Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Good News!
After a difficult summer of drought and loss of food, followed by Hurricane Sandy, we have finally received some good news!
It seems nature gives Haiti too little or too much. The hurricane that cost many lives also gave much needed water to the island. The water table was dangerously low and needed a major rain event. Life is never easy in Haiti.
We were concerned over the goat farm after we learned that the area had been severely affected by the drought. Many people had to leave their homes to find food. They have begun to return, and the goat farm is thriving with the first new baby goats being born. Hallejulia!
Pastor Agones lost one boat, but the one with the new motors is safe and intact. He will be able to transport us next time we visit. We had planned a trip for November, but thought it too soon from all the issues that they have suffered with. The next trip is now planned for March. By then food production will be back to normal.
There are now several CHE trained leaders who are actively out teaching other members of the community about the basics of hygiene and community issues. This is how CHE (Community, Health and Evangelism Education) works. We train a few leaders, and they train the community.
We continue to support the teachers as much as we can. Education is the key to escaping a life of poverty. We pray that as families have jobs and earn money, they will be able to help with their childrens education. This will take a little time, but we have made great progress.
Thank you for all your wonderful support,
encouragement and prayers!
You have made a difference in the lives of these communities!
Meeting for ladies in training for micro businesses
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Pastor Agones visit in July
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Uniforms for the Village School East!
Ginger Sauter and the Village School of North Naples UMC have donated all of their used uniforms to our Haiti mission to send to Pastor Agones in Baie de Tortue. What a blessing as this will give the children more than one set of school clothing.
Thank you Village School!!!!
Pastor Joseph of the Church of God will be loading another container this month so we will be able to ship the uniforms over with him. He will make sure they go to La Gonave for Pastor Agones.
Pastor Agones is arriving here tomorrow, July 6th, for a five day visit. He will then travel on to New York where he is hoping to obtain some Rotary support to help with a school building. God is working in wonderful ways. Many hands together accomplish many things.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
More Blessings!!!
At the end of our trip in March, we arrived at Port-au-Prince airport earlier than expected. Our driver, George Bordeau, had come to pick us up in a large air conditioned van! He had been hired by a gorup of doctors, and they had allowed him to use this vehicle. He even had a policeman with him! This was great as we were giving a ride to a friend form Scotland we had met, Alan McDonnough. We had warned him the ride would be cramped and hot, and here we were riding in style! Because we had a policeman with us, we used the special middle lane of the road, and so zipped to the airport.
On arriving, who should we run into but our old friend and partner, Aunel Bellany from Miami! He was with a group from Homosassa Springs UMC who had just completed mission work on the mainland in Peit Goave. We met Janet Petro and her husband, and the rest of their group. Aunel had been telling them about our mission, and the first thing they asked was, "Can we buy some goats?" So they bought three right then and there! More of their friends and family sent money for goats until they purchased 11 goats!
Here are the mission supporters and the names they selected for their goats:
Janet and John Petro- "Julie"
George and Cary Pratt- "Magpie"
John and Joan Griffin-"Gertie"
Margaret Kruelle- "Rafiki" and "Mustafa"
Andrew and Stacy Geis-"Mortimer"
Don and Micki Archer and Paul and Cathy Hazzard were on the mission trip and gave us money in Port-au Prince airport- It is not late to name your goats!!! And your other one Janet!!
Gloria Hampton also bought two goats.
What a blessed conicidence to meet up in Haiti!!Thank you Homosassa Springs UMC for believing in our mission!!!!
Goats and Blessings!
During our trip in March we had the pleasure to stay at the Wesleyan Compound in Ansagale on la Gonave. This place was BUSY!! They have three major projects going on, all at the same time. The dormitory building on the property is almost complete, and is built to earthquake proof specificaitons. Accross the street, the hospital is getting a much needed reconstruction. And out by the airport and Pastor Agone's school, they have broken ground on a new orphange for Mme. Soleil and the children at Les Enfantes de Jesus Orphanage. This is a God send, because the existing home is vastly over crowded with almost 80 children on two floors, with no outside play area as it is on a city street. This is the group of children we hosted for a day of play down at the Wesleyan Compound. The name of the project overseeing the construction is "Okipe" which means to care for. They can be found on the web with a video of the project.
Rika Lively and I shared a room with four wonderful ladies from Pennsylvania. Althougth we only spent one night together, we bonded through much mission discussion. Janet Little, from Abundant Life Baptist Church in Washington, PA, was one of these ladies who was helping work on the building at the compound. We told of the goat farm, and of empowering the Haitians to help themselves, and create businesses to help support the school they wished to start. She liked the idea that we did not just hand out money or food.
I just received $810 from Janet and a group of her friends to buy goats!!That is 16 more goats to add to our herd!
Thank you to Janet Little and her friends from Abundant Life Baptist Church for believing in our mission. God is good!!!
Thursday, April 5, 2012
REPORT ON THE MISSION 2012
As of last July, the Church of the New Jerusalem in Ti Palmeste was finished; painted, decorated, even landscaped! They now serve 150 people each week, covering a large area in this rural community. They have started four mission churches, and they are teaching the CHE methods of community, leadership and sanitation to these other areas. CHE stands for Community, Health and Evangelism/Education, a program of Equip International designed especially for third world nations. The Bellany family formally deeded the land and house to the church to use as farm for goats and various crops including peanuts and peas. Gabriel the caretaker and head teacher, lives there with his family.
In January, the fence was being constructed, and in March it was finished. Funds for the cistern have been sent and it will be constructed this month. Funds were sent to AAPLAG to purchase 30 goats in April, a good month to purchase them. We have agreed to pay the salary for one year for a security guard to protect the goats. The cost is $65 a month. They have opened a school with 50 students with the money they made from investing in peanuts.
In January, we turned our attention to Baie deTortue and Pastor Agones Jean Jacque, a young pastor running a school for very poor kids, has become a trusted friend after our first coincidental meeting two years ago when we first began our mission on La Gonave. He has helped us up in the mountains as guide and translator, and has helped us with travel plans as well. At our first meeting he had 30 kids, poorly dressed, and the rest of the community was too poor to have the proper clothes for school. As we worked on our church and mission in Ti Palmeste, it was also put on our hearts to bring clothes to the children of Baie de Tortue. The Village School at NNUMC donated boxes and boxes of uniforms, as well as much needed underwear, which were sent by container.
This community is very poor and very uneducated. Education is supremely important to the kids and the parents if this community is too move forward. The challenge now is to pay the teachers salaries until the community can find work or start microbusinesses.
In January, John Puig was part of our team, and he is well versed in water testing and quality, and wells. After testing the ground well where the community got its water, it was discovered it was 50% salt and had fecal contamination. Children were dying from this water. Two broken wells were used to make one workable one, a closed well with low salt and no contamination. With just guidance from John, the Haitians made all the repairs themselves. They are very thankful for this water, as now they do not have to walk three miles to get potable water. We made connections and taught water conservation, stressing that water must be cherished and not a drop to be wasted. All water on an island is a gift form God, and it is not limitless.
This idea was shared at a meeting of the leaders of the island, including World Vision, Concern, PLAADIG, WISH, a judge, the head of the department of education and others. John explained the idea of the lens of fresh water that floats on top of the salt under the island. As wells become salty, this means the lens of water is shrinking. Once it is depleted completely, as has happened in the Bahamas, the only solution is an RO system, which is cost prohibitive. It can take 100 years to replenish the water supply.
In March, we held a day long kids program with food, that was enjoyed by all. Rika taught them a song about how deep, how high, how long and how wide God’s love is for us. They loved it! The next three days were spent on CHE training. The first day was understanding community and how they can work together for the common good, helping them get over the relief and hand out mentality. Using skits helped them to visualize the ideas. They then formed into groups to brainstorm and come up with their own answers to the problems they had listed. All the CHE lessons are biblically based, as we shared what the Bible says about these issues. In Acts2:42 Christ’s followers ate, studied, prayed and fellowshipped together, and in Acts 4:32 they provided for the needs of each other. Psalm 82:3 says to provide for the weak and maintain the rights of the afflicted. God’s view of man and community is shown in Genesis 1:26; Man is made in God’s image and likeness, so all have value and worth. Romans 4:25 says God delivered us, and all men have worth and love. 1 Corinthians 12:12-16 tells us that we are all part of one body and cannot function with out each other.
The second day was all about leadership and what makes a bad or good leader. Philippians 2:6-8 describes Jesus as humble, a servant leader who gave up his rights, and in Matthew 10:16-22 he realtically prepared his people and taught them to depend upon God, to stand firm and have hope for the future. Mark 3:13-16 shows us how to develop organization, delegate authority and carefully select your team. Don’t go it alone, prepare and train your trusted team.
The play “Crossing the Water” really explained how missionaries are here only a short while and cannot “carry” or do everything for them. The real answer is for the missionary to train Haitians, and for them to train each other. This is the basis of CHE. We helped correct many misconceptions they had about paying for school. They thought Pastor Agones was getting all the money he needed from friends in the U.S. We corrected that misinformation, explaining we are not rich with endless supplies of money. We also explained that here everyone supports education, whether they have children or not. It is a communities obligation. They must take ownership of their childrens’ education, as it is the only way out of the grinding poverty. Too many of these children are hungry, often to the point that they cannot even attend school.
The people of Baie de Tortue are now beginning to feel empowered to help themselves and to know that they can change their community. This is where we will need to return and reinforce these ideas and continue the education process.
We paid the teachers two months salary, for which they were very grateful. This is one of the areas of need right now until they become more self supporting. There are no jobs, so therefore no food. No food means no school for the kids.
Job training is one of their requests, and help with micro credit businesses. We sent $500 to fund two businesses. The micro credit is being supervised by AAPLAG (all educated Haitians) and the money will be paid back to help others get started. It is a great program, and much needed in this community.
We will continue to support Pastor Agones as he reaches out to his own home community. He grew up like these kids, very poor and without education until the age of 12, when he was fortunate enough to catch the eye of an American who saw his potential and gave him an education all the way through college and seminary!
Sally Ritter
April, 2012
In January, the fence was being constructed, and in March it was finished. Funds for the cistern have been sent and it will be constructed this month. Funds were sent to AAPLAG to purchase 30 goats in April, a good month to purchase them. We have agreed to pay the salary for one year for a security guard to protect the goats. The cost is $65 a month. They have opened a school with 50 students with the money they made from investing in peanuts.
In January, we turned our attention to Baie deTortue and Pastor Agones Jean Jacque, a young pastor running a school for very poor kids, has become a trusted friend after our first coincidental meeting two years ago when we first began our mission on La Gonave. He has helped us up in the mountains as guide and translator, and has helped us with travel plans as well. At our first meeting he had 30 kids, poorly dressed, and the rest of the community was too poor to have the proper clothes for school. As we worked on our church and mission in Ti Palmeste, it was also put on our hearts to bring clothes to the children of Baie de Tortue. The Village School at NNUMC donated boxes and boxes of uniforms, as well as much needed underwear, which were sent by container.
This community is very poor and very uneducated. Education is supremely important to the kids and the parents if this community is too move forward. The challenge now is to pay the teachers salaries until the community can find work or start microbusinesses.
In January, John Puig was part of our team, and he is well versed in water testing and quality, and wells. After testing the ground well where the community got its water, it was discovered it was 50% salt and had fecal contamination. Children were dying from this water. Two broken wells were used to make one workable one, a closed well with low salt and no contamination. With just guidance from John, the Haitians made all the repairs themselves. They are very thankful for this water, as now they do not have to walk three miles to get potable water. We made connections and taught water conservation, stressing that water must be cherished and not a drop to be wasted. All water on an island is a gift form God, and it is not limitless.
This idea was shared at a meeting of the leaders of the island, including World Vision, Concern, PLAADIG, WISH, a judge, the head of the department of education and others. John explained the idea of the lens of fresh water that floats on top of the salt under the island. As wells become salty, this means the lens of water is shrinking. Once it is depleted completely, as has happened in the Bahamas, the only solution is an RO system, which is cost prohibitive. It can take 100 years to replenish the water supply.
In March, we held a day long kids program with food, that was enjoyed by all. Rika taught them a song about how deep, how high, how long and how wide God’s love is for us. They loved it! The next three days were spent on CHE training. The first day was understanding community and how they can work together for the common good, helping them get over the relief and hand out mentality. Using skits helped them to visualize the ideas. They then formed into groups to brainstorm and come up with their own answers to the problems they had listed. All the CHE lessons are biblically based, as we shared what the Bible says about these issues. In Acts2:42 Christ’s followers ate, studied, prayed and fellowshipped together, and in Acts 4:32 they provided for the needs of each other. Psalm 82:3 says to provide for the weak and maintain the rights of the afflicted. God’s view of man and community is shown in Genesis 1:26; Man is made in God’s image and likeness, so all have value and worth. Romans 4:25 says God delivered us, and all men have worth and love. 1 Corinthians 12:12-16 tells us that we are all part of one body and cannot function with out each other.
The second day was all about leadership and what makes a bad or good leader. Philippians 2:6-8 describes Jesus as humble, a servant leader who gave up his rights, and in Matthew 10:16-22 he realtically prepared his people and taught them to depend upon God, to stand firm and have hope for the future. Mark 3:13-16 shows us how to develop organization, delegate authority and carefully select your team. Don’t go it alone, prepare and train your trusted team.
The play “Crossing the Water” really explained how missionaries are here only a short while and cannot “carry” or do everything for them. The real answer is for the missionary to train Haitians, and for them to train each other. This is the basis of CHE. We helped correct many misconceptions they had about paying for school. They thought Pastor Agones was getting all the money he needed from friends in the U.S. We corrected that misinformation, explaining we are not rich with endless supplies of money. We also explained that here everyone supports education, whether they have children or not. It is a communities obligation. They must take ownership of their childrens’ education, as it is the only way out of the grinding poverty. Too many of these children are hungry, often to the point that they cannot even attend school.
The people of Baie de Tortue are now beginning to feel empowered to help themselves and to know that they can change their community. This is where we will need to return and reinforce these ideas and continue the education process.
We paid the teachers two months salary, for which they were very grateful. This is one of the areas of need right now until they become more self supporting. There are no jobs, so therefore no food. No food means no school for the kids.
Job training is one of their requests, and help with micro credit businesses. We sent $500 to fund two businesses. The micro credit is being supervised by AAPLAG (all educated Haitians) and the money will be paid back to help others get started. It is a great program, and much needed in this community.
We will continue to support Pastor Agones as he reaches out to his own home community. He grew up like these kids, very poor and without education until the age of 12, when he was fortunate enough to catch the eye of an American who saw his potential and gave him an education all the way through college and seminary!
Sally Ritter
April, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Sharing God's love with our Haitian brothers and sisters
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| This picture slideshow generated with Smilebox |
What an incredible week we had!!
The blessings just kept coming during our week on La Gonave. Rika Lively and Terry Hand proved very able team mates who helped impact the community of Baie de Tortue, where Pastor Agones has his school (Village School East) and church. We connected through worship on Sunday morning, music, a fun day with the kids and leadership training for 25 community leaders. Using the CHE program, Ed lead them through leadership and community training using simple dramas and teams to brainstorm. This method allows the Haitians to come up with their own answers to many community problems. We backed it all up with the Bible, showing what God's word says about community and leadership. The last day we focused on health and sanitation, the trash problem and water quality.
On Friday,we hosted 41 orphans at he Wesleyan Compound for an afternoon of soccer, frisbees and jumprope, as well as coloring and making salvation bracelets. A big pink and white cake finished off the day. Having no play area at the orphanage, they all thoroughly emjoyed being outside.
Rika Lively with some of the orphans
Learning how deep, and high and long and wide is the love of God.
Dresses made by Jessie and Seasonal Plus Circles at NNUMC.
Sunday Worship
Kids at the repaired well, glad to have a healthier water supply
On Friday,we hosted 41 orphans at he Wesleyan Compound for an afternoon of soccer, frisbees and jumprope, as well as coloring and making salvation bracelets. A big pink and white cake finished off the day. Having no play area at the orphanage, they all thoroughly emjoyed being outside.
Rika Lively with some of the orphans
Learning how deep, and high and long and wide is the love of God.
Dresses made by Jessie and Seasonal Plus Circles at NNUMC.
Kids at the repaired well, glad to have a healthier water supply
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Team gets ready for March 10th to 17th trip to LaGonave
Well, it is that time again. Time to try to stuff ten bags of stuff into eight bags. Just when it all looks perfect, I think of something else to add! AARGH! I have to stop thinking!
In the pile of stuff that used to be a bedroom, are 80 tennis balls, 10 frisbees, jumpropes, 4 soccer balls, coloring pages, crayons, candy, costumes for plays, beads, and stuffed animals. Add to that toiletries, sheets for water purification, first aid supplies, program materials, books, Bibles, Bible studies and Evangecubes.
One day will be spent with the kids at "Village School East". We will share with them the book made by the 4th and 5th graders of North Naples UMC. The plan is to make a sketch book with a page for as many children as we can,( there are 80!) including a tracing of their hand, a picture and something about them. This way our kids here can write to a specific child.
On Friday, we will host a group from Les Enfants Orphanage in Ansagale at the Wesleyan Complex where we will be staying. They are in a city building with no play area. The conditions are very overcrowded. This will be a day to run and play outside, have Bible stories and CAKE!
Monday is the day we will visit with the Church of the New Jerusalem up the mountain in Ti Palmeste. we have heard that the goat farm is finished! Complete with cistern and goat shed! Can't wait to see it.
Wednesday to Friday mornings will be spent teaching CHE (community, Health, evangelism) and working with the first group of micro businesses we are sponsoring.
Other afternoons will be spent meeting with the church council and newly formed community council to address problems with water and sanitation, and other community issues.
I will be sure to post updates as soon as we return! Prayers are welcome! We are traveling to the island by 1st century wooden sailboat, and that is always an adventure! I always expect to see Jesus on board.
Submitted by
Sally Ritter
Team: Terry Hand, Rika Lively, Ed Ritter and Sally Ritter
In the pile of stuff that used to be a bedroom, are 80 tennis balls, 10 frisbees, jumpropes, 4 soccer balls, coloring pages, crayons, candy, costumes for plays, beads, and stuffed animals. Add to that toiletries, sheets for water purification, first aid supplies, program materials, books, Bibles, Bible studies and Evangecubes.
One day will be spent with the kids at "Village School East". We will share with them the book made by the 4th and 5th graders of North Naples UMC. The plan is to make a sketch book with a page for as many children as we can,( there are 80!) including a tracing of their hand, a picture and something about them. This way our kids here can write to a specific child.
On Friday, we will host a group from Les Enfants Orphanage in Ansagale at the Wesleyan Complex where we will be staying. They are in a city building with no play area. The conditions are very overcrowded. This will be a day to run and play outside, have Bible stories and CAKE!
Monday is the day we will visit with the Church of the New Jerusalem up the mountain in Ti Palmeste. we have heard that the goat farm is finished! Complete with cistern and goat shed! Can't wait to see it.
Wednesday to Friday mornings will be spent teaching CHE (community, Health, evangelism) and working with the first group of micro businesses we are sponsoring.
Other afternoons will be spent meeting with the church council and newly formed community council to address problems with water and sanitation, and other community issues.
I will be sure to post updates as soon as we return! Prayers are welcome! We are traveling to the island by 1st century wooden sailboat, and that is always an adventure! I always expect to see Jesus on board.
Submitted by
Sally Ritter
Team: Terry Hand, Rika Lively, Ed Ritter and Sally Ritter
Friday, January 13, 2012
The January trip exceeded our expectations!!
Sally Ritter, Janice Coffey and John Puig from North Naples UMC with Debra Haley, Margie Campbell and Carol Hadley from Estero UMC accomplished a training program on health and sanitation for forty women and a day with the kids from "Village School East".
We also found that the well that the community has been using is very contaminated with bacteria and salt water. (See above) The well is an open surface well so anything on the ground would wash into it including animal waste,as you can see behind the well in the above picture.
They have two closed wells but the two pumps had quit working. When John asked if they had tried at least to make one good pump from the two, they said they had not thought of that. So with a little work they (the Haitians) took the two pumps apart and could repair one. Now they have a lot better water. The well they were using was very high in salinity, while the closed wells still have a slight salt problem, the water is far less salty and drinkable without the contamination.
In all this process, John checked other wells farther up the hill and found they too were getting salty. They also need to build troughs to take spill over water a safe distance away for the animals to drink, thus avoiding contamination.
We shared our findings with the farm cooperative we partner with (they are all Haitians from the island and have been in operation for 25 years; the leaders have all been trained overseas in South America and at Echo in the new and proper farming and fishing techniques). They were quite concerned so they put together an emergency meeting with 16 of the island's leaders including 2 government officials, the head of the organization that oversees World Vision, Concern International, Christian Services and all the other NGOs on the Island of LaGonave. They wanted us to share our findings, which I believe actually affirmed what they suspected already. They asked us what could be done and we answered that only through educating the public and strong conservation methods things could turn around. They are very grateful and want to continue to work with us to help them with this problem.
We will be returning March 10th through 17th, taking several youth from our church. It will be exciting to further this mission, as we continue with education in community development and sanitation.
Pastor Agones has a group of 15 ladies selected to start microbusinesses. The start up for each business is about $250. Once their initial debt has been repaid, more ladies and men can participate. There is a severe lack of jobs. Jobs and training were the two things they need the most, after clean water.
Thank you for all your wonderful support,encouragement and prayers!
Below is a picture of 3 year old Betchwenda Charles who survived the same illness that killed her 11 year old sister, thanks to our help in obtaining medical care. Hallejulia!
Some of the faces of Pastor Agones's school
We also found that the well that the community has been using is very contaminated with bacteria and salt water. (See above) The well is an open surface well so anything on the ground would wash into it including animal waste,as you can see behind the well in the above picture.
They have two closed wells but the two pumps had quit working. When John asked if they had tried at least to make one good pump from the two, they said they had not thought of that. So with a little work they (the Haitians) took the two pumps apart and could repair one. Now they have a lot better water. The well they were using was very high in salinity, while the closed wells still have a slight salt problem, the water is far less salty and drinkable without the contamination.
In all this process, John checked other wells farther up the hill and found they too were getting salty. They also need to build troughs to take spill over water a safe distance away for the animals to drink, thus avoiding contamination.
We shared our findings with the farm cooperative we partner with (they are all Haitians from the island and have been in operation for 25 years; the leaders have all been trained overseas in South America and at Echo in the new and proper farming and fishing techniques). They were quite concerned so they put together an emergency meeting with 16 of the island's leaders including 2 government officials, the head of the organization that oversees World Vision, Concern International, Christian Services and all the other NGOs on the Island of LaGonave. They wanted us to share our findings, which I believe actually affirmed what they suspected already. They asked us what could be done and we answered that only through educating the public and strong conservation methods things could turn around. They are very grateful and want to continue to work with us to help them with this problem.
We will be returning March 10th through 17th, taking several youth from our church. It will be exciting to further this mission, as we continue with education in community development and sanitation.
Pastor Agones has a group of 15 ladies selected to start microbusinesses. The start up for each business is about $250. Once their initial debt has been repaid, more ladies and men can participate. There is a severe lack of jobs. Jobs and training were the two things they need the most, after clean water.
Thank you for all your wonderful support,encouragement and prayers!
Below is a picture of 3 year old Betchwenda Charles who survived the same illness that killed her 11 year old sister, thanks to our help in obtaining medical care. Hallejulia!
Some of the faces of Pastor Agones's school
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