Welcome to Ambassadors for Christ in Haiti

CHURCHES There has been much activity in the 4 churches lately. Pastor Gilbert Jules held a pastor leadership training with 200 pastors attending. There was a revival held in the village of Bellanger with many people attending each night. There were special Christmas parties and services held at each of the churches also. In a village where there is no running water and no electricity and a very long distance to any type of distractions the people often turn to one of two things. Voodoo provides a type of social interaction for the people. There is music, drinking and entertainment. The Church is the other alternative to this. When Pastor Gilbert started planting churches he picked areas with the highest rate of voodoo worshipers and planted his church right next door to their temple. The Church is a very large part of the social makeup of the village. Meetings are held there, holiday gatherings are there, children attend school during the week there, feeding programs are held there on Saturdays and of course, weddings, funerals and Bible studies and Church services are there. It is very important to the whole village to help keep these Churches alive and well and keep the doors open. A donation would help pay the pastors and keep the church doors open. It was exciting to hear one lady get up and give her testimony about having been a voodoo leader and how she became a Christian. She is now working hard to help others to become believers also. Then after the church service the pastor approached us and asked if we had any spare clothes with us. I asked what size and it was medium men’s size. Yes, we did as the boys wore that size and were leaving their clothes in Haiti when we left. The pastor told us that a man who always wore ladies clothing had come to him to be baptized and wanted to change his ways and he did not have any men’s clothing to wear so he could attend church. We gladly left some for him! SCHOOLS: Our American economy effects what we do in Haiti. Donations have been down here so we had to tighten our budget. We went to the parents of the school children and explained that we needed help. We asked them to contribute to the tuition for their children’s education. We now use the tuition to pay for the teacher’s salary instead of ACH paying it. A teacher may make as much as $50 U. S. each month. An average Haitian makes between $1 and $2 a day. We are asking for $5 a month for each student. This is very difficult for the parents to come up with but it was the only solution we could find in these economic times. We are still supplying pencils, paper, crayons, etc to each of the schools to help ease the burden. We have lost some students but we have also given scholarships to others. It is very heartbreaking to visit the schools and see as many as 20 children and even adults sometimes lined up around the fence looking in at the school and learning what they can that way. If you want to sponsor a teacher let us know. We will send pictures of your sponsored teacher. WATER PROJECT A school had used “Help Haiti” rubber wrist bracelets as a fund raiser. After selling them they still had a box left. Jonah Settle, a senior last year, decided to take them to his school and sell them. After gaining permission he sat up a stand and sold bracelets one week. He raised almost all the money needed to purchase a water purification system for the village of Bellanger. Josue’ Michel put the system in, using the knowledge he gained while attending Servants in Faith and Technology (SIFAT) in Alabama last year. ctures and info about your teacher to you. Containers have been very difficult to get into Haiti since the new president took office there. It cost $10,000 to ship a 40 foot container to Haiti. On top of that the Haitian government is asking for a deposit of $6,500 to release the container from the docks. The deposit will be returned but a friend of ACH paid this amount last May and still hasn’t received the deposit back. It is a very slow process. We have enough items to ship at least one container but can not afford to tie up that much money into it. FEEDING PROGRAM We had sent food to Haiti and also were blessed by donations from Lifeline mission in Haiti with food. But to prepare the food costs money. We have to buy the charcoal for cooking, buy spices, water and drinks. We have to pay a small amount to the ladies that cook the food. Several years ago as we ran clinic we saw many, many, children with orange tinted hair ~ a sign of severe malnourishment. Since providing the children with the Saturday feeding program and also serving lunch several days a week we noticed in Clinic that the number of malnourished children had decreased, but we were still seeing very malnourished infants. We can only believe it was because the infants were not yet in our feeding program. We were offered baby formula that was for the malnourished babies but because of the shipping we had to turn it down. Please pray that the shipping rules relax soon so we may once again ship food to the feeding programs and schools. CLINIC In March a group went and ran clinic for 4 days. Many Haitians were suffering from tummy aches and had cholera. Haiti is a very dusty place and there are many respiratory infections. Bathing is often done in the stream and skin infections and ringworm are common ailments. Mosquitoes are a very big problem and cause many problems such as malaria. We now have a doctor and dentist who come on a regular basis to the clinic. We are so grateful for this. If you would like to contribute to the buying of medicines it would be appreciated. CHARCOAL Josue' Michel traveled to Servants in Faith and Technology (SIFAT) in Alabama from August to November 2010 and learned many things he was able to take back to Haiti and teach others. He learned water purification which he used when he installed the water purifier at Belanger. He also learned how to make charcoal, a major source of fuel used in cooking in Haiti. He taught charcoal making in Belanger and here a man proudly displays the results. Haiti has lost as much as 98 percent of their trees due to them being cut down to use to make charcoal. This method of charcoal making does not cut down trees but uses resources readily available. Besides helping the environment, the students now have a skill they can use to earn a living! Thank you Josue' Michel for being such a faithful servant! OUT HOUSE During the earthquake we were given a donation with the stipulation that it help a lot of people and be a lasting, long term project. After seeing the needs following the earthquake many of the immediate needs were for food, tents etc. This did not fit the criteria. But then the cholera came and the largest need was for fresh safe water and outhouses. We were able to supply the water system but we didn’t have an outhouse. It fit the specifications of the donation! It serves many (a 3 holer) and it is lasting (made of concrete bricks).