The GAiN Mission Team's Sunday in Haiti

Sunday has come for the GAiN mission team.  And once again we had the opportunity to worship at Nehemiah Vision Chapel. This is always a moving experience and a time of wonderful worship. The service started with an invitation for people to come forward for prayer. The morning was full of great singing, the sharing of communion, and a powerful sermon. Even though it was presented in Creole, Pastor Pierre slipped in short bursts of English to keep us on track. The theme for March is the resurrection. Every team that comes to NVM is always invited forward to greet the church and to sing a song. Our team Sang "Mighty to Save" and the Haitian musicians played along. Then Pastor Pierre led the congregation singing the same song in Creole. It was great. And of course, holding children is always a part of our Sunday mornings. It was a wonderful 3 hours!

After the service, GAiN sponsored a lunch. We fed a meal to everyone in the church. I believe we served over 600 people. It was a blessing for us to be able to offer this meal to these wonderful people.

The rest of the day we used to play with kids and to rest. Tonight we will prepare for tomorrow when we will distribute the remaining 50 water filters to families in the mountain town of Font Cheval. We will report in tomorrow evening with a report of our day. Please continue to pray for this team. They are wonderful people with huge hearts for doing God's work. We are so grateful for them all.

Serving on your behalf in Haiti,
Jim & Cheryl

Haiti GAiN Team Update - Friday and Saturday

Cheryl and I are privileged to be ministering alongside this GAiN team. They are wonderful! We didn't post on Friday due to internet problems. So today we will include photos from both days.

Friday
In the morning we headed for the community of Thomazeau. This is a poor community about 40 minutes away from our compound. And most of it was over very bumpy roads. On this trip, Collin Creek Community Church has donated funds to distribute 100 Sawyer water filters. On this day we were able to bless 50 families with filters. But before they received their filters we had the change to speak to them about good sanitation and hygiene. We also demonstrated how to use the filters and let them practice. And at the end of the presentation we had the opportunity to share the good news of Jesus Christ.  Here are highlights from the morning.

In the afternoon we returned to the NVM compound. The ladies helped Cheryl with an event for the women. They played games and taught the ladies how to croche.  Cheryl is conducted these sessions to encourage and bless many of the ladies in the church. They had a great time.

A few members of the team are making new shelving units and tables for the NVM Hope Gift Shop. We will show you the final product soon!

And work goes on siding the medical housing units. They are coming close to completion and will be a blessing for years to come.

Saturday
Today worked continued on the compound. And Tom Miller helped Jim with his monthly pastor's conference. We fed them a hot breakfast, led them in worship, did a fun activity and shared with them lessons from 1 Peter 2. Tom and Jim are good friends from GAiN and Tom did an outstanding job teaching.  There are the sights of the day.

Thank you for your prayers. The team is doing well but pray that they finish strong and stay healthy. And pray for Danny. He has thrown out his back and the team is nursing him back to health.

We will keep you posted in the days to come. We appreciate you all.

Serving on your behalf in Haiti,
Jim & Cheryl Warner

The GAiN Mission Team's work is Underway in Haiti

The GAiN mission team arrived in Haiti on Wednesday. And today they started their work. The team will be distributing water filters to 100 local Haitian families. Today they spent the morning preparing for those presentations. As you see below they were assembling the filter systems. A hole was drilled in the dirty water bucket and the gravity-fed filters were attached. The dirty water will flow through the filter into the clean water containers. They are also seen below. This small filter will easily supply clean water for more than one family. Tomorrow we begin the distribution which includes a presentation teaching good hygiene and sanitation. And at the end of our time we will present the gospel. We will have more on that tomorrow.

Drilling the holes

Attaching the filters

The assembly line

Cleaning up

The final product

The clean water buckets

 The team also brought Cheryl a wagon. She had requested a sturdy wagon with big wheels so she could more things around the compound. She expected a homemade wagon but the team brought a great store bought wagon!!!

On Friday afternoon the ladies will be helping Cheryl with an event for Haitian ladies. They spent some time tonight getting ready.

And some of the other members are working on a project to build shelving units for Cheryl to be used in the Hope Gift Shop at NVM.  They are just getting started. We will show you their progress throughout the week.

Please be praying for our mission team this week as we reach out to Haitians with God's love and care. Pray that many are blessed and those in need come to God for salvation and new life. Thanks so much.

Serving on your behalf in Haiti,
Jim & Cheryl Warner

Cheryl's Bon Zanmi

Yolande is my ‘bon zanmi’ here in Haiti – my 'good friend.'

Yolande works on the NVM Compound as a housekeeper.  She does the laundry for the teams and for the USA staff.  She has a pedal sewing machine at home, but I’ve taught her how to sew here on an electric machine.  Now she does all the sewing for the Hope Gift Shop at NVM.  She makes beautiful shoulder bags, headbands, coin purses and jewelry bags.  The income from this work helps to provide for her family.  She has many children and 3 grandchildren.  Her youngest daughter, age 14, takes care of the grandchildren while she is at work. Yolande is very active in the NVM church and is always willing to help.

We’ve helped each other with language skills! She has taught me a lot of Creole and I’ve taught her English.  She can now greet the teams that come to the NVM Compound with a bit of English, telling them what she does here. And I can now speak a few sentences about sewing in Creole.

Yolande is a joy to work with and is a very ‘bon zanmi’.  As you can see in the photos she has a very difficult life at home.  She lives in a tin roofed mud home and cooks over a wood burning fire pit.  All of her children and grandchildren live with her.  She has no running water and bathes from a pot just outside her door.  There are 3 small mud huts in her stick/barbwire fenced yard. She and her children sleep in one, one is for her daughter and grandchildren and the other is the cooking hut where she makes food for the family.

It has been a privilege to work alongside Yolande and get to know her.  I hope we are friends for many years to come.

NVM's Hope Gift Shop has an employee

Cheryl has been running NVM's Hope Gift Shop for the entire time we have been in Haiti - almost 2 years now.  Most of the hand made items are created by Haitian ladies in her craft classes. The gift shop has grown to the size where NVM has been able to hire a full time employee. We want to introduce Fifi Judelaine.

Fifi is a young mother with a 1 1/2 year old daughter.  She lives with her mother and other siblings.  She comes to the NVM church faithfully every Sunday.  She has not had a job before..so she is a bit timid.  She works in the housekeeping area when she is not busy with bead making.  She is very creative in her work.  She makes excellent jewelry and we are very happy to have her as our first employee.  She helps to keep the gift shop dusted and organized and she is a joy to work with.

Cheryl has recently redesigned the gift shop to make it a more enjoyable shopping experience. And during a busy week she can sell up to $1,500 worth of product. Most of that goes back to the ladies and back into the supplies needed.  But this project also supports the NVM Sponsorship program.

Here is another look at some of the beautiful items being produced here that are for sale in the gift shop.

And you can help. If you are interested in finding out how you can sell these products in your community contact Cheryl. We have some exciting new opportunities that she wants to tell you about. She can be reached at cheryl.warner@cru.org. We hope to hear from you soon.  You can also read information on the NVM web at:   www.nehemiahvisionministries.org 

Serving on your behalf in Haiti,

Jim & Cheryl Warner