Give Thanks & Pray Without Ceasing

Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

The apostle Paul reminds us to give thanks in all circumstances and pray without ceasing. This past year has seen much to pray about for our brothers and sisters in Haiti.

We have all been praying for the children and teachers and staff at the school, those who work so very hard to grow food for the hungry, the exhausted and overwhelmed medical workers at the clinic.

We also give thanks, even in these circumstances, or especially in these circumstances. We give thanks for all of you, those who support the ministry that works with our Haitian partners to offer hope and life to Haiti.

For the next year, on behalf of our Board of Directors, I would like to invite you to join us in following Paul’s advice. We will give thanks and pray. Set a time aside each and every day when you can pray for our Brothers and Sisters in Haiti. You may use the prayer below, which was written by a board member and is used every time our board meets.

Let us pray without ceasing for God to intercede in Haiti, bringing order, vision, and hope for their country and their people. You might also take a moment and think about your friends in Haiti, those who have become like family to you, and all our brothers and sisters in Haiti. Give thanks for the relationships we have with them and for Father Bruno, Madame Bruno, and all who work so very hard at the school, clinic, and within their community. Give thanks for all who are partners with us in seeking to reach out in love to feed the hungry, offer care for the sick, and hope for the desolate. Give thanks for Bethlehem Ministry and the opportunity we all have to be a part of offering hope and life in Haiti.

Peace, Rev. Leigh Jones

God of Hope and Life,

We come to you with Haiti on our hearts.

We pray for all of Haiti, but specifically for Terrier Rouge.

We pray for the beautiful people within it, the ones we have encountered, and the ones we've yet to meet.

We say aloud the needs of Haitians knowing You hear us, God:

We pray for their safety, for their health, for their peace, for reconciliation, for rest, for sustainability, for empowerment, and for hope.

We pray for the good and holy work Bethlehem Ministry is doing.

We pray that You would bless the efforts and possibilities of the ministry.

We pray that Haitians remain on our minds and in our hearts every day.

Amen.

Light Matters Most

Have you seen the recent news coming out of Haiti? You may be asking which headline. President Jovenel Moïse’s assassination shocked the nation, the first presidential assassination in Haiti in over 100 years; in August a devastating earthquake struck the southwest peninsula followed by a tropical storm just two days later; and for the past two weeks more than forty planes have flown into Port au Prince with Haitians who had sought asylum in the United States. These recent tragedies further challenge a nation whose resources have been stripped for centuries and compound each other to directly affect every aspect of the lives of those we love in Terrier Rouge. Those at Espérance et Vie and Jatrofa Projenou are feeling the weight of these tragedies on their jobs, their health, and how they meet their daily basic needs. And after the past two years with all that has happened in the U.S and throughout the world, we all can more deeply understand what compounding tragedies can do to the spirit.

I know it’s devastating to see our loved ones face tragedy after tragedy. It can be overwhelming to think about how best to help. Where do we even start? The classic parable of “teach a man to fish to feed them for a lifetime” has often been quoted in nonprofit work, but as journalist Jonathan M. Katz said best, “Haitians are, by necessity, the most self-sufficient, creative people that you will ever meet in your life. If any country in the world is full of people who could teach us how to fish, it’s Haiti. The problem isn’t a lack of know-how. It isn’t a lack of desire or will. It is really a lack of material resources.” We know firsthand this is true after decades of working alongside Haitians in their own communities. The school, the clinic, the farm, and every other program Bethlehem Ministry supports began and continues to succeed with the know-how, desire, and will of Haitians because they have been empowered with resources by generous donors like you.

In 2021 alone…

• Espérance et Vie donated critical supplies to those affected by the earthquake and tropical storm. Water, rice, gloves, medicine, sleeping pads, toilet paper, and more were sent to the southwest peninsula.

• The incredible teachers and dedicated students at St. Barthélémy overcame huge obstacles with patience and determination to complete the 2020-2021 school year, and 100% of the 9th graders passed their national exams! Students returned to school September 21 to begin the new academic year.

• The doctors at Clinique Espérance et Vie continued to provide care at little or no cost including general medicine, ophthalmology, surgery, pharmaceutical, and laboratory services.

• Jatrofa Projenou planted more than 5 acres of woodlots that will be sustainably harvested for wood in order to generate incomes and protect the land. The program also planted 3,000 yams that can be harvested and stored for months without spoilage. This will reduce food insecurity and generate income as well.

Resources made all of that possible. Resources bring hope in the wake of the compounding tragedies. That is why each October we launch our annual campaign, Hope & Life, a campaign that helps us sustain these life-changing services throughout the year and shows our faithful support to Espérance et Vie and Jatrofa Projenou. Every donation Bethlehem Ministry receives allows us to continue serving Haiti in the best way we know how, person by person, family by family, community by community, empowering Haitians directly.

Light matters most when things are at their darkest. You, our Bethlehem Ministry family, have been a light for thousands of Haitians when tragedy has darkened their beloved country. You are a torchbearer of Hope and we are grateful for your light that shines so brightly.

All the best,

Kristen Pace

Executive Director

An Update from Espèrance et Vie

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

As you may know, we started the school year late, in November 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic. To keep the students and staff safe, we had to make some arrangements such as dividing the classes into two different schedules—one in the morning, one in the afternoon. The situation had improved by the beginning of March because we had respected all the safety rules such as maintaining social distancing, frequent washing of hands, and others.

Unfortunately, in May the cases of coronavirus began increasing again. People were not being careful, and some still believe to this day that COVID is a myth. The cases increased so fast that the Ministry of Education closed schools in Haiti by June 11th, two and a half months earlier than the regular schedule.

We are constantly praying for things to improve because we are facing many challenges right now. The first challenge that we are facing is the nutrition of the students at the school. Due to the constant political unrest, the prices for proper groceries are extremely high. Even though we use the food produced at the farm, it’s not enough to feed our kids at the school. Next, we are facing the lack of fuel, which can paralyze our daily lives. In addition to that, we went through a period of drought where farmers could not benefit from their crops and therefore could not sell. We have tried to keep afloat with our resources and with Bethlehem Ministry’s help while maintaining our standards, but it has not been an easy task.

We would like to ask you to help us find more scholarships for the children because they have been immensely helpful in many ways. Having more scholarships will allow us to do the following: give more opportunities to give a better quality of education to children in the city. They will also allow us to increase the staff’s salary because what they are currently earning is not a lot. Some teachers earn less than $200 dollars a month. If we increase the school fees, we might lose more students because we have seen it happen already this year. We currently have 914 students when before we had 1,000 and more. Also, due to the current situation in the country, we have not had visitors, which was also more or less a source of income for us. Furthermore, some people are afraid of sending their kids to school due to the pandemic. Right now, there are no vaccines available and as I’ve mentioned before, people are not being careful, and they are not respecting the safety measures.

Even when we have faced all these challenges, we have managed to maintain the school standards. We are incredibly happy with the teachers’ performance and the rest of the staff, while being on our knees everyday praying constantly that things will get better.

Even though I’ve been away for 5 months, our on-site leaders have been doing an excellent job keeping the place running efficiently. And by the grace of God and the doctors’ authorizations I am hoping to go to Terrier Rouge by the end of July and be present for the beginning of next year’s school year which probably will be on September 1st.

We are extremely grateful for all the collaboration and support that you have given us throughout the years and will continue to give us. We pray for all of you daily, so that God may continue to bless you in your work and pray to keep you safe.

Faithfully Submitted,

Jean Monique Bruno