The team made it safely to Dallas where we will hopefully get a good nights rest. It will be a short night as we are heading to the airport @ 5:30 am. Thank you for your continued prayers as we travel into Haiti tomorrow.

- Phillip

Pray for team as we finish packing and hopefully get a good night of rest. Some are working in the morning and we leave tomorrow afternoon for DFW. John R.

GPC Haiti Team 2011

Please pray for our team as we travel to DFW this Thursday, July 21. We will be flying out of DFW Friday morning and will arrive in Haiti early evening. In addition to the 11 team members in the photo above, Wayne will be joining us Sunday evening. The team will be working with two churches teaching Bible studies, sewing classes, conducting bible school for the kids and going Hut-to-Hut sharing the gospel.

In addition, we will be helping four families by converting their temporary shelters into a more permanent home. Between 500,000 and 750,000 people remain in tent cities following the January 2010 earthquake. The need for permanent housing remains a high priority.

Thank you to our church family for giving generously to the 2010 Christmas offering which is allowing us to meet multiple needs while we're in Haiti. Also, thank you to our friends and family for supporting us with your prayers, finances and encouraging words.

Please check this blog daily as we plan to send updates often. They will be short entries because we will be texting the updates from my phone.

John Rodgers

Life Will Never Be The Same

As we have been making preparations for our trip to Haiti this year, we wanted to take a few moments to share some stories about a great friend who recently went home to be with Jesus. Sara Williams went to Haiti with us in 2005 and 2006 and although it has been a few years since she has been to Haiti, she has been a vital part of our prayer support team for each trip since. Even though she didn't go with us the past few years, she has helped with packing, hygiene kits, and saw us off at the airport (at 4am even!!!) almost every time. But, we wanted to share a little about her time with us in Haiti.

I don't remember Sara ever being afraid to do anything. She might mention being nervous, but never enough to keep her from trying. On her first trip to Haiti, she volunteered to teach the hygiene class to women. As we prepared for the class, she asked me to go first so she could get an idea of what she needed to do. We decided to "tag team" it and by the time she got to her second section of teaching, she was already adding the "Sara" flare. She was searching the room to find anything she could get her hands on to use as a prop to demonstrate what she was teaching. She had all of the women on the edge of their seat waiting to see what she would do next! After that first class…there was no stopping her and her enthusiasm grew with everything she did throughout the rest of the week. Whether it was carrying buckets of cement as we poured the roof on Joy House or hugging & kissing on babies, she poured every ounce of energy into it all!

It was hilarious to watch her with the kids. Speaking no Creole, she would say things to them in English, the kids would in turn mimic what she said. She would then laugh because of it and then they would mimic her laugh…which would cause her to laugh harder and the kids would mimic again…and so on! You never had to wonder where Sara was…you just had to listen for a few minutes and then you would know.

If Sara wasn't laughing or making others laugh, she was encouraging or praying for them, or sharing Jesus with them. In Haiti, her witnessing tool was the salvation bracelet using colors to share the gospel. She was passionate about sharing how much God loves us and wants to have a relationship with us. She shared God's love with boldness and urgency no matter where she was. Galatians 5:6b says "The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." And that is what Sara was all about.

Life will not be the same without Sara…but life will never be the same because of Sara! We miss her a bunch! Check out more stories about Sara at Sarastories on facebook or the blog at Sarastories.net.

Kay Rodgers

One Year Anniversary

Just one week from today will mark the one year anniversary of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake which struck Haiti leaving death and destruction at levels difficult for the mind to comprehend in the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Over the past year, the people of Haiti have also experienced downpours and winds from several tropical storms along with an outbreak of Cholera which has killed nearly 3,500 people to date. In addition, the results of their Presidential election are still uncertain and the runoff election previously scheduled for January 16 has now been postponed.

One organization which was actively working in Haiti prior to the earthquake and has been there throughout the past year is Samaritan's Purse under the leadership of Billy Graham's son, Franklin Graham. When I arrived in Haiti less than 3 weeks after the earthquake, Samaritan's Purse tarps being used to provide shelter could be seen everywhere. They have since built hundreds of temporary houses, provided food for tens of thousands of people, taught basic hygiene classes, provided water filtration systems, and are now running several medical clinics treating thousands of Cholera patients.

This coming Sunday, January 9, Franklin Graham will be in Haiti and will be proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ at the National Soccer Stadium in Port-au-Prince. The stadium will hold 15,000 people but thousands of people live close enough to the stadium to hear the message clearly. Michael W. Smith along with several other Christian singers will also be taking part in the program.

Beginning at 12:30 central time on Sunday, people around the world will be able to take part in this incredible event via the internet. The website is: WWW. Samaritanspurse.org/Haitilive. I encourage you to be involved by watching this event and praying for the people of Haiti to open their hearts to the call of the Holy Spirit on their lives. Please pray for Franklin Graham, Michael W. Smith and the hundreds of Samaritan's Purse volunteers and employees as they make preparations for this life changing event.

Sincerely,
John Rodgers