New friends and opportunities

It has taken me a while to get to this post, but I have a lot I want to share. I won't be able to get caught up on everything tonight, but at least it is a start!

I arrived in Haiti on Saturday, and Edmond picked me up at the airport. As soon as I walked in here at Sherrie’s and got my welcome hug from that amazing lady, I saw David and met two new friends who were visiting from North Dakota: Travis and John. David asked me if I was hungry, and I thought it seemed a bit early for dinner. Well the group was going out to dinner at a restaurant in Petionville just a little later. So I joined them. It was Sherrie, David, Micah, Rachel, Travis, John, Kaitlyn, and myself.  Traffic was crazy, but when we got there we were amazed at this place. It was in the city, but it looked like we had just passed over into a completely different place. It looked like a rainforest. It was beautiful! We had outside seating and they had a live band (which was a little loud since we were right by one of the speakers). I have always known that things move slower in Haiti, but this dinner experience brought slow to a new level. But it was a beautiful place with good food and amazing company! Then it started raining. Hard. I have never really been here during the rainy season, but my goodness does it pour! We got wet getting back to the truck, and speaking of the truck. We had driven the white truck which is a small, 4 door pickup with no bed cover, and it is a stick shift. So, the 8 of us crammed ourselves into the truck piled on top of each other. Sherrie somehow managed to take a picture of us, maybe because she was bent in half with part of her body riding between the two front seats. It was quite the ride! At least with all of the rain traffic was almost nonexistent coming home, but the big bumps were interesting, and sometimes painful. There is no better group to be crammed into a pickup truck with!

The next day, Saturday, I went with David, Micah, and Rachel to run some errands. They had to go to Agope Flights and I was able to arrange for another new friend, Elisabeth, to meet us there. Here is a cool connection - Elisabeth is also a friend of Ryan and Heather Forman! She went to market with us and then came back home with us. She and I walked down to the new house and I showed her around and told her about what we were going to be doing. On the ride back home she had told me about the organization she works with, KOFAEL, which provides micro loans to women who are trying to get on their feet. They have 42 women in this program now and it operates right here in Delmas 31! Elisabeth lives in St. Marc, but comes down once a month to be here for the group’s monthly meeting. The everyday details of working with this group are taken care of by this amazing Haitian couple I also had the privilege of meeting that day. Frantz and Julienne. They are engaged to be married this December and are so on fire for helping women and serving the Lord. Frantz and Julienne walked down to the house and we showed them around and shared with one another some of the passions we have for working with women. I was very impressed with them and how much they give of themselves to help others in their community.

Saturday was also the day for the monthly meeting, so the four of us walked down Delmas 31 to the location they use for their meetings. I always enjoy getting out and walking around Port Au Prince. It is so much more real to get out and walk with Haitians, buy water from someone selling on the street market, etc. The place that KOFAEL meets was very dark and crowded, and Elisabeth had mentioned that they were hoping to find a new place to meet. I told them that they are more than welcome to start using our ministry center starting in October. They were thrilled and said they had been praying for this for some time. They announced the change of location to the ladies before the end of the meeting. So the first scheduled activity in our new center will be a monthly meeting with 42 beautiful Haitian women who are working to make better lives for themselves and their families. What a wonderful beginning!!! This also gives us the opportunity to interact with these ladies to find out what else we can do to assist them on their journey. I know we are going to need volunteers to come down and help train Haitian ladies that can then train other Haitian ladies in a variety of skills that they can put to use in their lives. Building up these women in a sustainable way will also help them keep their children, many of which would otherwise have ended up in an orphanage or sent to live as a restavek. Please keep this partnership in prayer. It is a wonderful opportunity for two ministries to work together to serve the people by pooling their resources instead of duplicating efforts. The people working with KOFAEL often come across women that need assistance but don’t fall into guidelines for the micro loan program. With Hope for My Sister we will be able to take referrals of women that KOFAEL feels we can serve but they cannot. 

 

I can't wait to see what God does with these new friendships!  More to come soon!

Goodnight from Haiti!