March 2014
Since our last newsletter several exciting things have happened at Missions in Haiti! We shipped a container from Tulsa the first week of January and we would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who donated clothing, shoes, grocery items, toys, etc., for the container and those who contributed funds for purchasing supplies and to pay for the shipping of the container. Shipping a container to Haiti is costly, but given the high prices we pay for nearly everything here in Haiti, containers are a great value.
The supporter who donated two metal buildings, (one houses the Good Hope Church and the other houses our preschool and kindergarten), donated another 66' X 20' building that will contain six classrooms – our elementary school. We are so very thankful for these beautiful metal buildings, they are a real blessing!
We couldn't get the complete building and all the supplies in one container so we shipped the red iron in the container in January and we will send a second container with the sheet metal and flooring this spring.
We will need $10,000.00 to pay for the wall and gates for the new school property, then we will need $8,000.00 for the foundation and we will need funds to ship the container with the rest of the building. The building itself would have cost us $30,000.00 - the largest expense item was donated – Praise the Lord! Now we need to raise funds so we can get the rest of the building here and erected in time for school this September. Please pray with us that God will supply this need! If you would like to help with the next container please contact us, our e-mail address is lloydsinhaiti@msn.com - and we will provide a list of items that we need.
We enjoyed being stateside with family and friends during the holidays and we spent a couple weeks with two of our Haitian kids, Richard and Nancy, before they returned to Bible School. As you may recall, Richard and Nancy are attending Free Gospel Bible Institute in Export, Pennsylvania. Richard and Nancy are doing well, but they are getting very tired of cold weather and snow! They will be returning to Haiti on June 3rd to work with us through the summer months then they plan to return to FGBI in August for their second year of Bible School.
February was a great month for our young people and for the Good Hope Church. Joseph, Julie and Joanna Martin came down with Trish Adams, Tim Laurito and Ruth Maggard. Brother Joseph and Brother Tim did a four day "Timothy Conference" for the teens in our school and Sister Joanna did a four day "Princess Conference" for the teenage girls. In the afternoons we had Kids Crusade for the area kids. The young people really enjoyed this time of fellowship.
The end of February through the first week of March, we had our annual Revival/Crusade and Youth Services. Brother Darrell Meadow and Alicia's Father, Mike McCrate, came in to start the Revival. Brother Darrell did a great job preaching the Word and each service concluded with a wonderful time of prayer around the altars.
Then, Rachel Prihoda and four young men; Ethan Brinkley, Jonathan Hutson, Ben Bradley and Jeron Presley from Ozark Bible Institute came in to finish the Crusade. The guys took turns preaching and Rachel led the youth services. Each service and each message was timely and God truly did a work in many lives during the crusade.
We will be returning to the U.S. at the end of April and will be stateside through May. We will travel to Pennsylvania in May to pick up Richard and Nancy from school. If you are interested in scheduling a service please contact us and we will do our best to accommodate you.
Thank you for your prayers and your support of this work.
P.S. House of Compassion grew by on little girl in January. A Haitian government agency brought her to us because her mother couldn't care for her. Ella is 15 months old and she is being spoiled everyday by Hannah and the older girls here at House of Compassion.
July 2014
June 13 marked the end of another great school year here at Missions in Haiti. We are grateful for our many faithful supporters who helped make it possible for nearly 400 Haitian children to attend our Haitian Christian School and get a good Christ based education!
Here in Haiti, kindergarten graduation is one of the biggest events in a child's life – and June 13 was a very special day for our 16 kindergarten graduates. Graduating from kindergarten in Haiti s as big a deal as graduating from high school is in the United States. The children were very excited about being promoted to the 1 grade.
Along with kindergarten graduation, we also had a special graduation ceremony for Miriam Merenvil, the third Haitian raised here at House of Compassion to graduate from high school. Alicia and I are excited to see Miriam seeking God's will as she moves on to the next chapter of her life.
Richard and Nancy completed their first year of Bible School at Free Gospel Institute in May. They returned to Haiti when their school year ended and they will work with us during the summer break. Both Richard and Nancy did very well their first year at Free Gospel Institute and they are planning to return for their second of Bible School in August.
Miriam has also been accepted by the Full Gospel Institute and her appointment to see if the U.S. will grant her a VISA is scheduled for the 22 of July. Please pray with us – pray that if it is the Lord's will everything will go as planned and Miriam will be able to start school in August with Richard and Nancy.
The end of the school year doesn't mean that things slow down here at Missions in Haiti. We are very busy preparing for next school year. Each year we add another grade level to our Haitian school and this year we are adding grade 11. Please pray that the Lord will help us find a good Christian, Haitian teacher to teach this new class. We print all of the workbooks we use in our school. Jude and Alicia put together a series of seven workbooks for each student and with nearly 400 students that means printing around 2,800 text books each school year! It's a huge job, but by working together our team has been able to get the job done each year.
New school building update: in our last newsletter we reported about the 66' X 22' two-story, six-classroom building that was donated to Missions in Haiti. We shipped half the building in January. In our newsletter, we shared the fact that we needed to raise funds to ship the second half of the building, pour the foundation and erect a cinder block wall around the school property. Thank God, we were able to ship the rest of the building along with needed supplies from Tulsa in a container in May. I am pleased to report that the building arrived safely and we are ready to proceed with pouring the foundation!
As of today, we need $10,000.00 for the wall and $8,000.00 for the foundation. Please pray with us about this need. We know that our Lord will provide – He has always met every need we have had! We would love to be in our new school building when school starts this fall!
Recently, we had a lot of people comment about how our three children, Davy, Hannah and Sam are growing and when I look at them, I am even amazed! It is difficult to believe that Davy is 14 and growing up just like our first group of Haitian children. They, like Davy, have grown into fine young adults. As we see time fly by, we are reminded just how short our time on this earth is and how important it is to do our best every day for the Kingdom of Heaven. I thank God for allowing us to see so many things accomplished during our 16 years in Haiti. We want to do our very best for Him in the time we have left. When our work here is done we look forward to seeing you in Heaven along with the many Haitian men, women and children that you helped win for Christ!
Thank you, may God richly bless you for your prayers and financial support for Missions in Haiti. We couldn't do our work here in Haiti without your faithful support.
October 2014
Fall is a great time of year here in Haiti! Daytime temperatures drop from summertime highs of 100+ degrees into the low 90's. It is amazing what a difference 10 degrees makes here in the tropics. It is a very busy time of year here at Missions in Haiti with our school year starting the first week of September. Most of our 14 classes, Pre-K through the 11th grade are full and we had to turn a number of children away. We allow up to 25 students in each classroom which means we have nearly 350 students enrolled! It is always enjoyable seeing the students in their fresh new uniforms excitedly looking through their new books. We would like to say a special “THANK YOU” to all the sponsors who make it possible for these children to get a good Christ based education.
Nancy and Richard, two of our Haitian kids who grew up here at House of Compassion, are now in their second year of Bible School in Pennsylvania. They came back to Haiti with us during their summer break and they were a real blessing. Nancy assisted Alicia in the ACE school all summer and she rejoined the worship team here at Good Hope Church and helped with youth church services, children's church and in other areas as needed. Richard worked hard all summer- he was the youth leader for Good Hope and also assisted in the ACE school, helped with facility maintenance and wherever he was needed. We miss Nancy and Richard and we look forward to having them back here for a week in February with the “Sent Team” from Free Gospel Bible Institute.
In our last newsletter we mentioned that Miriam might possibly be joining Nancy and Richard at Bible School this fall, unfortunately that didn't work out as planned. Alicia took Miriam to the U.S. Embassy in July and her application for a student VISA was rejected. We don't understand why, but the matter is in the Lord's hands and we believe that everything will work out for the best. Miriam is helping in our Haitian school, she is one of our pre-school teachers and she is also working in our ACE school in the afternoons. We scheduled another Embassy appointment for Miriam on November 4th. Please pray with us concerning Miriam's student VISA, we believe it is God's will for her to attend Bible School. Miriam has always been a tremendous blessing to us.
Work on our new school building is moving forward. We didn't receive all the funds needed to build the concrete wall around the property, but given the urgent need for this building, we elected to use funds out of our operating account so the work could proceed. Obviously, we need to replace the funds in our operating account as soon as possible. We built the wall around half the property, the part of the property that the building will set on, so we could proceed with the foundation for the building. Now, work on the foundation is underway and should be finished this month. We have two teams scheduled to come down in January to erect the new steel building. We hope to be able to move 150 students into the new facility the first of February, 2015. Please pray with us, we need $5,000.00 to purchase materials and labor needed to complete the new facility.
Lack of electricity has become a serious issue here at Missions in Haiti. Currently we only get around 4 hours of electricity a day from the Haitian power company. The power company has to rotate the available electricity around the power grid in Port au Prince because there isn't nearly enough generating capacity to meet the demand for the entire city at one time. Even though we only get four hours of electricity per-day, our electric bill runs around $800.00 a month. On top of that we have to operate our generators several hours every day to keep things going and to charge our inverter's storage batteries. Diesel for the generators can easily run $1,000.00 per-month. One thing we have a lot of here in Haiti is sun! I have been studying solar power for several years and I discovered that solar generation makes a lot of sense for us. I had a local solar equipment provider give us a quote for a system for the House of Compassion and the total system – including turn-key installation would cost $7,000.00. This system would run all the electrical equipment here at House of Compassion and we could stop paying $800.00 a month to the Haitian Electric Authority. We would need to use the generator a few hours in the evenings but the $800.00 electric bill would be eliminated. The solar system would pay for itself in nine months. If any of you would like to help with this need, we would appreciate your help very much. Just note “solar power” on the memo line of your check and we will make sure the funds are routed to the proper account.
Thank you for your continued support for the work here in Haiti. Your prayers provide the strength we need each day and your financial support helps pay the bills. You are part of the Missions in Haiti team and we couldn't do what we do without you! We truly appreciate everything you do and we sincerely believe that our Lord will reward your faithfulness.