Continued Prayers for Haiti

Hello Everyone! Happy New Year!
I wanted to update everyone on what’s going on in Haiti right now. There’s good news and bad news.

The first item of Good News is, we have started construction on a new security wall around our Maranatha school in Galette Chambon. In the past, we have not really needed a security wall at the school because the village has always been very safe. However, with the gang still having a heavy presence in the village, we feel like our children will feel safer at school if it is enclosed with a wall. Thanks to our friends at Great Bridge Baptist Church in Virginia, we have been able to start construction on the wall this week!! We are so thankful that people still recognize the need to support our friends in Galette Chambon during this time of difficulty. Even though we are not able to be there physically, we can still show the people that God has not forgotten them and neither has BGM. We continue to do all we can do to encourage and support them any way we can.

Another exciting thing that has happened is that we were able to host a graduation ceremony for our BGM Professional School! We had 45 graduates in the fields of Costmetology, Plumbing, Electricity, Tile Work, and Technology. It is amazing that in spite of the difficulties and dangers in the village, our schools have been able to continue without hindrance and people have been able to continue to improve their lives through education. What a blessing!!

Also, throughout 2023, we were able to conduct food distributions about every 2-3 months. There are several factors that prohibit families from being able to get food for their families. Because of the gang presence, people have not been able to safely go back and forth to work or to the market. Many of the local markets have closed completely and those that do open occasionally have had to raise their prices significantly. Because of this, most families in our village have been going hungry if we are not able to do food distributions. Our most recent distribution happened in December. We were able to give each family a large bag of rice as well as oil and beans so that they were able to have food for their families for Christmas. Your continued donations to BGM for food insecurity are what fund these distributions. Thank you for your continued support.

Another exciting thing that happened recently was that we were able to send funds for all of the BGM elementary and preschool students to have Christmas parties!! In the midst of so much danger and uncertainty, being able to celebrate Christmas with decorations and gifts was such a blessing! Each child received a Santa hat, reindeer horns, and a toy and lots of special food! The photos they shared were so much fun! It’s such a blessing to see festive photos at a time when so much darkness is around them every day. God is so good!

Lastly, another good thing that has been happening is that a group of men and women from the village have been coming together to work each week to clean up Hope Center. After the gang attacked the Hope Center back in March, they left lots of paper and supplies and trash all over the floors and grounds of the clinic and breezeway. It was so depressing to see Hope Center in such shambles and no one was brave enough to go in there long enough to get it all cleaned up. The rains fell and saturated it all, and it was just an absolute mess! Recently, this group came together and decided that it was time to clean everything up. They brought brooms and shovels and machetes and trash bags and spent day after day working to clean it all up. They tried to salvage as many old paper charts as they could and anything else that seemed important. They took all the trash to the burn pile and burned it. Each day, a lady would cook for them down at the preschool and they would eat together in the breezeway. It was so good to see pictures of people eating together in the breezeway again. That is such a special place that holds so many special memories for so many of us.

Now for the bad news….. Two weeks ago, the 400 Mawozo attacked the city of Ganthier. This is the main city that Galette Chambon is a part of. Up until now, the people have been able to form citizen militia groups that have held the gang off from attacking the city. However, one day around the last week of December, two gang members entered the city and attempted to steal a truck. The police and citizen militia ganged up on them and killed the gang members before they could get out of the city with the truck. After that, the gang vowed to get revenge and all out war ensued in the city. Many of the people that had fled Galette Chambon and moved to Ganthier now found themselves having to flee for their lives again. People are displaced everywhere. The gang had said that they were going to attack again in January, but so far it has remained quiet. Everyone just sits and waits in fear.

In the meantime, you can not only pray, but also continue to financially support our BGM efforts in any way that you can. We are always in need of child sponsors, and we are constantly building the benevolence ministry to provide food and medical care where needed. Every donation that is sent to BGM for Haiti is used quickly to minister to those in great need. We work hard every day to coordinate and organize opportunities for ministry in any way that we can. It is thrilling to be able to share with you so much good news of amazing things happening in our village in spite of the bad. Every single positive that I can share is nothing short of a miracle. The needs are great, BUT GOD is always moving to show His great love for the people of Haiti. Thank you for partnering with us to be a blessing to these beautiful friends in their time of need.

Lastly, please be in prayer for the Dilux family. One of our high school students, Merlie Dilux, was murdered by the gang last week. She lived in one of the houses on the hill behind Hope Center and last year she had a baby that is now about 9 months old. Her body was found in the village decapitated and stabbed hundreds of times with a machete. The gang claimed responsibility for it and circulated a video of the actual murder happening. It is just horrific. They also recently kidnapped a family of five from the area and killed the two youngest children because they were crying so much. They circulated a video of that horrific act as well. The acts of these gangs are just total EVIL. The enemy uses them to control the people with fear. Please continue to pray that God will rid Haiti of these malicious gangs for good so that they can return to lives of peace again. The horrors just seem to be never ending and the people are just so very tired. They live in the midst of a nightmare right now. Only God can stop this kind of evil. Please continue to pray….