Dire Times in Haiti. Please pray.

Sorry it’s been awhile since we updated you. Bill returned home from Haiti in February during rioting and unrest. Haiti has continued to be unstable. There have been more riots and demonstrations this month. Roads in Port au Prince have been blocked several times with burning tires and rock.  Thousands have marched in the streets.

Bill has planned to return to Haiti several times since February but each time something has prevented him, either the volatile situation in Haiti, making travel across the country difficult and even dangerous, or personal situations at home.

But even with Bill here, JUST MERCY has been able to help in Haiti. Teachers in the school at Chapelle in the mountains of Pays Pourri have continued to be paid so 350 children can continue going to school and receiving a free lunch every day.

Several times, money has been sent to trusted friends who have traveled to Les Cayes, purchased food (which has gotten much more expensive in the last six months), taken it back on a boat, divided it up, and distributed it to 36 old folks and their families that we help to feed.  That is a lot more difficult to do than it sounds!

The last time we did this, a friend wrote back telling us how all the people were SO GRATEFUL for the food. Prices have risen, jobs are practically non-existent, and many do not have the funds to buy what they need.

Sacks of Food waiting for distribution

For those of you following the artificial reef project, B.J., who has helped us put both reefs in the sea, has a high school welding class in KY making metal forms for casting the concrete reef pieces! This would be a huge boon for continued building of the reefs!! They can be flown over on Agape flights and used over and over again!

High School Students welding a form for a reef piece

We plan to build many more reefs as we find the funding and scuba teams to come to Haiti and put them in the sea. This is a project that will have a lasting effect, helping to save the fishing village’s food supply.

The slideshow/video about the reefs is on the right sidebar at the top of this update. We hope you will check it out to see how the reefs are built and what’s been done. It’s been an exciting journey!

For quite some time now, we have had a JUST MERCY fund raising trip planned for the next few weeks. After that, Bill should be returning to Haiti in July.

JUST MERCY has been there in Haiti after each natural disaster in the last nine years. This time, as the country melts down, prices are sky-rocketing, and life becomes more and more difficult for the Haitian people, we ask for God’s grace “as the burdens grow greater’ and for more “strength as the labors increase” to serve the Haitian people.

Please keep Haiti in your prayers, especially now as things are so bad. Thank you to all those who have continued to pray for and support JUST MERCY’s efforts in Haiti. We have been blessed to see how all of us working together the last several years have been able to bring light and hope to people, pointing them to our Savior. That is why we work in Haiti! We are so grateful for the love and friendship of so many of you. May God bless you all!!