A picture says a thousand words

Here's a few pictures from my first full day in Haiti. We spent time with some of the partnerships we started two years ago. Most of the Haitians leading these ministries are not taking a salary from the ministry and are in fact spending most of their own hard earned money to keep things running. I spent time with some Godly heroes today - sacrificing more than I could dream because God gave them a dream. It's a humbling experience...we give some money and our teams help build stuff, play with kids a while, and try to come alongside them and serve...they give every minute of their lives and all their personal resources!

Maxo (in green) had a vision to start a school in his community. 2 years ago, we started helping him build some classrooms. He now has 4 teachers, 4 classrooms, and an unending vision to start more. He has become the man of influence in that community and oozes the love of Jesus to those kids. This week we're pouring a couple concrete floors, and spending a lot of time playing with the kids.

Here's one of his classrooms in action. One of our teams designed those desk/chair units. Another team this week is going to build a bunch more desks for another partner ministry.



Madaam Christian (laying down) is 40 years old and runs an orphanage down the road from Maxo called New Horizons. she is serving some of the poorest of the poor. She's on bedrest until May, when her baby is due. Her husband is a local pastor, and they live in a tent on this property. Here she is...managing her orphanage from a makeshift bed set up in the middle of the courtyard.

I think she could use a new pack-n-play. I think I'll have our Witchita team design and build one next week. Yes...there's a little infant boy sleeping in there. This is her only crib, shared by a couple different infants.

Madaam Christian sitting up to love on one of the kids. Does that look a little bit like what you might imagine Jesus' smile to look like?



This is the only boy's sleeping quarters. We built it a couple years ago. Now 18 boys are sleeping in this room...plus there's a leak right in the middle of the room. Starting Monday, we'll fix the leak and build her a second classroom. Hopefully soon, we can build her another dorm for the boys.

This is what the boys dorm looks like from the outside. 18 boys!

Remember Greg and Jasmine Martinson. When I met Jasmine 2 years ago, her orphanage had just been flattened in the earthquake and she had 34 kids sleeping under hot tents in a big open field. We built her one shelter....and after I left, our teams continued to build. Now the whole field is filled with comforable buildings. Since I last visited, she has had over 1000 people coming in teams to help her out. One church donated enough money for her to buy land and start planning to rebuild. Another church just decided to sponsor her food costs for a year (to the tune of $3500/month). Another lady is securing a $25,000 grant to pay for converting her entire orphanage to solar power. This is probably the best run orphanage we've partnered with...filled with some of the happiest kids we've seen. Her orphanage is called Operation Love the Children of Haiti (OLTCH)

This is the inside of one of the living quarters we built for them.

One of those happy kids.

The kitchen and dining room we built. There's Steve Spellman playing an intense game of "Memory" with one of the boys.

Pray for Greg and Jasmine. They are facing some pretty intense spiritual attack on about three different fronts. Oh, and women of Rosemont - these are the kids that are getting the clothes and toys you sent. Big hugs from Greg and Jasmine!