Christmas Greetings!

It’s the time of year that we like to reach out to our loved ones with gifts and greetings.  For that hard to shop for person on your list, you could sponsor a student in Every Child School in their name for just $20.00 a month.  For those who already sponsor students, the children and families supported by Heart of Compassion enjoy receiving holiday greetings. If you wish to send a Christmas greeting and/or a picture to the child you support you can send them to:

Vladimy & Ashly Mardy (Haiti)
Unit 2052-Heart
3170 Airmans Dr.
Ft. Pierce, FL. 34946

Ashly will then translate them and either write them out or read them to the children or family.  If you desire to send a gift it’s a little more difficult.  Vlad and Ashly’s mail is delivered through a courier service and they are resistant to delivering packages.  The best way is to forward a donation in the name of the child/family for Christmas Gift to:

Heart of Compassion

C/O Dwight Wagoner

6796 W 1400 N

Silver Lake, IN 46982

We will make the funds available to Ashly to purchase gifts or food, whatever may be more appropriate.  An unexpected gift is special anytime, but at Christmas it is even more special.  And in Haiti, you will get the most for your holiday dollar!  The exchange rate is good and most things, compared to US market, are relatively inexpensive.  And you will also receive a tax receipt for any monetary contributions so it just keeps getting better.  Your thoughtfulness will ignite huge smiles and warm hearts as we share the Love of Jesus by remembering these less fortunate this Christmas.

Make it Really Shrink!

Statistics show that the average household income in America is shrinking.  You can make is shrink even further in the eyes of the tax man by making a generous donation to Heart of Compassion.  Our good government has given us the right to lower our taxable income by donating to registered 501c3 organizations like Heart of Compassion.  Tired of the government wasting your hard earned money?  Put it to work sharing the Love of Jesus Christ through Heart of Compassion.

Workin it Out!

Just a reminder that we are looking for willing workers to help build a house for Clint and Brenda.  Tentative dates for teams are Jan. 21 – Feb. 1 and Feb. 18 – March 2.  For more information contact Dwight Wagoner jdwagoner@kconline.com, 574-893-4931, or Pat Kaufman pkaufman3@juno.com, 937-620-9423.

School News

We ask you to keep Every Child School on your prayer list.  The academic year seems to be going well and we are still waiting for State test results. There are needs that are not being met, however.  Pray for wisdom for the teachers to meet the daily challenges they face in the classroom every day.  Pray for the children in their studies, and as they pitch in physically by carrying building materials for the room we will be adding to the school building.  Pray for the building team that will be there November 20 – 28 to build that room.  Pray that God will provide finances to outfit the new room with benches and blackboard, and some replacements for benches too.  God has been faithful to provide for our needs and we don’t want to appear greedy or dissatisfied.  We want to thank Him for adequate facilities and an excellent staff.  We continually strive to be better stewards of the resources He has made available.  Our prayer is that we can provide a healthy learning environment for the children of the Soliette region.  It is through the school that many of these children have learned of Jesus Christ and experienced His love through your generosity.  Your continued support is truly a Blessing from God and we are confident that God will reward that generosity with manifold Blessings in your life.  We thank you as we thank Him in this season of Thanksgiving.

We want to extend our deepest sympathys to Mr Kesnell (our school administrator) on the death of his father.  Join us in prayer that he would feel the comfort of his Heavenly Father as he mourns the death of his earthly one.

Bringing Sight to The Blind

Last week, we met a man who was almost completely blind!  He claimed to be 30 years old, but seems to be older than that.  Regardless, he’s too young to be blind! It’s hard to tell if it’s cataracts or something else without having a doctor look at him.

left - right Jericha, Jeda, Ashly, Kenya

We are well into the 2009/2010 school year, and things seem to be flowing right along! With the addition of another grade this year, and the ever increasing number of children wanting to attend, the building is maxed to the point of one class meeting outside.  Thankfully, we haven’t had to use any snow days yet, so meeting outside hasn’t really been an inconvenience. The students are anxiously awaiting the short term team arriving Nov.21 to start construction on the final portion of the building! 

The November team will build foundation, floor and

roof to match flatter-roofed section to left in picture.

  Building in Haiti

(scheduling is not an option!)

Charting the course of a ministry is often confusing, barely affordable and the direction is never clear. This past August (2009), we struggled to balance the needs of the school, the needs of the ministry and the needs of the people.  We seemed to be led to search for a vehicle to replace the truck, but after several days of fruitless searching, discouragement set in.  Our schedule mandated w move the team to Soliette for 5 days of Bible school, and while we were there the importance of the school became more pressing than a new truck.  We had enjoyed a degree of success at the end of last year with test scores improving and positive feedback from the community. It seemed working toward state accreditation for Every Child School was a better stewardship of our resources.  A major requirement for the accreditation was an office for the school administrator.  After a meeting with a local job boss, a site was chosen and the foundation was dug. 

The rest of the process is a long story that makes absolutely no sense to the mind of and American accustomed to building in America.  What is hard for us to process is the total lack of convenience.  You can get materials delivered, but only to the end of the road.  Unfortunately, the end of the road is still about a mile down the hill from the building site.  Before we left the blocks had been delivered and the school kids were carrying them up from the road.

Clint and I (Pat) decided to pitch in and see exactly what it was like.  Starting at the building site, it was a 26 minute round trip down to the road and back with a block on your head. Actually Clint brought 2 and I just carried one (we traded about the last ¼ mile).  We could have made a couple more trips before collapsing in complete exhaustion, but it was time to head back to town.  There was time for a dip in the river to cool down, though.

Project Well Project

 That title probably doesn’t make a lot of sense to you unless you’re familiar with some of the Lord’s work we’ve been involved in.  The ‘Project’ is a poor housing community that Heart of Compassion has been doing ministry in for the last couple years.  Through the spring we collected funds to have a well drilled for this community, thus the ‘Well Project’. 

A scene that is now a thing of the past!

During our summer short term trip for Bible school, I worked 3 days with the drilling team from Blue Ridge International for Christ (BRIC), drilling the well you so generously funded.  There were frustrating days during the drilling and the whole project turned out to be a typical Haitian deal.  With hopes of catching the whole thing on video, from the first penetration of the ground, to water flowing from a completed well platform and pump, I stood by taking pictures, smearing on sunscreen, playing with the children who watched and helping wherever I could, only to be frustrated by cave-ins, falling rocks and other delays.  We left with a capped plastic casing sticking out of the ground with no platform or pump.

Getting started                     Lots of observers! 

Trying to get the rocks out

The third day we filled the bore with clay before drilling again!

Purging the well with compressed air.  People got excited!

Tres Bon! (very good!)

.  We had water, good water, 41 feet down but no way to get it into the people’s buckets yet.  Ten days later the crew returned and poured the concrete platform around the casing.  I thought the ten day wait for concrete was extreme, but it was nothing compared to the 3 weeks it took to get the pump installed. 

But now, the wait seems totally worth it as the water flows from the ground. Powered by the boundless energy of the young Haitians on the pump handle, the water, clean fresh water, fills bucket after bucket and gets carried into the ‘Project’.

 The smiling faces, lifted hands and calls of ‘Mesi Jezi’ (Thank you Jesus!) made the frustrations of the drilling and the anxieties of the wait seem well worth it.

Every Child School 2009/2010

Every Child School burst into the 2009-2010 school year literally bursting at the seams!  Every year we add a grade but there’s a funny thing about the school.  The kids grow in size and numbers, but the building stays the same size.  The first day of school brought a desperate cry from Vladimy, “Jen, we don’t have enough room for all the kids!”  Such is school in Haiti.  Last year we struggled with uniforms and books for everyone.  This year, God provided generously for uniforms and books, but adding a new grade means we need another room.  For now that room has no walls or roof, because they must meet outside!  That is just one of the many prayer requests for Every Child School as we ‘burst’ into the new year.  As we add a class, we also seem to have gained somewhat of a reputation!  During the registration time, we had new parents wanting to enroll their children because they heard, “the students at your school learn!”  We send that as a compliment to our staff (all Haitian!) and as a manifestation of the fruit being born by your generosity.  We have registered 170 children for the school year, of which only 100 have been sponsored.  You ask how can you do that?  Well, with books and uniforms being covered by other gifts, it is easier to stretch the sponsorship money to cover more students.  Don’t think for a second that it is not necessary to continue to search for sponsors for the remaining children!  The funds received for additional sponsorships would enable us to flesh out the program.  Operating at the current sponsorship level, we are only able to feed the children 3 days a week.  Additional sponsors would allow us to purchase more food.  Our goal is to provide at least one meal every day for the students.  They learn so much better when they are not hungry!  There are always needs for other materials like chalk and chalkboards, teaching materials, desks/benches.  We also had to hire another teacher for the new class.  The funds are applied to the most urgent needs that are directly related to the students.  Adding $20.00 a month for the remaining 70 students would be an incredible boost for school year 2009/2010!  Pray that this could become a reality.

Exterior of the school building

                     Roof Trusses                                                    Shool interior minus partitions

For those of you who haven’t seen the school, it’s not a palace!  A tin roof supported by a rafter system held together by the Grace of God, and a cement floor that started crumbling that day after it was poured.  The exterior walls and classroom partitions are woven palm leaf mats wired to the support poles.  This provides for good ventilation, but does nothing to deaden sound between the rooms and they have to be replaced every year.  Compared to some mountain schools even this is quite nice, but improvements in the building would enhance the learning environment.  Some improvements are being made, however!  In an effort to gain accreditation by the government, we have broken ground on an administration building which will serve as an office for the administrator (required), a rodent proof storage room for the student food supply and sleeping quarters for the teachers.  The last part might require some explanation.  All the teachers live in Fond Parisienne, which is a 45 minute ride down a rough mountain road.  Few, if any, of the teachers own transportation of their own so they ride a ‘tap-tap’ (taxi – this needs some explanation too, some other time) Sunday evening or early Monday morning, stay the week and go back down Friday afternoon.  Sleeping quarters and some meals are part of their working agreement.  The last couple years, we have rented a room for them. It will be nice to be able to provide our own facility.  If this sounds like a lot, the whole building is only 24’ x 20’.  Most of us have garages larger than this!  We broke ground on the building in August and so far, the walls are up and some of the window blocks are in.  Hopefully by Christmas the roof will be on and the floor will be poured.  The project is currently being done by local labor.  We have a team from Ohio going down over Thanksgiving to hopefully finish it up and maybe add the room to the school.  Pray that the construction would progress at a steady rate and the administration building would be complete soon!  Special thanks to Vladimy’s brother Pouchon!  He has been a faithful laborer in this project.

Administration Building Foundation Layout

                          School Desk/Bench (church pew too!)                                     Fixing benches!                                     

Such is the school situation in one of the poorest nations on earth.  The students are hungry to learn and they know education is the only hope for their future.  One beautiful thing about education in Haiti is there is no separation of church and state, so we can use Bible stories and songs freely in our curriculum!  We thank you for your continued support of Every Child School and pray that God would shower His Blessings on you for your generosity.  If God so moves you to support Every Child School in a bigger way, we would encourage you to respond to that prompting generously.  Our students are aware that without your support, their future has little hope!  They send their thanks and a promise to do their best to make 2009-2010 the best school year ever!