Archive for the Missions
Friday, June 4th, 2010
But these aren’t cockroaches–they’re people
“Want to go with me to the worst place in the city? To Citė Soleil?” John McHoul asked us.
“Sure,” we said. “We’ll go wherever you want to take us.
John and his wife, Beth, founded Heartline Ministries in Port au Prince in 1989.
The ministries have primarily been focused on improving the lives of women and children in areas accessible to their ministry center. But these days, John is finding his heart and dreams being pulled to the desperate lives in Citė Soleil.
At this point John is visiting, asking people there what they need, and praying for insight.
When we went with him, he visited 2 tin workers trying to put together details that might lead to providing corrugated for at least some of the houses that right now have little protection from rain.
One of the great challenges is that the people on one side of the garbage-strewn canal consider those on the other side to be rivals.
John’s visit sparked a shouting “tug of war,” competing for his attention and presence. Each side wants him to work only on their side, and if they perceive he’s paying too much attention to the other side, they’ll do what they can to cause disruption
Afterward, John shook his head and quoted a Haitian proverb, “What the cockroach can’t eat, he spoils.”
You can see more photos from Citė Soleil.
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010
Real Hope for Haiti: Community groups
RHFH’s primary ministries of Clinic and Rescue Center are more than full-time responsibilities within the grounds of the ministry. But that doesn’t keep them from watching out for ways to help the community around them.
A community group gathers regularly in this building. Some of the women are learning to sew. The 2 treadles that were donated in Minneapolis have now been fixed up and are ready to go to their new homes. Thank you!
Haiti is one of the countries in the direst environmental straits. Flying in, I saw bare mountains and brown, muddy rivers.
Trying to address this issue, RHFH has developed one tree nursery. Right now they are waiting for USAID financing that has been promised to plant a second area. The ground has already been prepared there.
They have overseen the planting of hundreds of trees on bare hillsides and are planning for similar efforts and for training people to plant where they have access to land.We talked about what a small effort this seems in the face of such environmental devastation. But it is what one small group can do. May God prosper this as an inspiration to others to hope and do more.
The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.
You can see a few more related photos.
P.S. The night before we left for Haiti, we heard a provocative story on public radio. It was exploring the difficulties of Haiti’s farmers and others trying to increase their yields and income. The setting for some of the story is in Cazale, the town where RHFH is. May the Lord give wisdom to RHFH and all who are there in his name.
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
Real Hope for Haiti: Clinic
Real Hope for Haiti touches people in many ways. The 2 main ministries are the Rescue Center and the Clinic.
Early in the morning, Charles distributes numbers to the people waiting outside the clinic gate. Then throughout the day people are admitted in small groups, according to their numbers–250-300 each day. Some have hiked for hours to get here.
RHFH is using the Creole translation of For Your Joy, produced by Desiring God soon after the earthquake.
When patients receive medicine, it is important for them to understand and follow instructions. But a high percentage can’t read. So all medications have instructions both in writing and in images.
Babies are often delivered at home and some of the traditional practices can be deadly. At the clinic, each pregnant mother receives a kit of simple items with a money value of $1 or less. But the human value is immeasurable. Rubber gloves, razor blade, alcohol pads, and gauze strips equal the materials to cleanly cut an umbilical cord and bandage the baby’s belly. Much better that cutting with whatever happens to be near and risking infection for the baby.
You can see more of our pictures from the clinic.
Monday, May 31st, 2010
Real Hope for Haiti: Rescue Center
One of the main ministries of Real Hope for Haiti is the Rescue Center. At any one time, up to about 50 babies and young children are being cared for. Some are here because of injuries or other conditions that make it too hard for a family to care for them at home.
This child, for example was born with no bones in her lower leg or foot.
But most are there because of severe malnutrition. This is an ongoing crisis, from long before the earthquake.
Many children are admitted with kwashiorkor–a potentially fatal protein-deficiency disease
Medika Mamba is a lifesaving tool. The primary ingredient of this protein-rich food is peanut butter. Regularly at the RHFH blog there are arrival photos paired up with going home photos, and if you page down at this particular post, you can read a little bit about how they use Medika Mamba and the great impact it can have on families for the sake of the gospel.
Happy mothers returning home with their healthy children
Here are the latest admissions to the Rescue Center.
You can see more of our photos of the Rescue Center and some of the children there.
Sunday, May 30th, 2010
The necessities of life
Our first stop in Haiti was Real Hope for Haiti in the town of Cazale, an hour north of Port au Prince. RHFH had its beginnings in 1994 when God moved the Zachary family to Haiti. Our hosts were the families of the 2 Zachary daughters–Licia & Enoch and Lori & Charles.
Enoch & Licia and family
Charles & Lori
They put us right to work getting boxes ready for the monthly food giveaway. RHFH receives monthly shipments of cartons of basic nutritious food packs from Feed My Starving Children and Kids Against Hunger. RHFH adds to the boxes basic items that they have received as donations. This time it was toothbrushes, dental floss, peanut butter, large cans of tomatoes and packets of protein powder.
A peanut butter in each box 
Donations of toothbrushes & floss to distribute over the next months 
Everyone needs water–clean water. RHFH has a system for filtering water from the neighboring river. The equipment was given and installed by Water Missions International. This water supplies not only the clinic and rescue center (which I’ll post about later), but water is piped out to a public faucet where anyone can get clean water at no charge.
One thing I love to see here is 4 ministries, at least, working together to provide necessities of life for people who desperately need it–all for the sake of the Living Water and Bread of Life which they need even more desperately.
Speaking of charge, another “necessity”–though not necessarily of life itself–is cell phone power. There is a small charge for that service, money which helps buy diesel to run the generator, the source of all the electricity.
You can see more photos from our arrival at Real Hope for Haiti and the food distribution.
(Sorry about photos and captions scattered every whichaway around this post. I’m tired of trying to figure it out.)
Saturday, May 29th, 2010
I can never forget
As we flew into Port au Prince . . .
I looked down into neighborhoods that had been very poor for a long time. Now I could look down literally into many houses that were destroyed in the quake. There was no way to tell how many others are too damaged for anyone to live in. Presumably, houses covered with tarp are inhabited.
Enoch and Licia Betor met us at the airport and drove us out to Real Hope for Haiti in the town of Cazale, about 1 hour north of Port au Prince.
Along the way, we were having a lively conversation about various things, mostly surrounding our questions and curiosity about Haiti’s people and life. At one point Enoch became very quiet. He pointed to a flattened mound of dirt on the hillside next to the road.
“That is one of the mass graves. Thousands of people are buried there. In such a hot place as Haiti, there was not time to wait for family members to identify the dead. They had to be buried quickly.
“After the earthquake, we drove from Cazale down into the city many times to bring people back to the RHFH Clinic for care. I will never forget what I saw here one day when I was going past. Bodies piled high. Machines pushing them into a massive hole. I can’t even talk about what I saw and how it smelled. I can’t ever get that out of my mind.”
In these additional pictures on the road to Cazale, people look like what you might expect to see in many parts of the world. And yet, Haiti is a nation of people–adults and children–whose memories are haunted by tragic, gut-wrenching images. They grieve for loved ones, yet may never know where they are buried. In a mass grave? Under the ruins of a building?
Only the great Comforter is large enough, loving enough to heal so great a pain.
Friday, May 21st, 2010
Dominican Republic and Haiti
Next week Johnny and I will fly to Hispaniola, the second largest island in the Caribbean. I was pretty sure I knew the name of the island, but I looked it up to be sure because I never use its proper name. Instead, I talk about the two nations that share the land — Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
The first part of our time will be a too-short trip to Haiti, where we will visit a couple of the ministries I’ve blogged about since the earthquake–Real Hope for Haiti Rescue Center and Heartline Ministries.
We’ll also visit a church that Bethlehem Baptist is partnering with to provide local homes and support for orphans. I hope you’ll visit Bethlehem’s Global Diaconate blog to read about the partnership program. And then I pray you’ll pray about how you and your church might be involved.
The second part of the trip will be in the Dominican Republic, climaxing with the Back to the Cross conference in Santo Domingo.
Please pray for us as we go–that we will have God’s eyes and heart and words for the people and situations we meet.
Friday, April 23rd, 2010
Earth Day every day
For Craig and Tracy Sorley, every day is Earth Day. Their calling and life is to teach and demonstrate that we are stewards of God’s creation, for the sake of the name of Jesus. That’s why Craig wrote Christ and Creation: Our Biblical Calling to Environmental Stewardship.
We first knew Craig and Tracy when they were college students attending our church. Later they were sent out from Bethlehem to Kenya as missionaries with Care of Creation. The importance of the Sorleys work was recognized by Time in 2008 when Craig was named a Hero of the Environment. Last year, he was also featured in The Guardian in the UK.
I’m praying that some of you will be inspired to contact Craig for more information about how to be involved personally. At least one of you is an environmental engineer or a ground water specialist or an agriculturalist or otherwise interested in community development, and you are at loose ends wondering what God wants you to do next. Email Craig and ask for his ideas.
Some of you have been wondering how to promote good stewardship of the creation and want to be sure your money is also being used for the sake of the Kingdom. I hope you will pray about helping Care of Creation.
The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.
(You can follow Care of Creation at Twitter.)
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010
Earth Day–not just a slogan
Earth Day is a good time to remind myself that “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof” (1 Corinthians 10:26). But there are many places on earth that bear the ravages of not being overseen with stewardship worthy of the Lord.
A couple of years ago, Talitha and I visited Kenya for the purpose of thinking about just these things. Our hosts were Craig and Tracy Sorley, missionaries from our church who serve with Care of Creation.
I met a man in Old Kijabe Town who says he cries every day remembering how today’s bare hills used to be green and covered with trees.
We had the totally humbling experience of trying to trek into the Rift Valley with women who spend an average of 40 hours a week just finding and hauling water and wood–necessities for their households.
Talitha was 12 at the time, but her thoughts about life there were amazingly mature.
What we saw was not all hopeless.
I sat with a room full of farmers in a Care of Creation seminar about Farming God’s Way. We spent a day in Nairobi, where we visited a seminary and college that, at the time, were teaching or considering adding a course about caring for God’s creation. There were also visits to tree nurseries and a school and church where water is being collected.
When it came time to leave, Talitha’s goodbye to Kenya was sweet and thoughtful.
________
You can read more on this topic in Our Father’s World: Mobilizing the Church to Care for Creation, by Ed Brown, Director of Care of Creation. You might also like to visit Ed’s blog, also called “Our Father’s World.”
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
Sponsor a pallet, win a prize
The other day I mentioned the opportunity to sponsor a pallet in one of the containers for Haiti that will be shipped this month.
Here are more explanation and details.
Monday, April 5th, 2010
C’mon. It’s just sitting there
I’m receiving huge thanks on behalf of all of you who are making donations and sewing for Real Hope for Haiti Rescue Center.
Here are a few larger items that would be a blessing.
- rototiller
- leaf blower — to clean the driveway/front of clinic fast
- food dehydrator –to try to conserve fruits – mango, pinapple, breadfruit, bananas, etc.
Your rototiller’s been sitting in the corner of your garage ever since that aborted first attempt at gardening. You never pull out the leaf blower because it’s easier just to let the wind blow the leaves into the neighbor’s yard. And you haven’t used the food dehydrator since your earth mother days.
Or maybe we’re talking about your neighbors, not you. In that case, you need to go let them know you can help them simplify life.
Items need to be received by April 17th to make it into the containers that are being shipped now.
To make connection for shipping or delivering an item:
- If you live in or near Indiana, email lori@realhopeforhaiti.org
- If you live in or near Minneapolis, email debra_woodward@msn.com
Monday, March 29th, 2010
Container to Haiti–deadline
Contents for the container for Real Hope For Haiti Rescue Center are being sorted this week.
- If you have been making pillowcase dresses for little girls there
- If you have been intending to buy and donate from their Walmart wish list
- If you have intended to send some items on the for the Community Development Group’s wish list
. . . now is the time. Please mail or deliver personally to:
Debbie Woodward
1500 Jackson St. NE
Minneapolis, MN 55413
In addition, pallet sponsors are needed for the shipment. $250 pays for one pallet within the container. Donations can be made by a Paypal link at the Rescue Center website or by sending a check to the address shown there. Please designate your donation as Minnesota Shipping.
Thank you so very much to you who have already been making donations and sewing lovely dresses.
