CQ Summer 2016

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There's so much to celebrate in Fonds Verrettes, Haiti over the last three years of partnership! Since 2013, CLPC has enabled Plant With Purpose in Fonds Verrettes to grow from working in 14 communities to 25! And to nearly double the number of families we work with, increasing from 750 families to 1,455 families! Three years ago when we kicked this partnership off, there were only five savings groups in Fonds Verrettes and today there are 48! The team has increased the number of churches that they're actively coming alongside from three to ten. The impact of these increased activities are apparent; 90% of partnering families actively saving money vs. only 50% of the comparison group in the area. Participating families have seen an increase in household size/quality, increased crop diversity and soil quality. In just 3 years they've planted over 200,000 trees in the region and reached 10% saturation in the Fonds Verrettes area. Because families take what they've learned and teach their neighbors, our hope and goal is to reach 30% of the people in the area over the coming years. We also talked about how between 2017 and 2020 we would be seeing many of the 14 communities we've worked in for more than 7 years graduating our programs and allowing us to start work in new communities! This is something that we are very excited about! A gift for Guy For more info, visit www.plantwithpurpose.org. 6
It was the epic family adventure of my Junior year of high school. Over the course of four weeks, we would drag our twenty-three-foot travel trailer behind the family Buick some 5,000 miles from our home in northern Indiana down to beaches of Acapulco, Mexico and back. Others may have taken an airplane or searched for a destination closer to home. The dunes and shoreline of Lake Michigan were less than 200 miles away. But such a tame excursion would not suffice for the summer of 1980. We crossed the border into Mexico at Brownsville, TX. The Mexican patrol searched the trailer inside and out; once, twice, three times. As they began a fourth search Dad realized their thoroughness was not just a matter of curiosity. With incentive from his wallet we were quickly on our way. After a few days touring Mexico City (Yes, we actually found an RV park in Mexico City!) we began the drive down to Acapulco. The locals warned of the danger traveling that road and strongly cautioned us to find lodging well before sundown. That stretch of highway was known for thieves preying on unsuspecting tourists. Many of the roads we had traveled thus far were barely paved and full of potholes. The highway on the way out of Mexico, however, was a reasonably wellkept two-lane freeway. Having been in the country for several days, our confidence, and our Spanish, was improving. Everything was going great. That is until late afternoon when we hit a large dip in the road. The Buick went nearly airborne. The trailer jostled. We heard a screeching noise along with the smell of smoking rubber. Dad maneuvered our rig to the side of the road and we inspected the damage. The bounce had broken the springs on passenger side of the trailer. Before I go further, you have to understand that my Dad is one of those guys who can fix or repair anything. He did all the engine work and tune ups on our automobiles. When we lived in Pennsylvania, Dad was a volunteer firefighter in charge of maintenance on all the fire trucks. More than once I’d seen Dad take an impossible fix and make it work. I could see his mind turning as we stared at our broken trailer, but I had little doubt that he would figure a way out of this one. I handed him tools and held the flashlight. (Sadly, this remains the extent of my automotive repair abilities.) He tried several approaches. However, each one failed. With every attempt he grew more frustrated until finally he said, “Son, we need to pray.” I couldn’t believe that Dad was surrendering to mechanical defeat. We bowed in prayer asking God for help. Then we waited. The late afternoon sun was quickly fading as car after car passed by our stranded trailer. Finally, one car slowed and pulled to the side of the road. The license plate was from Texas. The young man, traveling with his wife and children in their small station wagon, approached us with a kind smile and asked if we needed help. Did we ever! It turns out the man lived in the town just over the crest of the next hill. He soon returned with the local mechanic who, with the proper tools, was able to secure the axle enough for us to limp into town. We spent the night in our trailer behind the fenced-in lot of the repair shop. It was impossible to order a new spring for the camper, but the mechanic had a friend in another town who was able to custom make the part. Two days later, we had a new spring and the trailer was ready to go. Our family has fond memories of the hospitality we received from the warmhearted people of that little village. The rest of our Mexico trip went smoothly. The sandy beaches of Acapulco were amazing and I have many fond memories of the all the things we saw and did. As a middle-aged man, what I cherish most about that trip today was witnessing the power of surrender to an unsolvable problem. Today, I know surrendering to God’s care is not a last resort. It’s the starting place for facing all of life’s challenges. — Steve Oglesbee Lead Pastor at CLPC 7 7
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CQ Summer 2016

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