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We have all just left Light Auditorium in the main street of Carrefour, where our new Vocational training centre was launched on Friday. It’s Sunday. Church is finished. The roads are filled with rocks and boulders, rubbish and burnt tyres. I couldn’t get a photo as it’s still too dangerous. The situation is tense and the nation is in more turmoil than we have experienced ever before. We came back to the mission taking the back streets. We farewelled Ben this morning back to Aus. He has lifted off and is safely on his way home to Aus and family. The team (Aus-USA-Haitian) miss him already. The roads to the airport were not safe for cars so he left with Pastor Regg - each being doubled on motorbikes in the quiet pre-dawn light when the streets are the least troubled. We are all safe... but I am writing this to ask for all that pray, to please pray for Haiti. We love this nation and these beautiful, strong, resilient people so very much but they need our prayers. Now. We are very protected... by prayer, even dreams, by wise decisions and daily, careful, strategic planning. But the people of Haiti... our leaders, families and kids here, continue to suffer from a national government that is both incredibly corrupt and seemingly indifferent to the overwhelming poverty and desperation of the people. So the people are gathering and rioting... crying out. They are angry. They are hungry. They are trying to unsettle the government enough so that they might take notice instead of take bribes. We have been blessed to be so busy with setting up the new Training Centre and spending time with the children and families that we have not wanted to feedback anything but what we are focused on...because what we are doing together with our Haitian leaders here in Carrefour is so important and full of hope and is helping to transform lives ... one family at a time! But over the last few days riots and roadblocks have increased across the nation. And on the very day of the opening of our Training Centre the unrest arrived into our suburb...Carrefour... right outside our building. Hundreds of men on motorbikes and walking, yelling and burning tyres as they created new road blocks... were protesting... trying to have a voice that collectively might be heard... by anyone who will listen. John managed to get some of these photos from the safety of our first floor rooms. I had asked one of the stall owners outside the building earlier that morning what he thought of the rising trouble... His name was Marcus. He spoke a little English. “We are not really scared (of these people who are yelling and throwing rocks).... but we are scared for our businesses which suffer and our children who go hungry again. But what is the answer? Our government won’t listen.” My heart is stirred. I prayed with Marcus. He just watched the people pass as I prayed and his eyes filled with tears. Not sure how much he understood but it didn’t matter. We sat together and nodded together. Later that morning we opened Libellule Training Academy’s first Voctional Sewing Course, 4 mothers came in off the street and took up the last 4 places available. We may have to open a second course immediately... which would be incredible... All these mothers were not able to finish school but now have a chance to join a community where they will be taught to sew, led in basic business principles and family finance management and will contribute with our support to the micro-financing of their own sewing machine (pedal variety) to start their own business by the end of the course. Hope is ignited. Their faces say it all... some smile easily... some can’t believe this might actually come true for their families. So if you pray, the people of Haiti would love your prayers. You are not just praying for them. We are praying with them.
If you have any thoughts or words for them... please write back here and we will pass them all on to our families- translated into Creole. Please pray for Haiti. XO, Cheryl Ward
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Day 5 Haiti Journey: an incredible day! The launch day of our Libellule Training Academy Sewing Course in the new premises on the main street of Carrefour was the same day that the riots rolled into this area for the first time ever! But we were totally safe in the secure building! We were so focused on the Enrolment Ceremony with our 5 Mums from Love Community (LC) and 4 Mums that had walked in off the street, that we didn’t notice much until it after we were finished and had to leave safely with all the mums and all the team!
"Bucket La Distribution"We spent day doing early morning renovations and traveled back to the mission to have lunch and prepare for the monthly Love Family Homes meeting and food bucket distribution. At these monthly meetings, it is our goal for our families to come together into community to learn about different life skills and to find ways to support each other. It was a pleasure to be present this month to witness how Johanne and Yndjy put together each session and prepare every food bucket with their own team. Alyssa, who is living in Haiti for the next few months, is also a big part of Love Family Homes programming, and with love and wisdom, she was not afraid to discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly. It's such a blessing to have a strong team!
The thing is, as a team, our hearts and minds are so focused on all that we are undertaking for the children and families -and amidst all the constant political unrest - that posting takes a back seat...(not to mention the sketchy wifi connectivity). But apologies and here I go catching up from Day 4: HUGE day as we helped Johanne and Yndjy and Alyssa get ready for Love Family Homes Program bucket collection day! Once a month all the families come in to gather as a community, share stories and care and receive their monthly staples food bucket! It was such a privilege to spend time with them all. We have now returned over 30 children out of the orphanage and back into their homes with family! Supporting the families holistically is what we are all about and we passed on love and care from all their wonderful sponsors. Xoxo❤️❤️❤️ Talk to you soon, The Frontier Projects Team (click below for our photo journal) Day 3 Haiti Journey....in a nation full of unrest due to the poverty-stricken people reacting against a corrupt government, we speak, live and pray God’s Peace over families: Haiti’s incredibly beautiful children, mum’s, dad’s, community leaders and the land itself. We visit families on behalf of sponsors (incredible privilege), we are renovating the new building where our Libellule Training Academy will be based (opening FrIday! ...so excited) and we just BE with the people in whatever circumstances they live... offering a helping hand-up not hand-out...through schooling, education, vocational training, food and wellness programs, life-skills and more. These beautiful people inspire us with their positivity, resilience and embracing kindness more than we could possibly inspire them. We are family. Together. With you also who send us, sponsor, support. We are all in this together.
Thank you... Merci beaucoup! #prayforHaiti, The FPH Team (click below for our photo journal) Day 2 Haiti Journey of Transformation: another incredible day for our Haiti/Aus/USA team with beautiful, humble families, leaders, the Paint Gang getting Light Auditorium ready for our opening day of our Libellule Training Academy Sewing School, and most importantly... the children of Love Community Home who sent their love to all their sponsors and to our very-much-missed ambassador, Michael James Crossland! (“Where’s Michael?” the most-asked question). Such a joy... definitely pulls at the heart strings! Lives being transformed.
Love you always, Frontier Projects Team (click below for our photo journal) Day 1 Haiti Journey of Transformation: with full team! Can’t express the gratitude that John and I feel to spend time with these amazing, loving, caring team members from Aus, USA and Haiti. There was more that filled today than we can possibly show... we laughed and cried and visited homes and prayed and painted...and laughed more! Ben visited the mums with Belval Yndjy and Alyssa and I and our awesome driver, Nelly... these mums were told by Ben that are now being invited to start their first training at Libellule Training Academy... in our Big New premises!!! Haha! God is so good! John and Robin and Laurie painted, and painted again(😆) the new building. We saw first hand God touching lives as Mums and families, in one-room homes, with few pieces of furniture but always offering us the best to sit and share.... hear that they were invited into training that will change their lives.... due to the support of From Zion led by Ben and Jasmin (back in Aus...love you Jassy)... very humbling! A blessed day!
Be blessed and honored, The FP Team <3 (click below for our photo journals) First three days in Haiti with John, Laurie and Alyssa before the rest of team arrive today and it’s been planning meetings with key leaders Reginald, Johanne, Belval Yndjy and Merline, Visiting the new premises for Libellule Training Academy ... in its second year and we have just moved to the new facilities as we launch the From Zion sponsored Sewing course- where we are training Love Community Mums in sewing so they can have a vocation they’ve only dreamed about! Such a privilege to love our leaders, trainers, house-parents and Reginald and Johanne who created and who lead these programs here. And so thankful for Michael, who shares the dream and their stories constantly, making it all possible! Way more photos to come as soon as the team gets here!
Love always, The Frontier Projects Team (click below for our photo journal)  FROM ZION is partnering with FRONTIER PROJECTS to bring a vocational Sewing Program to LIBELLULE TRAINING ACADEMY in Carrefour, Haiti, October, 2019! We have planned to sponsor five mothers into the program in an attempt to help change their lives by finding new ways to provide for their families.
Haiti Journey 2019 underway! So excited to be heading off with these amazing souls! All bags packed! Alyssa already in Haiti, meeting Laurie in Paris on the way... Ben, Robin, Jim leaving in a couple of days! Blessings and thanks to all who have given and sponsored, who are praying and are with us in spirit...! Can’t wait to see our Haiti family and kids! Blessed!
Bouvier Mountain community, a six-hour trek deep into the mountains behind Haiti’s capitol of Port au Prince, can be described as a microcosm of all the ills of Haitian rural society: rampant poverty, endemic unemployment, illiteracy, non-existent public services and schooling, and families trying to eke out an existence through simple farming amidst often unsanitary living conditions. Smoky air fills thatched residences. Many Haitians do not have access to electricity or gas stoves for cooking. Most families cook using biomass fuels such as charcoal that release harmful smoke into the air. They often cook inside their unventilated dwellings or temporary tents where this harmful smoke is trapped. According to the World Health Organisation, Haitians suffer many of the highest rates of cardiovascular diseases and cancer in the world. We are pleased to share that we have an incredible staff that has dedicated so much of their time to making this school run smoothly and effectively. We want to introduce you to them!
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