We Are Moving on

April 13, 2010

Tents – Ike Pinkston of Capital City Christian Church has been facilitated by Project Haiti Heart to send 70 canopy tents to Haiti. Those tents are to arrive in Haiti some time during the week after April 11. In the meantime American Rehabilitation Center made some tent distribution along with World Vision with food distribution to 75 families.

Land purchased – Betty reports that the land to build the kindergarten through high school and university is secured. We are drawing blueprints to build as soon as money is on hand. We are inviting groups to come help us build houses at $15,000 each and school buildings later on.

Office space – The temporary office space is almost completed for occupation. This had to be done because the mission has no office space at this time.

Baptisms: 351 persons were baptized from different churches after January 12, 2010, reports Jonas Dorlus.

Medical care – Some of our trauma patients are recuperating steadily. Rose-Michelle (shown in the pictures) came close to lose her legs, but is now working and needs a place to live. HCM and PHH are working with us on relocating those many unfortunate people.

Education – Schools reopens timidly in the countryside. At Port-au-Prince, very few of them are open because the campuses are occupied by victims.

Translators and employees – These people, who lost their home and have no place to sleep but the floor, yet they work daily to facilitate the operations in Fonds-Parisien in whatever way they can. They must be provided housing. Our Haitian doctors are sleeping on the floor.

Wendy Zehner and Edwens – These two young people are new additions to work nationally and internationally.

Lance-Kingsway Woodworking Shop is now in production. Most tools are bought. Evans Charles is working hard to teach and make furniture.

Sponsorship children – We are still looking for some missing sponsored children. Parents moved away or have no house. Those that we see are living in tent cities and life is just miserable. This is why we need to built for them.

Helping hands – We thank all the groups, churches and individuals from US, Canada, Australia, Barbados and other places around the world that have helped us in the desperate situation after the earthquake. Haiti will revive for the better. God is with us. Thank you and thank you!

With the KINGDOM in mind, the best is yet to come.

Etienne Prophete

HCM Executive Director/ Senior Member of PHH

April 10, 2010

Let Us Move on

After Nehemiah returned from the Babylonian captivity, he did not sit down crying over the rubles of Jerusalem. He said “Come, let us rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and we will no longer be in disgrace” (2:17).  Following the devastating earthquake in Haiti, we could do something or nothing and cry defeat. The do-nothing attitude is unacceptable.   It paralyzes body, mind, and spirit to the point that our system becomes dull and forgets the continued needs.   Jesus said: “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working” (John 5:17). We are thankful to all those who continue raising funds and continue helping REBUILD.  It is imperative that we do not stop now.

1. Housing – The people who are wounded, the homeless and our own Haitian Christian Mission employees who lost their Houses and possessions need shelter. Those left sleeping in the streets are now being rained on and this also spreads disease.  We must provide shelter. This is now as essential as food and medicine.

We are planning a building system of small two to three-room apartments. Those who already have their land will have individual units of the same size. Each unit will have a kitchen and a porch.  Communal outhouses will be built for groupings of ten apartments. Australia has already named their future group “Australian Village of Hope.” We estimate $15,000 will build a unit to include fence, water and maintenance.

We appeal for help.

 We need to rebuild the mission compound that was destroyed in PAP. Offices are needed, places to keep equipment, files and computers for keeping records.

People are moving to Fonds-Parisien and are buying up the land quickly.  We are in the process of buying from 36 to 40 acres of land toward achieving that goal.  The Nehemiah Project is heading up this project, but we need your continued support in rebuilding the mission.

2. Education – Practically all the schools at Port-au-Prince from kindergarten through university are destroyed.  Students will not have a school to attend for years unless we move the schools to the countryside.  Our High school in Port au Prince is damaged beyond repair.  We have children in the sponsorship program as well as other students that have no way to move to another country or town.  It is wise to build the schools at Fonds-Parisien. We must not let the brilliant minds slumber in despair.  The property we hope to purchase will also be a place to build the school.

3. Medical care – The medical-care clientele of Fonds-Parisien is growing up to 250,000 people rapidly. At this time, an average number of patients from 300 to 400 people are seen per day and 4 to 6 babies are born every day in our small hospital.  It is important that the medical facilities be expanded to host the growing clientele.  Project Haiti Heart will help with this project.

4. Invitation to speak – We have a lot on our plate. We need to move on.  Please come join us to build…. Organize work teams….. Do fundraising….. Talk to groups about HCM. Talk to people who can help and tell them we need their help before the situation in Haiti is forgotten.  Invite us to come and present the program.

With the KINGDOM in mind, the best is yet to come.

Etienne Prophete

HCM Executive Director

hcm@southwind.net / hcm@hcmsupport.org / projesus@bellsouth.net

March 22, 2010

After the Quake Then What?

March 13, 2010

It may be easy to sit around and mourn the dead. There is nothing wrong with that.  Or it may be easy to question God over the disaster.  This may not be the right thing to do.  One could even go further to accuse countries and victims of paying a just price for having done the wrong thing in the sight of a righteous God.  That too may be going too far and does not sound very humanitarian.  The quake claimed thousands of lives and left thousands without shelter. 

Now what do we do?

HCM never wants to sit down and wait unless God instructs to do so. We are in the “do business”.  The Haitian government has given a flat number of 288,000 deaths.  Thousands of people are buried under the rubles and cannot be deterred because the bodies rot and stink.  But thousands and even millions that remain alive are incapacitated. As we look at them, some of those who are alive are worse off than dead ones. 

When reality sets in, we see the need to move fast. It is pitiful to look at so many people sleeping on the streets with amputated legs and arms. The tents are crucial now to lodge the people but can only be a temporary solution.  Ike Pinkston, of CCCC in Frankfort KY, is sending 70 canopy type tents. The rainy season is hard on the sick.  The children need to be in school.

Haitian Christian Mission is at the vanguard of what needs to take place with three large projects:

1). Build two or three room houses for the homeless, especially the people and including the children who are missing a limb. A group in Australia led by Steve and Debbie Rasmussen are raising funds for the homes.

2). Build educational buildings from K-12 and on to a university.  The mission lost the school buildings at Port-au-Prince.  Wendy Zehner and Edwens Prophete are leading groups to help fund this project.  HCM needs to provide land. We are in the process of buying from 36-40 acres of land and are asking the Board to authorize the release of available funds sent for Earthquake relief to buy that land. The people who donated for relief would expect us to go on to the next level and fill present needs.

3). Enlarge the hospital capacity by building an emergency unit to welcome the wounded and the sick that are brought in for help. Project Haiti Heart headed by Drs. Geffrard and Young along with a group of doctors in collaboration with Taiwan friends are working on that. That land is available.

4). HCM has lost our offices.  Our Doctor’s family has lost their home, many of the staff are without anywhere to house their families.  The Mission cannot function properly without reliable staff and our faithful staff deserves a place to live.  We need office space and housing for our faithful staff.

We are concerned about transporting the terribly sick, especially the women that have birthing complication, to better equipped hospitals.  We have already lost many of them due to bumpy roads and unfit transportation.  Mike Jernigan of Metro Atlanta Ambulance Service is working on sending an ambulance to the hospital soon. Dr. Guesly Dessieux  has already sent funds for two 15 passenger vans and is raising funds for the remainder of the cost. This will provide transportation for our groups. The vans are already ordered

You see, God is blessing the work in spite of the tragedy that struck Haiti. We thank all the supporters and friends for the help they sent in money, prayer, medicine and food to keep the mission going. You are outstanding, Friends. We love you and keep you preciously in our heart.

With the KINGDOM in mind, the best is yet to come.

Etienne Prophete

HCM Executive Director

Present Needs after the Quake

The massive exodus of the Port-au-Prince dwellers that escape from the quake fate has caused a tremendous burden on the mission. Most people in Haiti are afraid to sleep under the concrete roof. They have seen the human loss and tragedy caused by the quake when roofs caved in on them. They sustain a constant fear of sleeping under a concrete roof.

Because of that the survivors in Port-au-Prince are either sleeping under the stars or leaving the city wandering for a safe haven. Many ladies have been raped by the savage who have no fear of God or whose only way of life is to hurt people regardless of circumstances. Families leave town in large numbers to find a safe place to stay.

Many of them came to us for lodging, food and treatment. An organization called ‘Adventures in Missions’ has given us chunks of food and water. World Vision has also eased our burden in giving us 40 mattresses. But we are far from getting there due to the increasing number of people. 

We are hosting those we never heard of before, people who have come from the Port-au-Prince churches, neighboring people to the mission facilities of Port-au-Prince, those who are acquainted with friends and those who have heard of this campus and need help with food and medicine. Fortunately the KAH (Food against Hunger) has a remaining portion that adds to the feeding solution of the problem. Thanks to God for donors.

The small healthcare unit is full beyond capacity with patients and outpatients.  Those who are dismissed have no home to go to. They were sleeping under the stars with a broken leg or arm or wound. We need to provide them with a temporary place to stay. The only way out is to set up tents because schoolrooms are full with people. But this poses a big question: where can we find the tents?

Besides, those people have no food to eat or water to drink. The provisions made by Adventures in Missions are running down. We need to replenish the stock. So at this time, our pressing needs are: foods of all kinds mainly rice, beans, cooking oil, spaghetti, water, medicine like pain pills, vitamins, cough suppressant, antibiotics, antacid, blood pressure medicine, diabetic medicine and what have you. We seriously need tents because we do not have rooms to lodge the people for recovery.

We need to make life a bit easy for the victims. Monetary gifts to buy food are welcome. The stores are timidly opening their doors, but the debris are still everywhere hindering traffic and displaying the somber memory of a very dark moment in the   Haitian history.

Hope will be restored, we are sure as friends to stand by us. We are overwhelmed but our faith is made stronger. As a matter of fact, we are more than conquerors because we realize that life is nothing without God. We thank all those who support us and are thinking about supporting the mission in this time of despair and great loss. God will certainly bless you!

With the KINGDOM in mind, the best is yet to come.

Etienne Prophete

HCM Executive Director

January 29, 2010      

The January 2010 Earthquake

On January 2010 at 4:22 PM Eastern standard time a terrible earthquake at the scale was at 7.0 Richter hit Haiti. The epicenter was located at Carrefour, a suburb of the city of Port-au-Prince. In seconds the damage could be estimated to more than ten billion dollars. A preliminary count summarily estimates 200,000 deaths.

At that time, some American missionaries and I were heading back to the village of Fonds-Parisien located about one hour away from Port-au-Prince, the capital city of Haiti. While we were joking as usual, we felt that our transporting vehicle was going sideways twisting and dropping up and down like someone walking with a broken leg 

In a sudden, we saw walls tumbling down and electric wires and posts shaking up. .We decided it was an earthquake.

            God is wise in his doings. While we were at the office in Port-au-Prince, I felt the urgency to leave the city to get ahead of the four o’clock of the traffic congestion. It was a wise move inspired by the Spirit of God. We just left the city about 10 to 15 minutes when the tragedy took place leaving behind fallen buildings, cars crushed and people dead under massive concrete blocks.

            On returning to the city two days afterward, we saw bodies swelling and decaying on the streets. Few buildings standing could be spotted. Damages cannot be assessed right now. It is hard to drive through the streets. The survival used the streets for bedrooms. I heard people say: “the dead are better off than some of the living.” They are hungry, thirsty, dirty, smelly and downhearted. The situation is overwhelming. It will take more than a year to rebuild Port-au-Prince and more than two months to find out who is not dead.

            Haitian Christian Mission has lost one pastor Chrispin Pierre, the daughter of Brousseau and maybe others. Some students are dead, but we cannot count the heads yet. The high school building is lost and will need to be rebuilt, the church of Port-au-Prince is seriously damaged, the elementary school is to be rebuilt, the kindergarten is also to be rebuilt and the Primitive church is to be repaired.

            Moreover, many families are to be relocated and homes to be built. Cites like Cabaret, Leogane, Petit-Goave, Jacmel are terribly affected. This 7.3 Richer scale earthquake could have destroyed every life. God spared us to bear witness to the power of nature. We want to be faithful in our witnessing. The four most important buildings at Port-au-Prince: National Palace, Justice Palace, Legislative Palace and the National Tax Collecting Office have succumbed leaving dead bodies that are still under debris..

            This is a summary of the confusion. More is still to come. In the meantime, we are thankful for the International Community, Dominican Republic, and Christian community from around the world that bend over backward to save lives, feed the hungry and treat the wounded. The Fonds-Parisien campus, our office in Port-au-Prince among others are hosting some of the hungry, the wounded and the homeless.  We feel honored even in the midst of our confusion. We will make it and are not giving up.

With the KINGDOM in mind, the best is yet to come.

Etienne Prophete

HCM Executive Director

January 19, 2010

Haitian Christian Mission   Est. 1974                               

“Feeding the Body, the Mind and the Spirit of the Haitian People”

December 9, 2009

Merry Christmas!

Where would we be without our Faithful Donors and Churches?   You are the backbone of HCM!    We cherish our partnership!

This is our 35^th year of providing food to the hungry children and families in Haiti!  We thank you and we want you know that we appreciate you so much!   

HCM would like to ask your help in providing Christmas dinner to as many Haitians as possible.   We want to let them know that they can find new life and eternal hope through the Lord Jesus Christ! 

If your family is like mine, we do not need an extra present nearly as much as the children in Haiti deserve a Christmas dinner!

Every $54 will provide 100 pounds of rice and that will feed 400 children a meal.  “A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.” Proverbs 22:9.

There is no better way to celebrate Christmas than sharing with others!  Please send the most generous gift you can.

Merry Christmas to you and your family,

Judy Spillman

HCM Development Director

P.S. Thank you in advance for your gift to Jesus!!

PO Box 56025   ●   Indianapolis, IN 46256   ●   Phone 317.607.9222   ●   Fax 317. 804.5655   ●   hcm@hcmsupport.org   ●   www.hcmsupport.org  ● All donations go to HCM

A better term would be an ‘ignored’ people’s group. They live at the other side of the lake Azueï touching the border between Haiti and Dominican Republic . Some of these people have been kicked out of Dominican Republic and have settled at that location. Others are flood victims. They are all Haitian citizens but the government authorities do not acknowledge their existence.

How long have they been living there? It is not easy to say. I presume most of the settlers have been there for years, but the flood victims began settlement by 1999 when the floods hit the cities of Fonds-Verrettes and Mapu. At that time 5,000 people lost their lives. The survivors moved there out of necessity. Haiti has a population of 8.5 million people on a surface area of 10,714 square miles. That does not leave much room for people to live.

One of our students brought the area to the attention of Josee and Jonas. Off we went on Monday February 2^nd for a visit. On Saturday we brought Pastor Greg Johnson and Chris Haas of Generations Christian Church there by tugboat. We wanted for Pastor Greg to preach a Christian message to them; it was impossible to appease the hungry crowd. There was much desperation and urgency. Greg preached in two churches and we visited churches, schools and orphanages. My most benefit was his wisdom I tapped                                              on from his mission experience.

We were crushed at seeing the way those people live. They are starving and have no water to drink or to wash. We bought 125 bags of rice of 50 pounds each that we divided into two pound bags for distribution. This totaled 12,500 lbs of rice. The population is estimated at some 15,000 people according to a local person. We thought that quantity would be enough to appease their hunger.

Those people fought like chickens over grain. Everybody wanted to grab whatever he could to take home without considering the needs of their pairs. I was truly embarrassed by the display of that kind of behavior. Sometimes we ask the question: where have the Haitians left their dignity? But when people are desperate, they will do anything to subsist. With all of that, they are considered polite and friendly. Only one man got wild and picked up a rock. He was believed to be crazy.

They are mostly young and middle age people. Not one very old person was seen. Their life is rough. This can be observed by the look of their houses. No church or school building could be noticed. Their adoration takes place in a makeshift wooden sticks walled hut of 10 by 15 feet under a one quarter thatched rusted thin corrugated roof.

These people have to pay a tugboat to come to this side of the lake to draw water. While we were there we noticed several piles of charcoal that Dominicans have brought over to sell. The forests in Haiti are destroyed. As long as the government ignores the existence of those kinds of people’s group, the wound will cut deeper. This shows that we, Christians, have a big job to do. The bible says: when the foundations are destroyed, what will the righteous do? (Ps. 11:3)

Etienne Prophete

HCM Executive Director

February 18, 2009

A 2008 Peaceful Holiday Season in Haiti

The Haitian people were craving for a peaceful holiday season. It finally happened last December. No gunshots were heard during the month. The UN and police forces invaded the streets, thus keeping their promises of helping the people to enjoy a peaceful Christmas and First of the year. According to Henry Brousseau , HCM administrator and the pastor of the Primitive Church , “the streets were calm. The people feasted without incident. They ate food together, sang to the Lord and prayed together.” Jonas Dorlus linked with a sigh of joy and great satisfaction in telling the story of that peaceful Christmas. For the church in Florida , it was a total nightmare of people gathered to worship both for Christmas and New Year.

Knowing what went on for the last four years since 2003, the people had all the reasons in the world to enjoy this past Christmas season. The prayers of the saints work. The Haitian people are thankful for the unselfish prayers of loyal friends abroad. The services lasted until midnight in some churches and in others until one o’clock in the morning. What a joy! Not only had they prayed, but they also ate to their fill as churches and friends sent money in wishing them a season of peace. That reminds me of the year when IDES gave a grant and we fed over 2000 people in just one church. One of the ladies named Leslie came and said: “I never thought I would eat a meal for Christmas. Now I am full and happy. I thank you, Pastor Prophete, and IDES.” That was the last time we were able to have a feast-meal until last December. The thugs invaded the streets but freedom rang again last December. Thank you, Jesus.

Christmas is one of the holidays in Haiti coupled with Voodoo. So the Christians went to church and the Voodoo people went to their badji (shanties for idol worship). Years ago only the Voodoo people celebrated as they also played a role in kidnapping, torturing and killing. Last December, everybody had the chance to participate. We give glory to God and send thanks to all our supporters who prayed and sent money for the people to have the break.

New Year Day is another holiday observed in Haiti . The Christians pray till midnight, sing to the Lord and wish each other ‘Happy New Year’ afterward. Then they go home and eat pumpkin soup. First of the year is the Independence Day for Haiti. So it is another day of celebration. It is also a period when the witch doctors threaten to kill their followers if they do not pay their dues. Some of them allow until January 6^th called Magi Day to pay. Other than that, they will pull the plug and death would be the result. This is a way to keep the people under fear. Christ came to deliver us from servitude (Heb.2:15). So when someone becomes a Christian, he feels free from the snares of the witch doctors. He is happy. What a privilege to be a Christian! We praise God on your behalf for helping us preach the gospel in Haiti . It means freedom to many Haitians.

With the KINGDOM in mind, the best is yet to come.

Etienne Prophete

HCM Executive Director