Summer Update – Hopes & Dreams for Haiti

The future is veiled in a mist like many of the times when we visit the villages “up stairs” in Haiti and the clouds come closing in around us until we can barely see what only a moment ago seemed so plain. The vision for the future a few short months ago was not so hard to see. It was the next step. Now, however, the steps we have taken have caused us, of necessity, to consider how we must walk into the future. A future that seems to be taking on a shape of its own.

You know, friends, it wasn’t my plan to be in Haiti so long. It wasn’t my plan, but here we are, supporting a school in a remote mountain area, building homes for kids who have no homes, establishing and supporting cholera clinics in the mountains without which many people would suffer and die, taking all the supplies into the mountains on mules, feeding kids, weeping with those who weep, and rejoicing with those who rejoice. People ask me how long we will be in Haiti.

I’m reminded of what Paul said, ” FOR WE WALK BY FAITH NOT BY SIGHT”, so we will continue to put one foot in front of the other, trusting that the God who holds the whole world in His hands will direct our steps. JUST MERCY, which includes you with your prayers and support, has literally been involved with the “least of these”, feeding and sheltering the poor, telling them of God’s love for them, and bringing hope to the hopeless.

A few times we have made specific requests for large items and have been blessed by the response. When we sent out the call for the well for Yvrose for $6000, with just six donations, the need was met. When we asked for help to buy mules to supply the cholera clinics, over $7000 came in to buy mules, tack, and pay the nurses. We have been so blessed!

Our regular monthly support totals $850 from faithful individuals which has covered the $800/month cost of keeping the school in Pays-Pourri open. A small church also helps us with a donation collection each month. And each month, various individuals send us amounts from $20 up to a few hundred dollars, allowing us to do the things God puts in our path to help in Haiti. We are grateful for each and every donation we receive to help us. As we share what we hope to do in the future, please know that it is all in the context of sharing the Father’s heart with his lost children.

We have posted a summary of what God has done with us in the last 1 1/2 years in Haiti on our website on the Areas of Service page. Now we see so many more things in front of us that we believe the Lord would have us do. As any of you who had the privilege of meeting Yvrose can understand, when we help her, we are probably doing more to help the kingdom of God in Haiti than anything else we do. As she serves her children, family, and community, she is outspoken about the love of God and shares the gospel as often as she serves.

Yvrose with her youngest children

Overlooking Yvrose’ home with the school tents, the three metal buildings the family lives in

Our involvement with Yvrose and her (now our) family has been a living, breathing blessing to us, to her, to her kids, to the community around us, and to everyone who comes to help us in Haiti! Need we say we believe this unforeseen mercy has been Providential. (You can read our history with Yvrose beginning with the blog from the 4th Haiti Trip – Vol. III)

Hopes and dreams for Yvrose’ family:

  1. Complete Yvrose’ outdoor kitchen
  2. Get electricity run up to her place from the road – $6000-$9000 (A recent $5000 donation has allowed us to start this. )
  3. Build toilets & showers and a septic system (they had one port-a-potty sitting over a hole (that is full) for her family and the school of over 150 children. Now they head for the bushes.)
  4. Build a concrete home for the children’s home
  5. Put up a 20×40 metal shelter building that we bought and is being shipped into Haiti for a place of worship and service. We need to pour a slab for it.
  6. Buy a small plot of land next to Yvrose’ and build a house/facility on that land as a base for JUST MERCY and to house visiting mission teams.
  7. Build a wall around Yvrose‘ land for security – nearly a necessity in Haiti
  8. Engage with Yvrose’ children to help them grow up to love the Lord and become faithful children of the Living God.

Schools in Haiti can teach the Bible. Hiring Christian teachers, supporting, and maintaining schools is an important part of bringing the good news of Jesus to the people of Haiti.

Hopes and dreams for the schools:

  1. Continue to support the school in Pays-Pourri – $800/month
  2.  Begin to support the school in Chapell as it is going to have to close due to lack of funding to pay the teachers – $300/month
  3. Start a school in Grand Rac where the children do not go to school.
  4. Oversee the teaching to ensure the children are receiving Biblical instruction
  5. We were asked to come and help the people of the mountains with cholera treatment. How do you say no when no one else seems willing to go? Lives are being saved and God’s love is being shared at the cholera clinics.

Hopes and dreams for the clinics:

  1. Pour concrete floors for the two cholera treatment tents, to build on later with concrete buildings for permanent mountain clinics
  2.  Maintain the cholera supply line
  3. Pay the nurses and hire an assistant to regularly clean and disinfect the cholera tents and area
  4. Set up Proclaimers to broadcast the Bible in the cholera tents and continue to pray for and share the gospel with the patients.

Bill is returning to Haiti around August 24th. We currently have two groups planning on coming to work this fall. The first group which includes a doctor is arriving around Sept. 1st. We hope to take a medical team into the mountains where there is seldom any medical help. If we can buy materials, we hope to make significant progress on some of the work items listed above. We don’t have the resources today to continue with these projects. We have stepped out in faith as needs arose in the past and God met those needs through you. Please prayerfully consider helping us with these projects.

We also need to consider how we can facilitate small missions teams to come help share the burden and the blessings. We are so grateful for God’s blessing on us thus far, for the love people have shared with us in supporting our efforts, and for the thoughts and prayers that we know are given to the Lord on our behalf. If anyone wants to see an accounting of the money we receive and spend, we would be happy to provide that. We want our lives to be an open book, especially to those who help us.

I wake up each morning praying, beseeching the Lord to guide our steps. “When it’s all been said and done, there is just one thing that matters. Did I do my best to live for truth? Did I live my life for you?”…Don Moen. We ask that question and are seeking to live our lives for Him. Thank you for reading. I know it was long. May God bless you.

Avatar photo

Written by

Janet, wife, mother and grandmother has made many trips to Haiti since the earthquake of 2010. She works to support Just Mercy and her husband Bill and does the many things such as research, communication, ‘technical support”, etc, at home in Missouri that are often quite difficult to do in Haiti. All these activities and her children and grandchildren keep her busy.