What seemed a great plan for the future became a great response to an immediate need. In last month’s Adventure Journal, you read about the Haiti Team purchasing five treadle sewing machines to start a vocational school in Yvon, Haiti. In our mind, we would collaborate with the local leaders, the Methodist Church of Haiti, and other teams to start the vocational school with the sewing machines and then expand to other vocational courses. Our vision for the immediate future was to train as many women as possible on the sewing machines and allow the machines to be a lab for the women to create products to be sold in the local markets.
On March 25, I received an email from David Draeger at the Guest House in Petionville. He wrote,
“The Haitian’s are taking the Coronavirus seriously. Schools and churches as well as many businesses are closed. There are hand washing stations many places.”
Then on April 4 he wrote:
“Conditions here are deteriorating. Because of Covid, people are self-isolating and schools, churches, many banks and businesses have either shut or shuttered their doors. Food supplies are dwindling as the ports are closed, the Dominican border is closed and travel within Haiti is restricted.
Can you give me your sewing project coordinator at Yvon? If they have or can get fabric, they could manufacture masks for Covid prevention.”
Over the next week, David and I worked together to get the Yvon sewing machines actively involved in the production of Covid masks using the fabric we had left with the women in January. On April 8, I received a report from Wesnet in Yvon that 950 masks had already been produced and the women were in need of more fabric. I responded to the need for more funds to buy fabric by sending $1,000 to David to be used in the production of masks.
The sewing machines were the right thing at the right time. Living the Adventure Ministries, through the generosity of financial gifts given to our Haiti ministry, was able to respond to a need identified in the community and that response is saving lives in the village and in the region. The Holy Spirit’s prompting to buy the sewing machines and the money being provided is once again proof of how God goes before us and provides for our needs even before we recognize our need. I am grateful for a great team that is willing to listen and respond.
Please continue to pray for our brothers and sisters in Haiti. My heart breaks for the present situation and in my “do it” mentality, I am broken that I cannot be with them to create more hand washing stations, distribute masks, and meet other more immediate needs. I am still working toward a trip to Haiti in late June, recognizing the next four weeks will give us information to know whether the trip is still possible. If your heart is stirred to travel or to support the work we are doing in Haiti and around the world, consider becoming an investor in the overall ministry of Living the Adventure Ministries.