fresh paint

Team July planned to spend a day and a half repainting the outside of the boys home.  As things can go in Haiti, plans changed, things happened and with the boys' help, we got prep work done but just couldn't get to the color painting.  Max ended up hiring a few painters to come in and get the job done, which ends up being better anyway, the more we can support employment there, the better.
Here is the finished home, surely the boys love the fresh makeover!

Welcome to the AWAKENHAITI team, Gerritt and Julie!

     In addition to supporting the daily needs of the children at the Good Samaritan Homes, AWAKENHAITI desires to look to their future.  In order to help meet the needs of the young adults finishing secondary education, AWAKENHAITI has begun a transition program.
     The mission of the transition program is to assist the children we minister to through the Good Samaritan Homes in reaching their full potential in Christ and in becoming successful independent adults.
     Creating opportunity and providing life skills and business training for young adults has been on the heart of AWAKENHAITI since 2009.  For the past three years, we have offered a scholarship fund to support post-secondary schooling and/or professional training opportunities.  We currently have four young adults in the program with the addition to three more in September 2015.
     Over the last seven months, the AWAKENHAITI leadership team has been in prayer and conversation about the next steps for the ministry.  Through this time, the leadership team has determined that there is a greater need to not only provide scholarship opportunities, but to take that a step further in offering life skills training, assistance in early stages of career research & goal setting, and guidance through life changes from living in the children's homes to transition home living, and eventually independent adult life.  AWAKENHAITI determined that in order for this to be a successful and sustainable part of the ministry, it would be necessary to have AWAKENHAITI in-country oversight.
     These months of prayer and conversations have led to this exciting announcement:

     We introduce to you our new Transition Program Directors, Gerritt and Julie VanWagenen!  Gerritt and Julie have been living in Haiti for 3 1/2 years.  They bring their knowledge of Haitian culture, language, and experience in business development, as well as work with children, teens, and young adults.  In addition, they truly have a heart for transitioning young adults well, and most importantly a desire for furthering God's kingdom!  Gerritt and Julie will continue to live in close proximity to the Good Samaritan homes as they begin to develop a relationship with the kids and Max & Margarette.
Prior to Haiti, Gerritt and Julie called Boston their home.  Their supporting church is Westgate Church in Massachusetts.
Together, Gerritt & Julie, AWAKENHAITI, and Max & Margarette will work toward opening a transition home and further developing the transition program.  We welcome Gerritt and Julie's leadership and oversight and we welcome them to the AWAKENHAITI team!
     We know it will take a lot of work and many resources to successfully transition the Good Samaritan young adults.  We are committed to the work and we would love for you to partner with us and spread awareness!  We hope together, we can make a difference in the lives of the Good Samaritan children, the young adults, and in Haiti!

Gerritt, helping Widnelson read a letter from his sponsor

Julie, helping Jamesly read a letter from his sponsor

Team July Day 6

Today was our scheduled field trip to the beach with the Good Samaritan kids.  We took them to the retreat center of Cadasha.  This organization has an outreach program for orphanages and organizations.  We loved hearing their vision for further development and had a great time at their facility.  We love being able to network with other organizations as we all work toward a common goal:  loving others and furthering God’s kingdom. 

The older kids had to get a soccer game going of course!  Most of the kids loved swimming.  The littlest ones spent most of the day in the water.  We are so thankful for the flotation devices that were donated, THANK YOU!  And THANK YOU to those who donated to make our beach trip possible!  It was great to get them out for a fun day and to see them having so much fun!

The team has been incredible with the kids and it has been really cool to watch each one play and love on the kids!

On behalf of AWAKENHAITI, the Good Samaritan family, and the Haitian people we work with and serve, thank you team for all of your love and service and to your families for the support you have provided in your family member being part of this week!  We trust you have been blessed just as much if not more than what you have given!  We pray you carry what you have learned back into your own community!

Team July Days 4 & 5

Sunday in Haiti

We began our day being blessed by the Haitian worship team at Port-au-Prince Fellowship.  What a treat, they have the opportunity to use their gifts!

We spent the afternoon with the Good Samaritan kids as they received and wrote sponsor letters.  The kids love receiving their sponsor letters.  Reading and replying goes on for several hours!

Today, Rich and Ryan did some maintenance at the guesthouse.  Thank goodness for them!  Our kitchen sink was leaking and our refrigerator door completely fell off.  We then went to the boys home to play, do some prep work for the painting that we had planned to do and yet again, Rich and Ryan did some fixing.  The boys’ basketball hoop was hanging by just a few nails so they were unable to play.  With some innovation, it was bolted into the frame so the boys could get back to playing!

The paint job we had planned to do on the exterior of the boys’ home couldn’t happen due to delay in getting the paint we needed.  This is just one of those things that is very difficult here, it has taken days and we still don’t have it.  Max will have some men come in to do the painting, which will be income for them.   We plan to have pictures of the freshly painted home when I return in September.  After a short visit to the girls’ home, we enjoyed Viviane’s delicious macaroni and cheese and meatballs!

We are looking forward to a fun day taking all of the kids to the beach tomorrow!

Please go to our AWAKENHAITI facebook page for pictures!

Team July Day 3

Our second day in Belot was a day of learning and heartache and blessing all intertwined.  We continue to learn more about the sweet people and their way of life, living day by day.  As we set up to see the adults that needed dental care, we quickly realized there were too many to see all of them so the process of a pre-evaluation began.  As Junior did an initial screening to determine the “worse cases”, we were all a bit surprised that they all were in fact “worst cases”.  The dental problems and tooth pain these people are dealing with are unfathomable.  We couldn’t possibly help them all today. 

As we talked further, it was decided we would do a little treatment on a few, do a screening on all and try to set up a program for monthly dental care in hopes that over time, their problems would become lessened, education and preventative care would increase.  We pray this program can come into fruition.

At the end of our time in Belot, we walked just up the hill to the peak of the mountain.  The view is breath taking.  The manner in which the people farm the mountainside, the amount of walking up and down the mountain, the difficulty in transporting their goods are all unthinkable to us as we stood there looking at the entire community spread all over the mountain.  The people and the land of Belot are beautiful.  God has blessed them.

On our way down the mountain, rain the people of Belot had been praying for to water source of income began to fall.  We left there being reminded that God provides.

This evening was spend with the Good Samaritan girls.  What a treat to have time with them, playing cards and watching them compete with one another with the soccer ball.

This team has served well and is willing to be flexible, challenged and stretched.

We ask for continued prayers for us for the next few days for continued safety, good health and more learning experiences.

Team July Day 1 & 2

I apologize for the delay in posting, we have experienced internet issues.  This post includes yesterday and then today...

After a very long day of travel, airport delays, and 4 pieces of luggage missing, we arrived safely at the guest house.  Viviane had her famous beef and vegetables and rice and beans ready and waiting for us.  We all were quite ready for a good nights sleep...thank goodness for power and fans!  It is HOT here.

Today, we had to change our original plan to go up into the mountains so we could be here in Port-au-Prince to get our luggage.  Instead, we spent some time at the girls home this morning then the boys home this afternoon to begin our painting project.  The boys all jumped right into the work and the white update on the exterior of their home was done in no time.  Unfortunately, I have no photos to show for it yet as Junior and I were off to the airport to pick up our luggage.
Hopefully we will have some photos from some of the  team's camera to post soon.  The team is doing great!

We trust that God desires us to make the trip to Belot for two days so we will begin that adventure tomorrow morning after we catch up on sleep a bit more.  We are confident that there is great work to be done there and refuse to let the small messed up itinerary details get in our way of that.

Please be in prayer for our team for safety, good health, and a great two days of learning and serving the community of Belot.


Thank you!
~Deb


Friday's trip to Belot was an fantastic day!  Our team was blessed with the opportunity to serve this amazing community.  We served the community with our dental and medical care, but more importantly we are beginning to learn more about the culture in Belot and the greatest needs.  The people here are farmers who live day by day.  They are not book educated as adults but do desire that their kids have more opportunity with education.  They are sweet, kind people who are building their faith as a community.  Tomorrow we will carry on more medical and dental care, but also plan to go out further into the community and experience their life a bit more.
We are blessed to serve and learn from their way of life.


I will try to load some pictures, however, internet continues to be slow and sporatic.
thank you for your prayers!

~Deb

Team July 2015

Team July will be flying to Haiti tomorrow for a week of serving and learning.  We are very excited about some new adventures and all that we will learn in them!
We will be traveling to the mountain area of Belot to learn more about the community and the needs there.  We hope to be able to walk alongside the pastor and the community he is ministering to.  We will spend two days there helping to provide dental hygiene education and some dental/medical care. Our greater goal during our time there is to get a better sense of the culture there, the needs, and the level of commitment the community has to further develop.  We are excited to see the commitment they have already made to save money for several years to build the foundation of their school/church.

We will also travel to visit Real Hope For Haiti's rescue center to learn from them some of the ways to best provide medical care.

We will spend two days painting the exterior of the boys' home... this should be a great time of work and play with the boys!

Tuesday we will take ALL of the Good Samaritan children to the beach for the day!  Hoping all the floatation devices are enough to keep everyone safe!

We would love your prayers for safety, good health, and for our eyes and ears to be open to what we should take from our experiences as we serve!