An Orphanage Visit

Hi Everyone,

Nothing is ever dull here in Haiti. After getting home from Jeremie we jumped right back into working with a large team of men from South Dakota. They came "ready to build" and went right to work at the church property. We are building a "guest house" there for other pastors who come in from the outlying regions for meetings, schooling, seminars and the Haiti Foursquare Convention. The National Foursquare convention for Haiti is at the end of April so the timing for this building is perfect. This team also built a kitchen on the bunkhouse so large teams can have meals prepared here instead of going back to the main base camp. And this team also built the school for the tent city that our friend Jonas will be using. They "busted their backsides" working here and we are very appreciative.

As I mentioned last time, the tent city school is for the very underprivileged children and should be a real boost to the community in this tent city. Sunday we dedicated the building with prayer and some songs with the children (about 25) and about 10 of their parents. Jonas began teaching in the new school this past Monday.

Two weeks ago we went to a near-by girl's orphanage and then again last week. It is pretty disturbing to see how these girls live. Their lives are entirely in tents - and not just since the earthquake ! - It's been like this since the beginning - some tents to sleep in, one to eat inside and others for storage. The kitchen is two small charcoal stoves under a small plywood shed with the pots and dishes stored in piles on the ground since they don't have any shelves in the kitchen area. We gave them some clothes, barrettes, shoes and new toothbrushes as well as some of our "Mana-paks" (rice food in packets) and hand sanitizer. When we got home we designed a simple kitchen / dining structure that we hope to build there in the next few weeks so they can at least have a place to cook, eat and store supplies. This orphanage has been in existence for about 15 years and some of these girls have been there pretty much their entire lives - a very tough life. But we are very excited about the possibilities of connecting with this orphanage and helping them with their needs this year. God willing, that will happen.

Looking forward to what else God is going to do this year in Haiti.

God Bless you all, Mark

Some of the girl's at the girl's orphanage (along with a small team from Texas). The large tent in the background sleeps about 20 of the girl's. And there are about five other tents like the small one in the left background that house three or four girl's each. The smaller tents are mostly for the older girls.

This is Esther at the girl's orphanage. I asked her what she needed and all she wanted was a small suitcase to put her personal belongings in and some new shoes. We got the shoes last week (for her and the other girls) and a team coming next week is bringing some special bags to personalize for each girl so they have a place to store their belongings. I took this picture on our first trip to the orphanage and gave Esther a copy of it on the second trip. She was so happy and went around to show all the other girls the photo she received !

Construction of the small school at our local tent city. Yes, it's small, but it's over twice the size of where the kids were meeting and it's also now right next to their homes. The Haitian man in the foreground with his back to the camera is the community leader for the tent city - somewhat like a mayor. His name is John and we have become friends over the past few weeks. The only problem is I can't understand what he says so I still have to have an interpreter to discuss things with him !

Tent city panorama with the school in the middle.

School dedication with some of the children and their parents.

School dedication. John Booker on the left with Debbie Booker next to me. John & Debbie head up the Foursquare Haiti mission. And the Haitian man is Jonas. He is a very young man who has dedicated his life to schooling these kids without asking for any pay from anyone.