Steve and Nancy are doing medical work in different clinics in Haiti under the sponsorship of the Haitian Baptist Convention. They have been re-appointed and commissioned as jointly appointed missionaries, in partnership with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

 

They write: Imagine having to be carried to church each Sunday in a wheelbarrow!  For the past thirteen years, Julio, a 52-year old man struggling with the effects of cerebral palsy, has faithfully attended his local church by being carted in a wheelbarrow.  As of yesterday, thanks to the PET project in the US, Julio will be able to ride in his own PET (“personal energy transportation”) to church and other places.  Julio has been home bound and now has a chance for a wider horizon. About 6 weeks ago while Steve was working in one of the rural clinics, Suze, the clinic’s lab tech, approached him and asked if he knew of any apparatus or wheelchair that could help a man in her church who had to get to church in a wheelbarrow.  Steve immediately thought of the small factory we had toured recently while visiting my parents at Penney Farms Retirement Community in northern Florida.  The PET Factory at Penney Farms has designed and produced, with the help of retired volunteers, this mobile, hand-cranked bike for handicapped adults and young people who live in rural areas all over the world.

 

What a joy to give a gift someone was not expecting!  Julio welcomed us and started talking about the Lord, having no idea why we were visiting him. He was so grateful to God for His presence in his life and all that Jesus had done for him. We told him that some Christians in the U.S. had made a gift for him that would help him to be able to move around on his own.  His eyes lit up and his smile broadened. We placed him on the seat of the PET.  He immediately started testing it out on the porch where he lived. Julio was completely amazed and delighted.  He knew that the Lord had done this for him.

 

Before we left we gathered around Julio where he was sitting in his new PET and prayed, sang a hymn, and dedicated the bike to the Lord.  Julio couldn’t stop thanking us, and we wished that all the countless people who had helped to make it possible. It lifted our spirits that day. To know that he didn’t have to be wheeled to church in a wheelbarrow anymore as he had for so many years was thrilling.  Now he will be able to go to church and other places with dignity and joy. 

·        Pray for Steve and Nancy as they minister in Jesus’ name among the needy people of Haiti.

·        Pray also for their son Micah (15).