An Urgent Prayer Request!!….and more…

Please keep Nono, our Haitian daughter, in your prayers. She became pregnant a few months ago about the same time the Zika virus surfaced in Haiti and she came down with it. As you may know, the virus can cause severe birth defects and encephaly (small brains) in babies. We are very concerned about this and would appreciate fervent prayers on behalf of Nono and her baby!!  Thank you!

Work continues in the woodshop on Ile a Vache with three men hand making the beautiful wooden spoons featured on the Spoons Woodworking tab on the website. Monsieur Yvon is our carpenter friend with a large family. Soner can no longer do the deep dives he did as a lobster fisherman and so had no way to support his family. Samuel’s father died a few years ago leaving Samuel’s mother and her 4 children with no means of support. These three men are all grateful to be making spoons to provide for their families.

If you haven’t taken a look at these beautiful spoons, please do. For a donation of $30 or more, we will send you one of these beautiful spoons, hand carved from exotic hard wood. Your donation will help these men support their families and help JUST MERCY continue doing all the things we do to help the people of Haiti!  Here is the link:

https://justmercy.org/WordPress/?page_id=3462

Christophe is a carpenter who brought his family to Ile a Vache late last year for a job he was told was available for him. Christophe sold his motorocycle on the mainland and bought a small plot of land on Ile a Vache where he and his family began putting up a reed hut. In the meantime, a cousin of his had “rented” his house to him. Unfortunately, the job he was supposed to have turned out to be a dead end. Bill hired him to help temporarily in the woodshop.

One drizzly evening, we looked down the beach and saw Christophe’s family’s things being hauled out of the house onto the sand. Bill went down to inquire what was going on. As Christophe had not been making any money, the cousin had “put him out”.

They were going to try to take their things down to their hut but there was no time before dark to make the place habitable so we invited them to stay with us. We cleared out one room of the woodshop to make room for some mattresses, expecting them to stay several days. But the next day, they went down and managed to make a place for themselves to sleep.

This is just one instance of the many stories we could tell of people that the Lord puts in our path that we are able to bless on a daily basis.

I held “classes” on the deck for some of the children of the neighborhood.   Once, young ladies from the age of 12 to 18 came and I spoke to them about purity. It is so heartbreaking to see so many of the girls end up pregnant at young ages. Single mothers are everywhere and struggle to feed their children.

Another time I told the story of Esther, rather animatedly, and watched the children’s eyes grow wide as they listened to the story. The children will often read out loud to each other from the Jesus Story Book Bible kept on the table on the deck, but their sentences are all in a monotone. To hear a story told with expression is something they seldom hear.

We leased a plot of ground at the back of the village and had it plowed to start a large garden. Vegetables raised in the small beds by the base have not done well. We don’t know if it is because of the salt spray from the ocean or something else but we are going to try to grow some food away from the ocean. Hopefully, we will be more successful on a larger scale at providing food for those who need it.

Before returning to the U.S. in March, we went back to Fonds Parisien for a few days. While there, we had dinner with the family whose home JUST MERCY had treated for bed bugs. The concrete block walls were smoothed with a coat of concrete and new mattresses bought for the family.

In Haiti, most of the people we work with cannot afford food for guests so we purchased a goat, rice, etc. and the family cooked a meal for us. After eating, as the mother of the family washed the dishes in a bucket on the front porch which also had smoothed walls, she turned to me and said, “Merci! Merci!” as she stroked the wall with her hand.

Then she led me into the house, walked to a smooth wall, and stroked it several times saying “Merci, Merci!” It brought tears to my eyes realizing what a difference just having a smooth wall in your home can make compared to a rough concrete wall! We are so grateful for the opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives!

There are numerous new projects and efforts in the works to share God’s love with the people. We have been blessed to have recently acquired a French language copy of The Truth Project. We are looking forward to sharing it with some of those who have helped us for several years. If it helps them grow in the Lord, we’ll be sharing it with others! (Please scroll down after the update for more pictures of JUST MERCY serving in Haiti.)

One more thing before this update closes.  For over six years, the old truck purchased in the DR just after the earthquake has hauled people, supplies, water, and other things over Haiti’s rough and rocky roads.  It has been to the mountains and to the sea.  It has broken down numerous times and been repaired, once on the road with a piece of string in a gas line nut!  It is a little nerve wracking depending on it to haul the teams who come to serve with us in Haiti.  Breaking down in Haiti can be dangerous in certain places and if we don’t have the truck for transportation, all the other ministries we do come to halt.

Therefore, we are asking for friends to send a special donation to help replace the truck.  Decent used vehicles in Haiti are hard to come by so we will probably have to go to the DR which is where this one came from.  Then after the purchase, customs to bring the vehicle into Haiti is at least 30%.  (Six years ago it was 60%.)

We will be looking for something similar to the 1996 Toyota Hylux truck that we have now.  The need is probably  $15,000 – $16,000.  We pray that God touches your heart and if you are able to help, please donate to replace the truck.  If it is currently not possible for you to give, we ask for your prayers that travel in Haiti will be safe and that the Lord continues to bless JUST MERCY’s efforts as we serve “the least of these”.  Blessings on you!