Bonswa Tout Moun

Hi everyone! I first want to say I am sorry that it has taken such a long time for me to post my first blog. The internet is not the best and has been pretty temperamental lately. I promise I will try better to update it each week or every few weeks throughout the summer!

But now for Haiti! Man do I love this country! It has been such an amazing first two weeks in Haiti! God is doing amazing things in and through the people of this country! Since this is my first post I want to start by kind of explaining Mission of Hope, so you all can gain a better understanding of where it is that I am spending my summer. The main goal of Mission of Hope is stated in their vision statement which is as an organization following Jesus Christ we seek to bring life transformation to EVERY man, woman and child in Haiti. So Mission of Hope itself was started in 1998 by Brad and Vanessa Johnson. Brad had been coming to Haiti ever since he was five years old. His parents originally received the first 20 acres of the compound when a man traded them the land for a pipe organ. Then in 1997 Brad and Vanessa came to Haiti and went into a nearby village called Source Matelas and met a family who had a very sick little girl named Gerline. If she did not receive help she was going to die, so Brad, Vanessa, Gerline and her father got into the car to go to a clinic. When they arrived at the clinic they realized it was closed and as they were making their way back to the car Gerline breathed her last breath. The mother and father were devastated and Brad and Vanessa were forever changed by this experience. They later learned the little girl had died because her parents put all of their hope and money in a voodoo priest so they had no money to buy Gerline food. As they traveled back to the United States both Brad and Vanessa kept hearing the same voice from God saying, “Win Haiti for Christ”! So they were obedient and in 1998 they moved to Haiti. All that there was on compound at the time was one small building and the army came to Haiti and told them that they would build them a school building and if they used it for school they would come back and build another. So Brad and Vanessa faithfully started a school in the building, but a few weeks in they realized the students were fainting in class and had orange hair due to malnutrition. They knew they had to do something in order to help the students to receive the education and nutrition they needed so they hired a woman to grind peanuts to create something like peanut butter and put it on bread for the students. Within weeks their orange hair was gone and the students were no longer fainting in class. This was the start of their nutrition program, which now feeds around 55,000 students one hot meal each day. The army also came back and built more school buildings for them and the school is now thriving. Around 1,200 students now attend the Mission of Hope School and it is in the top 5% of all schools the country of Haiti. All the students who attend the school are taught the gospel each day and are fully exposed to Christ’s love in so many different ways. In addition to the school and nutrition program Mission of Hope serves the people of Haiti in so many different ways. They have an orphanage with around 65 kids ranging in age from babies to about 17. There is also an aspect of Mission of Hope called Haiti One, which is working to create partnerships and unite other non profits in order to fully reach and win all of Haiti for Christ. A prosthetics lab is also another way that Mission of Hope serves the people of Haiti. All of the prosthetics that are given away are free to those who need them. This is such an amazing opportunity to provide hope because in Haiti if a person is an amputee they do not have many opportunities and are seen more as a burden and like they are unable to contribute to society. Mission of Hope however, gives them hope with the ability to walk again and a sense of worth and that they truly do matter. Due to the great number of amputees after the earthquake many people were unable to provide for their families. Therefore, a business called three cords was started in order to help women who are amputees or have a family member who is an amputee to earn a living. These women are all women who have come through our own prosthetic lab and they have learned to sew and create headbands, purses, hair accessories, and bracelets to sell. The business is thriving now and is fully funded by their own profits. If you want to see any of the products they make you can visit 3cordshaiti.org. This list is pretty exhaustive and long, but there is still more that Mission of Hope is doing. They have a fully Haitian run and fully functioning clinic. Through this clinic they are able to provide affordable health care to the people of Haiti because most hospitals only provide help to the wealthier class because the others are not able to afford it. While the patients are waiting they are able to hear the gospel through the Jesus Film and are prayed with during their visit with a doctor. Mission of Hope also has two other properties called Leveque and Bercy. In Leveque they started something called MOH 500. All that means is that they are in the process of building and providing 500 homes for all of the people who were relocated to Leveque due to the earthquake and are living in tent homes. Currently around 300 have been built and all of the homes are built by Haitians. This is amazing because it is rather difficult to find work and provide for a family in Haiti and the building of the houses provides jobs for a great deal of men.  Bercy is basically going to be a smaller model of the main Mission of Hope campus that I live on now. They will have an orphanage, a school, an old folks home, a pastor training center, and an agricultural school. Now I have come to the main aspect and driving force of all that Mission of Hope is doing. That is the Church of Hope. It is such an amazing place and by far the best church I have ever been to. Everything they do is focused on Christ and bringing Him the glory. They believe that everything we do, the ways we serve, and the relief that is provided should go through the church. This is because they don’t want things to be focused on or reliant on the North Americans coming in to save or fix things with money, but they want Haitians to serve and help Haitians so it will all be focused on Christ and not man.

I sincerely hope that this has helped you to gain a better understanding of the amazing organization that I am working for. And I pray that through my posts you will truly be able to see and understand the incredible ways God is working through all of the different aspects of the Mission in order to win Haiti for Him and for Him to be glorified through it all. Until next time!