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Sweet Update from John Compere in Haiti

adamk — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:07:58 +0000

The Sunday after the earthquake hit in Haiti, our church was introduced to John Compere. John is from Haiti and has attended Flood for the past several years. As a church, we were able to financially support John as he returned to Haiti to care for his family and nation. Below is an email update I just received. Thank you for your generosity!

Pastor Adam

Hi the Flood family,

Thank you so much for your prayer and support, your generosity truly helps me to reach out to so many Haitians in a time of their greatness need. As some of you may already knew that I left San Diego since after the earthquake to come down to Port-au-prince, Ht with a medical team to help. So since we got here, we have been extremely busy and didn’t have access to internet for so long, and I sincerely present my apology for waiting so long to hear from me. but thanks God we have been a great help to the community here where we have been serving. In fact, our first prayer meeting here we had eleven people come to know Christ for the first time and make their decision to follow Him. I’m still here in Haiti, I’m doing well, my team already went back to State, but I’m staying here for another month to continue helping my family because my dad and one of my sisters have been sick for the past few weeks. So please, continue to pray for a spiritual awakening in Haiti and for my family.

May the Lord greatly bless you all,

John

The first TJO prayer night of 2010!

Chariane — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:22:35 +0000

Well it was a fun FIESTA night at Rob Bautista’s house last night (2/27) for TJO team’s first quarterly prayer night of 2010. After learning a little about the orphanage and the kids, we read over some of their prayer requests for January and February. It was great to see so many new faces at Fiesta Night and to pray together as a group for a good hour. Afterward, Robert’s roommate Cesar cooked up some delicious food! Chicken & steak tacos, pinto beans, yummy rice, chips & salsa, and Maiko & Lily’s homemade brownies and cheesecake. To top it off, we ended the night with Dave Gladson dressed in an authentic Mexican sombrero playing a mini-accordion bought at the TJ/USA border. Rob attempted to accompany him as a singer. Let’s just say it was the BEST and the WORST mariachi band ever!

Here are a couple prayer requests from the night. To see more prayer requests or learn more about TJO, email orphanage@diveintoflood.com or find us under Flood Church Mexico Impact Teams on Facebook. You can read prayer requests and submit your own under the Discussion tab on FB.

Luis: Please repair the road and for my friends.
Byboh: We don’t want any theft here.
Rodrigo: For all my family and the whole world.
Moises: I’d like to ask to take care for my dad and mom.
Salvador: Pray for my family and friends. That I could find good friends in school.
Antonio: That Casa Hogar is taken care of and pray for it and all of us.

We also want to pray for Bertha, a staff member at the orphanage, who is no longer in touch with three of her children due to a past of drug abuse. Although she is now recovered from her addictions, she is still suffering the painful consequences of losing contact with 3 children. She requested prayer for their health and safety, as well as for the safety of El Faro orphanage. We as a team also want to lift up Bertha’s life so that she can experience God’s grace, goodness, peace, and redemption in her life.

Learn More About Prayer!

Linsey Wildey — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 23:25:23 +0000

FLOOD PRAYER GROUP

Want to learn more about prayer or have a an interest in prayer that you want to explore? If so, come to this month’s prayer group which will be focused around praying for our all-church SOMA Conference. Meeting Time: Sunday, February 28th from 6:00 – 7:30pm Location: Kearny Library Contact: LinseyWildey@DIVEintoFLOOD.com

Midnight Prayer

emmakholmquist — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:29:29 +0000

It’s been a couple of days since our opportunity to pray together as a community apart, and I’ve been sitting on my experience. My Sunday had been busy, and my apartment was full. At 11:55, I disappointed my roommate and two friends in denying them a comeback round of Rummy Kub as I excused myself to the balcony for prayer. It was a strange experience, sitting just three feet away from some of the people that I know and love best, separated simply by an 8 inch thick wall and a sliding glass door. Of my roommates, only one is a believer, and she remains complacent in her belief sans action, and of the three attending friends, one had attended Flood with me that morning, but only shrugged when I invited him to join me, and the other two stand respectively as Jewish and Agnostic. In that moment, it would have been very easy to feel very alone.

But instead, a feeling of gratitude and love overwhelmed me as I sat in silence, settling my mind. Instead of feeling alienated from the community through the glass, I was overcome by the feeling that in that moment I was very much a loving and loved part of two separate communities, one, my apartment and non-Christian friends, and two, my amazing Flood family. Tamping down the desire to rush through prayer and get back inside to claim another victory, I attempted to funnel that feeling of grace and goodness and love into a solid half hour of sitting in God’s presence, knowing that my brothers and sisters in Flood were doing the same all across San Diego. It was a feeling of sitting apart yet sitting together, somehow solidarity in the moment of explicit separation. In God’s moment, my longstanding fears of the isolation and loneliness of belonging to two such contrasting families turned upside down. Instead, the joys and opportunities of the combination were suddenly in stark spotlight, undeniable and unbelievable. I just want to thank Flood for the family; Praying together, I could not be alone if I wanted to.

Flood Doctor Leaves For Haiti … Please Pray

adamk — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 22:04:54 +0000

Dear Family and Friends,

I’ll be heading out to the Dominican Republic tomorrow to help Haitian refugees. I will be flying to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, then taking a 6-8 hour ride to Jimani, Dominican Republic. It’s a small town about 10 miles from the border and 40 miles from Port au Prince. There will be a general surgeon and an orthopedic surgeon and I think we will be doing, sadly, a lot of amputations and there will be lots of kids. We will be working out of a small hospital that is used by American surgeons to do eye surgery. I have no idea what to expect except…I’m going to need a lot of ketamine. I plan to work just a few days and be back Sunday evening. I’m going with a group that’s called Children of the Nations www.cotni.org. If you would like to help, please think of me and say some prayers for our patients.

Love,

Christine

Encouraging News from Haiti

adamk — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:59:58 +0000

For those who attended the 9am and 11am gatherings on Sunday, you heard a powerful testimony from John Compere. John has attended Flood since it began and is from Haiti. Sunday morning, he led us in praying for his home country while sharing the difficult news that he had not heard from any of his family since the earthquake hit on Tuesday. Amidst tears, our congregation prayed that John would hear from his family.

As John returned to his car after the 11am, he realized he had forgotten his cell phone in the car. When he picked up his phone he saw that he had a missed call and a message from his brother in Haiti!! Shortly thereafter, he received another phone call from his sister!!

John’s family is alive.

They all have lost their homes and have endured an extremely difficult week, but they are alive!

On behalf of John, I wanted to thank you for praying. May God continue to reveal Himself to us as we draw near to Him. Have a blessed week.

Pastor Adam

P.S. Thanks to your generous response on Sunday, together we gave over $9,000 to provide relief to the crisis in Haiti. A portion of this will be a gift directly to John Compere and his family.

Midnight Prayer

Mawi Patten — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:00:37 +0000

My sister and I both attend Point Loma Nazarene University, and live in the same dorm. We decided to invite the girls from our halls to all pray with us at midnight. After explaining the idea, we ended up sitting in the hallway with a circle of 15 girls ready to pray for the hurting. It is so amazing how God is able to use and work through us by our prayers. Community is such a blessing. I really do believe in the power of prayer! God is so Good!

We are in this together!
Thank you for the challenge and idea! God Bless.

Strength, Love, Believe,
Marsha Hubbard

Midnight Prayer

jprooney — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 09:25:21 +0000

I fully intended to enter into this endevour alone. I knew I would be away from flood folks all evening so I made the commitment to set aside quiet time at midnight. Boy was I wrong. I ran into Jason at the YMCA and we had seen each other around. We shot some texts back and forth and agreed to met up and pray along with his roommate, Todd. God was even moving in the fact that we barely knew each other but had Flood as a bond already!

Our prayer time was most excellent. I would say nothing earth shattering, no angels descending from on high (visible ones anyway), yet the simple stillness and hour of intentional prayer will set an incredible space for our hearts for the week. It was also really binding to know that innumerable lights were also on around the county, praying as we were. Solidarity and boldness. What a challenge. I can’t wait to look up in the near future to see what we really asked God to do with us. Eyes up.

Midnight prayer

MaryH — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 08:47:45 +0000

How generous is our Lord!! I’ve been praying for Haiti since the earthquake and even before I started my prayers at midnight, on the evening news it was announced that the country of Haiti is turning to prayer in this time of heartache and disaster. Additionally, and again so generously, I was reminded of my place in God’s kingdom as His Watchtower. I’d been praying that God would turn Haiti’s disaster into His glory for all the world to witness. As hard times and crises increasingly pummel the earth and our lives, Christians are called upon to turn humanity’s attention to the greatness of God to be found in every situation. While not minimizing the hardships that Haiti’s disaster brings, Christians should be helping and redirecting peoples attention to how each and every situation can magnify God’s glory. Like personal mistakes, worldly disasters are opportunities for God’s glory to shine through. Even when we step away, God is right there waiting with open arms…..How blessed!
Thankful to my Father for the reminder and opportunity to recommit myself to His service-
Mary H

Unique Story out of Haiti

adamk — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:27:16 +0000

This is Adam, Global Impact Pastor at Flood. While we continue to pray for the people of Haiti, here is a unique email I received from a past Floodster. Andy Lurker led one of our first teams to Uganda back in 2007. His mother-in-law has been on a mission trip in Haiti and survived the earthquake. Read below for a challenging yet encouraging story!

Andy Lurker wrote:

I am not prone to sending out emails like this, but in light of recent events and the general interest in what is going on in Haiti, I feel compelled to share our family’s story with you all in more

detail. Some of you may be aware that Erin’s (Andy’s wife) mom, Judy Beltis, left last weekend for a missions trip to Haiti with her church. The church has a partnership with an orphanage near the Capital and have been sending teams there for years. When we first got word of the earthquake, it became very clear that God’s plan for this group

would be unique. Obviously, without any news that the team was alive and OK, worry can settle in quickly. Rest assured that we have received direct contact confirming the miraculous health and safety of Judy’s team, but we grieve in a very personal way for those who are suffering from this tragedy and those that Judy and the team of

survivors are now working to assist. Copied below is the email that Mr. Beltis received from Judy just a few hours ago. I have edited it for purposes of this email, but all the words are her own. I have to tell you with tears in my eyes what

an incredible journey we have been on this year and how excited we are to be experiencing so personally what God is doing in the midst of such a terrible tragedy. In trusting God with everything that goes wrong, He has managed to bring hope and redemption yet again. Judy’s story is a powerful reminder of that to me and a confirmation

of the peace we had experienced even when we had no word of safety. I hope you find encouragement in her report and please remember her in your prayers as they continue to adapt to the needs around them.

On Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 10:09 PM, Judy Beltis wrote:

Well, – now I know that you know that I – and everyone else are

alive, unharmed, and well. I cannot imagine what it must have felt

like for all of you to think that we might all have died. And,

truly, we should have. I cannot even begin to describe here the

sights and experiences i have had these last 44 hours. I don’t know

how I’ll ever explain to you what God has done here and what he

called us here to do. Could you ever have believed that your

squeamish wife would be doing a real life version of a MASH episode?

You will not believe you when I tell you what we as a team needed to

and did do and how God provided miracle after miracle through this

nightmarish scenario to equip us and help us to do it with all the

right people already put in place to manage it. Do you realize that

the hospitals in Port-au-Prince closed their doors and turned the

populace away because they were unprepared to deal with this?

Somehow word got out about what was going on at Maison de Lumiere

and they came to us – and still are coming – it has been non-stop

since it happened. Today, I think was maybe the toughest because

they began to bring in those who had been trapped in the rubble -

and all I want to say about it at this point is that God overcame

every natural reaction to what I was seeing and hearing and doing

and filled my heart with the deepest love and compassion I have ever

known as I worked with precious people in unrelievable and

indescribable agony. I saw outright heroics being performed by every

person on the team, by the Manasseros, and all the other people

(including several medical professionals) who God miraculously

called together to do this indescribable act of ministry.

We expect that tomorrow may be worse yet because of how long people

have been trapped in the rubble. I probably should go to bed, but

I’m going back over in a minute – there are so many who need comfort

or a cup or water or a someone to just sit with them and cry with

them and hold their hand or give them a sip of water…and on and on

and on. It has been difficult to witness the suffering we see here -

but the miracle of the Lord’s constant protection over every single

one of us gives us more than enough strength to continue to do what

needs to be done, tired as we are. I love you and I am rejoicing

with everyone else here tonight that you know there’s going to be a

reunion. Praise our most holy and loving and mighty God. Please

forward this to the kids and my family back east; I don’t know when

I’ll get the chance to do this again. I love you all. Thank you for

your prayers for us – WE FELT THEM! And know that I am more than

allright!!!

I love you -

Judy