Highlights

December 08

Phil Snyder - Editor

Back to http://glowmi.org

“Through God we shall do valiantly, for it is He who shall tread down our enemies.” Psalm 60:12

A couple of weeks ago we as a nation collectively observed and celebrated a day of Thanksgiving. This is one of the oldest and most pleasant traditions I know. Some might criticize us for the gluttonous nature of this holiday but I for one, the older I get, tend to lean more and more toward the true spirit of this season, which is gratitude. There is a divine hand that guides us, that intervenes in our affairs, our recognition of this does strengthen and reinforce those ties. To know that hand as the Hand of God is the highest honor bestowed upon man, worthy of our gratitude, worthy of our highest praise.

As we prepare to tear the last page off the calendar and roll into a new year, I stand in awe of the things that have been accomplished this year. It is not in ourselves that we boast of such things, for it is by faith that we are engaged. There lies before us no small task either, but a battle for the very heart, the restoration of a nation.

“Is it even possible,” some might ask, “ to save Haiti from its precarious perch?” “She’s too far gone, she’s a disaster, she’s chaotic, she is depleted!” This is our nature to be critical, to look at the impossible and walk away. “We are only human,” we reason, then choose: engage or walk away. But for many of us we cannot walk away. We cannot look upon the sadness and suffering of our brothers and sisters, and their children, and simply walk away. Compassion rises and storms the gates of hell while wave upon wave of mercy and love roll upon her shores. We act, sharing our bread, sharing our wine and see in the eyes of the children who thrive–the future hope of a nation.

A Lion leads, His banner over us is Love, His motto is “nothing shall be impossible!” He calls us to “believe in Me” and changes the course of history by his Word. He establishes streams in the desert and causes the arid wilderness to bloom fruitful. He’s been know to raise the dead, bring sight to the blind, even cure the leper, things we can barely conceive of, then says we will do “even greater things.” Who can fathom it?

We can’t. But by faith we walk on. By conviction we share “good tidings of great news.” Even in the worst of times we sacrifice our comforts to comfort those who suffer. We choose to intervene and in doing so offer healing and hope while ‘signs and wonders’ follow in our wake.

As I gave thanks for the turkey this year I looked out over my family. My heart was filled with joy for those under my roof and the blessings we share. You are part of our family. We bless you and wish you a beautiful Christmas season!

I spent a few November weeks in Haiti. I hadn’t been there since summer and it was good to be back. The rains are slowing down and some of the main highway road work is done. There is actually new asphalt from Williamson almost to Grande Godet. But for those areas still under construction it has become a dust bowl. I’m hoping they will get asphalt down soon because the dust is nasty, it makes people sick and even has caused some major traffic accidents.

Grande Godet school is suffering under the dust. Damil goes to the road workers almost daily pleading for them to run the water truck by and wet down the road. He has a lot of children there this year, close to 600. This is quite an increase from 120 last year. The new facilities make it possible to draw that many kids to school. Parents from Montrouis all the way to Williamson wanted their kids to be able to attend school in Grande Godet. Their only problem was that they couldn’t afford to send the children on public transportation. We assessed this need and started praying for a bus last April. Damil took it a step further and declared there would be a bus. He then opened enrollment to these larger cities north and south of Grande Godet. I’m not surprised that he ended up with a full house.

It took quite an effort getting all these kids to and from school as he promised. Then word came that there was a bus available, I’d bought it and it was on its way to Haiti. I think Damil breathed a sigh of relief and prayed he could keep the transportation up until the bus actually got there. The ship carrying the bus arrived in St. Marc while I was still in Haiti. I postponed my return and threw my lot in with Damil to get the bus through customs. We had it out within a week. I had loaded it with food, water filters, school supplies, relief supplies, clothes, shoes and an assortment of materials for an upcoming construction project. Somewhere between the Florida shipyard, at sea or in Haiti, thieves helped their selves to the content. They basically rifled through most everything leaving a terrible mess but stole only the stuff I had sent for the construction project.

We pulled the bus up to Grande Godet on Thursday November 20 and unloaded 240 cases of food donated by Feeding Hungry Children (Detroit). The children at school practically danced with joy seeing this food arrive. All told it is enough food to feed all our schools for the whole month of December.

Once the bus was unloaded it was put directly to work hauling children back and froth to and from school. The building is packed with children both morning (Primary School) and afternoon (Secondary School). Every classroom is full and already there is need for more benches. Having a bus to help transport students is a definite plus and I’d like to get another one over to Haiti so we can have separate north and south routes. But the bottom line is that the parents esteem Grande Godet as one of the best schools in the area and want to send their children there for the quality education they will receive. Keep Damil in your prayers as he adjusts to the realities of this many students on the grounds.

I managed to get up to Fonde Baptiste with a group Bettie had in. It was obvious that they hadn’t let any moss grow under their feet over the summer. The school was packed with kids as usual. They had built a wing onto the main facility, one room to function as their new secondary school and another room to serve as a kitchen. I was glad to see the secondary school in operation. So many children from the mountains have no place to go after graduating from Primary School. If they have a knack for education and want to go on they must move out of the area and attend a Secondary School down along the Highway somewhere. This practice is detrimental to the health of the community, forcing some of its best talent away from the area. I need to thank Shirley Craig and Apopka AOG for their continued support of the Fonde Baptiste School. I hope you can come visit some day soon.

New addition onto the Fonde Baptiste School - left of the red mark

While Bettie’s group was busy fitting shoes on the children I picked out a class and had some special fun. I had arrived with 25 View Masters courtesy of a Calvary CRC Sunday School project. You know what a View Master is right? You hold them to your eyes and click through an assortment of pictures that jump out at you in 3D. I passed them out and gave a brief demonstration. The oohs and aahs that followed were priceless. You can view a short video I shot of this at: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4872652496468706565

The road going up to Fonde Baptiste was awesome. A lot of the relief money we received went to the Fonde Baptiste area to assist the people rebuilding the road. The storms that ravaged Haiti from mid August through mid-September took a terrible toll on the Fonde Baptiste area. So many houses were damaged or destroyed, hundreds. Dozens of people were killed. Most of the crops and livestock were lost. It was corn harvest season and I only saw one person bringing in anything. The relief money we sent up was used to rebuild the roads. I saw this as threefold. 1. Help get economy to these people so they could rebuild their lives. 2. Rebuild the roads so supplies could get in and out. 3. Bring the people together to better assess their needs. It had a huge impact on the area and truly helped the communities get back on their feet. And the road, oh the road, it was sweet. I haven’t seen it that sweet since the 80’s!

While I was up there I took a walk over to the hospital. Yes, there is a hospital up there. Sharon Etheridge started it ten or twenty years ago. The clouds were rolling in as I approached, the place looked like whale bones jutting out of the surf. She was never able to finish the construction. I know she would not abandon Fonde Baptiste so I’m assuming she just couldn’t make the trip anymore. Anyway, I hate to see it sitting there neglected as it is. If anyone knows where Sharon is please tell her I’d like to talk to her about taking that project over and completing it.

Above: We hired over 1,000 road workers to clean up after the storms. This was a good project aimed at helping communities get back on their feet.

<<< Much of the harvest was lost in the storms. This was the only person I saw “putting up” corn in the FB area.

Oh, did I mention that Bettie took the trip up with us. It was the first time she had been there in 20 years. Pastor Morvan was so thrilled to see her, he was like a little kid on Christmas!

The roads to Evwa and Doco got a facelift too. The biggest news though is LaKoline, of all the communities in the Chain Mattheaux Mountains, LaKoline was the worse hit. Hundreds of homes were damaged or totally destroyed and a dozen people were killed. Today, many people are living in remnants of what’s left of their houses. Rusty tin roofing and thatch are stacked and piled to provide at least some shelter from the elements. It is sad to see some of the makeshift shelters these people are living in. Of the relief money that went into this area some was distributed outright just to help the community over the hump but most went to repairing the road. The people of LaKoline took it a step further and actually built a new road all the way into the village (or so I’m told). Previously we had to drive to the top of a mountain and walk an excruciating, snaking path down to the school, and then climb back out. I can’t wait to get back there to see for myself if this could really be true, a road all the way in. That would be a huge blessing for all of us.

Above: Makeshift shelter/LaKoline

<<< Road work/LaKoline

To celebrate New Year’s, the biggest holiday in Haiti, we’ll be taking in a bunch of school supplies and goodies which were provided by our friends at Castrocopia. They have been such a blessing to us recently. They’ve adopted the new preschool Noicius started there this year, 30 new kids, and helped “load the bus” with blessings for these children!

Unfortunately our schools in the Artibonite, Savannah au Roche and Gadere, continue to struggle. Lacking sufficient support to construct decent facilities, school enrollment is on the decline. This is in part due to the fact that the Haitian Government has instituted a pilot project to bolster its schools in the Artibonite. They are offering free tuition, books and even feeding programs. We are looking at how we can revive our efforts there and continue to provide Christian education in this area where voodoo is so widespread.

Though Haiti overall is struggling with major economic issues as a result of the recent disasters, I couldn’t help but come away with a sense of optimism for our projects and programs. I noticed that the areas we serve, though battered and torn, were springing back with surprising results. I think this is a result of our investments in these communities, the fact that they are organized and consistent in cooperative effort. I believe these qualities will serve them well as we begin to shift our organizational focus from relief to sustainable development. I continue to pray that we will be effective with our efforts to help Haiti become self-sufficient.

<<< Secondary class at Grande Godet

Messy thieves rifled through everything in the bus >>>