[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="no" equal_height_columns="no" menu_anchor="" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" id="" background_color="" background_image="" background_position="center center" background_repeat="no-repeat" fade="no" background_parallax="none" parallax_speed="0.3" video_mp4="" video_webm="" video_ogv="" video_url="" video_aspect_ratio="16:9" video_loop="yes" video_mute="yes" overlay_color="" video_preview_image="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" padding_top="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" padding_right=""][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" layout="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" border_position="all" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding_top="" padding_right="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" center_content="no" last="no" min_height="" hover_type="none" link=""][fusion_text] I was seriously so blessed to spend my time in Haiti. It feels like home more than anything else. As I walk the streets, I’m filled with love for the Haitian people. The children bring a smile to my face on the hard days and rejoice with me on the better days. To look down and see a child’s big brown eyes looking up at you with his arms outstretched is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. It’s amazing how two completely different types of people can have so much love for one another, despite the cultural differences. Praise God He unites ALL of His people. “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27) It’s as simple as that. We’re all striving for the goal together, running this race side by side. Think about it, when we go to heaven it’s not just going to be a gathering of Americans. It’s going to be people of all different races and backgrounds, people groups from the other side of the world who we’ve never met before. That just blows my mind. I want to tell you all the unexpected friends I made. And all of the things God had planned for me to do besides helping at an orphanage. This wasn’t your average summer for sure. One thing I’ve learned about missions is to expect the unexpected and the picture you allow God to paint will always be breathtaking. One of the biggest lessons I learned came from meeting so many new Christians. A new team came into Cross to Light every week so I met approximately seven teams (actually a few more because we doubled up for a couple of weeks). At home I tend to get caught up in the motions of everyday life and I don’t really see the power of the body of Christ. Being away from my familiar church home showed me how diverse the body really is. Many of the teams did the same activities for the most part which especially included VBS, orphanage visits and other outreach activities but they all seemed to have their own way of doing it. For example with the VBS, some used puppets, others used plays or paintings, and others used memory verses. But every single lesson touched the kids. It left me speechless to see the body of Christ work like that, for them to use their God-given strengths to reach out like He calls us to (Acts 1:6-8). Some of the outreaches I was involved in included medical outreaches, hospital visits, an eyeglass clinic, trips to the orphanage, mobile evangelism, tent city ministry, praying for Haiti, and VBS. Medical The medical outreach was at the missionary training center and lasted a couple days. Most of the patients were from the nearby tent city. We had people checking vitals and then the patient would go see one of our doctors and after he had diagnosed the patient they picked up their medicine from us for things ranging from stomach aches and headaches to blood pressure problems to various cases that needed painkillers until they were able to see a doctor at the hospital. From there we would pray and minister to them. Hospital Visits For hospital visits we went out in a little group. Only about six of us could go at a time. I was blessed enough to tag along with the team nearly every single time. When we got to the hospital we would go visit the abandoned babies first. There were five total; three older ones and two newborns. We brought them diapers, clothes, toys, food, and bed sheets. Once they were taken care of, we also handed out supplies to the mothers who were staying in the hospital to watch after their children. We prayed and shared the word of God with them if they allowed us to which nearly all of them did and handed them bibles. The people in the hospital really don’t have much else to put their hope in. Many of them can’t afford the medical attention they really need so they accept prayer wholeheartedly. Some days we would go around to other rooms with adults of all ages in them. Each wing had two rooms in it, one was for the women and the other was for the men. You could smell infection in the hot, still air. Some people laid in their hospital beds looking sad or bored while others were unconscious. A few of them greeted us warmly and with enthusiasm, excited for some form of interaction. I found myself wondering how many of those people were going to walk out of there all better. Oftentimes when wandering around the hospital to visit these people we had to dodge the doctors because they would always kick us out if they caught us. We prayed for everyone we got the chance to visit and the last time I got to visit the hospital I met a woman who will probably change the way I see life. There was one other woman from the team in a room with me and we went around interacting with people individually. I came across this one older woman and in my limited Creole asked if I could pray for her. She said yes excitedly and with an expectant look on her face. I told her I couldn’t speak Creole that well so I was going to pray in English and she was okay with that. As I bowed my head to pray and took her hand in mine, I had no idea why she was in that hospital. I didn’t even know her name. But God didn’t need that information because He already knew it. I prayed that God would just work out His will for her life. When I was done I looked up at her and she was watching my face. She thanked me and kissed my hand. Then, as I was walking away I heard her quietly speaking Creole and I believe she was praying for me. Eyeglass Clinic My church family, Calvary Chapel Fredericksburg , came in to provide an eyeglass clinic. I was so ecstatic to see them because I realized how much I need their support through everything. I feel like I used to take them for granted honestly but I won’t make that mistake anymore. They’re an amazing group of people and I’m so blessed to know them. Throughout the week I watched the older few mentor the younger teens as they taught them more about Christ and helping others. I watched my peers step out of their comfort zones as they let God work through them. And although I felt helping an eyeglass clinic didn’t hold much for me at first, I met two women whose situation left me speechless. They taught me about loving others when it’s hard. An old woman had been escorted in by someone much younger. These two people had gotten word we were doing an outreach to help with sight and that’s exactly what the old woman wanted. But she didn’t want fuzzy vision cleared or colorblindness fixed, she just wanted to see something, anything because she was completely blind. So we had to sit her down and explain that we didn’t have anything to help her that day except to pray. So a big group of people surrounded her as one of the group leaders prayed. Immediately after, the woman’s condition hadn’t changed and we told her maybe it never would but that she needed to keep her focus on God and continue praying. Thankfully she was already a Christian and knew of His love for her and completely understood those words and what trust was like. In fact, the younger lady that brought her that day was her adopted daughter who takes care of her every day now. So as we continued to talk to the couple the bigger group around us died down and I was filled with awe for this young woman’s love for the older woman despite lacking any kind of biological relation. I ended up asking if I could pray for her and she said that would be fine. Since we had translators there, this time my prayer was fully understood. I prayed specifically for renewed strength and patience. She was truly an inspiration to me. Orphanage Visits Of course this is one of my favorite parts of going to Haiti. I absolutely love the orphanage kids. I spent a fair amount of time with them listening to lessons from different missionary teams, helping them with crafts, playing games with them, and of course just pouring out love on them. But sometimes it’s not all about what you do for them. As children they tend to surprise you. They really shock me sometimes by simply giving an example of how to have childlike faith. One day as we walked up all the kids were sitting on the top of the handicap ramp, which goes up my waist. So I walked over and held my arms out and called to this one little boy. He put what he was doing down and started walking over to me smiling. The little boy next to him though got excited and immediately put down everything he had and started running to me. When he got to the edge of the ramp he jumped into my arms and climbed me like a tree. That little running boy had no reserves whatever and I started thinking about how that could relate to our walk with Christ. Isn’t that how He wants us to follow Him? To not hold back in any way? What if we just dropped everything and jumped in the water like Simon Peter? (Matthew 4:18-20) What if we lived like that? How radical would that be? How would our lives change? Where’s that passion? Mobile Evangelism About once a week we would go mobile evangelizing which is where we get on this giant truck with the whole missionary team and drive into a crowded area in town. There we park and have a church sermon taught by a pastor or maybe even a married couple and we hand out bibles. This reinforced the lesson I learned from my little orphanage buddy because so many people would just surround the truck desiring a bible. They knew that was all we were handing out. We weren’t handing out food or clothing or anything else but bibles. We had people reaching out from where they sat selling their things on the side of the road and people from the back calling out to us hoping we would throw them one. We were able to fill that desire and provide thousands of people with bibles throughout my stay. I’ll tell you every time we went out, the people never lost the desire for bibles. They always had that hungry spark in their eyes and they would walk away with their noses buried in its pages. I pray they really take what they read out into the world as they live it and hopefully tell others the good news. But to be a little thought provoking for a minute, would you ever reach out for a bible like that? Are you that anxious to open up the word of God? Tent City Ministry A couple of times during my stay we went to the tent city and did different things like a VBS, a women’s conference, and a feeding/prayer outreach, which I found I liked the most. The feeding/prayer outreach allowed us to really get personal with the families and I liked that a lot. One woman I met was home with her children. She seemed to have a few. I asked her if she was a Christian and went to church. She responded that she was a believer but that she didn’t go to church and when I asked why she didn’t, her answer left me stunned. This woman didn’t feel she could go to church because she didn’t have any nice clothes. She was too poor. In the Haitian culture everybody dresses up in their absolute best to go to church so since she felt like she didn’t have a “Sunday’s best” outfit she just didn’t go. I told her no matter what people around her say or think it’s really important that she goes to church because we need to stay grounded in the Word and continue learning. I also told her God didn’t care what she wore. Meeting with her would always be a pleasure. God loves His children period. He doesn’t look at your clothes or your makeup, He looks at the heart, because in the end that’s all that matters. So I prayed for her and then let her know about the nearby church that one of the bible training center students started. I asked her if she thought she could just try it once and she said she would. I tried going back one day to find her, but she wasn’t home. I can only hope and pray she will go and that she sees that the church does have a spot for her and many other women just like her. Praying for Haiti About every other week we would take a missionary group up to the mountain to pray. From there you can see all of Port Au Prince and it’s absolutely breathtaking. The team would have some fellowship around the restaurant up there typically with sodas or water in hand and then after a while would gather to pray. Each person that wanted to pray had their chance whether it was for an individual, the city, or the country. It was just an amazing opportunity to gather together. On the way back down, the worship continued as we blasted praise music from giant speakers and sang along having a good time with Christ and each other. VBS The events having to do with kids are always my favorite. We did a lot of lessons with the kids over the summer and crafts to help them remember what they learned. We were able to give them snacks and hygiene products most days. On other days they got toys to keep them entertained and out of trouble and they watched plays. We danced and sang and played around. I know a lot of people say a Haitian VBS isn’t like an American one, but in many ways, I think it is…minus all of the extra stuff we have here. It’s still a fun group of kids gathering to learn about Christ and have a good time. Culture won’t change that. Upon My Return I came back on a Thursday and started school four days later. So, I tried to cram as many last minute summer activities as possible into those four days. Saturday our church youth group was to do a destination unknown which is when the youth leaders pick a special place to take the youth group and we don’t know where it is. As a teen I’m all excited to go out and do something super cool on a Saturday night. Then I found myself sitting in a church pew and I’m thinking to myself: Really? This is what I was excited about? I go to school Monday! I don’t want to spend my last Saturday night in church! After maybe half an hour or so I realized this was going to be a long night if I didn’t get my heart right and so I bowed my head to pray. I just decided to be real with God and I confessed I felt bitter about my situation and asked that He would soften my heart because I was there for a reason. He followed through and I ended up having a GREAT night and the message and worship couldn’t have been better. From that evening I took away the importance of being real. I feel like the church has masks over it in some ways. We cover up things that are ugly in us and come to church acting like life just couldn’t be better. But realistically there’s no way things are always like that. If we can’t feel safe and be real in our churches where do we turn for comfort? I think it’s time to break out of our shells and be real. Get plugged into things and be genuine. Build real relationships and be there for others. Honestly, before I left for Haiti I was walking around bitter on the inside. I think I tricked a lot of people into thinking everything was just peachy, and it wasn’t. This bitterness ate away my love for so many things. It negatively affected way more than one area in my life. But preparing for this trip taught me you can’t go out and do God’s work well if your heart isn’t in the right place. You have to let God change you before He’ll work though you to really reach others. If not, you’re not going to reap all of the benefits God had in store for you, and He wants the best for you. I did get my heart right about a month before I left and I found it’s so much easier living without that burden. Holding onto that did nothing for me. It’s easier to be genuine and connect then to be stuck in a bitter shell. Some Concluding Thoughts Overall, being a longer term missionary taught me lots about the workings of ministry and how spiritual warfare can get really rough so constantly staying in tune with God is SO important. You won’t succeed in doing any good if you don’t. I learned lots of lessons that I can continue to meditate on now that I’m back. It’s given me beautiful memories of a summer that I wouldn’t have traded for anything, and it’s given me an even greater desire to return yet again. I’ll continue to wait on the Lord and trust that He has the next steps for me already. God is never late and if I stay ready and say send me, He’ll match the desires of my heart to His plan. I haven’t just found friends and family in Haiti, I’ve found a home. ~Romans 12:12~ “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” Written by Kelly Simpson Fredericksburg, Virginia [/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Cross to Light has distributed more then 31,000 bibles and gospel of John's this year. The bibles we distribute are hand delivered to individuals that receive Christ after hearing the gospel. Mission teams bring bibles in, donations are sent to the American Bible Society to fund our account at a bible warehouse in Port au Prince and we bring them in supply containers to be passed out by missionaries. One such missionary, Steve Coon of Shepherd's Voice , visits Cross to Light every quarter. His gift and talent is evangelism and getting bibles into the hands of people that receive the Lord. Just this past week Steve went into the highways and byways of Port au Prince, sharing the gospel and passing out bibles to those who received the Word. He traveled all over Haiti, into local markets, near prisons and even as far as Jacmel preaching the gospel and handing out bibles; "On Tuesday we loaded up the truck with all the students from Cross to Light Haiti Bible Training Center and headed for Jacmel at 7am. The warfare started right away. We had to fix a broken muffler (1 hour) then fix a flat tire (45 minutes) before we were on our way again. We arrived and then went out into the markets and open areas to preach the gospel. Wilny, a graduate from the Haiti Bible Training Center, met up with us to translate and preach the gospel with us. We moved the truck around the city stopping where the LORD lead. We preached along the way to Jacmel and on the way back. On Thursday we took the students to Croix-des-Bouquet open market to preach the gospel. We preached next to the prison and in front of a Catholic church. After receiving Jesus Christ into their lives as their LORD and savior, we gave out gospel of Johns to the new believers. On Friday we went to the mountains where Pastor Lisson is working and preached to all that we found. On Saturday we picked up a team from the airport and preached the gospel from the truck and 200 of the workers received the LORD! We then drove over to Croix-des-Bouquet and preached the gospel to the multitudes, and invited the new believers to receive a gospel of John. On Monday we went to Croix-des-Bouquet and preached to more multitudes and gave out gospel of Johns to those the believed the gospel. The LORD blessed the trip and my flight home on Tuesday. May God bless you with all spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus! Your brother in Christ, Steve Coon"

Pastor Tristan Greth from The Masters Plan in Orange County came out to conduct a Pastors Conference at the Bible Training Center for the graduated student pastors and for the current students. Everyone really loved it and was built up, encouraged and refreshed. They all went out and delivered 4,000 Gospel of John's into the hands of the people in downtown Port au Prince. People heard the gospel, received the Word of God and all of heaven rejoiced!

Through the bout, I have held close to my Lord and his everlasting grace has submitted my life into order and peace. (Genesis 32:22-30) It is hard to explain and put into words what I experienced out in the country of Haiti. Most approach the expedition to a foreign land for a strictly humanistic reason which we addressed with many feeding programs and handing out clothes and shoes. Some people will go for exploration and experiences of the foreign, which we experienced walking through the various streets and ministries in the jungle areas. Many go for spiritual retreat, which we did through all day devotions and prayer. I however, left with expectation to meet God, face to face. I didn’t want anything else but to know I have met with Him, because I know I would not be the same again. The first couple of days were trying, weary and downright almost disappointing. Our mission, for the men at least; turned into a labor camp of some sorts. It wasn’t the act of having to labor in the hot sun that was disappointing, we’ve been doing missions for a while, if anything we have grown to expect hard work and in a sense feel we have been trained for it. No, the sense of disappointment came in the anticipated routine. I have come so far to escape routine, escape the expected however; it was the very thing that greeted me. This continued for four days straight. The sun was unrelenting, the food was short on our accustomed consumption after hard work and our labor seemed to be redundant and not important. This is when the breaking down started. I began to experience digging and stone removal not only in the physical sense but in the spiritual as well. I began to discover how much corruption, filth and self was lingering in my heart. I was faced with everything from my vain pursuits, ambitions, thoughts full of greed, lusts and ungodliness. These things manifested themselves through grumbling and outburst masked as humorous banter but so much truth was embedded within them. Being only left to my thoughts, I began to question and dissect my very character. My life seemed to roll before my mind as an athlete looks at a playback video of his last performance. So many things started off with good intentions and with a good heart but only to end up in such heart break. Pursuits that seemed to fulfill, at least in the physical and natural; only came laced with internal spiritual consequence and moral strife. It was there I began to meet my adversary; I was forced to look in the proverbial mirror, my greatest enemy was myself. I realized now the cause of every heart break in relationships or lack thereof, pursuits of monetary gain and physical fulfillment, academic accomplishments and human notoriety. It wasn’t that these were wrong to pursue, it was that they captured my heart, they had my affection, and they had my worship and devotion. "At what point did it all begin to go wrong?" I asked myself. At what point did my heart leave the source of all joy and peace? To pursue what? For all of this can be taken away and stripped in a matter of a couple of seconds. I got to meet people who lost generations of wealth in a disaster or unforeseen “market correction”. I walked the streets of failed governments and poverty stricken people who have lost all hope, Husbands and Wives leaving what were the ideal marriages for another pursuit based solely on feeling. It can all turn so quickly, but there is One Who remains the same. This is where I heard God speak and show me many things literally. I began to see and hear the many stories of how faithful God is. How a people who were rocked literally to the core, instead of murmuring began to invite Christ in. They began to denounce their voodoo ways that were not only suppressing them spiritually but physically as well. This earthquake shook so much more than the physical. We heard the sound of the people at all hours of the day, praising and lifting up the name of the Lord in their tarp tents, in their shattered homes. What could bring so much joy to a people stripped of so much? I have never met a people so hungry to know about God. Bibles where just as valuable as clothes or money to them. I am in no way diminishing the need for resources out there because the need is great and there are very few organizations still helping, but it was an awaking to this California guy to see such dependence and true gratitude for every little blessing. I've never seen a kid so happy just because they got to walk with us down the street holding our hand. We got to hear account after account of how doors where opening for our friend Pastor Brian McDaniel and his ministry Cross to Light. Some of those stories just blow your mind and you can only leave with the notion of MAN, GOD IS NO JOKE! I have never before met a man completely 100 percent dependent on God’s leading. You can see the trail of God’s hand behind him. It was powerful to see the country of Haiti praying for the blessing of Israel simply because the word of the Lord says to do it and to see God bless them in major miraculous ways in return. I mean literal miracles! It was so impressive that the new President read from Psalms 118 and stated that the government of Haiti will submit to Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Could you imagine that proclamation from the white house? I needed humility; I needed to see obedience and I needed to understand Grace. I found it; I was forced to deal with it with no distractions, hence my understanding of why I was called out to that island. God had allowed me to exhaust all my being and wrestle with Him until He blessed me beyond measure that just like Jacob His touch left a permanent mark on my life. There is so many that look with skeptical eyes, but yet I find those people never awaking to any revelation. They toss everything to the wind as chance, never finding an answer. They are left with more questioning because we are built to be satisfied with truth, and truth is definitive. My questions were answered, my purpose has been refined. As humans we cannot undermine four truths; Love: we all seek it in some form or another and we resent when it has been withheld from us at some point in life. Justice: we seek it when we have been wronged. Evil: Cannot deny its presence in our world, like in recent events in our nation. Forgiveness: What we yearn for when we have done wrong. All of these truths are found in the person of Jesus, for He showed His love on the cross to defeat evil forever. He offers us forgiveness for all the wrongs we have done that separated us from Him if we would just believe and confess with our mouth (Romans 10:9). He did it all so we wouldn’t be held guilty before his throne of judgment (John 3:16). I had to travel 2,500 miles to realize what I already knew, My God is a real and living God, My God is mighty, My God is Sovereign, He reigns and HE LOVES ME and you. We can rest and rely that God is working all things for His purpose and His purposes are good. He simply asks us to Obey, and hold on because it’s going to be a ride. Samuel Villalta Moreno Valley, CA