to help them with their ministry such as an inverter system to generate electricity, tires for their vehicles, materials to build his house, and a Jeep for him to use for transportation. Please keep Kirby in your prayers.

Any questions you may have can be sent as a return email to this one. Donations can be made through our web site at www.livingwaterhaiti.org.

Thank you for all you do to help spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Northwest Haiti.

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Living Water Ministries - Update

2010-08-03T14:33:21Z

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Living Water Ministries of the Palm Beaches - Update

2010-07-19T09:06:46Z

Hi Everyone. Here is a report of the recent Living Water Ministries happenings. We hope and pray that everyone is having a God-Honoring summer.

In our last update, we reported the problems some of our villages experience with finding water. There was a group of three university students who traveled with the LWM Mission Team in May that investigated the needs of the villages so they could better determine possible solutions. They also conducted water surveys in areas that do have water. One village has no source of water, another collects water at a local stream but that water makes them ill and has red worms that make them itch when they use it to bathe; another village has found a well but the dense bedrock limits the amount of water they can draw. The Students estimate it will take about $5,000 to remedy the water problems in these three villages. Living Water has found a truck that can help us with our many projects that has a removable 3,200 gallon water tank with a pump on it. The water can be drawn from the well on the LW Campus and transported to some of these villages. If any of you would like to co
ntribute to these projects, please check our website for donation information or respond to this email, and we will send you more information.

We are preparing to expand our food program for the children. Pierre, the person who oversees the program in each of our schools, has located several more schools that want to participate. He gave those locations to Pastor Etienne who is visiting the villages and will make a decision soon about which ones will be added. We have two criteria that must be met before a school is added, (1) the school is required to teach the children about Jesus Christ, and (2) the school must have good management and leadership who can be trusted with the food. The expansion will provide food to 2,800 children which is double the number from last year.

Some of the people in the village of Petit Paradis, next to the LW Campus, constructed some salt fields as an experiment to see if the water coming in from the Caribbean would produce enough salt to mine and sell. It has proven to be a great opportunity. They have been able to bring in money for themselves as a result. The LW Campus has an area where more salt fields can be developed. One private donor is giving us $1,000. We will select someone from the village to do the work and sell the salt. We will give him 50% of the money and the remaining 50% will be used to reimburse the donor. Once the donor has recouped his investment, LW will retain that 50% of the profits. If this turns into a viable investment, Living Water may open this opportunity to any of you who would like to participate. Keep watching for more updates on this concept.

God is not slowing down with His plans for reaching the people in Haiti. As you will remember, LW has one Missionary located in the NW. Beau Menard is living there on a full time basis where he Pastors two of the LW churches, manages the evangelistic activities of all our churches, oversees all our schools and is now teaching computer classes and English. The Martin Family is building their house on the LW Campus and making plans for the day when they will begin their ministry. They will work with the people to show them the value of a family and to show them how they can grow food for their family. They will do many other relational things with the people as well. Now God has called a third full time missionary. Kirby Kepner has been associated with Living Water Ministries since 1994 and has traveled to Haiti with short term mission teams many times. He is leaving his full time work to minister to the Haitian people and to tell them about the redeeming love of Jesus
Christ. Kirby is going to Haiti the end of this week for about 2 weeks. He will return to the US for a short time while he finalizes his preparations, and then go to live and minister in Haiti full time. Please pray for Kirby, the Martin Family, and Beau as they give themselves totally to the work of God.

Please feel free to respond to this email if you have any questions or comments or if you would like additional information.

Have a God Honored Day

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LWM - Food for the Children Expansion Program

2010-06-08T09:09:49Z

Because of your generosity 1,400 children are receiving one good meal a day at 10 schools in Northwest Haiti. It has been exciting to see the improvement in their health and in their ability to concentrate on their school lessons. We praise God for the provisions He has given through all of you to make this possible. However, there are more children at more schools who need this same opportunity. Part of this need is due to the increased number of children whose families left Port Au Prince because of the earthquake.

We cannot sit by and ignore the need. And we know that you cannot ignore it either. We are making the arrangements now to expand the Food Program to include 10 more schools in the villages in the Northwest when the schools open in the Fall. This requires a vehicle that is capable of delivering the food to all these locations once it arrives at the port in Haiti. There is a picture attached of the 5 ton, six-wheel drive army truck that is designed to travel where there are no roads. It is ideal for where we need to take the food up in the mountains. It has a winch that will allow us to load the food container on the back of the truck so we can transport what we need to where it needs to go. When the truck is not used for food distribution, we will use it to transport construction materials. Plus, the truck has a removable water tank that will allow us to take water from the LWM well to fill the cisterns in the villages.

We need to raise the balance due of $22,000. The owner completely restored the truck. We have gone over it and found it to be in excellent condition. The selling price is $30,000. One brother has raised $8,000 towards the purchase price so we need the remaining $22,000. Are you able to help us raise this money? We have flyers that we can give you if you would like to run a campaign or have fund raisers. Money can be donated toward this project through our web site at www.livingwaterhaiti.org or by mailing a check to: Living Water Ministries of the Palm Beaches, Inc., 137 Turnberry Drive, Atlantis, FL 33462. All donations are tax deductible.

Please forward any questions you have by responding to this email.

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Living Water Ministries of the Palm Beaches Update

2010-06-01T11:42:57Z

The Team returned from their trip to the Northwest with many exciting reports of the things they saw God doing among the people. People in each village they visited were eager to hear the Word of God through Bible school for the children, Bible study for the men and for the women, one on one opportunities to share the Word and during church worship services. The Construction Team hired Haitian men to help build the house for Rich and Heather Martin and their family. Three grad students from FGCU went with this Team for the purpose of exploring ways to bring clean, useable water into some of our villages. Everywhere they went they experienced great joy.

Those of you who have traveled to Baie de Henne in the past know of the need to establish a new “on fire for the Lord” Pastor. The stronghold of the enemy has been felt throughout that village. However, the retiring Pastor of the church willingly and with much kindness transferred his role as Pastor of that congregation over to Pastor Beau Menard. We believe Beau is the perfect choice for this church. The congregation accepted the change in leadership with praise and joyfulness. This past week, Pastor Beau held revival services on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings. The Sunday evening service was packed with 400 people. Praise God for the work He is doing in that village.

Revival services in Ti-Riviere saw much the same response. The newly completed church/school building could not hold all the people. The evening worship was so crowded that people stood in the back and in every available space. The Elder of the congregation shared his great appreciation for their new building and asked if it would be possible for Living Water to build a separate church building for them considering the great increase in their attendance. What a blessing to have so many people come that makes it necessary to enlarge their facilities.

A Men’s Bible Study, which lasted for hours, was held in Ti-Riviere with 65 men in attendance. At the end of this study, 35 men agreed that they wanted to commit their life to Jesus Christ; four of those men actually came forward and confessed Jesus as Lord of their life. One of the men was sobbing and dropped to his knees. He reached into his pocket and took out his Voodoo paraphernalia and gave it to us to burn. How great is our God!

There are more things we want to share with you such as the work the College Grads are working on to help the water situation, the problem of starvation in the rural areas of the villages, further information about the devastation in Port Au Prince from the earthquake so watch for our next Update.

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Living Water Ministries of the Palm Beaches Update 5/18/10

2010-05-18T12:29:24Z

We have a Team of 13 people in Haiti right now that will return on Saturday. They were able to retrieve the items they sent in the container to use as part of their ministry on this trip. We have heard that many people are coming to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Praise be to God. They will give us a detailed report that we will share with you once they return.

Wedding Bells are preparing to be rung throughout the Mountains of Northwest Haiti. The Pastors of the Living Water Churches are teaching the people that God’s Word tells us that there should be one man for one woman and that they should be married. Plans are being made to have Wedding ceremonies in the near future. We would like to support them in this celebration by sending wedding gowns for the women and suits for the men. After the ceremonies, the wedding clothes will be kept at the church so that other couples will be able to use them for their wedding. We have some wedding clothes right now and would like to collect as many outfits as possible to send over to them. Please respond to this email to let us know if you have wedding dresses or men’s suits that you can arrange to have contributed to this project.

It looks as if Haiti has returned to their normal semantics of handling containers. The one that was filled at Palm Beach Baptist Church finally arrived in PAP about 10 days ago. The container was dumped as it was being lifted off the ship breaking the wheels and axle. The contents were loaded into another container so we could transport it to an area where the goods could be distributed. The customs fee was $5,000.

As some of you may know, Living Water is into its 24th year of ministry to the people in the villages of Northwest Haiti. Our financial existence has been totally based on our faith that God will always provide. Over the years we have increased our outreach to the point that we now have responsibility for the Haitian Pastors, Teachers, Nurses, and other Haitian people who perform certain tasks that are important to the overall operation of the projects we support. Our monthly budget runs about $8,000 to cover the salaries for these 36 Haitian individuals. This does not include the food program, fees to ship containers, operation/maintenance of our vehicles, clinic and school operating costs, along with the other costs associated with our ministry.

God has always supplied all our needs and has blessed this ministry that has brought it to the highest peak of service in its history. He has made it possible for the maximum results from such a minimal budget.

You have all been very generous in supporting our special projects and for this we are most grateful. Your same generous support to our general operating fund (that supports our monthly budget) and to our administrative costs (covered only through designated funds for this specific area) will keep Living Water Ministries meeting its obligations. Your support will help us meet yet another monthly budget. All donations are tax deductible and can be made easily through our website at www.livingwaterhaiti.org

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Living Water Ministries Update

2010-04-27T09:55:24Z

We are pleased to announce that as of May 14th, Beau Menard will go to Haiti as a Living Water Ministries Missionary and as one of our LWM supported Pastors. He has been over there at various times over the past year and will go over now in a full time capacity. His duties will include Pastoring the churches in T-Anse and in Baie-de-Henne. He will monitor and evaluate the schools supported by LWM to ensure God is honored and proclaimed, that the Bible is studied, that discipline is maintained and that all students receive a quality education. Beau will coordinate the efforts of all the LWM churches and manage the evangelistic outreach programs. We Praise God for sending this Haitian born, God loving man to work with us in Haiti. Please pray for Beau and help support his mission work.

Coming Soon . . . a new area on our website (www.livingwaterhaiti.org) that will highlight each of our Missionaries and Pastors. We will let you know when that becomes available.

We have a Team of people leaving Ft. Lauderdale on May 14th to go to Haiti. They will build a house for the Martin family who is making preparations to become full time missionaries. This Team will also minister to the people through Bible School, Evangelism and other programs that will demonstrate the love of Jesus to the people. There is room for more people to travel with them on this trip. Would you like to go along? All you need to do is respond to this email for more information.

Living Water supports several schools in Northwest Haiti where we also provide a nutritional lunch each day to over 1,400 students. The school in Anse Rouge, which you can find on Google Earth, has 288 students enrolled. The building is in extremely poor condition and is so desperately over crowded. As a result of the January earthquake, over 100 children have migrated to that area bringing the total enrollment to 400. About a year ago, LWM purchased land to build a new school that will accommodate the 400+ students. The Officials are telling us that the old building must be abandoned. We have a serious need to construct and complete that school before classes resume at the end of this summer.

We have the contractors who can build that facility. We need the financial resources to make it happen. We are asking for people or maybe one or two or even three churches to step forward to say they will cooperatively donate the $45,000 it will take to make this become a reality. God has gone before us by leading us to purchase the land. We know he is going before us now to see that the funds become available. These children deserve the opportunity to gain a good solid education that is grounded on the Word of God.

Contact us at www.livingwaterhaiti.org to donate or to request more information.

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Living Water Ministries of the Palm Beaches Update

2010-04-15T12:43:20Z

March and April have been exciting times with many people traveling to the Northwest Mountains of Haiti to work and to bless the people in the villages that Living Water Ministries supports.

A Team of 19 people spent ten days in four different villages (Petit Paradis, Guinaudee, Boucan Patriot, Ti-Anse) during the first week of April. They held medical clinics for over 450 people and sent 17 people to one of the missionary hospitals for treatment. There were 300 happy and excited children that attended Bible School where they had fun singing, coloring, making puppets and learning about Jesus. Two hundred women were blessed through the teaching they received from the Word of God. They also enjoyed fellowship with one another as they attended the Tea Party and crocheted handbags made from strips of plastic bags. The Construction Crew designed and built 11 portable room dividers that are being used for the school classes that meet in facilities that have one large room. This Crew also stepped in at the request of the Pastor in Guinaudee to enclose the gable end of the school. Considering the limitations of ministry supplies that were gathered to do all the thin
gs that were planned, there was always enough extra to be able to do that one more important task that would bless someone.

Some of our Team Members partnered with Global Compassion to build houses for ten families in Petit Paradis. Cement foundations and floors and metal roofs were constructed. The next step is to provide the cement blocks to build the walls. There are pictures below that show the new construction along with the huts where they live. Can you imagine the prayers of thankfulness these people are offering to God as He demonstrates His compassion toward them? And what a privilege it is to be one of the tools God uses to answer their prayers.

Why do we go to Haiti? Would it not be better to just send the money to them? Rather than give an answer, let us share some of the experiences that took place while we were there.

The Doctor was examining a young girl at the clinic with a very rapid heart rate. She had no other pains or injuries. She explained that one year ago her husband took their baby and left her behind. Every night she cries herself to sleep and has night sweats. She did not know Jesus as her Savior. The Doctor talked with her and told her about Jesus. As he talked her heart rate became slower. The Doctor took her to the only available shady spot which was under the back of the big truck and knelt there with her. She confessed her sins and accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior. We gave her money to travel to the next village to look for her baby boy.

We noticed a crude “lean-to” type structure at the very top of the mountain overlooking the village of Petit Paradis. The new Pastor explained that he lived in that lean-to for three days fasting and praying for the people of the village. The church has become so crowded, with people standing outside, that we must remove an interior wall to make more room.

Almost every trip to Guinaudee includes an incident of getting the big Mack truck stuck in the mud and this trip was no exception. Since there is no heavy-duty equipment to rescue us from the grip of the mud, we rely on the heavy-duty power of God. While the Team was involved in a circle of prayer in the middle of the road, we noticed that a large group of school children were doing the same. This tells us that the schools are teaching the students the Word of God. This is very encouraging.

One of the ladies in Boucan Patriot spent five days hand embroidering a banner that she presented to Living Water Ministries as an expression of gratitude for the Food for the Children program. The banner stated: Today we thank you for your good service “Feed My Starving Children”. Without God, without you, very much children were starving. God bless you for all.”

We will never know how many lives have been touched. We only know that we have been called to minister to the people in the villages in Northwest Haiti. We can only express our sincere appreciation to those who go and to those who send them.

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Living Water Ministries - More Food & Supplies for Haiti

2010-03-17T11:05:29Z

We have been notified that some of our supporters in Missouri have arranged for a container of rice to ship to Haiti. There are 43,200 pounds of rice that is being trucked from Arkansas to Miami. That comes out to about 173,000 meals. The cost of the rice and the shipping to Miami has been covered. Living Water only has to pay for the shipping of that container from Miami to Haiti. As you remember, we received word from our people in the Northwest that they need food but even better than us hearing about that need is the fact that God heard their prayers and made a way through people like you to answer those prayers. This is the third container of food that has been sent to Haiti by all of you who support Living Water Ministries.

The good news does not end there. On Monday of this week, Fred was rearranging all the things that were brought to the container in Lake Worth, Florida and found some additional space. He got into his truck and headed towards Costco to buy food to add to the container when he met a friend with a truck who agreed to go with him. They bought bags of flour, all the rice that was in the store, big boxes of pasta, cases of cooking oil, 50 pound bags of sugar and stacked all of that onto two of the flat bed carts that turned out to be as tall as Fred. As they were making their way to the check out he was wondering if there was enough in the Earthquake Relief fund to cover all of this. Living Water has received a lot of donations and we have been using it almost as fast as it has been coming into us. Just as quickly as he started to wonder about the money, he remembered that he had received a phone call telling him that someone donated $1,000 on Sunday specifically for Earthq
uake Relief. The Cashier checked out all the items on the two carts and punched the total key. The receipt read $1,053.72. Once again God went before us to make sure there are ample supplies for the people who are suffering in Haiti.

In addition to these four containers, we are coordinating with Feed My Starving Children for another container of 270,000+ meals for the school lunch program for our schools in the Northwest. Even though we have been focused on helping the people affected by the Earthquake, we have continued to feed lunch to the 1,400+ school children. Some of you are very faithful in supporting what we call the 6 cent meal and we want you to know that the program is constantly expanding with the increased numbers of people moving out of Port Au Prince and into the villages in the Northwest. We appreciate your continued support.

Living Water programs are growing. God is giving us more work to do in Haiti. We will give you updates on some of those in next weeks email. Feel free to respond to this email if you would like any additional information.

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Living Water Ministries of the Palm Beaches - Good News

2010-03-09T18:47:08Z

Beau Menard climbed to the top of the mountain in Petite Paradise where he was able to get reception to make a phone call and report all the things that are happening in the Northwest. If you have been in Petite Paradise, you know that mountain very well. He reported that the new Pastor (we don’t have his name as yet) is doing a great job and the people have really accepted him. The church in Petite Paradise was totally full with people standing outside. Many people who had left the church have come back. Several families asked the Pastor and Beau to come to their house to talk. Some of them accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. Couples are asking to be married because they recognize that God’s Word teaches that there should be one man for one woman and they should be married. We have been told that in one area there are 60 couples who will be married. Praise God for their desire to be obedient.

Many people have migrated to the Northwest and they need food, clothes and shoes. Beau asked that we send the next container of food up to these villages because the people are so hungry.

Jon, Al, and Denny are flying over on Friday. A Team of people from Global Compassion Ministries out of Missouri is also going over to build tin roofs over the top of several of the huts in Petite Paradise. This will give them protection from the rain because they do not have much shelter from the weather due to the poor condition of their huts. While the Team is there they are hosting a huge banquet at the Living Water Campus for the people of the nearby villages. They will have goat, chicken, rice and beans. Pastor Etienne said hundreds of people will walk a long way to reach this food. He said it would take thousands of dollars to buy all this food and in Haitian money it would take almost $25,000 but in U.S. money the bill for this banquet will only cost about $3,500. I wonder how many “baskets” of leftovers there will be once everyone has had something to eat. God really knows how to put Bible events into reality that we can see and touch and feel.

The container in Lake Worth is filling up and will be taken to the port on Monday (3/15). We have room to take clothes and shoes since Beau has asked that we send all that we can. We are asking everyone to bring clothes to put into the container and maybe check to see if some of the Thrift stores have excess clothes that they cannot handle that they will give to us. With all these couples planning to be married we need Wedding gowns and men’s suits. The people will delay getting married until they have their wedding clothes so let’s fill that container with gowns and suits.

The container is located at Palm Beach Baptist Church, 6201 S. Military Trail, Lake Worth. Send any questions you have by responding to this email so we can give you more details.

Thank you to each one of you for sharing what you have. Your five loaves and two fishes supply the needs of many people.

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Living Water Ministries - Food Distribution & Upcoming Trips to Haiti

2010-03-03T08:45:20Z

Pastor Etienne notified me on Saturday (2/27) that he was called over to Customs at the border of the Dominican Republic because another container of food was ready to be released. This will be distributed mostly to the refugees in the Northwest.

We also have the following mission trips scheduled if any of you or someone you know wants to go over and minister to the Haiti people:

03/12/2010 - 03/19/2010 - Jon Pace, Al fradette and Denny Mitchel will be going to the Northwest for construction at T-Paridi, and T- Rivere.

03/11/2010 - 03/25/2010 - We have a group of people going over to build 10 houses for the villagers in T-Paridi, start construction on a missionary guest house on our property in the NW, minister to the people and children and provide some free medical clinic. This group is very large but someone might be able to work with them.

04/01/2010 - 04/10/2010 - We have a group of 15 people ministering through teaching and evangelism and medical clinic to the children and adults of a few villages. They will also construct portable room dividers for many of our school houses. This group is also fairly full but might be able to use someone to work along with them.

05/14/2010 - 05/22/2010 - Fred Chalker will be taking a group to the Northwest to minister to the children in at least three different villages and to start the construction on Rich and Heather Martin’s Missionary housing. This group is still very small and needs more people to go with them.

If you are interested please respond to this email and we will contact you with more details. If you are interested in arranging a trip at a different time, please respond to this email and we will work with you regarding the details.

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