Mission Blog

We are back in Haiti from the 6th of February till the 13th. We have been unable to travel here since the August 2020 earthquake due to political unrest and heavy gang activity through out the country. Pastor Harry will never allow me to come when things are not good.

We are back in Les Cayes to reconnect with the small bush village called Grandou. This was the most accepting community to us in our August trip. In the larger towns you see a lot of progress, but not in the small villages. These folks always seem forsaken. On Monday we drove out to the village and spoke with some of the community leaders about the people, the destruction and the village in general. We have identified 14 homes that we may be able to help.

One thing the folks do not want in a home now is concrete. They want simple structures that they can rebuild easily. We also found a small school out in the bush that has 152 students, 1-6th grade with zero school supplies.

On Tuesday we headed into Les Cayes to purchase supplies for the school and will deliver them on Thursday to the director of the school and we will help distribute them to the children.

Today, Wednesday, we meet with three elders from Cayette to discuss continuing with the Raise the Roof Project. We have 26 roofs left to complete the project. The roof project has probably been one of our best projects in my 16 years working in Haiti. (I think our school rivals it though.) They were so thrilled to see us. It was a beautiful time of fellowship.

More to come. Please pray for us, this country has gotten crazy. We are so fortunate to have Pastor Harry as our leader down here.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Kenny

Praise God that we are heading back to Haiti today. The political and gang violence has kept us away for over a year. Thankfully it has subsided, but please keep us in your prayers this week. Kenny will be posting updates and photos here on our blog and social media.

Thank you to the many supporters who faithfully support Give Me Shelter Ministries every month. We could not accomplish spreading the Gospel and helping those in this third world country as we do, without your contributions.

If you have not contributed to GMSM, we hope you prayerfully consider supporting our mission in Haiti. Please visit our website to view the recent mission trips and projects in the past. You may make donations securely through PayPal on our website.

It is hard to believe that Haiti is less than 700 miles from the USA. The vast difference in the lives of people in the US to those in Haiti is quite shocking. But thanks to the peace that can only be provided by our Lord Jesus Christ, there are many Haitians who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and are living full, abundant lives. Please help us continue to support the Church in Haiti so that more people can be aware of this amazing gift from God that provides an abundant life through Jesus.

Your financial contributions are important, but your prayers are what we need most. Please keep Give Me Shelter Ministries in your prayers throughout the year, so that we may serve others to the best of our ability, and to fulfill nothing but the will of God.

Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow.

Wrapping up today. Up a 5:00 AM and broke camp and headed to Port. We stopped in St. Louise de Sud. This is a small fishing village I ran across about 5 years ago. I always stop in to see my friend Chuco. We always bring bags of rice, beans etc. These folks have always been so kind to us. They always share food with us, mostly lobster or fish. It’s an absolute beautiful place on the Caribbean Sea.

We had a good visit and headed east. It’s an all day dusty drive with lots of stops due to the most traffic you can possibly imagine. These 8 days were incredibly tough but there so many blessings. Looking forward to getting home to my beautiful Kim and the girls. And hopefully catching some leftover waves from Ida. Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow.
Kenny

Today was hygiene bag day. We started in Lasaline the coastal community and then headed to the mountain village of Gandou. We delivered a total of 150 bags. As usual Pastor Harry calmed the crowds and things went well. We never seem to have enough but we are gracious what God gives us. This is our last day, tomorrow we head back to Port au Prince. We had a tremendous amount of local help and security. Without, it would have difficult to pull off. Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow.

Kenny

Last night was crazy. There is tropical activity all around us. It rained so hard and the wind was howling. I thought my tent would blow away. I got up several times in the pouring rain to adjust the rain flap on my tent. Today in the rain we discovered a small community called Lasaline Les Cayes. It is on the southern most part of town and was hit very hard by the earthquake. This community is right on the coast. We made two trips here today to distribute the food bags. Once again Pastor Harry calmed the aggressive crowds down and all went well. After our second time into the community I decided to change gears. We spent the rest of the day buying products for Hygiene bags. We bought enough supplies for 150 hygiene bags. We will take some tomorrow to the coast and also to the mountain community we were at several days before. We made bags for women and for men. Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow.

Kenny

Wow! What a day this was.

We headed back to Saut- Matherine where we passed out the tarps. We had our bags of food disguised very well. As we approached the village several people stopped us and said do not go down because the people where fighting. Man I get it, these people are desperate with no shelter or food.

We decided to go back to several villages up the mountain that we passed through on the day of the tarp distribution. Once there, Harry gathered the people and told them what we were here  for. His loving calm spirit calmed the crowd. Both villages received us and no trouble was made. We start with the elderly, then mothers with small children. From there it’s survival for the fittest. It went amazingly well. I have been on the other side where the people rushed us and we had to get the heck out of there quickly. Not a good feeling. That’s why food distribution is never a priority to me. My mission is to do things that is transferable to the people I work with. But this situation is an exception. All in all a great day.

What is really needed is tents and tarps and a lot of both. When I get back to Port I will see what the availability for tents are. To date we have distributed 66 tarps and 190 bags of food. When we got back to camp the rain and wind started due to some sort of tropical system. Just what this place needs. Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow.

Kenny

The days seem to be running together but the and they seem to be getting harder. We spent most the day in Les Cayes buying food supplies for distribution in the small community where we distributed the tarps. Food distribution is not always what I care to do but these people lost everything in the earthquake. These situations always have the tendency to be dangerous. When people see the food it can become like a powder keg. We will disguise the food so they will not see it and Pastor Harry will be able to bring calm and discipline to the crowd before the distribution starts. The food bag contains rice, beans, spaghetti, tomato sauce, salted herring and a small bottle of oil. It will take much prayer and discernment to pull this off. Praise God From Whom all Blessings Flow.

Kenny

Today is our first day in the field. We went into Les Cayes to drive around the city to survey. Once inside the oldest part of town we felt that this was not where we need to be due to the fact that the major players were in place. We decided to head north to Camp Perrin to a town that was totally devastated by the 2016 hurricane Mathew. On arrival we saw much more damage here than Les Cayes. The natural thing for me was, if this town suffered this much, what do the small villages look like that are forsaken by the government. We headed over mountains and ravines where we saw total devastation. We ended up in a village called Saut-Matrime. It was here where we felt the need to stop. Harry organized the people and we handed out 48 tarps with the help of the mayor. God was surely with us as we all know desperate people can do desperate things. Tarps are a premium now and hard to get. Tomorrow we head back with food and water. Another adventure in the far away bush. Food distribution is not my gig but these people are very needy and they’ve lost everything. Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow.
Kenny

We traveled most the day with safe passage. We arrived in Les Ceyes  safely. We were not sure where we were going to stay. It was too late to make any survey so the main concern was where to pitch our tent. There is a guest house that we have stayed at several times before on the west side of town. I knew it was totally destroyed but the security wall was still intact. After the quake the lady left and went to the states. Harry reached her by phone and she graciously gave us permission to use her wall guarded rubble. She also called her security to come let us in and stay for the duration of our stay. So we pitched tents and settled down for the night. Tomorrow will be another long day of assessment and praying on how we can help in the best way. Praise God For Whom All Blessings Flow ( PGFWABF)

Kenny

After a much needed day of rest, we are on our way to Les Cayes (the epicenter). Yesterday (August 21) was one of the toughest days I’ve had on quite sometime. With driving 9+ hours and then being on the airport all night without sleep. My flight was delayed which put me in Port au Prince too late to travel south. We got up early this morning and prepared the truck for travel. We got groceries for our camping in Les Cayes and now we are headed south with 66 large tarps and are prayed up. We have been in contact with the depot we use outside of Les Cayes and it is open for business. This such a good thing. Now I know we can get material as needed. PGFWABF
Kenny