Hanging in Ft. Lauderdale Airport

Colleen and I flew from Dayton to Atlanta and hooked up with Yuri Khomyak who came in from Virgina Beach. We went on to fly to Ft. Lauderdale, grabbed 2-3 hours of sleep and are now ready to fly to Haiti at 7:30am this am. We'll be looking for a building that will accommodate a prosthetic facility. There are over 200,000 Haitian that have lost a limb in the earthquake, so there is a real need for this type of work in Port-Au-Prince. We will also be heading to the Hotel Montana to get some photos and footage of a statue of Jesus that has no hands (a reminder that we are to be the hands and the feet) . We may also be heading to a very large tent city with over 6000 people to hand out "Love Bundles" for the people in need. Thank you all for your prayers for this trip, we really appreciate them. Love to our children, thank you for all the people that helped us out by taking care of our kids and dogs at such late notice. Yuri says hi to Nat and the girls!!! Love you all

Schedule for Haiti is Taking Shape

• Wednesday, May 12: Arrive in PAP at 9:30am.
o Look for prosthetics and orthotics building
o Connect with Corrigan Clay. He is in Demas 75
• Thursday, May 13:
o Visit building for orphans (kids in tents)
o Visit tent city in PAP
• Friday, May 14tho Fly to PDP-11am
o Go to NWCHM-Visit Miriam Center and children.
o Talk to Courtney about new building and vision of project
• Saturday, May 15th
o Spend time with children in Miriam Center and Mission
o Head to Bonneau Property
• Sunday, May 16tho Head back to PAP 1pm
o Meet with Gary LaBlanc and Mercy Chef Team
• Monday, May 17th
o Head to airport early and leave for FLL

Getting Ready for Haiti

Getting ready to leave for Haiti. I fly out Tuesday night to Ft. Lauderdale and catch a hotel with Yuri that night. We have a 7am flight from Ft. Lauderdale to Port-Au-Prince the next morning and will be in Haiti by 9:30am. We will be spending the first two days in Port-Au-Prince looking for a building for a prostheses facility and visiting some tent cities. We also be outside of PAP to visit a group of orphans that Life Church and Orphans Promise helped build with cooperation with Children's Lifeline International(thank you Donald Curtis). We will then take a flight to Northwest Haiti to visit our partners at Northwest Christian Haiti Mission. We will be taking some footage of a project for special needs orphans that will one day house over 100 children. We really appreciate your prayers and your support by following us on our journey. We will be trying to update our blog and post film and photos each day. God Bless www.orphanspromise.com

Christian Alliance For Orphans-Orphan Summit VI

Colleen and I just returned from the Orphan Summit in Minneapolis that was held on April 29th and 30th. It was a spectacular gathering of ministries and organizations and ordinary people to share what God is doing in response to James 1:27. The conference was overflowing with information about orphan care, adoption and foster care. Some of the speakers included John Piper (Bethlehem Church), Mary Beth Chapman (Show Hope), Tom Davis (A Child's Hopechest) and many others. There was worship music from the Desperation Band and Steven Curtis Chapman. We were encouraged and blessed to be with 1200 other believers that have a similiar passion for helping the least of these. For more information on how to help orphans here in the United States and around the world, please see the offical Orphans Promise web-site at www.orphanspromise.org

Haitian Orphans Have a New Home!

Last week we got an update and some photos from Donald Curtis of the building that was mentioned in the last blog. Thank you Children's Lifeline, Life Church West Chester, Orphans Promise and all the people that donated to this project. All the parents and children that stayed out in the cold for "The Great Sleep Out" and raised money going door to door, all your work has paid off for these wonderful children. It is amazing how God works, the building could have been built before the earthquake, but it was not, and it now provides a wonderful home for many Haiti orphans. I will be in Haiti on May 12th to May 17th and will be able to see the great work of the Lord. God is good and there is so much more work to do for him.

Shelter Over My Head

Many of us take for granted that we have a roof over our heads. In fact, I don’t even think about the fact that I am so blessed, that I don’t just have a roof over my head, but I have many rooms in my house, filled with furniture, lights to see with and a piano for music. This is not the case for a small group of orphan children in Haiti. One of our partners, and a good friend, Donald Curtis, called me one day and told me about a group of children that he found that had no shelter over their heads and were living in tents. These children had been orphaned and had been gathered up by a Haitian pastor that loved these kids enough to at least let them stay on his land and provide temporary shelter. After hearing this, the Lord quickened both Colleen and I to take action. I asked Donald, “How much will it take to build these kids shelter (an orphanage)? He told me that with $5,000, his organization (Children’s Lifeline International), could build these children a building/orphanage. With a grant from Orphans Promise of $2,500 in matching funding, our church, Life Church, put together a “Sleep Out” in the cold and raised the additional $2,500 of donations from friends, neighbors and everyday people to get this important job done for the Kingdom and these kids. The building started last week and should be finished very soon. Donald Curtis is in Haiti right now through March 7th and I am anticipating getting some photos of the completed building. In Psalms 68:5, it says: “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy dwelling”. God is our shelter, we dwell in him and these children now have a dwelling place because of people like you that wanted to make a difference. If you are interested in doing something to help out orphan children, please contact me at cbunse@acosta.com.

Moving Forward on Speical Needs Orphanage in Haiti

We are going to start working toward our goal of building a special needs orphanage with Northwest Haiti Chrisitan Mission in the Haiti. We had planned to have this project started by February of 2010, but the earthquake has set our timing back for at least 6 months. The team will be meeting in March to move the project forward and I am praying that we can break ground by June of this year. Our friends at NHCM have already purchased some of the land and through Orphans Promise (www.orphanspromise.org), they will be matching funding up to $50,000 to raise a total of $100,000+ to build this orphange. The need in Haiti for children with speical needs has increased due to the earthquake, so the Lords timing for this project is increadable. Please pray for us, along with Northwest Haiti Christian Mission, Sheppard Crook Ministries and Kimmey's House that we can get this most important project done and start serving these children. God Bless