Haiti Ministries

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)

Cholera outbreak in Haiti. The death toll is up to 800. Over 12,000 people have been infected. The bacteria appeared in Port-au-Prince, the capital city.  United Nations warns that as many as 200,000 people may become infected.  They have requested $164,000 million in a global aid.  As a precaution, all the children are required to wash their hands before entering into church.

To celebrate our church’s 12^th anniversary at the end of October, we moved into our new facilities.  After waiting for so many years to see our vision become a reality, it is a great victory!

This year, we opened a school with three classrooms from grade 3 to 5, 120 students of our 500 sponsored children are currently in attendance. The classes are held in our church’s dining room.   As soon as we find a project manager, we plan on building a school on the second story of our building.

A team from Quebec city led by Pastor Benoit Therrien and by Pastor François Doyon from La Beauce, came to work with us.

They installed electricity in the walls of our new facilities and they fixed two water filters.

They made twenty tables and painted them.  They also painted sixty benches.   They built three blackboards like the ones we had in our primary schools years ago.

May God richly bless them for their good work.

We received hundreds of pairs of sandals and shoes.   In the picture, you can see some of the kids who benefitted from the donations.

Louise’s 98 years old father passed away on November 3 after having suffered a blood clot in his brain.  Before he went into a coma, one of her brothers was able to have him repeat the sinner’s prayer.   We do not know people’s hearts, but God does.

Thank you for your wonderful support.  We truly appreciate it.

We hear about Haiti’s reconstruction.  But we are still at the demolition and the rubble removing stage of the numerous buildings damaged by the earthquake.  The task is huge.

Haiti: Union European building damaged by the earthquake is being repaired.

According to an article posted on June 2nd, 2010, on Radio Kiskeya site, during the summit in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, Haiti received 7,8 billions in promised aid to rebuild its country.  90 countries and international organizations were represented at the summit.

According to Associated Press and the local press, Dominican President, Leonel Fernàndez, indicated that the money will be used to rebuild and develop the country over the next ten years.

However, up to now, only Brazil and Venezuela  have kept their promises.  The first country gave 55 million and the second one canceled the Haiti debt.

Haiti Prime Minister, Jean-Max Bellerive, said that the international community agreed to rebuild 125,000 houses to the benefice of the disaster victims.

United States will repair and/or rebuild 47,000 houses, while Canada will take care of 16,500 and the Red Cross International, 10,500.

Former President to the United States, Bill Clinton, referring to the hurricane season that started on June 1st, said that we cannot let people die for a lack of shelters.

For those of you who would like more news on the same subject, please go to the CNN site and search for the following article.
Most countries fail to deliver on Haiti aid pledges – CNN.com*

Phase 1 of our construction project is nearly finished.  To secure the property, we still have to raise two of the walls surrounding it and fix blade wire on the top.  We must pave the ravine that goes through our property and pour concrete on the top.  On the picture, Pastor Michel stands in front of the staircase’s doors.

All the voices of our church in unity say a BIG THANK YOU for your continuous support. Your contribution helps change many lives for His kingdom.

On April 5^th, after having been closed for nearly three months, schools reopened under tents and tarps.  New statistics show that 83% of the schools have been damaged and/or destroyed. That is why the Haitian government decided to use tents for schools.  

One million people live under tents or shelters made out of tarps, bed linen and sheets metal.

 Our three goals for humanitarian aid are:

1- Tarps and tents distribution.  With the assistance we received, we were able to give out 250 tarps and 45 tents as well as food, clothing, medication and medical care.   

2- Our school building project.  Both our school and our church’s construction are going forward.  On May 16, we hope to be able to move into our new facilities.  Hopefully, our school will open  in September if we find the necessary personnel. 

3- Fix the damaged homes and rebuild the ones that collapsed during the earthquake. As soon as the Haitian government will grant the permission, we will start fixing homes.  We are looking for someone who will take charge of that project. 

Pastor John Edwards’ team from Fergus/Elora in Ontario

They made the spiral staircase.

They painted our church’s dining room.

Plumbers without Borders from Three Rivers, Quebec, accomplished a huge work.  They installed the plumbing for the washrooms and to recuperate the rain water. They also installed the plumbing from the water pump to the faucets. 

They also installed a submersible pump in the cistern’s cold water. 

Nelly, a twelve year old girl from our church died of a stomach problem after only three days of being sick.    Michel celebrated her funeral at our church.  She served the Lord.  

We are so thankful for your vital support.  Without your help, we would not be able to accomplish anything here. You allow us to continue the work in Haiti.

May God strengthen you and richly bless you.

Over 217,000 families and friends are mourning their lost loved ones. We must remember that God did not abandon us. He is here with us and he wants our hearts.

A lady told us that the house where she worked on the day of the earthquake collapsed on her. She was captive under the rubble for fifteen hours, her body was folded in two and her right arm was hooked on some debris. After every aftershock, she thought she would fall deeper. The night before, she had a dream. In her dream, she saw a person who held her by the waist and pushed her to fall forward. And she saw a valley of straw hats, representing the valley of death. But all of a sudden, a supernatural power helped her to straighten in a sitting position, and the dream vanished. Her brother with some friends went to her rescue by breaking the cement roof that covered her. They also cut the metal bar that kept her captive. When she came out, everybody believed it was a miracle.

Four weeks after the disaster, a man was found under the rubble of a market. How did he survive? He said that a man wearing a white coat would bring him water from time to time. Several bodies have been found, and teams work to clean the streets from the rubble. Michel said that downtown many buildings have collapsed and that the smell of death is still in the air.

According to Radio Kiskeya, the number of casualties is estimated at 217,000. No one can estimate how many people have disappeared. Over 300,000 people are wounded, of which 4,000 are amputees, and 1,3 million people have been displaced.

The rainy season is coming. How will the parents protect their children from the heavy rains with a bed sheet as a roof? CRI (Crisis Response International) gave us food, medication and fifty tents that can house ten to twelve people each. People sleep in the streets, parks, gardens and parking lots.

Our plan:
1- Provide shelters to the disaster’s victims, such as tents and tarps.
2- Fix the houses that can be fixed and rebuild those which have collapsed.
3- Build a school at our new site by the month of September. In Port-au-Prince, only a few schools are presently functioning. 75% of the schools are destroyed.

As funds come through ERDO, we will continue to provide food, clothing, and medical care and start rebuilding and fixing houses.

Tents, for the homeless,  stand up like igloos under the tropical sun.

Dr Ed Amos seeing patients at a camp site where 50,000
disaster victims live.