Hello everyone! (This is from a Facebook Group updates I posted this morning.) I just wanted to send a quick update on things going on in Haiti with our people. In spite of continued gang threats in our village of Galette Chambon, our schools continue to thrive. The people have just learned how to move about the village as safely as they can. One of our employees said that when you pass by a gang member, you just don’t look them in the eye or they will attack you. They are pure evil….BUT GOD is bigger and stronger and HIS schools will continue on. He will indeed finish what he started. Every morning, I awake to numerous texts from employees with requests and plans and updates, etc. We coordinate efforts and get things done by the grace of God!
First of all, our seniors (Philo students) are working hard to prepare for their national exams in the spring. It is an absolute miracle that BGM has been able to graduate so many young people over the last few years. Having a Philo diploma is similar to having an associates degree in the US because of the strenuous course load they take and the requirement of passing a very advanced exam. Once someone gets their Philo diploma, they can teach in many elementary schools throughout the nation. It’s a really big deal! I am so proud of them!!!
Next, we are preparing to graduate 45 new graduates from our Professional School. They will be graduating with certificates in plumbing, electricity, tile work, cosmetology, and technology. These skills prepare them to be able to find work in these fields and make an income to provide for their families. This is HUGE. We are in need of more laptops for the technology courses, so if you have access to laptops that perhaps your company has phased out, I know where they can be put to great use!! Although getting them there is a big challenge, we do have a couple of people who can travel between Port au Prince and Galette Chambon to take minimal packages. We have not opened up the option of sending gifts yet to Haiti because we can’t get that many packages to GC at once yet, but I can send a small number of things of necessity that won’t overwhelm the staff or put them at high risk in getting them to the village. PLEASE INBOX ME IF YOU HAVE ACCESS TO LAPTOPS!! Thanks!
Next, we are preparing for another food distribution in the village. This will be our fifth distribution this year. That is a HUGE ministry. Many families cannot afford to buy food anymore and even if they did have a little money for food, they also have to have money for transportation to get to the nearest market and back home with the goods. It’s just not affordable for most people in our village to eat!! That’s a very sad reality and we simply MUST continue to try to help. Thankfully, if kids are in school, they get to eat because of our sponsorship program, but it’s only one meal a day and many of them just eat a few bites and save the rest to take home to feed other members of their family. I am so thankful that people continue to give to BGM for food distributions. This upcoming distribution will make sure that families in our village have some food to eat for Christmas. Thank you for giving.
Another exciting thing going on is our education ministries both in Galette Chambon and Port au Prince. We have students EVERYWHERE! And we have learned that a good education is paramount to survival in Haiti. Our schools are fully functioning every day. They all have their books and backpacks and they go to school each day ready to learn because at school they are safe and taught by qualified and brave professors and they are fed. This is all because of our sponsorship program. Sadly, our sponsorship program rolls have experienced a huge “fruit basket turn over” because so many families continue to evacuate the village for safety or to areas where they can find work and easier access to food. However, there are also many families who cannot leave, and the schools their children have been going to have had to close, so they seek transfer to our schools. Many are also seeking transfer to our BGM schools because of the sponsorship program available to them. Inflation is painful, so if a family can send their kids to school without having to pay tuition, they can use that money to feed their family. So even though there continues to be a large migration of children out of the schools, there is also a large migration INTO our schools as well. It means a LOT of work and shifting and posting new kids to the website and contacting sponsors to notify them of the changes, but it also means more kids are being educated and fed daily. I know it can be frustrating to lose a child that you have been praying for and get attached to. Believe me, it broke my heart to find out that my sweet Roojina had to leave our school. However, I cannot express to you all enough how important continued sponsorship is. Yes, you get to pick an individual child to sponsor in our program, but it is SO MUCH MORE than making sure one child gets to go to school. After your sponsorship is used to pay for your child’s tuition and books and uniform, the rest goes towards running the school in general. It pays for the food we buy every month. It pays the salaries of teachers and administrator and cooks and janitors. It pays for cleaning products to clean the bathrooms and classrooms and kitchen. It pays for clean water to give to the kids with their meal…..and much, much more. Please understand that if you choose to stop sponsoring just because your individual child has left, you put the entire program at risk because our entire school budget depends on your contribution. BGM is in need of 150 more sponsors to maintain our current budget. That means that currently, every month, we are spending over $6000 more than we are bringing in with sponsorships. That comes up to over $72,000 per year! That money has to come from somewhere and the easiest way to bring it in is to have sponsors. Please, please talk to your friends and church groups and family members about sponsoring a child. If you need for me to come talk to a group about it, I am happy to. We just need more sponsors and I can’t drum them up by myself. The best way to get them is by word of mouth as you tell others about the amazing things that God continues to do through BGM in Haiti.
Another thing I want to share with you all is about our university students. We currently have 15 graduates from BGM High School who are in a university in an area called Delmas in Port au Prince. One of our nursing students left the country, but we replaced her with a young man named Roobens. Many of you know him. He has been wanting to go to university for quite some time now, and he finally took the entrance exam and got accepted. He is now living in the house we rented for our students and going to classes every day. I ordered his laptop last week and today I will be setting it up and shipping it to Haiti for him. The rest of the university students are in their junior year of college. They are doing an amazing job! Speaking of amazing, our doctor, Jores Merilus, has been living in the house with them as their house parent and advocate. He and his wife and baby live there and it is working out great. As a matter of fact, Jores is a college student again too! Two years ago, Jores applied for a medical specialty program in Public Health and he recently was notified that he was accepted! He just finished his first course in the program and will be taking a full load in the spring. If you have been one of the many donors who has helped Jores with his education in the past, it would be great if you could send him a little help again as he goes back to school for his specialty degree. You can send a donation to BGM and put in the memo “Continued Education.” Then it would be good to also send an email to me (bgmhaiti@butgodministries.com) and let me know its for Jores.
Additionally, I wanted to share with you that Lensky is doing well and continues to work as much as he can for BGM and other organizations who need help with air condition maintenance. A few months back, Stan suggested to our employees who could not work at Hope Center anymore that they try to find work for other organizations so that they aren’t drawing income without doing some sort of work. BGM would continue paying them as long as they were working. Well, Lensky jumped right into that task and has been helping an organization called Fonkoze with all of their AC maintenance. He has also been working to keep our university students supplied with electricity from the solar panels we purchased for them a couple of years ago. He installed them on the house we rent and he checks on them frequently and does any work required to keep them in good working order. I am so proud of Lensky.
Lastly, I wanted to tell you that recently a few of our GC village leaders gathered together to do some work around Hope Center, our church, and our school to clean up trash and weeds that had begun to take over because it had not been being maintained. In the past, this was Johnny’s job. Seeing pictures and video of the overgrown weeds and trash around the mission broke my heart because not only does it represent neglect, but it was also a reminder that our dear Johnny is no longer with us. I don’t think I will ever completely heal from the tragedy of his loss. So when I heard that the community was making a plan to clean everything up, my heart was warmed. I look forward to sharing pictures with you of this effort.
I know this has been a long update, and I appreciate you getting to the end of the post at this point. Please continue to keep our people in Haiti in your prayers and share with your friends and family about the great things that God continues to do through BGM in Haiti. We appreciate our donors and prayer warriors so very much!
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