Philimond and Ezekiel have been in line for hours in our semi trying to cross the border into the Dominican Republic to buy cheaper diesel fuel… not the “black market fuel.” Looks like it is not possible today. There are hundreds of trucks in line trying to find fuel just across the border. Our semi if you noticed is the last one in line. Haiti is in a fuel and food crisis. Please pray for Haiti and for us. Thank you for your prayers and financial support. They are needed now more than ever.

Bobby Burnette

But, What if We “Lose Our Hope?”

Haitians live by proverbs… One proverb is “Espwa Fe Viv,” or “Hope Makes Us Live.”

Many of you know some of what is going on in Haiti, and if you do not, read the Miami Herald, or look up “Gangs in Haiti,” and you will see what is going on. In a nutshell, it started even before President Aristide was elected. The problems all started with “extreme greed” by the five big families who “own Haiti.” To make a long story short, they and “the powers in charge” control everything, and have had a lot of influence on the gangs, bringing in guns, and paying the gangs.

This has been going on for years, but getting worse as the young men, or teenagers now, have the same big weapons as the military uses – M-16’s and AK 47’s. For the majority of the poor, they have always had to “eek out a small living to survive” each day. But now, “going to the market to buy and sell” in order to buy a small can of rice, is not possible for most. They cannot “cross the gang lines.” School was supposed to start last month but it has not started yet in most areas. (It has started in Fond Parisien at our Love A Child School, because our area is safe.)

Haitians have been through many things… the overthrowing of “Baby Doc,” hurricanes, the 2010 earthquake, earthquake in South Haiti, floods, and much more. They are a “strong people,” and even after the 2010 earthquake hit, when CNN was doing a piece on the earthquake, behind the person on the camera, you could see Haitian women dressed in white, singing and praising and worshipping God… on CNN!

But what they are going through now is worse than the earthquakes, the floods, and the hurricanes... They have a Creole proverb, “Espwa Fe Viv.” It means, “Hope Makes Us Live.” But now, they feel they have “lost their hope,” because “no one is coming to Haiti to rescue us…” They keep looking up to see if helicopters are coming, or planes… but no one is coming. It is extremely sad. The poor are struggling each day to find food… and not even a lot. They were hungry before, but nothing to compare with what is happening now. They describe the hunger as “grangou Clorox,” or they would rather “drink Clorox than die of hunger.” They pray and keep on trusting that “things will get better,” but the look on their faces is “total despair.”

But now, they feel they are “losing their hope!” They have “hung their harps on the willow tree,” as Psalms 137:1-2 says. “By the rivers of Babylon, there we down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion, (or when we remembered what Haiti used to be like); We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof…” But, we know it is “never too much with our Great God! He can still do a miracle!!!”

Bobby and I are not giving up on the Haitian poor… Our hands are “still on the plough…” We love the Haitian people and we love you.

Sherry

Lionel is a very sweet young teenager. He just turned 14 years old. Lionel gets up early in the morning and helps wash the car, helps with the plants and yard work, helps feed the horses, and chases down the donkeys to feed them too! He is kind and obedient!! He will be in the 9th grade once school starts in Haiti.

Lionel’s story is sad. One day, when Lionel was very, very young, a Haitian policeman found him on the street, all by himself. His hand and fingers had been “severely burned” to the degree that the flesh had fallen off! The police asked him what happened, and he told the police that his father got mad at him and “held his hand down in boiling water!” Lionel’s mother had died a while back and so he was raised by a father who didn’t love him. The Department of Social Services called us and asked us to take him in.

The doctors did the best they could, but there were no professional doctors or hospitals to handle burns and skin grafts, or to do repeated hand exercises. As a result, his fingers meshed together and couldn’t be separated. We are working on getting a special surgeon in the Dominican Republic to operate on Lionel’s fingers. The doctor said he can separate them, but Lionel will need to do a lot of physical exercises with his hand and fingers. This is a good “young man” to add to your daily prayer list.

Lionel loves soccer and he is excellent in math. His dream would be to do mechanic work, but that will only happen if his hand and fingers get the surgery he needs. But, with God, “all things are possible!” We will keep you updated on Lionel! Thank you for your prayers!

Sherry

We welcome Pastor Mark Ostrander to Haiti, who came in yesterday. He and our Haitian construction crew will be working on future housing for our future teams. This makes Pastor Mark about 600 trips to Haiti! He is a hero of the faith for the poor.

We have not been able to have volunteer mission teams come down to Haiti for at least two years or more because of all the gangs and dangers in Haiti. We are building our future mission team housing by faith!

Faith not having the money, and faith this storm will pass over.

We are claiming Haiti for Christ!

Missionary Bobby Burnette

Note: Please pray we can travel some way out to South Haiti next week to help with our food distribution to the people and prisons. Everyone is in desperate need.

We have three older boys, Dieuferly, Frantzo and Jean Gardy, who have a “business mind!” These three young men were raised here in our Orphanage from the age of three, seven, and six… but as they grew, they knew someday, they would need to have a way to make a living. So that in the future, they would be getting married and having a family.

Frantzo has gone to Bible College, but he is taking other subjects now. He is one of the three boys who are making a business. Frantzo does a lot of the marketing, Dieuferly does the photography, and Jean Gardy is the financial manager. They built a small “snack shop” on our land near our Birthing Center. They began by selling cold drinks and Haitian biscuits called “pah-tays.” Then, they used their money to build a small room, so people could come in and sit down and eat. (They don’t have the roof on the building yet, but they will!)

Their next idea is to buy food items and sell them to the “machans,” or lady sellers. This would be “very good” for the machans because now, they have to go to dangerous zones to buy items like rice, and resell it to make a living to feed their families! They are begging the boys to get this business started!

Even though Haiti is full of gangs blocking the roads and kidnappings, the amazing thing is that Haitians still have “hope!” They all believe God is going to intervene in Haiti,  so they are “hanging in there!” These three young men, “Love A Child” boys, have grown up being taught to always be kind and honest and treat the poor with respect, and always put God first! They have “faith” that even as things look like they are going “from bad to worse,” that doesn’t matter to God! He can still do His “miracle stuff,” like He always has done!

As a result of violent gangs taking over the country of Haiti, many people are starving. In the jail of Anse-à-Veau, some have gone days and sometimes weeks without a meal. Today our faithful Hubert Severin took cooking bananas and root plants and served a soup with the little he had to offer the starving souls in the jail.

Please pray that the Lord will make a way so we can travel to South Haiti next week to help distribute the food we are purchasing this week in South Haiti.

Love is something you do.

Bobby Burnette