Tony Lisotta's new "Man Crush"

Pastor Kesnel sharing his vision with our group

Throughout my life I have had the so-called "Man Crush."  Up until recently, Laird Hamilton, who is the best big wave surfer (70 foot waves) in the world, held that position in my mind.  He is an amazing athlete and was born with an athletic gift that will be very hard to duplicate.  I’ve spent my life looking up to Laird Hamilton and other athletes who have defined what it means to be successful, what it means to achieve the ultimate manhood.

Last month, I went to Haiti with a group of friends from Church at the Bay. We were going to visit the orphanage we partner with, which is run by a man named Pastor Kesnel. When I met Pastor Kesnel, on day three of our trip, I could immediately see a peace in his eyes.  It is hard to explain unless you come face to face with him.  I felt immediately captivated by his presence.  It was like I knew him for years and it felt like he was another father to me.  A few of us walked around the orphanage with him as he told us his story -- it blew me away. 

He had been born and raised in Haiti with his brother.  They were extremely poor and on top of this his father had abandoned them at an early age.  There were several times during the week where his mother would not come home from working until they were asleep.  She did this on purpose as she did not want to face the embarrassment of not having food to feed her kids.  They would go without food for 2 or 3 days sometimes. Their bed was a concrete floor.

Fast forward the clock and Kesnel had left Haiti and had become a successful real estate business man in Miami.  He was married and had several children.  He kept having dreams of being needed in Haiti and a calling to take care of orphans. This was very significant to Kesnel because Haitians strongly believe that God speaks frequently through dreams. He approached his wife and told her he had been called back to Haiti and wanted to move the family back.  As you can imagine, she said, “no way -- I can't go back to that environment!”  He said he understood. He promised to take care of her financially while she stayed back in Miami, but he was going anyway!

 This blew me away! It reminded me of the priorities we say we should have-- God first, wife second, kids third, and everything else after that.  Over the course of a few day or weeks, she came around and stuck by his side.  

Pastor Kesnel with his wife, Madame Yanick Kesnel

Pastor Kesnel bought a piece of property and started to build out his vision.  His entire family actually slept on the back of a flat bed truck for 5 years as things started to take shape.  They went the bathroom in plastic bags, struggled with the heat, the mosquitoes, the weather, and more.  On top of this, they went through the earthquake in 2010. Pastor Kesnel actually met representatives of the Global Orphan Project right after the quake, after offering his dump truck to them to borrow.  

Their obedience to the Lord and their passion for chasing after His calling just blows me away.  

Pastor Kesnel is also an entrepreneur at heart.  He is working hard for self sustainment at his orphanage. As we walked through the village, we saw just a few examples of his efforts to bring the village to financial self-sufficiency. Kesnel sells water from his well to the community at less than they can buy it other places, and if they cannot afford it, he gives it to them for free.  He charges car batteries for a small fee.  He sells lumber supplies out of his complex.  He builds bunk beds and sells them.  He is in the process of building a swimming pool so he can baptize the children but also give swimming lessons.   All the money raised goes right back into his orphanage. 

Pastor Kesnel with "all of his children."

There are many days where Pastor Kesnel counsels people from dawn to dusk.  People come to him from all over for spiritual advice.  You can imagine the energy, commitment and compassion this takes day in and day out.  However, he believes (and it shows) that the Lord gives him the strength to sustain this type of pace.  If you ask him to point out his own children, he says, “all these children are mine.”  He truly believes that and you can see it in the way he carries himself.

I could go on and on about Pastor Kesnel.  Meeting him definitely changed my view of what it means to be a man and most importantly, a Christ-follower. I actually get very frustrated with all the reality TV shows about this person or that person.  While our society sits around and idolizes these people, wasting valuable time in front of the TV, Pastor Kesnel is out there, in action, doing something about the pain in this world.

Pastor Kesnel is my new “man crush.” Sorry, Laird, but I thought you would understand. 

Pastor Blaine Albright's post--Where's Shelly?

Shelly

We arrived at All-in-One village on a Saturday morning and all I could wonder was whether I’d get to meet “Shelly,” the girl on the side of our fridge, the girl my boys prayed for every night and called “their sister.” There would be no mistaking her smile. Or those eyes! As we piled out of the van, each of us was claimed by a couple of children. As one grabbed my hand, I engaged, but I also kept my eyes peeled for Shelly.

We played soccer, I attempted Creole, and all the while I wondered where Shelly might be. Finally, I approached Yanick Kesnel, Pastor Joseph’s wife and asked where Shelly was. Yanick paused for a moment and I couldn’t read her facial expression. A flood of possibilities flooded my mind: Was she affected by last year’s cholera outbreak? Had the malnutrition been too much to overcome?

Thankfully, that split second of anxiety was quickly relieved by Yanicks’s smile, pained though it was.  I recognize it now as the same smile my Mom gives me every time we leave South Florida to come back to Tampa. There is pain because she wants to be with her kids and grandkids. But more, there is pride in that I am doing what God has called me to do. I could see that same pride that in Yanick’s eyes, that Shelly is where she’s supposed to be.

Yanick began telling me about Shelly. I would be lying if I said that my eyes stayed dry

(a common experience for the team—the men blamed the watering of eyes on “Haitian dust”).  

It turns out that Shelly was not an orphan, in the sense that both of her parents had died. She was an “orphan of necessity.”Her mother and father split up years ago. Shelly’s biological mother was terribly abusive towards her. Pastor Joseph and Yanick welcomed Shelly into All-in-One, likely saving her life. A couple of months before our trip, Shelly’s mother died. Shelly’s biological father was apparently unaware that she had been at All-In-One, as he had been sending his ex-wife money regularly. When Shelly’s father learned of her mother’s death and Shelly’s apparent whereabouts, he came to retrieve her and take her back home to live with him in the Dominican Republic.

As Yanick described the reunion between father and daughter, I began joyfully (and tearfully) laughing.

Madame Yanick Kesnel and Blaine, with the children

Later that afternoon, I visited Yanicks’s office for some paperwork and noticed a framed picture of Shelly on her desk, another indicator of their special connection. When I asked her about it, I gained even more pride for Shelly (unreasonable, I realize) as she described Shelly, with a pained smile, as brilliant and sweet, as the girl that lights up every room. She paused and whispered how it’s hard to bond with every child because there’s just so much pain in their stories, and so much pain in losing them, even when they’re “happy endings,” as in Shelly’s case. There was a lot of “Haitian dust” in that room.

 Shelly is now with her father in the Dominican Republic and this is, without a doubt, what is best for her. I am so thankful for the role that my family got to play in her story. I am thankful for Pastor Joseph, Yanick Kesnel, and everyone at All-In-One village. God is using that community (and our community) in ways that I didn’t even know. When I arrived home to Tampa, I shared the exciting news about Shelly’s story with my boys. The smiles on their faces to hear that “their sister” was with her dad…true joy! We still pray for her, but we also have new “brothers and sisters” that our partnership with All-In-One makes possible.  And many of their stories are just getting started.

Update packets are in the mail!

The CATB Orphan Project update packets have gone out today! 

You can look forward to reading about the positive changes and developments in our village, the All in One Village, in Dargout, Haiti. You'll also get a glimpse of the life-change that the orphans are experiencing and how trips to Haiti have impacted fellow CATBer's. 

Due to the transitory nature of Haiti and our orphanage in particular, most partner families will not be receiving updated photos of the orphans they originally received. Most of the orphans we originally took photos of back in May 2010 have been relocated or reunited with family members, which is exciting news!

Please join us on Fridays at four o'clock to stop and take a moment to pray for the child you'll receive in the update packet and for the orphanage as a whole. And don't forget to enter your email address on the right hand side of this blog to subscribe and receive regular updates!

Newest family members

 

"JO"

Update from Christopher Savini, one of the missionaries living in All In One Village:

Two little boys moved into the orphanage today (2/29/12). They are brothers whose father died in December. Their mother was recently evicted from her home and is unable to feed them anymore. We don't know how long Jo and Wilkey will be with us, but as long as they are here, they are family.



"Wilkey"

Please join in praying for the newest member of our family at All In One Village, that they will feel God’s love  and transition well into life with all their new friends.

Check out these amazing stories of life change from All in One Village in Haiti.........

Anieka

She had lived at the home for almost a year. Her aunt had brought her to Yannik and Kesnel because she had lost her job and was in school. She was no longer able to feed Anieka. Anieka's mother has never been able to care for her.
Yannik and Kesnel have been talking to the aunt for several weeks, she is working again and is back on her feet. On Monday (2/13/2012) she picked up Anieka and took her home. We are so happy to see this reunion. Please join us in praying for Anieka and her aunt as they make this transition.

Vernod

He was a street kid and a pickpocket. He was absolutely hated in the community because he would steal anything from anyone. No one would have anything to do with him and no orphanage would take him in.
Kesnel decided to take a chance on him and would not give up on him even though it seemed there was little hope that Vernod would ever change. That strategy of loving him through it worked, Vernod did change his ways, and Kesnel says that he now trusts him completely.  Please join us in a prayer of thanksgiving for Pastor Kesnels heart for orphans and Gods amazing ability to change people.

Sandy Mayer's Reflection on her Trip to Haiti

After spending time with the children and listening to John and Abby Carr, our Global Orphan hosts, share about Global Orphanage, my heart was overwhelmed and awed by God. These children have very little and still have smiles on their faces. They allowed us to enter their personal space with open arms.  They were careful with our possessions (cameras and sunglasses) and returned them when requested. I didn’t see want of anything, but love and touch in their eyes. 

Some of the children's stories of how God placed them exactly where they needed to be touched my heart. There were some children whose parents died in the earthquake two years ago, and other children whose parents just can't take care of them. It was like being in a whole new world and God was letting us know that the great I AM  is here, right in the middle of Haiti, and cares. I saw God’s love in the faces of the children, the orphanage leaders, the pastors, and the mamas.  I could see our awesome God is working around us.  

I kept asking myself what is God going to show me? I was there to love the children, but with such an opportunity comes a lesson and I didn’t want to miss it. I was jealous and hungry for God to speak to me about who He is in me. I felt so inadequate to pray or speak during our group devotion times.  I wanted God to speak to me and give me something to share, but I kept listening to the lie of not knowing enough, not understanding enough, and not praying with spiritual insight. 

What a list, and what a lie.

God said look at me and trust in me. You cannot glorify me with your mind on all your so-called shortcomings.  Trust me.  

I then asked God to do whatever it took to strip me of myself and replace all that is within me with Him.  He is all I need and there is nothing inadequate about HIM.  The rest of the trip, I stepped into a boldness and a kind of confidence, in God, that I'm just getting to know. I prayed with others, I loved on the kids, and I kept my eyes on God's truth instead of my lies. 

I have seen how great our God is through the eyes of small children. In Matthew 18:3  Jesus says, 

"I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter into the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me."

We encountered that truth that weekend. We welcomed the children into our arms, but we were the ones who were humbled.

   

There has been a renewal of who God is within my spirit.  I ask God to please help me put into words what He has revealed  to me and how it all came together.  What a privilege I have been given to go a different world and draw so close to Him with a team that was so encouraging.  I can’t thank God enough for this trip and all the prayers that led to such a blessing.  

I will trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding and in all my ways acknowledge him and he will make my paths straight. (Proverbs  3:5-6)

God's Blessings, 

Sandy Mayer