Monday, November 23, 2009

Haitian Coffee Now Available for Purchase

In order to raise awareness and funds for the Embrace Haiti project, we are temporarily selling bags of Singing Rooster Haitian Coffee in The Woodlands, Texas during December. You can buy one bag for $15 or 2 for $25 either as ground or whole bean. If you are in The Woodlands and would like to order this delicious coffee, you can email rjtrushen@aol.com or buy it at The Loft Church during the first three weekends in December. To find out more about this coffee, you can visit http://www.singingrooster.org/.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Construction Materials

The first wave of construction materials were just procured in Haiti, which include cement block molds, sand and supplies.  These are an important first step towards the multi-purpose building being constructed in 2010!


Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Toothbrushes & Toothpaste

Many thanks to Children's Dental Center for donating 100 tooth brushes and tooth paste to the children of Bayaha.  They will be brought to Haiti with the team in January! 

If you know someone who would like to donate more of these, please contact us at deascogin@gmail.com.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Announcing Next Trip Dates

Embrace Haiti will be assembling our next mission team to travel to Haiti from January 24-31, 2010.  The focus of this trip will be health and hygiene training within the village and possibly getting started on the construction of the new school building/church.  Read on to learn about our most recent trip this October!

Friday, October 23, 2009

October Mission Trip

The October Mission team just returned from a week long stay in Haiti. During the week, the team visited Bayaha every day and developed close relationships with the 51 school children during their first official week of school. The school children received clothing items, new backpacks, and bibles. The team saw the completion of a well on the school property, helped start a jewelry business and a sewing business, visited several orphanages, surveyed the property, and looked at different buildings for ideas for Bayaha's future multi-functional building.

















Towards the end of the week, the team attended a Haitian funeral and threw a birthday party/celebration for the school children.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Kreyol Children's Bibles

Some of the youth here raised enough money to purchase a Children's Bible in Kreyol for each one of the school kids.  Their photos were taken and placed on the inside of the Bibles so they would know it was theirs.


Getting Ready for School

A lot had to happen with the help of our dedicated team in Haiti to get 51 children ready to start school in October.  Two sewing machines were purchased in May to make the uniforms and also start a sewing school. 



There were materials, shoes, socks, undergarments, and of course the very important hair bows!








Then of course comes the books, feeding supplies, chalkboards, etc.








The class is assembled to meet their teacher...



What a great blessing!

Mission Bayaha: Village Transformation

As part of that original trip we devised a collaboration amongst the participating churches and a strategy for moving forward.  The collective vision was to transform this small village through a multifaceted approach.  When asked about what they would like to see change in their village, the elders said first and foremost to educate our children.  By our estimation, last than half of the school age children in Bayaha were actually enrolled in school, due to the in ability of the families to cover the expenses.  This is typical in Haiti and one thing we felt we could see change.


Step 1 - Start a School
Step 2 - Feed the children, because a hungry child can't concentrate on learning.
Step 3 - Build a multipurpose building to serve as a school, church, clinic and huricane shelter
Step 4 - Invest in small businesses and bring some industry to the village
Step 5 - Begin a gardening co-op to assist the community in feeding themselves


And so we began the process of raising money, raising awareness, and recruiting help.

In the Beginning...

In the beginning, a group assembled with the help of Living Water International representing three churches and a couple of individuals set out on a Vision Trip to discover a small village in Northern Haiti called Bayaha. It was an opportunity to see where God had led us and what work He had for us. We found an impoverished community lacking most of the necessities we all take for granted: clean water, food, adequate shelter, and education. But, more than that you could see the sorrow and hopelessness in the eyes of the people we encountered. Our guides on this journey and our hosts while in Haiti, Pastor Rick and his wife Debbie Hutchinson, helped us process the experience and understand that while we can't change the entirity of the situation, we could make an impact on the lives in this village, by answering Jesus' call to love one another and giving them hope for a new life. We can't do it all, but we can do what we can do and leave the rest to the Lord. Here are some images from our Vision Trip in May 2009.

The current site of the church and the land purchased to build on:


Debbie Hutchison leading children in song on our first day in the village:

One little girl in the village didn't know what to make of us:

The children who were enrolled to start school for the first time:

The Vision Team: