I’m sure no one checks this blog anymore, since Gerson hasn’t updated it since last July…but I (Heather) thought it was about time for a new post– just a little update. We took a 2-week trip to Haiti over Gerson’s Christmas break, and are now planning our next trip for this summer. We have a lot of ideas and plans, and though we’re not sure how everything is going to play out, we are excited about the possibilities.
On our last trip, we were able to purchase about 3 acres of land in a small community called Magranbwa. This will be the site for our first project, an elementary school.



We had a couple of meetings with the people in the community while we were there. On our next trip, we hope to spend some time talking with individuals and families, to get to know the people and the needs of the community better.

I was just reading through an email update I sent out last year. Here is an excerpt, which summarizes our focus in this ministry…
We want to bring hope to the Haitian people, and we want to share God’s love with them in a real and tangible way. Daily life is such a struggle for most who live in Haiti, and we want to help them meet the many challenges they face. The focus for our work is going to be in two main areas– education and sustainable agriculture.
*Education is a valuable resource that is sorely lacking in Haiti, especially in the area we plan to work in. We want to provide educational opportunities at every level—from elementary school to a college to continuing education for adults. Our main emphasis will be on building Christian character in our students, and our goal is to raise not only church leaders, but leaders of various kinds that will positively impact the future of the country as a whole. We want to offer degrees in areas like theology, business, agriculture, health care, and social work….to give people the resources they need to turn around and make a difference in their own community.
*Hunger is the most obvious physical problem plaguing the country of Haiti. It is absolutely heart-breaking to see the effects, both physical and emotional, of poverty-induced hunger. I am sure any of you who have been to a third-world country have had the same reaction as me– “We have to do something about this!” We believe this issue can be better addressed by working to enable people to provide for themselves than by merely handing out food. The majority of the country’s food is imported, which leaves them vulnerable to rising food costs and creates a dependence on the rest of the world. We want to help the people of Haiti to become more independent and self-sufficient, able to provide for their own families and communities. We plan to do this by developing an agricultural program that focuses on educating farmers, rehabilitating farm land, building refineries, and providing mechanical farm equipment. We also hope to buy a commercial fishing boat at some point, to take advantage of this largely untapped resource for food, as most parts of Haiti are on or near the coast. (So if any of you happen to be selling a commercial fishing boat, please let us know!)
We know that we can only do so much ourselves– which is why we want to empower the Haitians themselves to change their own communities and country. There are many who want to make a difference in their country, who would love to help bring about change– and we want to give them the opportunities to do that. This is the vision for our work in Haiti.



