House of Hope Orphanage

Dear friends,

The Lord is truly the God of the nations as we have experienced His life through many who love Him here in Haiti. Through our Haitian brothers and sisters the Lord has cared for us and sustained us mightily.

We arrived safely in Ft. Lauderdale on Thursday March 11th and got acquainted with our team members from Cross Roads Church led by Greg Barshaw ("...a great brother!") and flew in to Cap Haitian, Haiti's most prominent northern city that was mostly unaffected by earthquake damage except that the city now has many new residents who migrated up from Port au Prince in the south part of the island. The pace of life is very, very relaxed to the point of making Hawaii look like Manhattan. Traffic is intense and mostly slow going through the city with the roads shared by mostly trucks, 4-wheel drive vehicles, a lot of motorcycles, and more than a few pedestrians.

We got settled in Friday at the hotel where we are staying and even had the opportunity to visit the "House of Hope Orphanage" (HoH) where we planned to build to 12' x 20' sheds for 44 orphans.

We began work Saturday morning at HoH digging the footing and foundation. Our plan was to begin at 7am, God's plan for us in Haiti was 8:30. Our efforts and every sense of masculine fortitude was greatly humbled as we were met that day with near 100 degree temperatures with nearly 100% humidity.

The orphans at HoH eagerly welcomed us as many on our team ministered to them in Hanuary departing just 36 hours before the January 12th earthquake. They were excited to see us and eager to receive any and all attention and affection we could show them as the Lord immediately seemed to melt our hearts for them. We worked until we needed a break ("...which wasn't long") and each time we came out of the sun for a much needed reprieve the littlest ones were eager to jump on our laps. On Saturday March 13th we worked as long as the bottled water lasted then headed back for the wild ride back to our hotel, owned by Hubert, a local candidate for the Senate.

The Lord's Day, March 14th saw us divided into three teams to minister at various churches on the northern part of the island. Dr. Chuck Davis, Executive Director of Caribbean Vision Ministries, a veteran pastor and missionary, as well as a 'wily old southerner,' another veteran missionary Larry D'Army (in town for the week to teach at a local Bible Institute) with enough overseas missionary adventures to humble the likes of Indiana Jones, and myself headed up to a "bush church" up in the mountains in a small but densely populated town named, "LaBolle" (...pronounced "Luh Bull") The wild ride up mountains in the back of an old pick-up in our Sunday best tops any roller coaster I have ever been on. The running line for the day was that the town bears that name, because it feels like riding a bull to get there.

We were warmly greeted by the pastor and 40-50 sweet Haitian brothers and sisters who warmly welcomed us, and though throughout the service I understood little or nothing one thing that was discernible was God was in the place among His people. I preached from Esther 1 & 2 through my interpreter "Bobby," who lost his daughter in an earthquake while attending the university in Port au Prince. He is such a kind brother with gentle spirit and firm resolve to serve the Lord in his native land.

The Lord brought rain and cooler temperatures in answer to prayer Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We dug, laid brick, and when we sat down the orphans were all over us each time. The financial reality of life in Haiti is quite sobering. A national working as a school teacher can be fully supported for just $7 American (the cost of 2 grande capuccinos at Starbucks or Peet's). All 44 orphans can be fed daily for just $4.50 American and $30 American/month ensures clothing, food, shelter, and an education for a HoH orphan...very sobering.

Our team photographer Alicia Michaelsen has taken well over 1000 photos and collected a complete profile on each of the orphans in order to help organize providing them with sponsors. Photos will be available soon I promise.

We worked as hard as we could and expensed every once of love and affection we could muster on these sweet orphans. What was especially memorable was hearing the littlest ones call out to my side kick here from GBC, Pleasant, Keith Flashberger, saying "Flash!" "Flash!" One detail in this trip's planning that was a regular topic of conversation each day was, "When are we getting the container with the sheds out of customs." We were eagerly anticipating their arrival Wednesday only to find out that day, that it was still in port in Florida.

Naturally, the team was greatly 'crestfallen' and wanted to know how this could happen when we were told the container was in port in Haiti, before we left for Cap Haitian. The Lord has His own reasons not revealed to us as to why this happened. Our team resigned to worship Christ amidst our disappointment and seek the grace to find our identity that moment in the shed blood of Christ on our behalf and not in the completion of a task. Our last day with the HoH orphans was sad and sober, yet filled with hope and anticipation. Our national host, Pastor Elysee Jospeh has been and is working diligently to get our container here to Haiti and out of customs as soon as possible. A couple of the men, including my sidekick "Flash" have agreed to stay for a few extra days to complete the task of building the shelters for the HoH orphans if the container is out of customs by Monday, March 22nd. On the last day we were able to provide the orphans with some much needed shade for their open air church, as well as set up a water purifying system.

We have not yet completed all that we had hoped to do for these kids, but we did leave them with more than they had before they came. On Thursday we were off to Port au Prince, where we were greeted into the safety of the home of our host past Eddy Bazin. Pastor Eddy and his wife Marilyn have been extraordinarily generous hosts. Their home is inside of a walled compound that also houses the church, a school and provides care in many ways to the local community. He is a great encouragement to all of us and 'choice' man in Christ.

Pastor Eddy, Chuck, Greg, and Alicia went to visit another orphanage here in Port au Prince and get more photos and profiles on 50 more orphans locally. Several of the other men on the team joined "Flash" and I for a walk around the neighborhood. There amidst many open air shops we saw areas left relatively unaffected by the earthquake and others utterly devastated by it. The smell of death remains in the air as some places have not yet been excavated...very sobering. Yet among the locals and the homes that remained we saw real creativity to see life go forward as well as real resolved and a positive attitude by many though they had experienced the loss of loved ones. A French-speaking American medical missionary Grace Brethren spoke with one local shop owner whose building was greatly damaged by the earthquake how he had been faring only to hear the man say, "Life is good."

A sweet time of fellowship was enjoyed worshipping with a group of people under Pastor Eddy's care last night. He translated for me as I shared a brief meditation on the Wise Purposes of the Sovereign God of the Gospel. Today, Pastor Eddy opened the compound to the local community as the team assisted with a free medical clinic. It was pretty exciting to learn to greet the locals and take their vitals before seeing the doctor.

The Lord is stretching us and teaching us patience. This has truly been a time when all of us on the team have been forced to persevere in faith as He takes our plans and shapes them into His plans. If I was not aware in the US of how little I actually could control in my life, my time in Haiti has made that abundantly clear. The words of Jesus, "...apart from me you can do nothing" have taken on a profound reality here.

I want to thank all of you for your prayers for our team and our ministry to the people of Haiti. While our plans have not been His plans and we have been greatly humbled, we remain well cared for greatly encouraged, full of hope, and eager to return.

We pray some of you will prayerfully consider joining us in Haiti personally as discussions for an August return are already in the works.

Grace reigns!
Vince (Rom 5:20, 21)