New U.S. Office Staff

Brent Bramer – Brent joins NWHCM as Director of Next Generation Mobilization. A former youth minister, Brent is spearheading NWHCM’s efforts to connect youth and college-age groups to ministry in Haiti. Brent also directs Help Heal Haiti, a ministry of NWHCM that aims to raise awareness of ministry in Haiti. He earned a BA in Biblical Studies from Cincinnati Christian University. He lives in Louisville with his wife, Jenna, and their two children.

Barb Enata – Barb joins NWHCM as Stateside Travel Liaison. As part of NWHCM’s travel coordination team, she works with short-term travelers to prepare them for trips and set them up for an effective ministry experience in Haiti. Before joining NWHCM, Barb served as a student minister and youth mission-trip coordinator at Northside Christian Church in the greater Louisville area. She earned a BA in ministry from Lincoln Christian University and lives in New Albany, Indiana.

Paul Del Valley – Paul is joining NWHCM as Business Manager and Operations Assistant. He will oversee bookkeeping and will assist with managing NWHCM’s primary U.S. warehouse. For the summer of 2010, Paul and his wife, Kayla, are living in Indiana and serving as NWHCM representatives at Hanging Rock Christian Assembly, a Christian youth camp. Paul studied business administration and Bible at Lincoln Christian University.

Tracey Vaughan (Part-Time) – Tracey assists our office staff by answering phones, coordinating mailings, and helping to manage gift entry and online donor accounts. She has served for years as a missionary in Africa and is a valuable addition to NWHCM’s administrative staff. She and her husband live in Lexington, Kentucky,

New Affiliate Missionaries – Haiti

Brandon and Jessica Stone – Originally from Southern California, the Stones are serving as NWHCM affiliate missionaries with Outside the Bowl, a Christian relief organization devoted to providing food for children in impoverished countries. Living at NWHCM’s Port-de-Paix campus, the Stones are overseeing the development of a food distribution center there. They are working to identify and assess potential partner organizations that are interested in using food prepared at the center to augment their own ministries.

By Andy Olsen, NWHCM Media Director

They listened for days, scribbling on pads of paper. In the hot ocean air of La Baie des Moustiques, the church group from Rockford, Illinois, walked door-to-door to nearly every house in the small town. They asked questions about everything – about who lived where, about who did what, about health and about livestock.

A short-term mission team from Rockford, Illinois, conducts a community needs assessment in La Baie des Moustiques. Photo by Dustin Waller / Contributor

It was Northwest Haiti Christian Mission’s first-ever community needs assessment, a town-wide survey intended to paint a picture of the strengths and weaknesses of the town.

It was the beginning of something big.

Such survey work is the foundation of NWHCM’s Neighbors Project, NWHCM’s new approach to community development. The Neighbors Project facilitates meaningful cross-cultural church-to-church relationships that are dynamic and transformational for both churches and their communities.

With the Neighbors Project, we partner American churches with Haitian churches. They work together to serve people in the Haitian community, sharing physical and spiritual resources with the mutual goal of spreading the Gospel through holistic ministry – that is, by addressing both spiritual and other needs.

The primary goal of the Neighbors Project is to encourage community development projects that are thoughtful, planned, and born out of the real needs of Haitian communities.

The Rockford group is one of a handful of churches working with NWHCM in community development (they actually began their partnership with the La Baie des Moustiques community before the Neighbors Project was conceived). The group quickly recognized that “La Baie” is a fishing village, yet many people there lost their fishing boats in the hurricanes that slammed Northwest Haiti in 2008.

The group decided to work side-by-side with community members to begin replacing those boats. Funded initially by the group, the boat project is designed to eventually be self-funding. Fisherman who receive a boat are expected to take a portion of their profits from selling fish and contribute it toward building another boat.

The concept is simple, but it has significant ramifications. Community members learn and practice biblical concepts of caring for one another, and members of the group learn to invest through service and relational ministry, in addition to providing financial resources.

At NWHCM, we believe that all ministry must be done in Christ-like love, which will show itself in demonstrated respect for both Haitians and foreigners.

And at the center, that is what the Neighbors Project is all about: Listening first with compassion, then acting with wisdom and respect.

Learn more about the Neighbors Project by clicking here, or by contacting Curtis Rogers, NWHCM Community Development Coordinator, at curtis.rogers@nwhcm.org.

Photo and design by Kyle Ellis

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Northwest Haiti Christian Mission has launched Help Heal Haiti, a new ministry aimed at mobilizing the next generation across America to invest in Northwest Haiti and make a difference in Jesus’ name.

More than just a slogan, Help Heal Haiti (HHH) hopes to become nothing short of a movement to help change lives in the poorest region of Haiti. By partnering with youth groups, college campuses and other communities of concerned individuals, HHH will offer tools for raising awareness of the needs in Haiti and providing opportunities to meet them.

“This generation is hungry to be a part of something real, something life changing,” said Brent Bramer, HHH Director. “We have a great opportunity to inform, equip and empower the next generation to help bring sustainable change to Haiti through the work of NWHCM. I’m humbled and thrilled to see God move” through HHH.

In coming months, HHH will begin offering ready-made packages for group awareness events and fundraisers. HHH will also work with next-generation groups to encourage traveling to Haiti for hands-on involvement in holistic ministry.

HHH is a fully integrated part of NWHCM, yet it brings with it a distinct brand that will enable the mission to develop partnerships in new areas. To learn more, visit the HHH website by clicking here, or contact Brent Bramer, HHH Director, at brent@helphealhaiti.com.

Saint-Louis du Nord, Haiti — CBS News today featured Northwest Haiti Christian Mission’s partnership with Indianpolis Colts receiver Pierre Garçon, a joint effort that has helped provide millions of meals for needy Haitians and is rebuilding a school in the Port-au-Prince area.

The piece, which was shown on the CBS Evening News, highlights the experiences of Garçon and his family members as they visited Haiti for the first time since the January 12 earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people there and decimated the country’s fragile economy. The video and story also feature the relief work of NWHCM through its child nutrition programs and orphanages.

Garçon, a Haitian-American, launched his Pierre Garçon Helping Hands Foundation last year to focus on boosting education and food relief in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country. He was catapulted into the spotlight earlier this year after the earthquake and the Colts’ Superbowl bid.

Read more about the Garçon’s partnership with NWHCM.

See the story and read the article on CBSNews.com.

Watch the Story :: Video Courtesy CBS News

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Thursday, May 6, 2010 – Northwest Haiti Christian Mission today released “The Hungry,” a video photo essay project that draws attention to the causes and effects of hunger and child malnutrition in Northwest Haiti, and the ways NWHCM is working to help.

The result of more than a year of documentary photography work by NWHCM photojournalist Andy Olsen, “The Hungry” follows the stories of two children: A severely malnourished girl being treated in NWHCM’s hospital, and another malnourished girl enrolled in one of NWHCM’s child nutrition programs. Through the eyes of these children and their families, the video explores the complex set of factors that contribute to poverty and hunger.

The video was produced before the January 12 earthquake that forever changed Haiti, but the issues it confronts are no different now than they were before the quake. As with other natural disasters in Haiti, the earthquake has only placed greater strains on Haiti’s economy and food supply.

Churches, individuals, organizations and other groups are encouraged to use “The Hungry” as a tool to raise awareness of the issues of hunger and malnutrition. It is a perfect accessory for packing events and fundraisers in conjunction with NWHCM or its ministry partners, Feed My Starving Childen and Kids Agains Hunger.

“The Hungry” is also available on NWHCM’s resources page.

The Hungry

Watch in HD

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Saint-Louis du Nord, Haiti — A story aired on CBS News Saturday highlighting the efforts of Northwest Haiti Christian Mission’s medical clinic to help meet the enormous health needs in the country’s Northwest Department.

The piece, which was shown on the CBS Evening News, outlines Haiti’s dire public health climate even before the January 12 earthquake that destroyed most of the health-care infrastructure in Port-au-Prince. CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook calls NWHCM’s clinic “one of the best in the region,” noting, however, that both public hospitals and NGOs must be better equipped to fully address the country’s medical problems.

In the piece, LaPook tells the story of NWHCM’s medical staff having to share an oxygen machine between a premature baby and an expectant mother experiencing labor complications, because only one machine was available.

“The reality is that even the best-equipped NGO hospitals in Haiti have to make very hard decisions every day because resources are so limited, compared with hospitals in the United States,” said Andy Olsen, NWHCM media director. “LaPook’s story underscores the huge need for greater financial support of medical ministries in Haiti, and the need for governments to invest in Haiti’s public health infrastructure.”

NWHCM has been providing free and low-cost medical care in Northwest Haiti for more than 20 years. It’s medical facilities are almost entirely staffed by trained Haitian doctors and nurses, and surgeries are offered at various times throughout the year by NWHCM’s many visiting surgery teams. Click here to learn more about NWHCM’s medical programs.

View more about LaPook’s reflections on his experience at NWHCM’s clinic.

Click here to view the full video segment on CBS.

Watch the Story :: Video Courtesy CBS News

Watch CBS News Videos Online

By Andy Olsen, NWHCM Media Director

Port Canaveral, FL — David Bates’ friends say he made things stink here. Bates thought it smelled like money.

The local seafood baron in his heyday, Bates owned a small fleet of shrimp- and scallop-laden boats that once dotted this bay. His company’s property was visible from almost any spot along the water in Port Canaveral. The shells spit out by his processing plant piled up so high that today they form part of the city’s coastline.

That was before plummeting seafood prices, soaring energy costs, and real estate-hungry cruise lines pushed Bates and his wife, Lisa, to retire. They sold most of their shrimp boats, trusty white workhorses that had literally fished the world.

“It got to the point where we could buy shrimp from Asia, ship it here, package it, and resell it for cheaper than we could sell our shrimp,” said Lisa, who is was also Bates’ business partner. “We said we would never do that.”

Instead, they found themselves looking for something to do with the shrimp boats they could not sell. When a devastating earthquake struck Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on January 12, and damaged the Caribbean nation’s main seaport, David felt led to load one of his boats with relief supplies and sail it to Haiti.

And so began a partnership with Northwest Haiti Christian Mission to deliver food and other badly needed supplies to Haiti’s northern coast. Through a series of connections at his church, First Christian Church of Merritt Island, Bates was put in touch with NWHCM and began retrofitting one of his ships, the Capt. Scott B., to haul cargo to Haiti.

Donated goods from across the country started rolling into a NWHCM warehouse in Port Canaveral. On February 22, Bates and his crew began a two-week process of loading the ship. On March 9, it sailed into Port-de-Paix and crews unloaded more than half a million meals of relief food, generators, barrels full of medicine and medical supplies, and hundreds of water filtration systems.

“I’ve always thought God has blessed me and my family beyond my dreams,” David told Florida Today, a local newspaper. “I figure we could give something back. It thrills me to be able to do it.”

A special thanks to NWHCM staff and missionaries Cameron Mayhill and Mike and Teresa Grant for helping coordinate the effort.

Lexington, Kentucky — Pam Shelton, who loved Christ and served faithfully for years in Northwest Haiti Christian Mission’s U.S office, died Thursday, April 15 in Lexington, Kentucky. She will be sorely missed by NWHCM staff and by the mission community as a whole.

Shelton, 57, had been undergoing medical treatment and suffered a complication during the process. Shelton served as a bookkeeper and all-around administrative helper for NWHCM. For hundreds of NWHCM partners, hers was a familiar voice on the phone offering information about nearly every facet of the ministry. She was passionate about helping orphans and worked tirelessly to pick up slack wherever she found it. She was heavily involved at Southland Christian Church in Lexington, where she was also an active volunteer.

Shelton left her position in March to begin undergoing medical treatment but continued to serve NWHCM in an advisory role. Visitation and remembrance services were held Saturday, April 17. Please keep her family in your prayers during this season in their lives.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010 – Finding Mache is a brand-new VBS supplement with a missions focus. Built around a series of five short DVD video segments, it follows a young girl named Naika who is searching her small town in Haiti looking for her family’s donkey, Mache. Along the way, Naika sees the many ways that God is using missionaries in Haiti to change lives and help children grow up to be strong and know Jesus.

Produced by Northwest Haiti Christian Mission, the materials make an excellent “missions moment” supplement to any existing VBS curriculum or children’s Sunday school class. In Finding Mache, children will encounter a safe environment to learn about poverty, missions, evangelism, and helping others.

The Finding Mache package includes a DVD, teacher handbook with suggested activities and accompanying materials, and a Northwest Haiti Christian Mission T-shirt. It also offers practical ways for kids and churches to get involved in missions in Haiti.

Contact us today to request a FREE copy of the materials for your church or VBS program. Materials will be available in mid April.

Finding Mache :: The Preview

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(March 8, 2010) Indianapolis, IN – Mark Wilkerson, an executive with OneAmerica Financial Partners in Indianapolis, has partnered with Northwest Haiti Christian Mission to launch Run Mark Run!, an initiative to recruit 1,000,000 people who will pledge a penny for every person he passes during the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon on May 8, 2010 in Indianapolis. All proceeds will go to the relief efforts in Haiti.

Mark Wilkerson (photo submitted)

Wilkerson’s unique strategy will use traditional and social media to gather pledges from around the world that will assist with Haiti relief. He will use a blog, e-mails, Facebook and Twitter to chronicle his experience and urge more people to pledge. With a goal to pass at least 2,000 fellow runners, Wilkerson and NWHCM will use the donations to create a fund that will improve and sustain medical work in Haiti.

“With the high demand for medical care after the earthquake, we understand that the existing resources needed to improve medical care have been stretched beyond capacity,” Wilkerson said. “The destruction of hospitals, the lack of medicine and increased patient loads for current medical facilities and personnel require more funds, so every penny raised will be meaningful as we look to address these needs.”

NWHCM has been working to provide and improve health care in Haiti for the last two decades. The organization’s work includes an outpatient clinic that sees more than 2,000 patients each month, a birthing center that delivers between 60 to 80 babies each month, and a surgical facility that hosts U.S. surgical teams year-round.

To make a pledge or learn more about this endeavor, visit www.runmarkrun.net.