Haiti Today

ART FROM HAITI

Haiti Update - July 2011

Dear Congregations of the Florida-Bahamas Synod,

Thank you again for all your effort to help Eglise Lutherienne d’Haiti [The Lutheran Church of Haiti]. I just want you to know what is going on here so that you can let other people know both the progress of our reconstruction efforts and the problems that the church is facing in Haiti.

The forty students at the Vocational Center built in Gressier with ELCA Disaster Response funds are doing very well. We have an agreement with Caterpillar represented here in Haiti by Haytrac (Haitian tractor) to train some of the young people at the vocational center to work with heavy machinery.

Through the poultry project we recently started in March, we currently have sold over 150,000 eggs to all the major super markets here. The women in some of our congregations are participating in a micro finance loan program and are getting training through Fonkoze in business management. Soon they

will be able to re-ceive loans to begin their own small businesses that they can develop with the goal of becoming self sufficient small business owners. The dairy in Petit-Goave is almost done. It is expected that the dairy will be running in October. ELCA Disaster Response in partnership with the church has also just bought a piece of land in Les Cayes for the construction of another dairy.

Right now, we are in the rainy season. As a result, the cholera is spreading all over. The Emergency health response is restless, because every second they receive a new case of cholera in both Carrefour and Gressier.

So far so good, we are doing quite well. We just request the prayers of everyone, especially for this hurricane season.

Peace and blessings,

Rev. Joseph Livenson Lauvanus, President

Eglise Lutherienne d’Haiti

Pastor Tom Snapp's Trip to Haiti ~ Fall, 2010

The bells at the Episcopal cathedral in Port-au-Prince (fig. 1) are now silent, felled by the earthquake in January.

The altar of this magnificent structure (fig.2) where the pastors of the Egliese Lutheriene deHaiti were ordained is gone.

Our church in Carrefour, the epicenter of the quake (fig. 3) was flattened, but thru the efforts of Lutheran giving, its skeleton stands once more. Pastor Eniel preaches from the makeshift pulpit and behind him are the desks for the school there.

The area around the church bespeaks the terrible destruction that killed over 200,000 people in a matter of minutes. 1.3 million people are living in tent cities like the one shown here, (fig.4) or this one on the grounds of what was once the Italian embassy. (fig.5)

From August 31 to September 1, the church assembly gathered in Port-au-Prince to celebrate the love of God in Christ Jesus. They sang and praised God as they worked to establish precedents for reconstruction of the churches and ways to improve the lives in the community that they serve. The 4 pastors who serve the 1500 Lutherans in its many church sites could not help but talk of God's love and grace in spite of the tragedy they had endured.

There was no organ or piano, and no hymnals, but when the pastor gave a number of a hymn in either Creole or French, the 35 in attendance sang like there were 300 in the room. They are looking toward to the future and how they can continue to help their people realize the love of God in Christ Jesus.

It was so great to spend this time in Haiti. What a blessing to be a part of the assembly for all of us!!

--Pastor Snapp

Help for Haiti Page

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Giving Through the ELCA

For Haiti

Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church

401 5th Street North

St. Petersburg, FL 33701

727-822-3307