My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: So shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man.
Proverbs 3:1-4
As we approach the beginning of 2016, we look back on 2015 at what we have accomplished with help from all of our partners. As we forge ahead into 2016 we will build on our past successes and hope for the New Year.
Food Distribution
This year has been especially hard on the poor people of Haiti. There are many children suffering from malnutrition and starvation due to severe drought conditions, which is causing famine across the island. We are blessed to have a wonderful 17-year partnership with Feed My Starving Children. Each month we received eight 40-foot containers of food. Our Love A Child partners helped cover the cost of shipping the containers from the States to Haiti and getting them through customs. Each container provides 272,000 meals that we distributed monthly. This year we supplied over 20 million meals to the poor on the island of Hispaniola. With your help, we fed 8,000 school children every day; we delivered food to families in 18 other villages each month, and many other outreaches. We wish to thank Joyce Meyer Ministries—Hand of Hope and Pastor Jentezen Franklin for each sponsoring a container (272,000 meals) of food monthly.
Kingdom Connection Food Distribution Center
Every month we received food for 73 organizations that came to our Kingdom Connection Food Distribution Center to pick up their monthly supplies. Usually about half of these were orphanages.
Villages
We distributed food to many poor villages each month including Peyi Pouri, Le Tant, Madamn Bauje, La Roche and others. We recently added two more feeding programs to include the area of Sapaterre on the Central Plateau, where everyone makes, sells and eats “mud and dirt cookies.” The other area is Truttier, the huge garbage dumps in the slums of Cité Soleil where we just gave out food for 310 families that live in the dump.
We would also like to thank all of our partners who this past year sacrificed to sponsor a container of food. Each month, we must have eight “containers of food” ($10,000 per container) to meet the enormous need of hungry children here in Haiti.
Building Projects
We had a very busy year for building projects in Haiti. Though we have built many schools and churches in the past, this year we were able to do so much more. We completed the new Malnutrition Center and started several new school/church building projects throughout Haiti with the help of our partners and sponsors like you. We also built twenty more new houses for poor families to live in Miracle Village. Here are some of the projects that you all have helped us build in 2015.
Malnutrition Center
The old Malnutrition Clinic has been in a tent since the earthquake. The floor was falling in and it was overcrowded. We have served many Haitians, young and old, in this center.
In 2015, our new Malnutrition Center was completed! It has served between three and four hundred babies and toddlers weekly. 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 available. Each mother received 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.
School/Churches
Peyi Pouri
A recent project was a church and school in the village of Peyi Pouri that sits on top of a remote mountain in Haiti, in what we call the “regions beyond.” Hundreds of people live in this poor village and they have suffered for many years with little food, no medical care, no school and only the tattered remains of a stick church.
It was a Herculean task to get all the building materials up the mountain to the site where the new church and school building was to be built. To do this we used donkeys, motorbikes and humankind to do the job.
A special thanks to David George and his partners, and also to Pastor Dale Cornell and the Liberty Christian Center for sponsoring this “impossible project” for the poor! We wish to also thank Dor’e Aslandes and Mark Ostrander, who have all made such a big difference in the lives of hundreds of Haitian schoolchildren. Thank you to all our partners and sponsors who have helped these children see a future here in Haiti.
The next phase of the Peyi Pouri project was to erect the huge solar-lighted cross! Bobby, David George and several of our Haitian workers went up to Peyi Pouri to place the large 40-foot, 800-pound cross up on the edge of the mountain. This cross is set on top of a high mountain where Fond Parisien and many other cities can see the light of the cross at night! All the Haitians were so excited! What a witness for Christ! Shine on for Jesus in the middle of Voodoo country everywhere!!
Greffin
We often traveled many hours into the mountains to reach the village of Greffin. The old school was badly damaged during the earthquake and several hurricanes over the years.
We built this new school in the mountains of Greffin that is “in the middle of nowhere.” We had to “move a mountain” by pick and shovel to start this project. We had a great “Haitian Construction Crew” that did an outstanding job. Special thanks to Mark Ostrander who oversaw all of our construction work in Haiti. A big thank you to one of our partners Dor’e Aslandes, this was a “miracle made possible!” Hundreds of poor children received a Christian education and a hot meal each day. This school educated about 450 poor children from all around this area.
Other school construction included a new school built in the area of “Petit Desdunes,” which is also known as Bethel. We have over 500 students in that school! La Fem is an area that is even “higher up” in the mountains than Peyi Pouri. We built a Christian school for the children in this poor area. We have 200 students attending that school. This summer, by a miracle, a large orphanage was built for Pastor Claude Mondesir. A school serving 600 children was also built in La Tramble, Haiti.
We want to thank David George and his partners for sponsoring churches and schools in many Haitian villages!
Love A Child Orphanage
We had 85 children living in our Love A Child Orphanage. Their lives are shaped to serve the Lord. Some are still babies, some are toddlers, and a few are in college. Several of our orphans pursued higher levels of education to succeed as professionals: Julia has graduated and works in our lab at the Jesus Healing Center. Dana completed four years of college to become a kindergarten teacher and works at our Love A Child Christian School here in Fond Parisien. Julanne attended a university here in Haiti to become a pediatrician; Jovanie is finishing her fourth year of Nursing College in Léogâne; one of the older boys attended a trade school to learn “diesel mechanics,” and Florence attended the Haitian American Institute to study English so that she can go to the States to become a physical therapist. Another grown young man from the Love A Child Orphanage wants to attend Bible College here in Haiti to become a pastor. Carlos, age 18, ran all the heavy equipment, and he will be going to “Haitian Tractor Training School” next year to learn even more! They all have “big dreams!”
Medical Outreach
Jesus Healing Center
Our Jesus Healing Center has seen thousands of patients this year, and has saved so many lives. Barbara, our new Medical Administrator, takes each patient to heart. Many were sent to specialists for x-rays, surgeries, and other issues that could not be handled at the Jesus Healing Center. Love A Child paid the fees associated with these specialized medical treatments. We had three full-time general doctors, one pediatrician, and one OB-GYN, along with nurses. Patients received examinations, medicines and lab work. They gave a small donation to the “Benevolent Fund,” which helped send patients for additional care, including ambulance runs, dental extractions, x-rays, etc. The Gospel was shared with all the patients each morning before we started the day. We were also very thankful for our wonderful Medical Administrator, Barbara MacMannis, who ran the Jesus Healing Center and the Malnutrition Center! We have saved lives every day.
Mobile Medical Clinics
The typical Haitian is born, lives and dies with NO medical care and the average adult life span is only 63 years. We send our volunteer medical teams into the regions beyond: to help save lives and relieve appalling suffering. We held several Mobile Medical Clinics this year, both large and small.
Peyi Pouri
In February we held one of the best Mobile Medical Clinics that we have ever conducted. Many hundreds of people came to the clinic. Many of them with sick children walked through the mountain passes for up to nine hours to receive medical care, and for some, this was the first medical care they have ever received. We had many people who gave their lives to the Lord.
It rained for several days – but we stayed, and the people were so thankful. The volunteer team felt so gratified to be able to take this clinic of medicine and the Gospel to these wonderful and deserving people.
Lastik
In November we visited the poor village of Lastik. We want to thank our Love A Child partners who helped sponsor this Mobile Medical Clinic in the “regions beyond.” This was a very productive clinic.
We treated 1,449 patients, distributed 7,640 medications, gave out 89 pairs of eyeglasses, and we had 27 conversions! We had to send a number of children to our Love A Child Malnutrition Center, one emergency of high blood pressure to the hospital, and a lady with breast cancer to another hospital.
We wish to thank all the volunteer medical teams that made these clinics possible.
New Playgrounds
We had a couple of playgrounds installed this year with the help of several organizations. Faith Church provided a wonderful playground for the children that attend school and live at the La Tramble Orphanage. Pastor Claude Mondesir runs the orphanage and does a great job. We had John Beasley, Louis from the Dominican Republic, and Philemon from Haiti, install a beautiful playground for an orphanage called “Heart For Haiti.” Pastor Johan Smoorenburg is the founder and director of that orphanage. Thank you Pastor Randy Landis of Life Church for donating the playground equipment! We loved seeing more happy children!
Love A Child Radio Station
Our local Christian Radio station – 103.5 FM was heard worldwide via the Internet through our website. We had music in Creole and in English. There were many teaching programs in Creole, including Bible teaching, programs for children, youth programs, and special programs on health and agriculture with live “questions and answers from our doctor.” In 2016, the radio station will be airing at the Gwo Maché Mirak so vendors and shoppers can hear the Gospel all day long!
Sustainability Projects
The evolutionary process of helping the impoverished people in Haiti consists of giving relief, helping them to recover, and then assisting them to develop toward self-sustainability.
Grand Miracle Market
Gwo Maché Mirak is an open-air market built in 2014 and located in a southeastern Haitian village known as Fond Parisien. This year we saw many of the vendors successfully open kiosk-style shops with a multitude of products, from food and clothing to art and beauty products. On December the 9th, Gwo Maché Mirak celebrated its first anniversary. It got off to a slower start than we expected, however, we were told that it would take “a year-and-a-half to get it going.” We have faced a lot of turmoil in Haiti due to political unrest and the upcoming elections.
However, some exciting things are about to take place: A short while ago, the government of Haiti contacted us about moving the entire Malpasse Market, which was located at the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, to our Gwo Maché Mirak! They wrote us a nice letter saying that our marketplace is the example of what all marketplaces in Haiti should be.
The transition will start in January 2016. We will be opening the meat processing plant in January when the Malpasse Market vendors are transferred to our marketplace and bring their animals with them.
This is another Sustainability Project. Thank you Pastor Jentezen Franklin for sponsoring the marketplace.
We want to thank Pastor Mark Ostrander and his son Jesse for all their hard work on the Gwo Maché Mirak projects this past year, including the new meat processing plant, the Epi Dor Restaurant and several other projects.
Poul Mirak
We established a co-op where a group of Haitians bought their own feed, and chickens and also raised “meat chickens” to sell. We have ten chicken houses and are planning to have a hatchery in the near future so that the cooperative can raise their own chicks and cut down the cost even more. The co-op did really well and the community depended on this new business to provide healthy, tasty chickens every week. This unique co-op project celebrated its first year of operation, and was a great success. It has operated profitably since it began. These five men (pictured below) have not only learned a valuable trade, but also how to run a successful business raising Poul Mirak chickens, which provided nearly 500 fresh chickens per week to the local Haitians’ diet for the past year. We thank Mike Welch, Larry Guest and Pete Roberts of Harrison Poultry for their sponsorship and mentoring that made this project a success.
Agricultural Training Center
Our Agricultural Training Center is a regional living classroom and demonstration site for teaching the best sustainable agricultural practices to increase food security and promote healthy nutrition. In November, we held our first graduation of our two-year program at the “Love A Child Agricultural Training Center.” These young farmers were so proud! Wow! Look what they grew and brought with them to give us! Our Love A Child Training Center and Farm is in the back of Miracle Village. Thank you Rad Hazelip for your vision and hard work of putting your dream together. Thanks also to David Balsbaugh for bringing your family to Haiti to manage the Agricultural Training Center. Thank you Johnny, Paul and Shelby Mahon for putting in the only sprinkler system for gardens that we know of in Haiti. Thanks to Life Changer Church and Pastor Gregory Dickow for the funds to start the farm project. Lastly, thank you Foster Friess for funding the Agricultural Training Center.
This Agricultural Training Center program worked directly with our Tilapia Fish project and Poul Mirak (Miracle Chicken) project that is located in back of the Gwo Maché Mirak. It was a great project that taught “Haitians to help themselves.”
Visiting Missionary Teams
Feed My Starving Children
In March, we welcomed Mark Crea, Executive Director/CEO of Feed My Starving Children, and his volunteer team. Many children and their families were given food that week. We were so thankful for our partnership with Feed My Starving Children and for the development of the Manna Packs to feed the poorest of the poor throughout Haiti. This group donated food to us and we shared it all over Haiti.
Dream Center Team
In April, we welcomed the Dream Center Team from the “Big Apple,” New York City!
They came to bless the poor, work on construction projects, and minister the Word of God at night! What a privilege it was to have them here in Haiti!
University of Wyoming Football Team
In May, we were blessed with members of the University of Wyoming football team and other students from the university who came again this year in memory of Pastor Lyonel Narcisse’s son. As a witness to Christ, they do this every year in honor of his son, who attended this university and died in an automobile accident. They have “touched” Haiti with their goodness.
One afternoon, the girls from the University of Wyoming really helped out so much in the Food Distribution Center. Later, they helped prepare all the beautiful clothes to go to a poor village. Everyone was so blessed!
Carpenters from Fort Myers
We also welcomed a team of volunteer carpenters from Fort Myers, Florida, who came to build school desks for some of the Love A Child schools and a new church. The volunteer team of eight hardworking carpenters built 250 school desks in four days! Some of our school children had to use the back of another child to do their schoolwork! They built enough desks for 1,518 children – and 30 pews for our new church in Peyi Pouri!
Volunteers from Liberty Christian Center
This is David George’s team of volunteers, along with Pastor Dale Cornell and his group from Liberty Christian Center in Bakersfield, California.
They visited the village of Old Le Tant to distribute clothing. The whole village of Old Le Tant received clothing… “Family by family!” Thanks to David George’s mission team and a special thanks to Pastor Dale Cornell and his group from Liberty Christian Center in Bakersfield, CA!
David George and the Liberty Christian Center Team also stained and sealed the benches that were built for the church in Peyi Pouri. Some of the team left very early in the morning to meet the people at the base of the mountain to help carry the benches up to the village. They also distributed warm clothes to the poor families of Peyi Pouri.
Mission Team from Faith Church
We hosted a mission team from Faith Church. The pastors of Faith Church are David and Nicole Crank. They helped weigh and measure malnourished babies in our Malnutrition Center. They also examined those that have been in our program for a while, and saw the positive results.
They helped with our Food Distribution Program in the village of Madamn Bauje and afterwards they worked on other projects, like staining the school desks that were built by the team of volunteer carpenters.
Weddings
Cotin/Fond Parisien
Twenty-five Haitian couples were married in our Fond Parisien Church. A special thanks goes to all those who donated wedding gowns and we also thank the Hotes Foundation for donating all the wedding rings and so many others who helped. When the Pastor asked, “Is there anyone here who objects to this couple being married?” (He did this for each couple.) One woman started hollering and screaming, “He was mine before he was hers! He belongs to me!” Then she yelled and started screaming and crying and throwing a fit! The security guards had to carry her outside! But they all got married! Thank you, Pastor Narcisse, for a job well done in marrying these couples!
Jonise
This is our Haitian daughter Jonise. She and her three siblings were the first orphans that we took in as our family.
Jonise now works in our Haiti Accounting Office and she recently got married. Thank you for changing her life, partners! She was beautiful!
New Outreach Programs in the Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic and Haiti are on the same island in the Caribbean Sea. The island is called Hispaniola. The Dominican Republic covers two-thirds of the island and Haiti one-third. The children are the future of both countries, and we claim the island of Hispaniola for Christ.
Building Projects
We had a very busy year in the Dominican Republic as well.
Villa Hermosa, La Romana, Dominican Republic
In the sugarcane camps (also called bateyes) of the Dominican Republic live hundreds of thousands of Haitians who have toiled in the sugarcane fields of large plantations for generations.
In the little village of Villa Hermosa in the La Romana region of the Dominican Republic, there is a light shining in the darkness in the form of Pastor Carmela Gomez. She has long struggled with the issues of supporting a Christian flock in the midst of poverty and corruption in a poor, rural, and underdeveloped country, and without a church.
Carlos did a great job with the evangelistic teams that were in the Dominican Republic last year. So much was accomplished with the partnership of Love A Child and David George and his team in the Dominican Republic! The Master touches many lives! David has spread his love and sponsorship to building a new church for Pastor Carmela Gomez. This is the first Love A Child Church in the Dominican Republic. Thank you David and your friends for funding this project!
We also held outreach programs in the Dominican Republic bateyes (sugarcane camps), which has an 80 percent Haitian population. We held several crusades in the area, went into the bateyes to give food, clothing, toys, gifts, and preach the Word of God. We hosted prison ministry teams, youth outreach, basketball tournaments and other children’s programs.
Mobile Medical Clinics
This year we expanded our mobile medical outreach into the Dominican Republic by taking our Mobile Medical Clinics into the bateyes (sugarcane camps) where many poor Haitians labored in the sugarcane fields. Thank you Joyce Meyer Ministries–Hand of Hope for bringing healthcare to the poorest of the poor. They made two trips to the Dominican Republic in 2015.
Joyce Meyer Ministries–Hand of Hope Mobile Medical Teams
In January and March, we welcomed the Joyce Meyer Ministries–Hand of Hope Mobile Medical Teams to Love A Child in the Dominican Republic! They worked in the mountains with our wonderful team host, Carlos Silvestre. They brought Mobile Medical Clinics to many poor Haitians and Dominicans living in the sugarcane camps! Great work Joyce Meyer Ministries–Hand of Hope Mobile Medical Clinic Teams!
Youth Outreach
Sports Mission International Team
In the first week of August, we welcomed Jesse Ostrander and his Sports Mission International Team to the Dominican Republic! There was a group of parents and their children that went to the Dominican Republic to play baseball with the youth living there. They distributed food to poor Haitians living in the sugarcane camps. Jesse’s parents, Mark and Evie Ostrander, were also with the team. Their grandchildren were also part of this volunteer team and everyone was so excited to share the love of Christ. They had a great week!
This was a wonderful mission opportunity for this youth group to experience a different culture and the importance of bringing hope, food and the Word of God to the very poor Haitians of the bateyes in the Dominican Republic, and they all had fun playing baseball.
In the second week of July, David George and his team of 26 volunteers arrived in the Dominican Republic on fire for the Lord! Carlos was already in the Dominican Republic and took good care of them. They handed out backpacks and food to poor Haitians living in the bateyes. Later in the afternoon they passed out food and backpacks in another area as well.
Welcome New Missionaries
Barbara and Ken MacMannis
This year several new missionaries joined Love A Child. Barbara MacMannis is our Medical Administrator at the Jesus Healing Center. She and her husband Ken joined us at our Love A Child Village, in Fond Parisien. She does a great job with the Jesus Healing Center, and in many of our Mobile Medical Clinics. Barbara worked to find help for sick children who could not be helped in Haiti. Ken helped to keep things running smoothly at Love A Child. We are very proud of Ken and Barbara, and we ask you to keep them in your prayers.
Dave Balsbaugh and Family
We welcomed Dave and Maxine Balsbaugh and their family to Love A Child as our new missionaries. David oversees the Sustainability Projects such as the Agriculture Training Center, the Tilapia Fish Project, the Chicken Co-op, the Moringa Tree Project, and so much more. He is indeed brilliant and has a heart to teach the Haitian people by giving them a “hand up,” so that they can have “food for life!” Maxine helps with the Jesus Healing Center, Mobile Medical Clinics and Food Distributions!
Kaeli Fletcher
We also welcomed Kaeli Fletcher, our youngest missionary. She has a “heart to serve,” no matter what is asked of her! There is no telling what God can do with a “committed heart” like hers! Kaeli worked in our Mobile Medical Clinics, and is helping with the children at our Love A Child Orphanage. We love Kaeli and pray that God uses her life to reach many souls! God bless Kaeli!
Moving into 2016
As we welcome the New Year, we hope to reach out to more Haitians in need. We will continue to grow our food distribution programs, offer additional healthcare to the poor and bring education to as many children that we can sponsor.
We look forward to 2016. Thank you to our partners and sponsors who made all this happen in Haiti in 2015.
God bless you,
Sherry