GAiN Haiti Mission–Monday and Tuesday!!

Hello everyone.  Well, God has been faithful to our mission team here in Haiti. We have had a wonderful start to our week. Here is the overview with pictures!

On Monday we took the team to a nearby IDP camp called Onaville.  This is the largest displacement camp in Haiti where over 200,000 people live in temporary housing. On Monday we conducted a vision clinic. The team did great!  We saw 80 patients and 15 of them prayed to received Christ for the first time.  We also helped most of them with their physical vision as well.  Here are a number of photos from our day in Onaville.

Here you see Jim with the men who run the Jesus Film ministry in Haiti.  They work under Pastor Pierre and organized the clinic for us on Monday. We are so grateful.  After the clinic, we stopped by the Onaville police department and blessed them all with sunglasses. They were very thankful. It never hurts to have a good relationship with the police!

Today (Tuesday) we stayed on the NVM compound. The ladies helped Cheryl with here ministry to local Haitian woman teaching them the skills of jewelry making and sewing. These skills will be used to help them make a living to support their families. The ladies reported that they had a ball. Today I include photos of the jewelry making class. Tomorrow I will show you the sewing class in action.

The men (and Tobye) worked on installing the septic system for the new children’s home buildings.  The day was hot and they worked hard.  There was a lot of rock and dirt moving going on.

And finally I need to include a photo of our alarm clock. The sun rises early in Haiti and our turkeys make sure that everyone is up.  A blessing and a curse!

Thank you for your continued prayers.  Keep it up because God wants to continue to do great things this week.  Blessings on you all.

Jim, Cheryl and the Girls

The GAiN Team in Haiti had a great Sunday

Our mission team of 19 had a full Sunday of activities. During our debrief meeting this evening, one of the members said it was wonderful to start the week by worshipping with the Haitians we will be ministering to this week.  It made us realize that we are all members of the same family as we sang and worshipped God together.

We started our day in the dining hall for breakfast and fellowship. Then during the service Pastor Pierre invited the team to the platform to be introduced and to sing a song. This is a tradition in the church. We sang, This Is the Day and the church musicians joined right in.

After lunch and a break we headed for the village of Chambrun. As I have mentioned in the past, this is a community about 1/2 mile from the campus were over 6000 live in very poor conditions.  NVM has a children’s home in Chambrun and we had a wonderful time playing with the children. We played soccer (their football), had a traveling puppet show, started a “bell choir” and generally had a great time with the kids.

Tomorrow morning we head out to Onaville, the largest IDP camp in Haiti, to conduct our first vision clinic.  We will report in again when we return to let you know how it went. Please be praying that God will prepare the hearts of those we minister to.

We love you all and are grateful for your interest and prayers.

Jim, Cheryl and the Girls

Hello from Haiti

Greetings to you all. Well, most of us on the US team here in Haiti have been sick this past week. I know that isn’t an uplifting word from the field but we need your prayers. Pray that we will all be back to 100% soon.

This is especially important for Cheryl and me because we have a GAiN mission team arriving on Saturday. So you will be receiving reports next week.  We have a variety of projects planned and we will keep you posted.

The 3 Mighty Men from Macon have returned. In two days they completely installed the septic system and drainage for the new office building. We are grateful and ready to flush!

There is also a medical team on campus this week. They are in Onaville today.

We will send more soon.

Jim, Cheryl and the Girls

Our final day of ministry

The GAiN mission team to Haiti has just completed their final day of ministry. It is hard to believe that the week has passed.  It was a great day and here it is in pictures.
We conducted our fourth vision clinic but this time it was on the NVM compound.  We served 79 patients and had 7 of them pray to receive Christ.  The number of conversions was lower today because many of them attend the NVM church. But it was wonderful to serve them. The total number of patients for the week was 333 and we had the privilege of leading 110 of them to Christ.

At 3 pm every Friday, Cheryl teaches a group of young Haitian women how to sew. The mission team members helped her out today. Many hands makes more personal attention.

During the day, our three mission team men took on a special project. They decided to build Adam a new work bench in the warehouse. This will be a huge blessing.

Before the sewing class we took the team to Chambrun. This is the poor community about a 1/2 mile from the NVM compound.  They wanted to visit the NVM children’s home and take a brief tour of the community. We had a great time and the sights and sounds were eye opening.

We ended our ministry day cooking supper. The team volunteered to cook chili and pineapple cake. It was fantastic and a lot of fun in the kitchen.

We had a wonderful week with this team. We want to thank each one of them for coming to Haiti and for their humble and diligent service. And a special thanks to those of you who have been praying for our mission in Haiti.  We really do appreciate it! We pray that the team will have a good trip home tomorrow and that the memories of this week will linger long and will fundamentally change them and their future ministry.
Blessings on you all,
Jim, Cheryl and the Girls

Thursday in Haiti

The GAiN mission team just completed Thursday in Haiti. We spent our third and final day in Onaville conducting another vision clinic. And we had a wonderful day.  We saw 104 patients and 39 of them prayed to received Jesus into their lives. That brings our total to 254 patients and 103 new believers! And when we returned to the NVM compound, the team went right to work sorting clothes for our thrift shop and continuing work on building bunk beds. They are a great and hard working team.
Tomorrow is our final ministry day and we spend it on the NVM compound. We will conduct a vision clinic and do projects on campus.
Below you see a photo taken of Onaville from our tent. There are over 200,000 displaced people living on the hillside. The second photo is a picture of hope. unicef has been building small permanent houses. There are now a large number of these homes in Onaville and more are being added each month  Each home even comes with a small area to grow a garden! And finally we have included two photos of young people who came to the clinic today.  We have people of all ages coming to the clinics but is it rewarding to help the young who are having trouble seeing.

Thanks again for your prayers. We will report in tomorrow after our final day of ministry.
Jim, Cheryl and the Girls

GAiN Mission Team in Haiti Hits Midweek

The GAiN mission team in Haiti conducted it’s fourth day of ministry. Today (Wednesday) we returned to Onaville to conduct another vision clinic.  You might remember that Onaville is the largest displacement camp near Port-au-Prince. We had a wonderful day of ministry and God touched many lives. We saw 74 patients and an amazing 36 of them prayed to received Christ for the first time.  Here are the pictures.

The three men on the mission team stayed on the NVM compound to construct benches.  And these are special benches.  The site where we are conducting the vision clinics will soon become a church. In fact, they are already conducting Bible studies there. Some of the Jesus Film men will pastor the church.  The benches being built are going to be used in the Onaville church. So it all fits together nicely!  And the men are doing a wonderful job.  Here are the pictures.

Yesterday we reported about the graduation ceremony for the class Cheryl has been conducting teaching women how to make rolled beaded jewelry.  This new skill will help these dear women support their families. It was a great time and the ladies seemed to be blessed. Here are the pictures.

We are well aware that our ministry on the field is successful because you are praying and God is acting.  We appreciate so very much your prayers and support. Please continue to pray as we have two more vision clinics. Tomorrow we will be back in Onaville and Friday we will be on the NVM compound.  We will report in again.
Jim, Cheryl and the Girls