It’s another hot, humid summer in Haiti, and in Florida! Here’s an update about what is going on in Haiti, our activities with the Hands and Feet Project (HAFP), and what is happening with Denise and Randy McGarvey.
Haiti in the News
Conditions in Haiti continue to be challenging. There are very few news reports about conditions in Haiti. There is a general consensus from news agencies around the world that outside help is needed to resolve the issues in Haiti, but nobody has stepped up to lead it. Talks continue on many levels about possible next steps. We continue to pray for a solution to restore peace and improve the situation for Haitians and ministries that support families and communities. Here’s a link to find recent news about Haiti.
We continue to thank God for providing the means and methods to care for the kids and the communities that Hands and Feet Project supports in various parts of Haiti. Despite all the daunting circumstances people face, schools have finished for the year, graduations have been held, and summer has begun!
Hands and Feet Project Updates
We hope you are all signed up for the newsletters from Hands and Feet Project. They contain information about the children we support and the staff that helps us be effective. The quarterly video updates from the Executive Director, Andrea McGinniss, are very informative! Here’s the latest one for the 2nd quarter. We encourage you to take a few minutes to hear about the recent successes and stories about our work in Haiti.
Denise and Randy recently spoke at their church in Florida, Brooksville Wesleyan Church. The video of that talk is available on the church web site. Just search for McGarvey or click on Next Page until you see, “Sunday Evening Guest Missionary speakers.” We are introduced around minute 17 in the video.
Nine New HAFP Graduates!
We are excited to share that we celebrated quite a few high school graduations in Haiti last month! We celebrated 6 graduations in Grand Goave and 3 in Jacmel! It is exciting to see so many of our kids succeed in this great milestone and to assist them in their next steps in life. Several of our recent graduates are pursuing small business ventures that we hope and pray will be successful in providing for them and their future families. Please keep them all in your prayers as they take on this new season of life.
Summer Plans in Haiti
We try to make summer time a fun time every year. This year is no exception. Our team is working hard to put together several big events, along with a variety of activities to enjoy the summer. Vacation Bible School is always a highlight of the summer, along with the Village Values celebration weekend. It’s a little more challenging to get people and materials into Haiti this year, but we will find a way to make these events memorable.
Haiti Work & Travel Plans
Working from Florida has been much more productive than we anticipated. The power and internet reliability on all of our campuses has been good. We talk with our Haitian staff every day and often video conference with them. Technology makes a huge impact on our ability to work effectively despite the working remotely. It has been an amazing blessing.
Traveling in and around Haiti has never been more difficult. Despite the challenges, we are looking for opportunities to get back there. Please be in prayer for our team as we prayerfully seek opportunities to get back to Haiti and see our amazing kids and staff.
Randy continues to serve as the lead finance guy. Our Haitian bookkeeper team has been making great progress and improvements every month in completing tasks that help our US team complete internal monthly reports.
Daycare Update
Our daycare administrators and teachers love to celebrate and teach history to the kids. Especially to these little ones who are sponges for any information we can give them. For their National Flag Day, they out did themselves. The kids and teachers all wore the flag colors, blue and red. This involved the parents as well. They had a parade on campus with one of their national anthem and other songs specifically for their country and flag. Each of the kids carried a Haitian flag that was theirs to take home with them. We love how the teachers were so involved in making this a special day for the kids!
The parade they had was carried out as if it was the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and it was only on our campus! They learned motions to the song and danced. Some of those kids have some mean moves!
The new daycare at our church in Jacmel is nearly ready to be opened! The room is finished, most of the furniture has been delivered, and interviews for the new daycare staff are in the process.
Passing the Torch to Local Haitian Leadership
We have another amazing success story to share about our Haitian staff and developing them into successful leaders. Here’s an update from Denise about the daycares:
Over the past six months or so, I have been feeling the nudge to step back a little in her responsibilities with Hands and Feet Project. Some of you may know I have been the Daycare Director for the last several years. We have talked a lot about the success of the daycares in helping to keep families together under our Family Preservation project.
We currently have 4 classrooms open across two daycares. There is a third one with two more classrooms that is in the process of opening shortly. I am not stepping away from the Hands and Feet Project but will be doing a different role which has not been totally defined.
The great part about this is the opportunity to hand over the reins to one of our daycare administrators in Haiti. We are always looking for ways to give leadership opportunities to our current staff. Jean Rony has done an amazing job leading the two daycare classrooms in our Thozin site. I am confident he will do an amazing job as a director in the country. As a matter of fact, he is already doing a great job! Probably will be better at it than I! Until the third daycare is opened and fully running, I will walk alongside Jean Rony.
Prayer & Supplication with Thanksgiving
Many people have asked us about shifting our focus on ministry in another, more peaceful country. We know some ministries that have pulled out of Haiti for the short and long term because of the risks associated with ministry.
Hands and Feet Project only works in Haiti, and we all continue to stay focused on Haiti and committed to ministry in Haiti. We have children, staff, families and communities that rely on our help. We remain committed to Haiti as well.
Thanks for the faithful support of our ministry that God has called us to. It’s amazing that we have passed our 6 year anniversary of moving to Haiti! Many people have been faithful prayer and financial supporters since the beginning. We are so grateful for every person, church and business that has come alongside us and share in the blessings of this partnership.
Please continue to pray for the children, staff, families and communities where we work. Pray for the spiritual growth of each of the children in our care, and for the pastors in our communities. Please also pray for faithful leaders to rise up and lead with integrity, and that God would bring peace to the country.