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9 December 2007 Dear Sponsors, Our recent trip to Haiti (October 22 through November 3) was very successful even though we visited Haiti at the same time as Tropical Storm Noel (whose name we found to be rather ironic!). Noel did not do any serious damage in “our” part of Haiti but it did delay our departure from Haiti by one day. We were very thankful that we did not have to experience any of the serious flooding suffered in other parts of Haiti. At the most, Noel was only an inconvenience for us by causing many of the children to stay home from school when we needed to see them or by messing up our travel plans. Even with the difficulties caused by the storm, we were able to process 671 children on this trip which is the most we have ever done in one trip! In order to accomplish this in the short amount of time we had in Haiti, we divided the team into 2 “squads” and were able to interview, measure and photograph 2 children at one time. We also sent the 2 squads in 2 different directions on the Friday we were in Haiti, which was also a “first” for us. Squad A went to Paulette and Phaeton and Squad B went to Danda. By dividing up this way, we were able to see 220 children in just that one day! We hope to have photos from this trip posted to the “trip photos” page on the web site soon. Be sure to check them out! We also have photos of MANY children waiting for a sponsor on the “child in need” page of our web site. If you know anyone who has thought about sponsoring a child, now would be a great time for them to act on it! Be sure to let them know we have many children who are waiting to be sponsored. During this trip we put our new updating schedule into practice for the first time. In the interest of simplifying things for everyone, from now on each fall we will update the following schools – Center of Protection in Terrier Rouge, Secondary School in Terrier Rouge, Danda, Paulette and Phaeton. In the spring we will update the following schools – Primary School in Terrier Rouge, Ouvray, Juchereau and Roche Platte. If your child is absent from school during their regularly scheduled updating visit, they will automatically be put on the list of children to be updated during our next visit to Haiti, even if their school is not due to be updated at that time. As most of you know, we have changed mail carriers for the mail being sent to the sponsored children. But even with this carrier change, Pastor Noel has still had problems with customs fees. Because these fees are unpredictable, we have been forced to limit packages being sent to Haiti to padded mailing envelopes only. Pastor Noel should not be charged customs fees on padded mailing envelopes – only on boxes. We would also ask that you keep the weight of your packages to 5 pounds or less. We hope that these changes will keep Pastor Noel from being charged customs fees on your packages. Also, please be sure to follow the mailing instructions closely. The shipping fee for your package should not be included inside the package anymore. It should be sent to MFI in a separate envelope and be sure to include “HHH” in the memo section of your check so your payment will be recorded properly. We will include a copy of the new mailing instructions with this letter (if you are not receiving any updated information sheets at this time). If you misplace these instructions, they can also be found on the “contact us” page of our web site. With our new payment schedule which was implemented this school year, the second annual payment for the current school year will be due on January 30th. For those of you who have not already made this second annual payment, we plan to start sending out notices for this payment during the last week in December. We realize this is a difficult time of year financially for many of us but please plan on this January 30th due date so we can get your payment to Haiti in a timely fashion. Our next trip to Haiti is scheduled for March 26 through April 11, 2008. As of this writing, we have many people who have expressed an interest in being a part of this team. At that time, we will be updating the children in the Primary School in Terrier Rouge, Ouvray, Juchereau and Roche Platte. In our last newsletter, we made the announcement of our new partnership with Shalom Ministries in East Africa and the start of the His Hands for Africa Sponsorship Program. We have not yet been able to get our new web site for this program up and running but we have added a page to our His Hands for Haiti web site with information about this Africa program as well as photos of children who are waiting for a sponsor. We would like to encourage you to check out this new page, which can be found by clicking on the “His Hands for Africa” button on any page of our His Hands for Haiti web site. Thank you again for your interest in the needs of the children of Haiti. Your help is greatly appreciated both by them and by us. We are excited about the plans God has for us and for the children of Haiti, as well as the children of the Great Lakes region of Africa, as we move ahead in this ministry. Thank you so much for your part in this ministry and thank you for your continued prayer and support. For Him and for the children, Jamie Charles Child Sponsorship Coordinator |