It’s hard to dream for the future when you can’t meet your daily needs. In order to pursue long-term sustainability, Many Hands has a benevolence ministry to help people get through hardship. In recent months the needs have been growing, so to help with that Many Hands is stepping into the gap with a new initiative called “Stretch Out Your Hand.”
Haiti is a country filled with challenges and hardships. Simple needs are not being met. Since the president was assassinated in July 2021, Haiti has been without a government. It is presently being run by three rival gangs. A devastating 7.2 earthquake hit the country in August 2021, compounding problems already mounting. Additionally, inflation is currently at more than 25% and recently the United Nations declared Haiti the most dangerous country in the world. But in the middle of all of this, Many Hands has continued to serve the people, kept our programs running, and has begun construction on a fourth campus.
Stepping out in faith
Sending teams from the U.S. has always been a key component of our mission in Haiti. Not being able to send teams has decreased economic stimulus, along with the encouragement and support that they bring. However, our Haitian staff is ready to rise up and will be stepping out in faith to address the continued and growing needs of the communities that Many Hands serves.
Birthed and developed by our group of Haitian Directors at their annual planning meeting, the “Stretch Out Your Hand” initiative will ramp up food distribution, medical assistance, spiritual guidance, and address other day-to-day basic needs that are going unmet for so many.
“All of the Many Hands Haitian staff will have the opportunity to participate in this initiative. Everyone will have a voice and will have the opportunity to give suggestions of who is in need and then actually be the ones that go, that are the hands and feet of Jesus. They will get the privilege of being love in action by sharing those gifts,” explained Christi Gabhart, U.S. Lead Ministry and Benevolence for Many Hands.
Pictured above: Many Hands’ second Love-in-Action center in Maliarette.
Jesus said…
In Luke 6:10, we find Jesus giving us an example of how to care for others. “He [Jesus]…said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He did so, and his hand was completely restored.” (NIV)
“Jesus told the man, ‘Stretch out your hand and I will help you.’ And He did just that. So we are looking at this as Many Hands being obedient to the call of the Lord to stretch out our hand to go to those places and be for those people the resources they don’t have,” Christi added.
Will you join us as we stretch out our hands together? God has given us a jumpstart with a $35,000 matching gift! So anything you give to the initiative will be matched up to $35,000!
While a gift of any size is most appreciated, we are hoping that people will choose to give regularly to this fund so that it will become sustainable, since that is always a goal of Many Hands.
Giving hope to Elirose, Jean Claude, and Telidjen…
By stretching out your hand, you will be helping people like Elirose, a mother of three. “If those who have would share with those who don’t have, then we would all have. If you have, I have, we have…then we can stop hating each other. Now I have and you have. This is how Haiti can change.”
You can give hope to families like Jean Claude Val, a father of seven. “The zone here needs help. Nobody can support each other. If one of us needs five goudes, nobody has it. If you try to trade a little bag of charcoal for a cup of rice, nobody can do it. We have nothing here.”
Jean Claude added that life improved when Many Hands started helping them. “It is good that Many Hands is working with us. It’s very good. The kids are doing better. We were sleeping in the dirt. They helped us be healthier. We are better for it…I would like for Haiti to have security and to thrive. We just need some help.”
Telidjen Saint, father of three, one with special needs, summed it up this way: “I don’t know who would have helped us if Many Hands had not helped.”
He also added, “I pray that Many Hands would be blessed. That they would keep growing and helping. We don’t see the opportunities anywhere else. We could not get this support elsewhere. You are the ones to give us strength we don’t have.”
Let’s stretch out our hands together!
As our CEO, Tim Brand, has shared in a recent newsletter: “Governmental programs are not the answer to global ills. Rather, it is seeing your neighbor’s need and offering your unique way of encouragement. When is the last time you offered true encouragement to a neighbor?”
Will you join us by giving to Stretch Out Your Hand to help people like Elirose, Jean Claude, and Telidjen? Thank you for changing lives with your generosity!
About Many Hands:
Many Hands is an Iowa-based nonprofit creating local and global life transformation. Established in 2008, the organization aims to ignite generosity, grow community, and take people on IMPACT journeys to carve a new, better path to life. Each year, the organization reaches at least 25,000 people through its operations in the Caribbean, IMPACT Trips serving in Abaco, Bahamas, and Many Hands Thrift Markets located in Iowa.
Many Hands is called to transform together, to be love in action, in a broken world.