February, April, July, & September 2007
February 2007
Looking back on 2006, we cannot help but be amazed at the way God moved to meet our needs. Every need was met and we made tremendous progress with our work here in Haiti. Getting the new House of Compassion “under roof” is a true miracle. Last March we signed a $127,000.00 contract with a Haitian builder for construction of the “shell” of the house. We didn’t have the $127,000.00 when we signed the contract, but as each payment was due, the funds were there. Now, the contractor has completed his part of the building and he has been paid-in-full. The shell of the house is complete and we are ready to begin finishing the interior. When God provides, he does it right and we are happy to report that none of the other areas of our ministry have suffered for the sake of the building project. Our 22 children here at House of Compassion are well cared for. The 350 children in our school sponsorship program are receiving an education, our feeding program is ongoing and our Children’s Church activities continue each Wednesday. Praise God!
As we mentioned in our previous letters, the price for nearly everything we buy here in Haiti is double what we would pay for the same merchandise in the United States. Because of the grossly inflated prices in Haiti, it made good “business sense” to fill a container with supplies in the U.S. and ship it to Haiti. Once again God met the need. Supplies poured in to Tulsa, Oklahoma from all over the United States. A 40’ storage container was filled to capacity with everything from food and clothing to building supplies. Friday, January 19, was the day selected to move the goods from the storage container into the actual shipping container. The temperature in Tulsa that morning was 28 degrees and the trucking company allowed us only two hours to pack the shipping container. A team of volunteers loaded the container in near record time. Two weeks later when the container arrived in Port-au-Prince, it was 95 degrees. The container sailed through Haitian Customs without a hitch, which is a miracle in itself. Normally these things take several weeks and a lot of bribes. God moved our container through in three days! I was concerned about the load shifting in transit, but when I opened the door of the container, it looked just like it did when I closed the door of the container in Tulsa. I would like to say a special “thank you” to all of you who were so generous with your time and your dollars. God will bless you for your giving.
There is still a whole lot to be done, but we are excited to see the building taking shape. We have a few pressing financial needs that must be met in the very near future. The new House of Compassion will have 48 windows. For obvious reasons, we elected to go with windows that have security bars built into them and the best windows for our application are made right here in Haiti. The price for the 48 windows is $13,000.00. We paid 25% down when we ordered the windows and we need $9,800.00 when the windows are ready for installation. We need to have the windows installed by the end of March. If you would like to help with this project, the balance due per-window is approximately $204.00. We also need to have a well drilled and a septic system installed. The well will cost $2,500.00 and the septic system will cost $5,000.00. Please pray with us that these needs will be met and pray that the next phases of construction will go smoothly.
We have a new “baby missionary” in our family! We are happy to report that on January 16, Samuel Bryan Lloyd was born. Samuel weighed in at 8 pounds and 9 ounces and he is 21” long. Everything went very well and we want to thank you for your prayers. Samuel and Alicia are both doing well and I am looking forward to my family re-joining me here in Haiti on March 1.
We really appreciate all of you who sent Christmas gifts or a special Christmas offering for our kids. We were able to share a good “American style Christmas” with all of our Haitian children. The kids are very thankful for the gifts and they are really enjoying them.
The political climate here in Haiti is about the same as in our last letter. Some weeks are fairly quiet and then the very next week we will see a lot of problems. Kidnapping and violent crimes are commonplace. Please keep us in your prayers every day. Ask God to keep his hand of protection on us and on our Haitian kids.
Thanks again for your prayers and your love for Haiti.
April 2007
Nine years ago this month, the Lord opened the door for us to come to Haiti. He directed us to work with an established Mission the first two years. During that time, we observed Haiti and the one thing that kept jumping out at us was the need to reach the children of Haiti both spiritually and physically. We saw many children without parents and children whose parents did not care for them at all. We saw children raising children and children who were being raised in Voodoo and taught to serve satan. The need for a Christ-Centered children’s home became apparent to us. We felt the urgent need to reach out to the children of Haiti and seven years ago we started Missions in Haiti. We put together our sponsorship program and then we opened the first House of Compassion.
During the first meeting with our Board of Directors, I shared the great burden that Alicia and I had for purchasing property and building a permanent home to house the children that God would send us. Now, seven years and twenty-five children later, things are coming together thanks to all of your prayers and your generous support.
Last month a team of six wonderful men from Oklahoma, Illinois and Missouri came to Haiti and wired the house and installed the plumbing. While they were here, we drilled a water well which provided us an unlimited supply of water and we completed construction of the septic tanks. The Lord provided all the funds needed to purchase windows for the house. The windows are being built and we plan to have them installed in May. The walls inside the house are being prepped for paint by a group of Haitian workers who are putting cement over the blocks to smooth the walls. We should have the walls inside the house painted by the end of April.
Now we are down to the finishing touches and the items that are needed to make the house into our home. Please bind with us and pray that God will provide. The natural man would look at the remaining projects and the list of things we need and he would say that we have a huge mountain to climb over. We need $18,000 to pay the company that is here building the cabinets for the three kitchens (downstairs, upstairs and guest kitchen) and the closets for the rooms. Then we will need $2,500.00 to pay for the labor and materials needed to get the ceramic tile flooring installed.
The next big essential item is electricity. It could take several years for us to get connected to the Haitian electric company and it would be extremely expensive. The obvious solution to this problem is for us to have our own generator and inverter system. A generator with enough capacity to meet our needs will cost $11,500.00 and the two-inverter system will cost $5,000.00. The inverter system consists of batteries that store electricity to run the house when the generator is not running. The generator charges the batteries and for every hour that the batteries are charged, we get two hours of electricity from them. This allows us to use less of the expensive diesel fuel that powers the generator.
Finally, we will need $12,000.00 to pay for sidewalks, put in a yard, purchase vanities for the bathrooms, tile around the showers and for all of the miscellaneous items needed to complete the project.
When you add it up, we need $49,000.00. I don’t have any idea how God will meet this need but I know that he has everything under His control. To date, God has met our every need at His perfect time. We are in awe as we look back and see God’s mighty hand in this project! God has provided $250,000.00 to-date and we are trusting in Him to provide the funds we need to complete the project.
Please pray with us and for us, we are so excited about the prospect of having the new House of Compassion completed. We are looking forward to the day when we will move from our current home which is in constant need of repair and has become much too small for our “family”. It is impossible for me to put into words just how badly needed the new facility is. We know that God will send more children as soon as we are able to make room for them.
Thank you for your prayers and support. As we often say, we couldn’t do this work without you. You have been a tremendous blessing to us and we pray that God will richly bless you for all that you have done for us and for His Haitian children.
July 2007
Greetings in the name of Jesus!
It is hard to believe that another school year has come and gone! The children advanced to the next grade and it is time to begin making plans for the upcoming school year. We really appreciate all of you who supported our school sponsorship program this past year. As a result of your faithfulness 350 Haitian children were able to attend school. We are now making plans and preparations for the upcoming school year. Books and material for uniforms are being purchased as we look toward the start of school this September. We need additional sponsors who would like to make it possible for a Haitian child to receive a Christian education. There are no public schools in Haiti and there are untold numbers of children whose parents cannot afford to send their children to school.
We can’t possibly give God enough praise for the many ways that he has met and continues to meet our every need. In our last newsletter we mentioned the large financial need that we were facing as we worked to finish the new House of Compassion. We had exhausted all of our funds and we were just three days from having to shut down all work on the facility. It looked like we were going to be forced to postpone the move to the new home, but the Lord spoke to one of our faithful supporters and the entire need was met, Praise the Lord! We were able to pay all of our workers and purchase the things needed to finish the project.
Now, the patio and porches are being poured. The cabinets and closets are being installed and construction is wrapping up. All of the windows have been installed and over ½ of the ceramic tile has been laid. The girl’s side and our upstairs living quarters are just about ready to move into. As I write this letter, we are stateside, gathering the rest of the items needed to finish the boy’s side and the guest quarters. We will ship the balance of the floor tile along with paint and miscellaneous things needed to complete the project in a 40’ container. The container is presently being loaded in Tulsa, Oklahoma and we plan to ship the container mid-July so it will be on-site in Haiti by the first of August. We have a group of four men coming down August 6th to help finish the home and help us move into it. We could use additional help, especially an electrician and a painter. If you would like to be a part of this team, please contact us by e-mail.
The urgency for the move becomes greater every day. In the past six weeks our “family” has grown significantly as we added another three girls and two boys bringing the total to 27 Haitian children living with us at House of Compassion! Our newest additions are Loudrine, age 10, Benison, age 6, Limbsky, age 2, Phabiola, age 5 and Tamara, age 3. When the new House of Compassion is complete, we will be able to accommodate 18 boys and 18 girls and Alicia hasn’t wasted any time in her efforts to fill the new home up!
Please pray with us about a couple pressing financial needs. First, we need $7,000.00 to ship the container mid-July. Several Churches are gathering supplies for the container and their generosity will help offset the cost of shipping. As we have reported many times, the commodities that we use everyday cost two to three times more in Haiti compared to the price for the same items here in the U.S., so by filling a container with necessities, we save a lot of money.
We are moving the Good Hope School into the building that we have been living in the past four years and we need $4,000.00 to pay the annual rent on the facility. We are excited about the prospects for growth when we relocate the school. This past year we had 125 children in the Good Hope School and by moving to the larger facilities we will be able to increase that number to 400-500 students.
Thank you for your prayers and your support. We are praying that the Lord will richly bless you for your faithfulness.
September 2007
Greetings from Haiti, in the name of Jesus!
We returned to Haiti on July 31st.
The month of July was spent traveling and gathering supplies to fill a 40’ container. We packed the container with building supplies and other materials that were donated or purchased for the House of Compassion. The shipment left Tulsa, Oklahoma the end of July and the Lord worked a miracle enabling us to have the supplies on the jobsite in time for the team of workers from the U. S. that arrived the sixth of August. These men helped us complete the construction phase and assisted in making preparations for the move to the new House of Compassion.
We are delighted to report that WE HAVE MOVED! Alicia and I along with our entire “family” here at the House of Compassion cannot say “THANK YOU” enough to the Lord and to all of you who faithfully support this work. We are enjoying the fruits of our labor and the fruits of your labor, your faithfulness and your generous support. The scope of this project was enormous, taking over two years to complete. Without your prayers and your support, we would still be in the starting stages instead of living in the new home. There were many times during the past two years that we couldn’t see any way that we would be able to continue with the building project, but each time God moved in a mighty way and another need was met and another obstacle was overcome. We truly appreciate all of you who supported this project financially and we would like to thank all the individuals and Churches that provided building supplies for the home. We will think of you daily, as we walk on our wonderful tiled floors, enjoy the nicely painted walls, turn on the lights and use the new appliances. It is a real blessing to have 10 toilets that work! Having 13 working sinks and 12 showers really saves time as our “family” gets ready for school in the mornings.
And last, but certainly not least, we really appreciate all of you who sacrificed your time and money to come to Haiti and work with us on the project. It is truly amazing when we look at the list of all the Churches and individuals that have been involved in building the new House of Compassion. As we have stated many times, we couldn’t do this work without your prayers and your support.
During our move to the new home, the devil put up a good fight. He tried to keep us from moving into the new House of Compassion. As soon as we started moving in on August 6, the man that gave us so much trouble during each phase of the building process showed up again! He is a trouble maker and extortionist; he pressures people into paying him to leave them alone. He showed up almost daily during the first two weeks after we moved in. He tried to scare us with threats. He brought some of his “cronies” with him in an attempt to scare us into buying into his protection racket. We stood firm and then he brought false charges against me personally, hoping that I would get tired and frustrated enough to give in and say, “OK, how much do you want”? I had to appear in court twice to answer his trumped up charges. Alicia and I knew that this was a spiritual battle, satan was trying to discourage us and make us doubt, in spite of all the wondrous things that God has done and is doing for us daily. A large number of Churches stateside joined with us in prayer and I am happy to report that this guy has left us alone. We have been able to enjoy our new home in relative peace and quiet. Thank you for your prayers, God is still in the business of answering prayer! Continue to pray with us for this man, we know that God is able to save him and make mighty changes in his life.
We would like to give God praise for answering another one of our prayers for our adopted land of Haiti. Conditions here are the best we have seen in a long time. We have noted improvement throughout the entire country. Crime is down, with only two kidnappings reported in June. As a result of these improvements, many middle and upper class Haitians are returning to Haiti. Current enrollment at the ACE school where I am Principal is 198, the highest it has been in the last three years.
We have been busy getting our Haitian schools ready to open on September 10. Once again, the Lord answered prayer and worked things out for us. We rented the building that House of Compassion moved out of and turned our old house into a Christian school. With this additional space, we were able to increase enrollment from 129 to 276 students. We will have a total of 425 Haitian children attending Christian schools this year through the child sponsorship program.
The Lord always knows what we really need and he is willing and able to supply every need. We are very thankful that Trish Adams has joined us here at House of Compassion. Trish came in August 16th and she is helping Alicia with the children’s home plus she is working with 6 of our kids on a daily basis, teaching them from the ACE curriculum. Trish will live in the apartment that we added to the new House of Compassion for this purpose. We appreciate Trish and we thank the Lord for providing us with a helper.
We are wrapping up the final things that need to be done to the new House of Compassion as we get time. Soon work on the building will be finished. Next, we need to work on landscaping. We want to plant some mango, avocado, pineapple, banana and other assorted citrus trees. We hope to turn our “weedscape” into a nice green landscape, this will make a nice yard for our kids to play in.
Thank you for your continued prayers and support, you are making a difference in many lives here in Haiti.