Winter 2020 Newsletter

Dear Friends and Supporters of Water4Haiti,

From the Board of W4H we pray you all were able to celebrate a memorable Thanksgiving, even under the many restrictions placed upon us. Thankfully, we all are in the family of God who gives us the courage and comfort to address the stressful situations. Individually we can be thankful for the blessing in our lives for having God send his Son to die for us on the cross and erase all of our mistakes and sins on a daily bases.

Finished Kitchen

Due to Covid, riots in Haiti, airlines cancellations and medical issues, I was gone from Haiti for 15 months, the longest absence in 36 years. The last of September I was able to return with the hope to complete several needed projects. The first being the installation of kitchen cabinets supplied by a generous supporter. We also built screen doors to all outside entrances. This enables us to keep bugs and flies out while letting in ‘cooler’ night air. It made a difference of 10* in the kitchen/eating room in the mornings.

Those two projects took about a month and then we started on the second job of building pipe rack to be placed on a newly purchased pickup, a 1990 Toyota 4x4 but new to us. It will be used in place of our car and big truck when transporting tools and equipment. Placing a muddy pump and hoses in the back cargo area of the car was not an ideal option. The rack is painted and ready to install after the pickup returns from the body shop with the rust cut out and replaced and a new paint job.

In the past three months, three couples have been robbed and killed. Two of the crimes committed in our town. Each of the couples had either a school or orphanage and each were pastors with churches. Each time someone knew the pastors had made large withdrawals from a bank to meet expenses for their ministry. The last incident took place just before Thanksgiving when the pastor and young wife, pregnant with twins, were robbed and murdered in their home. The wife lived long enough to identify three of the men. The main instigator was his partner and manager of a small cement depot which the pastor had as a sideline. Haiti has a saying of, “You don’t trust anyone”. Undercover National Police were brought in and in two days had arrested seven of the thugs. In this country where bribery is a part of business and life, I do hope justice is carried out to the end. Life just seems so cheap and for a price most anything can be carried out by thugs who have no remorse of such evil deeds.

Flight over Haiti’s rugged terrain

Two weeks ago another incident occurred. Ten miles down the road is a town of Carries which sits on the ocean front. This land has been used by very poor people for hundreds of years. It now has become desirable land for week end homes, some are small mansions, on a mountain side facing the ocean by wealthy people from Port, a 40 min drive. Hired thugs are paid to enter the village and terrorize, destroy and burn homes. One of the homes was housing an orphanage with 13 children, The administrator knew our Pastor Sammy, our Haitian Director, and the children were brought up to the church/school grounds to an unfinished house for temporary housing.

The destruction of their dwelling turned out to be a blessing. When the children arrived, ages 3-8, they were malnourished, dirty, ragged clothes and scabies on their skin. These stories are not all that uncommon as running an orphanage is a big business in Haiti. Donors are lead to believe they are supporting a child and it is a total scam. The owner keeps most of the money and gives the children only enough to survive plus no schooling. Too many sad stories, just in our local area and it is happening all over Haiti right now.

Finished pipe rack

In all of this we are thankful for you keeping us in your prayers as the crew continued to work repairing pumps and digging new wells.

One happy and good story is that 4 of our employees and I hired a Mission Aviation Fellowship plane to take us up for 35 min to shoot some pictures and videos to include in our website. It was a fantastic flight, beautiful mountains and a great experience for our guys who naturally had never flown before. Very rugged terrain and very sparsely populated. At only 3000’ one place I counted 6 mountain ranges.

Thank you for your support of W4H that we may continue to serve in just one small area of a poor, poor land of wonderful people. We are like a small business on main street in a small town and our business has been hit by Covid also. So, as you make your year end giving evaluation, if the spirit guides you our way, W4H and the people of Haiti would be very grateful.

A few of the orphans moved

Peter tells us in his first book, 5:7, “Let Him have all your worries and cares, for He is always thinking about you and watching everything that concerns you”. During these times of uncertainty these words of comfort have been used for many generations to lean on and that in its self should give us comfort.

From the Board of Water4Haiti we say thank you and wish you a Merry Christmas and we will all pray of a better 2021.

Sincerely,
Chuck Larsen