June 10, 2016
“When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
—Matthew 25:38 and 40
The village of Peyi Pouri, which means “Rotten Country,” is located high in the mountains of Haiti in the regions beyond. We have visited this area quite often in the last year. This very poor village of about 500 people is so impoverished, and we feel the need to help our neighbors. We can see this village on top of the mountain from our Love A Child Orphanage.
About a year ago, we built a church for them, which was sponsored by David George and his partners along with Pastor Dale Cornell and Liberty Christian Center. More than 200 poor Haitians came down from the mountains to meet Pastor Claude’s truck to carry all the building materials. Most trucks cannot make the trip up to Peyi Pouri because of the narrow “s-curve” roads. The crowd of 200 lined up to gather things to carry. These items included: heavy pieces of tin, metal studs for the roof, rebar, and sacks of cement. They climbed about four hours “straight up” to reach the site of our new church. Thank you, David George and your friends for sponsoring this miracle church “in the regions beyond!”
This is the new church we built and these precious people were so excited to now have their own church that is not in the open-air like their old, dilapidated church.
We return to this village often as we continue to bring food, clothing and medical care to these isolated people. It is a very dangerous road to Peyi Pouri and the people are so grateful that someone cares enough about them to make the treacherous journey to their village.
On our latest trip to this village, we distributed clothing to the children throughout the area. They all came to the new church as we distributed clothing, blankets, hats and handmade dolls to the poor families of Peyi Pouri. Thank you to all of our donors for making by hand clothes, blankets and toys for these people who are in such great need. God bless our wonderful donors who have such a heart of compassion for the poor.
These very cute hand-knitted dolls were from Barbara Fuller. This was such a precious gift for these little ones who never receive any gifts.
These wonderful dolls were handmade by Ramona MacKenzie, and these little girls loved them.
Mara Cordova handmade these crocheted hats. It can get cold in the evening in the mountains and these youngsters really need their heads covered to stay healthy.
Some of the younger girls received new underwear that was donated by North Lake Presbyterian Church.
We had many of our donors make beautiful blankets for the poor, these blankets were made by Helen Dubbard.
Evelyn Smith handmade these wonderful blankets. It is so important for the children to have clean, warm bedding.
These amazing patchwork quilts were handmade and donated by Patricia Tadena.
These beautiful blankets were made by Ramona MacKenzie.
The next two photos show the fabulous handmade patchwork quilts that Victoria Knizner created for these poor little children, and they were so happy to receive these quilts.
These children really need these quilts, as they sleep in mud huts and it can be very cold at night in the mountains.
These little children received handmade flannel blankets that were donated by Sharon Ochlman. These poor families have so little, the mothers were very excited to receive these blankets for their young children.
We also received several lovely handmade quilts from Gerry Patenaude, as shown in the next two photos of children receiving their donated blankets and quilts.
These babies will enjoy snuggling in these blankets made of love.
We received many donations of pillowcase dresses for the young girls in the village from many of our donors. Thank you for considering the poor of Haiti and showing your compassion to these very poor people in the village of Peyi Pouri.
These lovely dresses were handmade by Marianella Salazar. (The next three photos.) Poor children in Haiti rarely receive new clothing as the family cannot afford it, so they often search through a garbage dump to find discarded clothing for their children. The mothers were so thrilled to receive these beautiful new dresses for their children.
These splendid pillowcase dresses and quilts were handmade and donated to Love A Child by Charlotte Hanson. Charlotte has donated a lot of handmade clothing to the poor children of Haiti over the years.
Just look at these precious handmade pillowcase dresses from Sharon Ochlman for these little girls who will now have new dresses to wear to church on Sunday.
These handmade pillowcase dresses from Bev Rehberg had these young girls smiling, even though most Haitians won’t smile when having their picture taken. But these little girls were so excited to receive these new dresses, they finally broke out a little smile for us.
We also received these charming pillowcase dresses from the ladies at Calvary Southern Baptist.
Life in Christ Church sent us handmade skirts for the young ladies of this village.
These delightful little pillowcase dresses came from Charlie McCurry. As we passed them out to the little girls, they all gave us a big smile.
Free Chapel sent us these darling, little, handmade pillowcase dresses which fit many of the younger girls.
The pillowcase dresses in this photo were handmade by the Heleski Family. These little girls were very happy to receive these new dresses, but too shy to smile at the camera.
These cuties received lovely pillowcase dresses that were handmade and donated by Lynn Greer and Dress A Girl Around the World.
These adorable pillowcases dresses were handmade and donated by Marissa Tanner and Sewing Hope for Haiti.
Mary Martinez and Peggy Kastning made several sizes of pillowcase dresses for both little girls and teenagers.
These creative pillowcase dresses are from Michael Cooks, and even one for the littlest girl.
We are so thrilled to receive all the handmade pillowcase dress from so many of our donors, such as this brightly colored dress from Edythe Voorhis. It may not seem like a big gesture, but to the poor children of Haiti, this is a very big day because they are getting something new just for them.
These lovely handmade skirts came from Paul and Jocelyn Dominique.
Linda Deierling handmade these very tropical-looking dresses for some of the young girls of Haiti.
These cute handmade dresses and pants were donated by Jean Graebener.
Carol Caron sent us some cleverly handmade pillowcase dresses, handmade shorts for boys, and handmade shirts for young girls.
St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church donated some very colorful tee shirts for the youngsters.
The people of Peyi Pouri said, “That they are no longer “rotten,” but they feel BLESSED! Instead of being Peyi Pouri, the Rotten Country, the people now call it, Peyi Beni, which means “the Blessed Country!”
We thank everyone who provided clothing, blankets, hats and other items for our Haitian brothers and sisters. Even if your group is not mentioned in this journal, we want you to know how important your gifts are to these poor Haitians. Thank you for your sacrifice and your hard work to get these items to Haiti.
God Bless you.
Sherry
PS: We recently received these beautiful hats for several Haitian ladies who are calling them their church hats. We wish to thank Saints of God House of Worship Missionaries for their sweet gift of hats. These hats went to our friend Diddi Washington of Mission Haiti Helping Kids. They were distributed to some of the “Church going Mamas” in their area. Haitian ladies LOVE to dress up for church!! A job well done!!
If you would like to make and donate articles of clothing, blankets, dolls and more, please contact our office:
Please send packages to our street address:
12411 Commerce Lakes Drive
Fort Myers, Florida 33913-8664
If you would like to speak directly to one of our staff members, please call: 239-210-6107 or email us at: [email protected].
