This morning, while we are praying for Bobby and Sherry, and Jesse, distributing tents to the thousands of families who were left with nothing, deep in the interior of Haiti where the major devastation occurred from the earthquake, I want to share some of the ongoing work at our Agricultural Training Center (ATC). God spared our area of Haiti from the recent earthquake and hurricanes, so we continue to make progress on many projects at our ATC.  We have recently propagated 200 bamboo plants that are valuable for reforestation projects on the steep hillsides, helping to control erosion and as a useful construction material. Soon, these bamboo “starts” will be available to give to other missionary groups needing to establish their own bamboo projects and for nearby reforestation projects.  We also have been working on a large Mahogany tree project. Haiti used to be covered by natural Mahogany trees, but they had been harvested long ago by foreigners eager for the valuable wood. Our ATC has been growing hundreds of Mahogany seedlings to distribute in groups of 4-5 trees in order to reestablish a broad distribution of trees to re-seed as much of the landscape as we can. The mahogany trees provide valuable shade, retain soil and moisture, and of course, yield beautiful valuable wood. This will be an ongoing part of our reforestation projects.

Finally, we have constructed a “Haitian, country-style” chicken coop for demonstration at the ATC. When students come to stay and learn at our ATC for both the 3-week class and the 2-year class, they are always interested in our Poul Mirak chicken project, but that is for more commercial-scale projects. So we recently constructed a small door-yard size coop that most families could work towards providing for themselves. The idea behind this demonstration project is to show visitors how you can raise chickens without the higher costs for the coop, prepared feeds, and equipment as they raise their local “country” chickens in their backyards. This new “Haitian-style” chicken house will work in conjunction with the natural food and forage project that you read about recently where we grew millet for the chickens to “feed themselves.” This demonstration project teaches how simply and affordably families can provide reliable animal protein (eggs and occasionally meat) to their diets by having a few local chickens.

Bobby and Sherry hope to have internet access later today, after their successful, busy day of distributing tents to the families who were hit hard by the earthquake and storms. Be looking for their exciting praise report, with pictures, whenever they can get the news out from the interior of southern Haiti. We thank all our faithful supporters and donors whose generous hearts make all this work possible. Thank you, God Bless you!

Rad Hazelip, Assistant Executive Director