May Reflections

Haiti and Holidays!

Can you believe May is nearly over? Memorial Day is now behind us in America and the unofficial summer season has arrived after a long, cold winter and spring in many places. Florida was not one of those cold places, and, of course, neither was Haiti! In the last month, Haiti has also celebrated Labor / Agriculture Day on May 1, Flag Day on May 18, and Mother’s Day on May 31. It’s been a busy month! We’ve celebrated each Haitian holiday from afar as we’ve been in Florida for several months and are now in upstate New York (the Rochester / Finger Lakes region, not the New York City area!)

Haiti Happenings Update

So what have we been up to this month? We’ve been working like crazy to care for our kids during this coronavirus lockdown while looking ahead to next steps as our kids learn and grow. Our days are often filled with Zoom video calls, and WhatsApp calls and chats – the tools we use to communicate with our Haitian and American coworkers. We’re so thankful for the dedication of our essential staff in Haiti and for all the work they’re doing to keep the campus running smoothly and keeping food and supplies for the kids coming in. We have many changes that we’re working on, and of course it’s a bit more difficult to manage change remotely, but we’re moving forward with everyone’s help. We’re moving kids as they hit the maximum age for our campuses, we’re making campus safety improvements, overseeing repair and maintenance projects, and preparing for more of our kids to head out into the community and beyond.

Haiti has been in a lockdown since mid-March and that seemed to delay the early spread of the coronavirus. The number of confirmed cases has gone up dramatically recently and the degree of the lockdown has increased. The borders of Haiti are closed to inbound and outbound traffic except for specifically chartered planes that leave the country every few weeks as the government permits. So far, the Hands and Feet Project kids and staff are healthy and symptom-free. Praise God! Please pray that God continues to protect our kids and staff, and that they remain healthy.

The Haiti lockdown period was recently extended into July because of the recent increase in Covid cases. That makes it very difficult for us to plan our return since flights are canceled throughout that time. Unfortunately, that means all of our summer teams have all been canceled, including our Vacation Bible School (VBS) team that so creatively presents relevant stories from the Bible every summer. There’s still the December Christmas trip that’s open and accepting applications! Let us know if you have any questions about visiting us on this trip. We’d love to show you around and get some help readying the campus for the Christmas season.

We count on summer teams visiting us in Jacmel to bring some creative change to routine life on our campus. From regular medical team visits to the amazing VBS team, and brief visits and tours from teams that stay at our Ikondo campus in Grand Goave, and other project-oriented teams. In their absence, we’re working to find creative things for the kids to do, especially in light of the lockdown. They still have daily soccer games, weekly devotions, activity and game time nearly every day, and movie nights. We love that our staff have also continued with daily Bible story time with help from the older kids. We also have some tutoring going on for kids that have significant upcoming school exams that they’re required to pass in order to move to the next grade. Given that the all the kids have been quarantined on campus for over 2 months, we continue to seek out other activities they can do despite the lockdown.

Prayers would be appreciated for us, our US staff, the kids that we care for, and all our Haitian staff and partners we work with. We’re thankful for the health and well-being of everyone who helps keep things moving forward.

Where are we now?

As we mentioned above, we’re in NY now! After spending time with Denise’s family, then Randy’s family in different parts of Florida, we came north via Tennessee. We had 2 days of meetings with our US staff from Tennessee, Alabama and Indiana. Denise was able to see her doctor in Nashville, and we also had a great visit with Randy’s brother and his family (including their animals). The doctor reported that Denise is still progressing on the road to healing, and Denise has had some better days in the last few weeks. Ongoing prayers for her are definitely appreciated!

Supporters are Everything!

We want to thank all of our amazing supporters that allow us to do this work. It’s not simply a cliche that we can’t do this without you…it’s absolutely true. We know that many people and businesses are going through hard times during this Coronavirus shutdown period. We appreciate each and every one of you for your prayers, your encouragement and your financial support. We are so thankful for the ongoing support of so many people, and for the special gifts people have made to offset our additional costs of living in the States. You are all critical partners in caring for all our kids and helping to provide jobs for so many people through our organization.

HAFP Team Changes

We’re also going through some changes with our American staff. We’re really sad that our friends and longtime Hands and Feet Project missionaries, the Suttons, are leaving HAFP and moving on to another ministry in Haiti. They were with HAFP for 8 years, and we learned so much from them over the last 3 years. We wish them well in their new ministry.