La Limyè Ministries

 I want to be like Ketchina.  While chaos fills the house and her sisters are pitching fits and annoying each other and crying for no real reason and some are taking a bath and some are brushing teeth and Mommy Ellie is raising her voice for just a little bit of order and peace in the house and the nanny is running around looking for toothbrushes and towels and it’s loud and chaotic and hectic and messy and I’m frustrated and tired and bossy… And then there’s Ketchina.  Sitting peacefully on the bench singing her hymnal songs.  Not paying attention to the wreck around her.  Not paying attention to the mess around her.  Not paying attention to the chaos around her.  Just peacefully singing songs to Jesus while awaiting her turn to take a bath.  I wanna be like Ketchina.  Turn off the worldly news and the social media and the bad mom judgments and the security warnings and the chaos and stress in life. I want to block it all out, ignore it all,...

 I googled “what triggers a tension headache”  The response I read from Medline Plus was: “Tension headaches occur when neck and scalp muscles become tense or retract. The muscle contractions can be a response to stress, depression, head injury, or anxiety.” 3/4 I have. Guess it’s not sinuses.  I haven’t felt good the last few days. I thought maybe a virus. But then I also thought maybe just stress that indeed does weaken the immune system. I honestly think I’m out of touch with my emotions in a way. Trauma is one of the blames for that. I hear a gunshot or I read about the war going on in Port Au Prince and I have to quickly just put it to the back of my brain so I can get through the day. Mentally. But physically I think it does more damage than I want to admit. And with feeling like you always have to be strong, be alert, be organized, be ready, be prepared because the kids and the ministry and the emails and everything else is pulling you in every direction- eventuall...

 On April 29th 2016 Dachena joined our family.  She was 13 months old wearing newborn diapers. Purely a sack of bones. She didn’t even have the strength to sit up from the lying down position and didn’t know how to drink from a bottle.  Starvation almost took her life.  On May 1st 2016 Ciarha joined our family. She was 5 months old weighing 8lbs. She was so severely malnourished with Kwashiorkor that she had to be hospitalized for several weeks and even got a blood transfusion.  Malnutrition almost took her life.  (Unfortunately staying with the biological family isn’t always possible or safe for all children. Although that’s always the aim to support.) I say all this to say:  I am beyond grateful for everyone that donated towards our care package project.  But I can’t go on without recognizing everyone that also keeps La Limyè running year round. I wouldn’t have been able to feed the village if I didn’t have the funds first to feed my own childre...

 The mother of one of my students in our Special Education/Handicap learning center asked me for a job the other day.  I know she desperately needs it.  La Limyè already pays half of her yearly rent for her house because if not she and her daughter would truly be homeless.  I’m encouraged that she’s asking for work, not just handouts…but I literally have no work to give her. Every position is full and I can’t think of any job to just “make up” for her to do.  The rise in prices, the fall of the economy, the insecurity…it’s crippling for these people.  All that to say, my employees need to be paid, the girls have to be fed, school fees need to be met, but right now the most dire need is to help our neighbors.  It would be a blessing and truly an answer to prayer.  I have 26 employees  23 families in our Special Education learning center.  Around 35 in our local church.  Any extra we raise can go to the people in our village which wou...

I can no longer travel freely.  I no longer feel like I have a choice on what I want to do.  I can’t be seen on certain roads at certain times.  No one stateside can come visit me.  The gangs have spread out and their power seems to have grown too great for anyone to stand up against.  The people are hungry.  The hungry are starving.  The churches are mourning.  Willing to risk my life to serve here is now a higher cost if that means it’ll affect my children and their future.  I hired an armored car service to take me home last time I flew in.  Life as we knew it seems too distant to remember and the new season seems too much like a taste of hell on earth for the Haitians just trying to live.  And yet I’m surrounded by the most selfless, God fearing, humble Haitians who even with a paycheck I know it’s still hard to make ends meet.  The Haitian currency was about 40 gourdes to every American dollar when I moved here and now it’...

7 automatic weapons were pointed at us as the gang surrounded our vehicle. I thought, this is it. It’s over.  I was going to be taken.  Here’s what happened on the 30th of December:  For the past several months with all the issues in Haiti, I’ve been sitting in the back seat instead of the front whenever I leave the house to go into the city or come from the airport to leave the city. Less people can see me in the back so it just feels safer.  After lots of deep breaths I felt confident I could quickly go to the grocery store to get the basic necessities and then make the trip back to La Limyè.  Before I even got in the truck and after I was in, I prayed for safety, thanked Him in advance for protection and prayed no traumatic issues would happen on the road because one can only handle so much in a lifetime and I thought I should be about done.  Once we left the grocery store we passed the round about and headed down that road. When we got to the outskirts ...

I don’t even know what to say. I write when my heart is heavy. Yet it’s like I’m so numb by what’s going on I can’t even explain it. It’s like living a dream… but not those sweet fairy tale dreams that I wish for. It’s the nightmares. The ones that never stop. It’s reality. It’s life.  But it’s not a true nightmare for me. I’m just watching it mainly. I’m comfortable. Sure, not near as comfy as if I were stateside, but I’m well. I have what I need. But not my neighbors. They’re suffering. Their nightmare continues on even after they wake up. They’re not watching it, they’re living it.  The motorcycle taxi driver quoted one of my employees how much it would cost for her to get a ride to and from La Limyè. It was half of her daily wage. Which is a fair wage. But with gas off the street being $20 a gallon, what do you expect… instead she walked the several miles home in the pitch black because there are no streetlights. It’s not fair.  They tell me of a lady who was pregnant...