Haiti Team June Needs Your Support:

Here is information on how you can support Haiti Team June as we raise money for the Valley of Hope Evangelical Church School.  You will find a bit of Pastor Maxeau's call from God to work in Bernard, Haiti and the needs of the school.

The Valley of Hope Evangelical Church School was started three years ago in the village of Bernard, outside of Port-au-Prince, Haiti by Pastor Maxeau Antoine. Pastor Maxeau was called to this area in a dream he had while visiting friends in Boston, MA. While being born and raised in the Port-au-Prince area, he had never heard of Bernard. At first he thought Bernard was in the USA, but his friends told him no, it was not. Upon returning to Haiti he was traveling one day, and not knowing where he was, he stopped and asked a man who told him, “You are in Bernard”.

Pastor Maxeau immediately knew God had brought him to the place in his dream. He knew that he was to start a church in this area and in the same day started going door-to-door sharing what the Holy Spirit had birthed in his spirit for these people. This was in October 2007. Since that time, Pastor Maxeau knew that he needed to do more than just meet the spiritual needs of the people. The physical and educational needs of the people were also very important. Water, food, clothing and shelter are things that we take for granted, but for the people of Pastor Maxeau’s church, they depend upon their faith in God to provide daily for their needs. There is a joy among the people when they are worshiping God. They live in the present and have hope for the future, while not focusing on the past and the many difficulties they continue to face.

The first thing to be done as a church was to hand dig a well that would provide clean water. Next, was to construct a building where they could meet as a body. Once the building started going up, Maxeau knew he needed to start a school because there was no school anywhere near Bernard. Without schooling, the children would have little chance of escaping the poverty of the subsistence farming of their community.

This is where Westover can make a difference in the lives of these children and their families. We would like to partner with Pastor Maxeau and Valley of Hope Evangelical Church to provide some basic school essentials that we at times take for granted. Schooling is not free in Haiti; even public school. At Pastor Maxeau’s school there are 170 students, which consists of K – 6th grades. Few, if any, of the children’s parents can afford to send them to the school. As a team, we asked Pastor Maxeau how Westover could help and for a wish list of needs. Below is Pastor Maxeau’s “wish list”.

ITEM	DESCRIPTION	COST PER INDIVIDUAL	COST FOR 170 CHILDREN
Uniforms	Dresses for Girls, Pants and Shirt for Boys	$20.00	$3400.00
Books	All Major Subjects	$25.00	$4250.00
Backpacks	Storage/Carrying Books	$10.00	$1700.00
Bibles	For Older Children and Women in the Church	$9.00	$900.00 for 100    Women and Children
TOTAL		$64.00	$10,250.00

The uniforms would be made by ladies in the community, which empowers and supports, with the church providing the materials. Most of the children have the barest minimum of clothing, so the uniforms would help to clothe them. At present, only the teachers have books, and only for some of the subjects, but not all.  Lessons are done using chalkboards, repetition and memory. If the children have books, they need a way of carrying them. The children come from half a mile to several miles one way to attend school. The backpacks become a necessity. Very few of the members of the church have Bibles - many cannot read, but most because they cannot afford one. Can you imagine not having a Bible? All of the items would be purchased in Haiti to help the local economy.

We will be accepting donations through Sunday September 4^th. You may donate in one of three ways.

1. Donate online at westoverchurch.com : Go to online resources, then online giving and follow the prompts. Please put a note in the designation box for Haiti Team June.
2. Donate by mail:  Include your check made out to WESTOVER CHURCH with HAITI TEAM JUNE on the memo line to our team treasurer: Amanda Bailess, 1820 Colonial Avenue, Greensboro, NC 27408-4206.
3. Donate in person: We will be at the Global Ministries Wall for the next five Sundays. You may drop off your check made out to WESTOVER CHURCH with HAITI TEAM JUNE on the memo line.

Another team will be going back to Valley of Hope Evangelical Church in December to continue ministering with Pastor Maxeau and his congregation. You may follow us on the Haiti Team blog at http://westoverhelpinghaiti.blogspot.com/.

In His Service,

Amanda Bailess, Kristine Guhne, Susie Guhne, Mandy Melniczek & Steve Miller

Haiti Team June: Continuing to Raise Support for Valley of Hope

Hey, everyone:

Our team had the opportunity to share at the beginning of Westover Church's services on Sunday, August 7th about Valley of Hope Church and our current efforts to raise funding for the school.  Check out this link to see Team Leader Steve Miller talk about Haiti:

On the page, click on the August 7th worship message:

http://www.westoverchurch.com/onlineresources/worshipservices

In Christ:
Haiti Team June

Ways to Help

Our Haiti team will give a presentation in the month to come about our trip!  We ask that you pray for Pastor Maxeau, his family and the Valley of Hope Church in Bernard, Haiti.  Soon, you will learn about ways that you can sponsor the December team that will work with Pastor Maxeau.

Our sincerest thanks for your support,


In Christ:
Haiti Team June:  Susie, Kristine, Amanda, Mandy, and Steve

Friday, July 1st: Returning Home

Friday, July 1st
Today,we said goodbye to Pastor Maxeau and his wife. We prayed with them and sang one last song, God is so good to me. This trip has so very much blessed our team. We are excited about the future of Valley of Hope Church and what God has in store for their church and school.  Our group heads to the airport, through customs, boards the plane to our first stop in Miami, Florida and say goodbye for now. 

What we say was a sweet spirit amongst the Haitian people. A strong people who continue to find ways to work together and survive the aftermath of the 2010 Earthquake.  We are saddened to leave our new brothers and sisters in Christ, but excited about the opportunity to return back to Haiti to see Pastor Maxeau, his family, and the church in the months and years to come.

Thursday, June 30th: Our Final Full Day in Haiti and a tour of Port-A-Prince

                                                                 Showing Haitian pride, the country's flag waves in the morning breeze

                                                                               Team Leader Steve helping make prayer journals at the orphanage

                                                                  A collasped church in downtown Port-A-Prince, just the walls remain

                                                          The tent cities where many Haitians still live after the January 2010 earthquake

                                                                                                   View of Port-A-Prince from the mountains

Thursday, June 30^th

Today is our last full day in Haiti. We visit an orphanage that works with 17 girls. During our time at the orphanage, we have crafts and the girls sing songs.  Interestingly, many of the Haitian children love to sing Disney songs such as the Lion King’s “Can You Feel the Love Tonight.”  After our visit, we go to a larger food court restaurant and have pizza. Pastor Maxeau wanted to show us how the food court and the “American foods” served there. It was a great treat for his two children, Alisha and Fred and their cousin Kenya to join us.  The team agreed that having pizza in a food court today will help us to prepare for our reentry into American on Friday.  Our tummies have been quite blessed during our trip with good food, but we will have to return to eating American food soon.

A great way to process our trip was the tour of Port-A-Prince this afternoon and seeing some of the earthquake’s devastation.  The president’s mansion was badly damaged and remains closed.  The largest Catholic church in Haiti almost completely collapsed. We took pictures of the remaining walls.   We got a mountainside view of Port-A-Prince before heading back to our lodging to start the “reverse packing party” to prepare to return tomorrow.

Indeed this has been a trip that has given us insight into the needs of Pastor Maxeau and his church.

Wednesday, June 29th: Vacation Bible School, Day 3

                                                                 The VBS kids putting their handprints on a banner for the church

                                                                                                  A close up of the handprints

A reminder of how all God's children can be so joyful..this young girl has been using chalk to color near the well. We just loved her smile

Wednesday, June 29^th

Today is our third and last day of Vacation Bible School. It is hard to believe that in a shade over 48 hours, we will depart from the nation of Haiti and return to our homes in the Greensboro/High Point, NC area.   This trip has taught our team about patience. Not a day has passed that we have not had to drive 2 hours or more to our destination, but now, the rides have become a time of reflection and thankfulness that our driver navigates the traffic safely.

Our VBS program included making salvation necklaces and prayer journals with the kids. We also had the younger children to draw pictures with chalk. The children learned the story about how Jesus died on the cross and rose again.  We sang and danced up a cloud of dust in the Valley of Hope Church. 

We completed the day with a wonderful meal from Pastor Maxeau’s wife and had a time of devotions and fellowship as a team.   We started to discuss our re-entry into American and the joy of serving alongside of Pastor Maxeau and his congregation.

Tuesday, June 28th: Vacation Bible School, Day 2

                                                                        Team member Amanda with the children during song time at VBS

                                                                                    Susie working with the kids on a craft

Tuesday, June 28^th, Vacation Bible School  

Today is team member Kristine’s 18^th birthday. It would prove to be memorable.

Today is the second day of our Vacation Bible School. The pastor will not be with us today as he will be on the mountain of Cha-Cha, where they want to plant another church. But, the pastor’s friend, Bernard, and a few others will assist us with the children.  We started out with 122 children at today’s VBS.  A mixture of games, crafts, and singing made for a joyful time at Valley of Hope Church.  As the day ended with a snack, our numbers had reached around 185 children again. The same number as our first day on Saturday, June 25^th.

Pastor Maxeau’s wife and sister made us a delicious feast this evening including rice, salad, and a lasagna made with veggies. Indeed, they have made sure that we are well feed each day.

This evening, our team had a time of decompressing our experiences and watching a movie together on Steve’s computer. It was a change of pace in days filled with Creole, French, and broken English.