Dear Ones, Beloved of the Lord,

There has been so much work that we have been doing over the last couple of years that I have not really had time to write about. This morning, in my spirit, I feel strongly that I should tell you of some of these things.

First, some background: When we first started working in Haiti, it was with an American Mission, Northwest Haiti Christian Mission. Several Canadian churches got together and built a pharmacy on their property in St. Louis du Nord. A much loved Canadian, Maureen, set up and ran the medical laboratory. Later, Maureen became the director of the pharmacy as well as the lab.

During all this time, we began growing in Canada, and were recognized as a charitable organization. It seemed natural to us to call ourselves by the same name, Northwest Haiti Christian Mission, adding Canada to the title. We never dreamed of doing anything else.

Follow up:

Then, we started growing bigger. We began stocking the pharmacy with quite literally millions of dollars of donated and purchased medicines. Our teams became more frequent. People began to come to me everywhere, and tell me that we needed to go out on our own. I felt really confused by this, because we were ‘on our own.’ If anybody doubted it, they just had to sit at my desk any day of the week and do the work. This is how my mind worked. But many people came talking about the time when we would be on our own.

The Canadian government, especially, insisted, from our incorporation, that we had to be an independent Canadian charity to be recognized as a Canadian charitable organization. This meant that we could issue tax receipts for money donated to our Canadian work in Haiti, but could not collect money for American work in Haiti.

Really, this did not seem to make any difference to us, because we were so busy doing what we do – praying for the sick, visiting our Haitian communities, taking medicine and health care, and just showing the love of God any way we could, in Haiti. We have always been a legally separate entity, but have never had any need to be really vocal about our independence.

Sometimes, we had some problems getting people to understand that we were a separate organization, and could not just do as we were told by the American mission. There was the time a Canadian donor wanted us to write Canadian tax receipts for some buses he wanted to give the American mission. We could not do it legally. Little things like this came up.

God has always called us to walk by His Word. If you know God’s personality as revealed in His Word, He does not like divisions. We do not like divisions, either. So, we have tried very hard to not look like we were divided from the American brethren working in Haiti, too.

But, all this time, growing in our hearts, has been the call to work on Tortuga Island and to do some outreach where the American body does not go. You may have seen our Tortuga page on our website, at www.nwhcm.ca.

So, this year, we have registered a new name with the Canadian government. Northwest Haiti Christian Mission Canada, now has the legal right to operate in Canada and in Haiti as Jesi se Sènyè, Canada. This is Creole for Jesus is Lord, Canada.

In fact, for our trip to Haiti next week, we have had new t-shirts made, with a new logo. It is almost the same logo as we have always used, but it will be the symbol of the work we are doing without any association with any other mission body.

We are tremendously excited about this. We have had a lovely time during the last few weeks, doing surgery with a joint team of Canadians and Americans, at the American campus in St. Louis du Nord. We plan to be there again in January, as well as every other surgical team they have in the coming year. Many Canadians will be taking trips to the American mission campus, to work from there, in the coming year, and for many years to come, until Jesus returns.

This is not a move to separate from the American mission, as we have always been a legally separate entity. Nor do we plan to distance ourselves from them.

We are growing more and more in areas that we work alone on. This is good. Below, is a photo of our new mission house in Haiti. It looks kind of rough – it is. But, it is home. We have rented it for the next year at least. Geoff has moved in. Hopefully by next year, we will have it painted. It gives us a place to keep our tents and to assemble our teams on the mainland, if bad weather does not permit us to sail to Tortuga Island for a few days.

The front yard, as you can see, has a good walled in area, which eventually, we will be able to park 20’ containers of supplies inside.

One of the most exciting things about this house is that it means that we will not have to wait for special permission from our hosts, to see if we can come to Haiti or not. We can come and go on trips as the Lord calls us, without overstaying our welcome as guests at someone else’s house or spending large amounts of money housing teams in hotels.

These are big first steps. But, these steps allow us to keep growing in the direction that our Father, through His Word and in answer to prayer has been leading us.

For instance, recently, we found out that the American mission was going to start charging for prescriptions. It will not be more than cost, but they will charge. Our suppliers will not donate supplies to us if we charge. We were finding ourselves unable to provide medicine for the sick in Haiti, unless we could find a way to provide that medicine without charge. Over the next year, we will be exploring ways to establish a more independent free pharmacy for the people of Haiti.

Next week, we will be visiting each of the three medical professionals on Tortuga Island. We will set up a small clinic, primarily to treat infected people for worms. In addition, we will supply some primary medical care for the very ill. Each patient will be prayed for, and hear the message of God’s love, and His call for their salvation.

So close to the equator, the sun goes down each evening at 6:00. So after the sun goes down, we will play either the Jesus Film or The Story of Jesus for Children movie in each community. We have purchased a small generator and know that in communities where there has never been electricity, just the sight of a movie will draw many to hear the Gospel message for the first time.

Please pray for us, especially for this trip. It is the first time we do not have the American security staff, or their cooks, or even their life-jackets for the boat ride.

God bless you each. Thank you for praying. In His great love, Tina