Partners In Hope: Culmination

I hope you have heard the story of how UPC has become attached to a village called Foison in Northwest Haiti. If you havent, take a minute to explore this blog.

This story is 30 years in the making, starting when UPC commissioned Bruce Robinson to be a missionary in Haiti. It picks up again in 2009 when Convergence decided to send a group of young adults to serve with Bruce and his wife Deb.

From Convergence’s involvement has sprung a partnership with one church in one village called Foison. This church runs a school with over 700 children in attendance. But they don’t have enough buildings to house them, and the ones they do have are not the most structurally sound. After the earthquake hit Port-au-Prince in 2010, this took on an entirely new level of importance.

Together, UPC and the church at Foison have created a space for God to do an amazing work. There are so many stories – little instances of God showing up to bless leaders in Foison and their community, the children, Bruce and Deb, and UPC team members alike.

In the following video, we take a quick look through numbers, videos and photos at some of the ways God has been working.

Since the last team from Convergence went to Foison and poured the floor for this new school building in April 2011, the community has been active in continuing the work. They have constructed walls and hope to have two classrooms finished for use in September.





I continue to be amazed by the people in Foison, and the passion and desire they have. A spark has been ignited in their hearts, and I am eager to see God continue a mighty work in their community.

Carly

All the cool kids are doing it…

Thank you to everyone who came up to the table to buy a t-shirt or sticker, or even just to talk about Haiti!

George got his shirt, too!

I expect to see some folks around Seattle sporting some Partners In Hope SWAG.

If you didn’t get a chance to buy a t-shirt, its not too late. Keep your eyes peeled in Larson Hall in July, or email me: carlyd@upc.org or your favorite CFM staff person Erica: ericaw@upc.org.

T-shirts and Stickers

This Sunday, June 19th, we will have a table in Larson Hall selling the infamous t-shirts and stickers. All proceeds from the sale of these items go directly to the Haiti school fund to put a roof on the school we have been working on since January 2010.

T-shirts: suggested donation of $15
Stickers: $2

Come to Larson before or after services on Sunday and pick yours up!

Also, don’t forget to check out the “Water” video on the video page.

Water

Check out this video of Shannon telling the story of the Haitian children getting involved in building their school.

Big thanks to Nicki Dyer for editing the video, Shannon Erickson for her witness, and Andrew Ferguson for photos and video.

Concerts and T-shirts

Thank you to everyone who came out to Rockin’ 415 on Tuesday night! Luke Abbott, Proto Evangelion, and The Hills Beyond put on a really great show. An extra big thank you to Proto Evangelion, who decided to donate half of the proceeds from their cd sales for the night to Partners In Hope: Haiti.

We also had the opportunity to sell some Tshirts and stickers to continue to raise money to build the roof on the school. Thank you to everyone who contributed and bought a shirt or sticker!

If you weren’t able to make it out on Tuesday, don’t worry. We have more shirts and stickers to sell. You can pick yours up at Convergence on Tuesday, or stop by UPC.

An Update from Bruce

Above is a picture from Bruce of the finished floor in Foison.

Below is a message that we received from Bruce Robinson on May 1, about two weeks after our team left.

I finally got up to Foison and saw the finished slab. Pretty impressive! And the people up there are really pumped about it.

Today Deb and I were able to go up to the special once a year harvest and thanksgiving service at Foison. They took the back wall out of the church and added 30 more feet of benches and the place was SRO. It was pretty neat up to the end. Then they put two chairs in front of the podium and asked if anyone who was there wanted to accept Christ as their savior. Remember they had been having meetings every night for a week and this was the big culmination. One lady and one child came forward and sat in the chairs. So they got another chair. Another child. And another chair. And another. And another and another…some teenagers, and one or two adults, but mostly children. At fourteen, I asked the Lord for one more. We kept singing more songs and people kept coming. I lost count in the 20s and one of the choirs had to vacate a bench when they ran out of chairs.

I have heard of things happening like this in Haiti but have never been present. Something special happened. I don’t know how many of the children who went forward were ones that were working with us on the floor, or you were playing soccer with, or were in the Shannon Special Team Water Hauling Brigade. Concrete floors and school buildings are really important parts of mission work… when they are part of the ministry of a church where people are coming to Christ. And the precious children. They kept coming even while we were doing the last hymn. I think probably 30 people came forward to accept Christ. I have never seen that many at one time.

We received a further update on this from Bruce a couple days later, and he said that the final tally of people who came forward to accept Christ was up to 40!

God is moving and working in Foison!

A Key Ingredient

I recently had the privilege to travel to Haiti and spend time in relationship and construction with the people of Foison, Haiti. Though the area was not directly affected by last January’s 7.0 magnitude earthquake, this region is possibly the poorest within a country that is already considered the poorest within the Western Hemisphere. Food, water, and life do not come easy here, which is evident by the condition of the roads alone. Day and night these roads are trodden by foot often in the company of a donkey train, which is just a part of their subsistence lifestyle. Subsequently, patience and hope are not just skills or a mindset that is learned, but an integral part of life in Haiti.

The hope and prayers of Foison have been more recently expressed in the desire for a new and safe school building for the children. Past efforts by the community to build a school have been unfruitful because of poor construction techniques. With the leadership, team support, vision, and engineering experience provided by the Robinson’s this project has been able to partner the community of Seattle/UPC with the people of Foison.

This April the slab for the school foundation was built and poured in a continuing effort to finish the proposed four room school building. Finishing these classrooms will bring children out of rickety thatched shelters in which they currently attend classes. This project has been and will continue to be a success because the money given towards this effort is in concert with the prayers and desires of the community it will serve. Ownership by the people of Foison was ever present by their efforts from the young to the old. Even more inspiring was catalytic effect created by our labors and relationships we were able to build. The purpose of sending a team and not just funds or materials was surely validated by the encouragement and motivation witnessed by the serving team’s presence and interactions. One definition of a catalyst is a person or thing that precipitates an event without undergoing change. On second thought, maybe the team I was blessed to become family with were more than just catalysts because we too have been encouraged, motivated and changed by the people Foison.

David Thurman

Remembering Haiti

On one of the first days we were at Foison, I was taking a break in the shade and I remember turning around to see at least a full classroom of children running up from the river with water jugs to fill barrels that were at the work site. From that point on, there were always kids around doing anything they could to help, whether it was getting water, collecting rocks, or bringing wheelbarrows full of dirt that took five boys to push. It was amazing to see how happy and excited the kids were to be helping build their new classrooms.

Megan Riber

Update From Haiti

Hey Everyone,

We are all doing really well. We can’t believe it has almost been a week since we left. We have made some amazing progress. Last Friday when we visited the school and began work, Bruce told us our goal for the week was to lay the cement for two of the four rooms. Today, with the help of a great crew of Haitians (or more appropriately, a great crew of Haitians with the help of a few Americans), we were able to lay the floor for two of the rooms and prepare some of the third room for cement. It was a very long day of labor. We got up at 5:30am, loaded the truck, drove up and the work began. We helped scour the hillside for rocks, move gravel in buckets, tie rebar, bend rebar, measure for accuracy,fasten the forms, compress dirt, entertain a lot of children, and many other activities. We just got home at 5:45pm and are showering before dinner. We broke our record from last January and had 20 people in the land rover along with a lot of other building supplies. It is really dry here and we are all covered in dust after any time in the truck. We were all extra dirty today after working hard, sweating, and driving. We’ve attached a picture of Keith in all his dirty glory. He is on the way to a well earned shower. We are looking forward to more time at Foison working at the school. We hope to finish laying cement in all four rooms by the end of the week. Prayers would be appreciated.

We had a great Sunday worshiping at the church in Foison, lunch at Pastor Chrisbon’s (the best Hatian food ever!), and finished the night off with a Shannon coordinated “missionary fashion show” compliments of the trunks of clothes half the team had to wear until we got the second half of our bags on Sunday. It was quite entertaining.

Thanks for all your prayers, please keep praying that everything continues to go smoothly.We appreciate your support.

Much love,

Amber & Team Haiti

Sharing vs. Fixing

Poverty is reinforced by isolation. But one of the gifts of participating with Bruce and Deb Robinson in building the school in Foison is that it helps us to break down that isolation. Our relationship with the Robinson provides us with a pathway to walk together with families in Haiti. As they live and share their lives with the community in Haiti, the Robinsons help us to know how to connect to the community in ways that bring dignity, respect. and meaningful, long-term benefit to children and families. The school itself will provide a gathering place for learning and education which will be an invaluable asset to the entire community for years to come.

This is more than just responding to the immediate needs that arise after a crisis. This is about helping to build the infrastructure that will create of growth, hope and vitality for children and families for generations to come. And tangibly, this year the community itself will benefit greatly through the encouragement of knowing once again that they are not alone.

Our UPC mission personnel are physical witnesses of Jesus Christ – demonstrating his love as “the Word who became flesh, and dwelt among us.” John 1:14. In standing with the Robinsons to help build this school – we get to join in their witness of the gospel.

Mike McCormick Huentelman