Haiti October 25, 2013

Before I get into the events of the day, TEM would like to thank Bobby & Sherry of Love A Child, Mark Crea of Feed My Starving Children, and Pastor Jentezen Franklin and their organizations for making this day of feeding the hunger in Haiti possible. May the Lord continue to bless them, their families, and their ministries that the Lord has given them.

We are supporting three people in seminary now. Pastor Simon is working on his last year for his Haitian license. He has finished 4 years in seminary, but has to go another year for the license (I don’t understand it – it’s Haiti). Then there is Julio, Pastor Do’s son, who is in his second year, and Pastor Angelo of Jerusalem IV, who has just started.

As you can see by the pictures, school has definitely started now. It is so refreshing to see the children line up in the morning and say allegiance to their country’s flag, and then pray to our Lord. Just about all of them have their uniforms now. Here in Haiti you don’t just go buy a uniform, you have to walk or take a motorcycle taxi down the mountain to Titanyen, which takes about 30 minutes. Then you have to take a TapTap (little truck with a cover) to Port au Prince, which is about an hour depending on traffic. After arriving in Port au Prince, you go to the market and buy the material, and then go downtown to find a tailor to sew it for you. Now – and here’s the catch – unless you give the tailor a push (as Haitians say it, which means a little incentive–money) you will not get the finished product anytime soon. If you can give the tailor a push, you might receive it in 1-2 weeks; it will be 3-4 weeks or longer if you gave him no money.

Jerusalem IV has about 200 students. These families are so poor they only have enough money for uniforms, so Pastor Angelo and his teachers teach most of the time for nothing. Pastor Angelo has told me several times that his own family and friends have told him he needs to quit the ministry because he makes very little money, but he tells them he cannot quit, because God has called him to this position. Pastor Angelo truly has a compassionate heart for his people. The total cost, if he could pay the teachers, would be about $200 a month – that’s $50 per month per teacher. If the Lord puts it on your heart to sponsor a teacher at Jerusalem IV, please let us know.

The Koreans are very active in Haiti, and they are helping schools out in the provinces. Pastor Do showed me today that they are paying for some of the uniforms for the students. They paid for 42 uniforms for the Jerusalem school, and 22 uniforms for Jerusalem IV; they also supplied some books for the schools.

After taking photos of the students eating here, we took food to some other churches and schools. A lot of churches use their church as a school during the week. First we took food to Jerusalem IV for Pastor Angelo’s kids, then we went to a school called Lone, and after that another church/school called Palto. The children were very excited about being able to take home food to Mom. We will also be giving food to Jerusalem III and Jerusalem II either this evening or tomorrow.

Today after school Simon brought a little boy to me who was supposed to be in school. I remember him from about 3 weeks ago. I had asked him then why he wasn’t in school. He told me he had no uniform. Today we asked him again why he wasn’t in school. He said he had a uniform but no shoes that he could wear to school. I looked down and I could see why; his shoes were in pretty bad shape. I asked him if he wanted to go to school, and if we bought shoes for him, would he go? He had a big smile and said yes. So, this afternoon Simon and I drove down to Titanyen and bought some shoes for him. You will see his photo and smile with his new shoes and uniform.

Thank you again for your prayers. Next month will be 14 years that the Lord has had me work in Haiti. I have to say it has not been easy, but He never said it would be.