Thursday in Haiti with the GAiN Mission Team

The week is flying by. We just finished Thursday and it was great.  The team has high energy and are going to finish strong tomorrow.

Today there were three main projects.  The ladies completed day three of a sewing class, the team did some inventory of humanitarian aid and the two guys did some lawn care.

In front of the warehouse are 10, 40-foot containers that are being used as cold storage. We weren’t sure what was in them so we set the team loose to take a physical inventory. They pitched in and did a great job.

The Haitian ladies completed their sewing projects. They each made a shoulder bag.  You can see them in the pictures below. Everyone had a great time and many friendships were forged. The session today started with the ladies learning an English chorus and Jim doing a couple of magic tricks. The tricks are designed to share the gospel and they were led in a prayer of salvation.  It was a great afternoon.

I didn’t get any pictures of the David and Adam doing lawn care. But trust me, the place is looking great. Thanks guys.

These trips always go so quickly.  But as I think back over the week, it is amazing how much they have accomplished. Tomorrow we conclude our week with a vision clinic on the compound.  I will check in tomorrow.

Thanks again for your prayers.

Jim, Cheryl and the Girls

GAiN Haiti Mission–Wednesday

Hello again from Haiti.  It is Wednesday and we have had a full day. Once again we remained on the NVM compound to minister.  There were three main projects: painting, working on the septic system for the new children’s home and the sewing class.

The base of the school building and the current office needed to be painted and our team was up for the challenge. Bright blue was applied to the school and white to the office building.  In just two weeks, the current office building will become the pre-school building and the staff will move to the newly constructed office building.  The results of the painting were fantastic!

The two men and a number of the women once again tackled the septic system for the new children’s homes.  The main project for the day was to dig a trench deeper. The pipe was coming out too high so dig they did. The ground is so hard they had to use a pick axe to soften the dirt. And move the dirt they did.

At two o’clock the women headed over to the large outdoor tent to continue their work teaching Haitian women how to hand sew.  The project for the week is a cloth shoulder bag. They are doing a great job and the ladies on the team have been helping a great deal.  Cheryl is working with these Haitian ladies to teach them this skill to help them make a living for their families.

We are so grateful to be working along side this great team. They have been willing to do whatever we have put before them. They are true servants. Please continue to pray for our week. Tomorrow is like today and Friday we conduct our second vision clinic. We will keep you posted.

Jim, Cheryl and the Girls

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