Meet Richard
Richard is a very special child who has been at Maison de Lumiere for over 3 years.  He has known much hardship and pain in his short life before he came to us.  Joining our home with his brother Willie Etienne, they were in poor health and had gone many days without food.  When their only living parent, their father, passed away unexpectedly, an older brother tried as best he could to take care of them along with many other siblings.  In desperation, he came to Maison de Lumiere hoping there would be room for his brothers.  When he found out we had room and that both boys could stay he was elated.

Richard, at first, was very shy and withdrawn.  He didn't play well with the other children and would often just sit alone.  Over the years, he has developed a young faith that has helped him deal well with some of his struggles.  Even though he is still working out issues in his life, he now knows that he is not alone and that he has a very real, living Savior who loves him very much and is always there for him. 

During devotions and praise and worship times, Richard's voice often rings loud above all the other children as he sings enthusiastically and with joy to his precious Lord.  He is no longer sad and alone but has hope through Christ and a new "bigger" family.  He struggled in Haitian school but now is one of the top students in the new MDL school and is speaking English with ease.  He is a very energetic and active boy who loves sports, marbles and playing games with the other little boys at the home (spies and ninja warriors being his favorites). He doesn't know what he wants to be when he grows up but feels,  whatever it is, that he wants to do something that helps other people. 

Please keep Richard in your prayers that his faith would grow and that he would become a strong man of God.

Currently, only 5 out of 51 children are fully sponsored.  (A fully-sponsored child has $200 in monthly support which may consist of up to 8 sponsors at $25 each).  You can sponsor a child for as little as $25 per month.

If you are interested in finding out more about child sponsorship, click here.

Throughout the year we are blessed by a variety of visiting missions teams -- some small, some large, some from churches, some family-formed, some young, some older -- but in every case, they are an incredible blessing to the mission, the children and Haiti. 

Some come to build things like playgrounds, benches, gardens, chicken coups and water systems -- work projects that improve the quality of life and function of the mission that might never have occurred if not for the team.  Others come to teach Bible classes, English, art, business, or vocational skills.  Some come to paint beautiful murals.  Some come to create fun VBS programs, sport clinics, hikes and even entire summer camp programs.  Some come to  put on medical and dental clinics or ravine and village feeding programs.  And others come simply to love -- to pour out love on these very special children and share the love of Christ. 
 
No matter what the purpose or vision of the team they truly do make a difference in the lives of these children, who for the most part, have not known moms and dads and families much of their lives. These teams become a type of extended family of sorts to the children.  Some team members end up touching the hearts of a few children and strike up new friendships -- a new buddy, brother or sister in Christ -- and they end up becoming a sponsor or pen pal.  Emails or letters from their special friends who offer encouragement and prayer and bless the children tremendously. 

With our new guest house, we are able to house 16-member teams comfortably, offering incredible Haitian meals, WI-FI, strong Haitian coffee, lots of space for planning, sorting, meeting, praying and one-one-time with God, not to mention close access to the children's homes.

Families and church teams who feel called to serve in Haiti know that they have friends here, safe and pleasant accommodations and an experience that may change them for the rest of their lives.

We are blessed beyond words for all the great teams who have given so sacrificially to come and serve the kids here at Maison de Lumiere.  If we had the space here to thank each team member individually we would.  We love you guys! 

Thank you and may God bless you abundantly.

We are blessed to announce a new web site for Child Hope International and Maison de Lumiere.  In the past we had two web sites to go to and people have expressed confusion over which web site they were supposed to go to. Finally, to clear the confusion, we have combined the two main web sites (childhopeinternational.org and maisondelumiere.org) into one simple, easily-navigated site that should answer all your questions, inquiries and keep you up to date on the latest happening and events.

We were blessed beyond measure to have Randy Nickel from Orange County and his talented design team donate their time and services to not only design the Child Hope web site but to give all of Child Hope's informational materials a whole new look.  Randy is a wonderful Christian man and creative genius who you should know about for your company's design and advertising needs.  His web site is www.nickelad.com.  We thank you, Randy and team for the great work!

We hope you can a take a few minutes to check out the new Child Hope web site and, if you have time, let us know what you think and how we can make it better.

Recently, an appeal went out to help improve the nutritional content of the third meal of the day at the boys and girls homes.  Haitian tradition has it that the meal right before one goes to sleep should be something that makes the belly fill full.  The stable meal has always been something called La Boule, a mixture of corn meal flour and sugar.  We have always tried to introduce new more nutritional meals but the complaint was always the same - "It doesn't make us feel full."
 
Susette, determined and unstoppable, said "I'm just going to go over and make all the kids a big delicious and healthy soup and see what happens."  So, she did and the kids went crazy!  They loved it and asked it they could have it the next day.  Encouraged, she trained the cooks, put together a healthy meal schedule and just stepped out in faith, even though we didn't have the budget (which amounted to an extra $20 a day or $600 per month).

With rising food costs, it is increasingly difficult just to maintain three meals a day, let alone introduce new higher cost foods to the mix.  Also, with child sponsorships dropping off, it became even more of a challenge.

Unbeknownst to us, a dear friend and one of our frequent visitors to Haiti who knew the challenge we faced, decided to do something about this and sent out an email appeal to friends to see if people would be able to help.

In a few days, over $2,500 was raised, covering meals for the next four months and insuring that the new healthy menu could continue. 
 
What a blessing and miracle from God that He would inspire someone to first decide to do this and secondly, that the response would be so amazing.  God is so great!!  Do I hear an "Amen"?