Greetings from Haiti:

Hope all is well everyone. Everything is going well here in Haiti. Its good to get ya’ll catch up on the awesome work being done here in Gonaives. Much has been happening. All these efforts have been made possible because you have prayed, financially supported, and physically visited us. I feel so blessed to be your host here in Haiti. I get to meet so many awesome individuals who want to be difference-makers.

I returned to Haiti early February. Since then I’ve been keeping busy moving the Etoile Ministry forward with the support of Many Hands For Haiti. On my last trip, MH4H was able to raise funds to add another three classrooms to our school/funds to build a Wall around our school campus. I think God for making these provisions. I want to gave thanks to the families, churches, businesses and organizations in Sully, Iowa who supported the Freezin For A Reason Run. It was very successful. I hope to do this again next winter. We had an awesome turnout. People were not afraid to run in the cold. I even ran, knowing I had a hot bowl of soup waiting for me. I also want to gave thanks to the friends in Ames, IA/Cornerstone Church. They drove really far to be part of the fun run. Cornerstone Church also had me talked to their high-school group. It was a blast. Thank you thank you!!! As soon I got back to Haiti in early February, I got started on the wall. The wall is to help with security and to protect our school students at the Etoile school. Our contractors worked hard to get the wall up. We have now completed the basic cement block wall. If you have lived in Haiti, you might know what I am referring to. I also did a little landscaping inside the walls. I love watching HGTV while in the U.S. so now I am trying to bring a little design to Haiti :). When you come to Haiti you will see what I am referring to. The inside of the wall is beautiful. We have flowers, bananas, mangoes and breadfruit trees. I love it! The kids love it. The community love it and God love all of us for making this ministry possible for this community. We are the Many Hands that is making a difference for the people of Haiti. Through you and I, God will make the provisions needed to make a difference here in Haiti.

A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to host husband/wife Molly and Kellee Vanhemeert. They were great guests. They accomplished so much in so little time. Molly is a nurse. She ran mobile clinics while she was here and saw over 100 people. She was very sweet to each patient and they loved her. The people in the community have came to me now since they’ve returned to the U.S. to tell me that the medicine given to them really works. They had huge smiles in their faces. Kellee worked with Woody, our Child Sponsorship coordinator. Kellee taught him how to operate the child sponsorship web page. Kellee was very pleased how fast woody was able to pick up the information. Kellee is also a musician; while here he lead some music with some of the Haitian leaders. They had a blast. I am so happy to have met such a wonderful couple. I pray that individuals like Molly and Kellee will visit us as well to do computer training and medical clinics. Thank you for coming!

Last week I had the opportunity to host three teachers from Huston. The leader was Lara. I met Lara while I was in the Teach For America program 3 years ago. While at training, she said she remembered that I had shared my hope to returned to Haiti one day. Reading my updates on all that has been happening, she decided to lead two others to Haiti in order to do a teacher training with my Haitian teachers. It was an awesome few days. Our Haitian teachers learned so much from them and they learned a lot about Haiti. It was a great time of fellowship! I pray and hope that I will have individuals like Lara’s group to come to Haiti in order to partner with the Haitian teachers to support the positive growth of our school students. Education is a major factor in changing Haiti! Your support in this area is truly needed continuously! On Saturday, we broke ground on the three classroom foundation/common place. Its going really well. I am very pleased on how fast everyone is working. Our community here in Gonaives really supports all of our efforts here in Haiti. Our Etoile School is being talked about by everyone. Many people want to send their kids to the Etoile School because of the commitment they see in us to want to make a real difference for the children. Having these classrooms will be a huge difference-maker next school year. This will complete the bottom potion of the school building, we are hoping to build another six classrooms in the top floor as God’s make the needed provisions. Please pray that we will get the needed funding to build another six classrooms. I will keep you posted with pictures as the building is being build. It’s always good for us to catch up. Once again, Thank you for being you and for being a difference-maker. Your support allows much to happen here in Haiti. If you are able, I hope that you will visit us here in Haiti and to see this work firsthand.

Until next time, Silentor aka (Mr. E)