Category: Archived Posts – 2007-2016

Kenny will be sharing the news about Give Me Shelter Ministries today at 11AM on Ft. Walton Beach radio station WPSM 91.1. You can also tune in online at http://www.wpsm.com/.

Dear Friends and Family,

Most of you know that we have had the opportunity to visit Nuevo Laredo, Mexico several times over the last seven years. Our work there has been focused on Casa Hogar Elim Orphanage and the colonia’s outside of Nuevo Laredo. The colonia’s are very poor “neighborhoods”. The houses are built of anything a family can find such as discarded pallets, tin or wood. The colonia’s have no running water, electricity or plumbing and as you can imagine, they are not very secure from the elements.

On our visit last Christmas, the weather turned quite cold. We saw first hand how inadequate the houses in the colonia’s are to keep these families warm. We soon realized that not only was their shelter inadequate but many did not even own a blanket. It broke our hearts to think of these families, from babies to senior adults, having no way to keep warm.

As a group, we decided that our goal for 2009 would be to provide blankets to these colonia’s. It is our prayer that we can distribute 1000 blankets this Christmas. We are working with The Emerald Coast Fellowship of Baptist Churches to get the word out in the local area about this need. Additionally, we are working with two out of town churches, one in Ponchatoula, La and the other in Saraland, Al on this mission project. We believe that with God’s help we can reach or surpass this goal. However, we cannot do it alone. We are asking for help from our friends and family. The cost of a heavyweight blanket is approximately $11. We are working with a vendor who will ship them directly to Laredo, Tx and we will bring them across the border for distribution.

If you would like to help us meet our goal of purchasing 1000 blankets you can do so by donating $11 or any dollar amount you would like to give. 100% of what you give will be used to purchase blankets. Click the big blanket here on our blog or on our website.

If you prefer to pay via check, all checks should be made payable to Give Me Shelter Ministries (GMSM) and mailed to GMSM P.O. Box 864, Shalimar, Fl 32579. Please notate “blankets for Mexico” on the memo line of your check.

We need to place our order for the blankets by early November so if you would like to help us, please send your donations no later than October 31, 2009. All donations are tax deductible.

Please check out Give Me Shelter Ministries website at www.givemeshelterministries.org for more information and details about our planned end of the year mission trips to Mexico and Haiti. As always, we thank you for your continued support of our mission work in Mexico.

Kenny Phillips founder/director

Give Me Shelter Ministries, Inc.

850-496-7398

Today we did a small repair on the front gable to the entrance to the medical clinic. This was a small project but an important one. There is a lot of work to do up here at George and Carol Ann’s and I am sure that we will start planning return trips this way to help out.

After we finished this odd job, we took off to visit and spend the night at Bombordopolis where missionaries Steve and Faith Leach live. They have a very well run medical clinic, doctors office complete with x-ray, examination rooms and surgery center. Very clean and nice compound. This is also where the Widows’ home is that was built about three years ago. Missionaries Rich and Marge Byers also live on the compound. Really nice area, with lots of needs.

At night we all went to Rich and Marge’s house and had homemade pizza and soda. Awesome! We had a great night sleep at the Leach’s and all is good. Bombord is about an hour and a half ride from Sentrain where we have been for the last three days.

It is amazing what God can do when you trust and depend on him. Today was a tough day even by my standards. With the help of three Haitian brothers we were able to finish the roof and complete the task at hand. It is so cool how when people work together you can accomplish so much. That is why it is so important for God’s church to work with each other to expand the kingdom and to bring glory to the true King.

There was another baby born today at the clinic. Both the child (boy) and the mother are fine. Tomorrow we finish up some stuff here and leave to go visit another set of missionaries. So far all has gone very well. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

A very hard day today. Of course every day is hard in Haiti. Had a killer breakfast that would help jump start the day that God had in store for us.

We started tearing the old metal roof to prepare for the new metal. This is so cool. This is something God laid on my heart about a year ago. George has helped Truth Ministries out so much and he has always been so kind to me. He told me a need and God just said “Hey dude do it”. He needed a new roof over his depot. I spoke with Chuck about this and we were in agreement so here we are.

As we began to tear the roof off, a prayer need came out of the clinic that Carol Ann runs in this tiny village of Sentrain. There was a breech birth about to happen. About a half hour later word came that not only was it a breech birth but also it was twins. Siamese twins at that. They were joined at the stomach. Can you imagine this going on in a place where specialized help is very far away? Carol Ann has delivered 100’s of babies but this was a first. The babies did not make it and it was a bummer of a scene.

Will’s daughter Brittany wanted to work in the clinic today with the baby deliveries. Fifteen years old and this was her first time ever to be exposed to this type of stuff, never the less what she just witnessed. Trust me when you volunteer for clinic work you are right in the middle of it all. It really upset her. This is Tuff stuff! The life that these babies were going to live would have been extremely hard. It is hard when you’re healthy.

Well, these little children are in the arms of Jesus and they never saw sin. God new what he was doing. At least the mother is OK. A short time later another birth took place and all went well. Brittany got to hold the new born little boy. God gives and He takes away. Hard to understand that sometimes but He does know what is going on and how to deal with it.

We got the first half of the roof pulled off and the new metal put on. We could not have done it without the help of a young Haitian man named Ilsonet. Will met this dude a while back and he wanted to help us. Praise God he did. This roof is sketchy at best. I am beat. Noche, noche.

We left Dottie’s guest house this morning and headed to the airport to MAF, Mission Aviation Fellowship to catch a bush plane up to Mole St. Nichol. It is about a forty five minute flight from Port Au Prince. From there we will travel to Sentrain where George and Carol Ann Truelove live and serve.

Once up in the air the view was incredible. I have always wanted to head up this way and it is so cool that God gave me a chance. Bush planes are always so sketchy feeling, in a good way though. Kind of like dropping into a big wave over a shallow reef.

Once we approached the air strip at Mole St. Nichol — or “landing dirt road” I should say — we were greeted by George Truelove. Mole is a coastal town with beautiful clear water. Not really sure what goes on there but I am sure fishing is a big part of it.

After driving through Mole we headed to Marerouge and then on to Sentrain. Once we arrived in Sentrain we got settled in at the guest house, had lunch and chilled. I walked around a bit and talked to a few locals and snapped off a few shots. It is much different up here. I can feel I am close to the coast.

We scoped out the work for the roof and continued to relax for the rest of the afternoon. George and Carol Ann run a medical clinic that encompasses so much more than I know about. I will find out more tomorrow. Wow! When it gets dark up here it gets dark. God is so awesome!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. We did get a good night sleep even though it was very hot. We got up early and headed up the mountain to the village of Z’Orange. This is an exciting day for me because we will see Pastor Fanilus (the pastor that was in a very bad accident) and hopefully John Wesley the voodoo priest that I have made an incredible friendship with. When we arrived in the village the first thing we did was go to church. I love worship in Haiti. It always seems so pure and lets face it God wants a pure and holy people. In the first chapter of Isaiah God tells us that he is tired of the empty sacrifices that we offer. Wow! During the church service I saw Pastor and Sister Fani in the service. After church I had a chance to spend some time with this couple that I have grown to love so much. They are staying in the village and have not got back up to the mountain. I can tell that he is still struggling a lot and is no where near himself. They are so ready to get back to their village where they are needed but it is such a long and hard walk up the mountain and he is just not up to it. We must continue to pray that God will continue to heal him. I just know that God has got beautiful plans for this family. I also saw Yolene, John Wesley’s wife in church. I also spent some time with her. She and John are back together living with her mother way up on a mountain. Their baby is sick so we helped her with some money to get the child to the doctor. At this time John was no where to be seen. Praise God his wife has found the truth. After lunch we went around the village and looked at a few projects that are under way through TRUTH Ministries. I thank God daily that he has allowed GMSM to yoke up with this ministry. This was only a day trip to the village and as we were leaving John Wesley walked up. It was good to see him but it will be better to see him when he seeks out the truth and surrenders his life to Christ. Tomorrow we leave for Mole St. Nicholi and a new journey.