Jeunesse En Mission
Youth With A Mission Port-au-Prince
PaP Phone: +011 (509) 683-0383
Email: info@ywamportauprince.com
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Donations can be sent to:
PO Box 236
Akron, PA 17501
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RECENT NEWS
YWAM
Port-au-PrinceCome...
Now is the Time to Worship
We have been working hard the past several months building relationships within 4 main Tent Cities here in Port-au-Prince. The need is great but our God is greater.
Our main focus has been helping them spiritually through worship and prayer while also continuing to help with their physical needs through distributing food, water jugs, tarps, and garden supplies. The people are so hungry and desperate right now both spiritually and physically. Through the worship we are able to bring the Hope and love of Christ. It is beautiful to see the Haitian people come alive through their love of music and dance once worship begins. The people are very receptive and appreciative of what we are doing and always want us to come back.
It has been inspiring to see the attitudes of those in the poorest of tent cities. Contrary to what you might think they have been the ones who have been most warm and inviting. One of our volunteers Kristen said she has noticed,” Their desperation is giving growth to Hope instead of despair, the people are seeking out help and seeking God.”
Please continue to pray for divine appointments and open hearts of the Haitian people as we lead them in to the arms of the Father through worship and prayer.
July 2010
Cite Soleil is regarded by many as being one of the most dangerous places in the world. With high unemployment in Cite Soleil it is also known for the extreme poverty and violence in some parts of the area. YWAM Port-au-Prince has been partnering with a local pastor to rebuild a church in the community. The pastor of the church says his hope for the community is to build a place where the people can come to worship and rest. The previous church was completely destroyed by the earthquake. After the building was destroyed God gave the church family a vision for the new church. The pastor says, “I would like to see the new church grow to be better then it was before. Not by sand and cement but in the spirit.” The local people in this community truly live by faith. Many of them have said they don’t even know if they will have food for the next day but they continue to trust God to provide. Once a month the church feeds the whole community surrounding the church. Acting as an answer to the community’s prayer.
Cite Soleil
Living by Faith
While a DTS outreach team was working on the church building, a young boy was passing by the church. The boy said he saw the team working down in the extremely dirty trench water surrounding where the church is being built. This trench is where everyone in the community puts their waste. The boy said he saw the team working alongside the Haitian people not caring about how dirty the water was. He was so amazed that the team members didn’t put themselves any higher then the Haitian people. He said this really touched him because he hadn’t seen any foragers do an action of service like this before. The pastor said, “Your heart for the people in this community while working along side them is to not only rebuild this church but to rebuild a family in Christ. Even if we are from different nations, under God we are the same.” The pastor and church members were very thankful to YWAM that they are helping grow this vision to shear the gospel in the community through are words and actions.
YWAM Port-au-Prince has also been involved with a tent city inside of Cite Soleil with an estimated 6,000 people. Many of them are living in small tents with old plastic bags for wall and fabric sheets as roofs. Unlike most, in this particular tent city they have no water and little to no access to food. There is also a large amount of homeless orphans living in the tent city with potbellies and orange hair surrounding the front of their heads, which are signs of suffering from malnourishment.
Talking with Benjamin, the security guard over the tent city. Told us that “The number one problem in this tent city is that they have no water and when the people living in the tent city need to get water they have to walk very far to only get a small amount of water.” He also said the second biggest problem is that there are so many orphans living in the tent city with no parents to take care of them and nowhere else to go.
Many of the orphans had parents who died in the earthquake. Benjamin told us that because none of the orphans go to school they sit around the tent city most of the day asking “where’s my mommy where’s my daddy.” The orphans have no one to take care of them although, some of the families in the community such as Benjamin, take the orphans in and feed them. But because they are not their children they have no responsibility to keep taking the children in long term. Benjamin kept thanking the DTS team for coming out to entertain and encourage the children in the tent city. If they didn’t have teams coming out to uplift the children, they wouldn’t have anything else.
We also spoke with five different women living in the tent city asking them about what their greatest needs were. They said the communities greatest need above all is for food and water. The woman said often the orphans and families would go long periods of time without any food or water. YWAM PAP has the vision to unite with supporters to put a water tank in the tent community so they could have access to the simple need of clean water to drink. YWAM PAP is also trying to find the means of easy access to food for the orphans and families living in the tent city.
Many of the tents have fabric as roofs covering their tents. This is not very practical because when it rains is seeps straight through the fabric onto everything inside of the tent. But because they have nothing else this is what they use. Currently YWAM Port-au-Prince staff and DTS teams have covered over 90 tents with tarps to protect from the rain. YWAM PAP has the goal to give a tarp to every family.
The church and the tent city in Cite Soleil still have a lot of work to be done. There is so much need in these communities and so much hunger for God. Speaking with local Haitian people both in the tent city and where the church is being built would tell us of how they live by faith. They trust in God to supply the needs in the community which could not be done if it wasn’t for brothers and sisters in Christ taking a stand for the ones who feel unheard.
If you feel let to donate to the Cite Soliel projects please send to:
PO Box 236
Akron, PA 17501
Please make checks payable to YWAM Haiti with a separate note indicating it is for Port-au-Prince, Cite Soleil church
June 2010
