Air Mobile Ministries Haiti Summer 2010

Helping Haiti Without spending More Money

I have thought of six ways to contribute to saving lives in Haiti without spending any more money than you already do. Imagine if thousands of concerned people made these simple tweaks in their lives!

The Haitian people need our support right now, not when we can afford it.

Everyone can do these things!

The children are praying for help.
Be a part of the answer.






Six Ways to Help Haiti Without Spending More Money

1. Switch to Haitian coffee. If you drink coffee or know someone who does, buy Haitian coffee from www.elevationscafe.com or stop by the Air Mobile Ministries headquarters at 8850 Grissom Parkway,Titusville and pick some up. This coffee is smooth, rich and dark but never bitter. It sells for $7.00 for a 10 ounce self sealing bag. Buying coffee from Haiti puts money into the local economy, and helps the relief efforts of Air Mobile Ministries.
   
2. Purify your Own Water. The Zuvo water purifier uses ozone and UV to purify water just like the Voyager does in the mission field. With this machine purifying your drinking water, there will be no need to purchase bottled water again. It will pay for itself in a short time. Can't afford one right now? Several friends could pool their funds together, buy one Zuvo, then share it! Available at www.elevationscafe.com or at our headquarters.
   
3. Use GoodSearch as your Browser. Go to www.GoodSearch.com and type in Air Mobile Ministries where it asks "Who do you GoodSearch For?" GoodSearch donates one cent to Air Mobile Ministries for every search made. There is no cost to you at all. You can set your homepage to GoodSearch by using the tools on your screen.
4. Volunteer. Call 321-567-0332 for volunteer opportunities. We have needs varying from clerical, computer, and telephoning to painting, cooking and helping with yard sales! We also offer community service hours to students who need them.
   
5. Tell Others About these Ways to Help Haiti. If everyone shares these simple actions, the benefits would grow exponentially!
6. Pray. God's ear is open to those who are pleading for the cause of the poor.
   
   

God Sees All

Typical Haitian Church (Joe preached here last Sunday)

Typical American Church

Now try to sleep thinking about that.

Bootstraps

Bootstraps: Rebuilding Haiti, Rebuilding Lives

Yes, I have been thinking of ways to get Haitians back to work, and independent. I have been researching how Micro loans work with helping small businesses re-start. Haiti's economy runs on thousands of tiny businesses that keep the family fed and the community provided with the things it needs.

A woman travels with her donkey up a mountain and returns with fresh produce to sell in the city. A shop owner buys a barrel of cooking oil and dispenses it in smaller portions. The same goes for sacks of sugar, rice, beans and cornmeal. Charcoal is put into large elongated sacks and sold to women who cook with it. Ladies sit under colorful umbrellas behind small piles of garlic, onions and spices. They bought in quantity and pray to sell these at a modest profit.

Before the earthquake, Port Au Prince was like a moving supermarket. People carried items like bars of soap, pots of water, pencils, and underwear. Haitians know how to buy and sell. Haitian women, especially are shrewd business people. They work hard and often are the primary income earners for their families.



When we interviewed the "People in the Middle", the one thing that most people asked for was a job. They do not want to live waiting for handouts. They want and deserve to have employment.

Ladies who used to sell in the nearby market told me that they just did not have the means to get going in their business. Loans were not available and they don't have the cash to start up. They need bootstraps to pull themselves up by.

We will continue to study how Micro loans work and will soon be doing a trial run with five or more families that we know, right now in Haiti. These will be some of the people that you have read about. Nemorin, the father of Catastrophe will be one of the first ones to be offered a loan to start a small business.

We are currently accepting cash donations to help start this program. The loans will be small and will incur only a small interest, enough to get the Haitian entrepreneur profitable and to help the program be sustainable.

Together we can make a long lasting difference in the lives of Haitian families. Let's do this.

Return to the Middle and Other Places in Haiti

Our day began at 3am. We loaded the Cessna 337 with as much relief supplies as we could. The Ti Bourik (little donkey) can carry a nice load, especially when its passengers limit their personal items to just a small soft backpack. Five hours of circulation impeding immobility later, we saw the mountains of Haiti come into view through the hazy mist.

Intense heat followed by waves of dust infused, fly infested humidity welcomed us back to Haiti. No matter how long I am gone, once back in Port Au Prince, the stark reality of hardship and suffering that is Haiti comes down on me like a thick, old blanket, smothering and inescapable, yet familiar.



Nothing is easy in Haiti. Nothing goes as planned. We had a reservation at a car rental agency at the airport. After paying the deposit and filling out the forms, we discovered that the person with keys to all of the cars was not available. An hour later, we decided to change agencies and found ourselves in a better car with a better rate so, our thankful team piled in.



We had deluxe accommodations at Ruuska Village. Joe, Cindy and Juliet together in the small tent on a piece of plywood. I am still afraid to sleep under concrete in Haiti. I have seen too much. A prompt rooster made sure we did not oversleep. He started his reveille at 4am.



We revisited our friends in the middle of the road in Carrefour carrying boxes of prepackaged rice and soy meals. Again the people were so grateful. We were able to check up on little Catastrophe, now 6 months old. His mother told me it was her brother that had thought to name her son to commemorate his birth which had taken place under a sheet in the middle of the road just a few hours after the January 12, 2010 earthquake.



His dredlocked father, Nemorin MacKenzy was as helpful as ever in passing out the food. His only request; to help him find a job. This plea was repeated everywhere we went in Haiti. The people want to work. They want to do something to get themselves back on their feet and independent.



In the tent cities, life is hanging on the edge almost as bad as in the middle of the road. Their water supply is becoming inadequate for the swelling numbers. Children are hungry. Mothers are unable to make enough milk to nourish their infants.



Elda had given birth to a tiny girl named Kathy back in February. When I spoke with her, it was evident that she was starving. And so was her baby. This is one of those situations that although I know is repeating itself countless times all over Haiti, had become personal. I could not forget about her. Before we left, we stopped at a Haitian style grocery store and got her a supply of rice, beans, milk, oil and fish. We only wished there were enough for everyone.




Along with some American short term missionaries, we held an impromptu worship service in one of the tent cities. The Haitians love to sing and pray. How gracious they were to pull tables and chairs out of their tents so that we could be comfortable, even in the rubble.



An outdoor clinic was done where I saw quite a few cases of skin infections, TB, malnutrition, colds, and malaria.



About 70 pairs of shoes were given out to very grateful recipients!We also distributed a great amount of hygiene supplies and multivitamins.





Joe was able to deploy a Voyager in the MBD tent city where their only source of water was a small dark hole in the ground. The village leaders promised to take good care of the water machine.



Images of my brave brothers and sisters in Haiti continue to give me sleepless nights and disturbing dreams when sleep does come. My first day back in my office found me sitting mindlessly at my computer begging God to show me how to get help for Haiti. Is it with coffee sales (www.elevationscafe.com), water purifier sales, speaking engagements, book signings, facebook or twitter? I do not know the answer. I fall on my face before the God who sees all. And with my eyes closed I see Haiti...

Haiti 2010 Air Mobile Ministries

Who loves Coffee?

It is no secret that Joe and I are coffee lovers, especially Joe. In fact, I once asked him if he had to choose between me and coffee which would it be? He replied, "You don't want to hear the answer."

Actually coffee is a gift from God. And for the Haitian people, now more than ever.
Did you know that Haitian coffee is some of the richest and best tasting coffee in the world? You may have heard of Jamaican Bleu (which sells for $35.00 per pound and up). Haitian coffee rivals that. Basically, same tropical mountain growing conditions.

During one of my late nights up thinking and praying for ways to help Haiti, I realized that if coffee drinkers bought our Haitian coffee, then they would be helping to save lives in Haiti without adding any more expense to their already strained budgets.

Furthermore, if we could present this idea to businesses, small cafe's and churches who already make and serve coffee on a regular basis, all the more help for Haiti.
Thus began our launch of Haitian Coffee sales.

Please visit our online store (elevationscafe.com) and try some! We highly recommend the St. Marc blend. This coffee makes it easy to get out of bed in the morning. So here is the win-win-win. The coffee tastes great. Its price is comparable to any good coffee you may buy at the grocery store. Proceeds made from the sale of the coffee support our mission projects. Money goes back into the Haitian economy to help rebuild that nation. Haitians are employed several times in the production chain. God smiles.

Thanks for visiting! Let me know how you enjoy your coffee.
God Bless,
Cindy Hurston
"serving a thirsty world"

Why I can't sleep...

During our time in Haiti, we met so many families in need; really basic needs, food, water, shelter, clothes. We walked among them, touched them, prayed with them, held them, looked into their eyes. Each person had a story, lost homes, lost family, lost opportunity.

I am struggling with how to help people understand the needs of the Haitian people. We have about 6,500 people on our hearts right now that are in trouble in Haiti and whose condition is keeping me awake at night. That is 5,500 in the tent city Canaan II, 500 in the middle of the road in Carrefour, and another 500 living in tents in the courtyard of the abandonned Michelle Bennet Hospital.

Since arriving home I find myself just sitting at the computer at home thinking, how can I get some help for these people? We are working on our websites, newsletter, blogs, facebook, twitter and youtube! These are the tools that we have available. We are planning events at the Cafe to raise money and awareness. We are collecting small plastic toys (cars and trucks for boys and dolls for girls). We can't take them in until we have at least 1,000.


We need money to help re-locate the people in the middle. Then we want to try to start some micro-businesses to help them sustain themselves. I don't want to re-invent the wheel. I know that there are people doing these kinds of things, but it is difficult to break into the mega agencies. So we are taking Haiti in bite sized pieces (6,500 people at a time is a big bite!)


Most of all, I am trying to remember to cast my cares on Jesus. His arms are much better able to carry this burden than mine. But still, my heart aches, and I lie awake at night...

The People In the Middle

We (Joe, Cindy, Shaun and Austin) got up early this morning and met two friends from the village of Neply, Ti Blanc and Guinel.Then we actually visited the families who live in the makeshift tentlike structures that they call home since January 13th. The people live in the middle of the road in Carrefour,Haiti, on a narrow median.

We were received with joy and gratitude. We were so glad to have acquired the disaster relief kits (from N.E.W Missions) and the food (from Kids against Hunger). We spoke to mothers and fathers and many children. One lady told me she and her children had not eaten in three days. They have not been getting any help at all. "Well Mama", I said, " Start cooking! You will eat well tonight."

We met the12 day old baby of a 19 year old woman. She had delivered by Cesarean and then took her newborn to the middle of the road. Another baby, that was born on that fateful earthquake day, January 12th was given he name "Catastrophe".

Surprisingly, many of the people were young twenty something adults, most with one small child. And there were a lot more families living in the middle than we had estimated. Some of the dwellings were only as wide as a single bed; no room to stand. The heat was intense. There no sources of water or proper places to go to the bathroom.

We were told that a couple of children have died already, after being struck by passing vehicles.

By the end of four hours we had distributed 360 food packs (each serves 6) and about 100 disaster kits. As we went "house to house", we prayed for each family and tried to encourage them; told them they were not forgotten, that God loves them, that we would try to find more help for them.

Sadly, we ran out of supplies 90 dwellings short. We told them that we would return to help them soon. I felt myself starting to cry. The need is so great. We are so little. I know I am not done crying...

"With you wherever you go"

I am so glad that Jesus promised to go with us wherever we go. Get it? He will never leave us. It's not up to us to get it perfectly. We never could. What a relief that the Lord goes with us; never leaves us. This is the kind of promise that gives us the strength to make trips into the hurting places of the world knowing we are not alone.

My husband Joe and I will fly into Port au Prince soon for an amazing mission of mercy to help displaced people who are either living in makeshift tent cities or (believe it or not) in the middle of the road in Carrefour Haiti. The median of the road is less than 10 feet wide. Huge trucks, cars and motorcycles trudge by all day and night causing dust storms and spewing exhaust. The people are living in structures constructed of pieces of tin roof, sheets, and tarps. If the children take 3 steps from their bed, they could be hit by traffic! It is unimaginable. We plan to walk the entire community, speak to every family and listen to their stories. Then we will distribute 2,000 meals and other gifts we have gathered for this group. We will report back when we return.

This is what Elevations International Cafe is all about. Please read more at:

http://www.elevationscafe.com/

http://www.airmobile.org/

with love from Cindy Hurston

Elevations international Cafe

"serving a thirsty world"