CEDAR-DACTYL AHH! HA HA HA!!

This my friends is the very rare, CEDAR-DACTYL!!

My wife made an awesome pasta for dinner. the sun was setting behind us and a gentle rain was falling. Despite the setting, my daughters were smearing the pasta all over their faces and wearing their bowls on their heads. Now covered in food cedar began to belly laugh this really odd laugh that she had done before. Luckly I had the camera right on me and I began filming.

Hanging in the Balance: Share your keys to surviving TRANSITION.

Lets just be honest for a moment:

While in Haiti I felt such grace, peace and perspective from the Lord. I worked six back to back 15 hour days and did not even think about being tired. Adrenaline I guess. Sense being back home I spoke 3 times yesterday and then have interviews lined up for today. It wasnt until yesterday afternoon that I officially fell from the top of the exhausted tree and hit every branch on the way down!

What have you found to be the best way to maintain perspective through transition? I am curious to hear your thoughts from your experience!

Click the comment button on the side and Lets discuss this!

Also be sure to check out my new “pages” across the top, “Who I am,” “Core values,” “How we Live,” “Fire and Fragrance,”

(Feel free to re-post this blog anywhere and check out www.johnnyandjenni.net for John’s perspective on our trip!)

Haiti 2010: RHOP Missions and Prayer

As I stood in the midst of the refugee camp I looked around and saw 56 people lying down on straw mats, most badly injured, most having lost at least a family member, and all of them homeless. The intercessor inside of me began to boil. I closed my eyes and began to associate my emotions with the people in their pain and with the heart of God in his love and his word. I was now stepping into the gap. Engaging the imperfect and the Perfect, being torn between heaven and earth. I hold this focus and wait

It was in this place that a song began to well up in my spirit:

“Oh, Haiti… Hear the word of the Lord! It is time to return to your lover!”

I began to quietly sing under my breath as the melody’s formed and solidified into a complete sound carrying what I was sensing from the heart of God. The more I sang the more confident I became. This is what the one who spoke creation into existence is singing over this land.

Then the atmosphere started shifting as true reality was landing and the wall of hopelessness was being broke down. The word of the Lord was cutting the cloud of confusion and the Presence of God began to sweep though the room…

This is what Haiti needs. prophets, intercessors, and worshipers who will shift the atmosphere and release truth into the land. Those who will come abandon themselves to enthroning the Ultimate estorer over this nation.

I am calling the intercessors!! IHOP! Burn 24-7!! YWAM!! All of us!

From this place of communion and intercession our hearts begin to line up with what the bible says is possible. Then quickly, the sick, homeless, grief stricken people in front of you seem possible to help because you are listening to the hope of heaven instead of the dispair of circumstance.

Power filled missions comes from communities centered around deep prayer both personally and corporately.

Haiti is in a desperate place as a nation. They will not ever recover if they do not embrace and commit themselves to Jesus. We need the intercessors to come and prophetically declare this truth over the nation. To come and usher in His presence to the refugee tents and the rubble covered streets.

Red Cross is not full of the Holy Spirit. Haiti’s Civil Protection is not full of the Holy Spirit. The UN is not full of the Holy spirit. We as the praying church are full of the Spirit and are carrying the heart of God in truth. Many are flooding the nation with aid and food and medical supplies but it is only going to be from the voice of the praying church calling for the intercessors! Haiti will never be completely restored by humanistic aid alone. It can only be transformed as Haiti as a people begin welcoming in the one who can make beauty from ashes.

Refugee tent tabernacles! RHOPS! Teams flowing straight from worship
and intercession right into praying for the sick, then out into
various places to serve!

This is not “plan b!” In the Long term, this is “plan A” for national transformation!

Lets respond as led by the Lord!

love you all

Jer

(Feel free to re-post this blog anywhere and check out www.johnnyandjenni.net for John’s perspective on our trip!)

Haiti Perspectives NEW VIDEO!

Here are some videos declaring a prophetic vision and reality over the Nation of Haiti! We need to see this nation through the eyes of Jesus, with whom, nothing is impossible!!

(Feel free to re-post this blog anywhere and check out www.johnnyandjenni.net for John’s perspective on our trip!)

TONS of Rice and Beans

For the last week the Leadership here at the YWAM base has been coordinating and leading out a refugee relocation effort with the capacity to move 300 Port Au Prince victims per day until a limit of around 8000. This has been a massive coordination between  NGO’s, the UN, Civil Protection, and Churches. This whole relocation exodus began this morning and went really well today! One of the main issues however has been working with anything government oriented because it is almost invariably corrupt. Yesterday we found out that Civil Protection who promised to provide food, water, eating wears, and sleeping mats told us that they “could not organise that” and would not be able to provide the food for the refugees that we would be bringing up in the morning!

When Johnny and I got in the country Terry Snow had just bought some of the last gas in the country and had bought the last bag of rice in the region!  And now looking to have to provide food for these refugees was not looking good! However today, a huge order of rice and beans showed up!! Terry does not even know where this supplier got this rice! Here is the video of us unloading the truck and stacking it in the building.

Some of this rice is going tomorrow directly to an orphanage that YWAM is associated with! This was such a key breakthrough at such a key time! praise God!

(Feel free to re-post this blog anywhere and check out www.johnnyandjenni.net for John’s perspective on our trip!)

UN Headquaters and Go Karts

When John and I arrived in St Mark after an exhausting 10hr ride in from the dominican republic, we approached Terry Snow about helping him to administrate the relief efforts. He gladly received and put us to work helping him to move from crisis mode and into a better logistical flow. Sense this morning we have spent over 12hrs lining out how we are going to facilitate a giant 3000 person Port Au Prince refugee relocation. We are going to be bringing them here to St Mark to live in 4 emptied out public schools to get them away from the utter chaos, gangs, and impending disease. We are working in conjunction with Civil Protection, Acted, and several other organizations to make this happen. We met at the Mayors office today getting this all coordinated. Then the whole day culminated in a heart pounding Go Kart ride racing through the potholed dirt streets of St Mark with Terry Snow to the UN headquarters. I thought to myself:

“I never thought that this january I would ever be responding to one of the worst disasters in the last decade in Haiti Go Karting around St Mark meeting with UN Officials.”

That didn’t make it on my plans for 2010!!

After Meeting with the UN we established that we are going to be taking 2, 52 passenger busses running 3 trips a day down to Port Au Prince airport where there is armed security and will register and Identify Haitian refugees who have relational connection with family or friends in St Mark. Then we will bring them here 300 per day until the schools and our make shift hospital are full. Tomorrow we meet with all the pastors in the area to help mobilize their resources to house and spiritually care for these homeless hopeless people.

This is a small snapshot into what we were doing today. I am actually still in a leadership meeting with Terry snows staff where he is catching up his staff with what we came up with!! I am going to go for now. Keep praying for us. We really need wisdom faith and perspective. Read my previous blog post, “now I am in the headlines” to see how you can get involved.

YWAM’s rescue efforts report 1/18/2010: (yesterday)
-They pulled a 4 month old baby from the rubble alive!
-they then found that her mom was also trapped and even though she was thought to be dead they dug for her and found her barely alive severely dehydrated with kidneys shutting down. Both are now safe in the hospital.

YWAM’s rescue efforts report 1/19/2010:
-They worked with a small hospital working with amputations
-cooperations with the UN doing medical work
-They are still looking for the people under the rubble
-They are going to be picking up people off the side of the street who have not had medical care. People that have not been to a clinic because they could not move and are getting infected. They are going out for them tomorrow then they will triage.
-They are staying at the UN HQ in Port Au Prince.
-they are using a newly bought vehicle as a make shift ambulance.

Goodnight for now,

Jer

(Feel free to re-post this blog anywhere and check out www.johnnyandjenni.net for John’s perspective on our trip!)

We are now inside the Headlines

Early monday morning (about 2:30am) we left to the Haitian Border with about 30 other people. We were the first team from YWAM to respond to the already existing long term YWAM presence here in Haiti. We had our money hidden in our socks because the border and police are corrupt and will take all your money if they have a chance. We had no problems at the border thankfully and continued our 10hr bus ride into Port Au Prince and then on to St Mark where we are located. As we traveled across Haiti I was curious pondering what we would find coming into the capital of Port Au Prince where the earthquake was most devastating. When we began to see signs of the earthquake damage it didn’t really even engage my emotions. It was unreal. I couldn’t really wrap my mind around what I was seeing. Completely collapsed buildings, rubble everywhere, people fighting and walking around with suit cases on their heads homeless and hungry. Tent cities made of tarps and whatever else they could find were scattered through out the city. The stench was recognizable although I had never smelled it before. I think the clearest picture for me was seeing the capitol building completely devastated. A nation in total collapse.

As I tried to engage my heart with what I was seeing I immediately began to problem solve and strategize in my our head what would be the next steps for restoration. Quickly I realized that as bad as the earthquake was now the current crisis of having no organized structure of leadership to take the helm and move things forward. The systems in Haiti have been notoriously corrupt for years and now are virtually nonexistent. This is why the US Military has come in and is helping to bring structure in anyway they can to this chaos. The looting, gangs and violence is a very real issue as even moral people are forced to move into basic survival to put food in their injured kids mouths and keep their wives alive. There has been an amazing response to this crisis from aid organizations from all over the world. And as the dust settles hope and clarity are coming into focus but are far from perfect.

After dropping supplies off at the main relief point in Port Au Prince we travel 2 hours on the scariest bus ride of our lives, crashing over pot holes, swerving around cars, and honking for people to get out of the way. arriving at a city called St Mark (population:270,000) where YWAM has its beautiful, safe, HQ. Johnny and I are now here working along side YWAM Haiti’s national director Teri Snow to organize bringing 3000 refugees into the school buildings of this city for a duration of three weeks. Teri is basically running the show for this whole city as well as coordinating the mission in the whole nation. We just were in a meeting this morning with the head of civil protection for St Mark discussing how we are going to identify, transport, badge, house, treat, feed, pay and release these 3000 hurt and broken people. This is no small task.

Currently Teri Snow is putting out a call to YWAM international and whoever else that will respond for teams. The Idea that there are plenty of aid workers is not true and we are developing a strategic and effective way for you and your team to come and get plugged in to being apart of restoring a nation.

Tasks and positions that need immediate response from all of us are:
-people to badge and identify victims in Port Au Prince
-servants to be bodies in several various tasks depending on the current needs
-client care, medical, recreational, and spiritual ministering with prayer and worship teams, changing the atmosphere of the places the victims are staying. non christian aid organizations obviously do not do this and this is what needs to be laid as a foundation in the hearts of the haitians as they look at this new beginning.
-management/team leaders
-security: to stay awake in shifts and make sure people are doing ok.
-data entry for identification and administration. (They hav

This is a picture I took yesterday. This is the clearest visual description of the state of this nation.

e thousands of emails many of which are very important which require response and time which Teri and his team do not have.)
-FRENCH BILINGUAL SPEAKERS!!
-Construction workers: skilled trades men and labor servants.

Roles that need to be filled in upper level management with longer term commitment: (be thinking a minimum of 2 months, must be skilled and seasoned in leadership and the specific task)
-Outreach coordinator
-Communications officer
-Facilities/camp administrators
-human resources director
-account manager

These are some of the needs are Johnny and I could see them immediately. This crisis will change and take shape as time passes and they will need response even up to a year away.

INFO:
www.ywamhaiti.org
www.johnandjenni.net
jeremybardwell.wordpress.com

Respond: Come. Give. Pray.

COME:
If you feel the call to respond to these needs with a team please contact the base at relief@ywamhaiti.org
and contact Johnny or I through email and we will help to connect you the best we can.
GIVE:
If you feel called to give you can give through my paypal jeremy.bardwell@gmail.com or through johnny’s www.johnandjenni.net or you can contact the case through the above email which will be more difficult but is still possible. then make sure to email me at jeremy.bardwell@gmail.com to notify me that you have given.

PRAY:
God is calling out to Haiti to return from the cruel master of sin and oppression and into his love and hope. Organize a through the night Prayer and worship time in your community with your friends and church to cry out for revival and reformation as they will be going through massive reformation anyways! This is something that only the praying church will respond to!! Red cross and FEMA and UN are not praying for salvation and revival in Haitian hearts!! We as God’s friends and servants must rise to the call!

Check out my facebook for pictures of our time so far.

I love you all and feel your prayers and support so much! The generosity has been amazing and Johnny and I have been so encouraged to be launched by such amazing people! Lets continue in this momentum and continue to carry this people in our hearts. The pain is far from over.

Please repost this to wherever you feel like it would be relevant and check back for more post from myself and Johnny in the next week.

With love from Haiti,

Jeremy Bardwell

(Feel free to re-post this blog anywhere and check out www.johnnyandjenni.net for John’s perspective on our trip!)

I AM FLYING TO HAITI TONIGHT!!

Hey Friends,

My friend John and I are Responding to an urgent call for workers from the YWAM Base in Haiti about 10-20 miles outside Port au Prince. Right in the Heart of some of the most dire need.

The base director Teri Snow has been in Haiti for 20 years and is an incredible man of God. We are going to be coming along side their work and serving our hearts out.

We need to raise $3500 for both of us for our tickets, ground fees, and to help our familes to cover some income while we are away.

So if you have been feeling like you really want to make an impact in Haiti but have not know how to give and really want to know where your money is going, You can give in a number of ways the fastest being my PayPal account:

PayPal username:
jeremy.bardwell@gmail.com

You can also send me a donation, by check, tax deductible, at:

Jeremy Bardwell
75-5851 Kuakini Hwy #23
Kailua Kona HI, 96740

Make the check out to U of N Kona then write my name on a small note and the numbers 5329.

If you could email me at jeremy.bardwell@gmail.com with the amount you are sending and how you sent it, then I can keep track in this crunch time situation.

Thank you for your contributions! God will richly bless you in return!!

In his love,

Jeremy Bardwell

(Feel free to re-post this blog anywhere and check out <a href=”(Feel free to re-post this blog anywhere and check out www.johnnyandjenni.net for John’s perspective on our trip!)”>www.johnnyandjenni.net</a> for John’s perspective on our trip!)

2010 Our blank sheet of Paper is being filled in!

this picture was taken in the midst of several others as we were doing a family photo shoot. The girls were going so crazy thatin a moment of desperation and stress relieving humor we tossed them over our shoulders and this is the picture that got taken! accurate picture of real life for us!

Well, I’m sure you’re dying to know how we’re doing and what’s been going on, otherwise, you wouldn’t be reading this.  For those of you who don’t know, we have been asked to lead a team from our Kona campus to pioneer a Fire and Fragrance school in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania starting the fall of 2010.   It will begin with a three-month DTS, followed seamlessly with our Phase 2 school, culminating in a three-month outreach to the Ivy-leage universities.  Thus, our blank page is being written out before us with such fluidity, it’s almost eery.  Plans for Harrisburg have been coming together with such grace as we begin to nail down dates, speakers, travel plans, and all the other details that follow.  We begin this adventure with humility and sensitivity to Holy Spirit, knowing that one step out of His bounds and it would become just another good idea for ministry.  We feel like we are riding on the wind of His Spirit, moving out of a place of rest and ease, even though there is much work to do.  We also feel like the Lord is showing us that this ministry will birth itself, in a sense, and we just need to remain in the place of the Lord’s peace.

Upon praying and seeking counsel from leadership, we have felt the need to be prepared financially before leaving for the mainland.  What does that look like, you wonder?  As of November, Jeremy has taken on a job at Starbucks and we are prioritizing support-raising on a greater level.  We feel it truly important to have a good financial foundation for this pioneering venture, so that we don’t have to spend all our time focusing on fundraising while we are there!

We want to spend our time at the Ivy League universities reaching out to the future leaders of our nation who are “looking for love in all the wrong places!”  Love is knocking on the door of their hearts and we want to show them how to open it!  We want to spend our time pouring into our Fire and Fragrance students and other brothers and sisters in the community who will step onto the frontlines and take the gospel to campuses darkened by the sins of sexual immorality, abortion, pride, complacency, and the ideologies of humanism.

We appreciate all your prayers for us as we round up a team, expand our support base and launch ourselves on this risk-filled journey to Harrisburg, sowing towards another Great Awakening in America.  We would love to hear your insights, encouragements and words from the Lord, as you all play a role in this journey with us; please send us your input at Jeremy.bardwell@gmail.com.

Much love,

The Bardwells