June Haiti Mission Trip Updates
Update 6/24/2017:
Happy Saturday New Hope!
We arrived home safely Thursday night after a very fulfilling 8 days in Haiti. We were able to see 5 of the 6 pastors, get a good start on trusses for the roof at Gris-Gris, establish some new connections with Ministry being done in another area of Haiti, and offer our love and support to Pastor Jean-Francois and Lola at the memorial service for their son. I also took part in two Haitian weddings where I met many new people and made many new friends.
Alene, Leeann, and I are very grateful for the tremendous support and the prayers of our New Hope family. I hope that others will consider joining us on a trip to Haiti. It is an experience that will change your life!
I look forward to worshipping with my New Hope family tomorrow!
Grace and peace,
Pastor Paul
Update 6/21/2017:
Bonswah New Hope!
It is Wednesday evening and we have arrived at My Father’s House where we are staying for the evening.
Alene, Lee Ann, and I attended the Memorial Service for Ben Thalan, the 11 year old son of Jean-Franciis and Lola Thalan, who drowned this past Saturday. This is an experience I wished hadn’t happened. I cannot imagine the pain and depth of despair that they must be enduring. It was a very moving service and the multi-purpose building at Exode Secondary School was filled with people from that community. This was a tremendous testimony to the impact this family has made. Please continue to pray for this family and community.
Monday and Tuesday we continued our work in Gris-Gris. We have them well on their way with the construction of trusses for the roof. Pastor Kemson has several men who are helping and we were able to teach them how to put them together. It is a slow process and is only one part of what is needed to complete the roof. Supplies are hard to find and it is difficult to get them to the location of the church. They will need additional funding to complete the roof. Hopefully other groups will be going in the next few months to help. Pastor Evetual was not ready to begin his work until Tuesday due to having the wedding there on Saturday. So we were not able to help in Marche Kabrit this time.
We saw all the pastors except for Joab this trip. All of them send their love and thanks for the wonderful support and encouragement from their brothers and sisters at New Hope.
We are scheduled to depart tomorrow at 12:07 pm and to arrive in Nashville at 9:00 pm. Thank you for your prayers and continue to pray for our safe return home.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Paul
Bonswah (good evening) New Hope!
Our time in Haiti has been a blessing. Alene, Leeann, and I thank you so much for your support of this amazing ministry. Our hope is that more of our New Hope family will join us.
Over the last few days we have drawn the plans for the roof at Gris-Gris and begun the process of building trusses for the roof. Their limited resources and materials has limitEd what we can do, however, when we leave they will have a plan in place to finish the roof so they can begin worshipping in the new building. God has blessed us tremendously.
We we had an opportunity Sunday afternoon to visit a new part of Haiti. We traveled into the mountains west of Les Cayes and visited in the community of Duchite. We visited with the family of Alene’s friend who is serving as our translator this week. We also met the priest of the parish that has a school with an enrollment of 2,000 children and youth in first through 12th grade. As always we were feed and welcomed with much love.
We found out yesterday that the 11 year old son of Pastor Jean-Francois drowned on Friday. This is the pastor of a church in Fond-de-Blanc where we have worked many times and know very wel. We have changed our return date so we can attend the memorial service on Wednesday. Please be in prayer for Jean-Francois and his wife Lola.
Tomorrow (Tuesday) we will spend a little more time in Gris-gris training them to complete the roof. We will attend the Memorial Service on Wednesday and then travel to Port-au-Prince and spend the night. We fly out of PAP on Thursday at 12:07 pm and will arrive in Nashville at 9 pm. Thank you for all your support and continue to pray for us.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Paul
Today, Thursday, was our first day to be at one of our work sites. Alene and Leeann went to Gris-Gris and determined what the need was there and began putting a plan together. Kemson’s church is there and they are ready to put the roof on. The rest of the needed materials should arrive tomorrow and the plan is to build trusses.
I spent the day in Marche Kabrit where I preached at a Haitian wedding. The groom was a young man we had worked with in November and asked me to thank the people of New Hope for supporting me to be here. The wedding ceremony was a little over 2 hours and was very moving. After the wedding we went to the groom’s parent’s home and spent another hour during which a full meal was served to over 200 guests. These are people who have very little so to do this requires tremendous sacrifice. This was an amazing experience and I am so grateful for the tremendous support of New Hope for the ministry in Haiti
Grace and peace,
Pastor Paul
This is from Dana – Paul told me that there were 5 preachers at the wedding, not including him. He also said that it was so hot that his tie was wet by the time the service was over! He also learned from the other pastors that you should take a handkerchief or rag as a sweat mop – because he was the only one that didn’t! You can bet that he will have one for the second wedding on Saturday!
Thank you all for your support for Paul, LeeAnn, and Alene. Please continue to pray for them and the people they are working with in Haiti, that all will be blessed and God’s work will be done!
We love this church of God’s people!!
This is Dana, giving the Haiti update again for the group. They left Nashville Tuesday morning a little before 6 a.m. They were supposed to arrive in Haiti around 3:15 pm. Their flight was delayed from leaving Fort Lauderdale (they went there from Nashville, then from there to Haiti), so they were a little over an hour late getting in to Haiti – about 4:30 p.m. The traffic was heavy and it took them longer to get out of Port Au Prince, and it took longer to get out of Port Au Prince also and driving was slower also. They finally stopped around 10:00 pm at a friend of the friend of Alene’s that is working with them this week and spent the night with hm. He had enough bedding for all of them. This morning they finished driving the remaining hour to their hotel, and arrived safely.
Paul will be participating in the wedding tomorrow and Saturday. They got there too late to do any work today, but they are able to rest after their long day of travel yesterday.
Please keep Alene, LeeAnn, and Paul in your prayers as they minister to the people of Haiti over the next week through their physical work and helping them in other ways as well.
Thank you!
Love in Christ,
Dana Hancock