“Jesus Christ Greatly Changed My Life”
By Jeremy Willet
For Kingdom Extreme Magazine
6.29.10

I just returned to my hometown in Maryland after a 2 1/2 week tour with WILLET at Ichthus Festival, Bash on the Farm, and Alive Festival. On this tour, over 150 children got sponsored between Willet shows and the festivals! Praise God!

I decided to spend my off day in Westminster, MD where I was meeting a friend for lunch. As I was waiting outside the restaurant for him to come, I overheard a conversation between a college-aged girl, and an older gentleman. They were talking about “helping other people”, and made this comment;

“I’m so tired of hearing about people going to Haiti, and helping poor kids in Africa! We have our own problems here in America!”

I have heard this argument a thousand times, and It took everything inside of me to stay silent, especially because they made mention of the places that we primarily work in (2 communities in Ethiopia, 1 in Mozambique, and 1 in Haiti). Although I do agree that we have problems in the U.S., and I do believe that we should be very active in helping those on our own soil, I disagree that we should only be interested in helping domestically. I could have given them 100 reasons why we should serve both locally and abroad, but I refrained from confronting them about it because sometimes simply our actions speak louder then arguing over where we should help. I thought about this statement all day long, and wondered, is there one main reason to summarize why we should help children around the world as well as the United States?

When I got back to my office to begin going through a mountain of mail, it hit me.

Jesus saves.

In the mail was a letter from a boy that my wife and I sponsor through Food for the Hungry. Meet Mathewos from Belo, Ethiopia.

Mathewos lives with his parents, 5 brothers, and 3 sisters. He is in 4th grade, helps with farming, and is turning 11 on July 28th! I had just written Mathewos a few weeks ago asking him some questions. His response gave me the reason that we should help ALL children around the world. I have received many letters from him, but this one was different…

“Jesus Christ greatly changed my life and we now have a Bible in home and we read at devotion evening and morning. All family, brother, stister, father, and me read Bible everyday and we also believe every word.” – Mathewos

“Jesus Christ greatly changed my life”. Since the last time I wrote our sponsored child, Mathewos prayed to trust Jesus as his Lord and Savior! Rejoice!

That is the reason that we cannot ignore the poor around the world. Jesus saves.

“Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.” (Psalm 96:3)

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. (Matthew 28:19)

We can discuss all day about physical needs and specific strategies for relief, development, building projects, hygiene, food distribution, medical stations, school buildings, and clean water, but when it all comes down to it, a child living in poverty, or in wealth is a child who is lost unless they’ve found the Savior; Jesus.

The God I serve is not confined to one country in the west. To believe that we should only be concerned with fellow Americans rather then helping globally is to suggest that 95% of the world’s population does not count. I’m not OK with that. The rest of the world does matter, and people, like Mathewos, are coming to find the love of Jesus!

I find great joy in knowing that FH is helping to provide clean water, food, education and medical assistance through our sponsorship…but the salvation of one of our precious sponsored children is reason to celebrate! Today, the angels in Heaven rejoice! Let’s join them….

To experience the joy of sharing the Gospel and providing for physical needs to a child living in poverty, join us today by sponsoring a child at www.willetonline.com/sponsor.

- Jeremy Willet

Willet Missions would like to thank the following groups / people for recently supporting our efforts:

Quest Community Church (Quarterly Support)
Visit: www.questcc.org

New Hope Fellowship (Quarterly Support)
Visit: www.nhfchurch.org

Hemp for Haiti (selling bracelets to raise $5000 for Willet Missions)
Visit : http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=497334010321&ref=nf

Kingdom Extreme Magazine ($40 raised through Valentines Day Banquet)
Visit: www.kingdomextrememag.com

Lazarus United Church of Christ in Lineboro, MD (committed to monthly support)
Visit: www.ucc.org

Heart throb Tees (100% of t-shirt sales)

Chick-fil-a (Monthly Support)
Visit: www.chick-fil-a.com

Alexander Construction (Monthly Support)

carried. Book (45% of book sales)
Visit: www.carriedbook.com

Operation net (for funding malaria nets to Haiti and Africa)
www.dosomething.org

Special thanks to Jim & Jean Allen, Terry & Cheryl Smith, Glen & Barbara Willet, Chris Courville, Mary Pat Wright, Bob & Ethel Ray Willet, and Angie Dieckman for your monthly support.

Also a very special thank-you to everyone who has made one-time donations! Every dollar counts. Every dollar goes towards helping the poor.

For more information, visit www.willetonline.com/missions

If you would like more information on how to contribute, email jeremy@willetonline.com

God is Love.
Words and Music by Jeremy Willet
For the people of Haiti

100% of the proceeds of “God is Love.” will be donated to Food for the Hungry’s Haiti Relief fund. The link below will allow you to download the song on a “Pay what you want” basis or for “free” in exchange for telling 5 friends about the song. Each dollar that you pay for the song will be multiplied 20 times by a matching grant! (ie; $1 = $20).

To download the song, visit www.noisetrade.com/jeremywillet

Story behind the song:

Each song has a story.

This story is not my own, but rather a story of God’s love for a nation in ruins.

My wife moved to Haiti as a full-time missionary back in November of 2009. She was living in an orphanage during the time of the Haiti earthquake in January of 2010. For 2 1/2 days while on tour in New Zealand, I waited anxiously to hear if my wife had survived the earthquake. Finally, through a string of short text messages, my family back in the states heard that Kathleen and all the children survived, and were currently sleeping in tents!

After returning to the USA, I finished a song that I started writing called “God is Love.” In the true spirit of an independent artists, I recorded the song in my home studio during a blizzard, and left the recording purposely “raw” as to not disguise the emotion behind the song.

Many of the Haitians following the earthquake said it was as if, “Hell came up”. Our response to their situation will determine whether or not they feel “Heaven came down”.

Lyrics:

Famines and droughts, war and diseases, and earthquakes.
They cause orphans and widows, hunger and thirst, and hopelessness

But by His mouth, God has promised
By His hands, He has fulfilled

Whatever disaster will try to destroy
Whatever disease may come
God is love, God is love

Hell came up, and shook the earth
But Heaven came down, and changed the world

Shaken but alive, struck down but not destroyed
God is love, God is love

My prayer all along is that this earthquake can somehow be used to reach more and more people for Christ. Well my friends, it has begun….

- Tonight in New Zealand, we headlined a small festival and over 500 people attended! More importantly, I told the emotional story of the earthquake / Kat’s situation and closed with an invitation to receive Jesus. 12 people trusted Jesus as their Savior! One man (40 years old) came to me and said “You changed my life”. I said, “No, Jesus did…now follow Him.”

- We were contacted today by a major festival in the Midwest that has asked Kat and I to share the testimony of surviving the earthquake, and Kat’s boldness to stay in a country that is very unsettled. This testimony will be in front of over 100,000 people (if I can get Kat to leave haiti for a couple days)

Finally, I’ll close with part of an email that I received from Kat today. This made my night to finally have some brief communication with the love of my life. Thank you again for your prayers! This has been a tough week for all – and we still have a long road ahead of all involved:

” So things here have been crazy. Lots of sleeping in other areas and being a shoulder to cry on for those who have lost family. We only had a number5 earthquake here so not too bad. There are more splits in the house but it is okay to stay in. Don’t worry about me though, okay my love. Yes it is crazy here and will be for a while, but I am doing okay. Just pray for my strength as I try to minister to those who have lost.” – Kat

Thanks again for your prayers.

Jeremy Willet

Good morning guys,
I just returned to a host home where we are staying here in New Zealand after hearing the news of a 7.0 earthquake that hit Haiti last evening. The band had an off day and was on a 20km hike up a volcano when we received the news. We worked our way down the mountain then drove 5 hours back to Auckland to be able to get access to internet and phones.

My wife Kathleen is a missionary in Haiti, and we have not been able to establish contact with her as of yet. Reports are showing that her area was not hit as hard as Port-au-prince, however, all lines of communication have been shut down – so there is really no way of knowing at this point. Please pray for the following:

•Kat’s safety and protection
• The orphans and other staff at the orphanage
•Our friends at the Food for the hungry office in Port-au-prince. Contact has not yet been made with much of the staff there….

Thank you.

I wrote this poem for myself after being in 3 different poverty-stricken countries in the same year.
Maybe you can relate.
Maybe you can’t.
Nonetheless, do something about it.
www.fh.org/willet

May Thanksgiving this year taste a bit different…
Because of what you have seen and what you’ve experienced.
As you sit down to a table overflowing with food…
Remember the orphan that looked up at you.
Remember the child that walked for 3 miles…
To drink from a lake filled with dirty water.

When you hold up your glass to give a toast to your family…
Remember the 30,000 people who died from starvation.
Remember the baby alone in the dirt…
And the widow who cried, “where is the Church?”
A Thanksgiving Feast can bring our family together…
But if we left out the poor, then we’ve forgotten our Savior.

Today we’ll say a blessing over our Thanksgiving feast…
Without even mentioning the child who won’t eat.
As you pass around the plates of turkey and yams…
Don’t forget the cross, and the blood of the Lamb.
For His life, death and resurrection from the grave…
Saves all those who call upon His most Holy name.

-Jeremy Willet

After walking to my mailbox today, I was slammed with a reason to praise God for something. Yesterday, I returned from a trip to Haiti and the DR, and the faces of poverty were still very fresh on my mind. Back home in Maryland, I opened my mailbox to find an article featuring WILLET in a magazine called, 6:8 Magazine. The article was a summary of our trip to Ethiopia earlier this year, where we were introducing everyone to our goal of seeing an additional 500 children sponsored in 2009. As I skimmed through the article, I was reminded of our sense of urgency that we felt when we returned back from Africa.

11.19.09
Willet Missions / Food for the Hungry
Haiti/DR Visit for Hunger Strike

This past week, I had the opportunity to travel to Haiti and the Dominican Republic for Willet Missions to join Food for the Hungry staff from Haiti and the DR, as well as meet up with Kathleen, coming from Ti Riviere. Initially, we ran into some logistical complications which potentially would have made us drive through the night back from the DR border (not advised for safety reasons), however, the staff was very flexible and we were able to arrange our return before dark.

We started by meeting up in Port-au-Prince and driving to the DR border. After meeting up with FH DR staff, we began to learn about the development taking place in many of the communities. The purpose of our trip was to evaluate potential sites in which The Hunger Strike program would end up supporting through child sponsorship, short term mission teams, and community-to-community (C2C). Because the DR and Haiti are on the same island, they end up sharing many of the same poverty-related problems (poor sanitation, malaria, HIV/AIDS, lack of clean water access, lack of education resources). FH DR has had the Child Development Program (CDP) active for many years, so we traveled there to learn from the tremendous team. We were able to visit a community where FH’s C2C program allowed a church from Indiana to provide resources for the building of a school, kitchen, and latrines. FH then supplied the medical clinic with monthly check-ups, and the DR government pays the teachers and food supplies.

On the last day, we traveled across the border back into Haiti to visit a town with 2 communities where Hunger Strike will begin to impact in the spring of 2010. It appears that close to 400 children will immediately be enrolled in CDP, and our prayer is for a fast response to their needs. We had the opportunity to meet with many community leaders, staff, teachers, and children to learn the vision for these areas. We were all unified under the fact that we wanted to see Jesus glorified through our actions, and are praying for many to come to know Jesus as their Savior.

Kathleen is currently serving at an orphanage in Ti Riviere, Haiti, however, was asked to join the FH staff in Haiti near the DR border as a volunteer Community Development Coordinator. Please join us in prayer for this decision. Our original vision for The Hunger Strike was to have Kathleen working alongside the children that we were presenting at concerts in the U.S. That vision is becoming closer to reality, however, includes many more details, cost, commitment, language training, missionary training, and residence in Haiti. Pray for wisdom in this decision.

Information about The Hunger Strike will be available soon onwww.thehungerstrike.org

View over 100 photos from this trip here:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=344368&id=621495362&l=68fd2ae52d

Today is an exciting day! First off, we sent our first missionary (Jeremy’s wife, Kathleen) to Haiti and we just received a text that she arrived safely this morning. In addition to Kathleen going, Kathleen’s mom is a nurse and is also accompanying her as part of a medical team that is traveling to the orphanage where she will be living. Jeremy will be flying over next Monday to travel to the Dominican Republic with Kathleen and some Food for the Hungry staff for a short vision trip to assess some areas for development.

Secondly, WILLET has been sponsoring several children as a band, but also sponsored a child named Abosie from Belo, Ethiopia with a small group from their home church, Quest Community Church. Jeremy and Kathleen would lead this group from their house when they were home, however, because Kathleen is now living in Haiti, and Jeremy is on the road 250+ a year with WILLET, they decided that they needed to step down from leading that group, and ask others in the church to start their own group. Each group in the church already sponsors a child and was unable to commit to sponsoring Abosie, so we began to pray about what we should do. The very next week, we received a letter in the mail from Food for the Hungry saying that Abosie will no longer be in the program because he got married!!!!

We hope to be able to sponsor more and more children through our small groups at Quest Community Church, but for now, God answered our prayer in a very cool way and we congratulate Abosie on his marriage!

For more information, please visit www.willetonline.com/missions, www.questcc.org, & www.fh.org/willet.

Saturday is approaching fast as we continue to pack things for Kat to go to Haiti. I thank you in advance for your strong prayer support for her.

A few years ago following my first trip to Africa, I wrote a song called, For orphans and The King that basically encouraged people to live their lives for Jesus and to remember the poor amongst us. Little did I know that 2 years later, my wife would be answering that challenge by relocating to Haiti!

When I first met Kat, she became my best friend.
Then, my wife.
Today, she is still both of those, as well as my hero.

Kathleen has always lived her life for Jesus, remembering to put others first. She has been the most understanding person I know as she has sacrificed so much time away from me as I have been traveling the world with Willet. Even as she packed, she was making sure that I would have meals while I was home for a few days before going back on tour. (I thought to myself, “are you kidding… I’ll be fine – I’m hoping that you have more then rice everyday in Haiti”!) But, that’s who she is.

She loves Jesus. She loves children. And, she loves to be used by God.

I watched her pack this week (and she would never want me to tell anyone this…) but she packed as much supplies, food, and clothing for the orphans as she could before she even thought about taking things for herself. Her selfless actions continue to inspire me everyday, and I hope they do for you as well.

I look forward to joining Kathleen in Haiti in a few weeks as we travel to the Dominican Republic together with some Food for the Hungry Staff to evaluate a site of children that are in need.

Both Kathleen and I do not desire to be serving in separate countries away from each other, however, more importantly, we NEVER desire to see a child die for the lack of having something to eat or clean water to drink! And, most importantly, there are children in Haiti that need to hear about Jesus, and therefore, we will do whatever it takes to share the gospel with them.

To correspond with Kathleen, follow her blog, and financially support her, please visit: www.willetonline.com/missions

- Jeremy