After the food and fun, we gave them each a Christmas gift packed inside a plastic basket. Of course they all decided to put the baskets on their heads and pose for the pictures. ( Need to upload a couple of those, as they are a riot!). It was a great day and one that I don’t think the ladies will forget when next Christmas rolls around. So what’s new in the new year?? A lot!
We now have a storfront for selling jewelry in our house! It is proving to be a hit with the short term missions teams and people that come over for haircuts from Shelley. One short term missions team can bring in the same amount of income for the ladies as our jewelry parties, but the ladies get to SEE with their own eyes the excitement over the things that they are making. I am so proud of these ladies and can confidently say that the jewelry keeps blowing my mind as they keep getting better and better and more creative with their unique styles!
We have taken on a few more beaders. One lady came to me in tears, homeless and a mother of five with a nursing baby at her breast. She is now beading everyday and we have been able to get her into a home of her own for six months until she makes enough money to keep up on the rent herself. We have two pregnant women, both 8 months along, both 17 years old and both homeless that we are working on getting a home for so that they are prepared to take care of their newborns. Without shelter and a small income, it is only a matter of time before their babies end up in orphanages! We want to honor the fact that God gave their babies to their mothers and help them raise them as best as they can!
Other news! The Apparent Project will be opening it’s school this month! Hooray. This has been a long time coming as we have waited for the finances and the right students to do this with. As it stands, it will be just a morning school, from 8-12 in our garage ( where the women work in the afternoons). We were able to purchase school benches and supplies and were blessed with a donor who is going to be covering the teacher’s salary. We have six kids enrolled and will be staying with low numbers for now until we get our feet on the ground. The kids that will be coming are all kids in their early to late teens who haven’t been to school in a long time if at all. Most of them are pretty much illiterate. Our goal with them is to teach basic literacy, some English, and French in hopes that after a year or two, they could be reintegrated to the Haitian school system in order to get those much-sought-after papers and diplomas that are so crucial to success in Haiti. If you would like to sponser one fo these kids to help cover the cost of their school supplies, uniform, and the food that we will be feeding them, let us know, it would be a big help and would only help us make this school better for them.
I think that’s about it for now. Blessings to you and yours this New Year and I hope that you are full of wonder and delight of what is to come! I know I am!
