Haiti 2009
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
You might wonder what I’m doing in Haiti when there haven’t been any storms
yet this year? While it’s been calm this year, last year was a very different
story. Haiti was hit by three hurricanes in two weeks, one of them making a
direct hit in Mayette, the area that we visited.
Our church supports Patrick and Barb Lataillade and Living Water of Haiti
Ministry. Patrick is Haitian and oversees five Calvary Chapels, all located in
remote areas of Haiti, places where there were no Christian churches before the
five churches were planted. All of the churches have native pastors and four of
them also provide a Christian school to their village’s children.
After the storms hit last year, Jim Burke and Joe Welch from our church, visited
the area. It was devastated. What normally takes 5-9 hours of travel, took over
24 hours. Roads had become riverbeds and riverbeds became avenues for large
boulders to small rocks and flood waters to come down the mountains to the
ocean. Mayette is on the ocean. There is no communication in Mayette, though
cell towers are beginning to show up. They had no warning of any storms heading
their way.
They saw many needs, but also saw how Patrick and Living Word of Haiti were
quickly responding to help the people out.
Patrick, the locals and many visiting work groups have spent many years building
a compound in Mayette. Currently there is the pastor’s home, an old building
with a thatched roof that used to house the church and currently is used for
storage and a work area, a school building which also houses Pastor Gary’s office
(the local pastor), a two story building with a medical clinic on the first floor and
three large rooms with a covered porch area on the second floor, a couple of
shower and toilet areas and the newest addition, the conference center/new
church building.
Patrick’s vision is not only to train the five pastors in these churches to teach the
whole counsel of God by going verse by verse through the Bible, but to reach all
the Christian pastors and leaders in Haiti. He has been speaking and teaching
for many years in many areas in Haiti as invited.
His vision to build the conference center has finally come to an end with our
visit. We were able to wire and install a sound and projection system in the
building. We also needed to re-wire the building as the original electrician from
Port au Prince was a little confused in the way he switched things and wired
outlets together. It was quite a project, but the Lord was good and we were able
to finish all that was needed before heading out.
While I was working on the conference center with a local, Enoch, who is a
member of CC Mayette and the new electrician (!), the rest of our crew, Jim,
Emily, Keith and John, along with several locals, put the finishing touches on 90
new school desks for the school. Since their visit last year Joe felt led to build
new desks for the school. They began raising funds and materials and together
with many people from CC Sarasota, cut and prepared all the materials. They
then packed them along with the sound equipment and shipped everything to
Patrick in Haiti.
Joe led the first team down a week before we arrived. The team consisted of
none other than Chuckles (I’m sure he was a pleasant addition especially at
night), another John and our John also came with them and stayed two weeks.
They were able to get the majority of the desks put together and left the painting
and sanding to our team as well as installing the tops with chains. Our team ran
out of paint so some of the desks didn’t get the second coat and Patrick has
promised to get that finished in the next week or so. They were then able to
build a table for the sound and computer equipment and Keith and John also tried
to fix a few electrical devices in the compound. All in all it was an awesome two
weeks for the two teams!
I can’t speak for the rest of the team members, but I was really able to get to
know some of the guys as we worked hand in hand. Patrick doesn’t want large
teams coming in and doing all the work, instead he prefers that smaller teams
come in and work alongside the locals. This not only allows them to make a little
money, but it also encourages interaction and discipleship, even though we speak
different languages. Through the Lord we were able to minister to and encourage
in the Lord those we worked alongside. We instantly bonded and it was a sad
time to leave. They all asked when would we return, but only God knows if and
when.
I was able to talk to Patrick and Pastor Gary in Mayette about all that goes on in
Haiti as far as Living Word is concerned. The Mayette church has at least 80
people who show up every Sunday. The other churches range in size. Gary has
pastured this church for over 10 years; he was 22 when it started with just a
handful of people. Gary didn’t know Patrick at the time, but had heard him
speak so enlisted his help. Patrick just kept telling him to preach the Word, and
that’s what he’s done and the church and more importantly the people in the
church have grown!
The school has over 150 kids who attend! It was their two month summer break
when we were there, but that didn’t stop CC Mayette from reaching out to the
kids in this poor village. Monday through Friday this month they are feeding the
kids lunch. Out of nowhere about 75 or so kids show up with bowls and eating
utensils to get the only decent meal they’ll get that day. It might not seem like a
lot to us, but it is an awesome treat for them. They work with Christian Aid to
bring nourishment to the body while CC Mayette helps nourish their souls!
The clinic used to only be open when teams would bring in medical teams as our
church has done a few times. One of the local church members was called by God
to go to nursing school and has since returned. She now works full time at the
clinic providing year round medical facilities to Mayette and the surrounding
villages. One more way God has used Living Waters and CC Mayette to minister
to the locals while sharing the love of Jesus with them. They truly are Jesus’
hands and feet as they Do What Jesus Did!!
Patrick had already had their first pastor’s conference before we came in and
over 240 Haitian pastors and leaders attended. It was a great time and blessing to
all. Now that the sound system is hooked up, they are in need of a CD/CD-ROM
recorder and duplicator so that they can record the teachings to send with the
pastor’s when they leave. It isn’t often that they have the opportunity to hear
teaching like they get here and they have no other resources once they get
home. They also bring in good Bible teachers from time to time to help with the
conferences, which is always a treat for them!
The biggest need they have is electricity and internet. Electricity, phone and
internet are not available in the area, nor or there any plans to bring the
infrastructure to them anytime soon. Currently they are using a small diesel
generator to power the compound, which barely puts out 100 volts, is loud and
very inefficient. Through a series of extension cords, power is run to the school,
church/conference center, clinic and Pastor Gary’s home. They use inverters and
batteries to keep power as long as they can. They desire to have a much larger
diesel generator that will be permanently installed, at least 12kw; something like
an Onan would be nice! They also need satellite internet service. With this they
can not only stay on top of what’s going on around the world such as the weather
and tracking tropical storms, but they can also use Skype to communicate as
needed.
If you are interested in helping out with any of the above needs, please contact us
or CC Sarasota for more information and remember to keep the people and the
ministry in your prayers, as Patrick once put it, the Haitians are a very religious
people, over 90% of them, but also over 90% of them practice some type of
voodoo! It is a poor and dark country that needs the love of Jesus!
Thanks to all of you who prayed for us and continue to keep us in your prayers,
our trip was a huge success from what we can already see and we pray that what
we did would be a vessel that brings many into the kingdom for years to come.
yet this year? While it’s been calm this year, last year was a very different
story. Haiti was hit by three hurricanes in two weeks, one of them making a
direct hit in Mayette, the area that we visited.
Our church supports Patrick and Barb Lataillade and Living Water of Haiti
Ministry. Patrick is Haitian and oversees five Calvary Chapels, all located in
remote areas of Haiti, places where there were no Christian churches before the
five churches were planted. All of the churches have native pastors and four of
them also provide a Christian school to their village’s children.
After the storms hit last year, Jim Burke and Joe Welch from our church, visited
the area. It was devastated. What normally takes 5-9 hours of travel, took over
24 hours. Roads had become riverbeds and riverbeds became avenues for large
boulders to small rocks and flood waters to come down the mountains to the
ocean. Mayette is on the ocean. There is no communication in Mayette, though
cell towers are beginning to show up. They had no warning of any storms heading
their way.
They saw many needs, but also saw how Patrick and Living Word of Haiti were
quickly responding to help the people out.
Patrick, the locals and many visiting work groups have spent many years building
a compound in Mayette. Currently there is the pastor’s home, an old building
with a thatched roof that used to house the church and currently is used for
storage and a work area, a school building which also houses Pastor Gary’s office
(the local pastor), a two story building with a medical clinic on the first floor and
three large rooms with a covered porch area on the second floor, a couple of
shower and toilet areas and the newest addition, the conference center/new
church building.
Patrick’s vision is not only to train the five pastors in these churches to teach the
whole counsel of God by going verse by verse through the Bible, but to reach all
the Christian pastors and leaders in Haiti. He has been speaking and teaching
for many years in many areas in Haiti as invited.
His vision to build the conference center has finally come to an end with our
visit. We were able to wire and install a sound and projection system in the
building. We also needed to re-wire the building as the original electrician from
Port au Prince was a little confused in the way he switched things and wired
outlets together. It was quite a project, but the Lord was good and we were able
to finish all that was needed before heading out.
While I was working on the conference center with a local, Enoch, who is a
member of CC Mayette and the new electrician (!), the rest of our crew, Jim,
Emily, Keith and John, along with several locals, put the finishing touches on 90
new school desks for the school. Since their visit last year Joe felt led to build
new desks for the school. They began raising funds and materials and together
with many people from CC Sarasota, cut and prepared all the materials. They
then packed them along with the sound equipment and shipped everything to
Patrick in Haiti.
Joe led the first team down a week before we arrived. The team consisted of
none other than Chuckles (I’m sure he was a pleasant addition especially at
night), another John and our John also came with them and stayed two weeks.
They were able to get the majority of the desks put together and left the painting
and sanding to our team as well as installing the tops with chains. Our team ran
out of paint so some of the desks didn’t get the second coat and Patrick has
promised to get that finished in the next week or so. They were then able to
build a table for the sound and computer equipment and Keith and John also tried
to fix a few electrical devices in the compound. All in all it was an awesome two
weeks for the two teams!
I can’t speak for the rest of the team members, but I was really able to get to
know some of the guys as we worked hand in hand. Patrick doesn’t want large
teams coming in and doing all the work, instead he prefers that smaller teams
come in and work alongside the locals. This not only allows them to make a little
money, but it also encourages interaction and discipleship, even though we speak
different languages. Through the Lord we were able to minister to and encourage
in the Lord those we worked alongside. We instantly bonded and it was a sad
time to leave. They all asked when would we return, but only God knows if and
when.
I was able to talk to Patrick and Pastor Gary in Mayette about all that goes on in
Haiti as far as Living Word is concerned. The Mayette church has at least 80
people who show up every Sunday. The other churches range in size. Gary has
pastured this church for over 10 years; he was 22 when it started with just a
handful of people. Gary didn’t know Patrick at the time, but had heard him
speak so enlisted his help. Patrick just kept telling him to preach the Word, and
that’s what he’s done and the church and more importantly the people in the
church have grown!
The school has over 150 kids who attend! It was their two month summer break
when we were there, but that didn’t stop CC Mayette from reaching out to the
kids in this poor village. Monday through Friday this month they are feeding the
kids lunch. Out of nowhere about 75 or so kids show up with bowls and eating
utensils to get the only decent meal they’ll get that day. It might not seem like a
lot to us, but it is an awesome treat for them. They work with Christian Aid to
bring nourishment to the body while CC Mayette helps nourish their souls!
The clinic used to only be open when teams would bring in medical teams as our
church has done a few times. One of the local church members was called by God
to go to nursing school and has since returned. She now works full time at the
clinic providing year round medical facilities to Mayette and the surrounding
villages. One more way God has used Living Waters and CC Mayette to minister
to the locals while sharing the love of Jesus with them. They truly are Jesus’
hands and feet as they Do What Jesus Did!!
Patrick had already had their first pastor’s conference before we came in and
over 240 Haitian pastors and leaders attended. It was a great time and blessing to
all. Now that the sound system is hooked up, they are in need of a CD/CD-ROM
recorder and duplicator so that they can record the teachings to send with the
pastor’s when they leave. It isn’t often that they have the opportunity to hear
teaching like they get here and they have no other resources once they get
home. They also bring in good Bible teachers from time to time to help with the
conferences, which is always a treat for them!
The biggest need they have is electricity and internet. Electricity, phone and
internet are not available in the area, nor or there any plans to bring the
infrastructure to them anytime soon. Currently they are using a small diesel
generator to power the compound, which barely puts out 100 volts, is loud and
very inefficient. Through a series of extension cords, power is run to the school,
church/conference center, clinic and Pastor Gary’s home. They use inverters and
batteries to keep power as long as they can. They desire to have a much larger
diesel generator that will be permanently installed, at least 12kw; something like
an Onan would be nice! They also need satellite internet service. With this they
can not only stay on top of what’s going on around the world such as the weather
and tracking tropical storms, but they can also use Skype to communicate as
needed.
If you are interested in helping out with any of the above needs, please contact us
or CC Sarasota for more information and remember to keep the people and the
ministry in your prayers, as Patrick once put it, the Haitians are a very religious
people, over 90% of them, but also over 90% of them practice some type of
voodoo! It is a poor and dark country that needs the love of Jesus!
Thanks to all of you who prayed for us and continue to keep us in your prayers,
our trip was a huge success from what we can already see and we pray that what
we did would be a vessel that brings many into the kingdom for years to come.
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the
darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. Isaiah 58:10
darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. Isaiah 58:10
