NOVEMBER 2014 NEWSLETTER
Dear Coastal Haiti Mission Family and Friends,
Due to technology requirements, we have been required to revise the Coastal Haiti Mission (CHM) web site. For six months we have not been able to send out newsletters from the CHM website. However, we have been able to use the CHM blog to send newsletters to you. This November 2014 newsletter is the first one originating on the revised CHM web site. The web site is still undergoing minor revisions.
EMERGENCY RESPONSE REPORT
We want to report to you that there has been a very good response to our emergency appeal for funds to allow CHM to continue to provide financial help to the pastors and food programs. We are very thankful for all donations that were sent to us. Some of you have indicated that you are sending donations on a regular schedule. This regular giving, helps us to gauge the level of investment we can make each month to the CHM ministries in Haiti. We do not want to have a large financial cushion in the bank just to insure that CHM will be able to meet its monthly commitments. At the same time we know that each month, people in Cahess are depending on the support that you provide through CHM.
We receive fund- raising letters from other charities and every appeal is an emergency. We do not want to operate that way. We do not want to play on emotions to get money. Rather we at CHM would rather show you the needs and then ask God to speak to you. We welcome financial support from you whatever your reason for giving is.
We pledge ourselves to treat those finances as they are God’s personal finances, because in fact, that is what they are.
THANKSGIVING MESSAGE
I don’t remember many sermons that I have heard in the last fifty years. There is one that I have never forgotten. I remember the main theme but I needed to refresh my memory about the details. The account is found in 2 Samuel 24. It turns out that King David had displeased God such that a plague of death was being inflicted on the inhabitants of Israel. King David was given instructions by Gad the prophet, to build an altar on the personal property of a man named Araunah, and to offer sacrifices on the altar. When Araunah saw King David approaching, he went out of his house and bowed before the king He inquired why the king had come to him. King David stated that he had been instructed by the prophet of God, to use Araunah’s threshing floor to build an altar and then offer sacrifices on it to stop the plague. Araunah tried valiantly to give his property to King David. It was then that King David stated, “I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God, that which costs me nothing”.
This principle was certainly burned into the spirit of Pastor Clint Goddard. I was witness to the many times that Clint went to Haiti on money borrowed on his credit card. I could write an article describing the sacrifices that Clint and Connie have made in order to serve the Lord our God. I won’t write that article because I know Connie will not want me to. However, I will say that they have been a tremendous example to me. Now Clint’s time of sacrificing to invest in God’s kingdom is over. Connie continues on in the path that she and Clint shared together.
When you send money to CHM, we know that there is a cost to you. You are following the example of King David when he said “I will not give to God that which costs me nothing”. Thank you for allowing us to channel your sacrifices to God.
Thank you again, and may you have a blessed Thanksgiving Season.
Ken and Connie