When a single project can house the homeless, create jobs for the jobless, protect the planet, and be self sustaining—all at the same time—Cross International would consider it to be just about the perfect project!

That’s why we’re so excited about a special enterprise being launched in Haiti. It’s an all-in-one housing program, vocational training program,

Boys of working age at an orphanage are learning how to assemble pre-fab houses that will go to families who lost their homes in Haiti’s earthquake. This will be a steady livelihood for them for years to come.

construction company, and livelihood for orphans.

Now for the details.

The houses are designed by Shelter2Home. They resist earthquakes, hurricanes, fire, termites, and 96 percent of the sun’s heat. They’re made of environmentally-friendly materials, yet you can’t tell them apart from traditional cement homes in Haiti. Through Cross’s support, these homes will go to families who lost theirs in the earthquake.

Right now, orphaned and vulnerable kids of working age at an orphanage in southern Haiti are getting trained to put these pre-fab homes together. They’ll be able to make a living for years to come while rebuilding Haiti, through the construction company they’re forming. Those are good job prospects considering Haiti had 80 percent unemployment before the earthquake!

Click here to watch a video and learn more about this ideal project!

Cross International has some great news to report from the field. Last year, we worked with one of our mission partners, Mission Evangelique Baptiste Du Su D’Haiti (MEBSH) to support 29 schools for restavek children in Haiti. Restaveks, or children working as indentured servants for their host family, are routinely denied the opportunity to attend school. These specialized schools teach them how to read, write, and do arithmetic, skills they would likely never learn otherwise.

Restavek students like this receive the education they need at MEBSH schools throughout Haiti.

And starting this fall, Cross will fund 10 additional MEBSH restavek schools! That means we’ll reach even more than the 864 restavek children we currently support through the classes and feeding programs we fund at each school.

Why is going to school so important for restaveks? Because they are Haiti’s ignored children, a segment of the population no one wants to talk about. More than 300,000 children, most of them girls, are restaveks (from the French rester avec which means “stay with”). Their parents, too poor to feed their children, send them to live with families in better economic situations with the hope that their children will have a better life and an education. But that’s rarely the case.

Restaveks are usually forced to work hard, and they are sometimes physically and sexually abused. And their host families often deny them the opportunity to attend school. Without an education, these children are doomed to be poor like their parents because they won’t have the skills to get jobs as adults. Even worse, these children grow up thinking they aren’t worthy of an education like the other children they see going to and from school every day.

That’s why it’s critical that restaveks get an education: to keep them out of poverty and to teach them that they are just as capable, smart, and worthy of an education as other children. MEBSH and Cross are working together through these grassroots-level schools to help restavek children value themselves and get an education. It’s just one way we can spread the Gospel message of Jesus in Matthew 18:5, when he spoke of humble children: “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”

Click here to read about the restavek schools and feeding programs Cross supports in Haiti. Help us welcome the children in the name of Jesus!

If there was ever a place in Haiti that needs help, it’s Gonaives.

Far from the city life of Port-au-Prince and the beauty of Haiti’s tropical

Emory Wilson truly has a heart for serving God’s children in Gonaives.

mountain ranges lays a barren desert on the northwestern coast. The landscape looks like the moon: white, empty, flat, and dusty. The city of Gonaives, which is home to about 200,000 people, blisters under the hot sun, and many of its people suffer from hunger, malnutrition, poverty, joblessness, and homelessness.

It’s here that Emory Wilson, one of Cross International’s mission partners, says God wants him to be.

“I’ve been dependent upon God to show me the way,” Emory says. “He’s been my strength and compelled me to go where I didn’t want to go.”

Emory began coming to Haiti in 2004 on outreach trips, and he moved to Gonaives for good in March 2008. Cross first began working with Emory in 2008, when Gonaives suffered horrible flooding. Today he’s building a new school in one of Gonaives’ worst slums, Jubilee, with help from Cross. Several classrooms are expected to open this fall in time for school.

To begin with, the Jubilee School will have preschool, kindergarten, and a

Several classrooms of the Jubilee School are scheduled to open this fall for students (photo taken July 2010).

class for “late bloomers,” or older children who need to start at the kindergarten level because they’ve never had the opportunity to attend school before. Emory plans to add more grades when the school is completely done.

With education, the children of Jubilee will have a chance at making better lives for themselves than the dirt-poor existence of their parents. The things they’ll learn at the Jubilee School—reading, writing, math, Bible lessons—will be tools they can use to get jobs as adults. These children are faced with some of the toughest economic conditions in Haiti, and thanks to Emory’s work, they’ll have what they need for a brighter future.

Emory says the school has been a community effort as much as anything.

“I liken this work to that of Nehemiah—when he went to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, each family built their part of it. When families come and see the work we do, I see what spot they can build along the wall…people are finding things and places they can do and are doing it.”

Click here to read about how you can help Cross International support education in Haiti. You CAN make a difference just like Emory!

Amidst the tragedy of the January 12 earthquake in Haiti, God worked through his people to offer a helping hand to children in need. One such person who interceded for God was Gladys Thomas, director of a multi-faceted ministry in Port-au-Prince that includes an elementary school, School of the Good Sower, and an orphanage, Haiti Home for Children. Gladys took in as many orphans as she could after the earthquake.

Evans, 13, found a new home at Haiti Home for Children after the earthquake.

One of those lucky children was Evans, 13. He had been living at an orphanage in Port-au-Prince before January 12. After the earthquake, that orphanage abandoned its children to the streets and closed. Evans was befriended by an 18-year-old street boy who took him under his wing like a brother. The pair cobbled together a shelter in a tent city and begged for money and food together in the streets.

Evans survived on the streets and in a tent city from January until April. Then a mobile medical clinic found him and learned his story. They contacted Gladys, who immediately made a home for him at Haiti Home for Children orphanage. At first Evans didn’t want to leave his new “brother.” But the older boy was 18, a veteran of the streets, and knew he couldn’t join Evans at the orphanage. In the end, the boy told Evans to go with Gladys—he knew his “little brother” would receive the care and love he needed.

Now Evans has a safe place to live, goes to school, and eats a hot lunch every day. Best of all, he learns about the comforting, saving message of Jesus—now that’s nourishment! Gladys is just one example of God working through his followers in the aftermath of the earthquake. With help from generous American Christians, Cross International supports Gladys’ ministries in Haiti, and we hope you, too, will join us in helping her reach out to more children in Port-au-Prince.

Click here to read about School of the Good Sower, Haiti Home for Children, and other ministries that Cross International supports in Haiti.

If you look at Haiti solely in terms of statistics, the picture looks bleak: barely half of Haitians over 15 can read and write, more than two-thirds of the workforce is unemployed, and about 15 percent of Haiti’s children are orphaned. And after the devastating earthquake in January, poverty and homelessness are on the rise.

Sedellia and her 3-year-old grandson, Marc, find hope in God after the earthquake.

But if you look at Haiti at the “people level,” you’ll see a different picture altogether, one of hope that comes from the Christian people of Haiti.

Take Sedellia Guerrier, 63, who survived the earthquake at her home in Gressier, which is just a few kilometers from the epicenter. When the earthquake hit, her house tumbled down around her, her son, and her grandson, Marc, 3. The damage appeared severe—a wall toppled on her son’s back and broke it, and her house was completely destroyed. But Sedellia looked through the destruction and saw God’s hand.

“The dust hadn’t settled when I began to pray and give thanks that my family was saved,” she said. By the grace of God, Sedellia’s son was not paralyzed from the injury. Marc, who had been inside the house during the quake, was found sitting on the roof of the collapsed home, which Sedellia calls a miracle. And after sleeping under a tarp with her family for three weeks, she praised God for sending them a tent to live in instead.

“When you don’t ask for something and it shows up, it could only be God that sent it,” she said. “A tent showed up and we slept in it for two months.”

Today, Sedellia lives next to the rubble of her old home in a one-room temporary shelter made of salvageable cement blocks and tarps. Seven family members live there with her. Despite losing everything, Sedellia thanks God for keeping them alive and knows he will help Haiti recover.

“It’s not money that makes you rich; it’s the power of God and love in your heart,” she says.

Click here to find out how Cross International is reaching out to earthquake victims like Sedellia—and how you can help!

In the midst of despair people around the world have been touched by the faith and resilience of the Haitian people in the months following the devastating earthquake that leveled Port-au-Prince on Jan. 12, killing thousands and leaving more than 1 million people homeless.

Cross staff members working in the field in the days and months after the earthquake saw this display of faith first hand. Our Haiti projects officer, Mike Henry, described this scene just a week after the earthquake:

“While walking amid the ruins of Port-au-Prince, I came across a spontaneous outdoor gathering of Haitian believers who had just watched their whole world crumble, now joined together in prayer and worship. The earthquake could take their homes and churches, but it could not take their faith! I was amazed by the joy, gratefulness, and prayerful resolve these Haitians were showing in the face of such devastation.”

And this wasn’t an isolated incident. NPR did a piece last week in honor of the six-month anniversary of the earthquake that touched on that very subject. A group of doctors shared an inspiring moment they experienced in the midst of tragedy and pain, at a makeshift tent hospital in Port-au-Prince. This happened to be there very same tent hospital that Cross supported with tents, medicines, and other aid after the quake.

In the piece, the doctors explain what happened: “…a man begins to play a guitar in the corner of the tent, and patients begin to sing.  Soon every Haitian in the tent is singing or clapping or dancing.  The song: “Jesus, thank you for loving us.” (Click here to listen to the full audio segment.)

These doctors were overwhelmed by the experience. As one put it: “It’s extremely humbling to be around a people that, in the worst time of their life, have it in their hearts to give gratitude for what they have left…”

This is reminiscent of the story of Paul and Silas praising and singing hymns to God despite being chained and in prison (Acts 16:25-31). And if you recall, through their worship the jailer came to Christ. Like this story, the Haitian people’s hopeful attitude despite the devastation caused by the quake is an amazing testament to the awesome power of God to overcome any circumstance.

Click here to learn more about what Cross has been doing in the last six months to help earthquake victims in Haiti.

More than 1 million people were left homeless after the earthquake. The survivors fled Port-au-Prince in search of temporary shelter and food.

This week marks the six-month anniversary of the massive earthquake that devastated Haiti on Jan. 12, killing more than 200,000 men, women, and children and reducing the capital city of Port-au-Prince to a field of rubble. Droves of traumatized survivors fled to the countryside in search of food, water, and shelter, and at least 1.5 million were left homeless.

As photos from Haiti published by the media this week show, the people are still in great need and it will take years for the country to recover. However, we at Cross are thankful for the progress that has been made with the help of compassionate Christians who have selflessly given to help Haiti.

Already, with their support we have been able to provide more than $73 million in cash grants and shipped goods to help those hurting in Haiti. This first helped us provide emergency relief — food, medicine, and other supplies — to victims in the days after the quake. It then enabled us to work with our ministry partners in the months after the disaster to provide recovery and relief to thousands of displaced earthquake victims living in refugee camps.

In addition to the food we continue to ship to earthquake victims, Cross has turned its efforts to recovery with a plan to build hundreds of earthquake-resistant homes.

Now, six months since the earthquake, we have been able to turn our efforts to long-term recovery — clearing debris to make room for new structures and rebuilding schools and homes. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, we’ve also began a plan to build hundreds of earthquake resistant houses in Port-au-Prince and three other regions for families whose homes were destroyed.

Please keep the people of Haiti in your prayers as we continue to work with our ministry partners to rebuild the lives of the earthquake victims.

Click here to read a full report of what Cross has been able to do to help Haiti in the last six months thanks to the generosity of American Christians.

This week, Cross was visited by the resource manager of a Christian orphanage we have been working with to provide earthquake relief and recovery in Haiti. Nathalie Amyotte shared a personal story that painted a vivid picture of Haitian poverty and the life-saving work of the orphanage.

Jamesley (center) and two of his brothers getting a physical at a Cross-supported orphanage.

One night, as Nathalie was getting something to eat, she saw children on the street begging for food. They were calling to her by name – “Madame Nathalie! Madame Nathalie!” – because she often helped the children in town. But this time, something was different.

“There was one child who was apart from them and he wasn’t begging and he wasn’t asking for anything,” Nathalie said. The boy was holding a plate of old chicken bones, and she realized he had collected them because he had nothing else to eat. Suddenly, another child bumped into the plate and knocked it over, scattering the bones across the ground. The boy raised his voice and cried as if grief-stricken.

“His cry will stay with me my whole life. It haunts me. Because his little chicken bones had been thrown to the ground and that is the only meal he was going to have that day,” Nathalie said. “I went to see him because I heard this cry. He was trying to wipe the dirt off his little chicken bones. And I said, ‘No, no – let’s go eat.’”

After feeding the boy, whose name was Jamesley, Nathalie visited his home. She learned that his mother was pregnant with her eighth child and about to get kicked out of her home. That very day, the orphanage gave the family money for food, paid for a year’s rent so they wouldn’t get kicked out, and agreed to take in Jamesley and one of his brothers. Now the boys are going to school and eating three meals a day.

The immediacy of the response is typical of this southern Haitian orphanage that has done so much to help the needy in the aftermath of the January earthquake, whether by taking in new children, sending food to displaced families, or even working with a local hospital. We are proud to support this great ministry as it spreads Christ’s love to the poorest of the poor!

Have you ever wondered why we call Good Friday “good”? A brutal scourging and execution would normally be considered a very bad day, to say the least.

Amid the ruins of Haiti’s earthquake, the cross remains a powerful symbol of hope.

But for believers, that bad day was the hope of mankind. It was the day Christ took on the penalty for our sins so we could have everlasting life. Without Good Friday, the Easter story of the resurrection would have no more meaning than a basket-carrying rabbit. But the true gospel is a story that transforms lives wherever it is preached.

The gospel message is a crucial part of Cross International’s ministry of mercy. That is true of our work in Haiti, where we have partnered with a U.S. church, Calvary Chapel Ft. Lauderdale, to contribute to earthquake relief efforts in the city of Jacmel. Read these excerpts from their church blog on how they’ve turned the crisis into an opportunity to share Christ:

Another team arrived in Jacmel this week. The team visited Mother Theresa’s orphanage, which is an orphanage for AIDS babies and very sick children. They had a wonderful time loving on the kids. Some were malnourished but all were aching for a loving touch. They stayed there for several hours feeding and playing with the children. The team presented the gospel there and several asked the Lord to be saved…. Some of the team took the boxes that we made up and delivered them to homes in the neighborhood. Each box was equipped with a Creole Bible.

Church volunteers also provided a vacation-Bible-school program for the local community.

There were almost 40 parents and children that raised their hand to receive Christ as a 17-year-old student shared the gospel. Team members had the opportunity to speak with them one on one…. Please pray that the Lord will continue to open doors to minister His gospel to the people of Haiti.

Romans 8:28 is one of those Bible verses that is easier to believe when life is going well. But when tragedy comes our way, that’s when we really need to hear that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him.”

Moise Vaval (center) and Cross Projects Officer Claudio Merisio (right) have worked together to organize aid distribution in Haiti.

This verse was a recent focus of our morning devotions here at Cross, and a very relevant one in light of the suffering we’ve been encountering in Haiti. God doesn’t promise us a carefree life, but he gives us hope in the midst of hardship and strengthens us to do everything to his glory.

One person who has displayed this supernatural hope is Moise Vaval, a Haitian pastor and long-time friend of Cross International. Moise lost his son Jean-Marc to the earthquake when a school building collapsed on top of him. Moise spent two full days digging through the rubble to find Jean-Marc, who was just short of his ninth birthday, but to no avail.

It would have been easy to succumb to despair, but instead Moise jumped into the disaster relief effort, all the while thanking God for sparing his other three children who had been in the same school. Moise’s volunteer service was crucial to our work, as he tirelessly coordinated the distribution of Cross emergency supplies to mission partners and refugee camps throughout the country.

God’s people very often shine brightest when times are darkest. Moise, like so many other compassionate Christians who work with us around the world, has been an inspiration to all of us at Cross. We can approach the difficult task of long-term recovery with cheerful hearts, knowing there is real hope for Haiti and for all who seek refuge in Christ.