Earthquake update - good news! 2/11/10

We have good news to share today! We talked to Marie Noel again last night and school in Terrier Rouge opened on Monday. Marie said that not many of the children had returned to school yet because they are still afraid but, in time, they will begin to return back to their normal attendance. She hoped that by next Monday, more children will return but at least the schools are open and operating so the children can attend now and we are very grateful for that! We also spoke to our good friend Stevens Charles last night and he confirmed Marie's news, saying that all the schools in the area were reopening and children were slowly returning. Please pray that their fears will soon be overcome and all the children will eventually return to school.

We also learned today that our new missionary friends in the Dominican Republic are making plans to go to Terrier Rouge this weekend to bring them some much-needed supplies. We are so thankful to them and to their supporters, as well as the brothers and sisters in the Dominican Republic who are reaching out to our friends in Haiti to bring them this help!

In October of 2008, Pastor Noel asked us for help to purchase a piece of land on which he wanted to build a home for orphaned and abandoned children. As a result of some wonderful donations, we were able to give him the money he needed and the land was purchased. When we spoke to Marie Noel last night, Pastor Noel asked us for help again. In light of the recent disaster, he would now like to begin building this home for children on the piece of land purchased 1-1/2 years ago. We know the need for this type of housing has obviously increased in recent days and we promised him we would do all we could to find the financial help necessary to begin this construction. If you would like to donate towards the cost of beginning this home for children, please send us an e-mail at info@hishandsforhaiti.org or you can log into PayPal and send your donation to that same e-mail address.

Also, many of you have already sent us financial donations towards the added cost of purchasing food and other necessities for the displaced people who have come from Port-Au-Prince and are now looking for help in Terrier Rouge. And while we are extremely grateful what's already been given, we know that this need will be on-going so we're asking for continued support to meet this need in the long term. We have also been overwhelmed at the outpouring of support in the form of new sponsorships for the children already pictured on our website and, again, we are extremely grateful for that. Our hope is that the children remaining on the website now will also find sponsors BEFORE we return to Haiti just one month from today as we anticipate new children being enrolled in the schools who will need sponsorship support. As we have been saying since the beginning of this crisis, the crisis in Northeast Haiti is still growing, and will continue to grow, so our friends continue to need our help.

A new tax relief law allows people who contribute to Haiti earthquake relief by March 1, 2010 to take a tax deduction for the contribution on their 2009 tax return. This means donors can receive an immediate tax benefit, rather than having to wait until they file next year's return. Donors may deduct these contributions on either their 2009 or 2010 returns, but not both. As you are aware, we are a registered 501c3, tax-exempt, non-profit organization so donations made through His Hands are considered tax-exempt and we do issue a receipt to all donors. Media attention is beginning to wane as time passes, but we will continue to serve the pastors we have partnered with in Northeast Haiti long after Haiti has left the news and the last reporters have gone home. We are in this for the long haul and we would appreciate your participation with us to help the pastors to help the people in their communities and, of course, to help the children in the schools. If you wish to make a financial donation through PayPal towards the cost of food for the children in the schools we're working with or to help with food, clothing and other necessities for people who have been displaced by the earthquake, please send us an e-mail at info@hishandsforhaiti.org or log intoPayPal and send your donation to that same e-mail address.

Please join us as we pray for the people of Haiti in this time of disaster. As we have more specific information about the children in our program, we will post it here.

Thank you for your concern -
His Hands Support Ministries

Earthquake update - 2/5/10

We were recently contacted by a missionary couple in the Dominican Republic who, like His Hands, are also affiliated with Missionary Flights International. Working through Marie Noel's nephew here in the United States, a plan is being arranged for the missionary couple in the D.R. to bring some much-needed supplies to Pastor Noel and Marie. We are extremely grateful for this gracious offer of support and we hope to be able to meet our new missionary friends in person one day! Also, many of you have sent us financial donations towards the added cost of purchasing food for the displaced people who have come from Port-Au-Prince and are now looking for help in Terrier Rouge. And while we are extremely grateful what's already been given, we know that this need will be on-going so we're asking for continued support to meet this need in the long term. As soon as we learned banks were open again in Haiti, we sent the first installment of financial help to Pastor Noel and we will be sending more in the coming weeks as donations are continuing to come in. When we last spoke to Marie, schools were still closed, but she was hopeful that they would open on Monday, February 8th. If we hear that they have opened again, we will certainly post that information here. We have also been overwhelmed at the outpouring of support in the form of new sponsorships for the children already pictured on our website and, again, we are extremely grateful for that. Our hope is that the children remaining on the website now will also find sponsors BEFORE we return to Haiti in March as we anticipate new children being enrolled in the schools (after they are able to open again) who will need sponsorship support. The more children we can find sponsors for now, the easier it will be to find sponsors for any new children added to the program during our next visit to Haiti. As we have been saying since the beginning of this crisis, the crisis in Northeast Haiti is still growing, and will continue to grow, so our friends continue to need our help.

So how can you help? If you wish to make a financial donation, you may certainly do so and we plan to use it to help Pastor Noel (and the other pastors) purchase food for the refugees from Port-Au-Prince as well as food for the children in the schools once school reopens. A new tax relief law allows people who contribute to Haiti earthquake relief by March 1, 2010 to take a tax deduction for the contribution on their 2009 tax return. This means donors can receive an immediate tax benefit, rather than having to wait until they file next year’s return. Donors may deduct these contributions on either their 2009 or 2010 returns, but not both. As you are aware, we are a registered 501c3, tax-exempt, non-profit organization so donations made through His Hands are considered tax-exempt and we do issue a receipt to all donors. Media attention is beginning to wane as time passes, but we will continue to serve the pastors we have partnered with in Northeast Haiti long after Haiti has left the news and the last reporters have gone home. We are in this for the long haul and we would appreciate your participation with us to help the pastors to help the people in their communities and, of course, to help the children in the schools.

Looking back on 2009 - Looking ahead to 2010

Here we are at the start of 2010 and it seems appropriate to look back on 2009, not to bring any praise on ourselves but to marvel at the incredible provision of God. The brief synopsis of the activities of His Hands for Haiti for 2009 looks like this -

Total number of team trips to Haiti - 2

Total number of team members on those trips - 35

Total number of children "processed" on those trips - 1301

Total number of children sponsored for the 2008-2009 school year - 1029

Total number of sponsors - 500

In 2009 we continued with our ongoing support of His House - the home for orphaned and abandoned children with Mme. Christian as housemother. There were 11 children in residence for most of the year after 1 child relocated and another child went to live with an older sister, making room for another little girl to take her place.

We also continued with our ongoing support of Marie Noel's Saturday Feeding program which has grown to over 100 children being fed each Saturday. We were able to contribute to a much-needed improvement of providing benches for the children to sit on while they eat, which has helped things to go much more smoothly.

We also helped with financial support for the medical needs of a young girl from the community of Danda who is still in the process of correcting a life-threatening birth defect. She has had several surgeries so far, the last one being late in 2009, with more to come. The end of 2009 saw her doing well and recouperating back in her home village, preparing for more surgery in a year.

We were also able to begin a program for the sponsorship of teachers and other staff members of the school in Terrier Rouge. This program will help provide the teachers' monthly salaries.

Lastly we were told about a program being run by one of our partner Pastors in the village of Danda which provides a goat for a child and their family. We were able to share this information with our sponsors who have responded to this opportunity to help in a tremendous way - enabling us to be able to send over $1,000 to Haiti to help provide goats for this program.

We are so thankful to God for allowing us to be His servants and for His incredible blessing on this ministry. None of these things would have been possible without His guidance and direction and without Him bringing in the increase. "Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory because of Your love and faithfulness." Psalm 115:1

Looking ahead to 2010, we're starting the year with 1023 children sponsored so we expect to bypass our total number of children sponsored for the previous school year. We have 2 team trips to Haiti planned for 2010. The dates for the first trip are March 10 - 24 and the dates for the second trip are September 27 - October 13. We already have quite a list of names of possible team members for both trips and we are looking forward to great team trips with many "veteran" team members as well as quite a few "newbies".

This month marks the 8th year anniversary of our first trip to Haiti. We never would have imagined what God had planned for us but we are so thankful that His ways are higher than ours. We will continue to walk in the good works He has planned for us until He closes the door or calls us home. Thank you so much for your continued prayer and support. We look forward in anticipation of the good works God has planned for us in 2010!

For Him and for the children,

Jamie