Our adventures serving the Haitian people in Jacmel, Haiti
For those of you who follow Hands and Feet Project on Facebook, you may have seen video interviews with some of our coworkers over the last several weeks. This week, it’s our turn! You can watch our interview below, or you can watch it on Facebook even if you don’t have a Facebook account. (The video below may not work on all devices.)
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!)
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.
Continue reading “May Reflections”Hello everyone! We hope and pray that each and every one of you and your families are safe, healthy, and able to find all the essentials during this lockdown period. We also pray that you have a wonderful Easter weekend as we reflect on the death and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.
Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement as we continue to lead our staff in Haiti from afar. So far, Haiti only has 30 reported cases of Coronavirus Covid-19. Only a few cases have been reported in the Jacmel area so far.
Continue reading “Haiti, Health and Wellness”What impact do you expect Coronavirus COVID-19 to have on your life? It’s hard to answer that question, isn’t it? Many people have already been affected, but we don’t know how much more impact it will have. We’ve seen some countries are reporting having the spread of the virus under control and the number of new cases is decreasing. Other countries are just dealing with the initial onslaught and still have increasing numbers. We’ve also heard that the virus is changing as it migrates from country to country, so that increases the uncertainty even more.
Patience? Perseverance? Faith??
Many are asking how things are going with Denise’s health. With the risk of boring you, this is what we have done, been through, tried, and what’s next:
In November, while still in Haiti, literally overnight I woke up feeling very nauseous. At first we thought it was a medication I had recently started a few weeks earlier. I stopped the medication per doctor’s instructions and nothing changed. We sought the counsel of our PA who works with us both in the states and Haiti. She suggested some blood work and testing of my stool. Based on the results of these tests she recommended we head to the states for further testing and to “get healthy”.
Continue reading “Health News Update”
Looking back at 2019, it has been a year of hope and promise, but also of challenges and obstacles. It was another year of endless learning opportunities for us that we’ve tried to capitalize on. We’ve learned so much more about the Haitian people and culture, yet we know there’s still so much more. The history and heritage of the Haitian people is rich and yet challenging. The year ended with health challenges that sent us to Florida for resolution.
Continue reading “2020 Vision for Health & Growth”
How were your Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday? Can you believe tomorrow has yet another special name? It’s Giving Tuesday! And Christmas is coming soon! (If you’re not familiar with Giving Tuesday, you can find information about it here.)
Continue reading “Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday!”
September is always a very busy month in Haiti. The final preparations for school usually fill the first week, including delivery of new school uniforms, finalizing school shoes for everyone, getting haircuts, purchasing and laminating the last of the school books, loading and distributing school backpacks, and planning routes to get all the kids to their various schools on time. By the time September rolls around, the kids are often ready to return to school…and so are the staff!!
Continue reading “September Update – Schools and Roadblocks”We call them Village Values.
We have two campuses (Children’s Villages) at The Hands and Feet Project with a total of 110 children, over 100 full and part time Haitian staff, and 8 American missionaries living full time in Haiti. Every one of us know what the 
Village Values are Continue reading “What are Village Values?”
As many know, we are now in Haiti. We actually arrived about one and a half weeks ago today. Backup…
The week before we left, our church, LifeTree Fellowship, had a Commissioning Service for us that was amazing and very humbling. We so appreciate our church family. The Bible teaching that is constantly spoken there and the support we have from them. We are honored to have them pray for us and lift us up on a daily basis. We received a gift Continue reading “Hello, Haiti!”