A wee bit about Cross training

Well Cross Training is nearly finished, tomorrow is our last day. I have learnt lots of things and hope to be able to apply them all when I get to Haiti so I can do my ministry more effectively. When I came I thought it was just called cross training because it was about cross cultural training but here's what it actually means....
C- cross cultural
R- relational
O-organisation 
S- strategic
S- spiritual formation
We have been learning about OMS, its history and theology, about church planting and about the gifts God has given each of us and how we will use them in our different countries. We have had a really great group of people and had lots of fun together.

Our cross training group

 Apart from going to class and learning alot, we were able to go downtown to a couple of museums and then to a basketball game.

The basketball game

A war momument downtown Indianapolis

I was even interviewed by a local paper over the phone and Hannah (one of the other girls here who will be going to Haiti with me) and I got our picture taken and it was on the front page on the Daily Journal!!!

My claim to fame!!

So my plans are to spend the weekend with Amy (who I met last time I was in Haiti), then leave headquarters here on tuesday, and leave for Haiti on Wednesday morning. Haiti continues to need our prayers, OMS has sent down some medical teams which are treating patients and also an evangelism team who speak to people and yesterday 51 people came to know the Lord- in a place which seems so hopeless these people were given hope. Please pray as I travel on Tuesday and Wednesday into Haiti especially.

Hope for Haiti

This whole week Ive been so sad for Haiti and for the people. Ive been trying as much as possible to find out what has been going on from the missionaries who are there and today I heard a few things which give some hope for Haiti. In the midst of disaster and hopelessness there is hope!

Our field director Brett Bundy travelled down to Port-au-Price during the week to figure out how OMS can help. OMS have a villa right in the middle of Port which was unharmed, there are a few cracks but no structural damage. On Saturday OMS sent down 2 truckloads of aid and used the villa as a distribution centre, there are thousands of people sleeping outside the villa- people are too scared to go indoors. But ALL through the night there are people singing praises to God, they are completely trusting in him.

This is an extract from another missionaries blog-

A godly, Spirit-filled past-graduate and pastor came to our home yesterday to see Dr. Cooper, and said something I had never thought of.

"What do you think" he asked us, "About the fact that on Monday, this place, this God-given Seminary for training up Godly men and women on the road between Cap-Haitien and Port-au-Prince, opened. And then Tuesday, life in Haiti as we knew it ended. What do you think about the fact that Monday, a huge, beautiful, brand new Bible training institute opened for the Lord's service and that Tuesday, the center of Haiti was brought low? God has a plan for this place. He is doing something NEW."

OMS has just opened up a brand new seminary with wonderful facilities and wonderful teachers, both missionaries and nationals, the seminaries in Port-au-Prince have been destroyed. Perhaps this could become the main seminary for Nationals to be trained up as pastors to turn their country around. Perhaps this is a brand new start for Haiti, after years and years of suffering they will have a new start. A start which will put the Lord at the centre instead of Satan and a result God will bless their country abundantly.

For the first time this week I can see hope in what has happened, I honestly don't know how it will happen, how the country will cope with the loss of life, the loss of everything. I don't know how they will rebuild the city but I know that what is impossible with man is possible with God.

Please continue to pray for Haiti, and if you want to give OMS have opened a relief fund you can send a donation to project 405120- Haiti relief fund, OMS, 1 Sandileigh Avenue, Manchester, M20 3LN.

This is what Im praying for Haiti
Some verses from Jeremiah Ch 31-

I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. Again I will BUILD you and you will be built.

Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turning their mourning to JOY, I WILL comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.

Haiti earthquake

I have had a few emails and texts asking if Im ok, for those of you who don't know Im in the US at cross training and not in Haiti yet.

I have had a hard day for a couple of reasons of which you will probably know. One of which is hearing the news about the earthquake in haiti and looking at the pictures which are devastating. OMS works mainly in the north of the country and all the missionaries there have not been harmed, they also have a villa in Port au Prince at which everyone is safe and unharmed. For which we are thankful here at headquarters. But as you have probably seen on the news there is so much devastation, Haiti really needs our prayers and our help at this time.

The other is just news from my family at home which I got today. Its hard to be here in america and not at home with them right now. So I would just ask you to pray for me and for them at this time.

I am very encouraged by the emails and messgaes I have got of those people already praying and I thank you for that.

Cold!!

I arrived safely on Friday night in Greenwood, Indiana for cross training after leaving home at 5.30am!! I thought it was super cold and snowy at home until I got here!!Its currently -15C and there is lots of snow, its nice to look at but not so nice to be outside in. Cross Training officially starts on Monday morning and will last 3 weeks. So far Ive just been meeting some of the people who work for OMS mostly former missionaries, doing a little bit of shopping and settling in really.