Bethesda Evangelical Mission

HELO announces the official opening of its second home on February 15, 2010.   The school is now a home, beautifully decorated, divided into rooms by colorful curtains, and filled with love.  Pastor Erick and his wife Lisiane are now the proud and loving parents of 13 beautiful children, 8 of them orphaned by the earthquake.  Jean Davidson, the baby we discovered abandoned in the hospital in January, was the first child welcomed into the home.

I traveled to Haiti last week with board member Ellen Donohue to gather information and photographs of the new children for sponsorship purposes.  The children are amazing!  We have babies now, that's a big change and quite delightful!  Both homes come together for school and church (YES, BEM has a church on HELO’s land – a congregation really because they meet under a tarp.  Hopefully a banquet-style tent will accommodate church and school soon, it will be shipped next week).

The children all get along well, the first 15 seem happy to have friends and they also love the little ones!  Jean Davidson has gone from a severely malnourished baby we found in a soiled crib, as starved for love and attention as he was food, is now a smiling, cheerful eager eater who zips around the house in the walker Pastor Jean bought for him.  It is a blessing to see how a little love and security changes the live of a child!

Building continues, the next home is almost complete, the doors arrived and they await the roof.  It is our hope to hire another set of staff, house parents and housekeeper/cook and take in the remaining children on the waiting list and perhaps two beautiful children we discovered in the abandoned section of General Hospital, another baby boy and a three year old girl who have been confined to tiny cribs with little attention for over six weeks.  As we left, the little girl raised her arms and with large pleading eyes called to me “no, Maman” . . . need I say more?

Worshipping on HELO's land was a tremendous joy and a blessing to many.  We worked late into the night on  Saturday bagging rice and beans for a food distribution -- Ellen, Pastor Jean and I working on the school bus by kerosene lamp!  We distributed food to 160 people following worship!  God is good!! Then we piled our house parents and 28 children onto the school bus and spent Sunday afternoon at the beach, the first time for most of the children in the second home.  It was a glorious day.  It is always such a joy to watch the sorrow slip away as the children splash, jump, run and laugh!  God is good and children are so resilient!

The reality of Haiti isn’t so joyful, unfortunately.  It was tough, really tough to see the devastation as we drove from Port au Prince to les Cayes, which is impossible to describe or depict in photo or on TV.  It goes on and on and on and tents by the hundreds of thousands (I use that word loosely, they could be sheets or blankets or even palm leaves, banana leaves, whatever they can find).  While I feel HELO is almost prepared for hurricane season, hundreds of thousands are not and will not be.  Beyond that, many many people are still hungry and have little access to water or medical care. Our visit to the hospital in Cayes was very painful, wounds now infected, limbs will probably be lost.  Please support BEM’s medical teams as they bring much needed medical care and medications to so many desperate survivors.

Finally I ask that you join your voices with ours in praying that God showers Haiti with His love and grace and provides comfort to the millions who suffer in ways that our hands and hearts cannot.

In His service,

Dear Friends,

As I am preparing for the 4th mission trip of the year, my mind is still processing what happened during our last trip. I know the following sounds familiar to so many of you but truly this was one of the most amazing trips ever! The reason why I say this is because we had the least amount of time to prepare the team and many of us were supposed to be on the January trip. About half of us just joined the BEM family and we wondered how can we get to know each other in such a short period of time. I can only give the credit to the Lord for uniting us with His spirit and making something that looked so impossible become a piece of cake!

We came from different backgrounds, denominations, and ethnicity but be were all focused with one goal in mind. That is to serve a nation in need under the banner of the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Our main tool for this trip was medical clinics and the knowledge of medicine. Our first day was at the soccer field where we saw miracles right in our midst.

A gentleman who was much older than all of us came armed with the spirit of humor and uplifted the spirit of the team at a time when we needed it the most. With his arm broken in 2 different places, he told us he has no one to take care of him, all he has is his church family. He had no income, no social security, but has God as his only source of survival. His story brought us joy, courage, and strengthened our faith. Many of us posed with him and shared a few laughs. His presence truly made our day easier. Stories like this are truly unforgettable.

When I look back at the immense need of the people and the little difference the Lord allows us to make in their lives, we are so grateful we went to serve. We held 4 medical clinics and we saw over 700 patients and every one were happy because we were there.

If you were following the daily trip updates, you may have read the team members sharing about their daily experiences while in the mission field. Stories of both joy and sadness, but this is what we were facing constantly. Our strength as a team came from our daily devotionals, personal time in prayer, and the knowledge of the One who sent us, who is always faithful. So when we come across a difficult situation we lean of His faithfulness to see us through.

If the Lord is leading you to be part of one of these mission trips, please consider it a privilege to be called, because then you will be a partner and co-laborer of the Kingdom building process. After all, in the book of Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus gave what is now known as The Great Commission, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you..." BEM makes it easy for you by scheduling several trip throughout the year to fulfill that call. We know many of you have different schedules which is why we have multiple dates to help you in the scheduling process. As you pray, listen, as you listen, act, as you act, God will do the rest.

Our trip would not be as smooth without everyone's collaboration. A heartfelt thank you to each and every member of the team for their hard work and spirit of unity that created a bond between us, which gave us all a sense of a larger family. The hospitality of the Mercy House's staff in Les Cayes who cooked and cleaned for us, made our stay so much more enjoyable. To you, who prayed for us every day, although our team was only 10, we felt like we were thousands because of your words of encouragement after each update. It was my pleasure to read some of your encouraging comments to the entire team. Pastor Jean is one of the best hosts any team could have. He made sure we were happy, comfortable, and was ready to bend over backwards to meet our needs. His smile is contagious and the love for his people is unquestionable.

If you would like to read the reflections of the team while in Haiti, please see our trip updates from February 24th to March 3rd. You have the chance to read in detail, all the aspects of the trip and perhaps, by the grace of God, you could be among the numbers next year. Please consider this my personal invitation.

May God bless all of you,