Helping in Haiti
The AMG Staff Watches as God Puts People Together

Do you remember Jean-Louis Alaine?  You saw her story in the May, 2011, AMG News — surviving the earthquake in Haiti that collapsed her school around her, killing most of her classmates and the family she was living with in Port-au-Prince. Many readers responded with prayers and financial gifts to help her continue her education “back home” in impoverished Grand-Bassín. Well, Alaine has a big smile and a big THANK YOU for all those who helped her.

“I feel so happy today to thank you for your help that is so good to me,” she wrote to us. “I want to thank you with all my heart for your financial support during my time back in Grand-Bassín after the earthquake. Without your help, I wouldn’t be able to go to school, as the people who used to help me died (in the earthquake). I am at the point of finishing high school soon, and I praise God that He gave you a helping heart. Your help permits me also to have food, school supplies, and other expenses related to my education, as I lost everything during the earthquake. Thank you so much. I will always be grateful to you and most of all to God who is giving you the opportunity to share with others.”

Jim is a volunteer at the AMG office. He saw the AMG News article about Jean-Louis Alaine, and told Roger Thomas, AMG’s Associate Vice President for International Ministries, he wanted to help. But by that time, more than enough financial support had come in for Alaine. So Roger suggested that there were more Haitian children in dire circumstances that he could help, and Roger asked Pastor Rodné Romeus for suggestions.

Pastor Rodné presented the needs of three young people. The needs of the first boy totaled $420 — $20 for a school uniform, shoes, school fees, food for three months, and $200 to help his mother start a little business. The needs of the second child, a little girl, totaled $440 for a school uniform, shoes, church clothes, school fees, books and school supplies, and food for three months. The needs of the third child, a boy, were not yet quantified in dollars. Jim gave $1,500.

The third boy’s name is Pierre Louis Wisly. He is a believer and a member of the Baptist Church of Grand-Bassín.His father is the president of the church board, and the whole family attends regularly. He has just graduated from high school. Like most young people in Haiti, he has graduated high school with no prospect of getting a job, and no ability to go on to university. But that has not deterred Pierre Louis in the least. He has seen the tremendous help and blessing that the AMG Bethesda Medical Center has been to his town. Many people were dying because there was no available medical care of any kind.  But the Bethesda center has changed all that. Over 400 lives were saved at Bethesda during the cholera epidemic this year, and now mothers are safely delivering babies at Bethesda, where in many cases previously either mother or baby, or both, would not survive childbirth. 

Pierre Louis wants to be the x-ray technician at the Bethesda center. There is no x-ray machine at Bethesda — yet. (There is presently only one x-ray machine in all of Northeast Haiti!) But never mind that. His training to become an x-ray technician will take three years, and surely by then, his faith tells him, Bethesda will have an x-ray machine.

There is also no place in Haiti where Pierre Louis can be trained to become an x-ray technician. He has just enough money saved to get to Santo Domingo, the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic, and friends who are helping him get a passport and visa. He has no money for books, tuition, food, or a place to live.  But he has his eyes fixed on the goal, and FAITH that God will enable him to become that x-ray technician, making a huge difference for the poor people in his hometown of Grand-Bassín. “I press on toward the goal, for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14).

Roger was recently in Haiti and met this young man. Pierre Louis did not know how much his x-ray training would cost, but he would travel to Santo Domingo to begin that training (by faith) in one week. Roger told Pastor Rodné to let him know as soon as Pierre Louis found out the cost. In a few days, the answer came. Pierre Louis would be required to first study Spanish at the university, and then be admitted to regular classes for x-ray training in January. The cost to be registered and participate in the Spanish classes — $640.

Now let’s see — Jim’s gift of $1,500, less $420 for the first boy, less $440 for the little girl, leaves. . . $640!

And the AMG staff smiles, because they are privileged to be in a place where they see God doing things like this ALL THE TIME. We are so grateful to see how God uses AMG’s supporters to advance His kingdom.

Please pray for Pierre Louis as he faithfully pursues his goal and for all the children under AMG’s care in Haiti.