Exciting things happening at Carries!

Take a look at the Monarch Queen that has been bringing our things to Haiti from Florida.

Monday evening the Monarch Queen arrived from Riviera Beach, Florida carrying some very special merchandise for our ministry. There is a 40ft. shipping container which belongs to us with all its contents to continue helping with the earthquake relief. There is also a New Holland backhoe ready to transform our mission compound into what God is preparing it to be. We are EXCITED about these things. We were able to make the trip to St. Marc but not until Wednesday because their is a gas shortage in the country. We don't know the and's, if's, or why's about it. All we know is that it is next to impossible to find it. We did finally find it and we were VERY EXCITED to get to pay $12.65 U. S. to have one gallon of gas. We were fortunate to find two gallons. One for the welder generator and one to get us back home from St.Marc after looking at our container and backhoe that we were EXCITED to see, even from a distance. We are very EXCITED for people praying for us so that gas would get back to it's normal $5 U.S. Pray that we are able to find more gas soon and that we can find it in the pumps again. We are EXCITED that the paperwork is underway and Lord willing, we will have the container and backhoe in our possession soon, well, you know as soon goes in Haiti!

We are EXCITED that for our first full, five day week of school we had 99 or 100 in attendance every day. We are EXCITED that Wilckly is working hard to get the building we are putting up covered with tin and plywood as quick as possible. We are anxious to get the kids up out of the dirt and out from under the hot tarps. We are EXCITED that they have adapted to the adverse conditions without much problem. Shaina and I were EXCITED to have the children who have sponsors write thank you letters to the sponsors who made it possible for them to attend school. The kids were EXCITED to get their pictures taken to send to their sponsors. The children were more than EXCITED that on Friday, after chapel, they all received an MRE meal to take home, all 100 of them and the teachers, too.

We are EXCITED every time we remember what wonderful supporters we have! We are thankful for your faithfulness to the Lord and to Blessing Hearts International and its ministry in Haiti. We are EXCITED about the day the Lord lays it on your heart to come and visit the ministry in Haiti that you support and are such a necessary part of. Praise God for you. We are EXCITED for the day when Jesus returns and our work on earth is through! What a day of rejoicing that will be! Maranatha!

Wow! Great News! The forty foot container AND the backhoe are sailing on the Monarch Queen over the ocean waters on their way to us in Haiti! We are so excited about all of this and everyone who worked so hard to make it possible! You will definitely see pictures as those things arrive at our property. Please pray that it would arrive in Haiti on Monday, Lord willing and that we would be able to get it out a lot quicker than the first container. God is good...all the time!

We continue to find challenges in ministry and tons of opportunities to serve. We hope that is an indication that we are doing something right. If the devil would go to so much trouble to discourage us in the work then hopefully that means he is feeling that our work is a threat to his plan to keep everyone from discovering how wonderful Jesus is!

It seems the week has gone by quickly and Shaina, Wilckly and I are wondering what we have done. We decided to start with thinking of what we did each day.

SUNDAY - Went to participate in the first day of a new church that is now part of our ministry. The new location is called Katipin. A man called Pakonte which means either, don't count on me or I don't count, decided he needed the Lord to change his life. The next thing we know he has helped our preacher, Pasteur Jilmiste, find a piece of open ground to rent. They cleared the land during the week and put up a few bamboo poles, hung some blankets and sheets for walls and shade from the sun and made a few makeshift benches of very short sticks with narrow pieces of wood laid across them. It seems there were several people of the area, very anxious to have a place to worship that wasn't several miles walk from their home. So, because a man who doesn't count to the world decided he wanted to count for Jesus, a new chuch exists at Katipin, the Berea Christian church of Katipin.

I know, I know. You are thinking this is all wrong. There was no strategic planning. There was no one to scout out the area to see how many are unchurched. There was no committee to decide what the pews would be made of or if they would be the padded kind or the chairs that hook together and can be moved in case of big events and extra space needed by removing them. There was no pulpit committee to chose the preacher they wanted or felt would best minister in this situation. This was raw, plain and simple. There was a need for a church where this man could worship with the body of believers. He took the initiative. He set about to find a way to make it happen. Blessing Hearts International was able to provide the preacher who would be committed to sharing with this congregation and helping these people grow spiritually.

We arrived late of course, because they told us we could drive to it. After about an hour of driving down a narrowing cow path to the point that it was impossible for the truck to pass... we turned around. We backtracked and we were not happy. Arriving at the main road the preacher told us that it was just a little farther off the beaten path which we were not willing to go down at this point. The preacher was sick at the thought of preparing for us to be there and this being the very first Sunday and we weren't even going to show up. He said whatever you decide Pasteur Wilckly, it's okay by me. Wilckly and I looked at each other and I said, " Well, we've come this far and they are waiting for us." We drove a little off the beaten path and parked the truck. We got out and we started to walk. They told us it wasn't far and there was no way I believed that. They said it was only about 15 minutes walk to the church. We had brought boxes of food to share with them. We also had a huge box with a tarp in it for them to cover the church. Two men carried it a short distance. Then one of them stopped and put the huge box on top of his head and carried it down the narrow path. We followed them, backpacks in tow and our own meal in our bag in case the short distance turned out to be an eternity away, which has been known to happen. I was losing faith quickly that we would even get there in 15 hours when a group of people, dressed in their Sunday best, appeared on the horizon, running to meet us and greet us and tell us not much further. It did end up to be only about 15 minutes walk from where we parked the truck, to my ultimate relief.

Arriving at the "church" location there were around a 100 people jammed as close together on those little makeshift benches as they could get. We worshipped and praised our God together. There behind Haiti's mountains, I was so blessed. Blessed because a man who didn't count for anything in this world had made a decision to count for the Lord. God bless Pakonte. Help him grow into a wonderful Christian leader. Of course seeing so many precious children, Shaina and I began asking them where they attend school. There were probably 4o children and not one of them told us that they attended school, NOT EVEN ONE! Do we need a school at Katipin? YES, we do. Please be praying for this to become a reality. Please pray that we would be able to open a school at Katipin. Pray that you would be able to sponsor a child so that he or she would be able to attend school in September, for the first time ever! You can make that difference in a child's life in Haiti through us, through Blessing Hearts International. Pray about it.

We came so close to turning around and going back home without ever arriving at Patipin. It seems the Lord had other things in mind. Praise God for the church at Patipin. Praise God we didn't turn around. Praise God for men like Pakonte.

NOW, THAT WAS ONLY SUNDAY!.....need I say more???

A Hard Life

Their life is not about fun. It's a hard, hard life. Children in the country and the mountains of Haiti where most of our ministry is, have a more difficult life than you or I could ever imagine. My pictures don't come close to catching the misery in the lives of most of these children. We believe they all deserve a chance to be children. Imagine being left for the day with little or no food and a three year old and a crying infant and you yourself are only six. Sadly enough this is the story for so many young children in Haiti.

Young girls, like the little one on the mule, are used to rising before sunrise, around 4:30 in the morning. They must leave early with all the produce from their garden in order to make the long walk to arrive at the market place around 7:30am. They pass the whole day in the hot sun, selling what little produce they have in order to buy a few things such as laundry soap, spices and rice to take back home. They make the long three or sometimes four hour walk back home after a long day. Many of them walk the treacherous route barefooted, trudging through mud and stepping on jagged rocks and thorns that are sometimes fatal when the wound becomes infected. This is all in a days work for them and they must be up early to do it again tomorrow to survive. Young children don't get up to get ready for school because there isn't one for miles. Where there is school, the parents can't spare all the children. One is chosen to attend school and the others must help care for the garden, go to the market and care for younger siblings. There are clothes to wash and hung out to dry over the cactus fence or rocks. The children are the driving force but if they are born it is difficult to survive. Malnutrition, tuberculosis, and many other childhood diseases seek to end the lives of these children. Many of them never receive an immunization or see a medical doctor. If they become ill they will be treated with home remedies. Many are taken to the leaf doctor and some even to the witch doctor.

It is for this reason that we feel your support of our schools in Haiti is so important. There is no other way to help them change. It is only education and coming to know Christ as their personal Savior that can change their whole life.

These are some of the children you are giving a new lease on life by supporting them for school through our sponsorship program. These are some of the children that we have convinced the parents to let us teach for a few hours each day. Putting their bright green uniform on and coming and braiding their hair with bright green and white ribbons and barrettes gives them a great sense of pride. They are thrilled to remove themselves from that other life if only for a few moments. Thank you for making a difference with Blessing Hearts International in Haiti. The children thank you and we thank you.

Please continue to pray for the children in our schools. Pray the parents would continue to send them. Pray for them to become the Christian people we need to change the country of Haiti.

School opened today, April 5th, for the first time since the earthquake. This is the day the gov't had established for schools to begin functioning again. In spite of the fact that we were no where ready for it our director and teachers were in place in the yard
at 8 this morning. The tarp was not much help in the competition to find shade from the hot sun. They were not discouraged from the task as about fifteen of the smaller students showed up. Each day a few more will come. It was quite a task in competition with the welding generator that was making a horrible noise as the men continued to weld the frame of the temporary school/church. They finally gave up around ten o'clock. Back again tomorrow bright and early. We will be ready for more students. We gave each of them an MRE ready meal to take home and they were delighted. We listened to progress the rest of the afternoon as the men used our new piece of equipment to pack down the ground inside the foundation where we will hopefully pour concrete tomorrow. We are very thankful for your help in purchasing this valuable piece of equipment. Without it we would have to rely on men with hand tools trying to pack down the ground. We are thankful to be able to do it much quicker and the guys seem to be enjoying the chance to run the new piece of equipment.



We made lots people happy sharing new shoes and flip flops brought to us in the container. The girls were dancing and twisting and all the boys were grinning from ear to ear. Even our cook, mammi Simone was part of the celebration. Thank you for giving and sharing with us.

A picture of progress...

The past two months has been a race as usuual

to satisfy the needs of everyone. The inevitable

rains are coming. This is our quickest safest

solution at this point. Our plan is to build several of them on our compound. They can used as
office, storage, housing, school, church, cafeteria,
basically anything. The cost to complete one that
13ft. x 24ft. is $10,000. We hope putting up the

of them will go more quickly but as always it will
depend on available funding. We have a larger

foundation completed, about 24ft x 45ft. This

will serve for church and school temporarily as
much more space will be needed for school. We

thank all of you who have given to make this possible. I remind you again that anything that we have in this mission has taken time. Time to aquire land. Time to meet the needs of the people. Time to truly live out Christ before them that they might accept the work we are doing with them and for them. We have built it from the ground up, starting with a little two room building with a dirt floor and a tin roof just like the natives in the area. We had an outdoor kitchen. We had to use the outhouse down the road. We had to go five miles to carry water in fifty gallon barrels. We had no electricity and we used candles and kerosine lanterns for light. Eight years later and after an earthquake we praise God that we have land to continue building and expanding his work on. We invite you to come and visit and see how you can be part of this developing and growing work in Haiti. Please pray for the backhoe loader that we have purchased that is being put on a boat in Riviera Beach, Florida. Pray that is will be on the next boat to Haiti. Dee