Support Letter for Haiti

**just putting this up so anyone who didn't get a copy can see and know 

Dear Friends,

Just over a year ago I announced a move to Korea to teach English. Going to Korea was never an ambition or desire, but after research and closed doors, I found that Korea was a viable option. Teaching in Korea provided opportunity to gain experience teaching English as a foreign language, live abroad independently, and save money.

Korea was always meant to be a stepping stone to Haiti, the place I’ve longed to dwell since the first sunrise I watched from a Port au Prince balcony in 2006. In the past ten years I’ve traveled to Haiti seven times, always short-term. In 2006, ‘07, ‘08 and ’11 I joined a Danville Baptist Church team led by Al Perkins, working dually with concrete and children. In December 2011 I joined with an Art and Music Therapy group from my college. In January 2014 I was part of Al Perkins’ Turbo Cam team at Siloe School. July 2014 was the last trip: I co-managed a Vacation Bible School program for Siloe neighborhood children with Donna Edwinson. We fondly called ourselves “Team Deux (2)” and marveled at God’s provision with our provisions intended for 50 children.

Each trip has been a struggle involving bitter tears, excessive sweat, and heart-rending joy. At 14 I wanted to go to Haiti for a new experience, to hold babies and bare my arms in a concrete bucket-line. What I got was devastation. My thinking and ambitions were devastated beyond repair. And like many before me, I’ve realized that despite the immense hardships of the third-world, there isn’t another place I’d rather be.

Today, I have the chance to act on God’s calling. I have committed to one year at a school in Petit Goave, Haiti. The school was founded in 2014 by Ms. Beverly Burton, a Texas teacher, and is a satellite of Ms. Sherrie Fausey’s Christian Light School (CLS) in Port au Prince. This is the third school year in Petit Goave: the student body has grown to 121 children, aged three to eight. Since 2015 Ms. Beverly has been praying for another native speaker to come and teach English with her. Through God’s grace we connected and agreed I should go. On August 29 I should depart Boston Logan, connect with Ms. Beverly in Miami, and accompany her to Petit Goave.  

As the school is new and extremely limited on resources and English, the program is flexible. The current plan is that I will take over Ms. Beverly’s English classes, commencing phonics with the eight-year old students and beginning an adult program for parents. All of the students have basic beginning English or none at all. The school currently rents a building with basic classrooms furnished only with seats for the children. There is no electricity.

I don’t know what to expect from the year to come. After all, we can make our plans but God determines our steps (Proverbs 16:9). Surely He will challenge me immensely, physically and emotionally. Am I prepared? Certainly not. We can never be properly prepared for life. Am I ready? Yes. I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for a long time.

I need help. While in Korea I did gain experience and save money. However, despite faithful monthly payments I still have student loans from college, and while in Haiti must pay monthly living expenses. Ms. Beverly and I will live with a Haitian pastor and his family. They will provide us two meals a day, shelter, and transportation. The area is well-secured. I will be responsible for room and board fees, plus monthly transportation costs to and from Port au Prince (to buy necessities and visit the main branch of CLS) and materials for teaching. The anticipated costs are approximately $600 per month. With my savings I will continue to make payments on the student loans and partially fund living in Haiti. As the school is donation-supported, I will work there voluntarily, rewarded with blessings abundant but not a salary.

Please consider supporting me. While in Korea I was covered by an immense and humbling amount of prayer, from loved ones to folks I’d never met. Many people wrote to me, showering my desk at school with more mail than all of my co-teachers put together. I pray that I continue to be so blessed.

I ask you for prayer, and if you are called, financial support. Funds are for the benefit of those in Haiti, the school children, staff and parents for whom education is impossible without aid. And a better future is impossible without education. Haiti is an oppressed country. Currently there is an interim president and frequent political protests. There is hunger, sickness, ignorance and voodoo. But God is there, and He dwells in the hearts of many.

We pray He will become known to many more, and be in the hearts of those children who can grow up to make a difference in their broken country. I hope to make a difference to them through teaching and witness of God’s love.

Thank you for your generosity in reading these words.

God bless you.

Warm regards, anyeonghaseyo안녕하세요and bonne journée.

 

Keep in touch!

You can follow me on my blog “Ramblings” http://rachelallyssaramblings.blogspot.com/

and the CLS Petit Goave school page: https://www.facebook.com/WhereHeLeadsHaiti/

where there will be updates from our life and work in Petit Goave.

As mail service is unreliable, I appreciate communication through Facebook and email: rachlyssa_9033@yahoo.com

Checks can be made personally to me, Rachel Collins, or to Christian Light School with my name in the memo line. Checks to Christian Light are tax-deductable.

The website is http://www.christianlighthaiti.org/.

The mailing address is

Christian Light School, Inc.

PO Box 23098

Jacksonville, FL 32241-3098

~Rachel Collins