Visits in the Rain

As Hurricane Sandy rages through the Caribbean, as relentless rain pounds down on Haiti, those living in tents and shacks are so vulnerable and exposed. We had a short window of time available yesterday in Titanyen, so we checked in with three of the elderly.  I'm happy to report that they were mostly dry.  

We saw Marie first.  Her roof was leaking and a tarp strung across the ceiling was sagging into a dripping bucket in one corner.   She had gotten little sleep the night before due to the storms, but was all smiles and joy when we visited.  We left her a new tarp and twine, and she assured us that she would find someone to tie it up for additional reinforcements.  We also constructed a little bridge with rocks to span the large puddle between her front door and higher ground. When we gave her fresh water and food she told us that we 'saved her life today' and she is very much looking forward to having a shower at Grace Village on Saturday.   

We saw Antonia next.  She was clean and comfortable and her roof was sound with no drips.   When we asked her if she needed anything, all she asked for was help with the many flies in her home.  We will bring insect repellent when we return on Saturday.  We stopped at Ecko Depot and a supermarket in search of fly strips but couldn't find any.

Edmond was also dry and his niece was with him.  He was hungry and thirsty and happy to receive food and water.  His smiles for our team brought tears to my eyes.  

With three more days of rain forecasted, please keep these precious elders in your prayers as well as those suffering in tent cities and flood plains.

Peace,

Joyce

Beloved Video

For those of you that haven't seen this video yet, it features a few of the elderly as Beloved!

New Sponsorship Webpage!

We are so excited to announce that we have a new ElderCare Sponsorship webpage at healinghaiti.org!  Now, interested sponsors can see photos of each of our beautiful elders and choose which one they would like to sponsor!  Check it out:

http://www.healinghaiti.org/pages/ElderlySponsorship/

Grace Village Kids are serving the Elderly

Jessica, the In-Country ElderCare Liason, has been doing amazing things in Haiti.  One of her goals is to help the children of Grace Village develop compassion by serving the elderly in our program.  In the picture below the boys are learning how to give haircuts.  This clippers is very old and dull so we will be sending new clippers to Haiti.

 

For more of Jessica's stories on serving the elderly, visit her blog at: http://healinghaiti-jessica.blogspot.com/

Changes in ElderCare

Hello ElderCare Followers!

My name is Sharon Mitchell and I recently became the new ElderCare Lead Advocate. As many of you know, Susan Schwope stepped down from the role in late August after 3 years of developing and nuturing this wonderful program.  She will be missed by many!

Susan, myself and Amy Gandy worshipping with the elders in August.

I thought I would introduce myself and let you know where I see the program going over the next year or so.  My husband, Dan, and I live in Dellwood with our two kids, Isaiah (12) and Siena (10).  I am an interior designer, and my husband and I have been running our home staging business for over 8 years.  We took our first mission trip to Haiti together in February of this year.  I returned in August with the ElderCare team and knew that God would use me to help the elderly in some way.  I didn't expect Susan to step down or to be asked to take her role, but know that God had this planned for me.  I am so excited to have a front seat to see what God is going to do with the ElderCare program!

Over the next few months you will see a few things happening within the program.  A new sponsorship binder will be at the Healing Haiti Guesthouse next week that will allow mission goers to see which elders still need to be sponsored and to send updates to sponsors of the elders they visited that week.  We also have a new ElderCare Sponsorship Advocate, Cathy LeVahn who will be working hard to make sure all elders get sponsored!

We will be updating the blog sidebar and website so you can see who is part of the ElderCare team.  We will also be adding pages to the website where you can meet the elders, sponsor a specific elder, purchase a talking bible and more.  Look for those updates in the next few weeks.  We also hope to be blogging more in between ElderCare trips so that you know what's going on.

A couple of new programs will be introduced over the next year.  Jessica Burmester, our In-Country Advocate, and Shelly Manella, the Eldercare Public Relations Advocate will be working on a memoir book to capture the stories, history and wisdom that each of the elders are so willing to share.  Hopefully this will be available to purchase as a fundraiser for the ElderCare program.

And lastly, I am so excited to develop a program that will help the elderly create some income.  Over and over again, the elderly have asked us to help them become self sustaining.  They are able and willing to work, but have nothing to get started.  We will be working to provide jobs for them at Grace Village, creating jobs for them helping other elders in the program, possibly baking pizzas or bread in the new pizza oven that is being installed in two weeks and buying items wholesale that they can sell on market day.

Please keep the elders, the program and our team in your prayers.  God is going to do some amazing things!!!

Sharon