A New House... But God has Something MORE

Once upon a time in a small Haitian community called Acassia there was a young boy who appeared to live with his mother in a house that could be blown down by the big bad wolf. For sure it could be blown down by a hurricane named Irma. The boy was named Anderson Charles and his mother, Venise. Anderson was able to go to school because of a scholarship provided by a generous family that lived in the United States. Some members of this family came to visit Anderson at his house, they met Venise, they brought some gifts to share, they could see the unstable condition of the house.

Because of the love of Jesus, the visiting family
members told Anderson and his mother that they would like to build a new house for them.

The first thing that needed to be done was to know for sure that the land the house would be built on was owned by Anderson's family. As the story goes, the land document came to Many Hands for Haiti showing the land to be in the name of Anderson's grandfather. The expectation was given that the document needed to be in Anderson's mothers name if MH were to be able to honor the wishes of the family from the United States to begin construction of the new house. A new document was presented and all seemed to be in order.

The day came, early June, for the project to finally begin. The land where the house was to be built was quite a distance from the main road. Materials for the house were delivered by truck but the truck could only get within about one half mile of the site.



MH hosted a short term mission team from Iowa at this time so the concept "many hands make light work" was practiced to get the materials up to the place where the house would be built. The 'many hands' part is accurate but the work was NOT light!


This is property with a view! Notice the team transporting block in wheelbarrows at the base of the mountain.

The first thing that needed to be carried were 20 inch concrete block. One block carried by a person was a load, and at most, three in a wheelbarrow. With one-mile round trips in the mid-day June sun, water was a lifesaver!


There was also sand and gravel to transport by wheelbarrow.  Load after load, the team pressed on.

Anderson, pictured above and below far left, was working alongside the team. There were several young boys from the neighborhood working hard too. Also volunteering were three Haitian men, friends of Many Hands, who came to Acassia with the team. One is Kaiman in the orange t-shirt.

Probably without the three men the team would not have been able to carry out the task. The men were able to maneuver the wheelbarrows full of sand along the winding path leading up to the site of the new house. More than one thousand concrete blocks were needed.

Anderson kept working up to the last 'mile round trip' of the afternoon. All the block reached the building site and about half of the gravel and sand. The team was hot, tired, thirsty, and hungry.

                                                                       What a day it was!

                                      There were snacks and drinks for the neighbor boys that helped.

With the building materials finally on site, in the days to come, the mason crew made progress.

                                                                      Old house, New house

The land of Acassia has a reputation of being a community without order, lacking good leadership. Many Hands has a history there and knows this to be true. During the process of the house being built challenges arose. Water drums and wheelbarrows were stolen.

Entering the story is the man pictured below in the green shirt. His name is Gilne. He is not Anderson's father but the father of two other children with Anderson's mother. It seemed the new house would be home for five people now. Also pictured below is another friend of Many Hands, Woodson. He is reading a message that was sent from the sponsoring family to the family which was soon to be living in a new house.

In this message to Anderson's family, the sponsor indicates she has been praying for the house being built and as she has been doing that she said some spiritual parallels came to mind. She says to the family in the message, "I am praying that Christ will be your firm foundation and the cornerstone of this house and your lives. I am praying Psalm 91 over you and all those working on building the house. Psalm 91 says, 'if you make the Most High your dwelling, then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. For He will command His angels concerning you to keep you in all your ways. They will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot upon a stone...' " The sponsor continues in the message saying, "And just as you will soon be living in a new home, I am praying you will invite Christ to make a home in your hearts."

MH friend, Woodson, translated these words into Creole for the family to hear as we met with them, brought a few house warming gifts, and prayed together to dedicate their new home to Christ.

The sponsor concluded the message by expressing what a special time this is for Anderson's family and thanking MH for making their desire for Anderson to live in a safe home a reality and that they are eagerly looking forward to returning and seeing the completed house and family.

Such love! A love that could only come out of the love that Our Father has for His children.

The saga continues MH Project leader learned that some of the block and rebar that were needed to complete the project had been sold. And still further into the story, it was learned that Gilne had been imprisoned for five days; they needed money so he could be released.

And the story continues when a few weeks later MH Project leader visited the house expecting to find the family settled and safely living in the new home. This was not the case. The doors and windows to the house were locked up tight with no one living inside. With more investigation into this twisted story we find a technical detail that created another problem to the ongoing saga. Anderson's grandfather had put the land in Anderson's name. The grandfather did not approve of Gilne living in the same house as his grandson so had forced them all out of the house and said when Anderson was grown, then he could live in the house.

OH DEAR LORD! What should we do? MH Chaplains and MH Project leader planned a visit with the grandfather and with Anderson's mother. Through these conversations it was determined that there are deep, deep broken relationships between family members, between Gilne and others, between everyone involved and Jesus Christ. No solution was found as to how this house would be inhabited but it was determined that letting God's love work through all these trials was the only way. The MH Chaplains will meet with the family from time to time, talking about the love they can find in Jesus and praying for reconcilitation to be started in all these places.

Rather than be upset and disappointed to think that all this money and time and effort was spent for NO reason at all, MH chooses to see this from a God perspective. If it took this project of a new, safe home for a sweet, school age child to uncover deeper problems, we can accept that this is sometimes how God works.

MH Chaplains would not have had a 'foot in the door' without this new house to 'open that door.'

God's story continues as we read on in Psalm 91, "If you'll hold on to me for dear life," says God, "I'll get you out of any trouble, I'll give you the best of care if you'll only get to know and trust me. Call me and I'll answer, be at your side in bad times; I'll rescue you, then throw you a party. I'll give you a long life, give you a long drink of salvation!"




These words are for each of us. Often our life story gets twisted and may seem to be so complex that it feels as if there is no way OUT.  When this happens, use this example to know sometimes God may have something more for you to discover and that the way OUT is to turn to God's word and allow the counsel of wise people to help sort out a mess.  

Discover Salvation through believing that Jesus Christ died for YOU, Anderson, and for YOU Venise, and for YOU Gilne, and for YOU... and for ME... each one has the WAY to live happily ever after with JESUS.
Discover it if you haven't already, or remind yourself of it, or help someone else through a twisted life story to discover it.                  

God says He will throw a party!💖😄

Mango season

                                                            Many Hands for Haiti Campus

It's Mango season! For rural Haiti, this is known as the time of year when no one goes hungry. In the Central Plateau where Many Hands for Haiti campus is located there are numerous varieties of sweet, juicy mangoes to 'pick' from. OR, if you use the traditional Haitian method of obtaining mangoes, there are many varieties to 'throw a rock at' to get it from the tree, into your hand, into your mouth.

             Picking mangoes with an apple picker basket on the end of a LONG piece of Bamboo

Last week, we waited for the Missionary Flights International plane to arrive at the Pignon grass airstrip with a team of college students that were saying goodbye after a week of mission service with MH. The wait was longer than anticipated due to a delay in Port au Prince because the recently elected Haitian president was in transit.

While we waited there was time to enjoy one last delicious mango, or two, picked directly from the tree. The team marveled at this beautiful experience.
We wondered how many airports there are that could offer fresh picked mangoes right on the airstrip while passengers prepare for departure.
We concluded that this is the best airport in the world.

            Even a PET cart turns into an off road vehicle to travel on the roads during rainy season.

Jobs are scarce in Haiti no matter what the season but rainy season does provide an interesting job that needs to be done. The historic Citadel just outside of Milot, Haiti is the location. The job is scraping lichen off the brick and rock fortress walls, inside and out. Shown here a ladder is achored with 2 cannon balls.

                                                                   It is precarious work!

               

                     The moist, humid air is the perfect environment to produce these vivid colors

Many people must take resources they have and pair that up with an entrepreneurial approach.         "Kokoye", coconuts, and a macheti provide this young man with a bit of income.

With a macheti, the top of the coconut is 'whacked' off to create just the perfect opening from which to drink the coconut water inside. We have heard this liquid referred to as nature's Gatorade.

After the water has been drank the second step is to 'chop' the coconut in half, slice off a portion of the shell for a spoon, and procede to scoop the 'meat' to reap the remaining nutrutional benefit of the coconut. MH Chaplain, Pastor Lumanes, demonstrates the technique. Just another aspect of a cultural day trip to the Citadel.

A recent visit to Anglen, the woman who was pronounced dead and then reappeared after 2 years, 

provided her family with a gift of food and a time for a prayer of encouragement. She looks physically more healthy but we could see signs of a troubled woman, emotionally and mentally. She had some things to say but she did not want her family members and others that were in the yard at the time to hear. She was very welcoming to our American team but was visibly resistant to the Haitian people. 

This is understandable given her story of all she has experienced in the past. She invited Pastor Lumanes to visit one day soon to talk. 

        

The last Sunday of May is Mother's Day, "Bon Fet Manman".  Mothers at church Sunday morning were honored with a special song and a small gift: a ribbon pinned like a corsage along with a package of cookies wrapped in white paper and a piece of candy. 

A group of young people brought a Mother's Day gift to MH Campus Sunday afternoon. The basket contained six pineapples and three coconuts. The gift also included singing two special songs with a Mother's theme. 

A very special Mother's Day meal was delivered to this elderly couple. Their grandson helps care for them. As they saw the gift come into the yard they sat down right where they had been standing and quickly, desperately, unwrapped the food and began to divide everything 3 ways. Heartbreaking, yet what a pleasure to have the privilege of sharing such a simple gift that was recieved with such gratitude. This in itself was a treasured Mother's Day gift for the hands that delivered it. Thank you, Lord.

MH Head Security, Kalo, asked first thing one morning, "Tout bagay anfom?",  
Is everything OK? That morning the answer was realistic. NO, not everything is OK because           Satan is working very hard all day every day, creating challenges, causing trouble, using                   deception, causing doubt, fostering jealousy, taking pride and using it for his gain, stealing the focus that MUST remain on JESUS as the one and only thing that can fill lives with confidence, joy, LOVE.  

We MUST encourage each other for the sake of Jesus to remain steadfast and diligent in what God has called each of us to do. This is for family, friends, co-workers, co-workers at MH and acquaintences. Jesus light shines!       Can you see it?

The end of a beautiful day where Jesus shines light in the darkness.  

He, in turn, asks us to shine light in the darkness. 

Please take these words from 2 Thessalonians 1 as encouragement from God right where you are today, right where your challenges and persecution lie. These are words for each believer to hold on to every day when Satan shows himself.

Greetings from Paul

This letter is from Paul, Silas, and Timothy. We are writing to the church in Thessalonica, to you who belong to God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

Dear brothers and sisters, we can't help but thank God for you, because your faith is flourishing and your love for one another is growing. We proudly tell God's other churches about your endourance and faithfulness in all the persecutions and hardships you are suffering. And God will use this persecution to show his justice and to make you worthy of his Kingdom, for which you are suffering. In his justice he will pay back those who persecute you.

And God will provide rest for you who are being persecuted and also for us when the Lord Jesus appears from Heaven. He will come with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who don't know God and on those who refuse to obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with eternal destruction, forever separated from the Lord and from his glorious power. When he comes on that day, he will receive glory from his holy people - praise from all who believe. And this includes you, for you believed what we told you about him.

So we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do. Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored because of the way you live, and you will be honored along with him. This is all made possible because of the grace of our God and Lord, Jesus Christ.

2 Thessalonians 1:1-12 New Living Translation

Hard reality

Recently a doctor was examining a young boy that was referred to him who lives in a nearby village called Jean Brule. The boy had an abcess that had previously been removed. Since that time the boy had fallen and now was having difficulty walking  Here in Haiti diagnosing a medical condition is difficult for lack of resources. This being the case, this doctor's diagnostic tools were mainly in the form of questions to the boy and his mother and external physical observations.

The boy had been prescribed a particular medication prior to this day. The doctor commented on the situation that the prescribed medication would not be effective and began to reflect out loud what a shame for the mom to have spent money she couldn't afford on medicine that won't help anyway. The doctor paused his sentence with tears in his eyes, composing himself before he could finish the thought.        

This offered a reminder of the hard reality of how difficult it is to provide medical care here. Often medicine is given to treat symptoms without really knowing the cause which can result in an incorrect diagnosis. In this case, the family thought the fall the boy had experienced was the cause of his difficulty walking. Here the doctor shared that often something like a fall may simply exaggerate a condition that already existed.

Another hard reality medical situation we have experienced recently involves a normally healthy young man in his mid twenties who was experiencing various symptoms. Here again, medicine was prescribed but the root cause of the symptoms went unknown. This leaves question as to what his follow up treatment should be. The obvious risk is just as the boy from Jean Brule experienced; being prescribed medicine that won't treat the problem.

(No photos here... No HIPPA rules apply... just none were taken!)

Meet Jocelyn

A Friday morning visit to a friend that was MH very first recipient in our PET cart distribution program was disheartening.  Daniel Jocelyn lives in a rented room with his elderly father who also is fairly crippled because of old age.

The hard reality of their daily challenge typically might be to just find food to sustain life. Inside the one room dwelling were two partially completed handmade chairs along with one chair a bit smaller that was finished. We asked if the chairs were for sale and how much they were asking for them. "Sekant gourdes" for each chair. With the current exchange rate of 66 gourdes for one US dollar, that made the purchase price for each chair $0.76.

We asked the old man if we could buy all three which brought a big
smile to his face. We paid in advance, a higher price than he asked. We said a prayer together asking for God's provision and thanking God for the HOPE he has given through His Son JESUS CHRIST. We said goodbye with the finished chair in our hands and the next day the son delivered the other two on his PET cart.    Hope



   

 Jocelyn in his community

God placed on our hearts the thought of what kind of job could we offer Jocelyn. 

He has always been a kind and gentle friend and has a smile nearly every time we see him, 

even when he is hungry or in pain from his disability.
Hope

                                             

Meet Watson and Gran

Another stop was made in the same neighborhood
to pay for some items that will be displayed
for sale in our store in the MH guest house called
'Bon Bagay Boutique'.

The young man named Watson who had made
the items we were paying for was sitting
outside the house with his grandma
along with several of her other grandchildren.

Another hard reality was in sight.
It was around 9:30 on Friday morning
so it would seem that some of these kids,
including the grandson that made the items for sale, should have been in school but probably
didn't have money to pay the tuition.

According to 'Gran', grandma,
and the grandson, the money
he was receiving for the
handmade items will be what he needs
to get back in school.     Hope

It had been some time since we had seen 'Gran'. She has had a paralyzed arm as long as we have known her but that day the hard reality is she was scooting on the floor, with all of her 76 pound frame, unable to walk. Still with a gentle spirit and a sweet smile, Gran said she is getting by.

           'Gran', Grandma, with some of her grandkids when we first met her in March of 2015.
                                                    At this time, her right arm is paralyzed

This woman has 12 grown children, some of them have died as has her husband. Gran has a house full of grandchildren and numerous great grandchildren. We have heard the story of when her own children were young, how she and her husband provided food for the growing family in a loving home. We acknowledged how hard she has worked, serving the needs of her family year after year. There is still love in the house but it is the kids and grandkids that are now helping Gran.   Hope

Meet Jinette

We had met Jinette a few months ago when a MH short-term mission team brought a gift of food to the family after the hard reality of her husband having been murdered. The house where they lived was not safe at all. At the end of the day of the visit, the team had shared a blog on the MH website about the encounter. From this team blog, a donor and supporter of MH came forward saying his family wanted to give money to build a new home for Jinette and her kids.   Hope

            This house was not safe for a widow and her 4 children who are without their father
           

Jinette pictured in front of her old house with her four children, a couple kids from

 the neighborhood, and the team that brought her a gift of food in the name of Jesus Christ. 

The oldest boy in the pink shirt, daughter in the blue and white stripe, 

younger brother in the batman shirt, and the baby in Jinette's arms 

                            Another short-term mission team serving with MH painted the new house


Friday afternoon allowed time for a visit to Jinette's house in Maliarette with MH Chaplains Pastor Lumanes and Pastor Jean Ronel.  We went by motorcycle but had to park and walk the last maybe ¾ mile because of mud! We arrived to find Jinette and her two younger kids at home. The older two were down the road.

She had done the wash that morning which was drying on the cactus in front of the house.
We could tell the house was lived in because there were lots of dirty finger prints on the front door which was painted blue.

We talked on the front porch a bit, with the pastors asking various questions about how things were going.  She said she has a garden and works it nearly every day.  They asked who was preparing the ground to plant and she said she was. There was some new cactus fence that she had planted herself as well.

We entered the house and discovered a few things. In one room was a pile of bedding on the floor where they all sleep,  While we talked the baby fell asleep in her arms and she laid him on the pile of bedding.

There has been a lot of rain and Jinette showed where the roof leaks a bit.  We will get Boss Themeland to come and fix the leaks.  We also saw that the doors and windows have gaps between the planks that had been pieced together when they were made.  Lumanes explained this had happened because the wood was not dry at the time the doors and windows had been made.  Now that the wood had dried, it shrunk leaving behind the gaps.  We agreed to fix them up! 

We are going to get a better latch on the front door as well.  The way it is now, it rattles in the wind because the latch does not hold the door tight to the door stop. 

Jinette is a Christian and has been baptized. Before we left we prayed together.     Hope

We asked her what her biggest challenges are right now.  She didn’t hesitate to share the hard reality of her situation. Mainly she is troubled and burdened with the responsibility of providing for and raising 4 kids without a husband.  She then said she hoped she would be able to furnish the house to make it more comfortable. These are the only belongings in the house.

We walked behind the house. 

Hard reality, she is cooking for her family over 3 rocks 

out in the open with no protection from wind, sun, rain.

Jinette and her family have a long, hard road ahead.

It is such a hard reality. It is beyond words. 

There is heartache down every path. 

Where is this Hope?

Jesus gives the answer in John 16:33b when he says... 

"In this world you will have trouble. 

But take heart! I have overcome the world."  

Will you continue to pray for the light of Jesus Christ 

to shine brightly here 

so that down every path people will know

        Hope

We got word that Taxi driver, Yves delivered the child-sized PET cart 

to Evenson in Gonaives. 

We heard from our contact 

that Evenson and his family 

had a genuine happiness 

that was displayed through their smiles.


Evenson's family was told 

that because Evenson could not walk

he was "cursed". 

Being Christian the family 

did not believe that. 

They know now that the family 

is being blessed because of Evenson.    Hope

By the way, we are having pentad for supper tonight.  

Hard reality for these two foul.