Summarizing this trip is difficult. The highs and lows were extreme. I arrived Friday at 9am, earlier than usual. We went to MSC depot to buy wood to build our 36th swing set. As has become the tradition, we surprised Madam Tabita and her children at the orphanage.
As this was the 4th visit, the children are becoming more friendly. The youngest child, Shelove, has been terrified of me, even running away. I was greeting the kids when I looked down and saw her coming towards me. 
I asked if she wanted to be my friend. I picked her up and carried her around most of my time there. I asked Madam Tabita how Shelove and her sister came to the orphanage. Their father left for the Dominican Republic. Their mother then had a new child with another man, who then did not accept the girls and demanded they leave….so sad.
Madam Tabita showed me all the progress fixing the buildings that the children sleep in. I would love to give her a good electric system, and then I could bring a RO water system. The work she is doing is truly amazing. She has cared for 175 children over 30 years!
We had a good meeting with Pastor Wilton to plan for the directors meeting. Saturday morning we made the first of three visits to the family of Bradley. This 16 year old boy regular helps with IOCH activities. Two weeks ago he was stabbed during a Voo doo march he joined as it passed by our house. We helped get him to the hospital. It seemed clear to me he had a punctured lung. It’s possible even the city hospital lacked the ability to actually fix this. A week later he died. Richecard and I visited the mother and his little sister. I gave his mother some money to help with the funeral expenses. It was such a heavy moment to just sit with them, pray with them and cry together.
The directors meeting went well. I gave an update on our food program. We closed our furniture store this month and I committed all the proceeds of the liquidation to cover buying 10,000 lbs. of rice monthly for the rest of the school year. IOCH supplied monthly salary support for 537 teachers once again. Several of our team went to the funeral. I stayed to finish the directors meeting. One by one, our team, especially the younger ones who were close to Bradley came back in, still weeping uncontrollably. In the evening our whole team walked to their house again. We sang and prayed for them again.
Sunday morning our whole team piled in the pickup and visited a new church that is attached to Bethany college, an IOCH supported school. I shared a short message as usual. After the service the church leadership wanted a meeting . They wanted share all the projects the church had in mind, hoping I would deliver the money lavishly. I’m used to being asked for help, and having to often say no, but this was one of the more aggressive approaches I’ve encountered. We realized later that the school and church did not collaborate as we assumed they did, and that’s why they didn’t value the significant investment IOCH has already made to continue the education there.
The Sunday afternoon kids club was a lot of fun as always. Dalando, his wife and Richecard teach, play games and feed about 100 kids every Sunday. Afterwards Dalando decided to take the kids to support Bradley’s family, particularly his little sister who attends the club. I counted about 45 people in the Nissan frontier pickup. Mezou drove slowly and the kids had so much fun. It was so special to watch every child line up to hug the little girl, the mother and grandmother.
Monday we made the long journey to Quanaminthe on the Dominican border. We support a school there that I haven’t been to yet. It was an extremely poor area, and yet the children were so happy. Our team built a swing set and played with the kids. Then we traveled 3 hours back home. I stayed up late and had some wonderful theological conversations with some team members.
Today it was time to leave. We hoped to visit Blaise Pascal school in Cap Haitian. Director Christolin has shared with me for months that he was unable to cover the rent for his school building, and faced the permanent closure of the school. On Saturday he showed me the notice that Monday morning the judge and the police will come to take back the property. I provided the $2,000 to keep help the school continue educating 225 children. Our whole team worked to clear a traffic jam so we could see Christolin, this beautiful school and meet the children. I included some pictures and videos of this and everything else.
Thank you for helping IOCH to continue to “Unite the people of God to work for a better Haiti.”
Praise God!
– IOCH founder David Garman
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