Living Water!

 

Therefore with joy you shall draw water out of the wells of salvation.       Isaiah 12:3

In Bo Lise, Haiti where EHM does the feeding program, the life of a mother is to say the least, difficult. Imagine not being able to wash your dishes, do your laundry, bathe yourself or your  children or even brush your teeth the way that you'd LIKE to, let along NEED to. In our community there are 2 local wells that are not easily accessible, very far away and filled with salt water. Laundry, which takes the most amount of time and water, is a day or two worth of her time. Located near this community is a beach with a "fresh" water stream where everyone goes to do laundry and unfortunately this is also where they bathe. Same water stream. The moms gather their family's laundry in a wash basin, put it on their heads and walk 10 minutes to wash it and lay it to dry on the trash covered rocky "beach front".

The children can not come with them, leaving them to tend to themselves or leaving the neighbors or older children responsible. During the mornings the older children haul water to their homes providing the mothers a way to cook and clean for meals. The children must wait in line at the well, hand pump  enough or haul a bucket up from the bottom, to walk home hoping you save more than you lose. The children from 5-10 years old carry gallon sized jugs and the older children, if lucky enough, have 5 gallon buckets to fill.

 

Putting a well in this area means making water accessible to many.

 

·  Clean Kids; Keeping the children clean would cut down the risks and problems of disease. In 2013 we treated 14 children for 6 weeks for "gray spot" which is a fungus on their heads caused by lack of cleanliness. We have treated many children for stomach parasites as well due to unclean water and not being able to wash food before cooking.

·  Clean homes; The children all sleep on dirt infested floors causing horrible respiratory issues keeping them sick. With access to water the moms will be able to keep the floors a little more dust free! Washing plates, cups and silverware will be a sure way to keep cross contamination from happening helping everyone keep healthier.

·  Watering a Garden; We have tested our agriculture plan and planting a garden in this area will provide fruits, vegetables and spices to give better nutrition to the families and feeding program while also giving jobs to locals.

Thanks to a friend of EHM, Sandi Turner who applied for a grant from Ershel Franklin Foundation, we have begun a well! Hiring Komsu, the husband of one of our moms we are on our way to accessible water. In the photos shown here you can see how the men partner together to dig by hand and haul up the dirt to dig 125 feet until we reach water! We began on 1/18 and within 2 days the men were already 8 feet down! Fritznel says he expects these hard working and eager for water men to have the well finished by the end of Feb! We were able to put the well in the yard of our granny Magge who just recently turned 84. This yard is a 2 minute walk from our feeding program and we are SO excited to enjoy the blessings that God has provided! Please join us in prayer for this adventure and project. Safety, joy and strength for the men and for everyone to see God's faithfulness!
 

     

 

Silver and Gold I have none

Being a white foreigner in the "First freed black nation" is the primary reason I get asked "give me one dollar" anytime I go out of our community. This week I was asked this question and I told the 3 young boys (9-12) that if they're going to ask for something they should ask big. Ask for $20- not $1.

That's what our Father God wants from us; to ask big, dream big and desire big!

Later that night, I was sitting down at the same park and spotted a "crazy man" eating food from half of a to go box that a man nearby gave him with a few scraps in it. Torn pants, half a shirt and what looked like a glimmer of an earing I wondered what made him "crazy"? In St. Marc where we live & Montrouis where we do ministry we have lots of people who wonder the streets, walk aimlessly in front of vehicles and rarely have clarity when I want to talk to them. The are "crazy" to the locals but I wonder what got them to that point. There is no assisted living homes here, no homeless shelters or food banks so I wonder, "how do they make it?"

 

This one man made something click in my heart as I began to pray for him from afar. I prayed the "normal" prayers for strongholds to be loosed, chains breaking and freedom to come... but surprisingly nothing changed and I was expecting freedom with evidence immediately and nothing looked to be different in him.

My prayers changed that moment. That moment made me look inward. What do I lack that kept the Word of Truth setting that man free from his bondage? Do I lack faith, sincerity or the belief that I carry Jesus' authority which will make every knee bow? Because I read that I do have that same authority based on His Word.

So again, I share with you, my prayers changed. I pray there comes a day that I can say, "Silver and gold ($1) I have none, but what I have, that I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk (be set free)" like Peter said in Acts 3:6. I pray that you and I can walk in that much faith, to be able to speak and see the mighty hand of God at work.

 

Today Lord, I ask you to increase my faith and forgive me for my lack. I pray that you show me HOW to ask bigger, dream bigger and desire bigger for your kingdom to come and your will to be done. In Jesus Name

Amen

 

 

 

 

 

 

Year End Update

Happy New Year! We pray this year has been as exciting for you as it has been for us. We have so many things to be thankful for as we reflect on what He has done through Empowering Haitian Moms ministry. December was the anniversary of Stacie moving to Haiti & our 1 year anniversary for the feeding program. That’s where we want to start with praising God in our year end letter!

I will give thanks to you, Yahweh, among the nations I will sing praises to your name. 2 Samuel 22:50

Dec 24, 2012 was the day the Lord led us to begin a feeding program in Bo Lise, a small hilltop in Montrouis. The goal was to help the 3 moms & 15 children that we had been helping since 2011 and had school sponsorships for. Everyone knows it is harder to learn anything on an empty stomach & since the children didn’t have a lunch break at school we knew most of them were not eating much more than a pack of crackers until dinner time. With that in mind the Lord prompted us to serve lunch 3 days a week to help the children’s minds grow as well as their bodies. Being servants of Jesus we know that “man shall not live on bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” Matthew 4:4, so we saw this kind of poverty as the open door to the gospel, to help them grow more in love with Christ, the Savior. This year on Christmas day we fed 150 people the “Freedom Food” which is pumpkin soup. When the Haitian people were enslaved they were not allowed to eat pumpkin so it fit that we should celebrate the birth of the One who set us free with a meal that represented freedom.


Commit your deeds to Yahweh, and your plans shall succeed. Proverbs 16:3



1st Community Toilet!

God knows the plans we make for our own lives but we are here to tell you His ways are better & His thoughts are higher! While we thought it was just a way to help our 3 moms & serve food to 15 kids, God had HIS way on that hilltop. Recapping 2013, we are OVERWHELMED with His goodness and want to inform you that every day on that hill God places an average of 150 people who are being filled with His Word & receiving nutrients to their physical bodies as well. That’s 150 lives impacted & an average of 1,800 meals a MONTH because of supporters like you.  

Every family received 5 gallons of clean water

In addition, God has done so much more in Haiti this year such as; 17 children were healed of parasites, babies were born healthy to moms who are continually being educated about post & prenatal care & reminded that God has the utmost confidence in them to raise HIS children. Teams came to teach, encourage & strengthen while relationships formed around the families in Bo Lise and our school sponsorship tripled in numbers. We began an English class, rented transition homes, improved homes with roofs, toilets and bunk beds but most importantly because Jesus being our #1 focus, we began investing in the woman with job training, skills and micro loans that allow them to become self-sufficient, depending on God as the provider and no one else!

Fritznel and Stacie were married in April surrounded by friends and family from both Haiti & America & are still awaiting Fritznel’s residency approval. A few board members came to Haiti this year while the others are making their plans for visiting in 2014 with many more projects, teams & medical clinics forming. If you’d like to know more about these trips please email us at empoweringhaitianmoms@gmail.com and we’ll let you know how to get involved and come be a part of the exciting adventure.

Thank you so much!

We just want to take this time to thank every person who supported Empowering Haitian Moms this year. Every thought and prayer counted and we can testify to God hearing and answering! We are ending the year 2013 by celebrating the birth of new chapters in EHM and especially the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

In His Love,

Fritznel & Stacie Ulysse

A Full Tank Of Gas

Fritznel VERY happy to drive it home
from customs!

I am ecstatic! Over flowing with joy! Blessed! Thankful and praising God for the testimony I get to share with you about our truck project. As most of you have read in previous blogs we needed a vehicle for Empowering Haitian Moms for many reasons. I was amazed that God brought one to us as a gift only 12 days after being in American to raise $7,000 for it. We got our home rent free when I moved here so I DID expect God to do the same for us with wheels! He loves to give GOOD gifts!
So the process behind getting the truck here has been a learning experience that I would love to do again. I am sure it has been difficult for some and it wasn't exactly easy but I felt God's grace through it all. As you read further know that God is the PROVIDER.. not for me only but for you too. I am not any more special and I want to show you that God can do ANYTHING He wants!



 
Here are the amazing things GOD did for EHM with our truck...


Millie HAPPY with her
"machine"!

• He gifted EHM a 9 seated SUV that I drove 22 hours to FL for $439.00
• Before I left St Louis we called Monarch Shipping Co. in FL. and asked them how much it would cost and they said $1,500 to get the truck ON TO the boat... when I got there it was only $900
• The day after it arrived in Haiti, Fritznel was able to get there with our contact and removed everything from the truck! Nothing missing... nothing broken~ just like we prayed! The customs didn't look through anything we had and we emptied it ourselves. The peanut butter was a little warm and the marshmallows.. well they'll be melted down anyway!
• Paper work took us 7 business days to complete and receive the truck
• The director said we needed to pay $4,675 but our contact got him down to $2,500!!
• After plates, insurance and paying our contact our TOTAL for our new ministry tank is $3,212 on the Haitian side. Total of $4,551 for our new wheels!!

Everything piled into our living
 room from the truck

I have to admit that the past 2 months while waiting for this truck to come here has been stressful for me since we didn't reach our goal of $7,000 but God had prepared the way for His name to be glorified in other ways!


Even the rooster loves the truck!
(His reflection is a threat!)

The best part: Our contact said, "You serve some God... I've never seen anyone leave with a full tank of gas!"

We are so blessed and appreciative of everyone who has prayed for us and has been any part of

getting this vehicle here to Haiti. Our teams will be comfortable and we are arriving to our ministry safer thanks to you! :-) We would absolutely do this again!

P31

If 80% of Haitians live off LESS  than $2 a day
and 60% live on LESS  than $1 a day
and 70% of people have "typical" jobs...
I'd like to know HOW do they do it?

I have lived in Haiti long enough to know that I could not do it, much less have as much joy and NOT complain every second that I was awake.

The women in our community have been in our Bible and business classes for approximately 7-9 months now and we NEVER hear them complain about their situations. Yes, they do occasionally let me know when there is absolutely NO food left in their homes, when they are being forced out by landlords for over due rent, and when their children are sick but I do not see that as a complaint. Our families do not beg for money and they will not ask you for "one dollar" when you come to visit. They have more dignity than that and know that God is the one who provides.

The objective in this ministry has been to build a depot to make a central hub for these women to work from our own community so that they could care for their children and have a safe profitable business. We have high expectations for what the depot can do to help the surrounding area and be able to reach more people for Christ.

Jesus said, "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'".Luke 14:28

The depot will be a great thing... when its a thing. Right now though, we are staring poverty in the face; watching children's stomachs grow with parasites, hair turn yellow and the women not know where to turn for help. The local missionary clinic is only $1.19  to be seen by a doctor and get medicine to help but yet these families aren't able to go.

EHM wants families to be healthy but we learned we were going about it all wrong. Asking for monthly sponsors for the moms is  a great thing and DOES help families! We set a sponsorship goal at $130 a month and had much success until we realized it wasn't helping long term! When the food didn't last or the money ran out... they were no better than they were before the gift. And they were looking to us (people in general) for that next hand out and provision. So, when we had a woman want to give 12 months worth we were ready to make a change. We proposed to her the plan... invest $100 into a business and $30 into food, which was a sack of rice and whatever else they could barter for. IT WAS A GOD IDEA! She joyfully agreed and we were on our way to make a difference. With 6 months up front we made our list, did interviews and invested into 6 new jobs. The women work the "market days" which are 2-3 days a week selling the items of their choice. Instead of spending their entire day's income on food they were able to go home to 55 lbs of rice and get ahead for the 1st time in a long time! 3 other days of the week are our program which happen to be the opposite days of the market and the last day is Sunday, the Lord's Day!



Edeline selling shoes

"She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks." Proverbs 31:17

It is working out perfectly. Each mom has told us how much it has helped and how OVER JOYED they are to be able to work!  We have our next list of moms eager to begin working whenever the Lord provides and we know He will!


Milene selling containers

We are still waiting for God to move on the Depot idea since we know it was His idea too, but we know His timing is perfect! We are teaching sewing, crocheting and each team comes with a new trade for the women so that they learn how to work with

their hands which could lead to more job opportunities.

"Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate" Proverbs 31:31

Assefie selling fried food

An ending note... with Biblical classes we teach to tithe and give back to the Kingdom. Each family is encouraged to give to their home church and back into EHM. They give weekly to the feeding program to be a part of serving each other and the new families that show up every week! They are a part of this ministry as much as we and you are! New outreaches will begin with cooking, serving and preaching the gospel to the poor in the streets as a team beginning in Nov 2013!

"She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy." Proverbs 31:20

Thank you for being a part of the moving of God in Haiti!

Need a ride?

On July 13th I traveled to the USA with the goal of purchasing, driving and shipping a vehicle to Haiti.  As a ministry we desperately need a vehicle for many reasons:

• Tap Taps are public transportation and not safe. Up to 30 people on the back of a pick up truck with a driver who most likely does not have a real license and probably did not read the drivers manual
• Motorcycles are plan B form of transportation in Haiti. You can see up to 4 people on each moto and the doctors say taking care of injured people from moto accidents is 90% of their day
• Our ministry is 15 miles and takes us 45-60 minutes each way via tap taps

  

  And they will still stop to get more people!

• Our teams (like you soon) need safe and reliable modes of transportation
• Only one-fourth of births are attended by a skilled health professional. If women get to deliver in a hospital they have to leave within 24 hours and some ride tap tap's home!

A vehicle to this ministry means we can serve our community in better ways such as:

• Taking truck loads of sick and injured to the missionary clinics in surrounding areas
• Getting babies born in clean environments in time for their arrival and then back home!
• Providing SAFE and sanitary transportation for American teams and the on site missionaries

With all that being said we are excited to inform you that July 24th (11th day in America) in St Louis, Missouri a couple from Destiny church GIFTED EHM their 9 seater SUV! Praise the Lord for his provision and love!

With the help of some friends we were able to pack this truck FULL of supplies that have been donated including hundreds of gallons of Gatorade, 300 pounds of MEDICAL peanut butter, gallons of hand sanitizer, school supplies for the "Next Generation" and many more items that friends like you have given. We need this vehicle ASAP!

As of right now this is how we need your partnership in PRAYER:

• Thank the Lord for this family who gave and that they are BLESSED in it
• The Monarch Shipping Company is down a boat which leaves them with only ONE going to and from Haiti and Florida. We need to pray that they get their one from the coast guard and are able to get one that they have been trying to rent to make things faster
• They have quoted us 6-8 weeks which puts us now at 4-6
• We have a team coming Sept 19th who will need this vehicle to get to and from the ministry and give out the school supplies for school which starts on Oct 1st
• The peanut butter is going to help many of the mal-nutritioned families in our community and we don't want it going bad!



300 lbs Medical Peanut Butter

• Pray that Angels protect our vehicle from getting raided and stolen from

We have been quoted $3,000 at the customs yard which we have raised $176 of. That puts us at still needing $2,842! We have a deadline of 3 weeks from now because we are believing that the truck will NOT be detained 4-6 more!

We have made many easy ways to make tax deductible donations: "Truck" in the memo
PayPal: Empoweringhaitianmoms@gmail.com
Website: Empoweringhaitianmoms.org and click the "DONATE" button
and our
P.O. Box 4142
Chesterfield MO 63006

Will you join with us in this project and help us help Haiti!


Shout Louder...

"As Jesus and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus the son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the road. When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Many scolded him to get him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" -Mark 10:46-48

If anyone or anything is discouraging you to stop calling to The Lord.... Shout all the more...I dare you. There are many obstacles in life that can make us want to just STOP, GIVE UP and just be OK with the way things are but the Word encourages us to cry to God and be the "persistent widow".

Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called the blind man and said to him, "Have courage! Get up! He is calling you." -Mark 10:49

When distractions and discouragement are telling you to be quiet ... don't STOP.. because here, HE stopped. He was busy leaving the city, surrounded by a large crowd but heard His hurting child crying out. I find it interesting that Jesus didn't just call him to himself but He told the people who were discouraging to get him... Are there people in your life that Jesus wants to use your weakness to show people His strength?! Or are you being that person?

"He threw off his cloak, jumped up, and came to Jesus." Mark 10:50

Ahhhh... Yes... A blind man throws off his cloak, jumps up and I bet he HURRIED himself to get to the one he believed could heal him. I want to be just like this!!

Ding dong.. The door bell rings. Are we sitting in self pitty because of our circumstances or are we jumping up to be with Jesus who is able to do all things?

Then Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" The blind man replied, "Rabbi, let me see again." -Mark 10:51

 

Jesus had to have known what Bartimaeus needed and wanted, but wanted to hear him ask. Just like you and me, God knows every little thing but wants us to ASK! I think  it is just so our faith can be strengthened. When I ask for a certain things and God answers the prayer, He gets the glory and my faith increases!

The grand finale!! Jesus said to him, "Go, your faith has healed you." Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the road. -Mark 10:52

Jesus didn't have to wait, think, ask anyone else, or pray about it... He said "Go, your faith has healed you." God is eager to heal and IMMEDIATELY the man was able to see.

God is waiting for you to ask for things to happen in your life. He is ready to make changes that are needed to strengthen your relationship with Him. This man didn't ask, receive and forget about the One who heals... He followed Jesus. Jesus doesn't want to be a telephone operator who gives the right answer or direction, then is hung up on and forgotten. He does things to restore us to Him and build relationship with us. So next time you ask for help, healing or answers remember to believe, receive and follow Jesus even closer! Don't forget him. So right now.. ask again. Believe Big and draw closer to the Savior who is eager to heal!

Then Jesus said to him, "'If you are able?' All things are possible for the one who believes." Immediately the father of the boy cried out and said, "I believe; help my unbelief!" -Mark 9:23-24