Originally posted 12-9-06
This is a support letter that Danielle and I worked on. It focuses more on a business type donor. It is admittedly long and includes a lot of detail.
First of all we would like to thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to go over this information. We truly believe that the people who help sponsor our efforts in Haiti are the most important part of the team to help eradicate poverty and suffering in the country of Haiti. Danielle and I want you to be fully confidant in the fact that any support, whether it be prayers or money, will be warmly accepted and put to good use. We would like to give you an overview of the work that we will be doing and the need that Haiti has for this type of work. If you have any other questions please feel free to contact us at the phone numbers below.
Haiti:
Haiti is a country that has been rich in history since Christopher Columbus landed there, thinking he discovered America, in 1492. Haiti is also the first and only Black Republic to form from a successful slave revolution when the population of slaves finally bested Napoleon’s army in 1803. Years of corrupt and brutal dictators and presidents, natural disasters, political and economic moves from Haiti, France, Germany, Canada and the United States, racism, and devastating living conditions, among other things, have made Haiti the poorest country in the western hemisphere with an average per capita income of $478 a year. The average life expectancy is less than fifty years in a land that has little arable land for farming due to massive deforestation and soil erosion. Lack of clean water, less than 45 percent have access to clean water, as well as doctors, less than one per thousand people, has lead to massive healthcare problems for the citizens of the country, especially those who live far away from the bigger cities. Education is equally scarce in Haiti with the literacy rate falling at 47% for men and 41% for women. As one may imagine, there is a lack of employment in Haiti, which merely compounds the previously mentioned problems.
The problems mentioned above are just some of the reasons why Haiti is labeled one of the most corrupt countries in the world, ahead of Burma and even Iraq (http://www.bbc.co.uk/caribbean/news/story/2006/11/061106_haiticorrupt.shtml). Haiti has long been a country ignored by the superpowers of the world, despite the fact that many atrocities, rivaling those of Rwanda and Iraq occur in a place that is only an hour and a half away from the coast of Florida. A recent overthrow of democratically elected president Jean Bertrand Aristide in 2004, left the country in violent shambles again, and it is only recently that the new president Rene Preval took office. There is hope for him among the people but only time will tell what he will do with the country.
Northwest Haiti Christian Mission:
From the mission’s website, “The Northwest Haiti Christian Mission was established in 1979 after a group of missionaries traveled to Haiti and saw the need for a mission devoted to Christian beliefs. They also witnessed severe physical suffering and the hopelessness of the Haitian people. In August 2003, the Haitian government awarded the mission the Organization Non-Government (ONG) status.” (ONG is the Haitian Creole way of saying NGO).
Northwest Haiti Christian Mission is a non-denominational group that seeks to serve one of the poorest regions in Haiti, with most of the people living in distant mountains and desolate areas that look more like deserts than they do tropical islands. The mission has several main campuses, each one having smaller satellite facilities around them.
The Main Mission Compound Located in St. Louis Du Nord:
This is the biggest and most established campus in the mission. This is where short-term missionaries spend their nights and eat their meals. The St. Louis campus has numerous programs including a school, a Bible College, a birthing center, a dentist office, an eye doctor and surgeon office, a minor and major surgery area, a pharmacy, a bank, a church, an nursing home, a building for mentally and physically handicapped, a feeding program for malnourished children, an infant orphanage, and various maintenance and vehicle repair buildings. In February the newest addition to the mission will include a bakery that will feed hundreds of people a day. The St. Louis campus is also a main hub for evangelism, which happens all around the area. There are several satellite areas around St. Louis where people are fed under the supervision of a Haitian staff. In the town of Anse-a-Foleur, a center for Haitian Voodoo, there is a church which doubles as a school.
The Orphanage Located in Port De Paix:
The second main hub of the mission is the orphanage. The Orphanage is home to nearly 130 children ranging from four years old to twenty. The orphanage serves as a center of evangelism in the town and the surrounding areas. Connected to the orphanage is a church which doubles as a school, all the mission’s churches are used as schools, and for feeding programs that helps the needy in the immediate surroundings . People can sponsor children in the orphanage to help pay for meals and schooling, and they can also sponsor any child who goes to school at any campus. The Orphanage is a place that is full of joy where children have devotions and frequent VBS style activities with groups of Americans. The children love to play soccer and take frequent trips to the ocean to take a swim. Satellite campuses around the Orphanage include the school and church of La Pointe, the school and church of La Croix, as well as several feeding programs around the large town. Port De Paix is also a base for air and bus travel. Groups from America take 16 passenger planes to Port De Paix from the Capital of Port Au Prince and land on the gravel runway in order to reach the Northwest.
The “Far West” Located in the town of Ti Charles:
This campus is the newest addition to the mission. This campus is currently run by an American missionary affectionately known as Miss Pat. Miss Pat is a nurse who meets with patients three times a week. She also uses her home as a place to feed the elderly. This past summer a church was built on her property, which will soon incorporate a school. The future for this campus is limitless and could include an orphanage, a retreat style camp for pastor meetings, water projects, larger medical facilities, and hopefully a place in which American missionaries may eventually stay when they come to visit the Northwest. This is a fairly new campus and it is very exciting to see what the Lord is going to do with this large piece of land in a very desolate area of the country. Satellite areas for this campus are currently being developed as people are pledging the money. There will be facilities in the towns of Augustine, Port de L’Ecu, Mayette and La Fon.
These are the three main campuses at the current time. These campuses employ hundreds of Haitians and serve even more, making it both one of the biggest aid deliverers and economic boosters in the region. However, there is a bigger vision for the mission and that is where Danielle and I come in.
The Vision:
The vision for the mission is to truly live up to its name and cover the entirety of the Northwest region of Haiti. This will be done by following the current pattern of building “hub” campuses in central locations and then growing through the smaller, satellite campuses. This will allow the mission to be as efficient and effective as possible. Hopefully sometime in the future we will be able to provide all of the spiritual and physical needs that the people in the Northwest region of Haiti need. As of now the only prospective hub is a town called Beau Champ. It is in an area of need and several churches have already begun to donate money to this campus which will house a missionary couple who is waiting for the campus to be built.
Curtis & Danielle:
I first went to Haiti when I was fifteen through my home church. It did not take long for me to understand that Haiti was where I am called to work. After graduating high school I moved to Haiti for a year and lived in the Port de Paix orphanage helping out there. After that trip, I began attending Cincinnati Bible College where I will soon receive a B.A. in Biblical Studies. Each summer I return to live in Haiti and am looking forward to moving there full time and serving in whatever capacity the mission needs.
Danielle’s first trip was before her freshmen year at Asbury and she later went on several short-term trips. She lived in the orphanage during the summer of 2005 and then went back to school where she graduated from BCTCS in 2006 with a degree in early childhood education. She currently teaches preschool at the Eastland campus of Lexington Christian Academy. Danielle has a passion for working with the children of Haiti, and looks forward to teaching preschool among other things to children who would otherwise not have that opportunity.
This past summer I proposed to Danielle in Haiti and we will be getting married on June 22, 2007. We will spend six months in America working and raising support and then we will move to Haiti in January of 2008. We will be moving to the Far West campus of the mission, which was mentioned above, and work on developing the campus to its fullest potential. We are both very excited to move to Haiti and start doing the various projects that I mentioned above. Danielle and I are looking forward to the task ahead of us.
Support:
There are two types of support that we will need for this venture. The first would be support of the campus projects. This would include money for the food in the feeding programs, for the building materials, and the everyday money that is needed to keep the campus running. This also includes anything that would help in the operation of the campus including trucks, ATVS, generators, etc. The other type of support is personal money living expenses. This would go to help pay for our flights, food, insurance expenses, any other living expense that we may run across. Because of the nature of Haitian visas we will have to make at least two trips a year into America and so we will need money for those times as well.
Equally important to money is prayer. Prayer is a priceless asset to the mission field and has already proven to be very important in both of our lives. We realize that not everyone feels called to give and not everyone is able to give, but we ask that everybody keep us in their prayers, as we will need God’s provision and safety in our lives daily.
Any money or gift that is given to our campus or us can be sent to the mission office where we have an account. Also, anything given is tax deductible and we will be happy to give receipts for your bookkeeping. We will also be glad to keep you updated on any money that we spend and we can assure you that your money will be put to good use. We will also be working on a website soon and so if you need to contact us feel free to use it. Any contact information you may need can be found below. We cannot thank you enough for your time and we are very thankful for people like yourselves.
Cell Phones:
Curtis Rogers
(859)-519-6916
Danielle Moore
(859)-797-3192
Email- therogersinhaiti@yahoo.com
Website- http://therogersinhaiti.wordpress.com/
Mission Address:
Northwest Haiti Christian Mission
150 Laralan Ave., #E
Frankfort, KY 40601
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