Conference encourages Non-government Organizations to use Haitian Companies

Junior Bataille translates

According to recent statistics, less than 2% of relief monies has been spent through Haitian companies. This means that Haitian companies that could help NGO’s reach their objectives are not getting the business. Partners Worldwide, a Christian organization we partner with, held a one-day conference on March 25th to try and play match-maker between NGO’s and Haitian companies. Junior Bataille translated between French, Creole and English. Daniel Jean-Louis organized the conference, and I networked to find out what kinds of businesses successful Haitian companies are engaged in.

Visit to Venita's house

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You may remember Venita and her baby Sarah. This is the Mom and Baby that stayed with us for about 3 months after the earthquake. First she found out that her son was still alive, and then she finally got in touch with her husband and older daughter who had fled to the Dominican Republic after the earthquake.

Now they are living in a small shack on some property owned by their family. It is way up on one of the mountains surrounding Port-au-Prince. Just a 30 minute climb in a car takes you to an area surrounded by scrub trees and practically desolate. The main industry is digging into the side of the mountain for sand and rock that is used in construction in the city down below.

Please pray that we would find culturally correct ways to help this family!

Amputee Soccer Team sings at Quisqueya Chapel

I met this weekend with Pastor Evens of the AHFA board and also 8 players from the team. Pastor Evens informs me that 3 out of the 5 board members are essentially inactive and that the team has practiced only once or twice since returning to Haiti.

I met with the 8 players on Saturday to rehearse two songs that we were to sing at the church I attend on Sunday. However, Sunday was election day, so only 3 of the 8 could come and sing. With me singing we made a nice quartet! People responded very positively and after church we sold snacks and raised over $100 US, which is enough to pay for 1-2 practices.

I also found out that since their return to Haiti, at least 2 babies have been born to members of the team.

Please pray for the team as they face many challenges both personally and as a team.

Election Day in Haiti

Today is the runoff election for President of Haiti. The polls are open and the lines are long. But in at least one large tent city, there is no polling place.

Pray for safety. Last night Wyclef Jean, a rap star who tried to run for president but was ineligible, was shot in the hand. The car he and other entertainers were in was shot at. He is OK. He has been living in the US but is in Haiti to support one of the candidates. We don't really know if this had anything to do with the election per se.

Other than this, it has been very calm here the last few days.

UPDATE: many polling areas are waiting for materials, although they were supposedly open at 6am.

We're on our way to church (don't worry it's not far) to pray for the elections and worship God. Richard is worship leader this morning.

Elections calm

The elections were calm. It will be a couple weeks before we get the results. If we get through tomorrow OK, things could be peaceful until then. We'll see.

God has prepared GOOD DEEDS for us to do in Haiti (and for you to do, too, wherever you are)!

Davidson and his Grandmother

Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Perhaps you’ve heard the story of the Dad who came in from shoveling snow and saw his son watching TV. He said to his son “You know, you probably won’t remember what your watching on TV tomorrow, but today you have a chance to do something you will probably remember your whole life. Why don’t you see if you can shovel widow Smith’s driveway and get back home before she knows who did it? The young boy did the job, Mrs. Smith never found out who did it, and both the father and son never forgot that good deed. Neither did God, because he is the one who created that young boy to do that good work!

The other day the bell at our gate rang, and I mentally complained about another interruption to my day. I walked up the stairs to see who it was, and was surprised to see Davidson at the gate. Davidson is a boy about 11 years old who used come and watch us play soccer in our driveway. I had not seen him for several years, but still recognized his features. I asked him what he wanted and he said he would like to go to school, but didn’t have the money to pay for it.

It turns out that he hadn’t gone to school since his father died on Sept. 11, 2008 at 32 years old. He had never learned to read and was just basically wandering around doing nothing all day under the loose supervision of his Aunt. His Mother had two children by another man, and as is often the case in Haitian society, the step-father was not interested in taking care of children his wife had had by another man. So Davidson lived with his grandmother.

I was busy, and of course there are thousands of children just like Davidson in Haiti, but the Holy Spirit prompted me to take this young man over to a local private school and talk to the school director about his situation. I had a good relationship with the teacher, “Mèt Johnny” (Maitre Johnny) since I had given his school some sports equipment. It turns out that Mèt Johnny knew Davidson’s father and was willing to give him a full scholarship for the rest of the school year. All I had to do was purchase a few books and give him some school supplies.

Later, Davidson and his Grandmother came to see me to thank me for helping him get into school. It turns out that she is deaf and does not know sign language, and it was quite comical trying to communicate with her. We laughed a lot, but she has led a very hard life. Out of her 3 children, only one was still alive. Her husband was not around, either due to death or desertion, and now she was raising her grandson. In addition, her house was partly destroyed by the earthquake. She said she would be homeless by now, but she owns her house and land, and so they are living in the one room of her house that is still standing.

She was thrilled that we got her grandson into school, and I realized that this was another “good work” that had been prepared by God for us to do.

This week there have been several other “good deeds”. One was taking a woman and her mother to the airport after their car had broken down on a mountain pass we were on. I had to change my plans for the day, but we got to share some Christian literature with the woman and give her a Bible story book for her children.

Then there was the 10 year old boy who ripped the tip of his toe off playing soccer. I was waiting outside a friend’s house and saw the boy limping and in pain. I sat him up on the back of my pickup and took a look at it. It looked like it needed stitches, so I asked the Haitian workmen who were with me if they knew his house. They said they did, and so we went and talked to his mother. She said she had no money and had to stay at her house and could not take him to a clinic, so we took him with a friend of his, and later found out that the doctor said he did not need stitches. (Possibly because it was in a place where stitches would be very difficult to do.)

So these days I wake up excited about what “Good Deeds” God has prepared for me to do. I know they will most likely be interruptions, but that is OK.

What “Good deeds” do you feel God would have you do today? It could be as simple as making a phone call, or sending an e-mail to encourage someone. It could be stopping to help a stranded motorist. Just be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and see how He leads you. I guarantee it’s a lot more interesting than watching T.V.!

Isidor and Joanne

We finally got to meet Isidor’s wife! We invited them over on a Sunday afternoon for dinner and had a lovely time with them and Francoise and her children. Isidor was the man I helped at the hospital the night of the earthquake. We kept in touch and he is the one who helped to build Francoise’s house.

Please pray for them as they would like to have another child, after the tragedy of loosing their 8 day old baby during the earthquake.

Soccer tournaments in Verettes & Leogane

We are currently holding evangelistic soccer tournaments in Verettes and Leogane. In Verettes, the tournament includes some public schools that we gave equipment to last summer when the “Right to Play” team from Canada was visiting. The final of this tournament will be March 31st.

In Leogane the tournament is just getting started. In talking to Pastor Guillaume, we heard an encouraging story. One of the older players involved in AIS Haiti is now playing on a First Division team. He is 17 years old. He was asked to play on the Haitian national team, but they wanted to falsify his birth certificate so he could play on a younger team. As a Christian, he refused to do this, and so was not selected.

This is the kind of Christian morals that we are trying to instill in the over 1,000 boys we are working with!

Rich and the Big Fish!

I’m always a few years behind in my reading and movie watching, so it didn’t bother me that I just read Soul Surfer, the story of Bethany Hamilton’s recovery from a shark attack where she lost her left arm. Her story of getting back on the surf board after her attack reminded me of how I had to work at recovering from my gunshot wound so that I could play soccer and basketball again.

I never thought that snorkeling would remind me of her story. After all, the biggest fish I usually see snorkeling in the clear Caribbean water in Haiti are about the size of a bird. On this particular day I had seen an interesting, long, thin fish that reminded me of a pencil, as well as a tiny little fish whose head was deep purple, and whose body was bright yellow.

As I was heading back into shore, I suddenly saw a really BIG fish out of the corner of my eye, and suddenly remembered Bethany’s story. I turned and thankfully saw it swimming away from me, and I wasn’t about to chase it and find out what kind of fish it was. I’m not sure if it was some kind of shark, or a type of swordfish common to the area called a “Wahoo”. In any event, it definitely scared me, and I swam as fast as I could to the shore, constantly looking over my shoulder to see if it was chasing me!

The Sad State of Soccer in Haiti

Two soccer games this week indicate the sad state of soccer in Haiti.

One was an adult game, and another was between two Christian schools here in Port-au-Prince.

Each Thursday night I join with about 24 men from the professional class in Haiti to play 6-a-side soccer. These men are all businessmen, doctors, lawyers, and artists, who are well known in Haiti. During the day they are dressed in suits and ties they are making important decisions; and even when they are under a lot of pressure, they have to act professionally.

But something happens when they put on shorts and a soccer jersey. They revert to when they were boys playing in their neighborhoods. They tease each other when they miss a shot, they make fun of how someone dribbles and they laugh at each other’s antics. They waste a lot of time arguing over hand balls, penalty shots, and blaming each other for letting the other team score a goal. And, I would say, take everything a little too seriously. You would think it was the World Cup the way they go at it!

Of course, teasing is viewed differently in different cultures and there is room for friendly teasing, but where do you draw the line?

During the last game, things got out of hand and a player and the goalie got into a fist fight (yes, two guys on the same team) when the goalie missed blocking an easy shot from mid-field. I was closest to them, and tried to break it up, but could not do it alone, so others came to help me. This stopped the play for the evening and we all went home disappointed that this had happened.

In another game this week, between two Christian schools, there were so many fouls committed that the lone referee could not control the game. He would have had to have called a foul every minute. They were literally wrapping their arms around the opposing player on corners and holding them so they could not move. They were tripping, and pulling jerseys, etc. – basically doing anything they could to get the advantage over another player – and these where supposedly students from Christian Schools!

In addition to the rough play on the field, there were flagrant violations of the tournament rules. For instance, the teams were supposed to be made up of players who were 18 or younger, but some were in their twenties. Then one of the teams had brought in two players who did not even go to their school! This is really sad because it is the coach’s responsibility to abide by the rules.

This game was part of a soccer tournament that was held at Quisqueya Christian School so after the game I got the organizers of the tournament together with the players and coaches to discuss the game and rule violations. First I asked anyone on the teams involved to raise their hands if they were over 18. Not a single one raised their hands, even though we know there were several who were above that age. Then the one team cited the two players who did not attend the other school. This turned into a circus with each coach hurling accusations at the other, even after it became evident that one of the teams had used players that were not from their school. There was no remorse, only attempts to justify their actions, such as “You have sinned just as much as we did”, etc.

The saddest part is that these are Christian Schools, and all of this arguing happened in front of the players. What example did this set for these young men?
Although this is not what we always see, it is unfortunately very common. And, judging from the World Cup games, Haiti is not the only country where this occurs. Americans can be found fighting, at least verbally over peewee soccer games. And I also, at times, lose my temper…..

What do these two stories tell us about soccer in Haiti? Do anything you can to win! All’s fair in love and soccer! Winning is everything!

This is so ingrained in the psyche of the Haitian soccer player that even when they are older and just playing a “friendly” match, they still argue, foul and even end up in fist-fights. Proverbs 22:6 says “Teach a child in the way they should go, and when they are old they will not depart from it.” Unfortunately, this goes for negative behavior as well as positive behavior! It’s so important for us teach and model good character from a young age.

This attitude is also seen in business in Haiti where competitors are sometimes threatened of killed, or their stores robbed or destroyed. Sports often reflect a microcosm of society at large. (This is the theory of the bestseller “How Soccer Explains the World”)

So as you can see, Ambassadors in Sport – Haiti needs to not only teach soccer skills in Haiti, but also change the way Haitians view the game and life…that Christianity is not about how you act on Sunday morning, a major part of it is about how you treat everyone every day. And children need to learn that how you treat others should not depend so much on how they treat you as it does on how God treats you. This amounts to changing the culture, which is impossible without God’s help. That is why our job is so important here in Haiti, and why we need to start with younger players and teach them “Fair Play” and to play by the rules.

It is also a reason why we need to train more soccer officials and work with Christian schools that ought to be an example of fair play.

Finally, it is the reason we include Biblical instruction in our program – because without the Bible as a standard, everything is relative, and rules don’t mean anything.

So please pray for us – we’re not only trying to use soccer as a tool for evangelism in this country, but actually change the way it is played through God changing the hearts of the players!