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Remembrance...

As I stood in front of several hundred people, my mind raced back to the call I received telling me of the earthquake and the severity of it. The images for ever in my mind from CNN and Fox news of the country I had known since I was five.

I could feel once again the moment I landed in Haiti one day after the quake and saw the destruction, the thousands of people clutching to possessions and family they still had, walking out of the city.  I thought of all of the tent city’s I had visited and driven by…the people, the smells, the horror of not knowing if life would ever get better.

I then recalled the day that I sat with our team and brainstormed MOH 500 and how we had to do this because people could not live like they were. They deserved Hope!  Now, after hard work and much anticipation, the day had finally come to move families from the tents they had lived in for over a year and a half into a true home.

A new beginning...

As we began to call the names of the 103 families that would get their new homes this day, it was moving to be able to witness God’s transforming power right before our eyes. Mothers holding their babies walked forward to receive the keys to their new homes. As I congratulated them and said, "God bless you", the looks on their faces were worth all of the work. I wanted so badly for all of those who had worked so hard on this project and gave so much to be able to be there at that moment to see what God was doing. It was very special!

I am so thankful for our partner, Hope for Haiti, and so many other people that have given and worked to make this day possible for these families. It was an incredible day.

The challenge in the midst of it all…

As the day closed and the 103 families were smiling and moving into their new homes, I stepped away from it all to see the other side of the story. There were over 400 families that did not get their names called. These 400 families went back to the same blue tent homes they had existed in since January 2010. My heart broke for the father that has to look his baby in the face and try to explain to him why others have nice new homes and they have to continue in the misery.

I left challenged! Challenged that while we saw 103 families’ needs met, I saw over 400 with great need. I left challenged to one day be able to hand keys to each person there so that they can all see hope in action…challenged that they might not just hear the Gospel message we have been telling them about, but that they could actually see it.

This might be a little delayed, but something quite exciting and monumental happened a couple months ago. For anyone who has made the trek to MOH on the ground in Haiti over the last year, you have heard talks about a new guesthouse. We are excited to announce that a few months ago we officially made the first move into the new MOH guesthouse!

It all started with an electrician, Jeff, who has now made multiple visits to hook up all of the electricity inside the new “hotel”, as some Haitians have come to refer to it as. Jeff hooked up the electricity for the first floor, and got himself all settled in. After a couple months back at home with his family, Jeff came again to get the electricity for the second floor all set up as well.

For the last month and a half, we have been able to house teams on both the top and bottom floor of our brand new guesthouse. This is an exciting step forward for us, as we are now prepared to house the number of people that are prepared to come into MOH each week to serve alongside us. We look forward to more exciting add-ons, including some mysterious roof-top hangout area for teams as well!

Thank you Jeff and everyone else who had such a big hand in preparing the guesthouse for teams!

Yesterday was an exciting day for 3 Cords, as we had a ground breaking ceremony at the new 3 Cords property. The new 3 Cords lab will one day be four buildings with a courtyard in the middle, which will drastically change the course of 3 Cords, as it will enable us to employ more women. With a team from Florida, we all prayed over the new property, and moved some dirt around with a few shovels. It was a very encouraging day to imagine what 3 Cords can eventually become, employing not just 10 women but maybe 50-100 handicapped and/or struggling women.

After being in Haiti for almost 2 years, I have learned what a job means to a Haitian: food for their entire families. money to put their kids through school. dignity. confidence. and hope. On top of that, when you employ an amputee/ handicapped person in Haiti, all of these things are multiplied, as handicapped people in Haiti are told that they can't do anything and are worthless. Jesus is fighting that cultural stigma in the walls of 3 Cords, and these 10 women have hope for their futures. Please pray with us that God will continue to grow 3 Cords!

Learn More:  3 Cords
 

It's an exciting week as we get ready to begin the new 3 Cords building. The ladies are only a few months away from a new place to sew !!!!!

Learn more:  3 Cords

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It has been a flurry of activity for the last week around the new Guest House. We have been working to get the first floor ready for guests by May 14. Teams have been painting, plumbing, and doing masonry. Jeff an electrician from PA has done a great job getting our haitian electricians to work together to get it done. Last night I walked in on him teaching them some new techniques. I love to see MOH in action. Helping to mobilize our haitian friends to be all God wants them to be.

Good news is the first floor will be ready for teams on the 14th!

 

Guest House pic as of 4/27/11

It has been a great week here at MOH. The work that is going on here is happening at a God speed and I was glad to hear that we hired a new Haitian engineer to lead the construction projects. He is a nice young man named Fils-aimé. I am looking forward to working with him. 

The housing project in Leveque is going strong. 138 started and close to 100 finished except the roofs. We have been waiting to get a container out of port with our roofing material and it finally arrived early this week. Time for some roofing!!!!!

The hospital is getting painted and the windows were ordered this week.  There will be a big push to get the paint and floor finished in May.

We finished 6 homes in local villages this week and teams will be painting them in the weeks to come.

MOH Cribs has been so much fun. We are finding people from the church, as well as complete strangers, and painting their houses for them. A common response when we ask if we can paint their house is "why" or "what do you want in return".  When we say we want nothing, and that the Church of Hope just wants to be a blessing to them and the community, the look on their faces is priceless.  Random acts of kindness open doors for the love of Christ every time. We will start to plant trees and do minor repairs soon also.

The big push for the last couple of weeks and for the next few is to complete the first floor of the new Guest house. It needs to be completed by May 14th !!!! Teams painted 4 of the 6 rooms this week and the front porch was painted also. The electric, plumbing and septic began also. Oh yeah, the air conditioning went in too!!! NOT!!! Well it has been windy this week. It is going to be a great place for teams to stay and unwind at the end of a long day.

We are beginning the footings for our new 37,000 ft warehouse this coming week and continuing to push hard to get the guest house ready.

The new school rooms in Bercy are ready to be roofed and painted.  September will bring some happy kids as the hope of an education becomes a reality.  Very exciting!!!

As you can see things are moving fast and there are more things to start soon….

Thanks to all of you who support MOH. Your faithfulness to your part of God's call to MOH is truly transforming a country….. We are so blessed to be a part of God’s work here in Haiti….

A few days ago I was visiting some of the houses we are working on in a village, as a part of the MOH 500. (Sidenote: if you have not yet visited and worked on this project, you need to get down here!) The project is incredible. At any given time there are about 100 Haitians being employed by the project, with a handful of visiting volunteer North Americans who are truly serving alongside them, and the Haitian employees feel served and cared for by the visiting groups. There are new streets going in with vibrant colored houses being built, trees being planted, and lives being transformed.

So, this past time that I was out at the housing site, a man named Menos came running up to me and stopped me. Menos has been a friend of mine for a while (and anyone who meets Menos becomes his friend too). He is probably 55 years old and is the gardener on site at the MOH 500 project. He works long hours, with great joy, and a vibrant smile. I love getting to see him, so I was excited when he came running up to me the other day. As he approached, he started rattling off in super-fast-farmer-Creole how excited he was. He started to explain to me how he had just been given a house, and my heart jumped for joy. Then he said to me, “Jay, rev mwen yo reyalize”, which means “Jay, my dreams have come true.” He and his wife for the first time in their lives now had a house of their own. And he kept thanking and praising God for his faithfulness.

My heart rejoiced, and as he continued to praise God, he also thanked Mission of Hope for its generosity. Thus, I wanted to pass this on and thank you for being a part of giving Menos and his family, and so many other families, a house, dreams, and very tangible hope.

Menos and his family in their new home!

Whether you live in Haiti or are visiting, it is easy to look around and only see pain and sorrow, despair and need. It is easy to look around and see a people that seem to be in hopeless situations.

Here at MOH, we are seeing the opposite. Yes, there are what seem to be hopeless situations but that is where God steps in and brings hope. Whether it is a new limb in the prosthetics lab, kids seeing a bright future as they receive an education at the school, a deserted child brought into the orphanage or the homeless receiving a home, hope is alive at Mission of Hope.

The project we call ‘MOH 500’ is well under way and in a small community of tents near Leveque, the hope of a future is being cultivated.

On Tuesday, we received the approval of our 4 model homes in Leveque (the first of at least 500). Wednesday we began to dig footings and lay out the next 20 homes. As we worked, I watched the community come alive with hope. Men, women and children alike came out to help and be a part. Smiles, laughter and joy drowned out sorrow and despair. Hope came alive as the mercy and love of Christ was shared with shovels and pickaxes.

I love to see the gospel worked out with action.

John & Mary Mazur