Newsletter

During the last week of October, I made my first trip to Haiti in 5 years in order to celebrate the 40-year anniversary of the Poteau Church of Christ. This also marked my 40th year of working in Haiti. Security concerns had prevented my previous travel, but the Gonaives area has been spared of the gangs and violence plaguing areas south of the city.

One of my goals was to visit Uvain, one of our newest churches that was started 2.5 years ago on the top of a mountain. I practiced my climbing skills on Pulaski County’s Pinnacle Mountain and Rattlesnake Ridge only to discover that Uvain was more than 2,000 feet high.

Admittedly, my nearly “four score body” was totally exhausted after the challenging climb through rolling rocks and across streams that took almost four hours from where we had to leave the truck until we finally arrived.

After a great deal of pleading from the people of Uvain, Pacius first traveled to the site in May 2023, where he found about 1,000 people with “no church, no school, and children with no shoes.” Still, it was a thriving community with abundant water and rich but hilly soil. Since Pacius’ first visit there, there is a church with nearly 50 members. A school was started and now enrolls about 50 students.

The elementary school includes one girl in her early 20s who never had such an opportunity before. After I delivered 5 pieces of Halloween candy to each child, I asked if they had ever met a blanc (white person) before, and amusingly, none of them had. I learned that some of the teachers from the village below may go up and down the mountain (for them about 2.5 hours) daily or weekly. But they are making such a difference in the lives of these children.

These schools are not designed to prepare them to be engineers and lawyers, but it will prepare both boys and girls to be able to carry out business in the markets without being victims and also to be able to read the Bible.

These little schools do their work at a fraction of the cost of most throughout the world. Still, the cost of lumber, metal, and other materials are extremely expensive, made even worse by the trade interruptions by the gangs.

Raising funds each month for our operations and schools in other areas is challenging, but we need to raise more than this in order to expand and improve our classrooms. Our benches are inadequate, and we need more and benches modified to desks.

We need to add four more classrooms at a cost of about $2,500 each (the rooms look like simple sheds – wooden frame with metal roofs and sides).

Benches are about $65 each, and we need 180. Wood is scarce in Haiti, and the wood creates a significant expense. Classrooms and bench/desks will also be used by the church for worship and classes.

Here’s how you can help:

• $65 – 1 Bench/Desk
• $325 – 5 Benches
• $650 – 10 Benches
• $2,300 – 20 Benches
• $6,500 – 100 Benches

• $1,250 – half Classroom
• $2,500 – whole Classroom
• $10,000 – 4 Classrooms