It’s Monday June 1st; I am sitting in Cap Haitian airport. The 5:15 flight to Miami is delayed as usual. If all goes well, I’ll get to Miami in time to make the 10 pm flight to Philadelphia and be to my house by 3am. Regardless, it will be a long night. I have a moment to reflect on one beautiful moment of an otherwise very long and difficult 4 days in Haiti.
Last fall I met a woman while dealing with the normal bag disaster coming into the Cap Haitian airport. Lynn is an American with Haitian background. She is a teacher at a public school in Massachusetts. For 6 years she has made great personal sacrifices to create and manage a small kindergarten in the city of Cap Haitian. Lynn came to IOCH headquarters for the day to experience the directors’ seminar. We kept in contact occasionally in the coming months. Two weeks ago, I received a message from Lynn that greatly saddened me.
Lynn did not sound like I remembered. She was suffering significantly from cancer and going through the rigors of treatment. To make it worse, a long-time trusted leader of her school had stolen the kindergarten’s resources and abandoned the school, just before the close of the year. All the final reports and evaluations needed done, a graduation needed planned. No one remained that was capable of communicating with Lynn and saving the school year for these 20 children and parents who worked so hard to get here. So could I help? No, but thankfully God has brought together a large and capable Haitian team in IOCH. I messaged Lynn back and told her, “I have the exact guy you need!”
Richecard was the second member to join IOCH, before IOCH even had a name or organized ministry of any kind. Over four years I feel like we have been through a lifetime together. I will share more about his story in a future update. He is fluent in self-taught English, highly educated and has taught at several schools. He knows the Haitian education system well. We created a group text with Lynn and together embarked on a mission to save the school year.
Richecard rallied the remaining staff together. I was blessed greatly just to hear how uplifted Lynn was with Richecards help, even as she battled through ongoing cancer treatments. The reports and graduation were coming together well when I asked Lynn, “when is the actual graduation? ” “Friday at 10 am”……I was struck with the idea that I MAY be able to attend personally!
Friday morning, I was up at 3:30 after 2 hours of sleep, headed to the airport. After a delay I was on my way. Customs and baggage claim were the usual disaster, but I came out of the airport at nearly 10 and we rushed though the traffic to arrive. Lynn made me an honored guest of the graduation in her absence. The kindergarten children were so beautiful! The graduation was in a small room next to the street and it was packed full!
The children performed as they rehearsed, we sang and prayed together, and each Kindergartener received their certificates. I spoke to the children and parents, congratulating them on their special day. It was a beautiful and blessed time together. We shared some food and left for our next appointment. With Richecards help, the school year was saved!!
I was SO PROUD of Richecard! As much as IOCH has been a blessing to him and his family, he has been a blessing to the work of IOCH in Haiti. Please enjoy the attached PICTURES AND VIDEOS in the link! I was also thankful for the opportunity as an organization to come together to help another organization in time of need. This is what God has called us to do as part of His family.
I thank God for another successful trip to Haiti. I’ll give more details on Haiti 49.0 in the next updates!
God bless,
-IOCH Founder David Garman
“UNITING THE PEOPLE OF GOD TO WORK FOR A BETTER HAITI”