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| Child Hope International | August 2012 |
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Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Author and Perfecter of our Faith.
Thanks to all of you who prayed and donated to help Isaac storm victims.
Living in Haiti, we are accustomed to crisis response but this storm truly hit us harder than expected. The years of wear and tear already on most of our neighbors' tent homes became evident when the storm hit. The severe winds and hard rain almost vaporized some homes. They were already in bad shape, which made it easy for the storm to reek such quick devastation.
What really blessed us was the quick response to our call for assistance. Immediately, funds came in online that allowed us to act swiftly -- purchasing tent repair materials, food, blankets and to pay for hospital care and prescriptions.
It was a tremendous demonstration of the people who read this newsletter and a testament to God's faithfulness to inspire and motivate so many people to act.
One of the most wonderful aspects of the response is that it was from a lot of people, some giving $5 and $10 dollars, others giving more. But it was the a true demonstration of the body of Christ at work.
We have been actively repairing and rebuilding tents since the day after the storm. We are trying to rally together repair teams, mostly from the tent cities themselves. We are averaging 10-15 repairs/rebuilds per day and have roughly 500 tents requiring work. The work ahead is tremendous.
We are so very blessed to have Ivens Bastiens and Dean Bates here to help pull this gigantic effort together. What a tremendous value they are!
In times of difficulty, we can often feel alone out here on the front lines but not this time. We feel like we have an army of God-fearing, loving people, standing beside us, arm-in- arm, as we move forward to complete the task ahead -- ALL for the glory of God!
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your generosity, prayers and support.
It is our continued prayer that as we help our neighbors during this time of crisis that they will not see us but, instead, the very Living God in Whom we serve. To be Him be all glory, honor and praise forever! In Christ in Haiti, The Manasseros |
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Hundreds Rally to Help Storm Victims
 In an unprecedented response to a call for help from Child Hope, hundreds of people from around the globe generously donated to aid Isaac tropical storm victims in Port-au-Prince. Individual donations poured in from Australia to Ireland to Canada to Redondo Beach. At the time of this writing, over $40,000 was raised.
"The needs are so very great, we just stepped out in faith, trusting that the Lord would provide so we could help our neighbors in such dire need," said Bill Manassero of Child Hope. "These are the families of the children we serve regularly through the muTch feeding program, students from our school, families we work with daily."
Friday evening, tropical storm Isaac, which claimed the lives of 24  persons across Haiti, ripped through Port-au-Prince, tearing roofs off of makeshift tents, flooding homes in a nearby ravine, and destroying homes throughout Siniace tent city nearby Child Hope's Maison de Lumiere (The Lighthouse) mission.
Families without homes struggled to find shelter amidst the pounding rain and raging wind. Children were taken into the Lighthouse's girls and boys homes, as interns, staff and the children at the homes worked with the new children to put them at ease, provide food, water, dry clothes and a safe place to sleep.
 One elderly woman was found unconscious, laying on the floor of her tent. She was taken to a local hospital for care. Lauren Clark, a long time friend of Child Hope, visiting at the Lighthouse guest house, accompanied her to the hospital with boys home manager Fritz Desir. "The poor woman was listless, not moving. People had to carry her to our car and into the hospital. We were not even sure if she would live." She is now receiving round-the-clock medical care.
Ivens Bastiens, director of MDL School, one of the directors of the  feeding program and "unofficial mayor" of the local tent cities, was out with the victims throughout the storm, routing people to safe shelters. "Over 500 tents are in need repair or rebuilding. The donated funds will be put to good use," said Bastiens. It is estimated that each tent rebuild costs $200US.
 Ivens, Dean Bates, a team of MDL boys, and some local tent city residents rebuilt 12 tents in one day. "With the continued help from the local guys here and our kids, we are confident we can restore homes to a lot of families," said Bates.
No major NGOs or non-profit organizations, such as the Red Cross, Unicef, etc. were present. It was just the united efforts of Child Hope, a handful of local churches and other local ministries that were there to lend a hand.
Bill and Susette Manassero were elated with everyone's efforts. "We are so very grateful to all those here who rolled up their sleeves locally to help and for all the people around the world who listened to God and generously gave. Thank you, Lord, for answering our prayers. We truly serve a Great God!"
If you would like to contribute to this effort, you may do so here.
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Photos From Haiti
 | | Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara Junior High Missions Team painted a beautiful mural in the bins highlighting Psalm 104 and Galatians 5 (the fruit of the Spirit). |
 | | Daniel Leostene enjoying lunch at H20 Camp. |
 | | Robert Taylor talking with H20 campers |
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News Briefs
 Cherline - Great news! Cherline's ear is almost completely healed. In fact, the doctors are so pleased with the results that they are going ahead to schedule the second operation on her other ear.
Estaline - We are in the process of obtaining a medical visa for Estaline to have genetic testing in the states. By the grace of God we have found a doctor/hospital that will do the testing pro bono and a host family in New York. Now we await the visa approval.
 Markenson - We are still trying to obtain a visa for Markenson to get to Bible School in Ghana. Unfortunately, a visa is required for his short connection in the states and he was denied. We have a visa for Africa but not for the flight connection in the US. We are reapplying and looking at flight options that will provide connections in other countries that would be as stringent as the US. We pray he will make it to Africa by January for the new school session.
MDL Graduation - The MDL School held graduation  ceremonies this year at Quisqueya Chapel. We had 12 students graduating out of 6th grade into secondary school (8 of which were in our orphanage) and 4 Kindergarten students graduating into 1st grade. It was a beautiful event complete with songs, dance, skits and the diploma presentations. Graduating MDL 6th graders included: Adeline, Chabine, Chedline, Cherline, Christella, Clermond, Daniel and Love-Mitha. The graduation gowns were made by our girls in the transition program sewing program.
Government Test Results - Haiti requires that students pass a difficult government exam in order to advance. These difficult tests are administered for 6th, 9th, 12th (Retro) and 13th (Philo) grades. If you don't pass the exam you do not advance to the next grade and must wait a year to take the exam again. Great news! All of our MDL kids passed both the 6th grade and 9th grade government exams. Congratulations!
If you are interested in helping out or contributing in some way to the transition program, contact us at info@childhope.org.
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 | Gabby and Brittany from Child Hope stateside
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Positions Available at Child Hope
The Lord has blessed this ministry over the past few years and to the glory of God, we have grown tremendously! We're looking to support that growth by adding more state-side staff to help facilitate all the logistics that go into operating Child Hope. Presently we have Brittany Warner, our incredible Business Administrator, who oversees all our accounting and office administration. Recently we've welcomed Gabrielle N
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Brittany and Audra Lewis
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ord, our new Donor Relations and Networking Administrator, and she has been awonderfully enthusiastic addition to our Child Hope team. We also want to thank Audra Lewis, a recent UCSB graduate, who interned in our state-side office for 3 months in the spring! She was so instrumental in helping us with preparing for our celebration dinners in April.
Are you interested in joining the Child Hope team in Santa Barbara? We have one paid position opening for a Team and Intern Coordinator. Click on the attachment to see a full job description, candidate requirements, and directions on how to apply. The last day to apply will be September 10th.
Do you enjoy volunteering or are you a Santa Barbara college student wanting to help in our office for 3 months? We have two unpaid internship opportunities available. Come join our team and learn more about missions work in Haiti and experience working for a growing non-profit ministry! Click on the attachment to see a full job description, candidate requirements, and directions on how to apply." We also have at-home positions for Newsletter Writer/Editor and ... Positions in HaitiWe are also looking for missionaries to serve with Child Hope in Haiti. Some of the positions include: - Girls Home Nannies
- Operations/Finance Manager
- Transition Home Team Members (Mentors/trainers in business, furniture making, sewing, silk screening, IT, graphic design, baking)
For information on these positions in Haiti contact info@childhope.org.
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Upcoming Events
June 29 - July 6
Sept 7-14 - Times Square Church - NYCSept 21-28 - Ranch Church - Santa Barbara, CA
Oct 6-13 - Carmel Presbyterian Church - Carmel, CA Oct 19-26 - Grace Church - San Diego, CA
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