They're off to Louisiana!

The Louisiana team of Sham Rambaran, Ron and Georgia Hernandez, Matt Runge, Maria Orsonia and Jacob Battieste left Pomona this morning well before the sun rose. Sham called from Phoenix to let us know that they got underway with no problems and expect to hit Texas by nightfall.

The team will work side by side with our sister church Elm Grove Baptist in the continuing recovery efforts from Hurricane Katrina. Additionally they will spend time with the children and families of Louisiana building friendships and sharing one another's burdens through games, songs, teaching, eating and caring.

Check back often for pictures and updates.

Dedication of Vaddy's new rubble home built by PFB team March 2011

Diayishka and Valandy anticipating their new home built by the March PFB team

Clean Water -- Thailand 2010

A team of eight people headed out from LAX yesterday for the Northern Hill country of Thailand to install a water system for a Lahu Tribal village (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lahu_people). Under the watchful eyes of team leader Steve E. team members Gary, Erin, Tim, Sean, Grace, David and Matt will ensure that clean filtered water gets into the huts of the villagers. The PFB team will be joined by 2 others from Ohio who will be preparing for their church's trip in the summer.

Our missionaries Mike & Becky Mann will be hosting the team (http://www.internationalministries.org/missionaries/352)along with workers from the Integrated Tribal Development Project (http://itdpthai.org/) who facilitate the work in the villages. In addition to installing the water system PFB team members will be doing Bible lessons for the children and sharing with the villagers about our Heavenly Father.



Pray for safe journey on the mountainous paved and unpaved roads. Pray for team unity, health, relationships with the villagers and ITDP staff, and effective witness.

Ready for Haiti

In just 34 hours all the last minute exercises in preparation will be ended as Joel, Judy, Rita M, Sham and the rest of our team members from across the country head out to Port-au-Prince, Haiti (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiti). When we arrive we will be meeting up with our wonderful host Rita D and another PFBer Bibi.

Haiti has been on the heart of PFB for over 50 years as we sent out pioneer missionaries Harold and Ivah Heneise to work in the Northern city of Cap Haitien. We continue to work with the Christian University of Northern Haiti (http://www.ucnh.org/) and the nearby Youth training Center. In addition we partner with International Ministries missionaries working in Haiti (http://www.internationalministries.org/places/haiti)

PFB in cooperation with Joe & Rita D. and thier foundation (http://jeffcdomondfoundation.org/) had set up a trip to go to Haiti but with the tremendous destruction from the January 12 earthquake (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Haiti_earthquake) we were not sure whether we could move ahead. While our initial plans have changed slightly we are still heading out to work with children and families, except they have now encountered further devastation.

A large portion of our team from around the country will be focused on medical and dental care. Some of us will focus on children's ministry and ministry to women.

Pray for us and the people of Haiti. There are many who still lack basic necessities for living, including food. Pray that the many relief and governmental agencies will be able to reach the vast numbers of people and help rebuild this nation that have suffered for a long time. Continue to pray for spiritual revival as many hearts are appealing to God for an outpouring of His grace on the island.