Reflection of gratitude

Lately I’ve been reflecting back on my past in Haiti, trying to record the details I always want to remember, the stories I never want to forget, the events that have shaped me for better or for worse. It’s been a difficult time of reflection, as some times down here have been quite dark. Somedays the road we walked was not at all clear. But in looking back, in being vulnerable enough to remember, I am constantly being reminded how faithful God is. No matter how dark times were, no matter how uncertain the path was before us, there was always a shimmer of light. He was always there. His light was always present to help see us though. 

So today I want to encourage you. We serve a God who knows all things, who can not only see the paths ahead of us but created them, and who has already conquered the darkness we often face. And I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but trust him! I’ll admit, I have often second guessed him, but thankfully he was always bigger than my doubt. And he is bigger than yours too. I promise.  Happy weekend. Go walk the paths he has prepared for you, confident that his light is always there.

Michael Vilien Reynold

Hurricane Matthew the threat it represents

While category 4 hurricane, Matthew approaches and threatens Haiti, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) through its Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) implemented since July 2010, reveals in its latest report dated 30 September 2016, that 14,593 household or 55,107 people (Internally Displaced persons (IDPs)) are still living in camps and/or hosting sites in Haiti. All these families are in a situation of extreme vulnerability under tents or T-Shelters, face the powerful winds and torrential rains expected

Situation in figures on September 30, 2016 :
Number of households and IDPs :
The 3 communes with the highest IDP population are the following:

1. Delmas: 8,249 households corresponding 27,384 individuals;
2. Croix-des-Bouquets: 2,474 households corresponding to 10,806 individuals;
3. Léogane: 813 households corresponding to 3,274 individuals;
Number of camps and camp-like settlements :
The 4 communes with the highest number of IDP sites are the following:
1. Delmas: 9 IDP sites
2. Léogane: 6 IDP sites
3. Croix-des-Bouquets and Tabarre: with 5 sites each.
14 sites are almost entirely made up of tents.
17 sites have a percentage of 60% or more of T-Shelters.

Decrease in the number of displaced people in camps :
When comparing the figures from the 27th round of the DTM to the IDP figures from 2010, a net decrease of 346,924 of the total households (or 1,481,340 individuals) identified in 2010, can be observed. Furthermore, this also represents a decrease of 1,524 sites compared to July 2010, during the height of the internal displacement in Haiti.

Since July 2010, the IDP household population has decreased by 96%.

During this reporting period, 2 camps have been reported as closed, whereby a total of 31 households (representing 98 individuals) were relocated through the return program. Furthermore, there were no evictions during this round of DTM assessments.

Hurricane Matthew in Haiti

Port-au-Prince (AFP) – Hurricane Matthew pummeled Haiti and moved on to Cuba after killing seven people, unleashing floods and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee the Caribbean’s worst storm in nearly a decade.

The death toll stood at seven — three in Haiti and four in the Dominican Republic — but was certain to rise as dangerous Matthew bruised its way on.

The full scope of its toll, both human and material, remained unclear. Civil protection officials in Haiti said they were struggling to communicate with the south after Matthew’s furious wind and rain blew down telephone lines.

The bridge that collapsed was on the only road linking Port-au-Prince to the peninsula that makes up southern Haiti.

“It’s going to be difficult to find an alternative route,” civil protection spokesman Edgar Celestin told AFP.

Next-in-line Cuba was hit late in the afternoon on its eastern tip.

The northern eyewall — the most destructive part of a hurricane, just outside the eye.

Matthew made landfall in Haiti shortly after daybreak as an “extremely dangerous” Category Four storm — the maximum is five — near the southwestern town of Les Anglais, packing top winds of around 230 kilometers per hour, the US National Hurricane Center said.
It marked the first time in 52 years that a Category Four storm made landfall in Haiti. Matthew began battering Haiti late Monday with strong winds and rising sea levels, before barreling ashore some 400 kilometers west of the capital Port-au-Prince. Even before making landfall along the southern edge of a jagged peninsula on Hispaniola — the island that Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic — Matthew was blamed for at least three deaths in Haiti, with fears that the toll could climb. Four more deaths were reported later in the Dominican Republic. After Cuba, the storm is expected to hit the Bahamas late Tuesday or Wednesday. The hurricane was forecast to dump 38 to 63 centimeters (15 to 25 inches) of rain over southern Haiti with up to a meter possible in isolated areas.

Rising waters already have caused extensive flooding in and around the flimsy homes and buildings in Haiti’s southwest. More than 9,000 Haitians have been evacuated to temporary shelters at area schools and churches, the Interior Ministry said.
But civil protection forces have struggled with locals who refused to leave some of the most vulnerable areas. They included the capital’s destitute, densely populated neighborhoods, including Cite Soleil — where a fifth of the half-million residents face serious flooding risks — and the seaside Cite L’Eternel. First deluge, then mudslides - Part of the seaport city of Les Cayes was underwater after being deluged by Matthew, also blamed for triggering mudslides. Haiti is home to almost 11 million people, many living in fragile housing.

Thousands are still living in tents in Haiti after the country’s massive earthquake in 2010. Erosion is especially dangerous because of high mountains and a lack of trees and bushes in areas where they have been cut for fuel.

One stalwart who stayed, 63-year-old Pierre Duval, ventured out to buy rum. “I have food for today and tomorrow, and then we’ll see,” Duval said.

USAID said it has dispatched an elite disaster response team to the Bahamas, Haiti and Jamaica. It also is sending some $400,000 in assistance to aid groups in Haiti and Jamaica and emergency relief supplies including blankets, plastic sheeting and water containers.

2015 medical team

Tuesday  August. 4thh ,2015
It’s safe to say that the only thing we are using shovels for over here is busted up bricks down at the construction site. Mike, james and Walker spent the day in Port Au Prince shopping for supplies. They purchased two toilets, but, most importantly chocolate milk. Jack was willing to pay a handsome price for a tall glass of something sweet, and kissed goodbye $30.  By saying this i missed my dear friend Margie who through the same situation for a jaw of peanut-butter, she would laugh at him for paying so much for a bottle of  sirop.We hope it was all worth it James and I’m sure the money will be put to good use down here in Haiti my beloved country. The medical team has been working very hard, as well as the translators. They never skipped a beat! We are so appreciative of their hard work, they are a God send.
The patients were persistent and the nurses were non-stop, helping a total of 167 Haitians with their medical needs. Bravo team! Oh, and if anybody needs an optometrist, Herman Thalen is at your service.
As always the sponsorship team was sharp on their toes despite a few bumps in the road. Every child was smiling ear to ear when a box fell into their hands. It was a perfect end to a perfect day.
Thank you to everyone back in the states that will only using their shovels for snow. We are so grateful for your support!
Until next time.

My once-in-history opportunity.

By the time I knew what to call it, I was in neck deep. Maybe when you said goodbye as your cousin die and your best friend left for the marines. You realized that these days are more than ice cream trips, homework, and pimples. This is called life. And this one is mine.

Life is racing by, and if we aren’t careful, you and I will look up, and our shot at it will have passed us by. Some people don’t bother with such thoughts; they grind through their days without lifting their eyes to look. They live and die and never ask why. But you aren’t numbered among them, or you wouldn’t be reading a journal entitled outline your life. It’s not enough for you to do well. You want to do good. You want your life to matter. You want to live in such a way that the world will be glad you did. But how can you? How can i? I have one hundred and twenty answers to that question.

Team up.

In 2010 an earthquake devastated the city of Port-au-Prince. Thousands of people were killed, and tens of thousands were left homeless. A philanthropist offered to sponsor a relief team from our college. This flyer was posted in our dormitory: “needed: students willing to use their spring break to help rebuilt homes in petit-goave. I applied, was accepted, and began attending the orientation sessions. There were 16 of us in all. Mostly ministry students. All of us, it seemed, love to discuss medical, politics and theology. We were young enough in our faith to believe we knew all the answers. This made for lively discussions. By the time we reach petit-goave, we’d covered the controversies and reveal our true colors. I’d discerned the faithful from the infidels, the healthy from the heretics. I knew who was in and who was not.

But all of that was forgotten. The destruction from the earthquake dwarfed our differences. Entire villages had been leveled. Children were wandering through rubble. Long lines of wounded people awaited medical attention. Our opinions seemed suddenly petty. The disaster demand team work. The challenge created a team. The task turned rivals into partners. I remember one fellow in particular. He and I had distinctly different opinions regarding the styles of medical care. I- the open minded, relevant thinker-favored contemporary, un-beat music. He-the stodgy, close minded caveman-preferred hymns and hymnals. Yet when staking bricks for houses and cleaning wounds, guess who worked shoulder to shoulder? As we did we began to sing together. We sang old songs and new, slow and fast. Only later did the irony of it dawn on me. Our common concern gave us common song.

“The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need for you’” we cannot say, “I have no need of you.” The bigger need the smaller one. The liberal needs the conservative. The pastor needs the missionary. What if the missing ingredient for changing the world is team work?

Suppose our group had a clustered to opinions. Divided according to doctrines. If we had made unanimity a prerequisite for partnership, can you imagine the consequences? we wouldn’t accomplished anything.When workers divide, it is the suffering who suffer most. But we find common ground in the death, burial. Because we did, lives were changed.

                                

                        

Written by, Michael St Vilien.

Michael St-Vilien

Michael St-Vilien

Haiti 2014

September 3, 2014

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

​I thank God for giving me the opportunity to travel to Haiti.  All that God allowed me to do in Haiti is due to the blessing of your support; either through financing, volunteering, donating, or prayer.  I write this letter in an attempt to tell you about the strong people I have grown to love in a fourth world country.  I can’t begin to tell you about their faith in our Lord, or, in some cases, lack of.  I know that this letter will not do our Lord justice in telling of all His works in Haiti, but I will try.

During my recent trip in Haiti, I was given the opportunity to see more closely into the lives of the people.  It is easy for one to watch a circumstance from afar and feel disconnected.  I was blessed to become further connected to the hard lives that these children of God have.

Marie, Kim and I sponsor children and their families, in Vania’s house.

Marie Nash, Kim Rausch and I spent the first week of our trip in Port-au-Prince with our sponsor children.  We were welcomed into a cement block, two room house by Vania, the mother of two sponsor children, Stephanie and Joane.  This house, which few Americans would live in, had eight people staying in it when we visited.  It was tucked between other houses with maybe 3 feet between them.  We walked down a bumpy, crowded, dirt alley to get to the house.  Vania does her cooking and laundry in the small area between her house and the next.  God has blessed Vania’s family with a home and all children have sponsorship to be in school.  Yet, while with them, we saw needs that were not filled.  One can see the sun shining through their roof.  Vania has high blood pressure and few resources to help her.  The girls needed simple things like bras and food!  While meeting Samuel, another sponsor child, I saw his need for a dentist and shoes.  Samuel had great pain in his mouth and was wearing girl shoes that were too small for him.

I give you these examples to help you understand how many Haitians just live without many of their needs.  Some live without a proper home, without clothes, without food, without school, or without parents.  Yet many believe God has blessed them with hope and they are thankful for what they do have, life in Him.

The second week of our journey was spent in Ti-Goave with the addition of two more people to our team, Jake Houck and Tiffany Holder.  This is the same village that I have been at the past two years.  We were able to have a teacher in-service with 48 teachers and directors from the area.  We were seeing some of these individuals for the third year in a row and others we were meeting for the first time.  We educated the teachers on the different functions of the left and right side of the brain.  We also gave them ideas for how they can rejuvenate students who are hungry and fatigued.  The activities we gave them used both sides of the brain causing the two circumferences to work together.

We visited Jean and his family while traveling the mountains.  He does not yet call himself Christian, but was still happy to have us come.  We shared the Gospel with him, prayed over him and his family, and sang praise to God.  He wished for a Bible before we left him.

My desire since 2010 has been to hike to the tallest point of the mountains in the Ti-Goave area.  Well, I was finally blessed to make this difficult trek up to that part of Ti-Goave and all over the area’s mountains.  Our team traveled to several schools in the area.  We looked at the conditions that they were teaching in, with hopes of having a better handle on the conditions they teach in and how we may serve them in the future.  We also traveled to some of the teachers houses and prayed with their families.  The teachers, directors, and families need to know that we care about them.  They work hard and make due in rough conditions.  I met a teacher and a student that hike 60-80 minutes a day to get to school.  They do not complain, they are happy for the opportunity.  There are no water fountains along the way or paved walk ways.  They simply have our Lord and the determination to keep their job or receive an education.

Many people have asked me if I noticed progress while in Haiti.  I noticed some paved roads that were not constructed in 2013. There are less people living among rubble and more people living in a simple shack or tent. 

However, the progress that I see most is in the relationships that are being built.  I see youth that have grown over the last 3 years into men that take care of me as I climb mountains.  I see their character developing as they come to youth group or help those younger than they are.

I see my sponsor children and the children of others growing with the knowledge that someone cares enough to make sure they receive an education.  Those of you who have a sponsor child, I wish you could see their parents eyes when they thank you.  One feels undeserving of the gratitude that God has allowed you to receive from their family.  Please remember that only 30% of Haitians graduate from high school, even less go to college, and there is slim to no free public education offered in Haiti.

Jon

One of the most profound examples of relationships helping God’s people flourish, is a young boy/man named Jon.  Jon was found wandering in the mountains with no place to call home.  His parents are dead, his siblings are nowhere to be found, and his elderly grandparents have no claim to him.  Jon is deaf.  Before Jon came in contact with me, he slept on the side of the road, in a bush, wherever he thought was best.  Jon’s age, how he was fed, how he has survived are all a mystery.  Meaningful mission has taken Jon in.  They have given him a place to sleep, food to eat, attempted to share the Gospel with him, and we love him.  Jon is one of the happiest people I have ever seen.  He loves to participate in daily routines like putting his cot away, brushing his teeth, and helping clean up after meals.   He understands almost everything you tell him through actions.  He looks out for those around him and has instinct to care for those that are younger than he. Jon wants to learn and sucks up every bit of information he observes.  How God will use Jon in the future is a mystery to me, but He has already taught me what a blessing it is to reach out and love the unloved.

Thank you for allowing me to go and love the unloved.  Your support means more than you will ever know.  God grant you thankfulness for your blessings and continued use of them.

 

In Christ,

Michael 

 

“I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” Phil. 4:13