Haiti Ministries

During this busy Christmas season take some time off to think of those who are hungry.

With some donations we were able to start serving breakfast at school to the younger children.

From our church’s windows, workers in action.

Most pictures of this newsletter were taken by Kari Luhtasaari, a professional photographer. She was part of a team visiting us in November.

Richard Villeneuve is from Gatineau, Quebec. He has been with us since December 15, 2010 as a Volunteer in Mission sent by the PAOC.

He is our construction foreman.

He made the concrete floors for the classrooms and for the latrines and the school yard’s fences.

The walls and the floor of the ravine are nearly completed now.

The latrines are nearly completed.

Chuck and Kari took apart the prefab home that was in our yard.

They rebuilt it and they transformed it into a snack bar.

Pastor Dan who gave direction to the Chapleau team in Ontario alongside with his son Daniel, tiler by trade, tiled the offices floors.

They also tiled the bathroom floor. They did a wonderful job.

Dan fixed a spot light.

Dan repaired the regulators and many other things.

Dot and Noreen sewed the office curtains. Dorothea also brought the word of God to the teenage girls and to the 7 to 12 years olds.

Sheila and Nicole repaired lots of screens.

The Chapleau team in front of the only Christmas tree we have seen in town.

It is so nice to see the children running on the school compound.  Most of them live in small spaces.

Jean-Philippe, third from the left, who was on the Child Care Plus program, is our first university graduated. He studied administration and economics.

We celebrated our first wedding! Our children are growing into young adults now.  Alfred was sponsored by CCP and he is now one of the teachers at our school and a university student in education.  Alexandra was also sponsored.

The other day, while doing some exercises to try to heal of my tendinitis, I was looking through our bedroom window and those words written on the street wall jumped to my eyes: Jésus Guérit (Jesus Heals). I have seen them hundreds of times, but this time, they became more real to me. I hope to have good news next time I write you.

We wish you God’s blessings for the New Year.

We love you and we are grateful for your support.

A team of Haitian carpenters, who work for a factory in town that makes prefab homes, built five classrooms in eight days.

With the classrooms we have at church, we will be able to accommodate 350 students when school starts again in October in Haiti.

Martin Blanchard (left) who owns a billboard company had the idea to write in each of the 26 shutters, one of the alphabet letters with a drawing.

Panoramic of the five classrooms.

Eight men composed the Disraeli and Ste-Foy team.  They made benches and desks for 200 students in six days. Jean-Charles (off white hat) is a master carpenter.

Making of bench feet.

Assembling of bench feet.

Sanding of bench feet.

The result of six days of carpentry work.

At dawn, the team members lifted the church’s gate on our truck to bring it to the site to be installed.

Installation of the gate.

Stonewalls sustaining the recess yard.

Panoramic view of the wall and the recess yard.

School books and school supplies distribution.

Orline and Asou would like to thank you for your generosity towards the children.  Without your support, they would not be able to attend school and they would still have to search for their daily food.  They spend all of their days at our house, but they sleep at their house.  Thanks for supporting Haiti Ministries.

Very alarming!  According to Alain Boinet, CEO and founder of the NGO Solidarity International, in 2020 half of the planet could lack drinkable water. Currently, one quarter of the world wide population does not have access to clean water. The severity of this crisis is compounded by environmental changes.

In 2020 Haiti could be one of those countries. Our immediate action can help prevent this calamity.

If we add the rapidly growing population, it is feared that this disaster will only be accelerated.

The lack of drinkable water causes 8 millions casualties per year.

Michel Martelly, nicknamed « Tèt kale » (The bald one) is the new elected president of Haiti.  He has a heavy load on his shoulders.

A team from Central Pentecostal Church in Fergus/Elora,  Ontario, visited with us.

Coffering of one of the church’s staircase supported by metal poles.

The re-bars are attached before pouring concrete on the stairs.

The day after having poured concrete on the stairs, Roy and his friend walked on them.

A national worker attaching re-bars for the staircase that goes to the second floor.

Before it dries up, the concrete is flattened with a trowel.

Walls being painted.

Time is even found to decorate the walls with flowers.

Benches are being painted.

A part of the 2 to 6 year-olds classroom.

The children singing with all of their hearts.

Pastor Norrie from Peoples Church, in Hamilton, Ontario preaching.

The Guerriers new home’s walls, floors and ceilings are completed.  The doors, the shutters to the windows and the screens are to be done. Thanks to those who gave for the house. The Guerriers are the family of seven children living without parents. We spoke about them in a previous letter.

Christmas at Easter time! Samaritan’s Purse shoe boxes distribution to our primary school sponsored children.

Pastor Michel greeting people after the service.

On Easter day, thirteen people were water baptized and four were Spirit filled a few days earlier.

We are still looking for a project manager to build our school before September 2011.  The project could last ten weeks and it would provide a salary and free housing.

Thanks for being part of the team. You make a difference.

Almost 80 percent of the world’s population aged 15 years and over is now literate, including more women than ever before, according to new figures from UNESCO.  Encouragingly, the figures also show that although women still make up two thirds of the world’s adult illiterates, in all regions they are gaining access to education and literacy, and at a faster rate than men.

The literacy rate in Haiti is 52,9%.  54,8% of  the men can read and write compared to 51,2% of the women.

We hope to be able to start building our school anytime soon. Meanwhile, classes are being he inld our new building’s dining room.

There are nine children in the Guerriers family. Seven of them live without their parents.  Marica (15) is in charge of the family. Recently, we found sponsors for all of them.  They  have the great privilege of going to school.

During the earthquake, three of the walls of their little house collapsed and the roof came down one or two feet.  To get inside, we have to duck our heads. We have received some donations, which will allow us to start to build part of their new home.

A team from Ontario built them double beds.

To avoid comments from jealous neighbours, we installed the beds at night using flashlights because there is no electricity.  To fit both beds inside, we had to move one of the walls made out of a blanket held by metal bars.

Two brand new mattresses; they used to sleep on a pile of rags covered by a sheet.

“The Good Life”

A team from Alberta led by Pastor Marlo Jenkins visited with us.

They made and painted several benches.

An astronaut costume to do painting. Why not?

On these same benches, the children go to school, they eat and they hear the Word of God.

A team from Cambridge, South Porcupine and Iroquois Falls in Ontario visited with us. Pastor Rick Tozer (extreme left), Pastor Mike Burt ( second row, right) Pastor Scott Corkill (second row, left)

Repairing the greenhouse nets.

Installation of the greenhouse nets at our new site.  Their opacity is 80% and they offer shade to the school yard that will eventually also be used for our feeding program.

Installation of barbed wire behind our new building.

The Taubl family from the USA, who have seven children, came to Haiti to give concerts.  They blessed our assembly with a concert of cello, violins and songs.   The family appeared on America’s Got Talent in 2008 and they have made several CDs.

After sixteen weeks of moving dirt off of our site with picks and shovels, we were pleased to find a backhoe to remove 60 truckloads of dirt.  That mountain we talked about in our last newsletter is surely disappearing.

Thank you with all of our hearts for standing with us in this work that needs more workers.

On the New Year’s Eve and on the New Year’s Day, we had the joy to share our “Joumou Soup” with a family of six children of whom Marika (15) is in charge. The “Joumou Soup” is the traditional soup eaten on that day and it is made of pumpkin, yam, meat and lots of vegetables. In fact, that family has nine children, but three of them live somewhere else.  The fathers have disappeared and their mother lives in a town located four hours from Port-au-Prince with a baby that she nurses.   When the baby will be weaned, she will  bring him to Marika for her to take care of him and her five other siblings who live in a ravine in a small house shaken up by last year earthquake. Often times, the neighbours had to feed them with a meal of white rice.

Now that we learned of their condition, we take care of them with a diversity of food. Two of the children are sponsored and on January 4th, two of the middle ones took the school road.  They lived in such a great poverty that several times, they did not have any water and soap to bath.  They attend our church since a long time, but due to a lack of staff, their great needs went unnoticed.  According to World Food Program, there are 925 million undernourished people in the world today. That means one in seven people do not get enough food to be healthy and lead an active life. Hunger and malnutrition are in fact the number one risk to the health worldwide.  God’s knowledge, food and education will provide a future to these children.  An educated mother will give a better education to her children and she will find a job more easily.   Who will break the enemy’s yoke on their lives?   Your gifts contribute to give them a brighter future.

We now serve the food with carts.

Bibles’s distribution for our school’s Bible course.

Our school yard’s laying-out.

Once it is paved, it will be covered with a greenhouse net and used as an outdoor dining room to keep our sanctuary and school cleaner.

Richard Villeneuve, on the right who is our site boss arrived on December 15.    He is from Gatineau, Quebec.

At the end of November, a team from Chapleau (Pastor Dan Lee) and Barrie in Ontario and from Edmundston, New-Brunswick (Pastor Robert Lapointe) visited us for two weeks.

Dentist Jalbert pulled out 1,000 teeth.

The dentist assistant was very effective.

Concrete was poured to the last section of the basement floor at church.

As always, when teams visit with us, they bless our ministry with clothing, shoes, sandals, toiletries, pens, pencils and toys.

Junior Taingué, one of our youth, painting coats of arms on our church’s main door.

Souvenirs in Bouthilliers with a view of Port-au-Prince.

On December 23, we became grandparents for the fifth time with an eight months old Thai princess in the name of Sophia.   What a great blessing she is!

May God open the floodgates of heaven and pour out his blessings unto you in this New Year.

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning.  Lamentations 2,22-23. (NIV)