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:update HAITI From Thy friends are exultations, agonies, And love, and man s unconquerable mind.

and the indiscriminate nature in which it had taken place. Within a few yards I witnessed all levels of destruction.

When I returned in October, it felt as if I d been watching a time lapse scene of the events I had witnessed earlier in the year.

Demolition of unsafe properties has taken place and rubble is being cleared; repairs to business that escaped the worst of January have been completed and new coats of paint have been

Behind the airbrushed, adjusted and whitewashed smiles on the faces of the Presidential candidates lay the potential that in the process the country could descend into violence and chaos.

The new look they had in February had been replaced by nine months worth of dust, the effects of weather and the bleaching of the sun.

I couldn t help but think what I thought many times in February: This is a nightmare for years to come! When

The children in their immaculately clean uniforms going to school; the hundreds of thousands of micro businesses on every inch of the roadside; the tap-taps (Haitian form of public

.. this is a people that not even the worst forces of nature are going to cower down so as to give up, lay down and die. This is a resilient and resistant people.

Here whole communities were being established and a plethora of international aid agencies were working to bring relief and rebuild people s lives.

1 :update HAITI From Thy friends are exultations, agonies, And love, and man s unconquerable mind. * *To Toussaint L Ouverture (founder of the Haitian Republic) By William Wordsworth ( ) When I visited Haiti shortly after the earthquake, I was profoundly affected by destruction and the indiscriminate nature in which it had taken place. Within a few yards I witnessed all levels of destruction. It felt like some giant had leapt about in a mad frenzy on this Caribbean land often touched by one disaster or another. When I returned in October, it felt as if I d been watching a time lapse scene of the events I had witnessed earlier in the year. It looked as if a lot had taken place, but I could well imagine that for Haitians it must seem as if progress has been slow and very painful. Demolition of unsafe properties has taken place and rubble is being cleared; repairs to business that escaped the worst of January have been completed and new coats of paint have been applied. I had just stepped past security and customs when I was reminded that elections were taking place in one month. Behind the airbrushed, adjusted and whitewashed smiles on the faces of the Presidential candidates lay the potential that in the process the country could descend into violence and chaos. Only a few hundred yards from the airport, I was confronted by the informal tent settlements that had been erected by desperate people shortly after the earthquake. The new look they had in February had been replaced by nine months worth of dust, the effects of weather and the bleaching of the sun. Some people had begun to use corrugated iron and wood and plastic and almost anything else to add to their little spaces. I couldn t help but think what I thought many times in February: This is a nightmare for years to come! When will you save the people, O God of mercy? When? But then, all around me, despair at what had not happened gave way to signs of hope. The children in their immaculately clean uniforms going to school; the hundreds of thousands of micro businesses on every inch of the roadside; the tap-taps (Haitian form of public transport) with their biblical references; the determined faces of Haitians getting on with living where all around me... this is a people that not even the worst forces of nature are going to cower down so as to give up, lay down and die. This is a resilient and resistant people. A day or two later, I travelled to Corail a camp where tens of thousands had been settled in temporary shelters. Here whole communities were being established and a plethora of international aid agencies were working to bring relief and rebuild people s lives. It s very easy to comment on the failings on international NGOs working (or not working) so well. I saw sturdy shelters replacing vulnerable tents, schools and clinics and security forces. Much had been done and much remained to be done. Yet for many there was a home where previously there was none and a place to plant a flower and a fruit tree and to begin to hope. (By Tom Quenet, Partnership Coordinator, Americas and Caribbean, World Church Relationships Office...Continued on Page 2)... Volunteers from Ireland help rebuild One side effect of the earthquake on the Methodist Church in Haiti was that it deprived the Church of a key source of income. The Church owned a number of large buildings in Port-au-Prince, and the money collected in rents from these buildings was often used to pay ministers and cover other expenses the Church faced on a day-to-day basis. Several of these buildings were completely destroyed in the earthquake and so the rental income was lost. It is impossible for churches to insure their property due to the very high cost of insurance against natural disasters in the Caribbean. (Continued on Page 2)

Four choirs had gathered for the Sunday service, two of children and young people from the college.

Prince, I have to admit that I lost it. I cannot speak or understand French and I had not been provided by a translator.

day... The road to recovery has hardly started for most Haitians.

I have been very deeply affected by the events I have witnessed in Haiti, I have been left with an assurance and belief if the durability and tenacity of

... Ireland team story continued... The Methodist Missionary Society (Ireland) is sending a team of volunteers to Haiti just after Christmas.

However there is another building which has been halfway completed already and which we trust we can finish.

This is an area where many businesses are now moving into as a result. The apartments would be very easy to rent out either as residences or offices.

personnel from the Haitian Church. We hope to be able to fund and run a temporary clinic in a residential area just outside Port-au-Prince, says Laurence.

We will be there during some of the school holidays and so we hope to run something like a short holiday Bible club for the children.

Britain in response to the Haiti Appeal.

2 Thy friends are exultations contined... Soon I was with Haitian Methodists, celebrating 50 years of education delivered through the flagship institution of New College Bird. Four choirs had gathered for the Sunday service, two of children and young people from the college. They all sang beautifully and we rushed to capture the miracle with our cameras but as I listened to the choir of the central Methodist Church in Port au Prince, I have to admit that I lost it. I cannot speak or understand French and I had not been provided by a translator. Yet as the tears streamed from my eyes, I found myself singing words that we all understood: We shall overcome, we shall overcome, we shall overcome some day... The road to recovery has hardly started for most Haitians. As I write this I am afraid of what I will hear about the damage caused by Hurricane Tomas. I have been very deeply affected by the events I have witnessed in Haiti, I have been left with an assurance and belief if the durability and tenacity of the Haitian spirit. A spirit carries you with it in search of justice, peace, faith and hope... and Haitians unconquerable minds.... Ireland team story continued... The Methodist Missionary Society (Ireland) is sending a team of volunteers to Haiti just after Christmas. To rebuild these buildings would cost much more than our team could ever raise, says Revd Laurence Graham, the team leader. However there is another building which has been halfway completed already and which we trust we can finish. It comprises two apartments which are located in a part of Port-au-Prince which did not suffer as much earthquake damage. This is an area where many businesses are now moving into as a result. The apartments would be very easy to rent out either as residences or offices. This means that if we can finish this building, as we hope to do, then a rental income will be available for the ongoing work of the Methodist Church in Haiti from early in As well as rebuild, the team is also aiming to provide medical help to people, with some medical personnel who will be working alongside voluntary medical personnel from the Haitian Church. We hope to be able to fund and run a temporary clinic in a residential area just outside Port-au-Prince, says Laurence. We will have to buy the medication for this. We also hope to spend some time in a Church orphanage which is next door to our building project. We will be there during some of the school holidays and so we hope to run something like a short holiday Bible club for the children. Methodist Church Britain (Haiti Appeal) Up to the end of October 2010, 482,700 had been received by the World Mission Fund of the Methodist Church in Britain in response to the Haiti Appeal. In negotiation with the Haiti District of the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas the money received has been used in the following ways: Supporting Young adults ( 3 year grants for 11 university students) 51,000 Supporting Ministry (Pastors salaries for nine months) 61,500 Supporting Education (Teachers salaries and school recovery) 89,000 Supporting Communities (Providing solar power for displaced people) 30,000 Supporting Women and girls (Women and Girls empowerment) 28,000 Supporting the Church (5 year administrative and strategic support) 76,250 Emergency Shelters (Tents to provide temporary classrooms) 12,600 Administration (Solidarity and planning visits by MCB) 4,200 Balance 131,150 It is estimated that part of this balance will be used to meet some reconstruction costs once plans have been finalised and it is anticipated that there will still be a need for supporting ministry once the resources allocated have been used. 2

3 Karen s Diary During September, former mission partner Karen Drayton spent three weeks in Haiti. Here are some excerpts from the diary she kept during her trip. I am a midwife working at the Liverpool Women s Hospital. I heard a report about Haiti at synod from the Revd Marcus Torchon, a Haitian minister on the Wirral, about how people were still living in tents in Haiti. I wondered why people are still living in tents when so much money gets sent by individuals and governments. I was so pleased to be offered an opportunity to go and see for myself. I went with a medical student Beth Hall, we stayed with a lovely family and worked in three different types of clinics, which gave us a small insight into Haitian life. Firstly, we worked with the Grace Children s Hospital, a local not-for-profit hospital. They run busy clinics for the poor in the area, children s clinics, TB, HIV, eye and general clinics. The saddest case I saw was a little girl who was two and obviously suffering from malnutrition, with ginger hair, the size of a six month old baby, listless and uninterested in life around her. Her mother had died and her father was struggling to cope. Beth and I also worked in two other camps with a Portuguese-based non-governmental organisation called AMI (Assistance Medicale International). They run clinics three times a week with their doctor, nurse and local nurses, translators and activists. The third type of clinic we were involved in was with an American church team. Ten people came for a week, to run a clinic and help rebuild the permanent clinic building. The clinic was held in the Methodist school, it was stocked with drugs donated by teams and churches. We saw 250 people in the week, all from the surrounding area. Marcus update For one Methodist minister in particular, the mission to rebuild Haiti following the January earthquake is a very personal one. Marcus Torchon is originally from Haiti but now lives in Liverpool. Thanks in no small part to Marcus efforts, the Wirral Circuit of the Methodist Church has so far raised 56, for Haiti. Says Marcus: I, along with other Methodists, have engaged the media, service clubs, the business sector, schools, churches in the Wirral, Liverpool and other communities with relevant updates, sensitising them towards making their own contributions to the rebuilding process. The Wirral Circuit has pledged its commitment to the Haiti District of the Methodist Church to rebuild the Leveque Methodist School located in the north west of Port-au-Prince. To-date, 60, has been raised toward the said project. Various circuits and organisations in Liverpool and the Liverpool District itself have contributed so far. The construction costs are estimated at 178, But it s not just financial contributions that the Wirral Circuit has made. Two Methodists a nurse and a medical student went to Haiti and volunteered their expertise in clinics and hospitals, under the patronage of the Haiti Methodist Church, Marcus explains. They were there for just over a month. The Church and friends of the Church donated 125 boxes of goods (toiletries, food stuff, clothing, and other items like: flash lights, batteries and umbrellas) as humanitarian aid. Various persons volunteered their times in packaging and loading up of the container, which was shipped to Haiti at a cost which was also borne by the people of the Church. 3 So, where does all the money go? The government may claim it hasn t been given the money promised by the international communities. Some could be waiting for the new government to be elected in November. Others claim that the charities in Haiti have the money, that very little is available to rebuild the infrastructure. The Methodist money has been well used, spent on projects suggested by the Methodist Church there, mostly for education, and rebuilding schools. Rome wasn t built in a day, and neither will Portau- Prince be. But like the kingdom of God, a vision of how it should be, leads to projects here, there and everywhere, to loving relationships being forged and to problems being shared and solved.i feel privileged to have been able to go and meet lots of special people in Haiti.

5 Haiti update 5 Nouveau College Bird of Haiti Celebrates 50th Anniversary There were celebrations in Port-au-Prince in October when the Nouveau College Bird of Haiti celebrated its 50th anniversary. One of the overseas guests who attended the ceremony was the Revd James L Gulley, a representative of the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) and the General Board of Global Ministries. He sends this report: Nouveau College Bird had ample space for the celebration of its 50th anniversary in Haiti s capital city. Four principal buildings are gone, destroyed by the 12 January earthquake; the rubble replaced by temporary classrooms and tents for school s reopening the first week of October. 1,300 students have returned to the institution, related to the Eglise Méthodiste d Haiti (EMH) the Methodist Church of Haiti. The half-century anniversary celebration, held on October was a time of thanksgiving for the resumption of classes and for the fact that no students or staff died in the earthquake. The 300,000 persons who were killed and the 1.3million left homeless were reverently remembered. The event included an exposition on the school s history and achievements, a Sunday service of worship, and a basketball competition. It brought commitments of support in rebuilding from UMCOR and the Methodist Church of Britain. Three choirs two adult and one of children provided rousing music for Sunday worship in the chapel, which had survived the quake. The Revd Dr George Mulrain of Antigua, president of the Methodist Church of the Caribbean and Americans (MCCA), preached. He challenged Haitians to move on in faith in the wake of the devastating earthquake, rebuilding spiritually and physically. Nouveau College Bird educates students from the primary grades through high school, plus two additional years (a baccalaureate diploma). Its roots extend into the nineteenth century, and it has nouveau (new) in its name because there was a previous Bird College. The namesake, the Revd Mark B Bird, was for more than 40 years a missionary in Haiti through the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society of Great Britain. New College Bird opened in The exposition left me with a much better understanding of the contribution of Nouveau College Bird and the Methodist Church school system to Haiti, said Lauren James, who is the liaison between the Church and UMCOR. MRDF Nine months after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, funds raised by MRDF now totalling over 435,000 have been used to provide vital supplies and services to those affected by the disaster. Gifts to MRDF s appeal have helped to support over 80,000 survivors by providing food, shelter, sanitation and medical supplies. Many of the people are from high-risk groups such as children, the elderly and the disabled. Although much of the emergency work funded by MRDF is taking place in the capital of Port-au-Prince, the charity is also supporting relief and rebuilding efforts away from the epicentre of the earthquake, in areas where other charities are not working. Some of the funds raised by MRDF are being channelled through the ACT Alliance: a group of churches and related agencies that support communities in emergencies worldwide. In the aftermath of the earthquake, they helped to provide regular meals, blankets, tents and tarpaulins to survivors. Thousands of children received emergency food supplies of enriched milk, spinach, beans and rice. MRDF was also able to help fund a water purification system in the Belair neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince, which provided 10,000 homeless Haitians with crystal clear drinking water the first clean water they have had since the earthquake struck in January. Gifts also helped to fund the construction of public toilet and shower blocks, wells and septic systems for controlling waste. This is playing a significant part in combatting the spread of diarrhoea and water-borne diseases such as cholera, which remains a critical concern. In addition to this, MRDF support has provided emergency medical care and trauma counselling. Donations to MRDF s appeal are also funding emergency agricultural assistance, through the Methodist Church in Haiti, to help 1,600 of the most vulnerable families particularly female-headed households. They are being provided with, goats and chickens, or with seeds, fertiliser and tools to plant crops for the next harvest. Rural families were affected by the earthquake in two ways, explained MRDF s Nick Burn. In addition to damage to houses, they often hosted displaced relatives from the cities which meant that livestock and tools were often sold and seed eaten for survival, undermining their livelihoods. This support is a muchneeded lifeline for these families. Thank you to everyone who donated to MRDF s appeal. Your generosity is helping thousands of people not only to survive, but to rebuild their lives.

6 6 Working in collaboration with others, since February 2010, money from the Haiti Appeal of the Methodist Church in Britain has been used to: pay teachers salaries, provide scholarships to students, help with church, school and clinic rebuilding, support the church s leadership, empower women and young girls, support pastors and their families, provide solar powered lighting units to people living in tents. The Methodist Church in Britain has worked with The United Church of Canada, The United Methodist Church, The Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas (MCCA), The Haiti District of the MCCA, The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), The Methodist Relief and Development Fund(MRDF) and The Methodist Church Ireland. Since January 2010, 482,700 has been received in donations. To date 355,000 has been used at the request of the Methodist Church in Haiti.

Partnership Visit to Eglise Methodiste d Haiti (EMH) January 2014

Partnership Visit to Eglise Methodiste d Haiti (EMH)-21-29 January 2014 Bon Dieu! This is what Haitian Methodists say to proclaim the goodness of God whenever His name is mentioned. For those that know