UPDATE ON HAITI AND ST. ANDREW'S MISSION TO HAITI

Country road near our home on Saturday

Beautiful winter scene on Saturday

We were asked by our pastor to give an update on Haiti and our church's mission to Haiti at yesterday's services.  Saturday was a blustery winter day in our area and we were out in it.  When we arrived at church for the 9:00 a.m. service the church was fairly empty.  John had been up at 6:30 to blow the snow out of our driveway and we thought perhaps others thought they would just stay home as there was too much snow to be rid of before an early service and a warm fire would be a much more pleasant alternative.

The more pleasant alternative occurred for us
on Sunday afternoon

However, as 9:00 a.m. arrived the church was starting to fill up and at the  11:00 a.m. service attendance was really great considering the day.  Our congregation is very supportive of their mission to Haiti and were very attentive to what we had to say.  This talk is about 10 minutes long. We trust you will read through and find out what our church family supports.  Our minister followed with a sermon about how we can trust God to provide and a little turns into a lot.  If your interested go to www.st.andrewsfergus.org and go to sermons.

Today Dorothy and I would like to talk to you about our adventures in Haiti and also about the St. Andrew’s mission to the children of Haiti.  But, before we do that we should try to answer the question we are asked more often than any other, “Are you seeing any positive change in Haiti?”

The answer to that question depends upon who you ask, and the context within which the question is asked.  Is the cup half full or half empty again depends upon who you ask.  We listened earlier this month to our former Governor General and now special UNESCO envoy to Haiti, Michaelle Jean, being interviewed on CBC’s “The Current” and how hopeful she was that things are starting to change for the better - more children are attending school, more of the debris from the earthquake is being removed, and signs of economic renewal are apparent.  Conversely, there are those who see Haiti very much in crises as many of the promises of aid have failed to materialize, or NGOs are doing their own thing rather than coordinating their efforts with what the government is attempting to do.

Personally, we are more on the side of those who see things improving.  While we can only relate second hand what others have told us regarding the Port-au-Prince area, what we have heard suggests that progress is being made.  Our exposure to Port-au-Prince is limited to flying into and out of the airport at Port-au-Prince early in December.  We saw many of the tent cities surrounding Port-au-Prince from the air but were unable to see any of the destruction that occurred there as a result of the earthquake because of landing direction and only being at the airport for about a half an hour.

What we can share is what is happening in the north of Haiti in the area around Cap Haitien where we are working.  We are seeing new roads and sidewalks under construction, new sewers where none existed in the past, and improvements to the infrastructure and delivery of government services.  More, much more, needs to be done, but all the things we are seeing suggest that there is improvement and the changes have been more positive than negative.   And, the Haitian people also seem more hopeful, building homes, starting small businesses, and feeling that perhaps there is a future for them and their children. 



Little girl waiting for treatment
at Bethesda Medical Clinic

As to our adventures, there haven’t really been any in the sense that we have experienced catastrophic weather conditions, and we haven’t been in fear for our safety.  However, there have been some things that have happened to others we know personally.  Yes, the Director of the OMS Bethesda Medical Clinic, Dr. Rodney, had his appendix burst and was thought to be near death, but with many people praying for him and the help of the medical staff at the Milot Hospital he has made a full recovery.  Yes, the Haitian Supervisor of construction and maintenance at the OMS compound in Vaudreuil came down with cholera, but with prayer and the help of the medical staff at the Bethesda Medical Clinic and in Santiago, he is well on his way to making a full recovery.  And yes, the Vice-Chair of the Emmaus Biblical Seminary, Matt Ayars, was thought to have something medically wrong with him that needed the attention of medical specialists back in the United States, but yet again, with many, many people praying during the course of the many tests that were administered, nothing was found that would prevent him from returning to Haiti to carry on with that which he loves most, teaching and preaching.

Our greatest adventure happened within days of our arrival in Haiti when Dorothy came down with what we thought initially was a sinus infection, but turned out to be an abscessed tooth.  For two months, until our return in December, we treated the abscess with prayer, antibiotics and tylenol for the pain.  She is now fully recovered, five appointments and 2 root canals later.  Hopefully, when we return to Haiti, anything we might come down with will be treatable with Pepto Bismal.
We also had the opportunity, at least John did, to get out and visit the 4 schools and the orphanage that are supported by St. Andrew’s.  Stella House, the orphanage, is a partnership between St. Andrew’s and the Joy & Hope of Haiti, a group from Hamilton. St Andrew’s feed the children at a cost of $15,000 annually while the Joy and Hope look after the infrastructure and payment of staff.  There are 36 children currently residing at Stella House, almost half of whom are teenagers attending a high school or trades school.  The children really do understand how fortunate they are because the alternatives are not something that neither they nor we would like to think about.  The girls might find themselves involved in prostitution or pregnant, and the boys might find themselves in something equally unsavory if they were not at the orphanage and attending school.

Faith School

Heavenly Brightness

New Life School

Eben-Ezer School

The four schools St. Andrew’s supports, Eben-Ezer, Faith, New Life, and Heavenly Brightness are absolutely amazing.  The current enrolment at the schools is 618 students, that is bums on the benches or chairs.  At the moment Eben-Ezer has classes from kindergarten to grade six, New Life from kindergarten to grade five, Faith from kindergarten to grade four, and Heavenly Brightness from kindergarten to grade three.  The last 3 schools will be adding another grade again in the fall.  Now you may wonder why Eben-Ezer does not add another grade and the answer is that primary school ends at grade six while secondary or high school begins at grade seven.  This is supposed to change in the near future so that primary will end at grade eight.  When that happens we expect that the four schools will find themselves offering classes from kindergarten to grade eight.

You may also be asking how much all of this is costing St. Andrew’s, and the answer is far less than the cost of one teacher here in Ontario.  Each of the four schools receives approximately $5,500 annually for a total of $22,000.  But, what is truly incredible is that each of these children receives one of the very best educations offered in the north of Haiti.  Each of our schools is offering a quality program, where rather than stuffing 40 and 50 students in a classroom such as happens in many schools in Haiti because of the lack of classrooms and teachers, their emphasis is on providing a teaching and learning experience that is child centred and faith based.

The second anniversary of the earthquake that killed upwards of 300,000 people in the Port-au-Prince area was earlier this month, and as with all calamities of this sort there is a review of the accomplishments since that terrible day.  We mentioned earlier hearing on the CBC our former Governor General, but there are others that we have heard from as well and almost all of these observers have had a single theme in their messages, and that theme is that it is primarily through education that Haiti will see an end to the misery that it has found itself in for the last 2 years as well as for the last 200 years.  We were reading recently in our morning devotional time about Martin Luther King, and his “I have a dream speech” and its importance in giving new vitality to the battle for equal rights for all in America.  Likewise, President Michel Martelly of Haiti has a dream for the Haitian people where hunger and ignorance are only memories of the past.  What St. Andrew’s is doing in Haiti and has been doing in Haiti for the last 25 years is truly remarkable because we are helping to achieve that dream.  St. Andrew’s is taking children who would never see the inside of a classroom and giving them the opportunity for something more than would otherwise be their destiny.

When you add the cost of the 4 schools to the costs associated with the orphanage, together with the 4 post-secondary scholarships that are awarded annually, St. Andrew’s commitment to the children of Haiti totals almost $40,000 per year.  St. Andrew’s should be proud that it is helping the children of Haiti in such a profound way and has been in the vanguard of those who are trying to help change the future for so many children.  Our dream for the future, our hope for the future is that St. Andrew’s can and will continue to support a program that has the potential to change so many lives in a positive way, and here we are not talking only of the Haitian children, but those like ourselves who have come to know and to work in partnership with the Haitian people.

By the way, we will be starting our return journey to Haiti this coming Thursday, and should be home sometime around April 12^th.  Please pray for safe travel, good health, and only warm breezes until we return.