World Wide Village Blog

“We don’t go to Haiti to build, we go to build builders”

Curt Christensen, a Watertown, MN resident and owner of Lee Lyn Construction, traveled to Haiti recently with his daughter Jessica to build homes. A year ago Curt went to Haiti with his other daughter, Dana, to build, and he said he’s already planning a trip down next year. Like so many team members who travel to Haiti with World Wide Village, Curt and his family have fallen in love with the people of Haiti, especially the children.
This was Curt’s second building trip to Haiti. Last year he went to Haiti to build homes with his daughter Dana. Curt said he is already planning to return to Haiti again next year — with both daughters?

Curt and Jessica were most impressed with the selflessness of the Haitian people. When Jessica gave a child a granola bar the child carefully broke into several pieces to make sure the other children got a piece, and when she brought water to one of the local Haitians she was working with he made sure to only take a bit and pass it on. Each worker made sure to leave enough so that even the last worker got enough to drink.

While Curt and Jessica went to Haiti to build a home, a snafu with the land title forced them to change plans — a frequent occurrence in Haiti. Instead of building a home, he, his daughter, two other Americans, and seven local men added two rooms to the schoolhouse in Williamson, Haiti. The addition will allow the school to expand from K-6 to K-8 this year. The change didn’t bother Curt or his daughter.

“We don’t go to Haiti to build,” Curt said. “We go to build builders.” That’s a good thought for anyone working to re-invent and rebuild Haiti — “We don’t need to just build buildings, we need to build communities of people.”

Thank you Curt and Jessica.

Empowerment and Prayer

Written by Erin Blodgett

In December 2011, a group from Brookview church in Washington traveled to Haiti with World Wide Village.  Part of their trip included conducting self-defense training for Haitian women.  Erin Blodgett tells her story below: 

     ”In the 10 days prior to Christmas 2011, 

I had the opportunity to travel to Haiti to teach women personal safety & survival skills. What an amazing experience! My heart was broken on several occasions, but ultimately I left knowing that I would be back. I quickly learned that my passion for teaching women can be used to meet a need that is so critical. The personal safety/survival skills taught through My Will To Survive empowered & uplifted women who live in fear of their lives daily.

     I traveled with a team from Brookview Church and through a partnership with World Wide Village, we held 2-day clinics with three different groups of women. The first was for a group of amazing and beautiful women in a deaf community outside Cite Soleil. Not only do these women face the challenges of being female in Haiti, but are further disadvantaged and victimized due to their disability. The second group, in a rural village called Luly, had a large representation of teenage girls.  Our final group was in Cite Soleil, the harshest slum and crime infested city in the Western Hemisphere. The amazing thing about all the women we trained is that they are just like you and me. They have similar dreams and desires, and they face some of the same fears. I quickly learned that across the cultural and language differences, we’ve been created with the same heart.
     There were 10 of us from Brookview Church who participated in this trip to Haiti. Although we all brought different talents and abilities, we all came with a heart to love women. My passion is empowering women and fighting injustice through personal safety training, but the clinics would not have been successful without the pieces brought by the others in our group. Our pastor and his wife, Jason and Jen Huguenin, taught the women attending the clinics about God’s design for relationships, His desire to fill that emptiness every woman feels, and they shared about God’s amazing grace. My husband and I taught some basic information about sex ed and God’s design for sex. We also had a loving and amazing group of six women who came to serve the Haitian women by washing their feet, anointing them with oil and finishing with a toe polishing.  One of the women from Brookview – Lori Boe – also dreamed up and implemented a prayer program, pairing a woman in Haiti and a person from the United States as prayer partners for the year of 2012.

   My continued goal is to empower women across the world. No matter who we are, where we live, what we have, there is the possibility that we could be victimized. God willing, I will be back to Haiti in 2012 to reconnect with some new friends and to impact the lives of others, and will continue teaching women and girls here at home with all proceeds going directly to train women in Haiti.”

     You too can be a part of an amazing experience like Erin’s.  Join a World Wide Village trip and share your skills and your heart with men, women and children in Haiti. Go HERE to find a date that fits your schedule. 

See you in Haiti!

2 Years Since the Haiti Quake — Looking Forward

Today marks the two-year anniversary of the devastating 7.0 earthquake in Haiti. While it would be easy to focus on the hardships that day created, World Wide Village (WWV) is taking a cue from the people we work with in Haiti. These Haitians aren’t looking back, they’re looking forward. Yes, there are struggles, but there is also much that is positive in Haiti these days.

Today a new president, Michel Martelly, leads Haiti. President Martelly is pro-business and pro-education. He has promised a free education for 800,000 Haitian children — an absolute must if Haiti is to grow into a better future. Political change is moving slowly in Haiti, but it is moving and in the right direction!

For WWV, the improvements we have seen have been nothing short of miraculous. We dedicated an awesome new school in Luly for 350 students; planted a community garden that promises better nutrition and economic development for 26 families; and built a bio-digester that will improve food production and reduce waste pollution – all in Luly. Beyond Luly, we are building homes in Gonaives, building classrooms in Williamson, supplying food for thousands of children per day, and providing help to several children’s homes and schools.

2011 was a phenomenal year for World Wide Village, being able to expand a hand up to more families and communities. 2012 is already shaping up to be another stellar year for being the hands and feet of our God.

We regularly lift our prayers for those still dealing with the loss and aftermath of the earthquake, but we also pray that God continues to bless WWV with the faith, people, energy and money to help transform lives, empower communities and love people in Haiti and beyond. We know that with the support of our friends and faith in God, the future for Haiti is bright. Will you help us keep the good news coming?

Three areas particularly can use your support:

(1)  We are grateful for the 142 children sponsored through our Student Sponsorship Program, but still have 500 waiting for sponsors. At just $28 per month, you can transform the life of a child.

(2)  Help us reach the World Wide Village Family Housing Fund goal of building 400 homes. We currently have commitments to build 30 homes, but still need the funds to move 370 families out of tents and temporary structures into permanent homes. With a donation of $5000 you can build a home for one of those families and provide employment for five Haitians.

(3)  Mission teams are a vital part of our ministry in Haiti. We have many teams already booked for 2012, but have room for many more teams to work alongside us in Haiti. Maybe 2012 is the year you finally take that trip. Call us or email us today to start planning your mission trip.

Taking a Leap of Faith to Haiti

Written By Michelle Bruhn

One might think from their excitement that the Kelley’s have won the lottery or inherited a vast fortune and in their eyes, they have.

This Knoxville, TN family is moving to Haiti January 10^th, 2012 with World Wide Village (WWV) as long-term missionaries. Brad, Shannon and their daughter Lena, are taking this leap of faith because they are “beyond a doubt sure” it is exactly where God wants them to be His hands and feet.

As often happens when we let God take the lead, their story of deciding to make the move is pure beauty. Shannon’s initial Haiti mission trip was cancelled because of riots in Haiti, but a friend knew of another organization that was going soon. That mission trip was her introduction to WWV, during which she fell in love with Haiti and its people. On her way home, still in the airport, Shannon got the feeling she was supposed to move to Haiti. As she wrote in her blog entry on August 31, 2011,   “It was the realization that I’m not sure why He chose Haiti, or me, but this country has my heart in a vice grip.” The next two months she and her husband questioned what a move to Haiti would look like. And then came the quiet time, waiting for God to lead. 

Shannon then started a conversation with Randy Mortensen, president of WWV. The first result was Brad and Shannon going to Haiti together in May, experiencing a full week of God talking through the people of Haiti confirming Haiti being their home. They came back to Knoxville and talked, prayed and waited until one night they both knew they were ready to make the move.

They made a list of things that had to happen in order to leave their life in Knoxville: sell their house, photo studio, cars and find homes for their pets. Checking things off their list turned out to be an exercise in listening to God and taking time to follow through. Everything on the list was taken care of, with God-ordained simplicity, in 32 days.

Now, four days before the plane takes off Shannon feels, “this is such a surreal place to be, waiting, wanting to be there, saying goodbye, and getting our four-year-old ready for the changes.” They have tried to include Lena in every decision. “We’re planning for daily time to just be a family and to being alone with God to help all of us stay grounded,” says Shannon.

Starting with their “Haiti 100 List”, the Kelley’s goal is to create a comfortable home base in Haiti for WWV’s short term missionaries. “We want the volunteers to feel like they are part of something bigger than their one week. Once people get the vision and mission of WWV, the week becomes a starting point for a deeper relationship with the Haitian people,” shares Shannon. They want to develop their own deep relationships with local people as well, bringing their stories to us through Shannon’s award winning photography. “This is just the beginning of so many beautiful stories, I can’t wait to tell them to you,” says Shannon. Follow their adventure at the World Wide Village blog: 
 http://www.shannon-kelley.com/blog/

World Wide Village is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization founded in 2001. The organization’s objective is to transform lives and empower communities through loving people as Christ did. The main focus areas are: Christian education, local churches, nutrition and health care, housing construction, sustainable agriculture, economic development, and safe drinking water. WWV’s ‘entrance strategy’ is founded on building relationships with the people of a community and understanding their real and specific needs coupled with available resources and realistic attainability. They then strive to be a catalyst for multiplying the creation of vibrant communities while working to eliminate chronic dependency. By listening first and then proceeding with God and aspiring Haitians, they are able to bring about deep and sustainable improvement in the lives of the people and communities of Haiti.

We can’t wait to see how God moves through the Kelley’s faith!

“I now know I was made for international mission work, I’m Okay living in a tent in a jungle, I’m just made that way…” says Shannon.

Real, Raw, Wrecked — Shannon Kelley’s First Experience in Haiti

From the Heart of World Wide Village

From WWV President, Randy Mortensen

Thank you for your part in the vision of World Wide Village. We can’t fully know the impact for the people of Haiti, brought by every dollar, every prayer and every volunteer effort, as God continues to lead us in this rebuilding effort.

The pace has quickened over the past year, stemming from recurring challenges in shipping food, growing demands from Haitian organizations who desire support and our own focus toward strengthening World Wide Village in pro-actively operating according to Christ-like principles.

The people of Haiti have all but disappeared from headline news, making our job of bringing awareness that much more difficult. Each month the world seems less cognizant of Haiti’s ongoing need, yet the present and future outlook for Haitian people is plagued with high levels of unemployment, growing numbers of Cholera cases, hundreds of thousands still living in makeshift tents with little hope for suitable housing, and the lack of sustainable agriculture. Only 43% of the aid pledged after the earthquake (nearly two years ago) has been disbursed.

As a parent, I simply cannot imagine the desperation felt by almost 700,000 people who battle to survive, living under tarps that leak during the many torrential rains.  Parents are forced to stand, holding their children, during rainstorms in order to keep them dry as floods rage through their tent cities.  Education, productive work, community progress – even celebration and play – all these life standards are only dreams for those who huddle together under flimsy, weather-exposed hovels.  And these unbearable conditions are all overshadowed by not knowing how their children will be fed each day.  The quest for food and clean water is their daily, all-consuming struggle.

The responsibility to provide food services and meet other essential needs for the poor is not primarily the responsibility of Haitian government welfare programs. It’s a higher calling than that. It is a Kingdom responsibility of Christians. Our Master commissioned us to care for those who are destitute and thus share Christ with them. Unfortunately, we have dropped the ball. Too often we blame politicians for dreadful social problems, while neglecting to generously take responsibility. Because Government does a poor job, we often excuse ourselves and fail to contribute something that could actually make a difference.

The vision of World Wide Village goes well beyond simply giving to the Haitian need. We are called to serve the Haitian people in a way that builds their future. As we move into the next era of transforming lives, empowering communities and loving people, we expect to build on the established foundations and serve as a force for positive social, cultural and economic growth in Haiti.  Life is not about yesterday but about tomorrow. Our present awareness can and should be the catalyst to turn the nightmarish past into a healthy and productive future.

During the past year, WWV has made appeals to foundations and corporate donors with reasonable success. The expansion of social media has required continual enhancements to insure that we effectively communicate with friends and supporters. We have also launched expanded programs for training pastors in Haiti and we are committed to offering regular learning opportunities for the educators in the schools we administer and support.

Early in 2011, our Haitian friends elected President Michel Martelly to a 5-year term.  The parliament caused major delays in the approval of his Prime Minister candidate(s), stalling the appointment of new leaders in the various cabinet level positions, delaying much-needed services to Haitian citizens. President Martelly is now dealing with a growing problem with Cholera, challenges with national security, issues with the shipping ports, food shortages and weaknesses in the healthcare delivery system, along with the crisis in housing.

We can make a difference. Please take time to explore this website, while listening for God’s call to put your faith into action. Look for new ways to share your gifts. The beautiful people of Haiti need us to hear what He is telling us on their behalf.

My continual prayer for us who have been given so much is that we might be challenged by the words of John:

“If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions in truth.” 1 John 3:17-18

In John 6:1-14, Jesus used the willingness of a small boy, who gave his meager five loves and two small fish to feed 5,000+ people. Just imagine what God can do when we are all willing to share.

May you clearly see your part as you consider God’s direction to you on behalf of the beautiful people of Haiti.

3-year-old Raises Money to Help Build Homes in Haiti

Written by Michelle Bruhn

Three-year-old Hannah, of St. Louis Park, MN, heard about the housing crisis in Haiti from Jina Lee at New City Covenant Church, where they both attend, after Lee returned from a mission trip to Haiti. After seeing pictures and hearing the story of a Haitian widow and her children still living in a tent amid the ruins of their home left after the January 2010 earthquake, Hannah was determined to help the family.

Hannah decided the best way for her to raise money was to enlist four friends, and their Moms, to help her open a stand to sell homemade lemonade and cookies. They picked a hot, sunny day in August and sold $89 worth of goodies. One of the Moms even donated the use of an “inflatable jumping room” to keep younger siblings occupied while Hannah and her friends sold their wares.

When Hannah, her brother Patrick, and mother Emily came to World Wide Village in St. Paul to personally donate the money raised, her mother said, “The idea was all Hannah’s. After hearing about Jina’s mission trip to Haiti with World Wide Village, and seeing pictures of the widow and her two children, and learning that the father had been killed in the earthquake, Hannah looked at me and simply announced, ‘I’m want to build them a home.’”

Hannah held up the jar containing the profits from the lemonade stand and said, “This is for them to build a home.” Everyone at World Wide Village was touched by the story and inspired by Hannah’s actions.

Hannah wanted to make sure that her friends, Olivia & Noah Asanji, and their mother Carrie, as well as Maddy & Maria Fernands and their mother Katie, got credit for all their help. “Olivia and Noah made the signs,” Hannah reported, “and Maddy and Maria helped sell the cookies and lemonade.”

Hannah and her friends raised exactly $89 to donate to World Wide Village. Pat Mortensen, Administrative Director for World Wide Village, said it was inspiring to “see a child as young as Hannah learning about giving to others in such a profound way.”

When asked “What’s next?” for Hannah and her younger brother Patrick, their mother said, “They’re too young to go on a mission trip yet, but we’re already considering it sometime in the future.”