Haiti:11 Project Sunday, July 24, 2011

Even though we had a chance to relax and enjoy our Sunday, it was still an eventful day. Most of us were up shortly after 6am. Breakfast was at 7am. The Mission of Hope interns took us on a walking tour of the campus before church. There are even more changes! The "Mommy Houses" that were under construction last year are complete, which tripled the capacity of the orphanage. A new giant steel construction, state of the art warehouse is under construction. It's going to be huge, about 4 times as large as their current warehouse. This will enable MOH to store food in an environmentally controlled space, supporting the distribution of food that feeds 50,000 Haitians a day.

They also are nearing completion of a new hospital, and are working on construction of a new clinic for amputees. It was amazing to hear how much their ministry is expanding, and there's more off campus… .

There are some other changes. There are some new rules this year that MOH has implemented to try and make some lasting changes here in Haiti. The one that affects us most directly is giving. MOH now discourages giving directly to children, to try and reverse a dangerous trend of dependency that is developing here in Haiti. Instead, they consolidate donations and use the Haitian church to distribute material aid (in the form of clothes, toys, candy, etc.). This helps establish the church as a source of help, and is an attempt to reverse the culture of pan-handling that was very evident last year. Regrettably this took away some of the excitement of giving things away in person (especially all the pillow-case dresses). I know, however, that they will be a blessing to many children, and that God will use them. I also had to turn in my bags of Legos and Hot Wheels cars.

We had a wonderful worship service with the Haitian church at Mission of Hope. We worshipped for about an hour, singing songs of praise, first in Creole, then in English. We started off with "This is the Day". Some of the other ones that we have sung before at Wall Highway were "Yes, Yes, Lord", "I am a Friend of God", and "Hosanna."
The best part for me was seeing some of the boys we met last Summer, and now sponsor. I was able to give my friend Snyder a new Bible in Creole, with special discipleship notes we added: Sharing the Plan of Salvation, Living a Christian Life, Prayer, and Reading the Bible in a Year. Rob also gave a Creole Bible to his friend Ricardo, along with pictures. Both boys are doing well in school and are preparing to take their annual exams. We also shared Bibles with two of their friends.

We spent time with the boys after Church and got caught up on what they are doing. We also shared notes a picture of our families. They are going to be working with us on the job site this week! More chance to disciple our young brothers! A huge answer to prayer.

Ricardo (the young pastor) was also there. His Church is the nearby village of Minotrey (minnow –tray) is growing. It now has a primary school with 70 students! The remaining Bibles will go to support his church. He specifically mentioned how his Church has grown and is in need of a guitar and keyboard for worship. Do we have a surprise for him! The guitar would be burning a hole in my pocket if it could fit in there. Ricardo has also been promoted on the MOH staff from "translator" to "assistant construction manager". We will be seeing more of him as well this week. The motorcycle we bought him last year is serving him well.

In the afternoon we took a bus tour of two projects MOH is working off campus. The village of Leveque is where they are building 500 new 16x20' homes. Also, we visited a 55 acre farm that will become the home of new primary school and agricultural training facility. It's evident that the government of Haiti believes in MOH. They have provided the land for both of these projects. The homes and land will become the property of the Haitian residents after a 5 year "rental" period.

It was such an encouragement to see how God is taking little things from many and doing a huge work here in Haiti. Tomorrow we start our construction projects and VBS.