Sweet Children

Warm Greeting at the House of Blessing

The children at the main house of blessing in Port-au-Prince gave our team the warmest, sweetest greeting when we first arrived. They wouldn't stop hugging us, holding our hands and sitting in our laps. Very sweet children.

Arriving

Ready to leave Newark for Port-au-Prince

In Port-au-Prince on the drive from the airport

The view in front of us while driving on the wrong side of the street:

Generous, Generous Church

In addition to having all of our team's travel expenses covered--including $700 or so of hardware (e.g. screws, brackets, drill bits & saw blades) we will carry with us, Amherst Baptist Church has provided over $8000 which will go toward the bunk bed project. Pastor Scott: "Color me stunned, excited, blessed... Praise God for His glorious provision!"

Bunk Beds!

It looks like the main project for the ABC Haiti Missions Team will be the construction of bunk beds for orphans in the under-construction orphanage in Les Cayes. We still need a few thousand more dollars to cover costs for lumber, metal corner braces, wood screws, and mattresses. If you are able to contribute toward this effort, we would greatly appreciate. Please contact Amherst Baptist Church if you are able to help. Thanks!

2010 Haiti Earthquake

In January, 2010, a catastrophic 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti near Port-au-Prince, the nation's capital. The Haitian government reported that an estimated 316,000 people died, 300,000 were injured and 1,000,000 were made homeless by the quake. Tens of thousands of building collapsed, most of which have not been rebuilt two years later. Thousands of people still live in tents and other make-shift structures put together out of whatever material people could find.

A cholera outbreak that began in October, 2010, and continued through the end of 2011 has claimed some 6,000 lives, adding to the misery caused by the earthquake. To make matters worse, only a very small percentage of international aid that had been pledged has actually been delivered, and the reconstruction effort has been widely criticized by international aid agencies.

ABC Teaming up with TeamOne27 Ministries

The ABC Haiti Missions Team will be teaming up with TeamOne27 (http://www.teamone27.org/), a ministry started by Mark Gillette, Pastor Scott's brother. Mark has a true heart for Haiti. He used to serve as the short-term missions director for his church and now works as a part-time electrician. He works just enough in the U.S. to enable him to go to Haiti about once a month. There he serves as a contractor who takes money from U.S. churches and some relief organizations and turns it into construction projects. He also coordinates support and mission trips from churches in the U.S., such as ours.

TeamOne27 packed the bus in the picture on the left full of needed supplies and shipped the entire bus to Haiti to be used in the transport and care of children in Haiti.

One project that TeamOne27 has been heavily involved in is training Haitian workers to use a substance called 'Permacrete' to turn temporary plywood housing into permanent homes. Permacrete is a half-concrete, half-polymer substance that is twice as strong as aluminum but flexible. It is fire-proof, water-proof, bullet-proof and can withstand winds up to 200 mph. Coating a simple plywood house all around with Permacrete is a simple and highly cost-effective way to provide needed housing for Haitians. The teams of workers that Mark trains to use Permacrete also get the benefit of much-needed employment.