Giving it back

Worrying comes easy to me. I know I shouldn’t but I do it never the less. This time of the year is always difficult for me. The summer is in full swing, people are away on vacation and the pressures of responsibility for what happens in Haiti creep up on me. Tropical storm Emily, it went away but in my mind I saw the little houses around the feeding centers lose their roofs made of banana leafs. That happens every time I hear of a tropical storm.  I want to do something but have no means.

 The list of needs for the education of the orphans will come in and it always happens when we are real low on money. I get upset about the cost of shoes and uniforms and dream up better and cheaper ways to do it but it always takes second place behind keeping them alive.  All these precious children in the orphanage and the feeding centers, who for every bite of food depend on what is given to Matthew 28.  Staring faces patiently waiting for someone to fill their empty plate. Twenty little legs, bruised, scarred and infected, squeezed together on each side of the tables, resting from the long walk to the feeding center. Little lives God has entrusted to us.

A farmer friend and I were passing by a cornfield today in the car. He mentioned how much corn was selling for. All because of ethanol. Just in one year up 90 percent. The children don’t know what ethanol is. But they do understand what it means if a feeding center is closed.  They know what hunger is.

Last time in May on our way to the orphanage we passed a house outside Hinche.  Pauluis stopped and asked Dr. Doug and me to come with him. We walked up a dangerous set of stairs. In the half dark we found a little boy sitting in a plastic stroller. His name was Jonathan. He had cerebral palsy. The mother did not understand what was wrong with him. Nobody ever told her. She let me pick him up and I laid him on a bed in a back room. He felt like a little tree with fragile branches. Doug checked him out and tried to give instructions on how to keep him more mobile. So little you can do…

If I could not give it back to God, I think I would go crazy. But Jesus said: “You give them something to eat” .Then, when we realize we cannot do it ourselves with what little we have, we may give it back to Him. He will do miracles with whatever we put in His hands.  We may put Jonathan in His hands too.

So I am asking you to help put things in His hands. If you can come to Haiti with me. do it! Let’s talk about what you could do there. Let God do miracles with your gifts.

Being in His Hands

I had almost forgotten. I am just as much in His hands as the children of Haiti. Without Him I would not be around anymore. Scary and comforting thought at the same time.You also were His hands this time. All of you who have prayed for me and Els. All of you who showed your love and sent comforting messages during these trying days and weeks. All of you who came to visit me. Almost every day I had moments when I thought your outpouring of love was going to burst my heart but then there was so much love that the energy  lifted me high. Your faithfulness has been overwhelming. It is the same faithfulness that has supported me all those years with the mission work but it was so different now because you did it for me. Wow! To hear that so many people were praying for me was more humbling than I can express. Oh, the beauty of Love we will never be able to fathom. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I still have a way to go and difficult times are still ahead but I know that I am in His hands. Always was!

Hein

Being His Hands

Last Friday we were in Monak, a beautiful village overlooking a meandering river down in the valley below. We were there to hold a medical clinic for the children in one of our feeding centers. During the morning a woman came in with a sweet little baby of about nine months. The day before a pot of boiling food had fallen on the upper arm of the child. The baby was screaming of pain, clearly because her third degree burn, at least three inches in diameter, was exposed and rubbing against her little dress. Just the look of it was painful. It also did not help that the baby was now within touching distance of my bearded face. I tried to look my sweetest but the screaming went on. To protect the open burn from the dirt around and the chafing dress, we decided to cover it with a special non adhering patch, some of which we happened to have with us. Knowing even the slightest touch would hurt like crazy, I approached her arm with utmost care but she still continued screaming. It made me feel so helpless, this little baby, her screams, her pain. Silently I whispered: "Jesus if you were here you could do this without pain, please make her have peace"......
The baby looked with her tear filled eyes into mine and became quiet. Not a sound came over her lips anymore while I applied the patch, still as careful as I could but knowing now that some Higher Peace was at work here.
Being His Hands and caring for His little children. We must never forget why we are here.

Still dependent

Lately we have been very busy with planning and planting rice. Our desire for many years has been to grow our own crops and then feed our orphans and the hungry children in the feeding centers. It is no secret that Haiti still is and probably will be a place of shaky politics for a long time. So for years Mark and I have been thinking to make Matthew 28 in Haiti less dependent on foreign money. Now part of that maybe a pipe dream and I am fully aware of that. Working on more independence is however not a bad thing and so we plan and plot for it. You might have read some about our project in Saint-Raphael where we leased land, intending to buy it in two years, provided that  the plan works. We looked at all angles, we thought, and planned and planted our first rice crop. Just a few weeks ago we went to see the progress and bright green rice plants were almost burning our eyes out. Have you ever seen rice grow? It is beautiful.
During the last two weeks the seedlings were planted out on the big field. The night before we went to check on the crop we had a big rain at the orphanage. Wonderful! But come to think of it when we drove to the fields, about an hour or so away, the muddy roads got drier and drier. Saint Raphael did not share in the rains nor has there been any since. This is the rainy season. Today I talked to Pauluis who brought the bad news that our first planting is doomed to fail. All the farmers around us, and there are many, have the same problems. Does it ever end? Now what Lord?
We can plan all we want but we still depend on God's blessings and rain is sure one of them. Please pray with me for rain, Haiti needs it so badly!

For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.

Pauluis, the Haitian Director of Matthew 28 and I recently made a tour to visit as many supporters as we could reach in less than two weeks. We had a great time talking and eating with all the folks who opened their hearts and their homes to us. Like always people were eager to hear about Haiti first hand and I wish  there was time enough in my life to visit with everyone. There just isn't and I know you will understand. Something happened though that is worth sharing with all of you.
One night we were talking with some friends about the urgent need for a new vehicle in Haiti. The old truck we have is a complete nightmare and a bottomless money pit and I commented that there are people in this world who could write us a $30,000 check while not noticing it in their check book. Just one problem I did not know anyone like that. We laughed it off.
The next morning at breakfast I was the first one to come down and our host had all the food ready. We talked for a while about the recent loss of her father and how much he had admired her personal drive for mission work. Her father had not left a great deal of money but one of the things he did was to set aside some funds intended for mission work. I  did not see it coming, but her next words made me break out in tears. She and her husband had decided the night before, to give Matthew 28 a matching grant of  $30,000 to buy a new truck. Wow, how great to have friends who share your dreams.
God is good y'all, He sure is!
Please help us to  raise money for the new truck, it will be matched dollar for dollar. I am hoping for special gifts because we need to keep funding the food for our orphans above all. Maybe you have been blessed with an unexpected tax refund, who knows. God plans ahead.
I've got the first $500 check laying in front of me, so that one is good for a thousand. Yeah!!

Do you have that too? You listen to words you have heard many times before but all of a sudden they seem to have a new, very profound meaning. Last Sunday morning that happened when I was listening during a prayer in the humble, little church of Matthew 28 in Haiti. The worship leader was praying about that time to come, when they, the church members, would no longer be hungry. In our church we pray for hungry people, but all of a sudden it hit me that here we were praying among the hungry people.
Isn't that what Jesus said: the poor will always be among, or with you. So we should always be among them, right.!
Are we? I know I am not.

Plenty of things happened again that are still stirring up my mind. Good things, such as the agriculture project we started this week. Our first rice harvest is expected in 4 months! Jimmy Eldridge frolicking in the field catching bugs in his net, in order to see if they were the good or the bad kind. Bringing "Proclaimers", solar powered MP3 players with the New Testament on it, to feeding centers and orphans. This in an effort to spread the Gospel to those who can barely or not at all read and that's just about everyone in Haiti. Helping the sick in the mobile clinic and praying with them. Working on improving the fish farm. Hanging out with the orphans and teaching them English at night, I am an hilarious teacher they say. And then, we are feeding lots of children again, thirteen centers, times fifty kids, four times per week. Oh, it was so beautiful to see them sit a the new tables filling their tummies. Thank you Lord.
But then bad things too. Very disturbing, one night we get a grandpa in the court yard. He is in a panic because his grand child has been in the clinic with cholera since 4 days. They gave the child nine IVs, the medication did not work and now they told him they were out of options. He wanted to take the child to the big hospital and he had no way to do it. Our truck was out on an errand and not going to be back for a few more hours. So I tried to get something else going. As a new grandpa I felt what he was going through. Something had to happen. So I asked to call our truck back, but it had broken down with a flat and the spare was flat too. Than we called around to find the phone number of the local UN battalion. We finally got it but they said they had no vehicles available for that purpose. The clinic was not going to use it's vehicle for it and that was it. Frustrating. Our truck came back a few hours later and we unloaded the wood it was carrying  in a rush and sent it off to move the child to the hospital. A while later  the driver came back with the news that someone else had brought the child to the hospital. What a relief. I hope the child will live. It is just not good for your nerves.


 Good things again. We met with Laura Lynn and Emory her boss, in Gonaives. By the way she helped out with the clinic we did this week. It was nice to work together again. Their mission started working on home construction and has just begun with building houses made with poured concrete. Seeing their design brought some new ideas to my mind and we might start soon with poured houses ourselves. They can be build much quicker and are likely even stronger than the ones we were going to build. Our first foundation should go up by the end of March. Right now we are working on building the access road. Remember "What about Bob"? Baby steps, baby steps.

The water tower should go up as planned. The design is almost ready and a team from Detroit is warming up to come in May. The March trip should take care of some of the preparations for that project like pouring a foundation.We still have open spaces on that trip.

Oh there is so much to do and we need so much more support to accomplish it, but in all honesty the things that have been done during the last year are enormous. People from all over the world are now thinking with the Haitians about solutions. Just got the coolest brochure from Jimmy about concrete mixers. If you are interested, check it out. It explains in a way why the damage in Haiti was so extensive. I will put the link at the end of my story.

 Now listen to this: We are going to have electricity in Bohoc. Can you believe it! It should be available around May. For a mere $6,000  we can get our own concrete power pole with a transformer. Of course we should not dream too hard because in countries like Haiti there is usually power for only a couple hours per day but it's a start. Now we can wire the entire orphanage with lights and think even about maybe a freezer to keep food from spoiling or keep serum from going bad. The options are endless and it means there will be opportunities for people to improve their lives. Just think about it: what would change in your life if there was no power. Now reverse that. Wow!

Enough for today it's time for you to read it. Please pray for our work and for the children of Haiti. If by any chance you feel moved to help us, give me a call or an email: hein@matthew28.org

Blessings and thanks for staying with my blog.

Hein


The link for the mixer story  http://www.theconcretemd

Papa, why are you looking so sad?

Natalie by Laura Gingrich

Natalie nestled down next to me on the crumbling wall in the courtyard. She laid her head against my shoulder and  softly said: "Papa, why are you looking so sad today?". A lump was rising up in my throat and my eyes started burning. In this moment I knew that all the work of the last 20 years had been worth it. The contrast was so stark. On one side, leaning against my shoulder, a sweet orphan girl who I witnessed growing up for longer than she can remember and who calls me "papa". On the other, echoing through my head, everything I'd heard from the Haitians who, since the day I came back, had shared their stories and fears about cholera. Cholera, indiscriminately killing thousands of people. In this house six, in that one eight. Cholera, something that two months ago was unknown to most but that in a matter of weeks became one of the most frightening words. A disease that seemed to control every thought and action in Haiti and with reason.

And now Natalie was reading the worries on my face. Unable to share my real thoughts I told her I was OK, but I was not. A knot had grown in my stomach from the moment our team had arrived. It did not take long to figure out that the precautions that had been taken were not enough. If someone with cholera would come in contact with a person in the orphanage, the results could be disastrous. All the children were in grave danger. So we talked and instructed local leaders and disinfected and gave out medications for those who encountered cholera in their houses. But the accounts about those who lost their lives kept coming. A group of masons working on the new house for the orphans came and asked for help. They live in an area called Kayman, not far away. They were worried about the water their community was drinking and wanted advice on capping a spring. We went with them to see what could be done. One look at their water source made me sick to my stomach.

A woman stepped in front of us and filled her plastic jug with the cloudy water. Donkeys and goats were all around having free access to the hole. A mix of mud and animal dung was surrounding the place. How many thousands got their water in similar places?
We promised financial support. The work to start capping the spring would start the next day. Hundreds of people would come to carry in the rocks, sand and cement along the narrow path. It would show how people can come together in times of distress. But would it be in time?

I looked to my side and saw the caring smile on Natalie's face. A renewed sense of responsibility rose up in me. Children should not have to deal with these things. Nobody should! Lord, please protect them and give us the strength to care for them.


Please pray for all who are dedicating their lives to helping the cholera victims in Haiti.