HIH now on YouTube!!!
See the new Hope in Haiti YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/HopeinHaitiSchools!
Happy Viewing!
Summer camp starting tomorrow in Haiti…
Tomorrow morning 200 children in the rural villages of Nan Wo and Kawo Haiti are in for a treat! Their annual summer camp starts! This year the camp runs from Monday August 9th to Saturday August 14th and it will be held in the new Nan Wo church and school.
I have two experiences with summer camp. First one is when I attended each year in high school and college, sometimes as a camper and sometimes as a counselor. I remember the time that the staff and pastors of our church dedicated to us to invest in our futures. I remember the services when God spoke to my heart and the fun time hanging out in the sun with leaders and friends. I actually dreaded the thought of becoming an adult because I knew summer camp would not be an option then!
Second experience with camp was hosting my out of town niece and nephew so they could attend camp. The excitement and all the preparations where nothing in comparision to what they experienced in those five days. The activities, worship times and games where a child’s equivalent of Disneyland! The change I saw in them from Monday to Friday was remarkable.
Well tonight in Haiti, 200 children are having trouble sleeping because tomorrow morning their camp starts! This has been made possible by all the sponsors and donors of Hope in Haiti! Please pray for the children to have an amazing week, have so much fun, understand they are loved and cherished and for God to capture their young hearts. Also pray for the Pastors and leaders as organizing and running summer camp is a huge job! We will send updates from Haiti if possible and thank you again for changing the lives of these children!
Want to go to Haiti???
Want to go to Haiti? HIH Fall 2010 Trips…
Nan Wo October 7th -15th
This trip will visit our Nan Wo church and school in the valley of Dessalines. The purpose of this trip is to
meet with the 150 children that attend HIH’s Nan Wo school, take their photo and update their
information. We will also have several nurses with us and will be conducting a medical clinic several
days. Some constructions projects may be scheduled depending on team members. We will be tent
camping with outside shower and bathroom facilities.
Kawo November 1st week
The purpose of this trip is to meet with about 350 children that attend HIH’s Kawo school, take their
photo and update their information. We also hope to visit many of the families in the surrounding
mountains and write down their stories. We will be backpacking and bathing in the outdoor stream.
With national geographic views along the way, Kawo is a 13 mile, 10 hour hike gaining 3500 feet of
elevation in the 100 degree heat and humidity. It is worth it and you can do it. 
*All ages and skill levels needed! If you love people we need your help! All trips cost $1000. This covers airfare,
transportation, food and all living expenses while in Haiti. Never been to a third world nation? It will change your life!
Contact me at info@hopeinhaiti.com for more info!
Rachel
August… in Seattle and in Haiti
I hope you’re summer has been a little less hectic than mine. I have been busy with my own kids this summer as they come home from college to visit, to work, to move back in again and to marry. My daughter Grace was married on July 17th and will return as Dean of Women to New Tribes Bible College with her husband soon. She has been very involved in HOPE in Haiti and has gone on most of the trips. Now hopefully, we will be joined by her husband Brandon who has already been on one team.
I watched Grace prepare for the wedding weeks ahead of the actual occasion. She made cd’s of their favorite music to give out. She made slide shows of their growing up years. With help from friends, they made and bought food for the guests. We worked for hours on decorations for the tables. She bought buckets of flowers at the farmer’s market to be arranged. Getting the family together for the photographer and trying to think through every detail was difficult but necessary. And then the day arrived and what a celebration it was! As I watched my little girl being escorted down the isle on her older brother’s arm I was deeply moved. He gave her away in place of her father who died four years ago. She was beautiful inside and out. I listened to another brother sing a song that he had written for them. I saw another daughter as a bride’s maid standing next to me and other numerous siblings involved in her wedding. This unity, this common goal had brought us together once again as we celebrated someone we love. As I watched each one doing his/her part, I thought of how grateful I am for each of them. I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to invest my life, myself in my children.
What does this have to do with Haiti? I think the same is true for each person involved in HOPE in Haiti. Whether one is a part of a team that goes to Haiti and serves or is one who is giving time, energy, or money here making it possible for children to attend school, have a hot lunch, learn of God, and go to camp. We have a common goal to invest in these children and their families. The churches/schools that we have built are being used constantly for school, church, meetings, and camp this summer. Here in the United States we might go to church twice a week, but in Nan Wo, they meet every evening for study and prayer and that’s after the building has been filled with children during the day for school. We have built a well which the outlying community uses, producing clean water. August 9-14 will be the third annual camp for about two hundred children and this year they will be able to use their own building, saving money by not renting another large building. Once again, I am so grateful for each one of you and the part that you play in this. What could be more important than investing in these children’s lives? This generation may not see a great change, but it will come, I have no doubt. As these children learn about the love God has for them it will change their perspective of life, and eventually their country. Please continue to invest with me. We have great HOPE in Haiti because of Jesus Christ.
Blessings always,
Dixie
Entitlement in a 1st World Nation
“Pigs don’t know pigs stink.” It is a saying I learned a few years back and will contiune to use if only to remind myself I can be, well to put it bluntly, a self centered American. Okay be offended if you need but beware of the insidious nature of entitlement, it can dig in and settle like smoke residue in a hotel room. You can’t see it, but it sure make its presence known. The other side of the goud reflects, in my twisted mind, a more positive light. The people of Haiti are at the bottom of the economic scale and yet life continues, when you scrape the bottom of the barrel you get sawdust. And if you are surrounded by others scraping the bottom of the barrel you don’t know any different. Now shake the barrel and disrupt everthing and you are left with, well, the bottom of a barrel; and the scraping continues around the mess. (Now as you may know my mind sees this world a little differently so please try to keep reading.) Abject poverty is not the inability to find decaf, freetrade, Sumatra and settle for instant. It is the sight, smell and sounds of people digging through garbage to find scraps to feed their family, it is an evnironment that can breed hopelessness, it is normal everyday existance on the island of Hispanola. And yet there is hope in the whitest of smiles, the movement of the Spirit and the service of “God’s Image”. Can you smell it, can you hear it, can you see it, can you touch the rough dry skin powderd in white dust crusted by dried sweat. We smell it and call 911 to complain about the neighbors burning garbage, we hear babies crying and look judgingly to seek out the neglecting parent, we see the ramshackled rusted tin roof structure and avoid that side of the street and we feel the rough skin and reach for the tub of cucumber/coconut/lime/mint butter nut lotion. (Remember conviction is from Him who loves you beyond comprehension and condemnation from the prowling enemy. I garantee you I will be held to the jot an tittle of my words before this week is over.) Our latest team to return from Haiti saw a country, a people, devastated by an earthquake that would have minimal damage elsewhere in the world. (Building codes prevent this kind of damage; look at Chile.) Their stories tell of standing buildings with devastated structures inbetween. They tell of building materials that would never be found at a “Box Store”. But this is all meaningless in the light of the people. The people continue to scrape the barrel around the rubble and devastation. They move from the cinderblocks to tarps. Life remains hard with an added mess. Yet after we throw money to organizations who function with overheads ranging into the high 20%, we focus on the separation of Tipper and Al and “Oh my what will Simon do now?” THEY STILL NEED US!!! Brush away the many piles of rock and debris, scrape it into the ocean and you sill have Haiti, the poor. “Whatever you do for the least of these……” Don’t stop praying, it is the offensive weapon we have, the Word of God reaches within to separate your muscle, bone and tissue and reaches without to bless the little girl in Port au Prince who lost both parents and to the man with one leg who continues to scrap for the “sawdust” to feed his family. They are there and we are here. We are here to serve those that are there. In the last few days our teams have spoken to kids at several local elementary schools who collected change, to 150 some-odd kids in a juvenile detention facility who washed cars in the rain to raise money to help and to sunday school children who raised several hundred dollars to help build school desks. It is happening. I spoke today to an young RN who served several hundered patients in an clinic in Dessalines. She will be heading back soon to do more. Her mind and heart hold the images of Gods children, children in need. She spoke of emotional suffering manifested in the aches and pains of fatigue. She shared the unexplainable reaching for the words to describe the undescribeable: the smiles of the hopefull, the thanksfullness of the destitute and the innocence of the children. I spoke to a father about the depth of serving people who speak a different language. He shared his experiences and stories and in his eye was the careing of a man who loves deeply. He has a tatoo on the inside of his forearm of a childs’ hand reaching for a fathers’ hand. That image is the meaning of why we serve, that image is us reaching for God and God extending His hand to us. I started with stinky pigs and now I am talking about a tatoo. There is a country song in there somewhere… Okay I am about to reach 900 words and you need to stop reading. The point is this: 1st, Jesus said the poor will always be with us and 2nd we are each on our own path. How is God stirring in you to connect those two truths. Truth is an will always be Gods’ version of reality.
Tony
Pictures from April Hope in Haiti trip…
It was a whirlwind of a trip as always! The team celebrated Easter in Port-au-Prince and then traveled the four+ hours up north to Dessalines and then hiked the nine hours up the mountains to Kawo. They updated a few hundred of our school kids’ photos and information for HOPE in Haiti. They also helped build benches for the school as well and then raced back down the mountains in time to celebrate the finish of the church construction project in Nanwo with several baptisms (including one of our own team members!) and long, wonderful, church, celebration services. It was a fast, busy trip but sweet to see the work that God, in His grace and goodness, continues to carry on! Enjoy the pics!
Kawo Sponsors
Kawo Sponsors! As you may have seen in the newsletters and blogs, we had a trip just return from Kawo and I am sorting through pictures of the school and your sponsor child as we speak. Be expecting an annual “fridge” card of your child in email and a hard copy sent by snail mail in the coming weeks.
I will also post lots of pictures from the trip so you can see the community, FINISHED! school and the impact YOUR sponsorship is making in the life of your sponsor child(ren) and their families. I would have all the updates down next week expect for my wonderful and very active 6 month old keeps me busy so nap-time will be dedicated to getting a few cards done everyday. I’m sure many of you can relate.
Thank you for your continued faithfullness and sponsorship and be looking for pics to be posted on this website and your child’s card soon! Love to you all and Happy Memorial Day! Yea for the start of summer!
Rachel
June Newsletter
Greetings friends,
We’ve decided to continue with the monthly newsletters as I feel out of touch with many of you. Blogging just doesn’t take the place of the updates each month, plus how many of you have checked the HOPE in Haiti blog? So you will have to put up with me once again on a monthly basis.
We have been doing presentations for HOPE in Haiti in several different middle school classrooms, elementary assemblies, two college classrooms at Western, Echo Glenn Children’s Center and soon one at Cascade’s children’s classes. I’m not a speaker and honestly go through anxiety when asked to come and share, but with the help of those involved in HIH and confidence from the Lord, I feel so privileged to be apart of this work and hopefully can share what stirs my heart deeply. After each presentation, I am the one who is truly blessed. I come away with renewed hope and excitement for our work with the children and families in Haiti. I thank all the kids here who have given time, car washes, money, t-shirts, and school supplies. Giving makes one so rich!
This has been a difficult spring for me personally and I was not able to go on two of the team trips in February and April because of family related issues. Many of you know how difficult it was to send those teams off and not be a part of them. But they had fantastic trips and I am so proud of each person who went.
The April trip was fast and furious. The team of 8 arrived in Port au Prince, traveled up to Dessalines, then departed the next morning for Kawo. Some of you have experienced this 7 hour hike deep into the mountains of Haiti. It’s not for the faint of heart! They took pictures, updating information for 400ish children and helped build some school desks. Then quickly back down the mountain they came, participating at the end of a week long celebration at the church in Nan wo and a baptism that marched while singing through the town of Dessalines. One of the team members Nate was baptized along with many other Haitians in the spring called La Source (La Soos). Pastor Aaron Day helped Pastor Louinet with the baptisms. When I take teams (or send them) we want not only to help with projects, but to feed the poor, visit the widows and help the orphans. The biblical idea of serving is what we desire to accomplish.
I hope to take two trips down this fall with teams – one to Nan wo and one to Kawo again. Please pray and see if you are to become apart of one of these teams and contact us. I am so thankful for your continued support. So many lives are being touched by your love and faithfulness.
“Many a man claims to have unfailing love, but a faithful man who can find?” Proverbs 20:6
Blessings,
Dixie
Team just back from Haiti…
Friends,
Welcome back to the team that went to Kawo and Nan wo in Haiti for nine days in April. It was a wild trip climbing the mountains of Haiti, staying a few days and then coming back down to be in Nan wo for a couple more days. They found that some of the school children are afraid to come to school because of the earthquake that happened on January 12, 2010. They won”t go inside of a building, thinking it might collapse on them, so they don’t bother coming to school. Pastor Louinet is going to talk with the parents and encourage them to come. The team did get updated pictures, but it was difficult because of this fear that resides in the people. The team also helped build benches/desks for the school. Down in Nan wo (outside of Desslines) they participated in a large group baptism in the local spring called La Source. One of the team members was baptized along with the others. Pastor Aaron spoke at the church and John, my son was translator. It was a special time and I only wish that I could have been there.
I wish that I could convey to you the tragedy that this country has been through, and yet these people continue to hang on to hope in God. They continue to sing and worship and be baptized and life is good because of God’s faithfuless. They are a strong people making life work with what they have. They are generous and thankful. They reach out to us in hospitality. They pray for us. It’s all very humbling when we come, thinking that we are the ones giving. No, I think I have received much more than I’ve ever given. I am blessed by their love and concern for me, even in the midst of their problems. I am thankful for their love. Thank you for your love and prayers for them. Thank you for the teams that continue to go in the name of HOPE in Haiti.