On a mission trip in
1999 the three founders of Trinity/HOPE visited the
children in three Lutheran Schools near Gonaives,
Haiti. The children the team saw in the second
school were especially gaunt, lethargic and
non-responsive. When they asked the Lutheran pastor
in the area what the problem was he said,
“The poor in Haiti
do not even have the concept of breakfast, lunch and
dinner. Haitians eat when there is food. The first
and third schools you visited have feeding
programs. The kids in those schools know, even if
there is no food at home, they are going to eat one
meal every day. We do not have money for a feeding
program at the second school, Concordia in Tarasse.
Those kids have no hope.”
We felt called to
feed the children in that school and when we
returned home we began to raise the money. People
responded. We raised the money for that school and
then another and another. Shortly after we started
feeding the first school the group which was
providing a meal for the first two schools moved
their ministry to another area. Trinity/HOPE now
feeds those children as well.
As we often say, “We
started feeding kids and God has just never told us
to stop.” We now have feeding programs which
provide a hot, nutritious meal at noon each day for
7969 students, teachers and cooks in 54 schools in
Haiti. We thank God daily for allowing us to be
part of His work in Haiti and we celebrate the
victory of providing a physical lifeline for these
children. However, there is still so much to be
done. For example, the 185 Lutheran Churches in
Haiti have a total of 135 Lutheran School. All of
those children (as many as 18,000) are hungry and
many are severely malnourished.
The people of Haiti
are spiritually hungry as well. While 65% of the
population practices Voodoo, they, for the most
part, are very open to the Gospel Message. Our
churches and schools are doing tremendous work and
we estimate that 90 to 95% of the children in our
schools believe in Jesus Christ and now 60 to 70% of
their parents are as well.
