A Fundraising Success

By Sara Dessieux

The ProHaiti Benefit Dinner Auction held Friday, October 19 in Stayton, Oregon was quite a success. In the months leading up to the night, my husband, Guesly, and I had many doubts about how it would turn out, but we would end up by saying, it will be something anyway. And after our latest trips to Haiti this past May and June, we both individually felt very compelled to do something to give our friends at Haitian Christian Mission a boost financially.

Around 120 people attended the benefit held at our church, Foothills Church, where we had nearly 160 items that had been donated to us to be auctioned off. The decorations that our friend Robin envisioned and then made a reality were stunning. The guests were surrounded by photos taken by our friend Eric, a professional photographer who has been to Haiti with me twice now. Between event sponsorships, the silent and live auctions, and outright donations, we raised over $37,000 for HCM.

Guesly and I had never planned anything like this before, and most of the time it felt very overwhelming. But while watching for the first time a brief narrated slideshow that I had written out, but a couple friends of mine had produced, the reason we did all this came rushing back to me. Before me was the face of the dying baby whose life I saw being saved at Fonds Parisien a couple years ago. And along with that face came the literally hundreds of others I have interacted with at HCM during my time spent there whose lives have been changed by HCM. It has been exciting to watch interest be ignited in the people of my community here in Stayton, Oregon.

Edwens and Wendy flew out to take part in the event and to spend some time getting to know the leadership at our church. You can click on the link below to hear a podcast of what they were able to share during our Sunday service. (Sometimes it takes a few moments for that page to load.) It is the messsage titled Grace - part 5.

http://podcast.foothillsstayton.org/

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 Another fantastic fundraiser, this time a golf tournament and silent auction, was held in Cincinnati, Ohio in July. Edwens was able to attend that event as well and $21,000 was raised. Also, twelve new people signed up to be child sponsors. The event was organized by Kristin Westerfield, a neonatal nurse from Ohio State, along with the whole Westerfield Family. They plan on making it an annual event.  We are thankful for their passion and hard work.

Translation Transforms

Play It Forward Accomplishment

By Alison Gaddis

WOW! What an amazing year we have had so far! God has truly blessed Play It Forward (PIF). This year our soccer team advanced all the way to the final match of what would be equivalent to the Super Bowl of soccer in Haiti. We played five single-elimination matches to advance to this level of play. Our U18 team was playing against players who are older, stronger, and nutritionally more satisfied. But it was obvious our coaching staff, program director Thonny Fabian, and the PIF players would not allow that to get in their way. They fought through many adversities to make it to that playoff game.

The photos below shows how badly they wanted to reach the field. With no bus available, they rode in the HCM dump truck and had to push it up the hill just to jump start it. (Nothing like a little pre-game warm up.)

The final score was 2 to 1. We did not win the match, but we won the hearts of Haiti! There were over 400 people in attendance shouting, "P-I-F, P-I-F!"

In other news, PIF Basketball has thirty players now. Also, PIF raised enough money to get the big yellow school bus refurbished.

News Briefs 

• Following Tropical Storm Isaac, IDES and other generous donors gave $32,500 to be used to repair or replace roofs. At this point, the roofs on ten homes and the Fonds Parisien school have been fixed.

• One hundred and fifty 6th and 7th grade students at Lake Aurora Christian Camp raised $1,600 to purchase Bibles for a new church plant in Meyer! That new church building, located near Croix-des-Bouquets, will be dedicated in December.

• Three interns are serving at HCM this fall.  On the left is Lexor Adams. He works in marketing, with some photography on the side. In the middle is Kyle Glunt. He works with visiting teams and helps coordinate what they're doing. On the right is Nick Phelps. He works with HCM construction staff and visiting construction teams. Please pray for them and the work they are doing.