Helping Hands In Motion

As most of you know, Sally and I were blessed by Richard Fields missionary for Helping Hands in Motion to join him for a mission trip to Haiti December 11-17. Helping hands in Motion supports House of Blessing orphanage in Callabasse, Haiti. This was Sally’s second trip to House of Blessing Orphanage having gone with Richard and Village View Community Church in June 2010. The orphanage has been serving the Callabasse area for over 25 years and is approximately 2 hours from Port au Prince and 4,600 feet above sea level. This was my first mission trip and I must say I came back with a variety of impressions.

My first impression was one of hurt because of all the destruction left by the earthquake, the devastating act they did not need. As you recall the earthquake took as best they can tell over 300,000 lives and has left 692,000 homeless living in tent cities of 10,000 people per tent settlement.

My next impression was heartache for all these people that have been trying to survive for over 22 months. We did see some cleanup and buildings under repair along with a few new structures. But with a city over 3 million people I mostly saw people doing whatever they can to earn enough for food.

Yes, the conditions are bad and that leads me to my next impression of survival. These people have suffered their whole life and have seen 10 major disasters since 1950.

Haiti ranks among the worst three countries in the world in daily calorie intake per person.

1 out of 5 children will die before the age of five.

Unemployment is now 90% and 80% of the people live in abject poverty.

400,000 children are without parents.

There are hundreds of children around House of Blessing area that will never go to school, due jointly to lack of money and lack of schools.

However, as we drove from the airport my next impression was that of compassion. If we could have, you want to jump out of the truck and hug them and let them know that they are not alone, our Lord and Savior is there with them and if they believe he will take care of them.

Then as we continued toward House of Blessing my next impression was that of love as we continued to see smiling faces and their big white teeth even though they did not know what lies ahead.

As we arrived at House of Blessing my next impression was that of joy as the children of the orphanage came out to see the white folk from the United States. It did not take long until we felt that we belonged at the orphanage as 18 children ranging in age from 4 to 18 and 7 staff personnel welcomed us with open arms.

Again as you may already know Sally and I have quasi adopted three boys that Sally felt strongly about on her first trip. We pay for uniforms, books, tuition, clothing and food for two boys, Schneider (18 yrs. old) and Vanel (15 yrs old) and Jimmy (22 yrs. old) with clothing and food. We have made a commitment to them and to the House of Blessing Orphanage that we will try to do what we can for them. This letter is the first of others that we will be sending out periodically to keep you updated on Helping Hands in Motion and House of Blessing. We would like you to join us on this endeavor for we have seen that a little can go a long way in Haiti and every dollar or article collected will go directly to them-no middle man or graft to pay.

The Bible says “The Lord blesses everyone who freely gives food to the poor” (pr: 22:9 CEV). “He who gives to the poor will lack nothing.” The truth is, we’ve been called to feed, shelter and clothe the needy (Isa 58:5-12). God is compassionate and generous to the poor, and He promises us blessing for following his example.

God’s Blessing to each everyone

Fred & Sally Girbert