Back to Fall

Fall is a busy time of year at the HOH and this year it seemed to come especially fast. Some of our students only got a couple of weeks of holidays and then it was back to school. This year we have 6 new Kindergarten students (the whole front row in the picture) and the learning curve for getting everyone out the door in the morning felt overwhelming at times. But here we are a month and a bit into it and things are running much more smoothly.

We were so thankful to everyone who helped us get the needed supplies for school this year. Some people went on our Amazon list and purchased things we needed (for example, the backpacks in the picture). Another supporting church had their VBS offering this year go towards purchasing school shoes. For some of our kids, this was the first time they’ve ever had a new pair of shoes, the excitement was palatable!

Another point of excitement in our home is the eager waiting for the arrival of the new mattresses. Our campaign to raise funds for new mattresses over the summer went really well. So many of you joined in and enough funds were raised to get new mattresses for each of the beds at the HOH. These have been purchased and are being stored by friends in Miami until we can get them shipped into Haiti. Some of them are currently on their way but stuck on the boat that has a broken motor. We can do nothing but wait for that to get fixed and the mattresses to get back on their way. Once they arrive, we will have pictures for you all to enjoy!

In the meantime, our partnering group, Friends of Humanity for Haiti has been running a campaign to try and get us new bedding for these new mattresses. Again, many people have stepped up and purchased pillows, sheets and mattress covers off their Amazon Gift registry for us. There are still some needed, so if you didn’t get to participate but would like to, you can find that gift registry here.

One last item of thanksgiving that we would like to share with you is that a couple of weeks ago, after hearing the Good News of Jesus shared during our Sunday School time, 19 of our kids/youth came to know Jesus. The kids in the picture here are listening to Linda share the Gospel and some are the ones who chose to believe this good news and put their faith in Jesus. At a time when things often appear so hopeless in their personal lives and in the country around them, what a joy to be able to offer the ultimate expression of Hope in Jesus to these precious kids.

You have likely heard a bit about Haiti on the news these past few weeks as things continue to deteriorate there in many ways. Linda finds it a challenge every day to find and pay for food. The dwindling supplies has been felt most particularly since almost no supplies have been able to come across the land border with the Dominican Republic. This along with continued insecurity, gang violence and many Haitians leaving the country by any means possible, causes a level of stress on daily life that can be all-consuming.

We must daily remind ourselves that our Heavenly Father is faithful. He has taken such good care of us in the past and will continue to do so. We continue to trust in Him with faith each and every day. But this level of constant stress has been taking a toll on the HOH kids and youth. Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve had to deal with numerous issues, and it made us realize just how much our kids need prayer. We would like to invite you to join us in daily prayer for each one of the kids in our care.

We are starting a new prayer group specific for this. We will supply you with specific kids to pray for each day and we hope to send out specific prayer requests each week. This will be different from the Facebook group and the emails sent out with more general prayer requests. If you are interested in taking part of this, please contact us (houseofhopehaiti1@gmail.com) and let us know you would like to pray with us in this specific way. Also, let us know how many kids you would like to pray for daily by name – we currently have 84 kids, so we have room for many of you to help us out in this way.

We couldn’t do this work without you, our partners, helping in so many ways. Thank you to those of you who continually help us out with financial gifts. Thank you to those who pray for us regularly and encourage us often. Thank you to those who have helped with specific projects and sent us things we need. We are a team, bringing hope to so many in need of it, thank you for your part!