From Pastor Bernard's Pen

Grace and Peace to you from God our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! We pray that this letter finds you all well under the Lord's guidance and protection.

First of all, we want to thank you for your constant prayers, your continuing support and donation. What you are doing for the ministry is priceless and meaningful. By so doing you allow us to better serve God's people and extend the ministry. By your love and Christian action our burden is getting lighter and more souls are won for Christ's sake. Thanks be to the Holy One!

Because of your Christian love, your generosity, your mission minded spirit and your faith in Christ; we are able to accomplish tremendous things/projects on behalf of God's people in Haiti these last two years: a well has been put up, a school and a church have been built in the area of Leo-gane; a new classroom, a library and a cafeteria have been built for our school at Delmas 75, Port-au-Prince; a preaching station which will become a congregation soon is started in the area of Port-au-Prince. A photo of each of these projects will be sent to you. These realized projects have made a positive impact in the lives of the ministry of the Good Shepherd Evangelical Lutheran Church in Port-au-Prince. With the well the people living in the community of Cabois (Leogane) do not need any more to walk for 45 minutes to one hour with a bucket on their head to get some water for their drink and cooking; the victims of the earthquake of January 12, 2010 have now a place to send their children to school and a place to worship; our kindergarten, our grade school and our high school students feel more comfortable now with this new classroom, with a library and a cafeteria. It is not only a blessing but it is also a very good progress in the ministry of the Good Shepherd. Knowing that most of the parents whose children go to our school cannot effort to buy books and other school supplies for their chil-dren, a school library stays and remains an important factor. Our students will no longer use the school desks as a table to eat. Our cafeteria makes a difference today in our school. For all these bless-ings received from God what do we owe Him? Noth-ing! But we can tell others about Him, about the good news of salvation and the wonders He is doing among His people. It is in that same spirit that the members of the Good Shepherd Evangelical Lutheran church feel compelled to take out this good news of salvation to the inhabitants of "Village Roracess". Village Coracess was born shortly after the earthquake of January 12, 2010. It is a virgin area as far as the Gospel is concerned, so having a mission field there is much more important.

Where did we find funds to accomplish these projects, to purchase uniforms for our students, to buy text books, school supplies, paying our teachers, to buy rice and beans for our feeding program? The funds come from our brothers and sisters from the different churches and schools, from our donors and supporters up there.

Thank you so much for all you do and continue to do on behalf of the Lord's ministry down here. Please continue to pray for the spreading of the Gospel in Haiti. We have some new projects for the coming year (2015): 1) A copy machine is very much needed for the ministry; 2) Build a hangar for the preaching station; 3) continue with the student's adaptation; 4) continue with the feeding program;

We want to refresh our thanks to you for all the blessings shared with us. This commitment from your part makes a positive impact on the ministry of the Good Shepherd Evangelical Lutheran Church. Also our church members are becoming more active and involved in the extension of the mission work. Our mission field started a few months ago has an attendance of 65 to 70 people). Starting a new mis-sion field might seem to be easy in our eyes but to make it grow is something else. We cannot make it.

Thanks be to our God, both the church and the school are going well. That does not mean there are no challenges but Jesus' victory is ours. Again, thank you so much for all the blessings you are sharing with us, thank you for your commitment, your Christian love and action. You are a real fountain of encourage-ment and blessings for us.

We also take this opportunity to wish our brothers and sisters, our donors/supporters/the kids of the school and the family members.

Brotherly yours in the resurrected One,

Pastor Thomas Bernard