Reminder: Soul Shift Tour Coming to Greensboro, NC

The Soul Shift Tour will be coming to Greensboro, NC on October 11th, 2011.

Registration is $29 for the first attendee and $5 for each for additional attendee from the same church (up to 3 additional attendees). Cost for registration includes lunch.

To register, visit https://secure.wesleyan.org/ors/soulshift-greensboro-nc/

For more information, contact Wesleyan Publishing House at 800-493-7539.

Concert at SWU to Benefit Compassion International

Edmonds Family Update

Ware writing a much overdue update from Haiti, but here goes…
We arrived back in Haiti from our summer Home Ministries on August 11^thand picked up the first of two teams on Friday before returning to the island on Saturday morning.  On Monday night the other team arrived making a total of 22 team members we were hosting over the next week.  The first team (Virginia) of three helped on the new guesthouse and stayed until the next Friday.  The other team (Canada) of 19 did a VBS for the orphanage kids in the mornings, and VBS for kids from some of the schools here in town in the afternoon.  Part of the team worked on one of the schools each day getting it ready for the start of school in October.  Rod Geiszler and I took the Canadian team across on the Breezy Sea on the Monday before Hurricane Irene brushed past Haiti.  We helped drive the team to the airport, and then did a small supply run before heading back across.

Hurricane Irene

All we got from Irene was a couple of cloudy, cooler days, a few rain showers, and wind that made the sea choppy. The public ferry to the mainland was closed four days. Thank you all for praying…Haiti doesn’t need any new disasters!

New Guesthouse

I have 17 men working everyday (except Sunday) on the new guesthouse project.  The men voted to start working at 5am each day to avoid working through the heat of the day.

The project is going well, but we are currently running short on money!  The term I keep telling the workers and the people everyday who ask for work, “Piti kob; piti travay”  (Little money; little work).  That is not exactly a good Creole sentence but they get the message.

I just got a message yesterday saying that Justin Dowds was sending $20K from Lemonaid so that we could keep working, and he said he had some other fundraisers coming up that would hopefully raise a lot more for the project.  He said a lot of the people giving funds are beginning to realize that we have to get the new guesthouse finished so that the new hospital can begin.

We should have the service channel cover poured by Wednesday, and be close to having all the walls to finished height by the end of this week.  I also just received a message that we will be purchasing the roof in Haiti now instead of it being shipped in containers from Germany.  This

should speed things up because we will not have to wait for it to clear customs.  Some items have been sitting in customs for over 8 months!!  Please pray for at least two containers we need released very soon.  They contain two vehicles and new hospital beds.

We had been working for about a week and a half when one of the men asked me if I knew about Frenel (pictured left in blue hat) losing two children this summer.  I started asking a few people and they told me that Frenel, one of the men working with us on the project since the first or second day back in early February, had lost two of his young children this summer to Cholera.  Please pray for Frenel and his family.  I found out after typing this that a third child is now in the hospital and they think she has Cholera also.

“All Day Supply Run to Port-au-Prince” (Facebook post from last week)

We boarded the Breezy Sea this morning shortly after 5am for an all day supply run to Port-au-Prince. About ten minutes into the trip we saw the sun come up over the mountains on the mainland. The five of us traveled around Port all day and boarded the boat about 4:45pm for the return trip to the island of La Gonave. At almost the same place in the 12 mile boat trip we watched the sun go down over the mountains of La Gonave! Thank you, Lord, for blessing me with great friends and your protection!  “From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised.”  (Psalm 113:3)

That was a good day for boat crossings. There are rare times when the water is very rough and the only things that go through my head on the boat crossing are the theme song from “Gilligan’s Island” and the song “The Anchor Holds.”

Haley and Luke

Haley has been playing almost every day with the other missionary kids, and Luke is slowly adjusting to not having so many family and friends around to play every second with him.  He kind of got spoiled this summer at home, but we loved every minute of our time with all of you and would not change any of it.

We were reminded that we are not in the US last weekend as Luke had a fairly high fever that only went down when we started alternating Tylenol and Advil every three hours.  He realized that he had the fever Friday afternoon, and the last time we had to give him medicine was at midnight Sunday night.  He was still sleeping when I went out to get the workers started Monday morning.  One of the first things that one of the men told me was that his 9 year old nephew had passed away in the Wesleyan Hospital across from our compound the night before.  I asked what was wrong with him and he said he had a high fever for 4 days.  I was so relieved when I went back to the house mid-morning and there was Luke in his mother’s arms with NO FEVER and no medicine for over 10 hours!  We praise the Lord for HIS healing touch on Luke!

New Update Format

So many people follow us on Facebook and like getting the “real-time” updates, but we know everyone is not on Facebook!  So we have decided to start sending out a newsletter each week that will be…

1. Short enough to read in a few minutes
2. Full of news that tells what God is doing here in Haiti in a timely manner
3. Lets you know immediate prayer requests and praises

Thank you all for your concern, prayers, support, and love!  We constantly feel overwhelmed by how each of you have partnered with us to make a difference in Haiti!  WE LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!

Prayer Requests ~ Health and strength for our family ~ Language learning ~ New Guesthouse workers (salvation) ~ 11 souls in 2011 ~ Frer Bonheur (new house for his family) ~ Esner (brother died last week) ~ New missionaries arriving this week & next month

South Carolina District Updates, September 10, 2011

The Wesleyan Church released its statistics for the 2010-2011 fiscal year and they show record-breaking totals in several key indicators. Average worship attendance reached an all-time high in North America at 208,973. In addition, all membership categories increased, with total membership reaching a new high of 142,429.

The number of people who prayed to receive Christ during the past year totaled 27,289, the highest one-year total in the church’s recorded history. Baptisms also reached a new high at 9,157.

For the first time in North America, one of our churches has exceeded 10,000 in average worship attendance. 12Stone Church in Lawrenceville, Georgia, where Dr. Kevin Myers is the senior pastor, averaged 10,831. Twenty-three churches averaged 1,000 or more in weekly worship, with another 32 averaging 500 or more. Click here to see the complete list of churches with 500 or more attendees.

Congratulations to FWC/ALIVE, with an average worship attendance of 736, is now in the top 33.

Rev. Wayne Tippey (Retired) is undergoing further testing for some physical issues that have surfaced in recent days.

Mrs. Chet Rowan (Kathy) is the process of decision making regarding possible treatment and pain management.  In the meantime, she is experiencing considerable suffering.

Mr. Robert Rampey, former DBA member and brother of Rev. Marshall Rampey, is undergoing further testing for a reoccurrence of lymphoma.

This was received from Timmy Young (Ministerial Student and 2011 SWU Graduate):

Today is September 8^th, 2011.  It is coming to an end.  Tomorrow is September 9^th, 2011.  Tomorrow I get on a plane for Ft. Lauderdale.  Tomorrow I begin to take some of Jesus’ words literally.  Tomorrow I join in the community of the homeless.  I begin to become one of them.  I begin to blur the line between me and them.  I begin the process of having us refer to the least of these.  I begin to become more like Jesus in how I serve and how I am served.

So I ask if you pray for me pray together, pray often, pray fiercely.  Here are a few ways you could pray for me:

• Pray for me to build true community with the homeless community
• Pray for me to open the eyes of the Church in Ft. Lauderdale to care for the poor
• Pray for the Holy Spirit to pour out over myself and Ft. Lauderdale that we might all become more like Christ in word and in deed

In Christ,

Pastor Buddy