Batso

God has certainly blessed our endeavors in Haiti as a Church. He has raised up individuals to play all kinds of roles like praying, giving and going. Over the past few years we have developed a relationship with the small mountain village of Batso. Below are some pictures of the orphanage in progress.

 

What an amazing thing to watch this grow. We are planning on sending to teams there in 2008. 

 Below are some pictures from the trip that went in April with a short report below

       

       

   

 

 

We thank you all who gave so generously to this project. We are now waiting to get pictures back of the finished project or work in progress. First hand accounts will be available from those who are traveling for the first work group.

Haiti Updated Report - November 24, 2008

 

Team #120 arrived in Port-au-Prince on November 6th with 18 members and was joined by Joan Mosher and Steve Shaw already there.

 

The team had been planning on going to Batso in the central mountains.  Since Haiti had been hit and damaged by the 3 hurricanes in September and October this was not possible due the conditions of the roads.  The roads outside the major cities are at best just dirt, rock , ruts and hard to naviagte even in dry and good weather. Also to get into that area we cross 10 rivers.  The heavy rains of the 3 storms left the roads washed away and undrivable for several weeks even by the huge Tap-Taps that deliver people and goods inthe the provinces.  Therefore, MBC's large flat bed truck with the cage on the back that carries the teams out into the countryside was unable to make the trip.

 

Many were very disapointed that the team was unable to visit the area that Grace Church has helped so much.  However, as always, our God has a plan even before we know we cannot do what man has planned.

 

The team stayed at the home of Franceli and Julie Joseph, our Haitian hosts and MBC's Haitian Business Manager .

This teams schedule included working in Cite' Soliel, the poorest slum in all of Haiti, with about 250,000 people living there.

 

We worked a combination work and medical team. Several on the team were nurses and as the men added a room on the side of the school, the ladies and some of the men as well, ministered to over 230 people in one day at the clinic, also held right at the school.

On the days that a clinic was not being held all the team members were on the project carrying buckets of sand, rock, etc to the site for the construction.

Full buckets lines, empty buckets, work for evryone.

The team just before #120 had laid the floor and some of the walls. team 120 was able to finish that s well as pour the roof on this room.  Praise the Lord!!  What a blessing for all involved and the especially wonderful opportunity of working along side our Haitian brothers and sisters.

We also held 2 days of clinic at Redeemer's Child Orphanage for the neighborhood people seeing over 450 in 2 days.

 

As always, the team has some days to see the beautiful country and to experience the Haitian culture. 

MBC has an orphanage in PAP named Redeeer's Child with 27 children there, ages 3-12, and we took all of them to the park to play for the morning and than had lunch with them and then treated each one to an ice cream cone.  A rare treat for them.

 

The work in Batso contiunes on.  Pastor Kelly Augustin, well know to Grace folks, came to visit with us and share his continued vision of that area  with us.  The orphanage there has 26 children, all doing well and attending school. At present the orphanage has 8 goats they are raising as well as a garden growing vegetables for their consumption.  The goats are not for today's food but for breeding and raising more to sell and also for milking.

 

Please contiue to pray for all of the minitries there in Haiti.

 

Submitted by Joan Mosher

Reports from April / May Trip.

April Trip

What a great trip.  We were able to get to St. Michel and work at the orphanage in Batso.  We spent two days painting the front and one side of the exterior and all of the interior of the building.  It was a transformation before our eyes.  It is a beautiful building built for beautiful children.   God also allowed our paths to cross with a young man in St. Michel.  Wendy has significant developmental deficiencies and is severely malnourished.  Wendy has been thrown away by Haitian society and has little ability to defend himself.  He is picked on by all the street kids and is no more than 70 pounds.  The youth on the trip were moved to raise and leave behind enough money for Wendy to receive a meal a day through a local vender.  Pastor Kelly has arranged for the meal an will keep and eye on him.  It was a crystal clear modern day example of the parable of the Good Samaritan.  We were also blessed be able to baptize one of our high school students at the beach, a first for Grace.  Praise God for the work being done in Haiti and  how Haiti has been used to change the hearts of so many at Grace.

May Trip

God is good!! He allowed us to participate in four medical clinics in Port-au-Prince.  Two of them were in Cite Soliel, the poorest area of the poorest country in the western hemisphere, and the last two were at Redeemer's Child, an orphanage are partnering with.  Throughout the week, we were able to provide medical care for about 700 people!!  God also allowed us to be confronted with spiritual warfare. It was an incredible reminder that greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world.  Lastly we were able to celebrate with Redeemer's Child as they celebrated their third anniversary.   This orphanage is full of children with past's we could not fathom.  What a testimony to what God can do in a life.  God is good!!!

November trip through the eyes of Rick Harvey, his first trip.   

 I was blessed to have had the opportunity to join a recent missions trip to Haiti at the beginning of November this year.  If anyone has been "thinking about going", or wondering "Am I the right kind of person for this?", all I can say is: YES, you are!     I had been what I like to call a "Struggling Christian" for some time, always having faith in God, but lacking effort to really re-direct my life towards where I know he wants me to be.  Some would say, not on track.  I still felt God leading me to be a part of this trip so, through prayer and generosity, I got on the plane and off I went!      We got to accomplish many things.  From pouring a cement roof on the second floor roof of the orphanage in Batso, to filling bags with rice and beans for distribution to the poor and needy, and painting the interior of the orphanage in Port Au Prince.  These were some of the "Big things" we accomplished, but more importantly was the spiritual growth, friendships, and interactions experienced among the Haitian people.  It will not be soon forgotten.    Words are really not enough to try to capture the feelings and emotions that are experienced.  You see children smiling through poverty and starvation, yet thankful for what little they have and happy to be alive.  You witness joy found in the smallest of things.  Whether it is with a rice-filled pouch for kids to kick around in the street, or a piece of sugar-cane that grows everywhere but yet somehow still relished with pride and contentment when given as a gift.  A Haitian child with a soda smiles like an American with a new television.  A Haitian orphan with a balloon is like an American child with a new video game.  A Haitian child with a piece of fresh-picked fruit smiles and giggles like it was their birthday!  Things are so much simpler when we forget about trying to get a bigger television, or a newer car, or a nicer living room set, or a job promotion.  This sort of thing can be written about all day.  Only when it is experienced can you really see for your own eyes that life as we know it, (no matter how rich or poor by American standards), is still always living like a king when looked at through the eyes of a Haitian child.  I hope to never forget that, and I feel truly blessed to have had this opportunity.  A warm, heartfelt "Thank You" to all who prayed and supported each and every one of us.  Monadnock Bridge Builders Missions Team November, 2009