Imperial Valley Hope for Haiti teams with Lifeline

This is my second time staying at the Lifeline. If you’ve ever traveled to a developing country and back, you’ll know that when you go home, certain things imprint on your mind, often it’s a face maybe a face of a hungry child or a sick woman. I was here last month and while I was back in the US, the face of a little malnourished girl named Jaline stayed with me and her pictures impacted and inspired new donations and compassionate prayer partners.

When I returned this time I was able to visit the orphanage of Pastor Louissaint where the little girl had stayed and her sister still lives. Lifeline is providing food for the children now so that they receive two meals a day. They have also helped to transfer Jaline to an orphanage in Port au Prince where she can receive special attention and care and she is soon to be adopted to a couple that visits Lifeline. There is nothing more encouraging than to be a part of a place that is making a difference, especially in the lives of those faces you remember. When Lifeline sees a need, they seek to meet that need whether it’s a starving child, discouraged mother or jobless father. They can’t do everything, but for this community, they are a true Lifeline.

I am a part of Imperial Valley Hope for Haiti. We are a small community organization that started shortly after Ryan Rothfleisch, our director, came to Haiti after the earthquake.

He and others have been going back and forth, trying to help and making our community aware of Haiti’s needs. We did not have a place for our ministry to call home or friends to call partners until December when we stayed at the Lifeline. We are now partnering with Lifeline and are building an orphanage in Barbancourt on land adjoined to the Lifeline Barbancourt school. This week a team of four—three farmers and a pastor—are overseeing the rest of the foundations for the support buildings on the sight where they laid our main orphanage building in December.

It is my fourth day today and so much has already been accomplished. The men and their Haitian team of workers have poured four foundations and hope to set more.

I went into town to get prices on all of the items we’ll need to raise funds for from potty-training potties to refrigerators as well as gained invaluable knowledge and experience by spending time with Pat and Carrie at the mission. In just one day here, I saw burns treated, wounds cleaned with Carrie and went with Donald to take a girl to a nearby clinic for a TB test. Things that would take months to learn about in a class happen all in one day here. It had been such a blessing to know that my one week here is not just me seeing something and leaving but I know that while I am gone, Lifeline continues to make a long-term difference in the lives of those in their community and beyond.

Once the orphanage is finished I will be coming down to be the US administrator and I am so thankful that I will have Pat and Donald just down the road and that I will be working in the wonderful community I have begun to build a relationship with. I’m looking forward to being a part of assisting the community in finding solutions and helping volunteers that come be a part of a long-term effort.

-Candice DeGeus

**To follow Jaline's story of adoption, follow their blog at http://www.sixhendos.blogspot.com/.