You have no doubt been hearing about how little progress has been made after Haiti’s 2010’s devastating earthquake and how there are perhaps as many as 400,000 people still living in tents.  The tents are not secure, which makes women and children especially vulnerable, an ongoing concern. You will hear about misappropriation of funds from governments and the question “Where has all the money gone?” These are very important issues and ones we should all be concerned about.

We want to reassure those who have given compassionately and lovingly through the American Baptist and Cooperative Baptist churches that the uses of your gifts have been prayerfully considered and documented as the churches respond to this very serious humanitarian crisis. Your gifts are used to help those in need and are not just a “handout.” Because of the personal relationships that have been built over the years with missionaries and their partners, trust and accountability, not often seen in government or secular organizations, has developed.

Rebuilding continues, with many homes, a school and church now completed, but the scope of the need, especially housing, is still staggering. On the positive side, much has been done, but it is usually seen in the lives of individuals and small groups. Our ABC/CBF partners working in Port Au Prince and in the earthquake epicenter in Grand Goave are working closely with our Haitian Baptist leaders and co-workers to advance health care, clean water projects, Community-Health Evangelism, and Self-Help Groups empowering women to help provide for their families.

With the help from Conscience International and many CBF/ABC teams, many “rubble homes” have been built and are now being lived in by those who lost everything in the earthquake. These families are grateful to be living in their own homes and not in tents as they had been. Forty-eight students displaced from their universities that were destroyed have been able to continue their education in the north at the UCNH (Universite Chretienne du Nord d’Haiti) thanks to scholarships donated for students from the Port-au-Prince area.
 
The people of Haiti are the drivers of what needs to be done in their country, and we as their partners are here to encourage them, pray for them, and build networks that help support them when needed. Personal relationships are the key to lasting change in Haiti, and working together with you and our brothers and sisters in Haiti is Kingdom-building as well as nation building.  Giving to partners who love Jesus is the way to build programs that change neighborhoods. Partnering with those who love Jesus provides a way to continue to build trust, accountability, and transparency in the workplace. Wrongs have hope of correction and transformation through His forgiveness.

We want to say in love, but very strongly for the record, that we condemn the injustice against the poorest of the poor that has resulted from greed, abuse of power, and arrogance. Yet, we bear witness to the Holy Spirit working to heal this land. As we reflect on all that has occurred in the past three years, the bottom line for us is Jesus' one heart revolution.  As Stan Rowland says, "A transformed person, transforms his neighborhood.” It is a whole heart, whole mind, whole body, whole strength transformation in God, i.e. Metanoia.

Mother Theresa says it perfectly. “It’s not how much we do that counts, it’s how much love we put in the doing.”

In His Love,

Nancy and Steve