Presidental Elections

Tonight we saw a good reminder to pray for the upcoming elections. We saw hundreds of people marching in a demonstration for their favorite candidate for president, Jude Celestin. They were singing, shouting, playing instruments, all to raise attention.

Celestin is current President Rene Preval’s hand-picked successor in the November elections. He is only one of at least nineteen different candidates. The election will take place on November 28^th. One of the biggest questions for the candidates seems to be, how will you handle the billions of dollars sent to Haiti for earthquake recovery? Haiti needs so much help and with the right president in office, it can turn around and be the country we all know it can be. Haiti can rise up and be better then it was before the disaster. Please join with us in praying for the next president of Haiti and that he works as a man of integrity.

Kids and Adults Against Hunger

This morning we were able to bless an elderly man with some food.

For many elderly men and women in this area, life is very difficult. They aren’t able to live off of social security, there are no nursing homes, there are no soup kitchens, there are no homeless shelters, there is nothing for them when they are in need. The only hope that the elderly have is that their kids or grandchildren can help them receive food, housing and help them provide for their other needs. A sweet man came to us this morning with a wounded thumb. The man didn’t grimace in pain once as his wound was cleaned and bandaged, but the entire time the man was shaking. We could tell the man was very hungry. He asked us if we were able to help him with some food because he had a son to die recently and he himself wasn’t able to work. We could see that the man obviously was in no way able to provide for himself so he was left to the mercy of any kind soul who would help him. Praise the Lord that we have Kids Against Hunger food. We were able to bless the man with some food to sustain him for awhile. We gave him a rice sack and packed it up with the KAH food. We are so grateful to have been blessed with this food so we can in turn give it to those who are in need. While Lifeline’s main target is to help take care of the children, this valuable food also goes to helping feed the elderly such as this man, the widows, and the disabled. What a blessing it is to be able to extend a hand to someone in such great need.

Love Bundles

Today we were able to bless Lifeline’s high school students with love bundles. They were so happy to receive such a needed gift. Thank you so much to the kind people who have sent us love bundles. We appreciate them more then we can say! The love bundles Lifeline handed out today were separated by age and had all kinds of wonderful things in them such as a simple plan of salvation pamphlet in Haitian Creole, clothing items, hygienic essentials (soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, and shampoo), brush, comb, towel, washcloth, school supplies, and a jar of peanut butter. To them, it was like an early Christmas. These kids are in such need for basic items such as these. We take these things for granted, but to these kids, they are of utmost importance. Love bundles are one great way for you to be a part of our ministry here in Haiti. It’s a great way to share the love of God with the people here. If you’d like to know more information on how you can help the people of Haiti by sending love bundles, please email us at missionlifeline@bellsouth.net.

What a Difference a Sponsor Makes

This family of five in desperate need came to Lifeline in hopes of receiving help. As God would have it the very evening they came, a heart-felt man happened to be visiting at Mission Lifeline and took it upon his heart to sponsor not one, not two, not even three, but the whole family. It was the mother’s hope and desire that her children could attend school. That was her original request as she approached the Lifeline School’s director, Sentil. He quickly worked to make calculations as to what it would cost to allow four of the school-age children to attend. They needed uniforms, registration fees, and the yearly school fee. Thankfully this man along with kids from his Detroit inner-city youth program stepped up to the plate to provide the needs for this special family. What divine timing God had that night. Here is what the family looked like before sponsorship.



This is the children in their school uniforms now that they’re able to attend school.
Today this is children and their mother coming to church (wearing their new clothes that the team from Ohio just left!)
What a difference their sponsor made in the lives of this poverty-stricken family. It’s a blessing for us to watch the transformation that takes place when a giving heart makes the wonderful decision to support and help a family such as this one. If you'd like to help change lives by sponsoring a child or an entire family, please email lifelinedw@bellsouth.net.

Anthony's Post

After our morning devotion most of the team packed Love Bundles and VBS supplies for our visits to the orphanages. Several of us went into the village to install a door that we built for a widow; she has been living in her home without a door and only had an old sheet to cover the opening.
Following that, we assembled the team and went to the first stop - Barbancourt School. A well kept property in a neighboring village owned and managed by Lifeline. We sorted the love bundles by age and gender and proceeded to distribute them to the youngest children first from preschool to 6^th grade. The children were beautiful, dressed in their uniforms, they smiled and carried their packages while posing for a quick photo. Even the teachers and cooks received the love bundles. All were very thankful.
Our next visit was to a Tent Orphanage also supported by LifeLine. Up until May of this year the 32 orphans that lived there were living and sleeping in tents. Now several beautiful dorms are providing shelter and living conditions to these beautiful children. After a brief worship service we began our VBS program. We split-up the girls and boys and began crafts. Our team members either worked with the girls building colorful bracelets or the boys making necklaces. They all participated and appreciated their new gift. The team was then treated to a drama by a local youth troop that performed an awesome drama about the difficulties of life’s troubles and temptations to the backdrop of the song “Everything” by Lifehouse. It was awesome. After that we handed out candy to all the children and headed out.

Our last stop was for a little R&R after a very busy week; our destination was Wahoo Beach Club in the Northwest corner of the island. We had a great time snorkeling around beautiful coral reefs, colorful parrot fish, and even saw a few jellyfish. After snorkeling we had a great dinner of fresh seafood and did a little shopping from the beach vendors waiting like barracuda.

We had a wonderful day, a week of blessings that will last forever, and a desire to bless Lifeline and the Haitian people.

Day Two of Food

This morning started off with two trucks full of Kids Against Hunger boxes showing up just as everyone started to eat breakfast. So we dropped everything and headed down to unload, it took just under two hours with great teamwork.

We were then off to VBS with the 2nd and 3rd graders. What a fun and uplifting experience it was to work with the kids. We taught them Jesus Loves Me with hand signs. It was awesome how quickly they learned and how excited they were to have us there. After the song Colleen taught them about how much God loves us all and how he makes us all unique. Then we helped them paint wood cut out hands with their thumbprint on them to show how they are each unique and made special by God. Another group taught the same lesson to the other class, but made little people out of paint stirrers, that were all different and unique just like the children.

We then headed over to the storage building, next to where the much needed new warehouse will be, to hand out love bundles. It was so wonderful to see their faces as we handed them out. During this time there were some kids from the village on the outside of the fence watching and they caught Pat’s eye so she had someone bring them around so we could give them love bundles also. That was really special, they were so grateful to have been included. Those sweet sad little faces staring at us from the other side of the fence became faces of joy. I really am struck by the hearts of those that run this place and how quickly needs are addressed and taken care of. Anytime anyone comes up to the house cut, scraped, burned, or bruised everything is dropped to take care of their needs, weather it be bandaging or a run to the hospital.

After lunch we went to a tent city near Titanyen to hand out beans and shoes. What a good feeling to know at least for a day or two these people would have food to eat.
Next came the shoes, everyone lined up and we fitted them individually at one of several stations. There is a tremendous need for school/closed toe shoes here, the kids are not allowed into school without proper attire, flip flops cannot be worn to school.

After we were finished at the tent city we headed back to the mission for dinner. After dinner, people were getting showered and relaxing and another two trucks of food showed up that needed to be unloaded right away. Crazy right, 6 trucks equaling 3 shipping containers in two days. But what a blessing to have a group here to help unload! Praise God, He is good, all the time!!!!! Bless Haiti and their wonderful people!!!

Day of Food

It was a day of food. This morning started off with a rush at 6:30 AM by unloading two truck loads full of an assortment of t-shirts, flour, sugar, shoes, canned goods, baby food, oil…even a dryer! God is so good! Our team worked together, forming two lines to quickly unload the rest of our supply; a truck load and a half of 50 pound bags of beans. We are blessed to have donors that give such generous support! Later we went to market and saw all sorts of culinary delights! We passed everything from small pyramids of fruits and vegetables spread on blankets to several wheel barrows full of coconuts. We made our way to the charcoal fields where they have bags and bags full of charcoal to sell. Many people cannot afford gas or propane, so they use charcoal to light their fires to cook their food.After painting and some small repairs around the mission, we finished the evening with a Haitian style meal. The team feasted on rice and beans, goat, chicken, beets, pasta salad, fried plantains, and a few other dishes. It was very extravagant and delicious. It was the perfect ending to our day of food.
-Chewie and Kendra

Hannah's Post

Haiti is an amazing place. It is very beautiful. There are great people here. They are the nicest people you will ever meet. God has touched my heart so many times this trip by seeing all the kids and watching them live their lives. If it would be me, I would not make it. They walk with 50 pound bags full of different things on their head without a problem. We hiked up a mountain today.
We have made benches for the past few days for the mountain people so we brought them up today. We hiked and someone else brought the benches up on the truck. We were hiking and a girl got sick. She decided to tough it out. She is a really good role model. We all prayed over her and she got better almost instantly. She was still feeling sick when we started again but better than before. It took us two hours to get up the mountain. We got to the school and had a devotional. We were praying over a girl and her family and I started feeling sick. They instantly started praying over me, I felt very loved and special, the color restored in my face and I felt a little better. God does wonders! The girl who was sick and I rode back down in the truck and instantly fell asleep. I woke up and built more benches. I felt A LOT better. We built benches and painted class rooms. Dinner was delicious! We had a ‘meeting’ time and Donald Jr. (the president of Lifeline) answered a lot of questions. Tomorrow is market day and we will also have Haitian food for dinner. It is so exciting! Haiti is an awesome place. You should come sometime!

- Hannah Heismann

Benches, Bible Study, & Bercy

Today was a great day working with the team from Ohio. They all worked together to build ten school benches for some schools here who are in great need of them.

They also did a Bible study with one of the classes at Lifeline’s school here in La Digue. They talked about how each one of the children was made special and how God loves them and they are to love each other. The kids had fun decorating crosses to remember to love one another the way Christ loves us.

This evening we all went to the Bercy Orphanage where the team spent some time playing with and loving on the kids. The kids had a blast playing with the new people.

Tomorrow we are all climbing up the mountain to Petit Bois to give them some of the benches that were built today. Climbing up the mountain is always a great experience and we’re looking forward to the trip tomorrow!

Arrival of Ohio Team

Today a team from Ohio arrived to spend a week working with Lifeline. We are so excited to have them here. Some have been here before and for others this is a first time. After they got settled in we took them on a walk through our village and to the dam. The kids in the village were so excited to see new people to love on.

When we got to the dam we were saddened to see that Hurricane Tomas had broken the dam. Dirty water was flowing through it with great force. It completely busted through the rebar. It was a strange sight to see.

But we are grateful that no one was injured when it happened. As this week goes on, pray for the team that is here that they have a great week and that God moves on their hearts. We’re looking forward with anticipation to see what God has in store for this week! If you’re interested in coming to Haiti on a short-term mission trip and have the experience of a lifetime, email us at missionlifeline@bellsouth.net.

No More Cold Nights

Due to the cold rains of Hurricane Tomas, nights have been abnormally cool for Haiti. On top of that, many of the homes here have leaks in their roofs and the rains have been pouring in at night getting people and their belongings wet. Thankfully we had some blankets that we were able to pass out to some of those in our village today. They were so grateful to receive them knowing they can now be comfortable at night and not spend the night lying awake shivering in the cold. Who would have thought that Haiti would be cold enough for blankets, but we are so grateful that we had them to pass out to those in our village who needed them for these chilly nights. Praise the Lord for blankets!

Hurricane Tomas

Once again, Haiti is has found itself in another tragic situation with floods from Hurricane Tomas. Praise the Lord that Lifeline’s village of La Digue was only hit with pounding rain but very minimal damage. Some homes had a little bit of water damage. Many are having to wade through much water in order to get in their houses. Even in hurricane rains, the children still lined up outside the gate to come to Lifeline’s feeding center. As we watched our children come in the gate, they were all cold, wet and muddy yet still happy and anxiously running to come to eat the one meal they would eat for the day. While we were being hit with rain here, Leogane was being pummeled with hurricane winds and rains even more intensely. Leogane was the epicenter of the earthquake and now was also one of the worst-hit areas in the hurricane along with Gonaives. Four people died as a result of the floods. Much of the city of Leogane is now under water. Missions all across the country are scrambling to help those affected by this tragic hurricane. The US Military deployed the USS Iwo Jima to offer their help and relief supplies as well. The cholera epidemic could now possibly worsen as these new flood waters form a perfect breading ground for the disease. These dear people have been hit with so much tragedy this year. Please continue to keep Haiti in your prayers. God is not finished with this country yet!!

Urgent Prayer Request

We’ve been watching the approach of Hurricane Tomas as it gets closer and closer. We are making preparation in every way that we know getting our diesel and groceries in any event we will be unable to go to Port-au-Prince for our business affairs. From time past we are very much aware that the prices of things sky rocket and there are shortages of goods and there is even a possibility of not being able to go to Port at all. In knowing that, we need everyone to pray for the safety of the mission and all of Haiti. There are still 1.3 million people living in tent cities. Those tents won’t be able to withstand hurricane winds. With the rain, many areas often flood which will again increase the chances of cholera as well as destroy all of the few belongings they’ve acquired since the earthquake. In all of this, we know God is in control and it’s comforting to know that we know the One True God that holds us in the palm of his hand.

First Egg!

Today we celebrated a small but happy victory for Lifeline, our first egg! We’ve had chickens for about two months but they haven’t laid any eggs yet so we were so excited to see our first egg in the coop. Eventually when they lay enough eggs, we are going to use them in our canteen to feed our school children. Eggs are a great source of protein especially for children who suffer from malnutrition. We’re hoping these eggs can provide a great source of nourishment for the children who eat at Lifeline. Lord willing this one egg is the beginning of many more to come!