Friends of Ft. Liberté

09.11.10 Getting To Know Lukensia

Over the next few months we will be featuring a series of blog posts by Abby Lilly called “Getting To Know…”  in which she will be writing a little bit about each child who lives at the orphanage. Abby spent a month working at the orphanage this summer teaching an English class to kids. Our hope is that this blog series will help everyone feel more connected to all the children at the orphanage we support and love so much. Thanks for reading!

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Getting To Know Lukensia

Oh me oh my, such big eyes. I love this little girl so much. She is so tiny. And her eyes are always so expressive. If she is upset you know it. If she is happy, you know it. If she is up to something you know it. She doesn’t go to the same school as the other kids at the orphanage. All the other kids go to the Ebenezer School and they all wear little yellow dresses and shirts. She wears a blue dress with blue ribbons in her hair.

And it so suits her. She looks so sweet which she is, but she is super sassy. She is also so sneaky. For instance, while sitting at the table playing Old Maid, I felt someone tickling my side. All the kids know I am really ticklish, so it could have easily been anyone one of them. But when I turned around I didn’t see anybody. And then it kept happening, all the while I wasn’t thinking of looking down. When I finally did, there she was crouched on the floor and laughing like a hyena.

Almost every one of the kids has a nickname. Lukensia is mostly called “Kensia” but is sometimes referred to as “ti fal.” Ti Papi told me it means little stomach. Although, I’m not entirely sure. You’ll learn some of these kids’ nicknames are hilarious and curious.

09.02.10 Getting To Know Ben

Over the next few months we will be featuring a series of blog posts by Abby Lilly called “Getting To Know…”  in which she will be writing a little bit about each child who lives at the orphanage. Abby spent a month working at the orphanage this summer teaching an English class to kids. Our hope is that this blog series will help everyone feel more connected to all the children at the orphanage we support and love so much. Thanks for reading!

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Getting To Know Ben

My goal for this semester (besides passing my classes) is to blog about all my kids in Haiti. I call them my kids because I feel like I know them better and I take pride in knowing all of their names and some personal things about them. Without a doubt my heart is still in Haiti and I doubt it will ever leave. I hope that people who have been to Ft. Liberte will read this and get to know our kids at the orphanage too. I know that I don’t know everything about them, but I know enough to give a glimpse into who they are. I’m not really sure how to start with the kids. But I think I will go from the younger kids to the older kids, starting with…Baby Ben!!!

He’s not technically a baby, anymore.  But he is the most adorable thing ever. His parents are the house parents at the orphanage and he is the youngest of the family.  I love him because he wears tiny, baby clothes.  But here’s a picture of him as a tiny baby from 2006. i.e. he was 3 the first time I met him! So crazy!

He’s not afraid of most things. And he’s a darn good soccer player for a 7 year old. I loved spending time with him because he wasn’t always touching me (like all the other kids) and he tried to learn English. This kid is one smart cookie. He is best friends with Peterly and Luck. And is a total Momma’s boy. (so is his older brother, Tenson). There’s nothing wrong with a momma’s boy though. However, someone might want to tell her that size 12 month pink shorts should be taken out of his wardrobe. Sadly I don’t have a picture of those. But they were hilarious.

07.06.10 YOU: An Earthquake Relief Update

Dear Friends and Supporters, 

Thank you very much for your support to the survivors of the earthquake of January 12 in Haiti. Thanks to your generosity, we were able to respond effectively and come to help to those who were the most affected by that terrible disaster. Fort-Liberte was intact, as  far as buildings, facilities and injuries were concerned. We felt bumps and shocks, we heard clearly the resonant noise of the earth trembling, but, praise the Lord, the North in general was spared that day. We did have minimal damages, such as cracks in many houses, a few old fencing walls that fell down without injuring anybody. We thank God.

However, Fort-Liberte has been affected by losing lots of people and their homes; mainly students attending school in Port-au-Prince and parents or relatives who were taking care of them there. Right after the earthquake our city was overflowing with people (students, parents, friends, strangers) who had fled the devastation in Port-au-Prince looking for a safer place. Some students came to Fort-Liberte to search for opportunity to complete their scholar year. Our church school, Eben-Ezer Baptist School, was obliged to open its’ doors and take in over 60 of the affected children. Thanks to generous donors like you, we were also able to feed a large number of the victims who have lost everything, to provide a little money to help them meet a few of their vital needs.  We also give partial or full scholarship to the most needy. The church is now looking for ways to rent or provide room for those who came in Fort-Liberte without having here parents or relatives. We understand that we must select a small group of victims who keep coming to ask for food and other help.

We are a poor church. Dear supporters and Friends of Fort-Liberte- you made it possible for us to care for people in dire need of help in this time of disaster. You provide money to make of Jerusalem Church a servant church and living testimony of God’s love to our people. The effort needs to be sustained. Please continue to have us in your thoughts and prayers for our grieving families. People are still sharing with the church stories of how they have been miraculously saved and spared by the Lord. Now is not the time to neglect or ignore them. It is rather time to remember daily the victims or refugees. The needs of some of them are not over.

We praise the Lord for each one of you who are responding to help us face these crucial needs. Please continue to show your love in action, keep on praying for Haiti, and having our small and poor country in your daily thoughts. The people of Fort-Liberte are not ready to forget what you mean to them.

I join the members of the Church Board and your friends here in thanking you gratefully, and praying that God will continue to care for you and reward you with abundant blessings in due time.

Gratefully yours, in His Service, 
Andre Jean, pastor

06.23.10 Summer English Program and more!

The following is a guest blog post from Abby Lilly.  Abby traveled to Ft. Liberte with FFL on the recent May trip and has spent the past month teaching English at the orphanage.

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English is hard to learn and it’s hard to teach, but I’m convinced I have some of the best pupils. The students are eager to learn more than most people I come across. Today, the students asked if we could start earlier this week and go longer because It will be my last full week with them. How do you say no to kids who are begging to learn? Of course I didn’t.

As a trial basis this summer, I wanted to see how teaching a large group of kids would go, so I’m only teaching the orphans at the King Center. And for everybody’s information these kids are brilliant. They learn quick and they move fast. They understand and comprehend far more than my expectations were for them at the beginning of the summer. They are really interested in conversational English and correct pronunciation. Expect when you go back to Ft. Liberte to have some good conversations with these kids, hopefully they won’t be shy about it.

Right now they know how to introduce themselves, say where they are from, what they like to do, what sports they like to watch, and ask how you are doing. They know some verbs, the colors, numbers, and some other vocabulary. I think it’s a good start for now. Although, I wish I had more time with them. For more reasons than just teaching English.

And if you’re wondering who the best pupil is, it’s none other than the house mother, Madame Claudin. She is so eager to learn and to be able to speak. Every chance she gets she is studying English. She is doing so well. I’m also glad she’s in the class because she helps me control the kids a little bit. Onel Felix one of the older orphans who still helps at the orphanage helps me translate when the students don’t understand and so far it’s been working well.

The boys, Aaron and John, who are with me this summer have been working hard doing odd jobs around the orphanage and for the church. They have helped the Haitian crew finish pouring the concrete for the foundation for the other half of the orphanage; they have started the process of pouring concrete for a patio at the welcome center; and we all have helped paint the outside of the farm. Celius plans to move out to the farm by the end of this month or early July. Continue to pray for us, so that our time is used effectively and efficiently as we finish our last week here in Haiti.

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If you would like to read more from Abby and about her work in Ft. Liberte this summer, check out her blog!

http://abbyquinn.blogspot.com/

06.10.10 Hope Changes Everything

The following is a guest blog post by Valerie Hulme.  Take time to read Valerie’s amazing thoughts on her recent trip to Ft. Liberte with FFL.

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29 of us returned last night from a trip to Ft. Liberte, Haiti. It was my 5th trip and I’m always surprised(although I probably shouldn’t be by now) how much God shows me each time I go. Even though I was returning to a place I have become more familiar with each time I go, I wasn’t sure what we would find on this trip. It was my first trip since the January earthquake. What I expected to find was more people with more needs. And while we did see the need that is always there and a lot of people who had come to Ft. Liberte after the earthquake with nothing, this is not what I will remember finding. What I will remember finding is hope.

We got to see the money that was donated through Friends of Ft. Liberte to earthquake relief in use on different occasions on this trip. I could write 100 pages of examples of the hope I saw in my Haitian friends, but one of the experiences of this trip that impacted me the most was getting to see the food distribution to earthquake victims who had come to Ft. Liberte. I remember standing off to the side in the courtyard of the school watching families receive bags of food. I watched as an older lady slowly carried a large bag through the courtyard. Her eyes were fixed on the sky and she had a hand raised. I recognized a little bit of the Creole she was speaking as she crossed the yard. She kept repeating “mesi Bondye, mesi Bondye(thank you God).” This is a lady who probably had very close to nothing and here she was not complaining about what she lacked(which unfortunately is what I would probably be doing), but thanking God for what He was providing. I caught a small glimpse at that moment of the day that the need in Haiti will be overwhelmed by the hope of its beautiful people.

That day I was wearing a shirt with the words ‘I need Africa more than Africa needs me.’ If you’ve spent more than 5 minutes with me the last 2 years, you know how much I have been affected by my trip to Uganda. God reminded me on this trip to Ft. Liberte how much of my heart is still in Haiti and with the people there I love so much. John told me that he had a shirt made that said ‘I need Haiti more than Haiti needs me.’ Later that day I was reading the inside of my shirt that explains what is written on the outside. It reminded me of John’s shirt and when I read it again, where it said Africa I replaced it with Haiti. I think it fits perfectly what we see when we go to Haiti. The words from the shirt are written below.

When I think of Haiti, the following images immediately come to mind: Starvation. Orphans. From there, my thoughts naturally turn to how I can help, how I can make a difference. “I am needed here,” I think. “They have so little, and I have so much.” It’s true, there are great tragedies playing out in Haiti everyday. There is often a level of suffering here that is unimaginable until you have seen it, and even then it is difficult to believe. But what is even harder is reconciling the challenges that many Haitians face with the joy I see in those same people. It’s a joy that comes from somewhere I cannot fathom, not within the framework that has been my life to this day.

The images spilling out of my television showed circumstances that could seemingly only equal misery, and I was fooled. I bought into the lie that circumstance defines happiness. The truth is, in Haiti I find hearts full of victory, indomitable spirits. In places where despair should thrive, instead I find adults dancing and singing, and children playing soccer with a ball crafted of tied up trash. Instead of payback, I find grace. Here, weekend getaways are not options to provide relief from the pains of daily life. Relationships and faith provide joy. Love is sovereign.

My new reality… I know now that my joy should have no regard for my circumstances. I’m ashamed by my lack of faith, but at the very same moment I am excited by my new pursuit. I’m forced to redefine the meaning of having much or having little. I’m uneasy with the prospect of change and of letting go, but just the thought of freedom is liberating. I want what I have learned to trickle down from my head into my heart - I no longer want to need the “next thing” to have joy.

I’m not saying that Haiti does not need our efforts. It absolutely does need our partnership. But for me, I’ve come to understand that I NEED HAITI MORE THAN HAITI NEEDS ME. Why? Because it is Haiti that has taught me that possessions in my hands will never be as valuable as peace in my heart. I’ve learned that I don’t need what I have and that I have what I need. These are just a few of Haiti’s many lessons. I came here to serve and yet I’ve found that I have so much to learn, and Haiti, with all its need, has much to teach me.

05.31.10 Earthquake Relief In Action

On Saturday morning we got to see earthquake relief in action!  $10,000 worth of food from earthquake relief donations was distributed to quake victims and families who are caring for and housing earthquake victims in the community.  The distribution was organized by Pastor Andre and the Jerusalem Baptist Church, who has devised a smooth and orderly method to distribute the food to those most in need.  The United Nations has called upon the church to advise them on how to best distribute relief within the community.

We would like to thank everyone who donated to earthquake relief! Without you, this food giveaway would not have been possible.  Thank you!

05.28.10 Greetings from Ft. Liberte!

Greetings from Ft. Liberte!  The team has been working hard in the heat this week digging and pouring concrete for the newly designed footers for the orphanage.

After the earthquake on January 12th we felt the responsibility to build the safest structure possible in the event of a future earthquake.

After having the blueprints examined by a structural engineer the footers have been enlarged from 2 ft wide and 12 inches deep to 5 ft. wide & 16 inches deep, with double the steel reinforcement.  We believe that this will be the strongest building in Ft. Liberte when it is completed!

Tomorrow evening we will have pictures from a food distribution for earthquake victims and families.

(The newly designed footers.  You can see the original footers under the steel.)

(Our new cement mixer which has been a huge help!)

(Demolition has started on the original orphanage building) 

**FFL would like to thank the structural engineer from Knoxville, TN for donating his time and examining our building plans**

04.28.10 Earthquake Relief Update Video #3

04.18.10 Introducing the “Help Yourself Program”

For years, the idea of micro-financing small businesses in Haiti has been a dream.  Recently, thanks to our good friend Junior Mesamours and his wife, micro-financing projects have become a reality in the Ft. Liberte community.  Junior and his wife have started a local micro-financing program called the “Help Yourself Project”.  Below is a brief description of the “Help Yourself Program” from Junior himself.  Check it out!

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As you know I hate the “giving food and money” stuff.  For in the long run it’s threatening both for the giver and the receiver because it creates dependency and kills productivity.  So my wife and I decided to do something to encourage those who do a little something with less than a thousand gourdes ($30). 

We give them a gift of 500 gourdes and a loan of 1,000 gourdes.  They have to pay back 50 gourdes per week, so in 5 months they will pay all. That means $40 to make a difference in a small business. We will follow their progress and see how faithful they are.  Those who struggle, my wife will advise them on how to make better choices in term of what to sell or so (she majored in business); and those we rate successful enough, we will lend them more so their business can be stable.

~ Junior Mesamours

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We have no doubt that this program has the potential to grow.  If you are interested in getting involved with the “Help Yourself Program” in the future leave a comment on this blog post or email haitifriendsblog@gmail.com.  We would love to talk to you about it!