The purpose of the Help One Now intercessory prayer team is to unite our tribe in seeking God’s direction for everything He has planned for us to carry out in the days ahead. As we humbly give ourselves to Christ and reflect on what the Holy Spirit imparts to us in our prayer time, we are expecting the Lord to move in even greater ways!

Everyone is invited to take part, but please pray through how God is calling you to be involved and your level of commitment to the team.

Immediate needs/requests for prayer will be sent out real-time via a group email list and possibly a private Facebook or Yahoo/Google group page.  In addition, we are considering a monthly or bi-weekly group prayer conference call and possibly in person smaller group prayer meetings as well.

Please let Barclay Garman know if you have any questions or concerns at b_garman@yahoo.com or 512-797-7565.  All we need to get you started is the following information:

• Name
• Email Address
• How Do You Want To Participate?  (Email notification only, conference calls, etc.)

Some of the current prayer needs are:

1) Possible move in Haiti.

• Need to find a car to use (rent, buy, or one that is donated)
• Find a house that we can rent
• Find key staff, that we can hire
• Raise enough capital for one years operating expenses

2. Garage Sale for Orphans movement:

This is the time of year, that folks tend to host garage sales. Pray that God will help us get 100 + garage sale parties this year.

3. Church Partnerships:

We have multiple potential church partners, that we form an official partnership with. Many of these churches are very influential.

4. Local Leaders.

• Pastor Gaetan (Haiti)
• Jean Alix Paul (Haiti)
• John Chinyowa (Zimbabwe)
• Edward (Uganda)

5. Pray for overall blessing, wisdom and resources for the Help One Now.

Photo credit: ScottWade.com

I remember standing in a small house on a hillside in Haiti. The sun was beating down, the lush dark greenery surrounded us, it was a simple reminder of God’s beautiful display and splendor.

Families were walking home from work, kids were running and laughing and life was generally good.

But then something unique happened; I was minutes away from learning about the harsh reality that (close to one billion) people face daily- simple access to clean water, or for many, just access to ANY water source at all is unavailable.

The madam, or the mom, of the house asked the kids if they could bring her some water. A few moments later, the kids came back.. with no water.

Tension immediately filled the house… the kids forgot to get water that morning before school. (It’s true, in developing countries, many kids walks hours first thing in the morning, just to get water for their family for the day) So, the family had no water. To top it off, darkness was close, as the day was nearing an end.

This was a dire situation.

For one night, this family had no water to drink, no water to cook and no water to bathe.

So, the kids did what most Haitian kids do — they picked up five-gallon buckets, ran down the hillside off into the distance, and fetched some water.

They quickly disappeared into the depths of the crevasses of the mountain side. Time was of the essence as the darkness chased them… below that crevasse, was a creek. This creek, six-to-eight months out of the year, is the only access to water this community has.

No running water through pipes, no working water wells, no nearby lakes… just a creek that dries up many months of the year during the dry season.

This is just a typical story that plays out all throughout the developing world. I’ve personally seen it over and over. I hate that almost one billion people have to deal with this basic issue each day!

The world has a water crisis. I’ve personally seen families destroyed because of cholera, a deadly disease caused by lack of clean water. The stench of death was evident as body-bags lay on the ground… I hugged the kids who had lost their parents. All these parents needed was water to rehydrate their bodies, and they would still be alive. But they did not have access to water. WATER.  How….can…..this…be?

Clean water brings life, hope, safety, and development.

This is how the H.E.L.P. tribe is changing the story of many who lack access to clean water:

Africa:

Our 110 orphans in Zimbabwe were walking daily to get water, until our friends at Austin New Church held a Garage Sale for Orphans, or GS40, party in 2010 and raised $12,000. Those funds drilled a well, and each day, our 110 kids, plus their community, now have access to clean water.

All because many folks in Austin decided to get rid of their excess.

Haiti:

Our 30 orphans in Haiti used to drink dirty water. They would get worms, become sick and miss school. Until, our friends at Remedy Church threw a GS40 party and donated the funds to drill a clean water well. Now, they have access to clean water – for the first time in their young lives (pictured above).

All because many folks in Maryland decided to get rid of their excess.

Just last week, another well was repaired in Kenscoff, Haiti. Hundreds of people can now get access to clean water in this community.

Last month, many of you from the HELP tribe donated money to help drill a well in Ferrier, Haiti.  Hundreds, if not thousands of people, now have access to clean water, daily!

But we still have close to 1 billion people globally who do not.

**Development and Aid combo. **

Bringing clean water to the masses is vital to seeing communities restored. In these communities where we bring clean water, we’re also creating “water committees.” The locals will be involved in ensuring that these wells:

1) Work properly.
2) Are also funded through the local community, not just outside aid.

We’re asking these communities to create a water fund, so when the wells break, they can repair them ASAP.

Access to clean water is one of the foremost ways that we can help one community end extreme poverty. Dirty water causes so many negative issues, and clean water solves so many of those issues.

ACTION Steps

1) Donate to our clean water fund.

2) Host a GS4O, and use the proceeds to bring clean water to Haiti or Africa.
3) Donate to our Haiti water initiative.
4.) Learn more about the water crisis.

Key Water Stats

• 900 million people worldwide lack access to clean water
• 2.6 billion people do not have a safe place to go to the toilet
• Every day 4,000 children die from water-related diseases
• Safe water supplies and sanitation not only save lives, they free up people’s time for work and school so that communities can take their first steps out of poverty

- Water Aid America

Also, if you want to see the story of Haiti and how we’re making an impact, here ya go.

Thanks for all you do to serve our friends in Haiti.

Note: H.E.L.P. founder Chris Marlow is leading a team on a pilgrimage trip to Haiti the week of February 10-17. Dan King, one of the members of this mission team, is sharing his experiences here on the H.E.L.P. Blog.

My excitement was reaching a bursting point like a balloon being blown up just a little too much. As I scanned the classrooms, I thought I would recognize him from the one picture of him I have hanging on my refrigerator door. At first I thought that maybe he had gotten a different haircut or grown enough that I just didn’t pick up on which one was the child our family chose to sponsor this past Christmas.

I started to get concerned when the pastor who was calling the sponsored children out of their classrooms wasn’t getting Samuel Saul to respond. Then after an exchange between him and one of the teachers in Creole, one thing that became quickly apparent was that the boy wasn’t there.

The pastor reported back to Chris Marlow what was happening. So when Chris looked at me from across the field and started walking in my direction, my heart just sank. I knew what he was coming to tell me, and I didn’t want to hear it. After all, I put my life on hold for a week, traveled to Haiti, and then drove for four hours to come meet this kid and tell him how much our family has prayed for him.

I had high hopes for this meeting, and wanted to find out more about this boy. Like what kinds of things he likes to learn about in school, and what he does for fun when he’s not in school. And I wanted to tell him all about my son, Samuel Paul, who has prayed for him almost every day. After all, when my family decided to do this, we knew that we’d be in it for the long haul. This isn’t a temporary humanitarian donation to make us feel like we did something nice for someone else. No. We’re investing in this boy’s life for the long haul.

“Bad news, Dan.” Chris shared with me, “Samuel Saul isn’t here today. They’re sending someone to his house now to see if everything is okay.”

It’s hard for me to respond because of the lump in my throat.

Instantly, I run through a million worst-case scenarios in my head. Has he dropped out of school? Is he sick? Or worse?

As I begin to pray, I find myself jumping in response to the sound of every motorbike that drives by, wondering if he’s going to be on it. Or will it return with merely a messenger with news about why he can’t be there?

After what seemed like an hour to me, only the messenger returns. Tears well up in my eyes wondering which of the worst-cases it ended up being.

“I’m sorry Dan,” Chris says to me. “His family moved away just last week.”

Phew! While I’m disappointed, I’m at least relieved that he’s okay.

His family moved to Gonaives, a place where people in places like Drouin move when they’re looking for opportunities. It’s kind of like moving from Hudson, Kansas to Chicago because of the abundance of help wanted ads in the bigger city.

The problem is that Drouin is in a struggling rice farming community. When the U.S. (and other nations) sent tons of rice into Haiti after the earthquakes as aid, it actually crippled the rice farming business here in the country. No demand for home-grown rice, means less work forcing families to make decisions like what Samuel Saul’s family recently had to do.

I pray that they are able to find work in Gonaives, but now I’m left without a sponsored child. And my investment isn’t just in the life of one kid, but in the community of Drouin.

That’s why I plan to keep my investment in that community going strong. The (beautiful) children there need education and food and other immediate necessities. Families need a reason to stay and have hope for the future. And child sponsorship helps provide those things, as well as community development programs to make sure that life is different when these kids grow up.

Before our team left Drouin I was able to find a new child to transfer my sponsorship to. I’ll share more about that another time, but I’m excited to be able to continue my investment in the same community. And the hug that Charles Pierre gave me when we talked to him about my decision to sponsor him… priceless.

HELP One Now: If you would like to join me and sponsor a child in Drouin, please visit the HELP One Now site (Drouin, Haiti Kids).

Note: H.E.L.P. founder Chris Marlow is leading a team on a pilgrimage trip to Haiti the week of February 10-17. Dan King, one of the members of this mission team, is sharing his experiences here on the H.E.L.P. Blog.

His reaction was kind of like, “DUDE! Are you serious?!”

Not only did I just knock a few blocks off of the freshly built wall, but those blocks fell onto the scaffolding (which consists of a couple two-by-fours on a stack of concrete blocks) knocking his sheet of mortar to the ground.

In my defense, it was a little rainy out and the muddy ground that I’m standing on is really slippery. So when my feet start to slide out from underneath me, all I can do was try to catch myself on the wall of freshly laid bricks. As the corner of the wall gives way, everything stops so that we could assess the impact of my little fall.

As some look at me in disbelief that this crazy “blan” could be so extremely uncoordinated, others just laugh at my misfortune. Lucky for me, I’m not the only blan (I won’t mention any names, Kevin) today to knock over a piece of the wall that these men were working hard to build.

The reality is that these men work hard, and good work like this is often difficult to find here in Haiti. Many people wake up every morning here with the first (and only) thing on their mind being how they’ll find a way to make enough money today so that they can eat tonight.

That’s why job creation for the locals is so important when we take on initiatives like the 100 Homes project here in Haiti. The idea isn’t to send a missions team down to build a house in a week for some lucky family. It’s much more important to offer opportunities where multiple people will benefit. At the end of the week not only will a family have a home, but 10-12 men will have earned some good income to support their families as well.

As much as we love the idea of getting a single mom with two kids out of a tent and into a house, I can also see something pretty amazing in the faces of the local Haitian workers that we’re here to support.

Part of it is pride in a job well done. These men are doing good work. In fact, a couple of us blan are giving them the opportunity to do it a second time on parts of the wall. They don’t have all the big fancy tools here, so they work mostly with their hands. It’s not uncommon to see a hammer or shovel that uses a tree branch as the handle. Regardless, they are working hard and creating a quality product. That alone gives them an incredible amount of self-worth.

I also see a sense of relief in the eyes of some of these men. It’s the kind of peace that comes when you know you don’t have to worry about eating tonight… being able to go home and look your wife in the eye and know that you were able to provide for her and the kids today.

For example, one young man I met is a single dad of a two and a half-year old boy. He does construction work because he’s good at it and can get regular work that way. But he dreams of becoming a mechanic someday. He was very proud to talk about his church, and that his boy will be starting school in the Fall when he’s three years old.

Today, I’m really excited for the family that’ll be able to get out of the tent they’ve lived in for so long. But I’m equally as excited for these men who have this chance to work today.

And I promise to stay far away from the new walls.

Note: H.E.L.P. founder Chris Marlow is leading a team on a pilgrimage trip to Haiti the week of February 10-17. Dan King, one of the members of this mission team, is sharing his experiences here on the H.E.L.P. Blog.

I’m sure that it was a day that he’ll remember for the rest of his life. I know that I’ll remember it, and it wasn’t a day of particular importance for me. At least not in the way it was for Richard.

Our team stopped by his house and art studio to deliver something to him. And considering the impact this event potentially has on a life like his, most of us would likely be trembling just as much as he was. He knew that we’d be there to deliver some money to him, but you just can’t prepare for the kind of life changing delivery we were about to share with him.

But let me back up for a moment.

Richard is an artist in Haiti, and a really good one at that. Through H.E.L.P.’s partnership with the church he belongs to he was going to be one of the first recipients of a microloan ($500) that would allow him to really work on his art so that would be sold all around Haiti. Part of the deal was that he would also provide 50 paintings that would be brought back to the United States to be sold as a sort of fundraiser for the microfinance projects.

After a couple of art shows in downtown Raleigh, NC, the paintings earned enough money to:

1. Pay back Richard’s loan (making him debt free)
2. Earn an additional $1,000 profit
3. Fund two more microloans for other entrepreneurs

To put part of this into perspective (particularly #2), you have to understand that $1,000 is somewhere around 6-8 months worth of income for Richard. In fact, the average monthly income in Haiti is only about $120. So we just dropped a pretty large lump sum into his lap!

Not only will he be able to provide for his family comfortably for the next several months, but he’ll also be able to expand his business to do more things. I’m not sure exactly what he’ll do, but I’ve heard some talk of building a bigger studio, and maybe even starting to offer art classes. But whatever it is, I really think that he’ll find great success with the new ventures.

Not only is this a life changing opportunity for Richard, but it’s also allowing H.E.L.P. to give a couple other microloans out to other entrepreneurs to grow and expand their businesses.

I love the snowball effect that good microfinance programs can have. I’m sure that Richard would tell you that it changed his life, and I look forward to the testimonies of the others who received their loans that day as a result of the investment in Richard paying off the way it did.

Note: H.E.L.P. founder Chris Marlow is leading a team on a pilgrimage trip to Haiti the week of February 10-17. Dan King, one of the members of this mission team, is sharing his experiences here on the H.E.L.P. Blog.

Chris Marlow called for me to come over to where he and Pastor Gaetan were standing. I knew instantly what he wanted, because we were standing on the site of the playground that’s being built at the Yahve Shamma orphanage.

This is a special project for me.

A little over a year ago my son was asking about the gift catalogs that many non-profits send around the holidays so that you can send something to someone in a poverty-stricken nation. These are important things like goats and chickens, things that help them essentially survive.

My son was visibly stirred, and wanted to do something about what he was feeling inside.

That conversation led to looking at other projects. One of the places we went to consider what we could do was the Garage Sale for Orphans website where we discovered a special project unlike any other that we’ve seen. And as soon as he saw it, my son knew that this was the one that he wanted to work on.

We were going to help build a playground for orphans in Haiti!

So we set out to have our garage sale, and ended up raising a little over $1,300 towards that project. Since then several others have jumped on-board and have helped to raise the remaining money needed to complete this project.

And now I find myself standing on the site of this playground as they begin work on it, and Chris tells Pastor Gaetan about my son’s heart to have this playground built.

I reach out and put my arm around the shoulder of my new friend Gaetan, and he is so moved my my son’s heart that he simply leans in and rests his head at the top of my chest. In that embrace I could sense that words simply weren’t enough to express the gratitude that he had for a boy with such a huge heart. I also sensed relief. The kind of relief that comes when God answers a prayer that you know you couldn’t make happen on your own.

The field is rocky and uneven right now, but they’ve begun the work of leveling the ground. By summertime there will be a large playground set, a small soccer field, and a basketball court.

After playing with the kids all day long in the rocky driveway in front of the school tents, I am even more proud to know about the work being done on the other side of the property to provide a safe and fun place for these beautiful children to play.

My son will be happy to see this project completed soon!

(Troy and Chris)

If you’ve followed our journey the last few years, you know how much we love and respect Heartline Ministries. On our first trip to Haiti, we stayed at Troy Livesay’s home. I’ve asked Troy a million questions these past two years as I try to process how to serve the Haitian people. I’ve also connected with John Mchoul, who is the founder of Heartline and has lived in Haiti for close to 30 years. The Mchoul and Livesay families have truly been a blessing to us, Haiti and the church in general.

Jen Halverson, one of  Heartline’s volunteer medical staff, has requested some pregcancy tests from any folks going to Haiti soon, as their supplies are running low. I (Chris) responded that we would be willing to bring some pregancy tests down when we leave for this Friday. (Feb 10th)

Now I need your help! I want to bring as many pregnancy tests as possible so our friends at Heartline can serve the Haitian women. So, if the H.E.L.P. tribe would be willing to donate, we can help bless Heartline and fulfill this need. We need to place an order via Amazon this Monday. Click the PayPal link to donate, 100% of all donated funds will go towards purchasing pregnancy tests for Heartline.

$10 buys roughly ten pregnancy tests.

Thanks, and let’s fill up some suitcases for our friends in Haiti!