House Of Hope "Almost Ready for Children"

I' m posting these pictures in hope that you'll get as excited as we are. The HOH is almost ready for kids! Hopefully by fall some of our children will be starting school at Blanchard. We still need to dig a well and get a generator and purchase funiture and appliances before we open.


This is Patrick with Allison Breininger and her daughter, Maya, age 2 1/2 yrs. old. They were staying at our hotel awaiting signing final papers before taking her home to Minn. It was taking longer than hoped and they we running out of toys to entertain Maya, so Patrick shared one of the Matchbook cars that he'd brought down with her. She stole all out hearts partly because she's the age of the children we'll be taking into the HOH to raise.


This is my granddaughter, Kalah, with one of the children in the nursery at the church in Blanchard. He was dancing to the worship music and Kalah feel in love with him. He also is the age of the children we will be supporting.


This little angel was also at the Blanchard church. She's holding Livia's teddybear that Darrel brought to Haiti for Livia. There's just something in the smiles of theses little ones that makes you feel like you're looking into the face of God and getting hugged by them is just indescribally pure love.

Haiti Mission Trip Pictures

It's good to be home but we all left our hearts in Haiti. We got alot done. Soon, it will be home for several children whom otherwise wouldn't have a change to grow, feel safe, go to school, learn about Jesus, learn to support themselves and hopefully make a difference in their country.
We want to say thanks to everyone who helped send us. We gained more than we gave! Thanks for your prayers...continue to pray for the House Of Hope. We still need to dig a well and get a generator. The children are ready.....waiting for a place to call home, with loving parents.

Haiti Team

We're home! Praise the Lord for a safe and productive trip. We have many exciting stories to "share." (The quotation marks are an inside joke....guess you had to be there.)

We completed painting the inside and outside of the orphanage.

It's 1:30am.....I'll post more pictures later. Right now, I can't wait to sleep in my own bed.

Thanks to everyone who lifted us up in prayer and helped us financially. We couldn't have done it without you.

Haiti '09: Day 8 (Thursday)

The crew is on their way home. Pray for safety and happy reunions.

Haiti '09: Day 7 (Wednesday)

A HAITI UPDATE FROM DARREL:
I thought I would try to give you an update on our week in Haiti. This has been an amazing week for all of us and for the House of Hope. Of course you know the week started off with us arriving with only two of our bags. The awesome thing is that all of our painting supplies were in those bags. God provided for us so we could get to work and the rest of the stuff didn't matter much. The team really worked hard and today we were able to leave the House of Hope compound knowing the whole building was painted inside and out. It is so hard to believe this dream we had a few years ago is coming to a reality. In the next month the kitchen will be finished and the well will be dug. After that we only have a few loose ends to tie up and we will be ready to open. Leon assures us it will be filled right away and there will be a waiting list beyond that. We will begin with 6 to 8 boys and 6 to 8 girls. I am just in awe about how God is pulling this off.

Thanks to all of you who have helped and prayed for us and thanks to a great team down here in Haiti. They have worked so hard. We did get to spend a day at my favorite spot on earth (Wahoo Bay Beach). Tomorrow we fly out. Please pray for safe and good travel. We can't wait to share all about our trip with you all. God bless and have a good rest of the week.

Haiti '09: Day 6 (Tuesday)

More from Darrel's Facebook:
"This little girl Miya is staying at our hotel. She gets to go home to her new adopted family soon. She is the exact age (2 and a half) of kids who will be entering the house of hope orphanage CCJ is starting.

Hotel Guard.

Haiti '09: Day 5 (Monday)

Darrel says via Facebook

This morning: "back to work .... Things are going great."
This evening: "hottest day yet. Great day of work. There is at least one coat of paint on everything and two on most. The plumbing and electrical is far along. House of Hope will be up and running in no time."

Here are some more photos I stole from his Facebook page:

Haiti '09: Day 4 (Sunday)

The gang went to Haitian church services today. This is a photo from Glenda of her granddaughter, Kalah, with some Haitian kids.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.

UPDATE: Here's two more from Glenda.


Also, looks like Glenda and Ken's computer is back up. Glenda says, "I laid hands on my computer and prayed for God to fix it and gave it a nights rest and yesterday morning ....IT WORKED! Praise God."

Haiti '09: Day 3 (Saturday)

As Darrel said in the previous post's comments, blogging is sparse in Haiti because a good Internet connection is hard to find (sorry, Ken, about your laptop - that stinks).

Here's some updates from Facebook.

Darrel:
"Ready to begin work" (7:30 a.m.)
"Loving dinner tonight. We had great fish" (7:30 p.m.)
"The gang is going to 3 Haitian church services in the morning."

Some More Photos:





Stay tuned ...

Haiti '09: Day 2 (Friday)

Looks like the Haiti updates will come via Facebook status updates. For those of you not on Facebook, here are some sparse updates.

From Darrel:
Update # 1: "No luggage yet but we had a great first day on the job."
Update # 2: (Two hours later) "We have our luggage..... Praise God."

From Glenda:
"Just got back from painting the orphanage. A few are in the pool....who happen to have swimsuits! Got a lot done today. Put on primer paint. After I get some rest and cool down, I'll try to down load pictures."

More to come ... hopefully.





Photo via Darrel's Facebook.

Haiti '09: Day 1 (Thursday)

According to Holli (Darrel's wife) "our crew in Haiti has no luggage. None of it made it there. They will check with the airport tomorrow to see if it has been found."

Hopefully, the luggage will arrive soon. Keep them all in your prayers.

UPDATE: Glenda e-mails and says ...
We had an uneventfully good trip. Got here with 4 of our 24 pieces of luggage, Kalah's and Christina's 1 each and 2 full of paint brushes and rollers and L and XL t-shirts to paint in. Praise God. The rain kept us off line last night. Going to work today (Friday) and go back to airpot to see if our luggage is back this afternoon. God is GOOD!

House of Hope

I am so excited! Five more days. I wonder what color paint Pastor Leon got for us to paint the House Of Hope. Yellow is my favorite color. The guys will be putting in plumbing and electricity. I will be posting pictures and updates again. I'll bring back a bracelet for the posted comment who guesses the right color.

House of Hope Update

The House of Hope Orphanage in Haiti is getting closer to completion by the day. In April we are planning to take a team down to finish some things on the building, install a water system (Well, pump and filtrations system) and some other odds and ends.
As soon as the building project is completely done we will start moving toward operation right away. Support and funds for the day to day operation to get underway is budgeted into the CCJ mission budget. We are in the process of finding and hiring good Christian house parents and then start taking in children nearing the age of 3. The reason for that specific age is because the children must be 3 to begin attending the church schools that the churches there operate. We hope to start with 4 to 8 three-year olds that will form a family and start realizing the hope that we have dreamed of. Please continue to pray for this mission. In addition to prayers we will always be in need of financial support as well as physical support from short-term missions groups.
Thanks be to God for everyone who is allowing Him to use them to make this hope a reality.

House of Hope

It has been a while since we have given an update on the House of Hope Orphanage so I thought it was about time. Construction on the first orphanage house is getting closer to completion. I just spoke with Leon on Sunday and they are really working away. We have had many delays due to hurricanes and other factors but I expect to have some great quality pictures of the House of Hope very soon. When major construction is done the House of Hope board will be meeting and finalizing a plan for lunching the orphanage. That will involve many things but not the least of which is hiring great Christian house parents. The CCJ mission's team has set aside funding for what we hope will fund the complete first year of operation. That being said, this world economy has really effected third world countries with huge inflation so costs have really risen. So we hope to raise a lot of additional funds for the orphanage. We will soon be completing a promotional DVD to send to many different churches mission's teams to raise additional awareness and support for this great ministry. We also plan on holding a meeting in the near future for those interested in going on a short term mission trip to the orphanage. (There is no trip scheduled at this time). Please keep all of these things in your prayers and thank you so much for all of the effort and resources you all have committed to the House of Hope.

House of Hope Progress

We received this email yesterday with this picture taken 7/02/08.

Hello, My name is Bryan Forsing. I recently visited with Pastor Leon in Haiti. He asked me to contact you regarding a project you are involved with him. The orphanage is well under way and I have a number of photos to share with you. I was very impressed with the project and I am excited about what God is doing through you and the people in Haiti.
Thank You and God Bless, Bryan Forsing

It is so exciting to see the progress! Thank you Bryan.

Haiti Storage Building @ the Orphanage

(We received this picture and note from Pastor Leon today, Glenda)

Hi Darrell,

Here is the progress on the storage room for the orphane. Tomorrow we will start with the footings for the first house.

Our Prayers are with you.

In His Service,

Leon & Jacky

Blog "Priceless"

All of us who went to Haiti this month want to say a big THANK YOU to those who commented on our post while we were away. It meant a lot to us to stay in touch and read emails. This new age of electronics is helping the missionaries feel not so isolated. We all need a support team and you guys were one of ours. Thanks for your prayers also. We always felt the Lord’s presence.

Daniel, we can’t thank you enough for all you do to make this blog possible. We may take it for granted here…but like Master Card’s commercials…staying in touch from a foreign country….. “priceless”!

Haiti: Day 5 (Friday)

From Glenda:
"It's been a great week, ending with an afternoon at the beach ... .including an "exciting" trip there. Ask one of us about the driving habits here!
We're excited about finishing the wall and coming home tommorrow (Saturday). We leave the hotel at 6:15 am. We'll call family when we get to Miami."

Haiti: Day 4 (Thursday)

More photos from Glenda this morning. She also says this::
"It was a great day. Praise the Lord.
We have only a liitle bit of wall left to do the morning...then we're off to the beach.
Darrel and Leon just stood back and looked at it like proud parents seeing a newborn baby! Tomorrow we'll get lots of video."

Haiti: Day 3 (Wednesday)

More photos from Glenda:



This next one is a close up Kurt took of of Pastor Leon's truck..

Haiti Protests

From the Miami Herald:

President's speech calms Haiti protests, for now.

The unrest in Haiti is fairly complicated (but not really). Basically, people are hungry, and hungry people don't stay hungry for long, political philosophers will tell you.

In case you do not get the CCJ E-News, this was sent out today regarding our crew that is in Haiti:

Church,
We wanted to take a minute to address any concerns you may have about the safety of our Haiti team. Darrel called me this morning to ensure that we were aware they are safe and sound. While their work has been disrupted somewhat, they are planning to resume work on the wall this morning and will continue on to accomplish as much as possible prior to their scheduled departure.
Please be sure to keep this team in your prayers as well as the political situation in Haiti at this time.

Haiti: Day 2 (Tuesday)

More photos from Glenda (and one sent to Jill - just guess which one that is):

Haiti: Day 1 (Monday, Part II)

Glenda sent the following photos tonight from Haiti. Remember to pray for the CCJ crew there.

Haiti: Day 1 (Monday)

Well we are off to a great start in Haiti. I cannot tell you how rewarding it has already been. Today was a very hard and a physical day but everyone worked hard and got a lot accomplished. It is really hot. We laid (us and the Haitians working with us) around 1200 blocks today. We are putting the block wall 10 foot tall all the way around the 3 acres of the orphanage property. We are now relaxing and sore at the hotel watching the NCCA game.

Hope for Haiti a Reality

Well we leave tomorrow on the mission trip. This is my 5th trip to Haiti and this may be the most exciting. To think about starting to build one of the most significant things I have ever been apart of is humbling. Plus it seems like this team that is going is so excited they can hardly wait. Thank God for this opportunity and thanks to all of you who generously helped make this dream a reality.

Please keep this trip and our families in your prayers.