Miracle Village

Miracle Village is a subdivision of more than 500 fully furnished, single-family homes built
to assist families with recovering and rebuilding their lives.

A Powerful Vision From God

Many years ago, Love A Child received a donation of 162 acres of land in Fond Parisien, Haiti. At first sight, the land was dry and seemed unusable for development. Praying to God for guidance, missionaries Bobby and Sherry Burnette had one question burning in their hearts: how are we to use it to best serve God’s kingdom?

Scanning the acres of needle-like brush, Bobby suddenly had a vision of hundreds of houses with all the colors of the rainbow. He saw beautiful homes on streets lined with lush gardens.

Bobby was confused. God was instructing him to build houses here, but who would live in them? And how would this all come to pass? Confident that God would eventually provide the answers in His timing, Bobby waited. The God-given vision would fulfill a great need, and it would unfold after one of the most devastating and deadliest disasters in Haiti’s history.

Thousands of Displaced and Homeless Survivors Seek Refuge

The earthquake in 2010 left thousands of families without homes. Pictured in the center, Marie Ange was badly burned.

When a massive earthquake struck Haiti in 2010, Love A Child pulled as many injured people from the concrete rubble as they could, transporting them to Love A Child Village for medical care, and then, going back for more still clinging to life.

Responding to this medical crisis, Love A Child and international partners erected the largest field hospital in Haiti. And with support from compassionate medical volunteers, many survivors found healing and hope to recover.

Several months later, the field hospital ended and the 2,000 earthquake survivors who had received care were left with nowhere to go. They had no homes, jobs, or loved ones to return to. As a temporary solution, Love A Child agreed to clear 62 acres of land for the American Refugee Committee (ARC) to build a large “tent city,” known as Camp Hope, to shelter the displaced families.

The Vision Is Revealed and Fulfilled!

It became clear to Bobby and Sherry that the refugees needed permanent housing to start their lives over again. And that’s when they knew Bobby’s vision of hundreds of colorful homes was meant to be God’s gift to the broken Haitian families.

With the generous support of many dedicated donors, Kingdom Connection’s Pastor Jentezen Franklin, and Joyce Meyer Ministries–Hand of Hope, this vision from God was realized with the construction of the sustainable community of “Miracle Village,” a subdivision of 500+ beautiful, colorful houses for those who had lost everything during the earthquake.

Love A Child dedicated the first 50 homes to survivors with amputations. And after months of living in tents, all the hundreds of displaced families of Camp Hope were given durable, lasting houses and a community where they can learn how to provide for themselves.

Homes for Haiti’s Most Vulnerable to Move Forward

Each home in Miracle Village is fully furnished with solar lighting, three main rooms, a porch, a little garden plot, and they meet Florida’s hurricane codes. Because the houses are made entirely of wood, Miracle Village even has its own Fire Department, with a team of trained Haitian volunteers.

Along with safety rules for residents (e.g. no cooking on open fires), Miracle Village consists of:

Deep wells for clean drinking water
Garden plots and seeds for each family
Medical clinic open 24 hours
Church for villagers to worship and praise God
Love A Child Christian School for village children to receive education
Playgrounds, basketball courts, and soccer fields

Empowering residents to embrace a new self-sufficient lifestyle, Love A Child has introduced several sustainability initiatives in walking distance and they can learn how to provide for their children through:

Raising chicken and eggs at the Poul Mirak Co-operatif
Growing produce in their own garden plots and at the Agricultural Training Center
Starting a microbusiness at the Marketplace

Miracle Village has provided hundreds of Haitian families in poverty a new beginning. The residents once lived in inhumane and dangerous conditions around Haiti, like the garbage dumps of Truttier and Rapatrié. But now they have a safe place for their children to grow, play, learn, and experience joy. And, they are rebuilding their lives surrounded by God’s love and blessings.

We are thankful to our many partners and friends
who helped turn Love A Child’s God-given vision into a
bustling community full of hope.

On January 12, 2010, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck the Port-au-Prince area of Haiti at 4:52 pm. There were 3,500,000 people affected by the quake. It was estimated that 220,000 people died in the earthquake, while another 300,000 were injured.

Our trucks became ambulances as we tried to rescue hundreds of people out of Port-au-Prince, which sustained the worst damage.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, we saw thousands of people surviving in tent cities all over the area. The earthquake left thousands of Haitians with no homes or safe shelter.

The tents provided shelter for people displaced by the earthquake, but conditions were far from ideal. People needed permanent housing–a place to rebuild their lives and re-imagine their futures.

Love A Child became a field hospital and life-saving surgeries went on for weeks. One of the most devastating aspects of the earthquake was the long-term effect of thousands of people with limb amputations, and so many of them children.

Over the ensuing months, hundreds of hard-working volunteer mission teams cleared the land, built roads, and started building houses as more volunteers came from all over the world to help us build a village. Young volunteers and missionaries stepped up to help us create Bobby’s vision.

The cost for each house would be about $3,000, which did not include the infrastructure needed to support so many people. We needed another miracle… David Meyer from Joyce Meyer Ministries—Hand of Hope called us. They wanted to sponsor Phase 1 of our new village. What a miracle!

We decided it was imperative that amputees and their families would be the first people housed in Phase 1. Each day the amputees would venture down to the construction site and watch in awe as they also learned that each family would receive a house.

The building project was moving slowly, and we needed help. Bobby received a call from Richard Hotes, founder of the RWH Foundation. He said, “I see that you are building some earthquake houses. Could you use some help to build them fast?” He sent professional carpenters to Haiti along with his core team to work with all our volunteers.

Bobby’s vision was coming forth, right before our eyes. It was a sea of colored houses as Phase 1 and 2 were completed and so many people had sacrificed for the earthquake victims.

Then moving day arrived, and it is a day we will never forget. There were many tears shed as little children climbed into their new beds in their new houses, many missing one or two limbs.

There were parents lifting one arm to praise the Lord, with tears of joy running down their faces. Many of the earthquake victims had never slept on a bed in their lifetime.

After months of living in tents, the people of Miracle Village now had beautiful, safe homes and would learn how to provide for themselves.

They now had a “luxury” of clean, safe water from a well. The children loved it, as now they didn’t have to spend most of their day searching for water.

Miracle Village started to come together as all the Haitians, even the amputees, worked to build their new village.

On July 1, 2011, nineteen months after the earthquake, all the families gathered with their meager belongings under our church tent singing, praying, and praising the Lord. Each family was given a key to their new home.

Andre and his family in front of their new house.

Andre and his family celebrate their “homecoming.”

Victims of the earthquake celebrate with Bobby and Sherry in front of their new house.

Many of the people who received new homes in Miracle Village, came from different backgrounds and lifestyles. But they all had one thing in common. They were survivors, and they had a second chance at life.

They would need to find work in this area, and many had special challenges. This is Roland and his family. He is now one of the co-op members of the Poul Mirak (Chicken Co-op) and is doing more than he ever thought possible.

Hundreds of people would now be living in their own new community. They would have to keep their yards and streets clean, free of trash. There would be lots of rules and regulations for each family.

They would be able to plant flowers and vegetables near their homes, even though most had never had a garden before the earthquake.

As the community grew each year since its inception, we needed to add some of the community services, like a fire station, a school, and a health facility.

A beautiful playground was built in the middle of Miracle Village, along with a basketball court and soccer field. Now children have the opportunity to play.

We included a space for a community garden, so that they could start growing their own food.

We worked the soil to improve growing conditions and laid out a sprinkler system. Probably the only sprinkler system in all of Haiti!

With the influx of children to the community after the earthquake, we saw the opportunity to build a school for Miracle Village.

There were hundreds of children who would attend school.

On the opening day of school, November 2011, every child had a uniform.

Look at the excitement on their faces. Before the earthquake, many of these children had never been to school.

Since the earthquake, all these displaced people worshiped under a tent. We wanted to build a church for the community.

With the support of so many of our sponsors, volunteer missionary teams, and everyone who helped with the new church building, the community of Miracle Village has been blessed.

Miracle Village now had its own place to worship and give thanks to the Lord.

The community continues to grow, as we find new families badly in need of housing. In the Truttier Waste Disposal Dump outside of Cité Soleil, we found this wonderful extended family living in a rusty old shipping container in the middle of mountains of garbage. The children were sick from toxic waste and had no chance for an education.

We were so happy to be able to offer the Pierre family the keys to their new homes in Miracle Village. They became the newest residents in September 2016. The smiles on their faces were all we needed to see.

The young boys just heard that they would be able to start school in the fall. The family was so excited, especially the young boys who had hoped that someday they would be able to go to school. Such a blessing for these youngsters.

The Pierre family boys received Christmas gifts for the first time in their lives. They could not stop smiling and laughing.

Miracle Village will grow into the future as a safe village to raise a child, with a good Christian education, a church, a playground, clean water and healthy food. We have been praying for $120,000 to build a new school in Miracle Village for the earthquake victims. David Meyer recently visited Love A Child and asked us what our needs were. We told him about the need for the new school in Miracle Village. He said that Joyce Meyer Ministries—Hand of Hope would be sending us $120,000 for the new school. Thank you, David and Joyce Meyer Ministries! We love them, and they have made a large footprint for Christ in Haiti.

This is an aerial view of the Miracle Village Community, Gwo Maché Mirak, locations of our sustainability outreach programs, and lots of room to grow. This was Bobby’s vision so many years ago; I don’t think any of us could have ever imagined how great his vision would be. And none of it would have been possible without the support of our dedicated donors, partners, sponsors, and so many volunteer missionary teams that came to Miracle Village to build for the Lord.

We are currently at capacity with the construction of homes within Miracle Village and are so thankful to all who have helped us provide these families with their new beginnings! May God bless you!

A Powerful Vision From God

Thousands of Displaced and Homeless Survivors Seek Refuge

The Vision Is Revealed and Fulfilled!

Homes for Haiti’s Most Vulnerable to Move Forward

We are thankful to our many partners and friends who helped turn Love A Child’s God-given vision into a bustling community full of hope.

We are thankful to our many partners and friends
who helped turn Love A Child’s God-given vision into a
bustling community full of hope.