Haiti Update: May 2011

Bonjour…Kòman ou ye?  (Good morning…how are you?)…

Hello again from the Projects Desk of ESMI.  Well, another month has flown by and I find myself late again this month with this update.  I really hoped to get this email out last week, but I was in Virginia Beach, VA at the Presbyterian Church of America General Assembly manning our booth from 8:00 AM until 11:00 PM and never had much of a chance to get the email out.  It was a great conference and gave us (ESMI) many chances to meet with new churches and organizations and share the story of the work that we are doing in Haiti.  It sounds like we will be trying to sign up for more of these kinds of conferences with other denominations in order to get more churches educated on the opportunities available to help rebuild Haiti.

I will be heading down to Haiti next week.  Below is a brief outline of what I will be doing on this trip.  As in the past, I will try to send out daily emails with pictures in order to give you all a firsthand understanding of what we are up to.  Please be praying for this trip because Haiti is in the midst of it’s rainy season and this much moving around the country can be difficult.

TRIP ITINERARY 

• Gonaives (Artibonite Department)
• Review the Fayeton project and meet with the government officials on a water line project
• Measure the property at Mapou to get ready for building an orphan home there
• Port-au-Prince (Ouest Department)
• Review the progress on the home construction activities
• Jeremie (Grand-Anse Department)
• Measure the details of the university property to prepare a preliminary plot plan
• Measure the property at Lundy to review progress on current projects and prepare for locating a business there
• Les Cayes (Sud Department)
• Measure the property at Maniche in order to layout the design of the school and get pictures for a donor
• Measure the property at Savannes in order to layout the location of the school and medical clinic
• Visit the river bank at Cherette if possible (the area has been flooding)
• Anything else that I can get accomplished while there

Now for some updates:

CHERETTE RIVERBANK PROJECT
 
This project has basically been completed.  There is some additional work to do to tie the gabions into the banks on both ends, but this will be delayed until after the rainy season.  Louis has reported that the floodwaters have reached the top of the new river bank and even overflowed some, but that everything is holding.  Praise God for the donors and volunteers that helped to make this possible.  Without this project we would have probably lost our school, orphanage, and church this year because the rain has been more than usual.  If I make it in to this site I will post pictures.  Our thanks go out to our partners from the different churches in the Chicago, IL area that funded this project.
 
FAYETON PROJECTS
 
We have continued to make progress on our school addition at the Fayeton site.  Below is the most current picture that I have.  We had to remove the second story of the existing structure due to poor construction.  We are replacing it with additional, single-story classrooms.  This is one of the sites that I will be visiting next week.  Additional pictures will be forthcoming.
 

On this upcoming trip I will be meeting with the local government and their engineers to put together the final plans for running a water line out to this facility.  Since the facility is so close to the bay we have not been successful in drilling wells that would hold up against salt intrusion.  Renaissance Church from Ontario, Canada is coming alongside of us to fund this new project.

HOME CONSTRUCTION

The Haitian construction team is continuing to move forward on home construction.  I don’t have any updates at this time, but here is the family that is receiving house #11.  This is Pastor Harry Etienne.

If you, your church, or your business/organization would be interested in sponsoring one of these homes the cost is $4,500 and you can donate at our website.

LUNDY RETAINING WALL

After the earthquake in 2010 ESMI purchased some land in the Jeremie area (Grand-Anse Department) and started building the Lundy facility.  This facility has a church, a school, a medical clinic, and an orphan village.  We have been blessed to have this site adopted by Long Hollow Baptist Church in the Nashville, TN area.  They have become a critical partner at this facility and the children are definitely the benefactors.

Recently the Rotary International chapter in the Dominican Republic came alongside of us and provided the needed funds to build a retaining wall for the orphanage in Lundy.  This project is almost completed and I will be assessing it while on the trip next week as well as reviewing and plotting the upper part of the site in order to place a new business that will support the church and other endeavors in the area.  Below are some pictures of the retaining wall, which is almost completed.  Thanks again to our partners at Rotary International.

 
JEREMIE UNIVERSITY

Just a brief update on this project.  We are almost done with the David Nicholas Chapel.  While we are building the other structures on the campus we will be using this one as both a church and classrooms.  Dony, our President recently finished our first seminary class here with over 120 participants.  We have a few donors interested in helping with this facility so when I get back from Haiti I will be quite busy finishing up the designs and detail drawings so we can develop our estimates.  Please be in prayer that this funding will all come together.  Our desire is to have the university ready to start up in October.

There are so many other activities going on across the country.  This is our busy season hosting short-term teams into Haiti.  Each team is busy doing many different kinds of projects that include such things as medical clinics, Vacation Bible School, small construction activities (lockers, benches, school desks and church pews, gardens, etc.) and many other activities.  Here is a great YouTube video (http://youtu.be/s_9942CdSyo) that Christ Covenant Church from Matthews, NC put together from their recent team that visited some of the ESMI sites in the Sud (South) Department of Haiti.  If your church or group would be interested in sending a short-term team to Haiti then check out our website.

UPCOMING ACTIVITIES

As mentioned earlier in the email, I will be heading down to Haiti next week.  Keep an eye out for my updates.  As mentioned last month then Laura and I will be heading out to California mid-July for a family reunion and my youngest daughter’s wedding in August.  While in California I hope to be meeting with some churches, a couple of partner ministries, and possibly a quick drive to San Luis Obispo to meet with some professors at the university about helping with our work in Haiti.  Please be in prayer for these trips.

FUNDRAISING UPDATE

For those of you that have been following our progress on raising our support we are currently at 45%, which comes to 72% with one-time donations added in.  God is still providing for us on a month-by-month basis and our base of supporters is continuing to grow.  Thank you for your continued prayers and support.

We continue to look to God to provide our support and there looks like some promising opportunities to pull this together in the months ahead.  It will be good to have this in place so that I can devote all of my time to doing the work that I am called to do.

Thanks again for your interest in what we are doing in Haiti.  If at any time you would like to be removed from my mailing list please let me know and I will take you off.

Thanks...

Remember... In all that you do: Walk with God and Follow your Heart!!!
God bless you and have an awesome day!!!
Esse Quam Videri

El Shaddai Ministries International
David B. Short, PMP, SCPM
Projects and Development Director
C: 937-823-0809
H: 937-431-3984
F: 610-887-7103
david.short@esmihaiti.org
www.esmihaiti.org