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- AUG 24
- "Every week we mention something about having a wonderful week, and the truth is, in fact, that we do have a wonderful time each week! God continues to amaze us with His faithfulness, grace, and strength, and the blessing of willing people who come and serve here in Haiti.
Last week we had a team of 8, it was a family with 3 children with ages 8, 11, 13 from Canada, and 3 people from the US. The first 3 days we worked in a community an hour from Port Au Prince, in Cabaret, at the refugee camp. We are helping build a church and a school at a Samaritan’s Purse project. It’s the first time we are able to spend more than one day there, and the experience was great! Each morning we helped with construction, mainly moving rocks and gravel for the floor of the buildings. When we say WE, it means everyone, including the dozens of children adding to the work. Many of them carried buckets, others carried the rocks with bare hands, some looked for anything that would hold more than a rock, and some tried to get a shovel or a wheel barrel when none of us was looking. It could seem as they were just playing, but they helped us indeed!
During the afternoon we would just spend time with the community, having a Bible lesson and crafts. The team was dramatizing each Bible story and it was very fun for the kids to be part of that. Another blessing was to have children on the team (that helped the community kids not to miss Arianna very much –our 8 year old girl from 2 weeks ago!). We were able to set a soccer match where children, youth and even the workers got involved, it turned out to be quite the community event!
Other day the camp “mayor” invited us to visit the camp with him. It was an amazing experience to see how the families are trying to make their tents a home by setting gardens and small details. Good news was to learn that they are having regular medical check-ups and, in general, the community is very healthy.
The last day of work we spent it in Trousable. We went back to the church we’ve been working at. It’s awesome to see the church is almost ready, possibly will be finished in a couple of weeks. We helped setting the rebar for the floor above the cistern, and pouring the cement for it. It was fun to see the buckets coming and going and to see the church floor finished so quickly! It was so exciting for the team to be part of the work and the vision God has given the pastors for this season. Continue praying for this community, that the Lord will supply every need and that the church will shine even brighter! The church also wants to open a school for the community kids who haven’t been able to attend, please pray for workers and supplies needed.
Today arrives the last team, pray for us so God will give us the wisdom and strength needed to fulfill His purpose for us here. Two team members from last week stayed for this week of work also, pray for them so the Lord will continue to be present in their life every day. Thank you for all your support in prayers, we know the Lord remains faithful!
MK
PS. This week the internet nor the electricity have been great, but we’ll try to load pictures soon, you can still follow the blog this week! http://stemmk.blogspot.com/"
- AUG 9
- Pastors/Youth Leaders: you can book your domestic or overseas 2010 mission trip now! As a group leader of your church, campus, or other organization, you can form your own STEM Ministries Team with 12–30 people nearly any time of the year to any country where STEM works. STEM Share Teams to 10/40 Window Nations need 6-14 people. (Click on the blue "TRIPS" tab above for more immediate information.)
STEM has an annual Team capacity of at least 50 Teams (booked on a 1st-come basis). We'd love to have your group form your mission trip thru STEM!
Mission Teams can also be booked now for 2011 and beyond.
- JUL 30
- STEM Share President John Pederson and STEM Int'l Founder/President Roger Peterson will be interviewed live on KTIS (St. Paul, Minnesota) Faith 900 AM Radio from 12:00 noon to 1:00pm today, Friday July 30th, discussing short-term mission outreach to restricted access nations.
- JUL 14
- Here is a recent update from our Haiti Team Leaders, Katia and Miguel, who have led 7 teams since the earthquake and will be doing several more before the end of the summer:
"It’s the first week we spend every work day in the same community, and it was for sure a learning experience!
We spent every day helping build the foundation for the church walls, moving lots of rocks (heavy ones!), water, concrete, and dirt. It’s the kind of work that’s impossible to do with a couple of people, but awesome to see God’s people working together for a purpose. There were seven in the team, plus both of us and many church members. Every day was filled with conversations with the workers and people from the community, playing with the kids, singing lots of songs, and a lot of excitement over the world cup games. Each day we had a time for the kids, singing, making crafts and sharing a story from the Bible. The last day we talked about God’s love and prayed individually for each kid (and the adults that were close by). It was such a sweet time and we pray that God will continue to work in their hearts and draw them closer to Him!
On Sunday we went to Fellowship Church, and were able to share in worship and also gave hygiene bags to the church members. We sang in English, Creole, and Spanish and it was fun to feel part of the family and love into our God in the different languages. It was indeed a good day of rest!
Some background info: Trousable is a community built on two hills, and because of the building conditions, most houses collapsed in that place. It looks like a war zone, and because of the hills, it’s easier to see the destruction from one side to the other. The church is located in the middle of a steep hill, and everyone that walks by has to pass the church entrance –especially now that the stairs are full of debris. People walk up and down the hill all day, since the main roads are after you go up and down both hills. They have to carry water for everyday, not an easy life. Right after the earthquake, all the people from the community moved to a couple of tent camps, which were built on school ground. Our very first team did a medical clinic right inside one of those camps, and even though the needs were overwhelming, they were safe and had a place to stay. But that only lasted a couple of months. By May everyone had to be gone because the schools wanted to open again. It was a hard time for the community, most people having no place to go. This whole time the pastor was praying, and looking for another place to re-build the collapsed church. And God answered –although it wasn’t the way he imagined. Even if they build a building somewhere else, the community was still there, the church was still there. So they were called to re-build in the same area not really understanding why. When the people realized the church started to clear the area and placed a tarp for shade, they all realized hope wasn’t all gone. It inspired them to clear areas near their home and start building small tarp houses. It was incredible. A couple of weeks after that, what was a ghost town became once again a joyful community, with people coming up and down the steep stairs, selling their things, talking to each other. And the church is being rebuilt. The walls aren’t up yet, and it already feels like it would be too small to hold all the people around, that’s undoubtedly the hand of God.
The schools are up and running, and even thought the debris is still everyone, there’s hope that one day it will all be cleared, even if it’s just one rock at a time.
Continue to pray for us, as we need renewed strength every day, we know it’s God who keeps us.
Miguel + Katya"
- JUL 1
- STEM was awarded “ministry of the month“ by KTIS, the leading Twin Cities Christian radio station. KTIS FM 98.5 and KTIS AM 900 will feature STEM 6 or 7 times each day throughout the month of July, in addition to airing 5-, 10, and 15-minute interviews with STEM Founder and President, Roger Peterson.
Pray that God will be glorified through this award, by calling more volunteers to form or join a STEM Ministries or STEM Share mission team, and that the resulting STEM Teams will make Jesus known while meeting the practical needs of the many people STEM Teams serve both domestically and around the world.
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