I’ve been at it all afternoon, with only a few breaks for coffee, digging through all this footage I brought home from Haiti… I came across a scene I’d forgotten about somehow, when we went into the main market at Cap Hatién to buy food for the school.

As we made our way through the market, negotiating for fifty pounds of rice here, a dozen peppers there, we secured the services of a man with a wheelbarrow. This is different than saying that he was a man who owned a wheelbarrow, as the man and the wheelbarrow were a matched set: where the latter went, the former followed, and never were they parted. I feel confident saying that the wheelbarrow comprised the better part of his livelihood, and his possessions.

It wasn’t until a half hour into our acquaintance that I made a closer examination of the bright designs covering his barrow. MERCI BONDIEN, or bountiful thanks, was emblazoned on the sides and front, and the handles and wooden frame were covered in scripture references, painted with a careful hand.

The one that stuck with me, long after we’d paid him for his help and struck out for Coco Beach, was 1 Rois 18:39, which decorated the right handle: When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The LORD, He is God; the LORD, He is God!”

Awesome…

The trailer for the movie is coming along nicely, and very soon we’ll have the Haiti page live… I can’t wait for you guys to see it. Josh brung it, for reals.

Thanks for reading! God bless your smiling faces…

Paul

It’s been so long since I’ve written! Sorry about that.

I guess it’s been about two months since we left for Haiti, a little less since we got back…we’re back in the swing of it, we’ve pulled down all the photos and footage, and Bedouins HQ is humming. We’re getting ready for the premiere, which is (eek!) in less than a month!

So much to do… We’ve prints to hang, invitations to send out, and of course I have to have a first cut done… The footage looks great, but there’s just so darn much of it! Somehow I have to whittle about twenty hours (so far) of in-country footage down to 45 minutes. It’s going to be painful, since I love pretty much everything I brought back. I guess I’d better get to it…

Watch this space! We’ll talk soon,

Paul

Disappointment is hard.  It’s a fact.  When something doesn’t work out the way that you expect or are planning for, it can be hard not to be frustrated.  We experienced just such a disappointment yesterday and I woke up this morning wondering why we’re so down.  He gives and takes away.  It’s spelled out for us.

Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.   Habakuk 3:17-18

So our fields yielded no meat…we will still rejoice in the God of our salvation.  He has bigger plans…and we’re going to claim joy and rest in the knowledge that our God is in the drivers seat.

-Stephen

This last month has been a roller coaster. Honestly there was a moment a few days ago that I wasn’t sure Bedouins was going to be ok. I’ve been so busy taking care of paperwork and client management that I’ve sort of been neglecting my job with Development and fundraising. Then we had a little scare that i thought was going to cost us everything we had, and I felt so much guilt for not doing my job better. I am supposed to be the one who keeps us going, or so I thought.

The truth is I needed a bit of a reality check. I do not keep the money rollin in, it is completely in God’s provision and it is certainly in His timing. He reminded me of that a couple of days ago when we were given the opportunity to work with an organization that will not only offer us an amazing project to work on, but will also be giving us a budget to work with. I’m talking enough money to get us out of the pit and then some. And I had nothing to do with it.

I can now honestly say that I was a moron for hesitating even for a moment in believing that God is good and He takes care of His children, no matter what kind of mess they get themselves into. He is Jehovah Jireh. He does provide. Amen?

We’re still here!  I know…hard to believe judging by the activity on this blog.  But let me catch you up on what God’s been doing with Bedouins these past few weeks.  This has been an amazing chapter of growth and reflection for us here.  So many doors are opening that we’ve had to slow down a little, pray a lot and start to figure out where this thing is going.  God has built some really amazing partnerships, and opened up opportunities for some truly amazing projects; projects that we are head over heels excited about being a part of.  A few things that I’ll leak to you now:  We’re looking at going back to Haiti with another organization possibly, working on a trip to Guatemala in the late spring, talking with a ministry in Mexico about doing some work with them and a young man from Togo, Africa about a project there next fall.  And those are just a few things.  We’ve recently wrapped up jobs for Times Square church, No Excuse Now and The Canal Presentation, and are currently in the middle of a project for gi*inc and, of course, the Haiti project.  We’ll be hosting an art show and movie premiere for the Haiti project on December 13th, details to come.  Dr. Anne Reynolds will be speaking about her work in Haiti and we’ll be showing several photos from trip and premiering the first cut of the Haiti Documentary.  Please keep us in your prayers as God continues to shape our organization and we do our very best to follow him with everything that we have!

-Stephen

hello everyone.

I am the new volunteer at Bedouins and my name is Jesse. (Yes it’s true, now there are two of us.) I have been working with Stephen, Jessi & Paul for the past month or so and I am loving it. I got involved because I truly believe in what they and Bedouins are doing; not only locally ,but around the world. With a lot of amazing opportunities ahead, I am so excited to see where God is taking Bedouins. Also, I look forward to hopefully meeting all of you and would love to talk anytime!

love.

Jesse

We would like to invite you all to help promote Bedouins International alongside us by adding this new banner to your website:

Just follow THIS LINK and copy the code! Thanks so much for all of your support!

-Stephen

Jessi and I spent the day here in Nashville meeting with tons of amazing people, all doing some very cool things around the world.  God has just poured on the connections and continues to open up doors every day.  Last night and today we met with:

gi*inc

global support missions who also have a for-profit:

Second Avenue Trade

Audio Adrenaline and their org:

Hands and Feet Project

and

Falling Whistles

That was just the first day and a half…we have 3 more…can’t wait to see what else happens!

More soon…

-Stephen and Jessi

Jessi and I are sitting at the amazing office of G.I. Inc in Nashville right now getting ready to start a weekend full of exciting meetings for Bedouins.  God has opened up a lot of doors for us recently and new opportunities have come up for us to share the vision that he’s given us for Bedouins with many new people.  I can’t wait to sit down and write to you all about the amazing things that are happening, and how cool it’s been to get to be a part of it all…but for now, keep us in your prayers as we decide where to go next.  As always…thank you so much for your support and God bless!

-Stephen and Jessi

Sorry for the lack of updates lately.  We’ve been spread pretty thin for the past few days.  God has continued to open up new doors for us and we’re trying our best to keep up.  Over the past week or so I’ve had several amazing conversations with people that have gotten me even more excited about what we’re doing here at Bedouins.  The main theme of those conversations has been that people are starting to look outward.  It seems that everywhere you look people are starting to get involved with things in other countries…and it’s becoming increasingly popular to reach out to the nations that are in need.  A friend put it perfectly at lunch today when he said to me, “Even in the main stream it’s become the trendy thing to do, getting out there and helping in other countries, and that is such a great thing.”

I couldn’t agree more.  In a country that is SO overly trend-addicted it’s great to see a trend happening that’s making a difference in the world.  So where do we fit in to the new trend?  That’s what’s been on my mind…with everyone starting to move in a global direction, where does Bedouins fit in?  Well, I can tell you where we’ve been and where we are right now…but as to where we’re going, I have no clue!  But, you can rest assured that God knows…and that’s enough for me.  We’re in this because we have a tremendous heart for the nations.  We’re in this because we have a great sense of urgency in the gospel making it to every tribe, tongue and Nation.  We’re in this because we have the skills to help make that happen in the world today, and mostly we’re in this because that’s where God has us right now.  As far as where we’ll go, I can only hope for a great surprise…every step thus far has been one!

For now I can tell you this:  We’ll be here in Birmingham for a while, working on the Haiti project and starting several new projects with ministries around the U.S. who are doing amazing things in their communities and in other nations.  We have done a small restructuring of how we function in that we are now taking on paying jobs in order to help finance the free ones.  It’s a move that we and our board feel is going to open up a lot of doors and help us continue to push full speed ahead with this.  I’ll update you guys as we move forward with new projects.  As always, please keep us in your prayers as we continue to wade our way though this thing that we call Bedouins.

Have a great weekend and thanks for reading…

-Stephen