Progress!

Ahhh...5 am and my head is finally hitting the pillow after 24 hours. What a way to wrap up an incredible week in Haiti. My friend, Stacey and I covered quite a few square miles on this trip, and in typical fashion, there was never a dull moment. Visiting Pastor Val and the children at Val Children's Home Care, ended up being just a small part of the trip. There are many people sitting up and taking notice of Haiti right now, and we were in the midst of it. Every day was full of interesting and diverse experiences:

• Monday - travel day, awesome reunion with our hosts, with some Japanese curry for dinner. The children both gave up their rooms for us, so we each had our own bed; such a blessing.
• Tuesday - Met Jean Marc Zamor, Regent University PhD candidate and Haitian pastor. He took us to a beautiful spot near the Dominican border to see the 200 acres where he is building Haiti Providence University. The first building is well under way. It is very exciting to see such great faith; such a huge undertaking and funded largely by Haitian churches!
• Wednesday - I spoke at the chapel service at Quisqueya Christian School, telling them my story about the earthquake, and encouraging the teens to seek out their own relationship with Christ. There are many students there now that are not necessarily from Christian families. After, I took Stacey up to a lovely spot called Boutellier on a mountain overlooking Port au Prince, and then up to the Baptist Haiti Mission for lunch and some shopping. We met a two-month old whose mama was in the hospital with TB, and the missionary that brought them in from the mountains. Had dinner with Junior and Joyce and mapped out the rest of our week.
• Thursday - Off to the beach for a day. It's important to me to show people this wonderful side of Haiti. Stacey's commentary: "This would be a great place for a vacation!"
• Friday - We met with Anne, Miselene's aunt, in St. Marc and she led us to Hatte in the Artibonite Valley to see her village and meet her family. Miselene is the little girl that came to the US for treatment at a local hospital for cancer...she has recently passed away after a real battle for her life but we wanted to stay in contact with her family. This is the area where the heaviest concentration of cholera was. After a dusty hour-long ride through rice fields, we arrived at the most impoverished village I have ever seen: no one had shoes, filthy and sick children, no livestock, not even a chicken, etc. We gathered in a room with the patriarch, Anne's father, and his 11 children and grandchildren - about 60 people in all. As the day went on, we learned that some men had come and stolen their land and livestock last year, ran the local pastor and school headmaster out of town, and they are really vulnerable. We also discovered that the patriarch was the local witch doctor and our meeting was held in a voodoo temple! There was demon-possessed woman in our midst who became a little violent with a stick and a rock while we were praying for the children. They call her "Cholera." We gave some money to Anne to buy some food and to give them some ability to get started again. Junior will follow-up with them.
  
• Saturday - We met with Pastor Val and went to his orphanage outside of Leogane. The kids had a little program prepared and sang for us, and one of the songs was about preventing cholera! We hung out there for a few hours, painted fingernails again, played with matchbox cars and bubbles and then went back to the guest house. The little houses we bought are up and occupied, and life is returning to a new normal there. Everyone is happy and healthy...such a different atmosphere from the day before. Construction on a new dormitory and church are underway, and plans for a new school, a food depot, a bakery and other development work are moving along as well.
  

• Sunday - We attended the 4.5 hour church service at the orphanage, with about 75 people in attendance. All of us preached. We were encouraged to see people of all ages, both men and women and their children there. There were several young men in their twenties that Pastor Val is mentoring. They have even planted a church even farther up in the mountains, about a one-hour walk from Pastor Val's place. There was a man in the church who is 109 years old and has been with Pastor Val for over 40 years. His name is Constant (appropriate!) and when I asked him what the secret to a long life is, he said, "Keep God in your heart!" We hiked up the hills behind the site, and had a lovely day, heading back to PAP in the evening.

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• Monday - Before heading to the airport, we hooked up with a missionary that is working with a coop of coffee growers and got some unroasted beans to bring back. We are hoping to partner with these people to begin some coffee exportation, supporting the farmers of Haiti and creating much needed jobs. We also had an interesting conversation with a little boy who has been kidnapped twice! Very interesting story...We departed PAP at noon on Monday.
  

We also were able to talk with Pastor Val about some other plans for growing the local economy. We discussed a plan to provide grants for a motorcycle taxi business for the men in his church. (This is the most practical mode of transport in the rural areas, and is a growing opportunity for men who need to provide for their families.) We also discussed plans for a school building. He has 350 children attending school on his compound, but they are meeting under trees in makeshift tents and areas. He could take many more kids, if there was space. We saw a building that could be put together very quickly, very inexpensively that would accommodate so many, and he really liked it. So fundraising will begin for those two projects immediately. We need about $5K for the motorcycle endeavor (which will be reinvested in motorcycles over and over again) and approximately $60K for the school.

To top off the week, almost as if God wanted to show off, I struck up a conversation with a man in the PAP airport Monday morning who is a pastor in the US, but is part of the church on Delmas 9 that took care of us the night of the earthquake! He recognized people in my photos, and knows Pastor Val! It was amazing. God is amazing.

So thank you, thank you for your prayers and support. Stacey had a great time, we stayed safe and healthy, made some great connections, and serious progress on the things God has put on our plate. It is so exciting to see God at work; I feel like I'm sitting on the front row!

The Back Side of the Earth

If the earth had sides, there would be a back side. Politically insignificant, countries that have no natural resources, industry, exports or even any tourist value would be back there. Villages that have no electricity or good drinking water. Homes made of cardboard, that wash away with each heavy rain. Families living ten, twelve, fourteen in a 10' x 10' room with a dirt floor, and no door. Parentless children with no hope, no future, no childhood.

Who cares about that place?

Haiti is just such a place. It holds no international significance, politically unstable and the infrastructure in such chaos, that some have mused it could fall off the face of the earth and no one would notice. Some would give thanks that the blight on the Western Hemisphere is gone. It has been called the 'graveyard of missions,' as so many have invested years and millions to better the place, but to no avail.

I lived there in the early 1980s when there was a brutal, but stable dictatorship in power. Life was rough for the average Haitian; food was scarce, jobs were hard to find, begging children with bloated bellies and orange hair were commonplace. But there was some industry; Rawlings wound baseballs, and Judy Bond stitched blouses. Club Med had a resort destination north of Port au Prince, and similar resorts dotted the stunning coastlines.

My first visit to Haiti since the fall of the Duvalier regime came in 2007 with my family. Though I knew it was so, I was still so stunned to see the country in such horrible disarray. Assuming democracy was a friend to Haiti, I expected to see some progress. Unfortunately, it was worse. House-size piles of rotting garbage filled the streets. Rivulets of human waste, plastic bottles and filthy water criss-crossed every path. Cement skeletons of unfinished houses occupied lots where children chased away hungry mongrels, evidence of investments gone bad. Crumbling concrete was all that was left of streets and sidewalks whose construction had once been a source of income for so many. Once lush and extravagant playgrounds, beach resorts were barren shells of their former glory. Traffic, typically chaotic, involved playing bumper cars all the way to the guest house, and enduring three minor accidents where no one even stopped to check the damage.

Ironically, we were stopped for a missing taillight, with the threat of a thousand-dollar fine. Insanity.

Somehow, an old friend, Franklin Val, managed to reach the age of 69. We met him in 1984, a pastor and translator with a wife and five children. Well educated, he spoke French, Creole and English quite well, and frequently translated for us. He owned a beat-up SUV, and worked as a driver for foreign visitors (pastors don't earn a living in Haiti preaching). It was during one of these chauffeuring gigs, that he encountered the violence of those early coup attempts. In 1987, while driving for an NBC news crew, Pastor Val was caught in the cross-fire. He managed to drive himself to a hospital with four life-threatening gunshot wounds, one to the chest. In a dramatic end to his front teeth, he collapsed face first at the hospital door. During the fight to save his life, he remembers stating, "I will live and not die!" He had a lot of time to think during recovery. As a result of the burden he felt for so many children wandering the streets in the wake of the violence, he took in 55. He and his sister, Yrma, have been doing so ever since.

We hired this toothless tri-lingual chauffeur on our visit in 2007, re-uniting with an old friend. He brought us up to speed about his family (his wife had passed) and work with the orphans in Bognotte, a two hour drive from Port au Prince. He told us that their only source of income was his taxi service. He and sister Yrma, 67, were solely responsible for 30 boys and girls. We had heard about all this before we went, so we were prepared to visit and bring gifts. What we saw has forever changed our lives.

Just three miles off the main highway, the twenty minute drive took us over dusty then muddy paths, carefully picking our way in and out of huge gaps in the 'road,' and through small creeks. Ever-enterprising Haitian teenagers waited at the intersection of the main road with their scooters, ready to transport folks in and out of the back country. Upon arrival at the orphanage, our vehicle was swarmed by warm brown faces, toothless grins and shy greetings. So many blancs way out here in the country!

The children had obviously worked all morning preparing their home for our visit. The few possessions they had were neatly arranged on a shelf. Nothing was out of place. On a 95 degree day, Steevenson's long-sleeved, plaid flannel shirt was neatly tucked into his jeans, and buttoned to the top. Few were wearing shoes; all were eager to see what we had brought. We distributed small gift bags with candy and toys, and we brought games and crafts to play with the children. A new soccer ball was welcomed with great fanfare! Pastor Val showed us around; there was a main room with a large picnic table and the aforementioned shelf. Two adjacent rooms held squeaky metal bunk bed frames with sheetless thin mattresses lacking pillows and blankets as well. Crumbling walls, tin roofs which turned bedrooms into ovens at ten o'clock in the morning, and dirt floors made up the structure. In the back there was an outhouse. We posed for a photo with the group here. Not a kitchen in sight. We learned that Yrma daily cooked for the group over an open camp fire.

For 22 years.

There was so much hope in those faces, especially the teenagers. Our youngest connected with a girl, Stephanie, her age. What a sobering contrast, to think of the opportunities our daughter has compared to what Val's kids are faced with. We were truly overwhelmed. But you could tell they saw opportunity packed in our suitcases. This new connection with the civilized world could provide a better life for these little ones, truly the "least of these." Even pushing 70, Pastor Val had the audacity to hope for technologically competent and well-educated students. He showed us the land, 30 acres, that he owns where he'd like to build a better facility - a dormitory, a clinic, a school and a kitchen that will feed the surrounding community. He talked about computer education, job training and spiritual development that would produce intelligent contributing members of society with strong moral character, the hope of Haiti.


Without enough for the burdens he currently carried, Pastor Val still managed to stop along the way home and offer a bag of food or a few gourdes to people he cared for. After 22 years, some of the girls he raised are young women trying to make it on their own. His generosity had long reach. He stopped to speak softly to a drug-crazed man, and refused to give him money based on his answers to questions gently posed. A true pastor.

So, who cares about Haiti? God does. He cares about each individual in this corner of the back side of the earth. Each of those children bears the image of God, and He has a destiny and a plan for their lives. They are precious in His sight.

And God brought this little group to our attention.

So we care, too. Heidi Baker, a missionary in Africa, says, "each one, reach one." A simple directive. If we each only did what was put in front of us to do, the body of Christ would accomplish the goals we were asked to achieve on the earth. Problems like those faced in Haiti, are way too large for anyone, or any government to handle. But child by child, orphanage by orphanage, pastor by pastor we can make a difference.

Haiti is not forsaken by God. The evidence is overwhelming that He is active and involved. Too many 'coincidences' have surrounded this effort. They are obviously not just coincidences. Divine intervention is at work. This blog will document what has been happening along the way.

I am happy to introduce you to Haiti, and to Pastor Val. Now let's see what God has been up to.

November 14, 2009

Email that was sent out Nov. 14:

Hi!
I just had the most amazing thing happen. I was driving home from a church workday, thinking about my trip to Haiti (seems to be on my mind all the time) and wondering how I could get some money (like from an ATM) if the opportunity arose while I was there to get the materials to build a chicken coop and get some chickens. I was also wondering if it was legal to take seeds in with me to plant a garden with.

And I got home, and found an email from Amy, one of the missionaries at Christianville, the compound not far from Pastor Val's place that offered their clinic services to him and the children last year. She said that her parents had really fallen in love with those children on one of their visits, and that SOMEONE HAD DONATED MONEY SPECIFICALLY FOR A CHICKEN COOP AND CHICKENS AND HERE WERE THE PHOTOS!!!! I almost leaped off the couch reading it! The chicks were brand new and would be ready for market in 6 weeks, for egg production and meat. It is a source of income for the orphanage, as well as a learning opportunity for the children.

I am amazed at God's care; I have felt so inadequate caring for them, as if it were up to me anyway... I just keep wishing there was a way to do more. And I've been specifically thinking along the lines of micro-investing, or just finding ways of helping them to become self-sufficient, especially when Pastor Val passes on.

Just wanted to share that bit of incredible news with you. Thanks for your love and support.

Kellee

Forwarded messages from Amy's mother:

Hi Kellee,
I am Amy Riechley's Mom, Rita. I hope you don't mind that Amy gave me your address. She told me about you & I was hoping to someday meet you. My husband & I will be in Haiti Jan. 11th - I will be staying till Feb 2nd. I hope that maybe we could meet, if the timing is right for you too.
We have surely taken an interest & fell in-love with Val, Emma & the kids. We are trying to get others to partner with helping them also. God has been good to lead us to some very kind, generous Brothers & Sisters-in-Christ who have come along side of us.
I will send you a couple photos of the new chicks that were just delivered this past week. At 6 weeks of age they will be ready for market so the orphanage can make a profit & even eat some themselves too. We have other projects planned that I'd love to share with you.
Hope to meet you in Jan.
God Bless,
Jeff & Rita Riedel

Here are the new chicks delivered this week to Val's!
They will be ready for market in 6 weeks!
God Bless the gift & the giver!
Rita

November 11, 2009

Email that went out in early November:

Hello Friends,
Guess what?! I'm going to Haiti! God has miraculously provided some funding, and I'm going to visit Pastor Val and the orphanage, and some old friends in Port au Prince in January. I think I also have two others coming along, and we can each take up to 100 pounds of checked luggage. I plan to fill up those bags with socks, underwear, school supplies, vitamins and other needed supplies. There are approximately 30 children, boys and girls, aged 3-17.

Would you and your family consider donating some items, maybe as part of your Christmas gifting? Even if it's just one item, every little bit helps. I don't mind taking used things, if they are in excellent condition.

Here is a list:
socks
black or dark blue tennis shoes
underwear
bras
short-sleeved t-shirts
pants for boys
skirts/dresses for girls (remember - it's hot there)
multi-vitamins
bandaids
antibiotic cream (like Neosporin)
first-aid kits
toothpaste

Thank you so much! I'll keep you posted with forthcoming details.