Sunday, November 13, 2011

November 2011

 We have had a very busy summer and fall and now is the time get back on track with keeping this site more current. I (Don) made a trip to Haiti last week to take care of the business of Aid In Action and was very pleased with what is going on with the church, children's programs and the school.

The Churches:
  Pastor Exil and the church are doing well. The church is used every day of the week for some sort of pray or worship time. Currently they are having revival meetings each night with great attendance and impact in the community. We purchased a small generator to power the church as the electric supply is untimely with the hours that it is available and weak current when it is on. We also purchased an electric guitar for them to use in services.
   I was there on November 1 which is "Day of the Dead" in many cultures, Halloween was not observed. In Haiti there were two extremes that I witnessed. One was groups of people at the cemeteries in dressed up in witches outfits or face paints and dancing and doing things that I did not understand. I was told that most of the activity is based from their VooDoo practices and goes on for two days.
 The other group that I noticed were that every church that I passed that day had services going on. Day of the Dead is a national holiday there so most business were closed as well as the government. It was great to walk through the tent city and the town and here the singing going on.

 Children's Bible Study Program:
   The two Children's Bible Study groups are still going well with about 125 children presently attending once a week. Oriol continues to take care of this and enjoys serving his community and God.

 The School:
    We are not fully funded to run the school with all the teachers that we need to be open every day but there are about 160 elementary children that come at least two or three days a week to school. Our desire is to pay for the teachers and the children be able to attend school for free. We would require them to pay for their school uniform to have some ownership in their education. Approximately $900 more per month commitment from us would take this to fruition.

 Jean Dube who is a Haitian/American living in Port Au Prince will be helping us with oversight on  these programs and improving our communication from Haiti to here. He will also help with the groundwork of teams and projects that we will want to do.

February trip:

  I am planning a short term mission trip in February or early March to build a new church for the Citi Soley church that Pastor Exil preaches at and one of the Children's Bible Programs is located. Right now it is a rusty  tin roof with stick poles holding it together with very little protection from the sun, wind and rain. I plan to have the foundation poured before we arrive and then a team of 6 - 10 can build the rest in less than a week.
 If you would have any interest in going on this trip please let us know. Individual cost would be around $1500 and include travel, food and lodging. We need to raise some extra money to pay for materials.



 Above is a picture of the Citi Soley Church with Pastor Exil standing in front of it and the picture below is in the Simon/Pele Church with the new generator that we purchased.

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