Grace Church Kids Revival Recap

The Grace Church Kids Revival was awesome!!  Pastor Wesley shared that, "on Day One, 200 children attended and 5 accepted Christ!  The children were really encouraged to go back out into the community and invite other kids to come for the second day of the revival."

On Day Two, 300 kids attended. "The children really took the challenge seriously and brought in 100 additional children for the second day!  This day included intentional prayer for their city of Titanyen, and the challenge to make a positive difference in their community for God," Pastor Wesley recounted.

We want to give our utmost thanks for all of you who supported this revival in your thoughts and prayers.  We are continually amazed at all of the incredible things God is doing through Grace Church and it's ministries.

Grace Church Kids Revival - August 27th & 28th, 2014

We are so excited to share that Grace Church is kicking off a kids revival TOMORROW at 8am ET / 7am CT!  Pastor Gary and Pastor Wesley have been planning this event for a while now, and were very happy to share an event overview with us.  We ask for your praise and prayers to God for all of the incredible things we know He is going to do through this 2-day event.

The theme if the revival is "Children are the History Makers!" Both days will include activities such as dramas, Bible stories, crafts and worship, and each day will end with an alter call.  Kids will also get to watch the movie Joseph, and children will learn about how God had a divine, sovereign play for Joseph, just as He has a divine and purposeful plan for each of their lives too.  Even though Joseph was persecuted by his brothers, robbed, imprisoned, and experienced famine, he trusted and obeyed God.  Because of this, he was a history maker for his nation.  We pray that kids will leave the revival with a renewed sense of the purpose God has for each of their lives.

The dates of this event are Wednesday, August 27th, and Thursday, August 28th.  The event will last from 8am - 12pm ET both days.

Thank you for your support and prayers for this event!

Grace Academy Music Program

In 2012, the Healing Haiti ministry launched Grace Academy, our new school in Titanyen. Over 300 children who had not gone to school previously were now going to school for free. 30 Christian-certified teachers with college degrees were hired to insure the best education that we can give these children. 

As an organization, we believe we can strengthen the development and future of Haiti through education. One way we are currently seeking to do so is through a music program that our school staff is trying to build. 

Psychologists, neuroscientists, and experts in early childhood development have demonstrated that music does more for children than bring them joy; it helps their brain cells make the connections needed for virtually every kind of intelligence. Music awakens the sense of wonder in children and awareness of their own creative potential. 

Our current desire is to establish a music school in the community of Titanyen, for the children attending Grace Academy and in the future, we desire to open it up to the community. The objective for this program is to reduce juvenile delinquency in the Titanyen area, preach the good news of Jesus Christ to young believers and the unconverted, integrating the youth of the orphanage with the youth of the Titanyen community, and train musicians who will be able to pass on their knowledge to the generation of tomorrow. 

Some of the children that will benefit from this program come from very rough backgrounds and their pasts are heart breaking. From physical and verbal abuse to slavery, these children have endured more than any of us can even imagine. Music is one of the instruments that we want to use to help the children relieve some of the pain they carry, as a result of their past experiences. 

We currently have 42 children that have completed the solfège training which is a music education method used to teach pitch and sight singing and have now began practice. If you walk around Grace Village on any given Thursday and Friday afternoon, you can hear the joyful noise of trumpets, trombones, saxophones, flutes, guitars, and trumpets. 

Some of the instruments we are now using are rented and costly. Please consider helping us make our vision a reality by donating your used instruments to Grace Academy. For more information, please contact Bianca at biancainhaiti@gmail.com. 

Aquaponics Impact: Feeding Bellies, Confidence and Independence

We are so excited to share with all of you the progress and amazing impact that the aquaponics farm is making at Grace Village and the surrounding villages in Titanyen, Haiti.  The aquaponics system is at 100% capacity!  This is a huge milestone and is the result of 1 1/2 years of slow and steady progress.  It's important to highlight that through this initiative, we are able to employ three full-time Haitians–Salomon, Franck and Isaac–in the management and operation of the farm with the assistance of Mark, our long-term missionary (pictured below).

It's been truly amazing to see God work through the aquaponics farm initiative in ways we didn't even dream of.  Healing Haiti always strives to create an environment that challenges Haitians to take initiative and responsibility, develop their leadership, and empowers them to make decisions, exercise their strengths and reach their full potential.  We have seen Haitians blossom and grow through their work on the farm, it's been inspiring to see what they've learned and how empowered they feel.

Here are some specific milestones of celebration and praise:

• Healing Haiti is employing and empowering Haitians to manage water quality, feed and care for fish, plant and grow hydroponically, harvest plants and fish.
• We are able to employ local women to assist with fish harvest.
• The farm is currently producing hundreds of pounds of peppers, egg plants, kale, cucumbers, cabbage, chives and other vegetables, which are a critical addition the Haitians diet, and are typically very hard to grow in Titanyen's dry climate and rocky soil.
• The Haitians are harvesting more than 300 tilapia every three months – provides a nutrient rich source of protein for the children, elderly and partnering orphanages.

Celebrate these milestones with us, and join us in thanking God for the amazing things He is doing through this area of our ministry!

To learn more about the aquaponics farm, visit our website. 

A Beyond Powerful Experience: Healing Haiti Child Sponsorship

Volunteering on the Healing Haiti Sponsorship team and getting to meet Bondja, a child at Grace Village that I have the wonderful privilege of sponsoring, was an unexpected part of my time in Haiti, but one I can't imagine it without. 

During my trip to Haiti, and after our team met one night at the guesthouse, I started to write in my journal and reflect on the day. Sitting at the kitchen table, I started thinking about how I had always wanted to sponsor a child somewhere, help them achieve things we often don't even give a second thought to. I began looking through the Healing Haiti sponsorship page and immediately one of the kids at Grace Village just jumped out at me. Bondja liked studying and wanted to be an engineer some day, really liked to eat rice, and loves to play soccer all day. What a great kid! I decided that night to sponsor Bondja. I remember praying that night that I would get to meet him. And wow, did God show up. Two days of the trip I was able to visit him at Grace Village. We talked about school, and how he loves to study and learn (he told me he spends every Saturday on the playground studying!).  We spent time on the swings, he schooled me in soccer, and on our last day we took in the most powerful worship service I've ever been to. 

Deciding to sponsor a child and then having the opportunity to meet him, spend time with him, learn about his life, ask his questions, see him laugh—it’s an experience that is difficult to describe, and is beyond just powerful. I look forward to Team Izaites returning to Haiti this October and to get to see Bondja again. He may never know it, but he changed my life that week down in Titanyen, and for that, I'll be forever grateful.

Grace Church Pastoral Leadership & Educational Conferences

This past May, the Healing Haiti Faith & Education Advocates, lead by Sue Lennartson and Linda Blesener, had the wonderful opportunity to conduct the first Pastoral Leader Conference, a 2-day conference that took place at Grace Church in Titanyen, Haiti.  Grace Church’s own pastors Gary St. Hubert and Wesley Altime hosted the conference.  Over 270 area pastors, associates and children’s ministers attended.  On Day 2 of the conference, we were blessed to have three pastors from Eagle Brook Church in Minnesota attend as well.  It was absolutely amazing!

The conference was filled with inspiration, learning, prophecy, generosity, the exchange of knowledge and teaching, and so much more.  We were blessed with selfless worship leaders (pictured on the left) and inspirational speakers who presented impactful lessons, building tools and testimonies to lift up a terrific group of pastors who were eager to learn and share ideas with one another.  There was fruitful open discussion amongst the speakers and audience, and we had the wonderful opportunity to learn from each other.  

                                        

Later in the week, we hosted a 2-day Education Conference for teachers and staff from Grace Academy and from other area schools.  We engaged in hard discussions, thought-provoking games and activities, and brainstorming new ideas to keep students engaged in their education, all while building a strong team of great educators in Haiti.  This is the 3^rd Education Conference and the first one that was extended beyond Grace Academy.  The lessons during these two days focused on the care of the students and the teachers.  It is vital that we celebrate the successes, the joy of teaching and the joy of learning and the relationship between the student and teacher.

One of the many beauties of this trip was that we were a small team and got to work closely with one another, the Grace Church Worship staff, the teachers and a few of the long-term missionaries in a capacity we wouldn’t normal be able to do.  In all that we did, we were able to spend much more time getting to know, encourage, and pour our hearts into the leaders of the churches and schools.

The entire week set time aside for our mission team, the hosts, presenters, pastors and teachers to be infused with a renewed faith and a refreshed vision to expect and reach for greater things for God.  We ask for continued prayers for the churches and schools in Titanyen, Haiti, to continue impacting their communities in impactful ways!

(Written by Carolyn Pugh, Faith & Education Advocate)