Author: kenny phillips

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Today was one of those days that to many words would only make a mess out of it. I’ll try to keep or brief and to the point haha. It was great getting to the school to see the students and greet the teachers. The doors and windows for the school are coming along nicely but the construction has forced the classes outside until the work is complete. That should be by Friday, it is 90% finished. At last the school will be safe. I met with the teachers briefly and then started putting the gift bags together with the help of Pastor Harry, Myrva, Rossna and Adoni. It was a work in progress for about 3 hours but it was fun. The gifts consisted of dental hygiene packages, soap, wash cloths,scripture bracelets, whistles and candy. The dental stuff was supplied by DDS Brodie Bowman and DDS Scott Runnels. I’m sure they appreciate the candy part, we supplied that. Once the bags were done Harry and I headed into Port to go visit an orphanage called “Coats Little Angels”. There is a lot of history behind this place, not all good. Harry and I ran across this place a few weeks after the earthquake and we do what we can for this place. FBCFWB supports this place through GMSM. We always include them in our Christmas campaign. This is a unique place in the fact that many of the children are in their teens and some in their early twenties. The only family they have are themselves and they have no place to go. They all go to school and some are trying to enter college. Money is the issue like always. It’s a heart breaking place to visit but a reality that exists. I wish we could do more and maybe one day we can. It’s a good place to help for anyone who wants to make a difference. We can make them smile for one day anyway. We sponsored a Christmas party for them as we did for the school and church. It will be a fun loud Christmas (with the whistles) for these three spots in Haiti. Tomorrow I head south to Jacmel.

Kenny
GMSM

It’s been way to long since we’ve been back here. Not by choice but by lack of funds. Frequent flyer miles kept us down here for about a year and a half so we are back footing the bill. It is so important to be here nourishing our relationships. Anyone who reads this blog can share with the world that we need frequent flyer miles to help us move forward. As I left Miami I truly felt a little lost. To pick up pieces of Haiti can be hard and I knew I had a tough task ahead. Not to sound so cliche but I know Gods got a plan. The moment we reached the Haitian landscape by air an unbelievable peace came over me and a sense of direction seemed to fill my eyes and mind. As always the faithful Harry was there along with Cherie to scoop me up from the total chaos of the airport madness and rush me to the waiting vehicle driven from my good friend Sem. What a blessing it is to be dialed in with these guys. On to the guest house for some killer grub and rest.
Wow! I’m not sure I slept much last night because there was work outside my window all night long. I once got up and through hand gestures ask the worker dudes to turn down their version of music. Me wanting the music turned down, now that’s strange. Of course if it was Jimi Hendrix it would have been no bother but that stuff had to go. They obliged with a smile and attempted to get the boom box to obey. Good try, oh well. Nothing coffee, eggs and spam can’t cure. To say that this wound up being a strange day in Haiti is like saying the suns always out here. It’s always out and it’s always strange here. As I made my way to the coffee I met this gentleman in his late seventies and he asked me to join him for breakfast. He is from Canada. As we talked I could tell he really needed to chat with someone about Haiti in general. I shared with him about some of my adventures down here and as he began to talk I could tell he had been beat up by this place. Which is something I can totally relate to. It always ain’t Haitians but gringos are pretty good at beating you up to. But this guy had been taken advantage of by some locals and he was totally ready to throw in the towel. We talked for about three hours and I was glad I was there for him to share with me. He was leaving today and I found him to be a very interesting man. Strange how you come to a place for getting Christmas gifts ready for 200 kids and God totally derails your plans. Needless to say I got a very late start to do Christmas shopping. We went to the Tabarre market which is an outside market that looks more like a roller derby on steroids. We do have a connection in this very confusing market place who helped us gather our supplies to finish out our gifts. I only know her as the market lady. This place is very amusing and dangerous. Once again we are fortunate to have built a relationship here to help us avoid the danger. I never made it to the school because of my encounter with the Canadian. No pics today due to the fact that folks in the market place just don’t dig it and I didn’t need the hassle. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Kenny
GMSM

Another fun day in the Haitian sun. Today was the most physically demanding day that we have had…..guess we saved the best for last. After breakfast at the guest house we traveled to the church to finish the projects for this trip. Today was unusual in that this was the only day since we have been here that we didn’t have a breeze to help keep us cool. The morning was full of painting and touch up work on the school. The final coat of the chocolate paint and the finishing touches of the pink took most of the morning. I also was asked to sit in with Pastor Harry on a job interview for a 5th grade teacher for the school this morning. It was fun to be part of that process.

Have you ever had people just stop to watch you??? We had a multitude of children stop by and watch us work this morning. It was quite funny. They would walk beside us and simply watch us paint. I guess they found it interesting and exciting to watch some foreigners doing manual labor. They never offered to help, never said a word to us or anyone else, never offered to do anything…..they simply stood there and watched….hahaha

For lunch, Pastor Harry’s wife made us a Haitian stew. It was awesome!!! I truly believe that one of the quickest ways to start to understand another culture is to experience it’s food. Food is more than nourishment for the body…..food binds us together, it creates discussion, it breaks down walls, it shares history, experience and life. Did I say the stew was awesome?!?!

For the afternoon we cleaned the grounds and moved all the clean benches back in the school. It’s was really hot and required us to take several breaks throughout the day, but what a great day. Pastor Harry was extremely grateful for all the hard work from the team. This was a fun and extremely hard working team. Tomorrow we head to the airport in hopes of sleeping in our own beds tomorrow night. We will see:)

Blessing,
Brent

Pastor Brent here. Well, another great day in paradise! We got an early start this morning leaving the guest house at 7:45. We arrived at the church and got right to work. Kenny had to leave around 10:30 to catch his flight back to the states, but before he left we had more good conversation and planning for the new school year with Pastor Harry. The new school year is shaping up to be very exciting. As of now, all but one of the teachers is returning, which is great news! By the time we leave Saturday the school will be just about ready for students.

During the morning, Ashley and I painted the inside and outside wall bases a chocolate color while Daniel, Mr Charles and Kenny (while he was here) ripped lumber and repaired several school benches for the children. All the hard work was followed by some great chicken with rice, plantains and some vegetables. After lunch we took all the school benches, cleaned and dried them and finished a little cleanup around the church.

It was a good day, it was a tiring day, it’s was a great day to see God at work in this community. We had more help from some of the school and church leadership, which is very encouraging to see and be a part of. Although we speak a different language, we work beside each other, praising God together, honoring God together and building the Kingdom together. Our prayer over the school and each bench that was repaired and cleaned is that God would work in a mighty way to raise Godly, spiritual leaders out of these children that will change the world for Him. What an awesome opportunity to be a small part of what our huge God is doing!

Blessing,
Brent

It’s funny how a little break from the action can really rest the soul, mind and body. I should try that more often down here. We rented a van to go up to the mountains with the team and Harry. The destination was the Haiti Baptist Mission founded around 1947. An incredible drive and a beautiful area. It is due south of Port au Prince way up at the top of a mountain range in an area called Fermathe. The temps are at least 20 degrees lower up there so it was a nice change from the hot, hot heat down in Tabarre. Starting tomorrow the team will be lead by Pastor Brent and they will do some final touches around the school and help Pastor Harry with some things that need to be done at the church. I will return eraly to attend to some personal stuff. I am so fortunate to have Brent as part of GMSM. He is a seasoned vet in the mission field and very comfortable with team work. Plus Brent and Daniel both know the game down here. Harry will also guide them every step of the way. I’ve never been in a position to have some one take the helm and I am excited for them. Over the years we have gotten the situation so dialed in down here that we have many people looking after us. The whole team is comfortable with the change and it allows me a certain freedom that I have not had in the past. I would not leave this in any other hands but Brent Allen. Please continue to pray for the team as they approach the last two days. They are a wonderful team. God always gives us good teams to work with and it makes a big differance on how the trip goes. Brent will be the guest blogger and picture taker for the next two days. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Kenny
GMSM

Strange day in Haiti today. Once again the team worked great and the Haitian help came out strong. They completed the third and final coat by lunch. I say they because I spent the entire day putting out fires with Harry and the school director Myrva. I’m not sure I accomplished much on my end but at least the school is pink. There will be some other touch up painting to do on Friday and I’m hoping the Lord will fill in the next two days for us. I had no idea that we would have the extra help come to paint. A blessing I’m sure but it knocked us out of work. I’m sure God has His plan. I will say I think Ashley gets the MVP award for the best all around hard worker. Haiti always seems to be a place where what you see is not always what you get. It can be tough to navigate physically and spiritually through all the unknowns. There can also be many disappointments. I should be used to it but apparently I’m not. We have to continue to pray that God has us right where he wants us and that we have to continually gave this ministry to Him. I think I will take the team up to the Baptist Mission tomorrow for some R&R, it will be fun. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Kenny
GMSM

We got brushes and rollers wet today. God gave us an incredible day to paint. Nice cool wind, clear skies and great fellowship. One thing I can tell you for sure is Daniels 13 year old daughter Ashley worked like crazy today. She must really like painting because she picked up all the slack for us slackers. Something else so cool was we had about 10 people show up to help us paint the school. It was such a blessing to see folks come out and be a part of what we were doing. They too worked so hard today. We had four of our school staff, two of Harrys cousins, several church members and one of our students help out. I really thought we would be tight on time to finish the three coat process in our week here but we got two coats inside and outside of the school today. We will paint the third coat tomorrow. We will finish with no problem which means we will have to find some other stuff to do to keep the team going. We will be able to have some free time soHarry and I can show them some local stuff. I never anticipated the help we got today. That’s a great testimony to the kind of leader Harry is to his church and community. People really to respect him and that to is a cool testimony to his Christian walk. We bought lunch for all the workers and ourselves and after we all chowed down we got back to it. Totally amazing how much work got done today. I don’t know why it surprises me when Gods hand is in it. We got back to the guest house showered and had another fabulous meal at Mon Chez Moi guest house. Sem the owner is so kind to me and our teams. He really takes good care of us. We are so blessed to have Harry and Sem here in Haiti. They make life easy for us in a very hard country. I say this all the time, without Harry we would be totally lost here in Haiti. What a blessing and dear friend he is. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Kenny
GMSM

As I sit here to write this I realize I’ve made a terrible mistake. I left my adaptor for my camera memory stick that fits the iPad at home. I am freaking out at the possibility of not being able to send pics with the blogs. The pics yesterday came from saved pictures I already had. I have plenty of pics from church today but have no way to send them. BUMMER !!!! I will post the church pics later when I get home. The rest of the trip I will use the iPad to take pictures and we should be ok. Anyway it was a good day at the church and all though the services are long and hot, I think the team enjoyed it. We saw Harrys wife and daughter and visited with the congregation. We all shared a word of encouragement with the church at Harrys request. Once church was over we went to my favorite hole in the wall restaurant. Cheap but great food. We took Harrys family with us and really did enjoy the fellowship. From there it was back to the guest house for chill time. Tomorrow we paint. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. It feels like way to long since I’ve been back in Haiti. The last trip down and was a short trip so I am very excited to be in my second home with my second family. Like all trips down here, this will be special. The team will be painting our school. For many years the walls were just concrete and cinder block. GMSM finally was able to come up with the funds to plaster the walls inside and outside of the school. The Haitian workers along with Pastor Harry have worked very hard the last three weeks to make sure the walls were ready for the team. The team is represented by two local churches in the panhandle. From First Baptist Church of Fort Walton Beach, FL is Charles Wimberly and myself. Charles and I have been serving together for many years in the mission fields both stateside and international. I went to Madagascar with him on my very first mission trip. The trip that totally changed my life.The second church is First Baptist Church of Gulf Breeze, FL. They are represented by Brent Allen, Daniel Johnston and Ashley Johnston. This is the second trip to Haiti with GMSM for both Brent and Daniel. Brent also serves on the board for GMSM. As always Harry was on time to meet us at the airport and Sem drove us to our watering hole for the week. Sem has such a nice guest house and he treats us very good. We had our first killer meal here and all went to bed early. Tomorrow we will go to worship at Harrys church. I am looking forward to the fellowship.

Kenny
GMSM

I awoke to the same sounds that always awake me in Haiti. Last night I was presented the task of making a decision. I guess that’s one of the perks for being the “leader”. Since we were in a private plane we had the flexibility to do what we want. With that said some of the guys were willing to cut the trip short so we could get on back. The decision was left up to me that if there was nothing pressing then let’s head back but if stuff needed to be done then we stay. I did have a few things to do but it was nothing that Harry could not take care of. So I submitted to the wishes and made plans to cut out of here a day early.. We first took a quick flight over the mountains to Jacmel where one day we will be doing some outreach ministry. It’s a beautiful place and always a treat to visit. It only took us ten minutes to get there by plane. It usually takes us two and a half hours to get there by public transportation. We headed back to Port to do the paper work to get out of Dodge. I went over some last minute instructions for Harry and left it all in his hands. He is totally dependable and we have no worries with him. This was an incredibly short trip but I did accomplish for the most part what I set out to do. And that was to introduce Beachside Community Church, Fort Walton Beach, FL. to the Evangelical Baptist School of Trinity in hopes of casting our net further out to reach new and more partners. As Harry always says,”God knows”. Another great thing that happened was that Pilot Steve Merritt had gotten twenty seven refurbished lap tops from Capital One and gave us ten for the school. The other seventeen went somewhere else in Haiti. So big, big props to Bahamas Habitat. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. It was a good trip fruitful trip.

Kenny
GMSM

Harry and I getting ready to board the Aztec headed to Jacmel.

The Jacmel airport.

The beaches of Jacmel.

The mountains from the air going south to the coast.

Harry the co- pilot. Yeah right !