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1 May 2010 Dear Sponsors, Our recent trip to Haiti (March 10 - 24) was a wonderful trip! We were able to process 661 children on this trip, which was a great outcome after the devastating earthquake on January 12th. We had a total of 14 team members from Maine, Utah, Maryland and Arizona on this trip. We hope to have photos from this trip posted to the “trip photos” page on the web site soon. There are also photos of children who are still waiting to be chosen for sponsorship on the “child in need” page of our web site. Please help us spread the word about these waiting children. Word of mouth is really the best way to get others involved in helping! On this trip we updated the following schools – the Primary school in Terrier Rouge, Ouvray, Juchereau and Phaeton. In September we plan to update the following schools – the Center of Protection and the Secondary school in Terrier Rouge, Trou du Nord, Paulette, Roche Platte and ˝ of the children in Danda (the other ˝ of the children in Danda will be done in the Spring of 2011). This represents a new updating schedule which we were compelled to implement due to the growing numbers of children in the program in each of the outlying schools. This new schedule will enable us to get to the schools in a more timely fashion and will hopefully decrease the numbers of children we miss because they have already gone home for the day by the time we arrive at their school. For those of you whose children were absent from school during this visit, we will put your children on our list of children to see when we return to Haiti on our next trip which is scheduled for September 27 through October 13, 2010. The team for that trip will be divided into two groups, as we did last fall, with a different group for each week of the trip. This team is currently full. During a telephone conversation with Pastor Noel before this last visit to Haiti, he shared a dream with us. In light of the devastating effects of the earthquake in January, he wanted to begin construction of a home for orphaned and abandoned children on a piece of property we were able to help him purchase back in October of 2008. With not much time remaining before our departure for Haiti, we sent out a small e-mail mailing and posted the need on our website and on Facebook. God was gracious and people responded overwhelmingly and we are extremely grateful for this provision! During our visit, we were blessed to be able to witness the start of this home for orphaned and abandoned children in Terrier Rouge. Pastor Noel's vision for this home, which will be an on-going work of L'eglise Baptiste de Terrier Rouge, is to build several small homes on the property. A housemother will be selected for each one and 10 children will be placed in each home according to their need. The first house is near completion and there are plans to start the common kitchen and toilet and drill a well. However, more funds are needed to complete the first home and to start additional small homes. If you would like to donate towards the continuing cost of building this home for children, please send us an e-mail or contact us via regular mail. Many of you have asked us about the situation in Northeast Haiti after the January 12th earthquake. While we were there we found schools in session and most children had returned to school, although there are still a few who are too afraid to return. Aftershocks continue to occur and, in fact, a small aftershock hit the city of Cap-Haitien during our visit, and approximately 5 people died when the home they were in fell off the steep slope on which it was built. We met many people from Port-Au-Prince who have relocated to Terrier Rouge and the city of Cap-Haitien (where the population has doubled since the earthquake), many of whom have lost all or most of their family and all their possessions. We are continuing to accept donations to help the relief effort which will continue to go to our partners in Haiti who are working tirelessly to help these displaced people - such as the young man who lost both his parents and 7 siblings on January 12th or the young, pregnant mother who lost her husband, her home and all her possessions. We are extremely grateful to be used by God as a channel for these relief funds, which we have been able to send or deliver in person to our Haitian partners since shortly after the earthquake occurred. During our visit, Pastor Noel shared a need with us. In order for him to meet the financial demands at the start of a new school year, it would be better for him if we were able to send him the money for the children’s tuition earlier than we have been. In light of this, the new due date for the second sponsorship payment for the 2010 calendar year will be JULY 15th instead of August 15th. Many of you have already prepaid this sponsorship payment and we appreciate it very much. If you haven’t yet sent in your second payment for the 2010 calendar year, please mark that new due date on your calendars. We have 2 fundraising events scheduled for this summer and early fall that you may want to participate in. On June 5th organizations across Maine will be walking to raise money to support clinics, orphanages, schools and hospitals. Walks are currently scheduled for Portland, Bangor, Waterville and Jackman. 100% of the proceeds collected at the Waterville walk will go to His Hands for Haiti for the orphanage construction project. (100% of all monies collected at the Bangor and Jackman walks will go to Haitian Ministries to support medical clinics, provide care for orphans and help feed the poor. Monies collected at the Portland walk will go to Konbit Sante and other organizations that are working in Haiti. Please visit www.mainewalksforhaiti.org for more information.) If you live in the Waterville, Maine area and would like to participate in our walk, send us an e-mail or give us a call and we can give you the registration details. Our other fundraising event is scheduled for September 18th at Grace Point Church in San Diego, California. Mac Frampton, internationally known pianist, will perform a concert filled with music to delight every age. Mac is a phenomenal performer who has Victor Borge mixed in with his own unique style of music. It should be an awesome evening and will help orphaned and abandoned children as all proceeds will go to benefit the His Hands for Haiti orphanage building project. If you live in the San Diego area, or if you know someone else who does, and you would like more information about this concert, please send us an e-mail or give us a call and we can give you more of the details. As we reported in our last newsletter, we have started a new partnership with Pastor Merari Rodriguez in San Lucas, Guatemala. We are pleased to announce that the His Hands for Guatemala Child Sponsorship Program has been established and ALL of the 26 children who were enrolled in the program have already found sponsors – praise God! We are still seeking sponsorship for 2 teachers which would be a great project for a church, business or civic group. If you haven’t yet visited our new website for the Guatemala program, you can check it out at His Hands for Guatemala. Our His Hands for Africa Child Sponsorship Program continues to grow but progress is slow. If you haven’t visited our website for the Africa program, why not check it out now. You can find it at His Hands for Africa. There are still many children in the Africa program who are also waiting for a sponsor and the children in the Congo in particular are still in desperate need. Please help us spread the word about these waiting children! We also covet your prayers as we investigate another opportunity for service. We are not yet ready to share the details of this opportunity but we are praying for God’s clear direction and for wisdom as we make these decisions. We know many of you are probably wondering how we can continue to investigate these new opportunities and the only answer we can give is that we are simply walking in the good works God has prepared for us beforehand. As He brings us new opportunities, He is also bringing us new ways to increase our capacity through new volunteers and the wonders of modern technology. “Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’" Matt. 19:26 At this point in time, we have volunteers all over the US who are working with us and are able to remotely access our computers here in our office from their own locations. We have established a large network of volunteers who tackle jobs such as typing up the children’s information sheets, organizing our mailings, and various other responsibilities for which we are extremely grateful! We have turned over the responsibility of running the Guatemala program to one of these volunteers, Jamie Dennett. We are also in the process of dividing up the responsibilities of running the Haiti program between two of our board members, myself and Matt Lenfestey. So we ask for your continued prayer for wisdom for our board and for God’s provision as we keep walking in these good works. We greatly appreciate your interest in the needs of the children of Haiti. We look forward in anticipation of how God will continue to use us to help the children of Haiti, the children of the Great Lakes region of Africa, the children of Guatemala, and the children in other parts of the world as we keep walking in the good works He has prepared for us. 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 |
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