January 12, 2016
“I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.”
— John 12:46-47
This past year went by quickly as we had a busy year developing our outreach programs to help more people in need. We saw our sustainability projects expand to included more Haitians teaching other Haitians to help themselves, and their community. Mother Nature challenged us all—It was a year for courage and determination among all the people living here in Haiti.
Food Distribution
The Kingdom Connection Food Distribution Center was bustling this year. From our monthly food distributions, where we went from serving 65 to over 80 organizations that came and picked up their food each month for the many orphanages, missionaries, and other organizations all over Haiti. It is such a privilege to share our food with the poorest of the poor. This is only possible because of the unwavering support of our sponsors, partners, and so many people like you.
The Distribution Center became central to our disaster relief efforts after Hurricane Matthew.
Distributing Food to Villages and Schools
We distributed food to more poor villages this year. Most of the remote villages experienced a sharp increase in malnutrition and starvation due to recent crop failures because of the lack of rain in the past two year. People traveled many miles to pick up their food; often it could be a day’s journey to reach the village where we were distributing food. They returned to their homes, carrying the food on their heads or by donkey back up the mountains.
To stave off acute malnutrition here in Haiti, we needed to add more children and their families to our Feeding Program. We ventured into uncharted waters such as the Truttier Waste Disposal Dump, near the giant slums of Cité Soleil, the land of Bon Bon Tè—Sapaterre, Goat Mountain and other locations where the people are starving to death. Our Feeding Programs are saving lives every day!
Our school Feeding Program grew tremendously as we added or expanded several more schools. We now serve over 8,500 meals to Child Sponsored students in 18 schools
Thank you Feed My Starving Children, Joyce Meyer Ministries—Hand of Hope, Jentezen Franklin and your partners, and each of you, our partners who help us every month to pay for shipping of all the containers of food down here from the States, by faith!
Building Projects
In February, Bobby, Jesse Ostrander, David George and his construction crew stayed in the mountains of Savaan Pit “building a church in the middle-of-nowhere!” The church is a “candle in the middle of darkness” and it shines the light to many in the dark areas of the mountains, sharing the Gospel! We want to thank David George and his team for sponsoring this great work and all the Haitians who worked so hard, and also David George’s team who worked “day and night!” What a fantastic job by this team, what a blessing for the people of Savaan Pit!
At our Love A Child School in Fond Parisien, we were “busting out at the seams.” The school was originally built to hold about 325 students. Today we have over 800 children who attend this school. We have had to move classrooms outside under tents to hold all the extra children. We added a new building to accommodate all the new students. Thank you, Mark Ostrander and his crew who worked so hard to have the new school building ready by the start of the school year.
What a wonderful “miracle” it was, that this new church and school went up in the village of Sapaterre, where children and mothers sit in the dirt and make Bon Bon Tè (mud cookies) to eat and sell! We would especially like to thank our partners from Texas, who donated the funds for this and wishes to remain anonymous. And to think, this all started by giving away the first box of food and showing the people that God loves them, and cares about them! This brought tears to my eyes!
In Miracle Village, we added two new homes for the Pierre family from the Truttier Waste Disposal Dump. Pastor Randy Landis sent a group down to Haiti to construct the new houses. The Life Church Building Team and the Worship Center Building Team, under the direction of Mark Ostrander, got these houses up and painted in two days. Thank you for all your hard work!
The Pierre’s extended family were working so hard to survive among the mounds of garbage, but we could see that for all they did to subsist day-to-day, that would not help this poor family move beyond their inhumane conditions. Even in their dire circumstances, these little boys had big dreams… “One day we will find somewhere to build a house for Mom to live, and we could also go to school.” Now those little boys are in our Love A Child school in Miracle Village.
We built a church in La Tremblay for Pastor Claude that was incredible! Bobby, Pastor Claude, and David George looked in on the new church and how fast it was progressing. David and Angie George, along with some of their wonderful friends and his ministry, built this church for the Glory of God. This church would see hundreds of people give their hearts to the Lord. We all love this incredible man of God!!
We just finished a new house for Rosemitha Daleus and her family. This little girl lives in the village of Mal Forte, which is high up on Mon Cabrit (Goat Mountain). She lives there with her seven siblings, a mother who is overwhelmed by their poverty, and a father who has been very ill for a long time and cannot work. Rosemitha and her family had a terrible tragedy this year. There was a big storm in the area of Mon Cabrit, and their house was totally destroyed. We had raised $3,000 to start the construction, but we had no donors to finish the house. Then our friends David and Angie George and their partners sponsored the rest! As you can see, her house is almost finished!
Love A Child Orphanage
Life at our Love A Child Orphanage is always exciting and this past year was no exception. When you live under the same roof with over 80 lively orphans every day can be a challenge. We recently welcomed a new member of our Love A Child family, a little girl named Ginyia.
We believe that having an education and Jesus are the best things in the world! For our Love A Child Orphanage children, we promised all the older children that everyone who “passed” in school would get a treat to go to the beach and have a nice dinner out! A lot of our children passed with HIGH HONERS! There were 33 children on this “day out,” including Bobby and our friend David George! They were the “babysitters,” but they fell asleep under a coconut tree! Kaeli and some of the housemothers were there too. Now all the little ones “who passed” (about 45 of them) are waiting for their turn at the beach and lunch out!
This year we were fortunate enough to send three of our Love A Child orphan children to the States to receive highly specialized medical care. Getting any of our children who need specialized medical care to the States is always a challenge. We have been so blessed to find the right hospitals, doctors, and sponsors that are able to offer each of these children a chance at a better life and to improve their physical comfort. When each child originally came to our Love A Child Orphanage, they had suffered not only physical pain, but also emotional trauma because of their condition.
Dimelia
Our sweet Dimelia was badly burned around the age of four. She fell into a charcoal fire and was burned by the coals and boiling cornmeal. She has had several surgeries over the years, and now she is recovering from a recent surgery done at Shriners Hospitals for Children — Boston. Dimelia’s host mom, Lori Hodel, keeps us updated on her progress. Dimelia went through surgery at the Shriners Hospitals for Children — Boston for scarring from severe burns she suffered as a child. The doctors had to use her leg as a donor site for a graft. They focused on her right chest area with her recent surgery. They will use lasers on her skin to make it look and feel smooth. We want to thank Derek and Heather Carr for sponsoring her trip to the States. We also thank her wonderful host mom, Lori Hodel, for all the care she has given her in the past and for taking care of her again for this surgery! She is still in the States receiving additional treatment, and we look forward to her return to Haiti.
Miliana
When we first saw her many years ago, she had horrible skin sores, was malnourished and had been badly abused. Miliana had struggled her whole life with this skin disease, though we were never able to find out exactly what her condition was here in Haiti. Back in 2013, the doctor had given us a diagnosis of her skin condition. She had Rothmund-Thomson Syndrome, which is pigmented skin with sores on her hands, feet, elbows and no eyebrows. Her future could possibly lead to bone cancer or leukemia. She cannot be in the sun too often. Miliana stayed with a wonderful host, Beth Nolan, and her family, in 2013. This year, our friend Beth Nolan found a dermatologist who could treat this skin disease. This is Miliana’s second trip to the State, and she is staying with Beth and her family again. They were so wonderful to her. Her skin condition had deteriorated so badly, and she was “growing growths” from her body that looked like small tree limbs! We are so thankful to the First Baptist Church in Spencerville, OH who helped sponsor Miliana’s trip to the States. What a great gift this was! Thank you Spencerville First Baptist Church! She is a precious little girl, as you all may know. We pray that she gets all the help she needs. Special thanks to Dr. Cairns for his wonderful care of Miliana! Miliana is still in the States receiving treatment for her condition, but we look forward to her return to Haiti.
Dieubon
Dieubon has been in our Love A Child Orphanage for many years. We found him while conducting a Mobile Medical Clinic high in the mountains of Haiti. When we first met Dieubon, he could not walk because of bilateral clubfeet and he was in very poor health. We knew he could not stay in his village and that he needed a miracle. He initially had surgery in the States to correct is feet many years ago. As he aged, Dieubon started suffering from severe back pain and loss of bladder control from Spina Bifida. We thought the time had come for him to have the surgery for this condition.
We have always been so blessed to find the best doctors and hospitals and we have received support from other organizations that specialize in bringing poor children from around the world to receive treatment. The Q Foundation for Kids awarded Love A Child a grant to cover the costs of transportation, meals, and housing for Dieubon so that he could receive the care he needed at Shriners Hospital for Children—Tampa. Dieubon arrived in the States in May and checked into the hospital for his Spina Bifida surgery and he was operated on the next morning. This was a major operation so he was in the hospital for seven days, and then he needed to have rehabilitation for eight weeks with his host family, Rad and Sandra Hazelip in Florida. We want to thank Shriners Hospital for Children—Tampa for his Spina Bifida surgery and the Q Foundation for Kids for making it possible for Dieubon to travel to the States. We thank his wonderful host parents, Rad and Sandra Hazelip, who are the Executive Directors at Love A Child for taking such great care of him. He had to wear his brace for three months, and he is doing GREAT!
Medical Outreach
Jesus Healing Center
Love A Child is considered the most trusted source for Community Health Care in the Ouest region of Haiti. Barbara MacMannis is a RN and our Medical Administrator. She leads by faith and the staff and patients of the Jesus Healing Center are so aware of the blessings of this center. It meets the needs of the patients, respects them as people of God, and hopefully shines a light for the love of the Lord in everything we do and say. The center now provides health care for the poorest of the poor throughout the Fond Parisien area and beyond. This is only possible because of our wonderful partners, like Joyce Meyer Ministries – Hand of Hope, that are dedicated to helping those in desperate need.
Haiti suffered through a three-month strike by health care workers at the government-run hospitals this year, causing a 200 percent increase in the amount of Haitians that come to our Community Health Care Outreach Programs and our Mobile Medical Clinics.
As word spread about the excellent care patients received at the Jesus Healing Center, we found ourselves bursting at the seams. Our four doctors, two residents, and eleven nurses were able to increase our patient load from 100 to 150 a day to keep up with the need, but our problem was where would we put all the added patients. Without the funds to add on to our current building we have looked into our extra spaces for storage, and re-configured to increase our maximum use of the existing building. We needed to increase our space to keep up with the demands of emergency care. We were able to enlarge our emergency room from three beds to six beds by utilizing a porch entrance, and our inside waiting area from twelve to twenty-five by decreasing our front registration office.
It has been a very busy year for the Jesus Healing Center, but the results have been phenomenal. We felt that with the help of God we could see many of the patients who came to our gate each morning. Very few were turned away, and many who were in need of a higher level of care were resourced to other facilities; from amputees to cardiac, to plastic surgery, or complicated orthopedics, we were standing in the gap for the poorest of the poor. The Jesus Healing Center grew tremendously this past year. We treated thousands of patients in Fond Parisien and surrounding areas. Just two years ago, our community clinic treated an average of 2,000 patients each month, now it is over 9,000 each month!
The Jesus Healing Center received a 15-passenger van from Joyce Meyer Ministries—Hand of Hope. This van is invaluable and provides transportation for patients, their families, and children from the orphanage to receive medical care from specialty doctors or other clinics. This van frees up our ambulance to be used for only emergencies.
The Jesus Healing Center cares for patients with chronic and debilitating illnesses who must see a specialist monthly. This van allows us to coordinate appointments for several patients to see specialists in the Port-au-Prince area, which saves time and keeps in line with our budget. We are so grateful for this van and it is helping us change lives throughout Haiti.
Malnutrition Center
Our Malnutrition Center is a safe oasis in the middle of this land of poverty and starvation. It is the best way we have to break the cycle of starvation by educating the mothers and giving them nutritious food to bring back to their families each week. Some of the mothers will walk two hours one-way to receive a sack of food, and we are then able to monitor the health of the children. They do this because it may be the only food they will have for the week.
In our new Malnutrition Center, we educate pregnant mothers on the importance of having healthy babies. We offer classes on prenatal care, early child care, and encourage breast-feeding, which is the best solution for the immune system of a new baby. So many little lives were saved and so much will be going on in the center to save even more lives. We provide specialized food and care to save their lives; we also send them home with food for their families. We welcomed Mark Crea, president of FMSC, and his team of volunteers who came to visit our Malnutrition Center, spending time with some of the babies his organization is helping.
The Malnutrition Center sees between three and four hundred babies and toddlers each week. Some have been in our program for many months. Children are checked and weighed each week, and their mothers are taught the best foods to feed them when there is little food available. Each mother receives several types of food for her baby for the next week, and then, each baby comes back to be weighed weekly. This wonderful program has prevented many children from dying of malnutrition. A special thank you to one of our partners, Dor’e Aslandes, who sponsored the new Malnutrition Center. These are some of the volunteer team members that came with David George.
Mobile Medical Clinics
We make several trips into the “regions beyond” each year to bring Mobile Medical Clinics to people who live in these remote areas, many of them have never seen a doctor. We are so fortunate to have many medical professionals who volunteer their time to come all the way to Haiti to care for the very poor who travel many hours to receive medical care at one of our Mobile Medical Clinics. It may take up to three-to-five hours to reach some of the remote villages where we bring our Mobile Medical Clinics. These remote villages are high up in the mountains of Haiti, and most have little or no road to get there.
This was our Mobile Medical Clinic team of volunteers who traveled to Savaan Pit, a five-hour drive into the mountains of Haiti to this very remote village. They included: Bev Olson RN from Canada, Dr. Glenda O’Brien from Australia, and from the States, Becca Reynolds LPN from Ohio, and Debbie and Donnie Click, Brandon Hoyme, Jessica Cooper and Kaylen Pierce, all from Texas. Rachael Abrams from our Love A Child office in Florida and Evie Ostrander, who is on our Board of Directors also joined us along with Carlos, our team host, Kaeli Fletcher, our Love A Child missionary, and our newest full-time missionary, our daughter Julie Halecki RN.
The Mobile Medical Clinic at Savaan Pit was incredible! We saw more patients than ever before and they received excellent doctor care, free medicine, wound care, glasses, ministry and more. The first day of the clinic we were a bit overwhelmed with the sheer number of people who came seeking medical help. We treated 914 patients, with individual and personal attention, like this very sick young girl with her family. Our medical volunteers and Love A Child staff were incredible!
We also held Mobile Medical Clinics in La Roche, Lastik, and Letant.
Since we recently started visiting the village of Sapaterre and taking food to these poor people who make and sell Bon Bon Tè (mud cookies), we had promised that we would come back and hold a Mobile Medical Clinic. Most of these people had never received any medical care in their whole life. We had to postpone the trip because of Hurricane Matthew, but in November we were finally able to hold a Mobile Medical Clinic for these precious people.
Child Sponsorship
Our Child Sponsorship program is another great way to reach out to the poor and provide a future for thousands of Haitian children every day. Sponsored children are able to attend school, receive a Christian education, eat a hot, nutritious meal each day, and receive medical attention when they are sick. There is no greater gift than your love and compassion to a child in need.
In Haiti, even the poorest child has a dream. Whatever their future holds for them, they all have a special dream, and that is to go to school. Unlike here in the States, where children often come up with silly excuses for not going to school; in Haiti, every child who is not in school dreams of going to school. They know that going to a good Christian school is much more than learning to read and write, but it also means that they will become part of a special community.
Natural Disaster
Hurricane Matthew
On a quiet Sunday in October, while attending the church dedication for Pastor Claude new church in La Trembley, we received bad news about the hurricane that was headed for Haiti, we needed to leave early from the church service to get ready for Hurricane Matthew that was now a Category 4 hurricane. We had a lot of work to do! It was all hands on deck, as everyone pitched in to load up sandbags to be placed around the Love A Child compound. Thank you, David George, our Love A Child children, and our Haitian workers for helping us to all stay safe on the property.
By 7:00 AM Monday the hurricane had winds of 145 miles per hour and was 50 miles south of Haiti. There were predictions that over 100,000 people would lose their homes. We tried to obtain extra food to pass out along with other urgent items that people would need. The Haitian government was begging for our help! By 5:00 AM on Tuesday, Hurricane Matthew had made landfall in Haiti. So many people were in danger and though they tried to evacuate people, they really had no place to go.
Hurricane Matthew was powerful and destructive when it made landfall on the southwestern tip of Haiti. The storm pounded the poor island with drenching rains and a flooding storm surge for many hours. Many homes and huts were washed away as tons of mud rushed down the mountains.
Schools, churches, and homes were washed away all around the southwestern area of Haiti.
The World Food Program stated, “October 2016’s Hurricane Matthew has left hundreds of thousands in Haiti in need of food assistance. Fishing activities have been paralyzed, crops and forests lost and incomes diminished. There were extensive flooding and mudslides, damage to roads and buildings and widespread electricity and water shortages… Agriculture is gone, nature is gone. That will take a very long time to grow and it will take a long time for these people to become self-sufficient again.”
Disaster Relief Efforts
On Wednesday morning, we reached out to poor villages with food and disaster relief kits. Pastor Claude had 200 refugees in his new church in La Tremblay. It was such a blessing that so many people had someplace to go to be safe during the hurricane, though people desperately needed food. We gave him pallets of Manna Pack food, macaroni from Children’s Care Outreach, dehydrated fruit from Gleaners, a pallet of clothes, blankets, and much more.
We visited several areas in Haiti that needed disaster relief. One of our missionaries Kaeli, and our daughter Julie put together empty buckets ready for our team to fill with supplies. Among the needy areas were Ti Maché, a poor village of mud huts and Truttier, the landfill/garbage dump of Cité Soleil, where more than 300 families live in the muck and extremely unsanitary conditions.
Port Salut is located in one of the hardest hit areas on the Tiburon Peninsula, which includes most of Haiti’s southern coast. Our first trip there was to bring in basic survival needs such as food, water, and clothing.
On our second trip, we filled our box truck full of supplies and headed out to the Restavek Foundation in Port Salut. Our friends run this organization; Ray and Joan Conn. Plans were changed to consolidate our shipment with others so that private security could be hired to accompany the largest truck full of supplies to this disaster area. We prayed that everything reached the poor without any problems.
On our third trip to Port Salut, we brought our “Mobile Medical Clinic – Disaster Relief Team.” The team included Billie Harrell, Dr. Pat Webster, Rachael Perry RN, Donnie and Debbie Click, Ken Williams, Walt and Marla Crowder, Meladee Slade, Pam Woodson, and of course, David George was here with us along with our daughter Julie and missionary Kaeli.
Hurricane Matthew continues to be a complicated humanitarian disaster. Not only have the Haitians lost their homes, but also the long-term effects will be felt for many years to come. All their crops were destroyed and most of their animals died in the hardest hit area that is also known as the “breadbasket of Haiti.” This will immediately result in an agricultural catastrophe; the vast majority of the population will no longer have food, widespread famine will take hold of the country. There will be no money for families to send their children to school. If you would like to make a contribution to the victims of Hurricane Matthew in Haiti, please consider a donation of food, clothing and shelter material. It makes such a big difference in the lives of these poor people.
Sustainability Projects
Gwo Maché Mirak (Grand Miracle Market)
In December, we marked the Second Anniversary of our Sustainability Project, Gwo Maché Mirak (Grand Miracle Market). The marketplace was built to provide jobs as well as a clean, spacious environment for Haitians to sell their goods to the surrounding communities. The marketplace is a vibrant and productive environment for the Haitian people. It is restoring dignity and hope for so many, who just a few years ago had lost everything during the earthquake and hurricanes that ravaged their country. The Gwo Maché Mirak is now the largest outdoor marketplace in Haiti and offers a bright future for the young people here. This is a safe place where families can bring their children to enjoy all that the marketplace has to offer while they do their shopping and socializing
What a blessing the marketplace has been for jobs and improving the entire community. This is a sustainability project, helping Haitians to help themselves! Nelio, the market manager, and Frank and his staff are all doing a great job! Very soon the marketplace will be making a profit and all the profits will go to the local area to put into drilling wells, scholarships and to bless poor families. This is a gift, which will always keep on giving! Thank you Pastor Jentezen Franklin and your partners for putting $1,000,000 into the marketplace!
Epi d’Or Restaurant
The restaurants at the marketplace are very popular with local folk, as well as visitors and the volunteers who come to Love A Child to help with many of our projects. A restaurant chain by the name of Epi d’Or will be opening soon. The building has already been built, and the vendors are so excited!
Poul Mirak
Poul Mirak is a unique social enterprise model that was established as a project for gaining self-sustainability and dignity through enterprise. Here at Love A Child, we knew we could improve the state of chicken farming in Haiti. As an organization, we are deeply committed to sustainable development initiatives in order to promote self-sufficiency for the Haitian people. With the help of Mike Welch of Harrison Poultry and the World Poultry Foundation, as well as Larry Guest and friends, the Poul Mirak chicken farm cooperative has taken major steps toward reaching those goals.
Rad Hazelip, our Love A Child Assistant Executive Director, oversaw the operation and picked five eager locals to join the co-op. We equipped, trained, and now mentor these five members to offer a hand in lifting their community out of poverty. Our model not only provides a way for five local families to become independent businessmen, but it also accomplishes its key objectives for breaking the cycle of poverty.
Agricultural Training Center
There are so many ways that we can help the people of Haiti, and we think that one of the best ways is to create long-term sustainability that increases food security for Haitian families. This was our challenge in developing sustainable agricultural practices. How would we teach an old Haitian farmer to embrace a new method of farming?
We just started our second two-year Agricultural Training Program at the Love A Child Agricultural Training Center. We have a fresh new group of young men and women eager to learn and make a difference in their homes and communities. At the training pavilion, Wilner, our head trainer, demonstrates techniques for erosion control, composting, organic fertilizers, pest control, proper irrigation, etc. We also teach locals about “Farming God’s Way,” age-old methods to improve productivity and nutritive value, while preserving natural resources.
Recently, the Rotary Club of Walhalla, South Carolina funded an extension project to take the ATC program to the village of Letant. Wilner showed us what is already happening in Letant and it is great! The village is focused on making the project a success and many people there are signing up to participate. Soon they will be harvesting their own food, which they have never been able to do before. They are happy, hopeful and have pride in their project.
Thank you, Rad Hazelip, for your vision and hard work of putting your dream together. Thank you, Johnny, Paul, and Shelby Mahon for all your hard work putting in the only sprinkler system for gardens that we know of in Haiti. Thanks to Life Changers Church and Pastor Gregory Dickow for the funds to start the farm project. Lastly, thank you, Foster Fries, for funding the Agricultural Training Center. We thank all of our partners that have helped with this project by traveling here to build shade houses, or teaching, or your financial support, every gift is important.
Reforestation
The rapid deforestation of Haiti began back during the colonial period and was later intensified when coffee production was introduced in 1730. The monoculture of coffee and fruit plantations throughout Haiti, along with repeated tilling to control weeds, exhausted soil nutrients and led to rapid erosion. But the most important factor for today’s state of deforestation comes from the extreme reliance on trees for cooking fuel. Haitians have always burned wood charcoal for their cooking needs and the demand for charcoal has doubled over the last two decades, increasing the rate of deforestation.
On Earth Day in Haiti, everyone was so excited to be involved with the Tree Planting project. Rad Hazelip, Assistant Executive Director of Love A Child, and Wilner our Haitian instructor at the Agricultural Training Center have worked so hard with our students and staff. Here they are planting Vetiver grass that will greatly reduce erosion.
For the Earth Day and Tree Planting event, everyone was planting trees in Miracle Village and in Fond Parisien. We love trees! Even the children got the chance to plant trees, they are the future of Haiti, so teach them early how to take care of their land.
Moringa Production
It is called the “Miracle Tree” because it has saved more lives in third world countries than any other plant. It is being studied by numerous institutions worldwide for its ability to treat over 300 diseases. Love A Child’s aggressive approach to helping Haitians improve their environment includes the planting of at least 25,000 Moringa Trees each year. Moringa Oleifera is a very important plant. Though the species is native to the southern foothills of the Himalayas where it has been cherished for thousands of years as a source of nutrition, and for its healing capabilities, it also flourishes in many places around the world from Africa to Haiti.
This is Madamn Sonia from Miracle Village with her helper. We have planted thousands of these wonderful Moringa Trees in Miracle Village, our Love A Child Compound, and at the Agricultural Training Center as well. Once the leaves are picked and dried, Madamn Sonia uses a pestle (manch pilon), and hollowed out log, to grind the Moringa leaves into a fine green powder. This is one of the highest sources of vitamins, minerals, and other nutritional values in the world! We use it in our Jesus Healing Center and our Malnutrition Center to treat a variety of conditions. It is an “entirely natural healing pharmacy!”
Visiting Missionary Teams
We have been so blessed this past year with all the volunteer groups that have come from all over the world to help us here in Haiti. When these groups come to Haiti, they are so enthusiastic in helping Love A Child in so many different areas. We thank you all for your dedication to the Lord and to the poor people here.
Pastor Mark Ostrander from Mission Church is working hard on our special project in Gwo Maché Mirak. Thank you, Pastor Randy Landis, for putting together a construction team to come down and put in the drop ceiling of a new restaurant! Thank you, Logan, Austin, Charles, and John! You all can walk the dog! We are very thankful for the great Haitian construction guys who also helped with this project.
We welcome the Dream Center Team from New York!!! Wow, what an incredible group of people serving the Lord! You would not believe the great time we had at our Love A Child Orphanage. We heard praises, rap, testimonies, and hip-hop for Jesus! What an impact on our youth! They held a Youth Crusade each night with singing, special music, dancing and testimonies. They have also witnessed “house to house,” praying for the sick, working in the warehouse, helping with food distributions and feeding programs. Thank you to Carrie, the Team Leader, Hatley, Becky, Nancy, Josie, Tanner, Nechelle, Najja, Blair, Shelby, and Joyce. God bless you!
We always look forward to a visit from Faith Church team from the St. Louis and Palm Beach areas. Pastors David and Nicole Crank are the pastors, and this team came to work and evangelize for Jesus! They also distributed food in the village of Madamn Bauje. They walked from “hut-to-hut” for several hours, going inside where the people live, hearing their problems, praying for them and leading many to Jesus! The “goodness of God” is what leads men to repentance! God bless Pastors David and Nicole Crank for sending this wonderful team to us.
It was such a joy to have the Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) team here for a week. They helped distribute food to many, many other organizations that we share our food with, helped families in the mountains, schoolchildren, and also helped in our Malnutrition Center and so much more. We wish to thank President Mark Crea, his staff that came to Haiti with him and his partners. We thank FMSC for “donating the food,” and we thank “Love A Child partners” who made it possible to bring this food from the States to Haiti. They had a wonderful time at our Malnutrition Clinic here at Love A Child. They packed food for mothers to take home to their families, they weighed and measured small infants who were underweight, and they got to hold these precious little ones!
God bless the Volunteer Team from Spokane, Washington. The ladies worked in the warehouse preparing their gift distribution, while the men worked on our last house going in Miracle Village. Thank you, Terry, Robin, Dwight, Carmen, Mikaya, Greg, Russ, Graham and also Mark and Jesse Ostrander. Thank you to everyone including our wonderful Haitian workers!
We are so thankful for the Life Church Construction Team that came down to build a house for a Haitian family in Miracle Village. The team included: Terry Panagos, Dwight Spotts, Russ Erickson, Greg Zografo, Graeme Spotts, Carmen Spotts, Mikaela Roethie, and Robin Pangs. They worked hard under Mark and Jesse Ostrander to build the house, paint and they even raised money for the furniture in it! What a blessing to our worker “Black!” God bless everyone for their hard work!
We want to thank the team from Riverside Baptist Church in Fort Myers, Florida, Peter Fenger (team leader), Mike Sullivan (Love A Child employee) and friends for blessing us with a new bunkhouse for the Agriculture Training Center and coming and installing the roof this week! This team has been very dedicated to helping many aspects of the sustainability programs. The bunkhouse will be used to house interns, students, and those seeking to be educated in agriculture and appropriate technologies to improve the lives of their families.
We welcomed Pastor Gregory Dickow and his team from Chicago Life Changers Church International. Pastor Dickow held a special pastor conference teaching them the Word. The Haitians are hung