I arrived back home as scheduled on April 1st and 3 weeks have almost flown by now. I knew it was going to be busy but I never imagined this busy. This week out of seven days I will be home in Indiana only on Wednesday. This afternoon I'm sitting in the Charlotte N.Carolina airport waiting on my flight to Dayton ,Ohio and then the 3 hour drive back home. Thursday morning my wife and I head out to several cities in Pa. to speak at several churches on Sunday, to meet with some of our friends from previous mission trips and to talk with our new mission candidates.
I don't want to speak too soon but it appears God's hand was at work in this 2 day visit to Kinston, N.Carolina. Harvest Connection one of the ministry outreaches of the Original Free Will Baptist Church denomination contacted us about a long term agricultural partnership in Haiti. Their denominational supported Mt. Olive College's agricultural center leadership felt one of the best ways to help Haiti rebuild would be to create sustainable agricultural projects that provide jobs and food so Haitians can feed Haitians.
One of my desires as the director of Project Help-Haiti is to bring us back into two of our early ministries of agriculture and community development. One of the wonderful assets I'm responsible for is the Borel Compound in the Artibonite Valley. This area is blessed with flat, tillable and irrigated farm land. It is my hope that agricultural test plots can be established on land adjoining our property. That greenhouses, shade houses, plant and tree nurseries can be established.
A plan is taking shape to get us there. Two professors from Mt. Olive college along with a representative from The Harvest Connection will be joining me in Haiti in mid May for several days of fact finding, discussions and videoing. This information will be presented to the delegates attending the annual convention of Original Free Will Baptists Churches in late May. In June a summit will be held at Mt. Olive College with invitations going out to N. Carolina political leaders, successful farmers, agri-businesses, farm equipment manufacturers, equipment dealers and experts in sustainable agricultural practices. It is hoped that by year end or the first of the year we can actually have this ministry up and going. This is all very exciting but quite an undertaking that can only come together through the involvement of lots of people pulling together to make it happen. As I travel to Pa. this weekend and in the weeks and months ahead I will be encouraging people to pray for our success in this worthy endeavor. In God's love , steve
