Team One:27 is currently negotiating getting our new mini “white” bus and a van out of the shipping depot in St. Marc, Haiti, and licensed, etc. We have done this process many times with a half dozen other vehicles, but it is always uncertain what the fees will be and how smooth the process will go. Please pray for favor with all the powers that be, and a clean cut of the red tape!
Mark Gillette and Billy Hetrick have just dropped off a mid-size bus full of supplies for our “Family” in Haiti in FL. This is the 6th or 7th bus full of supplies we have been able to purchase or receive as a donation, fix up (compliments of the Berkshire technical school), fill up with non perishables, and ship to Haiti via “Monarch Shipping” in FL. The supplies will greatly bless our 200+ orphans and staff in Port Au Prince and Le Cayes areas, and the bus will serve as either reliable transportation, or as in the cases of other vehicles, be sold in Haiti to more than offset all the costs associated with sending the bus down in the first place.
I am in Haiti today [Mark Gillette] with seven men from Amherst Baptist Church (from near Buffalo, NY) and Bill Hetrich from West Lawn UMC in PA. Our main project for this week and next is the construction of 100 bunk beds for use in our orphanages. Our first full day here we were able to purchase the materials needed for this project and get them delivered to a central and secure work site near Divine Ministries where we can work as a team in the construction process. The design we came up with (ie. God supplied) allows us to build the beds in component parts and ship them to their intended destination for final assembly – a very efficient and necessary option. God provided the bunk bed materials for about one half of what we had projected, so we have some funds for alternative needs here. Wow, God is surely blessing our efforts and “multiplying your seed sown.”
Vitit Amherst Baptist Church’s blog directly at abchaiti.blogspot.com
Follow their church blog and see their pictures/thoughts at: http://abchaiti.blogspot.com/
Scott Gillette, brother of Mark Gillette, will be joining Billy Hetrich and Mark with a small team from Amherst Baptist Church from the Buffalo, NY area to travel to Cayes. The majority of their trip will be spent in the Les Cayes “Home of Blessing” that is now under construction, and they will be building bunk beds for the children there. We appreciate your prayers for safety and God’s tangible presence and outpouring while they are in country.
Current donations for the bunkbeds are at about $8000 of the total $13,000 estimated to complete all the beds for the kids (7k for the frames and another 6k for the mattresses). If you would like to contribute to the cause, please click over to our donate page and make a contribution or checks can be sent directly to the Team One.27 mailbox at: PO Box 2313 Sinking Spring, PA 19608. A tax-deductible receipt will gratefully be sent right out in response.. In this incredible internet age, donations can be checked and accessed by Mark Gillette and the team even as they are in Haiti! Thank you for your support.
A private donor has offered to provide Divine Ministries 10 complete computer systems, and are now in the process of arranging the shipping to us in PA for our further shipping to Haiti. Praise the Lord! By faith, we donated four of the computer systems we already have in Haiti to another orphanage that was starting up their Christian school in Les Cayes on January 16th, but desperately needed computers to complete their equipment needs. “Freely you have received; freely give.” Daniel Jean is currently operating an internet cafe’ in his former rental property both for profit, and as an educational tool available to his children in the Port Au Prince Area.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Walnut Hill Community Church generously granted Divine Ministries $5000 to purchase land for a new church for Daniel Jean’s growing ministry. Their church which currently meets at the boys’ home has maxed out its capacity at over 300 people and worshippers are forced to stand up or even wait out on the street during services. With this new church Daniel and his church hope to expand their capacity to share the gospel and minister to their immediate local community in Carfourre.
Movie clip of land narrated by Mark Gillette