Jimmy Dorrell, author of Trolls & Truth: 14 Realities about Today’s Church That We Don’t Want to See and coauthor with Janet Dorrell of Plunge2Poverty: An Intensive Poverty Simulation Experience, has been active in Haiti for many years. Even though national news has turned to Japan, the needs in Haiti are still tremendous. Reflect on this update from Jimmy and continue to pray for the people of Haiti as well as those who are not only helping this country recover but are building it to be better than it was before the earthquake.
Haiti Update: “Mountains Beyond Mountains”
Mission Waco’s Community Development Work Bearing Fruit After Years of Involvement
Crippling poverty, disastrous natural disasters, years of political instability and lack of a solid infrastructure have caused many Western nations to write off Haiti as a fatalistic mess that will never emerge from decades of problems. That is why the Haitian proverb about “mountains beyond mountains” accents the seemingly endless challenges. While we understand the enormous barriers preventing development, our understanding of who God is and how we are called as his people to “bring good news to the poor” does not allow for such hopelessness, regardless of the circumstances. So even as we do with the poverty in Waco, perseverance is our ministry style with a faith that God can bring new life from the hardened cracks and pain. And after 25 years of “keeping on keeping on,” we are so encouraged to be a part of numerous grassroots efforts alongside the Haitians in the Northeast that are bearing more and more signs of fruit. We thought you might want to hear about those and even choose to participate in the joys and challenges.
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Micro-Credit Program for Women
25 women in first phase; 15 receive loans
The room was filled with laughter, clapping and vitality as we attended the weekly meeting of five groups of five women who had been accepted into the “MCFF” (Micro-Credit Women of Ferrier) program just less than one year ago. Fifteen women, three from each group, proudly put on their name badges as a symbol of being a recipient of a loan of up to $60 from the $3000 established by Mission Waco donors. Ten of those women had already made enough profits from their small businesses that they had repaid the required $10/month ahead of schedule. From increased inventories of used shoes, rice, candies and other items, each woman had an approved business plan that was working to increase their income to support their families. One group had actually doubled its collective income. Not only did they receive kudos from their peers that night, but they came for more training, from bookkeeping to raising their children. It was a night we will never forgot. No handouts. Just empowerment!
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Women’s Co-op Making “Fair Trade” Items
World Cup Café Sells Handmade Items
Earlier in the week fifteen women brought their latest creations, mostly colorful baskets and earrings, to meet with Janet Dorrell about their progress toward increased quality and faster production of these goods to be sold both in Haiti and in Mission Waco’s “Fair Trade Market” at the World Cup Café. Almost without fail, the group had achieved both goals. Mission Waco has been selling quality handmade items made by artisans from all over the world who depend on them to support their families. New products are currently being considered for production by these Haitian women.
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New School Opens with 301 Children
174 Sponsored Children Get Updates Pictures
In just one year, Jackson Nelson has built seven classrooms and filled it with children colorfully dressed in their school uniforms. Jim and Sharon Wolfe, Mission Waco volunteers, have been promoting school sponsorships ($195/yr) for the last five years with individual pictures for Wacoans and others who want to make a difference in a child’s life. Since many parents cannot afford school for their children, these sponsorships are a huge gift. Five more classrooms and an indoor toilet room remain unfinished while Mission Waco continues its effort to find donors so that the 8th and 9th grade children will have a place next Fall. Mission Waco also provides twenty $150 scholarships to high school and college students who qualify and volunteer. Two of these students hope to enter medical school and seminary next year.
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Homeless in Waco Sponsor Two Haitian Children
Friday Morning Breakfast Group Pitches in to Help
After exceeding their goal of raising $16.25/month to sponsor a Haitian child to go to school, the 100+ group of early morning breakfast folks eating weekly at Mission Waco’s program at First Lutheran Church decided to sponsor a second child. Each week even those who struggle to make it in today’s economy find change or a few dollars to drop in the box to support Waly Austin and Louis Macdony with tuition, books, and a daily meal. Program director Jeane Dick recognizes that giving is a part of spiritual health and the poor want to participate.
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New Clinic Dedicated While Work Continues
360 patients seen by Central TX Docs/Nurses
From removal of a fatty tumor to diagnosing a patient with full blown AIDS, three Waco area doctors and two nurses worked alongside a Haitian doctor, nurse and pharmacist to see over a hundred patients a day for the three-day clinic. With a small ribbon-cutting ceremony, the new “unfinished” clinic, funded by Mission Waco donors, has been a work in progress for several years. The Dorrells first met Paulan Pierre in 1984 in her tiny 3-room clinic behind the church. Now, 28 years later, her son is the pastor of the church and still committed to his mother’s dream of bringing Christian-based healthcare and prevention to his village of 13,000. While only one room of the nine is actually completed, four more of the concrete block rooms were used by the medical team of Drs. Waganeck, Lovett, and Perez, and nurses Michele Davis and Georgeen Scanes. The first-ever Haitian medical team includes Dr. Johnny Dasny, Surlin Rosna, and Julien Antione. Mission Waco took several thousand dollars of pharmaceuticals for the patients. Solar panels, wall and floor tiles, and toilets are still needed to complete the building.
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Who Goes With Us (and who doesn’t!)
Local students denied opportunity but spots filled
A family of six, including four children, three docs, a lawyer and students from Boston and Louisiana made of part of the twenty-five participants on this recent trip. There were also three Baylor students, but there should have been more than ten! Mission Waco trips are open trips, but since Jimmy Dorrell taught an “Engaged Learning Group” class at Baylor on “Global Poverty,” there was approximately $10,000 available from the class for ten students to join this incredible experience. While similar private and public schools around Texas supported such trips, Baylor’s travel committee rejected the request, as well as for the BSM’s trip. Ironically, the campus promotes it global intentions among the poor. While there are approved trips to some “safe” African, Central American and European countries, Haiti is too risky for Baylor to endorse. Ironically, for over fifteen years Mission Waco has taken over a hundred Baylor students to Haiti without incident. Another group of students heads to the impoverished nation in May, this time from Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches. While in Haiti, the group ran into to numerous students from around the nation in Haiti as representatives of their school. Even nearby University of Mary Hardin Baylor (Belton) has students serving there. Dorrell and Environmental Studies professor, Dr. Larry Lehr, were turned down a couple of years ago after a request to Baylor to work on ground water purification. Mission Waco will return to Haiti next fall and spring. If you are interested in joining one of the trips, check out details on the website.
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Clean Water… a Precious Gift
Wells, Repairs and Chlorinators…but no cholera!
A team of Mission Waco volunteers tested water wells all over the area, only to discover that the flood from Hurricane Thoma had contaminated over half of them. With a well-drilling rig sent over by Mission Waco five years ago, clean water wells dug by the Haitians have been life-saving for villagers who were still drinking from the polluted rivers. The truck was also sent to Port au Prince after the earthquake in January, 2010. The devastating hurricane last fall flooded nearlby villages and sent thousands of temporary refugees to Ferrier to escape the flood. But their sources of clean water had been compromised and only “shock’ chlorination could purify them. Janet Dorrell, continued to train the Haitians on how to restore their wells to provide health for their communities. Though cholera spread widely in the nation after the flood, clean water in Ferrier resulted in only one case of the deadly disease that was imported from a visitor in Cap Haitien. Water wells cost $3000 to drill and maintain. Local donors, like Meadowbrook Baptist youth in Waco, decided that the goal of providing clean water to Haitians was worth an energetic fundraising effort. They raised $5800 for Mission Waco’s work.
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Presidential Election Looms- March 20
Mission Waco group meets candidate at airport
Instability in Haiti’s government is a given for many. After an unfortunate legacy of dictators and corrupt politicians in the impoverished nation, some have concluded that their feeble democracy will ever emerge as a stable force, especially after a crippling earthquake in the capitol city of Port au Prince. But hope is still alive and the upcoming presidential election next week will offer another opportunity to let the masses speak. Two legitimate candidates have emerged, former first lady Mirlande Manigat and Michel ‘Sweet Micky’ Martelly. A third candidate was bumped due to election fraud. With the return of exiled “Baby Doc,” now indicted, and rumors of the return of Aristede, a priest turned president, there is no lack of drama in this election. So when Mission Waco’s group checked into the small airport in Cap Haitien, the drama captured them, too. There sat Manigat awaiting her plane back to Port au Prince. For the next twenty minutes, she shook hand with and allowed pictures with the Waco group.
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Church Alive amidst “Mardi Gras” Carnival
Packed worship center exudes celebration
Ironically, one of the Haiti’s biggest religious (and school) holidays has no commonly recognized connection to the traditional Lenten season. While costumed crowds marched down the dirt roads of Ferrier, singing, popping whips and dancing, no one seemed aware of the strongly Catholic liturgical calendar of their “carnival” to Ash Wednesday’s kick off of the forty days of preparation for the suffering of Christ’s crucifixion. But the Protestant churches never missed a beat on Sunday with riveting worship on packed wooden benches, particularly at Beraca Baptist Church, where Pastor Zenas Pierre leads a growing congregation. Singing, praise dance, and even English choruses preceded the sermon by Jimmy Dorrell, who first attended worship there in 1984. Pastor Zenas and his wife, Dasny, have led the congregation started by his parents, to one of the most invigorating and involved churches in Northern Haiti. From the new clinic to the director of the micro-credit program, Christian community development has impacted the village.
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Baby at Death’s Door Responds
From orphans to widows, James 1:27 is a reality
Little Cerge was virtually lifeless a year ago when he was discovered by one of the Mission Waco group members. With more mouths to feed than available food, his mother has fatalistically given up on him and expected his death in the days ahead. But due to intensive help then, and even more this year, the listless 15 month old was rehydrated and given antibiotics and became the favored child among volunteers. Death before the age of five is way too common in Haiti. With the addition of over fifty orphans migrating from the earthquake area, Jackson Nelson added another ministry to his list, feeding them each day. Zenas Pierre took the leftover building materials from the clinic and built an orphanage, “the Mission Waco orphanage,” without us even knowing it existed until we showed up. The church in Haiti takes seriously their ministry to widows and orphans and programs abound there. While many of the “orphans” may have living parents, like Cerge’s mom, they cannot care for them, and often ask orphanages to fill the gap. Belton’s “Hope for the Hungry” has one such orphanage in Ferrier and another on the other end of the island. Widows also receive special help in the churches.
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Seth & Sarah Dorrell Head to Haiti for Two Years
Economic Development Primary Goal
In 1984, Seth and and his brother Josh, then ages four and two respectively, were bathing in wash tubs in the same village that Seth and his young family now will live in. Just after college, he returned for a full summer of assisting Haitian director Jackson Nelson. After five years as the Deputy Executive Director of the Southwest Development Corporation in Philadelphia, the family leaves the cold of the north for the heat of Haiti. After months for raising their first level of support, they will be in Haiti by May 1 for what is expected to be a two year term through Mission Waco (“Cross Culture Experiences”). Seth did his Masters of Economic Development at Eastern University in Philly, while Sarah completed her Masters of Social Work. They have an 18 month old daughter (Finley). The couple met while attending Baylor at Church Under the Bridge. Sarah’s parents, Dr. Tim and Nancy Pfanner, are active in global missions, as well. Please pray for this challenging work.
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Donations Still Needed for Projects and People
Generosity of Mission Waco donors for poor amazing
In just one year, a new school, a new clinic, a micro-credit program, 174 school sponsorships and numerous water wells have reshaped the landscape in one small village of 13,000. God has given Mission Waco the privilege of bringing hope among some of the world’s most hopeless conditions. From buying $2 bricks in the Turbeville’s jazz concert (“Tips for Bricks”) to youth groups like those Meadowbrook Baptist, Beacon Hill , and Toliver Chapel to major gifts from Curves and The Dwyer Group, compassionate folks have sacrificed for the Haitians. Mission Waco decided a while back not to charge any fees for the time and cost of seeing that these donations get to the need….and every dollar does! You are invited to join that force of donors and know you are making a difference. Over $30,000 is still needed to finish the clinic and school. Wells ($3000) are still needed.
You can learn more about the needs that Mission Waco is meeting and how you can help at their website. http://www.missionwaco.org/ and don’t miss Jimmy and Janet’s excellent books that speak to the issues of poverty. 
