We've had a lot of sad days in Jacmel lately. You've heard about a few of them. Unfortunately, I have to let you know about a few more.
Last Thursday, Danny showed up with the police and impounded all of Joy in Hope's vehicles. He went to Mikey and Georgette's and did the same. He did these because the Joy in Hope vehicles are title in his name. We've been without our vehicles since that day and have scrambled to do our regular shopping and to get our kids to church.
Today is another sad day. In order to get our vehicles back we have been advised we have to take legal action against Danny and this is something we never wanted to do. One of the biggest disappointments for me is that we are may be forced to take all the vehicles back, including the vehicles we have allowed Danny to continue using since his termination and desire to gift to him permanently. Even though there is nothing we can do about these legal realities, I assure you that we will work as quickly as possible to get all the vehicles titled correctly and get the proper paperwork in place to be able to return the vehicles to Danny's family.
Please pray the Danny will not use this as an opportunity to attack us publicly. We are trying desperately to walk with integrity, but our reputation and our livelihood are put at risk every time he writes another attacking email/post.
Please pray that we will be able to move past these things soon, and get back to the work that God is doing through Joy in Hope.
We were recently informed that our personal email list of financial and prayer supporters was accessed by the Pye family and that an email with untrue, inflammatory information about our family was spread around. We are so sorry. We grieve this and we hope to explain more soon. But until then, please read the statement below, and feel free to contact Nick at nick@joyinhope.org if you have any questions.
**
These past few weeks have been some of the hardest we’ve ever dealt with. Not just from a ministry perspective, but from a LIFE perspective.
I have been largely silent on the issue of the change of leadership in Joy in Hope/Haitian Children’s Home as I’ve felt a prompting to “rise above” the untrue and hurtful things that were being said about my family, specifically my husband. But I can be silent no more and feel I must explain the tensions we’re currently walking in.
Here are some of the facts of the issue for all you “facts people.” I want to go into more detail, but I am unsure of what I can legally share.
1. After what the Board of Directors decided to be a series of “irreconcilable breaches of trust” (I am tired of that expression, but it’s all I can give you now) with Danny Pye, he was removed from a leadership capacity in Joy in Hope/Haitian Children's Home. This occurred August 29, 2010. The full intention of the Board was to keep Danny and Leann in their roles as houseparents and give them a hiatus from responsibilities to spend time intentionally building their family and marriage.
2. Between August 29 and Sept 3, there was another series of events/discoveries that lead the Board to decide to remove Danny and Leann as houseparents. A generous bridge of support was offered to the Pyes, but as of yet, has not been accepted.
3. Nick stepped into the role as “acting director” from a Haiti side until a new director can be found.
4. Since this has happened, we’ve received 8 death threats resulting in us having to increase security, and confine ourselves and kids to secured areas (ie- traveling with armed guards, etc.)
5. Since this has happened, the birth certificates of 5 of our Haitian children have been held hostage by a Joy in Hope employee who was terminated.
Here’s a few of the feelings we’re feeling as we process all of this:
1. We are sad. We are so sad. I have cried myself to sleep a half a dozen times in the past two weeks. I have cried (like really cried-- the UGLY cry) every single day.
2. We are scared. We are scared for our safety. We are scared for our future. We are scared because we don’t live in a place where justice always reigns.
3. We are anxious. I didn’t eat for three days after this all went down. I have had constant diarrhea. My hair is falling out. I have a mouth full of canker sores. I am trying to "turn all of these anxieties into prayers," as the Christian in me knows I should, but it is very overwhelming.
4. We are angry. We are angry that we’ve been lied to and we are hurting. We are angry that lies are being spread about our family within the community.
Here is what we know:
1. God is on the throne. His plan will prevail even through this.
2. Building our family here in Haiti remains the only reason we stay here to endure this. We love all 10 of our children with a forever love that keeps us walking on as we fill roles we never wanted or intended to fill. God promises not to leave us as orphans in John 14:18. That is why we were created-- to walk in family with God. That is what we cling to as we trudge through this.
I know I always start my updates this way, but wow, HAITI IS HOT. I keep telling myself that we're halfway through the summer, but wow, October seems a long way off. (For the record, September is just about as brutal as August here, so you probably have at least one more month of my complaints.)
Our schedule has been jam packed for the last month with a lot of really neat things happening. My mom ("Mama Nana" as my kids have come to call her), a sign language interpreter, came for a visit and started a program where she has taught several deaf students in Jacmel how to make seaglass jewelry and is helping them sell them to support themselves and the ministry of Joy in Hope. She also taught our kids some basic sign language classes and had them perform a song, "Shout to the Lord" in church. Since her first trip here, my mom has had a heart for the large deaf community in Jacmel, and it's neat to see her reaching out to a community who has been largely marginalized here in Haiti.
Along with my mom came our longtime friend, Israel. He is a photography/art student in college and came down to help us document our lives a bit and take sponsorship photos for our kids. Our staff also had some portraits done, which was great fun for them too.
The next week Joy in Hope hosted a vacation bible school in Jacmel in a new location. I am not sure what the final count was, but it was a big hit. Nick and I actually had very little to do with this VBS, and our newest team members, John and Jennifer Hancock really stepped up and jumped in with both feet. It's great having them here!
After that Nick and I had the pleasure of hosting a two person team from our home church, Crosspointe. Two of the pastors came down to visit and just sort of minister to our souls. It's been the first time we've really been able to connect since the earthquake, and the time was precious to us. We continue to love and miss our community at Crosspointe, and are looking forward to visiting in November.
Nick and I accompanied that Crosspointe team back to the states where we headed straight to Indianapolis for a week. Nick and I got to attend the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit, meet with our counselors, speak at a couple of churches, visit with some friends and eat WAY too much. One of the big purposes behind this trip was to make a connection with a counselor who specializes in attachment issues in children. This was excellent time for Nick and I and we walked away not just with some great take aways, but the potential for an ongoing relationship with someone who really does understand what it means to parent at-risk children. We'd like to publicly thank Danny and Leann for watching our 3 American kids and Anise and Frantzo (a couple from our church and long time Joy in Hope team members) for watching our 7 Haitian kids.
The day after getting back to Haiti we had a joint team come in from Florida and llinois. They came to help repair and paint the earthquake damage to the Pye's home. While we were blessed to be able to spend some time with this team, again we want to thank our team members (the Hancocks and the Rigels) for diving in and getting the work done.
While this team was here, Joy in Hope FINALLY received our container of supplies from the United States. This was after about 5 of hard work and determination from volunteer, Cheri McDonald. She did an amazing job filling the container and getting it shipped to Haiti for free! We were able to get a great deal on purchasing the actual container, where it now sits on our land where it will serve as a construction depot.
Meanwhile, Pwoje Konekte continues to grow. We've had an overwhelming response and have been able to expand the diaper distribution part of the project to 90 families per week. All of the day to day operations have been put into the hands of Haitian staff. Things ran very smoothly during our absence. Several families from Pinchinat have been moved to a new, better planned camp. We're now working in both places as we try to determine where we can fill in the most gaps. The Konekte project has become even more personal to us lately as we've agreed to help a friend foster Edwinson, one of our favorite Pinchinat babies as she works him through health issues resulting from severe neglect and malnutrition. Having a baby around the house these past few days has been fun for everyone. Konekte has been and continues to be a very satisfying way to serve the community, but it's exciting to me that it can now run completely independent of me.
Wow, just reading through all of this made me a little dizzy. We have been busy. (In addition to all of this, my computer was stolen, and I am just working on an Ipad while I await the delivery of my new laptop-- (thanks again Crosspointe.) I am so sorry to be behind on emails again. I assure you I am slowly but surely getting them answered.
In the midst of all the travel and the teams and the projects, we continue to love our first calling the most--our family. Our kids are growing and thriving. They continue to test boundaries and act out at times, but they also are learning to grow in love and trust with us more each day. I am so proud of them and I cannot imagine what my life would be like without each one of them. I don't have any idea when our family might grow again. It could be tomorrow, it could be next year. That's kind of exciting and terrifying all at the same time. But we know that because of the Lord, our team, our amazing family, friends and supporters, we're not in this alone. Thank you for your faithfulness in support and prayer so we get to live this life. It's harder than we ever imagined, but more fulfilling than we ever dreamed.
With an ever-grateful heart,
Gwenn for the entire Mangine crew
Nick, Gwenn, Nia, Nico, Josiah, Fritzie, Jean Louis, Yves, Jerry, Sanndi, Prisca, Wildarne
(and Ann David, Felecia, Hugues and Esther too!)
Remember, you can also get more connected to us at:
Our blog- www.mangine.org
Our facebooks: Joy in Hope, Nick Mangine, Gwenn Goodale Mangine
Email: nick@joyinhope.org, gwenn@joyinhope.org
Here are a few pics-- sorry there aren't more... my computer was stolen!
We’re into the real heat of summer here in Haiti and I keep reminding myself that if I can get through the next month and a half, it starts to be downhill from here.That being said, we still have the hottest month and a half ahead of us. In times like this, when it’s very hot, its prudent to try to schedule wisely, to do physical work necessary as much as possible before the sun rises and after it sets, and to try to do nothing but sit still with a fan on you during the heat of the day. ; )I watch my kids playing soccer and riding bikes in the blistering heat of mid-day and I just don’t know how they do it!They certainly keep me on my toes.
A lot of big and exciting things have happened in our home since my last update, our family and our ministry.The most exciting news is that our family has grown yet again when welcomed Sandy into our family.She is newly 9 years old, having just celebrated her birthday on July 11.Sandy has a sad and troubled past and it is our honor to welcome her into our family and our prayer that the process of redemption will begin in her heart.
Another huge labor of love over the past few weeks has been the official launch of Pwojè Konekte (The Connection Project) which is our attempt to try to help our community in this post-quake reality, specifically focusing on Pinchinat, the main refugee camp in Jacmel.We focus on distributing diapers to 60 families in the camp each week.We also have nurse rounds, focusing on community health, referrals to medical clinics in the area and hospital transport.Just this past week we hired a local pastor to visit the residents of Pinchinat—to pray with them and just offer counsel to them from a spiritual perspective.The goal of this project is just to connect people to services (medical and otherwise) already being offered in the community.It has a very individual focus and we’re trying to get to know the individual families and hear their stories so we can meet them where they are.
This project became very personal this past month when we fostered a little boy named Edwinson in our home for two weeks.He was very sick, with what we finally determined was typhoid.We had a few close calls with him, two nights we had to rush him to the hospital with fevers of over 105.He was finally admitted, and after a week in the hospital was doing much better.However, shortly after returning “home” to Pinchinat, he started getting sick again.Earlier this week, his young mom, Carmeta, took him to Les Kay to seek a voudou treatment for him.This is obviously not how I hoped this story would play out.Please pray for Edwinson and for Carmeta.I haven’t talked to them in nearly a week and I miss them.
The end of June was Haitian Father’s Day.It was fun to watch the kids crowd around Nick for a photo and think back to where we were in our family last father’s day.The addition of 7 new kids into a family in a year is quite an adjustment, but it has brought us so much joy.
The beginning of July brought with it Nia’s 7th birthday.She’s growing up very quickly and amazes us every day with her kind, compassionate heart.She’s giving and empathetic and a truly grateful kid.(And she speaks Kreyol better than Nick and I do!)
Thank you for your support.Thank you for sticking with us through the hard times.Thank you for bearing with us when our lives are full of drama.We can only do what we do here because of your faithfulness to partner with us in the sacrificial way that you give.We love Haiti and the life we get to live here.We love our children and our “jobs” here.Please continue keeping us in your prayers as we labor together to serve our community.
Much love to you,
Gwenn Mangine
Sandy shows us her birthday presents.
Pwojè Konekte nurse, Jacqueline, does rounds at Pinchinat
Baby Edwinson at the hospital
Nick and the kids on Haitian Father's Day (minus Sandy who wasn't with us at this point)
Gwenn and Edwinson with the other kids at the Raymond land
For all of you who follow on my blog (www.mangine.org) or on facebook, you know I am frequent writer. I enjoy knowing that I am doing all I can to keep my friends and family “there” in touch with what’s going on “here.” Thanks for being readers. It is great. Also, let me tell you how excellent it was to meet to many people during our sabbatical that told me that you’re followers of the blog. It was actually kind of hilarious because it seems no matter where we went, we had someone “recognize” us—whether it was the mall, the bagel shop or at the park. It was a hoot. We got a kick out of it. So thanks for coming up and introducing yourselves and encouraging us. During a time like this your encouragement has been so key.
All of this to say, I realize that since the quake while I feel like I’ve tried to keep people in the loop in terms of casual communication, I’ve not done a great job with “formal” communication. It’s been hard to talk about things in a more structured way as it requires much more brain energy, something I find myself a bit deficient in lately. So I thought I’d take some time today to give you a formal update somewhat Christmas letter style.
In terms of the Mangine 5, we just returned from a nearly 3 week sabbatical to the states. It was a refreshing time of rest and an excellent opportunity to connect with friends and family with no pressure.
Our Haitian kids seem to be doing well.
Fritzie (15) is really transforming into a beautiful and servant-hearted young woman. She’s matured so much in these past 6 months, really transforming from a little girl to a lovely young lady. She has a happy spirit and we have been praying for ways that we can help get her more connected with children her own age as she’s significantly older than our other children. She’s going to start youth group at church tomorrow. Wow. I have a kid in youth group. !?!
Jean Louis (12) is our comic. He’s a riot, or, a better way to say it is that he THINKS he’s a riot. He’s very conscientious, a hard worker and good in school. He and I have developed a special friendship- I think it’s because we are both energetic (read: loud.) His energy used to drive me a little crazy, but we are learning how to channel it into useful projects for him.
Yves, (12) our newest child has only been with us for about a month or so, and much of that was time we were in the states. However, we’ve been very intentional about giving him individual time both before we left and since we’ve been back. He is our only child who really experienced heavy trauma in the earthquake, having his home fall, his guardians killed and experiencing life as an orphan in a refugee camp. This week Nick and I took him out for a “date” and just talked about what it was like to be in the quake, how he feels these days, how he’s fitting in in the family, etc. It’s really going well. One of the things he likes to do is visit Pinchinat (the local refugee camp) so he can see the family he stayed with after his family was killed. I like to visit Pinchinat too, so I often bring him with me.
Jerry, 8, lives with great fluctuations. He’s endearing and sweet. But he’s also got a very hard, angry side to him. We’ve seen a lot of his tantrums subside, but he still struggles with wild tantrums occasionally. This week we pulled Jerry out of school for the rest of the school year. He’s not been doing well, has been acting out a lot and it’s clear he needs more individual attention. I am going to home school him (with the help of my staff) for the rest of the school year and then give it a go again next school year. Jerry and Yves have become good friends, although being the “little brother,” Jerry often finds himself the butt of Yves and Jean Louis’ pranks. Thankfully, he’s a good sport.
Prisca (7) is great. She likes anything girly and continues to long to be more grown up. One of the main things we want to do in our family is provide a place where children can be children, so in some ways this concerns Nick and I. We’re diligent about reminding her that she’s a child. She does very well in school and shows a lot of imitative with her school work. She’s fun to be around and a great dancer.
Wildarne (6) is our baby girl. Completely opposite from her sister (Prisca), she’s very interested in little girl things. She’s the most likely one to be playing with her doll or with a Barbie. She plays imaginative games both by herself and along with Nia. Wilarne struggles with being truthful at times, but she is making progress. She’s cuddly and adorable and just cute.
Our staff is doing pretty good for the most part, but they have started to express some of the fear and grief they are feeling about the earthquake. Nick and I are trying to figure out ways to love them and provide a place to talk about these things as well as encouraging them to get back to doing pre-quake activities they were interested in like Bible studies, singing with the choir, etc. I continue to do English classes twice weekly with my staff. It’s been a nice time. I used to dread class because it was just this other THING I had to do. But I wanted to do something nice for the staff, so even though I didn’t have a good attitude, I did it anyway. That has changed. Now, I’ve come to enjoy it and it has helped form a better friendship between us. I also think it’s helping me with my Kreyol.
Thank you, as always, for your faithful support. As we get back to normal, we are trying to be extra intentional spend extra time with our family to help replace the time we were extra occupied during the two months following the quake. We are re-learning how to eat Haitian food all the time, sit down with our kids for meals, have regular devotions and just BE A FAMILY together. When you have so many children, just being a family is a full-time job, and I am trying to embrace the stay-at-home part of being a stay-at-home mom. The more I do it, the more I love it. This is not possibly without YOU! So thank you. You are helping these children really, truly experience redemption.
With an ever-grateful heart,
Gwenn for the entire Mangine Crew
Nick, Gwenn, Nia, Nico, Josiah
Fritzie, Prisca, Wildarne, Jean Louis, Jerry, Yves
Nahomie, Esther, Hugues, Anndavid + Felicia
Yves (far right) visits some of his friends at Pinchinat.
Wildarne, being her sassy little self.
Prisca, collecting sea glass
Jerry, a bit contemplative
Jean Louis (and Hugues) show us the new shelves they made.
*** Sorry for the delay in updates. Life has taken a hard and unexpected turn since the January 12th earthquake.***
Friends, family and faithful supporters,
Wow. Where to begin? In less than one minute of time one month ago, our entire lives changed. It’s hard to think about how to compress all this into a page. I guess I should start by saying that we are so thankful for God’s protection on our family and our organization. You’ve probably all seen the pictures in the news—the fact that we made it through with not only our lives, but with no injuries and our houses standing is a miracle.
The afternoon of the January 12 my whole family and all of our staff were at home. I had come home from working outside the home and was tired so I went upstairs to take a nap. While I was laying there, I heard a noise beginning that sounded like a big truck dumping a load of rocks. Loud noises around here are nothing new so I just disregarded it but then the whole house started shaking. And I jumped up and started running. And by shaking I mean rolling beneath my feet. Rolling such that I could barely walk because it was tossing me over. My first thought was not earthquake. My first thought was that our house was collapsing. That happens sometimes randomly in Haiti—these huge block buildings will collapse due to poor construction. I thought that’s what was happening. And the thought passed through my mind, “I am probably about to die.” I ran outside and down the stairs, trembling with fear. I grabbed my children to me and tried to make sure that we were all accounted for, still not sure what had happened.
It was Nick who first said, “Wow, we had an earthquake.” Up until then it didn’t register. And then when it did, my ears opened to the wails of those around me on the street. I vividly remember making a conscious choice to push the fear aside and clicking my head into go mode. And for the most part, that’s where we’ve lived since.
I could spend time briefing you on all we’ve done, but truthfully, you can follow the day by day chronicled events on my blog: www.mangine.org. You’ve seen the pictures on the news, so to tell you that our city is broken would be redundant also. (Incidentally, we have received quite a bit of media coverage of what’s going on here in Jacmel. My cousin is compiling a bunch of the articles on a blog you can check out here- http://manginehaiti.blogspot.com/) if that interests you.
What I’d like spend the rest of the time telling you about is how we’re doing now—a month later. The truth is, how we’re doing changes from day to day. Actually, sometimes it changes from moment to moment. Our heart grieves for this country we love and now call home. The latest I heard is 212,000 are now confirmed dead. In a country of 7-8 million people, that’s an excruciating number to absorb. Our own little city of Jacmel, we’ve lost nearly 10% of our population. At other times, we’re incredibly inspired and in awe of the spirit of the Haitian people. They are strong and tenacious. They grieve and rebuild at the same time. I’ve never seen anything like it.
From a spiritual perspective, we are in a time where most of us on our team feel pretty spiritually dry. It’s hard to see God here with us at times, but we know he’s there. As you think about us and pray for us in the following days and weeks and months to come, please pray for us. I have spent days on this update trying to think about what to ask you to pray for, but the truth is, I just don’t know. So much is happening that writing out a bullet list of needs just seems like something that would be unending. It seems so daunting, and not something I can wrap my mind around. So please just pray as the spirit leads you to lead for us.
It’s customary for me to close my updates with a thank you for all of the ways you have supported us. As you are probably not surprised to hear, there’s been an increase of financial support coming in through Joy in Hope lately to help us our communities in this disaster. For this, we are so very thankful. However, I am even more grateful to all of you, our regular supporters, who have always been there for us, giving generously and sacrificially from the beginning, in a PRE-earthquake Haiti. Your commitment to us before this tragedy encourages us and helps us believe that there are people who will be in it with us once the story completely disappears from the news.
We love you. We’re thankful for you. We need your support and encouragement, but mostly your prayers.
This has been, without exception, THE craziest year in the life of the Mangine Family. Rather than a clever and wordy update about what happened, (because my brain is too fried to do clever and wordy), I thought I'd let the pictures and captions do the talking for me...
Enjoy our year!
JANUARY
The Mangine Family, January 2009.
The year began with a wedding! My sister(ish) Jenny got married to Melody's brother-in-law, Josh. It was a great wedding and a fun time to celebrate with the family. And, of course, licking the chocolate fondue fountain made things memorable. (Disclaimer-- we didn't ACTUALLY lick it...) January brought us some snow! That was fun for our kids, knowing they were headed for a snow-free life!
FEBRUARY
Knowing the chaos about to come, Nick and I tried very hard to spend GOOD, QUALITY time with our kids... Here's Nick and Nia all gussied up for the "Daddy Daughter Ball"
And me and Nico, ready for our Mother/Son movie night-- SPIDERMAN!
And I did crazy-extreme things back then to connect with my kids, like hold them... (sarcasm alert!)
MARCH
We made some initial good-bye trips-- here we were saying goodbye to Nana's house and all the cousins there...
At Crosspointe, the kids sent us off well with tons of supplies for the orphanage! I miss these kids! We headed out to Colorado for missionary training at MTI-- what an amazing experience for our family. And we of course spent some awesome time with downtown Andrew Brown... had my first of many melt-downs when saying goodbye. (Hey Andrew-- WHEN are you coming for a visit???)
APRIL
If you recall, this is the month we moved to Haiti-- but not until the very end of it! Prior to that, I headed down to Haiti with my mom, my sister, and Nia and a team of people who went down to help get our house ready. Unfortunately that house fell through, but we still had a great week working together. We had many, many tearful goodbyes-- including to these people-- our very much loved and missed life group. And we're here in Haiti! We jumped right into the tasks at hand, and into our new community!
MAY
May hit us hard and fast. I experienced a fun little bit of Haitian culture early on when I took some of Danny's kids to Haitian motocross. I laughed harder than I have ever laughed when this team came in two weeks after us moving here. We moved to Port Au Prince to start language school. And we spent a lot of time in the hospital with my Danny and Leann's son, Woody, after his accident. I love that kid.
JUNE
Our family took a day trip to Wahoo Bay! Great (overpriced) beach. Great food. Had a cultural "experience" when Nahomie prepared chicken feet for us. We finally moved to Jacmel into short-term house... it was great.
JULY
Our kids were scarred for life when they saw a goat they "knew" butchered and his head boiled in a pot for soup. We spent a lot of time with a couple street kids-- pictured here is Jocelyn. We visited Nico's old orphanage in TiMache... Here's Nico with his former preschool teacher, Jean. On the same trip, I got to FINALLY meet in person my long-time friend, Vivian!
AUGUST
VBS Chabin was a huge success in August! We discovered that we had been flim flammed on the purchase of a "new" mattress that was NOT, in fact, new. In a frustrated state, I chopped Josiah's pacifier in two-- and we became a pacifier-free home! Fritzie, our first HCH Mangine child joined our family! What a great day that was!
SEPTEMBER
School started in September. And Prisca and Wildarne became part of the Mangine family!
Bigsby, our puppy, joined our family too!
OCTOBER
October was a crazy month-- had a great Crosspointe music team come, followed by my mom visiting. I got to attend my first birth in October. This is Anise. And this is Max, my godson, the product of her labor! We ended the month by receiving our Haitian residency-- JUST IN TIME!
NOVEMBER
The beginning of November was our furlough. We saw tons of family... and friends! While we were gone our beloved puppy, Bigsby died... we still miss him! We arrived home to meet our newest son-- Jean Louis!
DECEMBER
We started the month with RIDICULOUS water problems...
That situation became much better when we moved into our BEAUTIFUL NEW HOUSE!
We welcomed Jerry into our family.
It was a great Christmas including a visit from Nick's parents!
