TONY'S NEWSLETTER
AUGUST 2011
Dear Friend and Partner,
I’m just back from Haiti and I had a good look at what your EAPE gifts and prayers are accomplishing. The results exceed anything I had imagined! Our work down there on that devastated island nation is centered around education. In all that is being done, our missionaries partner with local people, and that’s why our team and missionaries call themselves Haiti Partners. They are partnering with seven Haitian schools, four of which were destroyed by the earthquake.
While visiting the Henri Christophe School I saw the new earthquake-resistant building constructed with dollars that you provided. Because it was summer, the school was not in session. Nevertheless, more than 75 studentsshowed up neatly dressed in their school uniforms to greet me. They sang some songs and staged a celebration to show their appreciation for their new school building that EAPE made possible.
The teachers at the school had been trained to teach in our teachers training program which, again, EAPE gifts had help make possible. There are more than 300 teachers trained each year in our program and they, in turn, are educating about 6,000 Haitian children.
Let me tell you about an incredible young woman who has linked up with Haiti Partners. Her name is Christa Brelsford. Three days after she arrived in Haiti to work in one of our partner schools, the earthquake hit and a concrete ceiling fell on her and crushed one of her legs. Two Haitian friends carried her on a moped to the nearby U.N. camp of Sri Lankan military personnel. The next day, amidst the post-earthquake chaos, she was evacuated to Miami where her leg was amputated. Instead of bemoaning her tragedy, she chose not to focus on her own loss but on helping people in Haiti who had lost so much. She helped to raise money to rebuild another one of Haiti Partners’ schools that had collapsed and eventually was able to return, walking on her prosthesis, to see that newly built school and the friends who had helped save her life. Christa is staying involved with Haiti, continuing her PhD studies, and has even returned to mountain climbing—now with a specially designed artificial leg. Her response to those who inquire about the loss of her leg is to only talk about how concerned she is for the thousands of Haitians who lost arms and legs in the earthquake, but did not have the advantages she had as an American with access to world-class health care. Stories like Christa’s are what make us want to do more for our Haiti Partners program.
What I’ve told you about in this newsletterdoes not begin to cover our other EAPE programs in Haiti that include a Christian education program that reaches 10,000 Haitians each year and uses Bibles donated by the Canadian Bible Society as reading textbooks; a community development work; and an extensive outreach to children who have been reduced to slavery. There’s just not enough room to describe all the work that EAPE helps sponsor.
Pray for our ministries; not only for the work in Haiti, but for all of our ministries among “at-risk” children in eleven different cities across North America; as well as for missionary enterprises in several foreign countries that include the United Kingdom, the Dominican Republic, Malawi, Honduras, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. And remember to continue your giving. Your gifts are essential to Christa, Haiti Partners, and all that we do in the name of Jesus around the world.
To see more pictures and videos of the work Haiti Partner's is doing click here!
Sincerely,
P.S. You can make a one-time gift or schedule a monthly pledge of support for our Red Letter Christians discipleship campaign by clicking here. Your gift will make a difference!
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ABOUT TONY + AUGUST 2011