There’s a phrase that we often hear about relationships in both home and work environments: “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” There are some exceptions to this rule, but orphan care is not one of them!
This week marks four months living in Jacmel, Haiti at the Hands and Feet Project overseeing the campus that currently houses 71 orphaned and abandoned children. Looking back over these last 4 months, our priorities have changed many times as different situations arise. Power and water issues have consumed much more time than we anticipated, and beyond that we’ve been focusing on getting to know the children and staff on campus. We have laughed and cried, bandaged many wounds, and had long waits for stitches and X-rays. We also spent many hours working on maintenance and administrative tasks required for the campus to run smoothly, such as staff job contracts, financial tasks and appliance repairs. We’ve spent a lot of time learning the language and even more time entertaining the children and staff with our incorrect Haitian Creole! We are committed to lessons, even though life here often interrupts our planned lesson times.
With over 75 children under our care, both on campus and in the community, building a relationship with each one takes time, especially considering the language barrier and the trauma some of these kiddos have been through. Looking at the dynamics of our own families and then multiplying that times the 75 unique child personalities here, and mixing in the 85 full and part time staff that help run the campus, and you won’t be surprised when we say that we rarely have a dull day!
We love the time we have to spend with kids to build relationships with them. They need to know we care. These relationships need time to plant seeds, water them, cultivate them, water them some more, and look 
forward to a harvest in the future. Sometimes that means spending time playing games with kids, playing with cameras, coloring and doing word searches, working on wood and electrical projects, or playing frisbee…and of course, soccer!
We look forward to our upcoming projects. In addition to overseeing maintenance and beautification projects on campus, we are also working towards improvements in the computer lab and providing learning opportunities for the young adults in various trades.
Our long term focus for the children and staff also includes helping them grow their faith. We have a variety of weekly devotional and Bible study times each week on campus in addition to church every Sunday. The next question for us is how to extend discipleship opportunities and provide ways for people to go deeper in their faith. We are exploring a variety of possibilities but are interested in hearing from you as well. What sort of programs have you used and what resources might be helpful?
Reunification with family is a high priority for us whenever possible. We are working on the final stages of another reunification and have a few more in the initial stages. The relationships and education within a family unit are generally so much healthier in the long term than the alternatives, including residential, family-style care.
We are so thankful for those who support our work!
We continue to learn and grow, and we absolutely love being a part of Hands and Feet Project. To learn more about opportunities to serve, go to www.handsandfeetproject.org/trips. We would love to have you join us for a short-term trip, or you can even apply for an internship and serve for a longer period of time (see www.handsandfeetproject.org/volunteer). To help us continue serving children and families in Haiti, donations can be made at www.haiti.denran.net/donate.htm.