Potential Partnership with another Soccer Ministry in Haiti

We have just found out about another exciting soccer ministry in Haiti called "The Alliance of Christian Athletics of Haiti" They specialize in organizing evangelistic soccer tournaments in many areas of Haiti during the summer. This week, Rich met with Daniel Jean Louis, the organization's representative in Haiti to discuss how the two organizations can work together to reach Haitian youth with the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Our first joint project will probably be a training of coaches and administrators of our soccer programs to be held over Christmas vacation in Port-au-Prince.

Have you ever just "clicked" with someone because you have so many things in common? Well, that is the way I felt when I met Daniel. Not only does he love the Lord, Soccer and the youth of Haiti, he also has a degree in economics and wants to help develop small businesses in Haiti. We are looking forward to working together in the next few months to see how we can work together in the areas of soccer ministry and entrepreneurial training.

Visit to Verrettes

Yesterday, Richard went to visit one of the schools where the pilot project will take place if the Lord wills (Verrettes). This is one of the schools we’re inviting to the soccer ministry training program in December.
He went with two Haitian brothers who are on the UEBH School Committee to evaluate the status of the school. They met with the Director, the Assistant Director and the Accountant of the school. The school has about 300 students, about half of which are partially subsidized by Compassion International. Even with this help, the school is in financial difficulty because most parents cannot afford to send their children to school. The tuition is very low—the equivalent of about $20 US/ month or less, plus the cost of uniforms and supplies. We asked this school to communicate to the other four schools that they should begin the selection process to decide which four representatives they will send from their schools to the training in December.

Meeting With School Leaders in Verrettes

Here are Richard and Tim Ferri meeting with some of the school leaders in Verrettes. We had some problems getting everyone together at the same time, but we met with leaders from two schools on Tuesday.

We were happily surprised to find that one of the schools is still using soccer equipment we gave them 5 years ago! Richard talked about our vision for a pilot project in the area, starting about 5 soccer programs and having the teams play each other. The leaders from the Verrettes school told us they had participated in a local tournament and that they were only able to do that because Richard had given them equipment 5 years ago and they took care of it by collecting the cleats and everything after every use.

We went to visit one of the schools in the area and found that it had several pressing needs. The roof is rusted and leaking in a lot of places, the school started building new latrines but was never able to finish, they need new benches and don't have enough space for the students. It was somewhat overwhelming, but it seemed like a good thing that we could only visit one school. It seemed like God was having us focus on this one school instead of being overwhelmed by several with all these problems.

Here's Richard talking to Emmanulie, the Director of the Orem (Sp?) School that we visited.

Tim is hoping to bring a work team to do a project like this. One work project that seems logical to do first, would be to finish the latrines.

As for starting the pilot project...Richard asked the schools to select 3 or 4 teachers to come to the TREC training (AIS's training for coaches doing soccer ministry) that will be held in December. We talked about the dates and a few more details. It was a good first visit for the project.

Pilot Project

We have chosen 5 UEBH schools to work with for a pilot project for the soccer ministry. These schools are fairly close to each other in the Verrettes area, which is about 2 1/2 hours away from Port-au-Prince. We chose schools with students supported by Compassion, Int'l. because Compassion strongly encourages the schools they assist to have a sports programs. This is often very difficult for schools in these poor areas to provide.

Tuesday morning we will be going out there to meet with the leaders from these 5 schools. Please pray that God will direct us in this.