Dear all,
Just a short email about our ups and downs in Haiti! This week is already the last week of the course we have given here. The students have one test to do tomorrow afternoon and then they are ready! Well congratulations to all of our 38 students! They have worked terribly hard and had lectures during the last few weeks from half past five in the morning until noon and then from half past two sometimes up to 9 o´clock at night!
Johan just let them choose whether tomorrow they want free time or some last lectures from him, and they chose the classes! Saturday, Christmas day, is the graduation we are all looking forward to. The students hope their parents and families will come, and also all their pastors from the thirty different churches that we are networking with. Everyone tells us how special it is now here in Haiti for a university course to do training in the area of "education and community development”. For the graduation all the students have been outfitted with a very elegant dark blue suit.
One of our happiest and youngest students (19 years) is Esther Pricilla. But last Sunday we had to bring the terrible message that her father, who was the pastor of one of the 30 net work churches, had died in a fatal motorcycle accident. She has seven sisters and one younger brother. As the oldest, it is now expected of her that she will maintain her family financially. In a country where 80% of the population is unemployed and survive on less than $ 2 per day, this is a difficult task. Fortunately with the diploma of the school that we will give her, she has an almost 100% chance to get started with a new job in January. Will you also pray for her and her family?
The political situation here is very unstable. There were elections on November 28, but many people believe it was not a fair election, as lots of fraud happened. The country has had already one week of many revolts, when no one could be on the street, no one could go to work, not even the doctors and nurses in the hospitals, no clean drinking water was being brought to the tent camps, shops were closed, planes did not fly anymore, it was chaos. Then they promised again to count the votes..., that has happened and they will announce the outcome probably after Christmas, December 26th. It is expected that there will once again be major uprisings, or even a civil war. Our flight back to Brazil is scheduled Dec. 28, so we may well be in big trouble. Will you also pray for this situation?
We give thanks for the fact that our health is very good: Johan’s knee is almost healed and I have no problems with my back anymore.
We wish you all a very happy and blessed Christmas Season! Our Savior is born!
Love, Johan and Jeannette
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
Grandchildren in Brazil, Christmas in Haiti
We feel so rich when we look at our grandkids. Between two trips to Haiti we are spending some time in Belo Horizonte so we can finish this year in an orderly fashion. Lots of meetings, and I really miss my new laptop, which couldn’t be fixed here and needed to be sent to Holland. It should work as the machine was only 5 months old when it broke down.
Eva, the youngest at 5 months
If we promise them candy they’ll sit still for a few moments so we can take a picture...
But even between all the busyness we try our best to enjoy our grandkids. All six of them are actually here in Brazil right now which is rare to happen. It is great to have grand kids. Tomorrow we are going to have our farewell party, and an early Christmas.
Tuesday we are traveling back to Haiti for another three weeks of lectures in the Education and Community Development Training School. Christmas will be in Haiti, in the Caribbean. Sounds romantic, but the reality is a bit different. We are taking a suitcase full of medicines against Cholera. The number of infected people keeps growing. And because of the election on the 28th of November, the political climate is very tense.
So the 7th of December we plan to arrive in Haiti again. The school continued normally during our absence, with the help of some Brazilian staff. Well, you have to define normality: they passed through a hurricane, were frightened by an aftershock of the earthquake, are in the middle of a Cholera outbreak, and live in a climate of unrest because of the elections. But on the other hand, we are receiving good news about the students, who continue to grow in the knowledge of God, His love and faithfulness and a deeper understanding of His ways and intentions for their lives and country. Yes there is hope for Haiti!
Please pray for our trip and our stay till the 28th of December. Pray for:
• Our health.
• Against the Cholera that already killed many people.
• Against the instability after the elections.
• For the students who will finish the Education and Community Development Training School on Christmas Day.
We wish you all a wonderful Christmas!
Me with Hannah, the oldest at 4 years of age
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Newsletter november 2010
Dear Friends,
Lots of tears were flowing, followed by an even more intense time of praise and deep expressions of gratitude before the Lord. I got goose bumps all over. What a privilege to be in Haiti!
After three days of classes and application on the subject, we went to a local primary school of 15 minutes walking distance. During 2 days the students started putting in practice the principles they had just learned themselves. We were using a little booklet specially written for the very reason of counseling children after the earthquake in Haiti. Every one of them spent a number of hours with 3 to 5 children. Those were very special moments. One boy of 13 years old said that he lost both his parents during the earthquake, but that until now, months after the earthquake, nobody had ever talked to him about it…. We got to hear many similar stories. But what impacted us the most was to see our students being transformed from receivers of blessings to transmitters of hope, comfort and love…Yes, with young people like that, ready to be used by the Lord, there is hope for Haiti!
All this happened three days before we were ready to leave for Haiti! Hundreds of people started to pray. It was so encouraging to receive so many messages through email, blog and facebook. And God started performing some miracles: Johan was cleared to travel one week after our planned date, I was able to borrow another laptop, my back stopped playing up, various people pitched in financially, and we were able to swop our tickets to Haiti for a week later than planned! Thank you Jesus!
The best way to combine the school in Haiti and leading the base in Belo Horizonte was for us to go the month of October to Haiti, come back during the month of November to Brazil and then return to Haiti in December again to be there for the last weeks of the school.
During the month of November we are busy meeting with the leadership of the base including the leaders of the 8 different operation locations here in Belo Horizonte, as well as wrapping up the children at Risk School which is currently running here with a wonderful group of 10 students; 6 foreigners and 4 Brazilians. We are so grateful for the wonderful group of leaders and staff we have here at the base in Belo Horizonte who dedicate themselves in being living examples of the good news to children and families at risk on the streets and in the poor communities around them. We feel so privileged to be able to be part of all this.
Besides all this we are planning to spend a couple of months next year in Holland with family, friends, church, and do a number of presentations in churches to make more Christians in Holland aware of what is going on as well as giving a report.
CHRISTMAS
This year, Johan and I are planning to spend Christmas in Haiti, so we can bring the school in Port au Prince to a closure together with the staff and students.
We all wish you a Christmas full of a deeper understanding of the Love of God in Christ Jesus, and may the new year be full of significant victories for the Kingdom of God!
With lots of love,
Johan and Jeannette Lukasse
P.S. For more pictures and regular updates please do visit our facebook.
PRAYER POINTS:
• Thank God for restoring our health. Please continue to pray for His protection in every way.
• We give thanks to God for the wonderful students in Haiti and Belo Horizonte. Pray that they will let themselves be mightily used by the Lord.
• Thank God for the leader and teams of staff in Belo Horizonte. Pray that God will continue to bless and use them.
Lots of tears were flowing, followed by an even more intense time of praise and deep expressions of gratitude before the Lord. I got goose bumps all over. What a privilege to be in Haiti!
Rodolpho, one of four staff, praying with a child
During the month of October we were in Haiti running a three month training school, together with four staff , for a group of 38 Haitian young people. We lived in tents just like 1.3 million Haitians. This last week, the subject was post counseling and bereavement, followed by a practical time when the students could teach the same principles to a group of children from a local primary school.
Johan giving classes to our Haitian students.
Most of our students, just like the children, had been trying to cope with their losses by just not talking about the earthquake anymore, acting as if nothing had happened and pretending to be strong. Now they had to learn to recognize and come to grips with their losses and learn to pass through the “valley of the shadow of death” in order to allow God to comfort them. This powerful collective experience brought great unity and strength to the group.
After three days of classes and application on the subject, we went to a local primary school of 15 minutes walking distance. During 2 days the students started putting in practice the principles they had just learned themselves. We were using a little booklet specially written for the very reason of counseling children after the earthquake in Haiti. Every one of them spent a number of hours with 3 to 5 children. Those were very special moments. One boy of 13 years old said that he lost both his parents during the earthquake, but that until now, months after the earthquake, nobody had ever talked to him about it…. We got to hear many similar stories. But what impacted us the most was to see our students being transformed from receivers of blessings to transmitters of hope, comfort and love…Yes, with young people like that, ready to be used by the Lord, there is hope for Haiti!
One of the students praying for one of the kids.
Before we were able to embark for Haiti we had all kinds of setbacks: I had a major crises with my back, my new computer broke down, our finances were tight, and on top of that suddenly Johan’s knee got very thick and developed what the doctors diagnosed as septic arthritis, something quite dangerous that needed a surgery to clean it.
All this happened three days before we were ready to leave for Haiti! Hundreds of people started to pray. It was so encouraging to receive so many messages through email, blog and facebook. And God started performing some miracles: Johan was cleared to travel one week after our planned date, I was able to borrow another laptop, my back stopped playing up, various people pitched in financially, and we were able to swop our tickets to Haiti for a week later than planned! Thank you Jesus!
Haitian student talking to one of the kids.
BACK AND FORTH
The best way to combine the school in Haiti and leading the base in Belo Horizonte was for us to go the month of October to Haiti, come back during the month of November to Brazil and then return to Haiti in December again to be there for the last weeks of the school.
During the month of November we are busy meeting with the leadership of the base including the leaders of the 8 different operation locations here in Belo Horizonte, as well as wrapping up the children at Risk School which is currently running here with a wonderful group of 10 students; 6 foreigners and 4 Brazilians. We are so grateful for the wonderful group of leaders and staff we have here at the base in Belo Horizonte who dedicate themselves in being living examples of the good news to children and families at risk on the streets and in the poor communities around them. We feel so privileged to be able to be part of all this.
Besides all this we are planning to spend a couple of months next year in Holland with family, friends, church, and do a number of presentations in churches to make more Christians in Holland aware of what is going on as well as giving a report.
CHRISTMAS
This year, Johan and I are planning to spend Christmas in Haiti, so we can bring the school in Port au Prince to a closure together with the staff and students.
We all wish you a Christmas full of a deeper understanding of the Love of God in Christ Jesus, and may the new year be full of significant victories for the Kingdom of God!
With lots of love,
Johan and Jeannette Lukasse
P.S. For more pictures and regular updates please do visit our facebook.
PRAYER POINTS:
• Thank God for restoring our health. Please continue to pray for His protection in every way.
• We give thanks to God for the wonderful students in Haiti and Belo Horizonte. Pray that they will let themselves be mightily used by the Lord.
• Thank God for the leader and teams of staff in Belo Horizonte. Pray that God will continue to bless and use them.
• Thank God for our time and Holland and thank Him for this opportunity.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Link to our pictures in Haiti
This link goes to the pictures we took last month in Haiti:
Facebook album Haiti october 2010
Facebook album Haiti october 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Cholera in Haiti
Breakfast in front of our tent.
The school is going really well. The students keep surprising us and we are very proud of them. Carla, one of our co-workers who is specialized in bereavement, did a post-trauma counseling with them, and over the last two days the students applied what they learned with more than 100 children of a local primary school. It was so moving to see them in action!
The infection in Johan’s knee and eye are very well under control, and I haven’t even had the slightest pain in my back so far; we are very thankful!
But we do have a special prayer request for the health situation of the people here in Haiti. On Thursday a number of cases of cholera appeared in the St. Marc region some 80 km from Port au Prince. There is a big YWAM base there. The director, Terry Snow, was taking a patient to the hospital that died on the way to the hospital. On the same day 135 people died of cholera, a sickness with heavy diarrhea and vomiting which can cause death in a few hours because of dehydration.
The epidemic did reach the city of Port au Prince yesterday, but we hope and pray that it won’t start spreading although the risks are very high:
• There is a big lack of sanitation systems.
• Everywhere you find little camps with 10-20 tents, mostly without toilet facilities.
• The bigger camps have mostly chemical toilets, but those are difficult to maintain clean, with so many people using them.
• There is almost no running water anywhere.
Some Dutch friends have been assisting in some clinics around St. Marc, but they were telling us about the lack of the most basic things, like IV-fluids, needles, gloves etc…. We hope to be able to help them a little bit through contacts we have with American Doctors, Brazilian army et.
We did buy some extra sanitation hand gel for our students and extra bottles of bleach.
Please pray for protection against cholera, and that the outbreak will be under control very fast.
May God bless you all,
The church and the primary school run by the father of one of our students, collapsed during the earthquake, this is the temporary building.
Our students were busy counseling the kids.
This little girl drew four of her family members who died during the earthquake.
They are having class on the broken pieces of their old church and school.
Johan kept the little ones busy, while some of our students taught the principles of bereavement and trauma counseling to the teachers.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
The school in Haiti has started with 40 students, what a blessing!
"Bonjour, bonjour!" We hear all around us. We're in Haiti! What a privilege to be here!
The country and the city reminds me a bit of Angola: really very, very little infrastructure, and wonderful friendly people.
We have 40 students; young people who are enthusiastic and very eager to learn. Every pastor of the 30 churches we work with was asked to choose one or two young people from their church to do this school. After the earthquake there are lots of young people who still cannot go back to their schools or universities, as most of those buildings collapsed, and lots of their teachers died. So we had a very large group of youth (120!) who applied to do our school, but we could only accept 40 students, because we do not (yet) have such good facilities and each student costs approximately $ 500 in food and housing for those three months. They cannot pay this themselves, so for the most part (25 students) they are sponsored by Brazilian churches.
We all live in tents with covers of plastic sheeting, which unfortunately is not watertight during the tropical rains that we have here almost every night. The church / school seems a bit like a large tent; the walls are made of blue plastic with a roof from corrugated iron.
There is no running water. Water is purchased from a truck that announces his arrival with a cheerful music of the Titanic (!) Only one or two hours a day we have electricity when the generator is turned on. The bricklayers are still building the toilets for the students to use; hopefully they will put in the doors today! Showering they do outside, with their clothes on (which are also immediately washed) with a bucket and cup ...
Some students lived in nice houses before the earthquake, others were already poor. For all it's a big adjustment to now live very primitively in leaky tents. We have great respect for their positive attitudes. There is not much food, most must be imported, and usually there is only enough for two meals a day: for breakfast a bit of spaghetti with a dash of ketchup, and then for the combined lunch / dinner a large plate of rice with a little beanwater . A sad reality, not only in our school, but all throughout the country.
It is very special to see the hope, resilience, willpower, and happiness of the students. They start each day at half past five in the morning with one and a half hour of prayer and worship. Than at 8 o’clock in the morning until 6 o'clock in the afternoon they have classes.
Johan is teaching these first weeks. His knee has healed well, but he cannot stand yet for a long time, or walk a long way. His eye infection is also slowly healing and he is reducing his medication. At night we rest very well, as we go to bed very early, like most people do here.
We are starting to hear some of the personal stories of pain and sorrow. Yesterday a pastor visited us, the father of one of the students. He told us about the earthquake and about his family. We cannot even start to imagine what they have gone through. In about ten days we will give special classes about trauma and bereavement. Will you pray with us for the students? We hope to train the students in this area, so that they in turn will help others, especially children in the many tent camps around the city.
Please, could you keep on praying for the students and for Johan and me? It's very special to be in Haiti at this time and to work with these young people. We thank God for his faithfulness, and also all of you who have sent us emails to encourage us, who have prayed for us and who have given us financial gifts. We feel very fortunate to have such wonderful compassionate family and friends. Thank you! We wish you God's abundant blessings!
The country and the city reminds me a bit of Angola: really very, very little infrastructure, and wonderful friendly people.
We have 40 students; young people who are enthusiastic and very eager to learn. Every pastor of the 30 churches we work with was asked to choose one or two young people from their church to do this school. After the earthquake there are lots of young people who still cannot go back to their schools or universities, as most of those buildings collapsed, and lots of their teachers died. So we had a very large group of youth (120!) who applied to do our school, but we could only accept 40 students, because we do not (yet) have such good facilities and each student costs approximately $ 500 in food and housing for those three months. They cannot pay this themselves, so for the most part (25 students) they are sponsored by Brazilian churches.
We all live in tents with covers of plastic sheeting, which unfortunately is not watertight during the tropical rains that we have here almost every night. The church / school seems a bit like a large tent; the walls are made of blue plastic with a roof from corrugated iron.
There is no running water. Water is purchased from a truck that announces his arrival with a cheerful music of the Titanic (!) Only one or two hours a day we have electricity when the generator is turned on. The bricklayers are still building the toilets for the students to use; hopefully they will put in the doors today! Showering they do outside, with their clothes on (which are also immediately washed) with a bucket and cup ...
Some students lived in nice houses before the earthquake, others were already poor. For all it's a big adjustment to now live very primitively in leaky tents. We have great respect for their positive attitudes. There is not much food, most must be imported, and usually there is only enough for two meals a day: for breakfast a bit of spaghetti with a dash of ketchup, and then for the combined lunch / dinner a large plate of rice with a little beanwater . A sad reality, not only in our school, but all throughout the country.
It is very special to see the hope, resilience, willpower, and happiness of the students. They start each day at half past five in the morning with one and a half hour of prayer and worship. Than at 8 o’clock in the morning until 6 o'clock in the afternoon they have classes.
Johan is teaching these first weeks. His knee has healed well, but he cannot stand yet for a long time, or walk a long way. His eye infection is also slowly healing and he is reducing his medication. At night we rest very well, as we go to bed very early, like most people do here.
We are starting to hear some of the personal stories of pain and sorrow. Yesterday a pastor visited us, the father of one of the students. He told us about the earthquake and about his family. We cannot even start to imagine what they have gone through. In about ten days we will give special classes about trauma and bereavement. Will you pray with us for the students? We hope to train the students in this area, so that they in turn will help others, especially children in the many tent camps around the city.
Please, could you keep on praying for the students and for Johan and me? It's very special to be in Haiti at this time and to work with these young people. We thank God for his faithfulness, and also all of you who have sent us emails to encourage us, who have prayed for us and who have given us financial gifts. We feel very fortunate to have such wonderful compassionate family and friends. Thank you! We wish you God's abundant blessings!
Monday, October 4, 2010
Struggles and victories
Many thanks to everyone who has sent us e-mails last week; it encouraged us so much that you stand with us. Yes, we had to change our plans drastically and unexpectedly. After all the setbacks of the past weeks Johan all of a sudden woke up with a big knee. According to the doctors it could be a bacterial arthritis, a serious condition if it is not treated appropriately and quickly. So last Saturday he was rushed to the operating room, where the inside of the joint of his knee was cleaned. For the next few days he had to stay in the hospital and was on strong intravenous antibiotics.
So our trip to Haiti had to be postponed; we couldn’t go last Monday. Then to top it off, on Tuesday Johan woke up with a severe eye infection. He has ankylosing spondylitis, so that flared up as well. Wednesday he was released from the hospital with lots of medicines and with blood tests, and doctor’s visits marked for Thursday and Friday. We really hoped and prayed to be able to travel to Haiti on the next Monday, but also understood it depended now on the health of Johan, which we put in God's hands. We told each other, “He knows what is best for us, our life is dedicated to Him. If He wants us to go to Haiti he will also make it possible”.
Many people wrote us to say that they believed we were encountering a great spiritual resistance because of our plans to go to Haiti. It is a fact that 200 years ago in Haiti, some mighty men high up in the government, made public pacts with demonic forces. But Johan was personally present in Haiti this year, when exactly one month after the earthquake, a 3 day service was held on the square before the presidential palace. Hundreds of thousands of people came together to fast and pray, to break the demonic bonds, and to enter into a new time where Haiti will be dedicated to the Lord.
Yes there is spiritual warfare going on and there is lots I don’t understand, but one scripture comes to my mind. It is where the Lord Jesus tells Peter (Simon) about his prayer in Luke 22:31: “Simon Simon, satan has asked to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you Simon, that your faith might not fail.” It surprises me that Jesus did not pray that Simon would be spared from the attack; He did not tell satan to stop. No, He prayed so Simon’s faith might not fail. So that’s how we want people to pray for us, and how we pray ourselves: “Help us Lord so our faith might not fail.”
And yes, when we came back for the doctors consult yesterday, one of them told us he had never seen somebody recuperate so fast! Thank you Jesus and thanks to all of you who prayed! We will be travelling on Monday to train young Haitian people in the course that will start the 4th of October!
I do not think it will be easy to send emails when we are in Haiti, but if you want to stay informed you can fill in the box on the right, which says: "Subscribe to this blog." Then every time when I post a new message on our blog, you get it automatically in your email.
Thank you all so very much for your love, care, gifts and prayers! May God richly bless you!
So our trip to Haiti had to be postponed; we couldn’t go last Monday. Then to top it off, on Tuesday Johan woke up with a severe eye infection. He has ankylosing spondylitis, so that flared up as well. Wednesday he was released from the hospital with lots of medicines and with blood tests, and doctor’s visits marked for Thursday and Friday. We really hoped and prayed to be able to travel to Haiti on the next Monday, but also understood it depended now on the health of Johan, which we put in God's hands. We told each other, “He knows what is best for us, our life is dedicated to Him. If He wants us to go to Haiti he will also make it possible”.
Many people wrote us to say that they believed we were encountering a great spiritual resistance because of our plans to go to Haiti. It is a fact that 200 years ago in Haiti, some mighty men high up in the government, made public pacts with demonic forces. But Johan was personally present in Haiti this year, when exactly one month after the earthquake, a 3 day service was held on the square before the presidential palace. Hundreds of thousands of people came together to fast and pray, to break the demonic bonds, and to enter into a new time where Haiti will be dedicated to the Lord.
Yes there is spiritual warfare going on and there is lots I don’t understand, but one scripture comes to my mind. It is where the Lord Jesus tells Peter (Simon) about his prayer in Luke 22:31: “Simon Simon, satan has asked to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you Simon, that your faith might not fail.” It surprises me that Jesus did not pray that Simon would be spared from the attack; He did not tell satan to stop. No, He prayed so Simon’s faith might not fail. So that’s how we want people to pray for us, and how we pray ourselves: “Help us Lord so our faith might not fail.”
And yes, when we came back for the doctors consult yesterday, one of them told us he had never seen somebody recuperate so fast! Thank you Jesus and thanks to all of you who prayed! We will be travelling on Monday to train young Haitian people in the course that will start the 4th of October!
I do not think it will be easy to send emails when we are in Haiti, but if you want to stay informed you can fill in the box on the right, which says: "Subscribe to this blog." Then every time when I post a new message on our blog, you get it automatically in your email.
Thank you all so very much for your love, care, gifts and prayers! May God richly bless you!
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