Hi everyone,
It has been a crazy month. We have been working hard on the church remodel. Gary and Jesse helped a few weeks. Now it is pretty much our family. We have had heating and plumbing subcontractors in and their rough ins are complete.
The drywall is all up and we are taping it.
With the missionary family having to go home for now, we are stepping up to help out filling some of the needs that the church now has.
Brian will be the worship leader now for Sunday services. He will also lead worship at the Withee church some Saturdays. We are thankful for all of the teaching we have received from Ricardo the last 14 months, as we feel equipped to take on this responsibility.
We also had to deal with the house that was rented to them. Things turned crazy there too. The day before they needed to leave, they planned to carry out their belongings to storage. Their son and daughter-in-law from Stevens Point came to help. Their daughter-in-law was 7 and a half month pregnant. Fifteen minutes after arriving her water broke, and they all headed back to Stevens Point to have the baby. At 7:00 A.M. the baby boy was born. They returned to Abbotsford at 10:00 A.M. and headed out for the airport at 11:30 A.M. That is amazing timing.
The house was rented back out in one day on a month to month lease so they can have it back when they return. We had to deal with the mess the last people left behind to make room for the new renters. The plan had been to do it in the spring.
As you all know, we had full intention to spend the winter in MS, but we have pretty much resigned to the fact that God had a plan for us to be here at this time, to help build his church here at this time in more ways than one. What a journey it has been, people are being added every week. We had 5 adult men baptized last week in the Hispanic congregation. This is amazing in their culture, where men are even more macho than in our culture.
Pastor John's son Rueben, from Stevens Point will be the new Hispanic pastor. He has a Evangelical Free church their and has his residency complete. They will meet Saturdays at 11:00 A.M. in the church basement.
It has been amazing to God's perfect plan working out in this whole new church. We have people showing up to meet needs at the right time, for example we are here instead of MS when Ricardo needed to leave, and we have a new piano player here only about one month now. Holly even teaches piano. The school we meet in will be closed for remodeling this summer, but we will be in the new building by then.
We will continue to meet at the Colby School at 9:00 A.M. on Sundays. We would be honored to see you visit, even just to rejoice with us to see what God is doing.
Most of our family got some sickness the last 2 weeks. Joshua, Ethan, and Andrew got hit the worst. Ethan hit 104.7 temperature once. Fortunately Brian was spared.
Thanks for checking the blog, sorry we have not been consistant on updating.
In Christ
The Haines family
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
An unfortunate setback
Hi everyone,
It has been a very busy week as we find ourselves completley busy in helping build our church as well as completely busy remodeling our church building. The building project is going very well, we are doing HVAC, plumbing and electrical. We should be ready to start drywalling within the week.
A major reason our church has the forward momentum that it has is the full time effort of our hispanic pastor and his family. Besides Pastor John and Rosangela we also have their 2 adult sons. Ricardo is our full time worship leader and Junior is our youth leader. Rosangela and Junior also are a part of the worship team as singers.
Due to an immigration system that obviously is broken and our local Assembly of God district's inexperience with immigratioin and Hispanic ministry, they can not get their visas finished without returning toBrazil, their homeland for some months. The timing of this mess is unfortunate as their work is finally bearing much fruit. With their help, both the English and Hispanic churches are vibrant and growing.
The good news is that they have sown much into a lot of us. Ricardo has developed all of the musicians and singers much this past year. We will see where all of this goes. We know that God has a perfect plan, even though to us this is all seen as negative. They will be here only 2 more weeks, and our hearts are heavy because they have become some of our best friends.
We feel that we are in the will of God being here at this time. We are so tired of winter weather and want to be in Mississippi. It has been a brutal winter. We have friends that had their water main freeze despite they are using the water. This main is over 6 feet below the surface. Most nights have been between 0 and -20 for 2 full months.
Brian is funtioning as a key player in the remodel. He is overseeing many aspects of the remodel. The boys are also helping. Charlotte and the boys have been pressing hard on school work. For those of you in Mississippi who are reading this, all we can say is that we want to be in God's will and we will come as soon as we can, hopefully yet this year, if it gets too late, maybe we will come to visit, not just work. Pray for our missionaries to be able to return to us.
Thank you for your prayers, we are so blessed.
In Christ
The Haines family
It has been a very busy week as we find ourselves completley busy in helping build our church as well as completely busy remodeling our church building. The building project is going very well, we are doing HVAC, plumbing and electrical. We should be ready to start drywalling within the week.
A major reason our church has the forward momentum that it has is the full time effort of our hispanic pastor and his family. Besides Pastor John and Rosangela we also have their 2 adult sons. Ricardo is our full time worship leader and Junior is our youth leader. Rosangela and Junior also are a part of the worship team as singers.
Due to an immigration system that obviously is broken and our local Assembly of God district's inexperience with immigratioin and Hispanic ministry, they can not get their visas finished without returning toBrazil, their homeland for some months. The timing of this mess is unfortunate as their work is finally bearing much fruit. With their help, both the English and Hispanic churches are vibrant and growing.
The good news is that they have sown much into a lot of us. Ricardo has developed all of the musicians and singers much this past year. We will see where all of this goes. We know that God has a perfect plan, even though to us this is all seen as negative. They will be here only 2 more weeks, and our hearts are heavy because they have become some of our best friends.
We feel that we are in the will of God being here at this time. We are so tired of winter weather and want to be in Mississippi. It has been a brutal winter. We have friends that had their water main freeze despite they are using the water. This main is over 6 feet below the surface. Most nights have been between 0 and -20 for 2 full months.
Brian is funtioning as a key player in the remodel. He is overseeing many aspects of the remodel. The boys are also helping. Charlotte and the boys have been pressing hard on school work. For those of you in Mississippi who are reading this, all we can say is that we want to be in God's will and we will come as soon as we can, hopefully yet this year, if it gets too late, maybe we will come to visit, not just work. Pray for our missionaries to be able to return to us.
Thank you for your prayers, we are so blessed.
In Christ
The Haines family
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