From the moment I arrived in Haiti, I knew the Lord had big plans for this place. Here is a little incite into what the ministry we are working with is doing! If you haven’t heard of Mission of HOPE before, check them out 🙂
Location: Titanyen, Haiti
Ministry Contact: Mission of HOPE
Types of Ministry: This month, we have done a wide variety of ministry. We’ve done everything from painting the orphanage housing, filling in holes, construction, home visits, strategic village time, etc. I was also able to go to a clinic one day and do triage!
Language: Creole. It’s a mix of French and
Wifi: $5 for an hour, $20 for a day, $50 for a week, $75 for a month. I’ve been buying about an hour every week.
Sleeping: Dorm style. We have 2 teams in each room sleeping in bunk beds.
Showers: We have running water at all times! It is so hot here during the day, we usually take showers after we get back from the work project. Sometimes twice if there is morning workout. Its wonderful.
Toilets: American style, except we still can’t flush any toilet paper.
Adventure days: Our first adventure day we drove up the dustiest road I’ve ever been on into the mountains to climb a waterfall. We had guides help us up to swim in them. The second adventure day we went on a hike up the mountain to see this beautiful view of the coast and the mountains. Next saturday we get to go to the beach!
More about Mission of HOPE:
The ministry’s reach in Haiti is so much further than I expected. Their vision statement is “As an organization following Jesus Christ, we exist to bring life transformation to every man, women, and child in Haiti”. The 3 pillars they believe in are: Church advancement, mobilization, and educational advancement.
They have an on campus orphanage that houses 60 orphans. There are 18 in the transition home (those older than 18) and 42 under 18. Some of them are orphaned because they no longer have parents; however, some are what they call “poverty orphans”. This means that their parent’s don’t have enough money or resources to take care of the child, so they come to the orphanage to live instead.
The campus also has an on campus clinic. Haitians pay $1 USD to see the Haitian doctor on campus. The only additional costs are tests or medication that MOH has to buy. Patients can receive medication that is donated to MOH for free. The reason they pay for the clinic is so they are invested in their own health. Not only do they have a clinic on site, but every week they send out mobile clinics into villages throughout Haiti.
MOH has an on campus school that teaches 2,500 students every day. There are 3 other schools in Haiti run by MOH and all four are completely Haitian run. This is where the organization really started. The US Marines said they would build an 8-room school house in Haiti if the founders of MOH would use it. The first day of class, they had 250 students show up. They noticed the first week that children weren’t able to pay attention because they were so malnourished. They bought a peanut grinder and hired a local Haitian women to grind peanuts. They put the “peanut butter” on bread and within days saw a difference. This continued, and now they provide 91,000 meals every day across the country!
North Americans can sponsor kids to go to school for $35 a month through MOH’s sponsorship program. MOH partners with 13 additional schools that receive teacher training, meals from the nutrition program and access to the MOH curriculum. Currently there are 1,100 kids within the school system that still need sponsored. Once those kids are sponsored, they can start sponsoring the 4,000 kids on the waiting list in other schools that want to partner with MOH. This month, my team has been praying that the Lord do only what He can do and ALL of those 1,100 children will be sponsored. If you would like to sponsor a child, visit http://www.mohhaiti.org/learn_sponsor. We are expecting God to show up in a big way!
Thank you everyone who has donated so far to allow me to serve the people of Haiti. It has blessed me more than I can describe!
