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.

Commissioning

I am leaving Northern Ireland on Friday 8th January to head to Greenwood Indiana for Cross Cultural Training, then sometime in the first week in FebruaryI will arrive in Haiti. My church is having a commissioning service for me on Sunday 3rd Jan at 6.30pm. My church is Bethany Baptist in Bangor just off the Gransha Road. Your very welcome to come.

Have a lovely Christmas- enjoy the snow!

funding

I am having a table quiz on Saturday 28th November in my church, Bethany Baptist Church bangor at 8pm just to raise some funds for Haiti. Teams of 6 -8 and Im sure there will be a great prize for the winning team!!!

The beginning

My name is Julie Briggs, I am 25 and from Bangor in Northern Ireland. From January to July 2008 I spent 6 months in Haiti with OMS international working in a small medical clinic as a physiotherapist.

I now believe God is calling me back to Haiti for the next year, to work again in the clinic as a physiotherapist. The clinic currently treats around 150-200 patients each day all the staff are christians and seek to help the people both physically and spiritually. The main aim of the clinic is to show people the love of God and in a land which is completely hopeless, give people hope in Jesus Christ.

God commands us to to into all the world to preach the gospel but also to love one another, to feed the hungry and care for the sick. And I hope to do this through working in the clinic in Haiti.

Matthew 25 v34-40

Then the King will say to those on his left, 'Come, you who are blessed by my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer him saying, 'Lord when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers you did it to me.'

I am currently raising the support needed to go and hope to go in January 2010.