Blog - Haitian Children's Home: HCH Mangine update, July 2010

Hello friends,

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 7^th 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.