Dear Friends,
I hope you are all well during these crazy Covid times.   We’ve all had to find a new normal in wearing masks, learning how to have relationships with family and friends, and to just live life wisely. Even in this I am reminded that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  He doesn’t change and our lives are in His hands.  

School started once again in Haiti in August.  This is a month earlier than normal as the government is trying to make up for time lost last spring due to Covid. Our schools opened only to close for another week due to armed gangs that passed through the area of Nan wo.  I wonder if you can imagine what a gang is like in Haiti.  This gang leader grew up in the nearby foothills of PostPiwo and roar by on their motorcycles past our school in Nan wo. They are heavily armed. Even the police are intimidated by them as they have more weapons than local law enforcement. One member of the gang was killed and one local man was killed recently. The gangs approach people and ask for money.  No one is crazy enough not to give them what they ask for, only feeding their power and greed. 
And yet life goes on.  For our children this means walking long distances on dusty roads to gain an education and spend some time with other children playing; just being kids. For our teachers it means preparing lesson plans and being consistent in their jobs.  All are wearing masks that have been sown for the school. Many people have lost their jobs due to the economy and Covid, but we are so grateful that our schools can continue because of your gifts to Hope in Haiti. Can you imagine your own child not getting an education?  Unthinkable here in the United States, but so common in rural parts of Haiti.  We will continue to serve and work with Pastor Louinet even though the way things look may change and we will get creative in our support with your help.

Toward the end of August Pastor Louinet hosted an eight day conference for the leaders of his 14 churches inviting in special speakers, providing meals and lodging, and on the last day inviting the community to his church.  There were about 300 people who came down the steep rocky paths from the mountains to hear God’s Word and worship together. It was quite the celebration of both God and community.  Pastor Louinet has been very sick since then.  He went to the doctor at the hospital finding that he had typhoid, fever and stomach problems.  This morning he tells me he is slowly recovering. Please pray for this man who works tirelessly for the Lord and his people.

Your continued support and prayers are much needed.  Thank you and may you be richly blessed.

“Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea – the Lord on high is mighty.”  Ps 93:4

Blessings always,
Dixie & TeamHope in Haiti

The latest on the challenges and work in Haiti

Dear Friends,

Although I try to be continually aware of what is happening in Haiti and speak with Pastor Louinet and others often, I realize many of you are not so in touch with things in this desolate island nation.  I would simply like to update you so that you will know better how to pray for our friends.

President Jovenel Moïse has reopened churches in Haiti and people are beginning to meet together again.  The latest Covid 19 statistics are 7,146 cases of the Corona virus and 54 deaths.  This may be highly inaccurate due to lack of testing and people actually seeing a doctor.  When I lived in Haiti and even now, when someone died it is due most often to a ‘fever’ and that was all the family knew. How could I think or wonder if it was something more?

Pastor Louinet is putting on a convention for his pastors and leaders in his 14 churches that he oversees beginning August 23-30. There will be 300 people and they will be staying in the classrooms at the school in Nan wo, eating meals together, meeting together, and sleeping in close quarters.  I asked him if he thought this was wise, and he definitely thinks it is saying he trusts that God will protect them.  I can already hear their early morning worship before light dawns and praises being lifted heavenward. Please be praying for them during this time. 

President Moïse has also stated that the new penal code legalizes abortions and lowers the legal age for consensual sex to 15.  I read this and my heart is sad and heavy for Haiti.  Moïse has been ruling by presidential decree since January 2020.  The Haitian penal code has not been modified in 185 years.
Many of you know that we have been supporting a nurse named Rosita serving her people in the mountains of Kawo.  She uses two rooms next to our Kawo church/school and works tirelessly to help the people from miles around in the rocky mountains.  We have been helping her for several years and desire to continue to do so.  She recently told me that she was pregnant with her fourth chlld (obviously a surprise) and is due in November.  Please pray for this 39 year old woman and who serves both God and her people with limited supplies and medications.  Life is difficult to say the least and medication continues to rise in price.

I received news that our little stone church/school in Kawo had a portion of it fall due to heavy rains weakening the clay mortar.  Some of the rocks and debris rolled down the steep hill onto other Haitian houses.  For those of you who have been there I’m sure you can visualize this.  I pray for wisdom in how we can again help these people who are so poor.

School is to begin on August 10th with a teacher’s seminar taking place the first week.  Again, concern for Covid comes to mind and yet these children need education.  With no internet connections or computers there seems no other way to continue education.

“Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea – the Lord on high is mighty.” Ps 93:4. 

God hears….Please pray.
Dixie & Team

How is Haiti coping with the COVID-19 pandemic?

I’ve been told to look through my Bible page by page, find a hair and boil it in water, then drink the water.  Everyone in Haiti is doing it. I would be protected from Covid-19.

I’ve also been told to make a drink with onion, garlic, and other concoctions and that would also protect me from the virus. 

These are a couple of things the Haitian people are grabbing onto for protection from the Coronavirus during these uncertain times.  But the one I really loved was at one of the newest hospitals in Mirabalais, in the mountains outside of Port au Prince.  They are treating patients for the virus and getting as ready as possible for the many more patients that they believe are coming.  They are also praying.  It is predicted by some experts that Haiti will be hit hard with Covid-19, especially once travel restrictions are lifted.  
Meanwhile, the pandemic is reaching Haiti through illegal travel. For years, a segment of the Haitian people have chosen to live and work in the more prosperous Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispanola with Haiti.  The borders have been closed for the pandemic since late March, but according to Dominican Immigration offices, 25,000 Haitians have returned to Haiti anyway for various reasons.  Just last week over 1,000 Haitians returned, illegally crossing back into their own country.  There have been 596 cases and 21 deaths in Haiti.  But what about all the unreported cases and deaths?  

Life in Haiti continues with daily markets open, crowded tap-taps (small pickup trucks outfitted with benches for riders in the back), and even churches meeting on Sundays.  But schools are closed.  Hope in Haiti has continued to pay our teachers showing our support for them and their families.  In addition, this week Pastor Louinet and friends hope to be making up meal kits to send home with each family.  These are difficult times for all but Hope in Haiti desires to continue to do what we can to help our friends in Haiti.  

I read this morning in Psalm 77:13-14, “Your ways, O God, are holy. What god is so great as our God? You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples.”
Please pray for Pastor Louinet and his family.  Pray that he would have godly wisdom as he leads his people through this pandemic.
Thank you for your continued support of the children, their families, and workers in Haiti. 
Blessings,
Dixie & Team

Dear Friends,
COVID-19 has reached Haiti as of late last week. 

It was brought in by a Belgium orphanage worker into the mountains and by a 31 year old Haitian woman flying in from Paris, France, both testing positive for the virus. President Jovinel Moise declared a state of emergency and immediately shut down both airports and all borders. Schools are closed and large groups forbidden, following the lead of other world leaders. Factories are also closed, leaving thousands without work or a paycheck. All foreigners who are still in the country and wish return to their home countries are finding it difficult to find flights out.

What does this mean for our Haitian friends in Dessalines and further out in the mountains? All the same rules that you and I now abide by have been put in place for our brothers and sisters, although our living conditions are drastically different.

Large families of ten or more share two small room houses with dirt floors. Running water is non existent in most of these homes so washing hands often is difficult.  Bathrooms are often just a shed out back with a hole in the ground.  Their lives revolve around community.

I spoke with Pastor Louinet yesterday and he says they are still able to buy food and fuel, but things are difficult and they proceed with much caution.  He continues to hold church and says many people have been coming.  They sit on long 12 foot benches usually squished in like sardines. But now he allows only three people on each bench to keep the six foot distance between them.
In the midst of all of this, they have not forgotten “Bondye” (God) who is the Healer of all, nor the family they have here in the U.S. Their prayers echo through the church walls before the sun rises in the east early in the morning.

Please pray for our friends in Haiti.  They need our continue prayers and support.  
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its water roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.” Ps 46:1-3

“Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted amoung the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Ps 46:10

I am humbled as they pray for us here in the United States to be healthy and safe. Let us do the same for them

With a humbled heart,
Dixie & Team

Hope in Haiti

Susie Marshall writes about the work in the desperately poor city of Savanne Brule.

This is an update on the work that is being done to provide education and support to the village of Savanne Brule, Haiti.  In spite of the gangs and violence that continues to plague Haiti, the Hope in Haiti schools in central Haiti are meeting and create a source of hope and strength for these struggling communities.

Because of your help with last September’s fundraiser for Savanne Brule, we are able to pay the teachers double what they received the year before and add $11,000 to the endowment for this school. These teachers are grateful for the money, because it allows them to focus on education rather than growing market crops. Money was also raised last year by Cathy Day and friends to dig a well for this community.  We hope to find a driller who can make this happen this year!

 In the past two years we have raised about $50,000 of our ultimate goal of $200,000 to permanently endow the school.  While building this endowment we have been paying the teachers each month.

 Moving ahead, we are continuing to work on both the endowment and the immediate needs of the Savanne Brule community.  We will take a breather and not host a fundraising event this year, preferring to plan for spring of 2021.

  Rather we will work to raise the $8,000 needed to pay teachers for the 2020 – 2021 school year and seek grants and donations to purchase curriculum for the school. 
If you would like to contribute to teacher’s salaries or curriculum, please send your donation to:

          Hope in Haiti

          PO Box 26

          Monroe, WA 98272

If you send in a check form, please write “Teachers 2020” on the memo to designate your gift for this cause.

If you have any thoughts, ideas or suggestions, please email or call me (Susie).  I would love to hear from you.

Thank you so much for your help with our fundraisers and caring about teachers and children in Haiti.

Appreciatively,

Susie Marshall

The 2019 Hope in Haiti benefit dinner and cultural event is kicking off Wednesday night, 09/25/19! Don’t forget to come with minds ready to learn, stomachs ready to eat, and hearts ready to love on some very special friends of ours.

If you need a reminder of what this is all about, see the video below for a fresh look at the needs and the plans for change

See you there!

Water could be the most important gift you give this year. And giving it could not be easier!

Hope in Haiti is excited to be part of this year’s Walk 4 Water event at Lake Tye Park in Monroe, Washington on Sunday, May 19.
Come and walk with us in support of the beautiful people of Savane Brule, Haiti, who have to walk long distances every day to get the water they need for daily living.
Come and see pictures what God is already doing through this ministry, and the wells Walk 4 Water has already put in other villages!
Come and meet some of Hope in Haiti’s board members and fellow supporters!
Come and be part of this great thing that God is doing! You won’t regret it!

Registration ends on Sunday May 12th, so REGISTER NOW! If you don’t register, you can still come and join us, but you won’t get to have one of our sweet T-shirts!

See you there!

Saving lives isn’t exactly a walk in the park. Except when it is.

We are excited to announce that Hope in Haiti is partnering with our friends at Crosswater Community Church of Sultan WA to raise money for a life-changing, life-saving well for the people of Savane Brule, Haiti. It’s called WALK 4 WATER, and it is as easy as it sounds. We are raising money via donations and sponsored walkers to be able to put in a well for the desperately poor people in this village who have become dear to our hearts.

Did you know that dirty water is one of the primary sources of fatal diseases in developing nations like Haiti? And that it is a HUGE problem for marlaria outbreaks, like the one that happened in Haiti in 2010? Did you know that a neighborhood with no well means that women and children spend hours of their day just finding, hauling, and boiling water, rather than studying, working a business, or tending their land.

That’s why clean water from deep wells make such an incredible difference in the community! Join us in bringing this amazing blessing to Savane Brule!

When: Sunday May 19th 2-4pm
Where: Lake Tye Park, Monroe WA
Why: To raise funds to build a well in Savane Brule
Who: Anyone can come!
How: Register now or donate at www.crosswaterchurch.org/walkforwater

Dear Friends,
I wanted to keep you updated on the things I hear from Haiti that you will never hear in the news.  Early Thursday morning I got a phone call from Pastor Louinet.  He said that all of Dessalines was in an uproar.  Many police were there and were trying to catch the gang or bandits that have been known to be in that area.  As we talked I could hear the popping of guns over the phone.  One man was killed, several police took bullets, but the ‘bandi yo’ got away and are somewhere on the trail between Post Piwo and Kawo.  This is the same trail that we and our teams take when hiking into the mountains of Kawo.  Folks are afraid to come down the mountains trails to market to sell their goods.  

Please pray for protection for our friends in Haiti. As of yesterday there was a road block near Dessalines and a Security Alert placed by the US embassy.  We still have not been able to take a team in and are unsure as to when this will be possible.  Also pray that the church will be strengthened as there is still much unrest in Haiti.

Your prayers mean so much.  Thank you and many blessings to each of you.

Dixie 

Dear friends,

A team of 9 is scheduled to leave Seattle at 9:10 PM February 17th, Sunday night. We are almost packed and ready to go.  Our plan is to climb the mountains into the remote Kawo hamlet where our school building stands, updating children’s information and do some construction work

However…

Last Sunday Pastor Louinet asked if we could change our tickets for another time, as the entire country is having many demonstrations, tire burning, rock throwing riots, and some have even been killed. It’s all due to the discontent with President Jovinel Moise, whom they want to step down. It has gotten so bad that the airport has been closed, all schools in the entire country are closed, public transportation is shut down, and the Haitian dollar has fallen 15% more to an all-time low making things extremely expensive in the country.  Everyone has been told to buy food and stay in their houses.

I then contacted several American friends in Haiti and have been told the same things.  One of our friends who picks us up at the airport can’t even drive out of the town of Dessalines because of the demonstrations.  The main highway north to south is blocked in numerous places and dangerous.  Another friend in Port says the danger is increasing and now looting has begun.  Another friend trying to return to Haiti could not be picked up at the airport as planned, so reboarded a plane back to the states. Another friend could not return to Haiti as the airport is now shut down.

I think you are getting the picture.  I haven’t canceled the tickets yet (and yes there will be probably be a huge fee for 9 of us, unless the airport is still closed), but it seems like right now we won’t be going.  Disappointing, but I feel an enormous responsibility to the team. 

Please pray for the country of Haiti.  If you want to know specific details as to the details of the uprising, go to the US Embassy Haiti website, or follow Haitian news on the internet.  Please pray for your sponsored child and their families.  This is a difficult time for everyone. 

Thank you, thank you for your love and support of the Haitian people.

Kè Bondye beni w.
-Dixie