Dear Friends,

Once upon a Christmas far away in Bethlehem, Mary, great with child and riding a donkey, was looking for a place to deliver her precious Gift. With no room in the inn, the Savior of the world was born in a feeding trough surrounded by a slew of animals and bales of hay. Simply amazing!

It’s a beautiful image that’s hard to wrap our minds around, with our state-of-the-art hospitals, incubators, and epidurals. The birth of Jesus reads much more like a fairy tale in a far away land than anything that actually happens today.

The truth, though, is that cattle are still lowing next to women who are great with child with no place to go. These expectant mothers bring forth their precious miracles on dirt floors by the flicker of candlelight every night in Haiti.

Northwest Haiti Christian Mission’s birthing center is rewriting that script for thousands of women! Although many do come riding in on a donkey, they are met by some of the most skilled nurses in all of Haiti. A clean bed, tiled floors, and a new layette set for their beautiful baby awaits.

The skilled nursing staff at our Birthing Center, led by Sylveste (upper right).

Because of the lack of nutrition in Haiti, many babies are born prematurely. Mothers often come to the mission as soon as they discover they’re expecting. They know they will receive the prenatal care they need as well as an ultrasound that lets them know everything is developing just as it should.

We are able to provide prenatal care, lab work, medicines and delivery for only $50. While this is an unbelievably low amount, it is a major drain on our medical funds as we lovingly welcome over 100 miracles a month into the birthing center.

Here’s where you hopefully come in. We’re looking for 100 saints that will commit $50 a month toward bringing new life into the world. Your gift will help provide the staff and equipment we need as we walk side by side with Haitian women during the most at-risk time in their lives.

There is no greater gift given than the gift of life! Please help us welcome these little ones into the world by donating here or mailing your gift marked “Birthing Center” to:

Northwest Haiti Christian Mission
7271 Mayflower Park
Ziionsville, IN 46077

Let all the world rejoice!

Janeil Owen
Executive Director

Our summer 2011 interns enjoying an off day at Anse-a-foleur.

By Barb Enata, Stateside Travel Liaison

Whether you’re aware of it or not, God is doing radical things in Haiti!  He is feeding the hungry, caring for the orphan, taking in the elderly, healing people and and bringing HIS children from death to life.  You have a chance to be a part of HIS work.  The question is – are you ready to GO?  He could be calling you to be his hands and feet, to do something radical and join Him in Haiti.  Will you GO and join Him?

We are giving YOU the opportunity to be a part of something bigger then yourself.  YOU could be spending your summer investing in the work that God has been doing in Haiti to rescue, restore and redeem.    Maybe He is calling you now to do something radical!  Maybe its time to seriously pray about how He would want you to spend your time, where He would want you to invest your energy, how He would want you to love…and maybe Haiti is the place that HE needs YOU!

We are looking for radical people.  People that are willing to come and serve…to work hard, love hard and give everything to this work that God is up to.  As one of our interns you receive the opportunity to be a part of something extraordinary.

For years, American churches have been partnering with NWHCM and sending in workers.  God is using hundreds of people every year as part of HIS plan to partner with Haitian churches, build schools, build clinics, offer healing, spread the gospel and be JESUS to a hurting nation.  As one of our interns, you will be an important part of this partnership.  YOU will get to play an active role in connecting our travelers to the work that GOD is doing in Haiti.  YOU will be used by God to do things you can’t imagine.  YOU will be humbled, will learn so much more about who Jesus is, and will leave exhausted from using every ounce of energy you have to GIVE to the radical work that God is doing in Haiti!

Are you ready?

NWHCM offers internships all throughout the year.  If you’re looking for a way to spend your spring, summer, fall or even kick off a new year in January with an internship, we would love to have you apply.  You can find an application here or contact Barb at barb.enata@nwhcm.org for more information.

Children at NWHCM's school in La Fonte, Haiti. Andy Olsen photo

By Zach Clayton, NWHCM Sponsorship Coordinator

Over the years, the sponsorship program at Northwest Haiti Christian Mission has developed into one of the mission’s most personal and evocative ministries. Through it, donors are able to take part in a remarkable relationship that provides not only physical necessities in the present, but also unprecedented potential for the future of the children in the northwest region of Haiti from birth to adulthood. We are excited about this aspect of the ministry of NWHCM because it partners individual with individual, or family with family, all the way down to the point of meeting face-to-face.

When a person chooses to sponsor a child through NWHCM, that person is taking that child and providing nutrition, education, books, school supplies, personal care, medical treatment, love, and ultimately hope. You are saying, “I believe in you.”

Our hope  is that when you make the choice to sponsor an individual, that individual becomes a part of your family or community. We want your kids to know about the child in Haiti, we hope that you pray for them every night by name. We even hope that you will come see them!

It is so hard to communicate the beauty of what it is to sponsor a person in Northwest Haiti. Whether that be a child in an orphanage, one of the folks in NWHCM’s Gran Moun program, or a student in a community, the implications are far greater than what appears at first glance.

It is easy to slip into the notion that those of us contemplating sponsorship have more to offer, but the reality is charity goes both ways. The opportunities we can give to Haitians really have the potential to change their lives in a drastic way, but what is hidden is the way that they can change ours. Sponsoring an individual can show you things you have not seen. It can make you care like you have never cared and learn like you have never learned. What God does through our generosity and willingness to take a step toward bringing good to the world is unexplainable. It can only be experienced through faith and acts of generosity in what we have to give.

Click here to learn more or sponsor a child or adult today.

Zach and his wife, Christie, recently joined NWHCM as Sponsorship Coordinators. Originally from Indiana, they met while studying at Cincinnati Christian University, where they graduated in 2010. In their roles at NWHCM, they split their time between Haiti and the mission’s U.S. office in Zionsville, Indiana. Contact them at sponsorship@nwhcm.org.

NWN MAGAZINE PREVIEW: Two Northwest Haiti Christian Mission founders reflect on more than three decades of ministry in Haiti.

Read more in the spring issue of Northwest Notes, a regular magazine of Northwest Haiti Christian Mission that arrives in mailboxes in April. Click here to download a PDF version of the entire issue.

Gary McDowell, 65, and his wife, Sandy, 63, were part of the original group that traveled to Northwest Haiti in 1977 and founded Northwest Haiti Christian Mission. Since then, they have served as missionaries in Saint Lucia and Mexico, among other countries. In January, Gary returned to visit NWHCM for the first time in more than 30 years. Northwest Notes editor Andy Olsen spoke recently with the couple at their home in Newburgh, Indiana, about their impressions. Following are excerpts from the interview. Parts of the interview also appear in the spring issue of Northwest Notes.

Andy Olsen: You were there on the original trip in 1977. Tell me about getting there.

Gary McDowell: We were there in ‘77 and ‘78, and I went back in ‘79. In 1977, I apparently carried with me a significant amount of cash, and I went up to La Croix and bought property, where we built our first church.

The big difference in terms of getting (to the Northwest) between now and then was that in 1977 there were no paved roads – I’m talking about Port-au-Prince to Gonaïves was not paved. In 1978, we went back and a company from Illinois had paved from Port-au-Prince to Gonavïes, and we were so happy. And we still had Gonaïves to Port-de-Paix as a trip to make, which was pretty rough.

AO: How did you come to go on that first trip?

GM: I was almost agnostic (after college). We moved back to my hometown, and we had somebody visit us. My first church service was a Wednesday night Bible study. I’m self-taught, I was studying and came to belief and then, quite frankly, tried to repay God by going into the hardest mission field I could come up with. A friend of ours named Larry Jamison had returned from India and he said, “Why don’t we go to Haiti?”

Gary and Sandy McDowell were members of the original mission group that eventually founded NWHCM in 1979. Andy Olsen / NWHCM staff

Sandy McDowell: Haiti totally changed our lives. And it’s been that way ever since. We really feel for Haiti and the people of Haiti. That’s why, at the end of the two weeks we were there, the group sat down and we decided we had to do something to help these people. We just couldn’t leave them. And that’s where we came up with Northwest Haiti Christian Mission That’s how it began. And we had no idea after all these years how much it had grown — no clue whatsoever. To see what it’s become today is overwhelming.

AO: On this recent trip, you flew up to the Northwest from Port-au-Prince. That must have been interesting, for the first time not having to ride a bus up there.

GM: Actually, (back then) we drove cars. We had a Volkswagon van and I drove a little Toyota, and the clutch went out on that thing. I drove it all the way from Port-de-Paix to Port-au-Prince with no clutch in 1979. That’s not easy, especially when you’re going through the water.

AO: What were your initial impressions seeing the main campus in Saint-Louis du Nord for the first time?

GM: I was kind of shocked. I’ve been in missions for 31 years where I’m face-to-face with indiginous people – laugh, tell jokes in Spanish, that kind of thing. I felt so isolated there I felt, man, I might as well be in Miami. It was unwarranted, but that was just my first impression. I later learned more, but it’s just so different from what we did when we started.

When we were in Haiti, what we would do is we would go to a streetcorner, Sandy would start singing and draw a crowd, and we would start preaching. We baptized 360 people in one campaign. It was this approach we were doing. It was just pure streetcorner evangelism.

AO: How have the towns of Saint-Louis du Nord and Port-de-Paix changed since you were last there?

GM: The roads are much worse than they were when we were there. They had a sand base on the roads when we were there, which you could drive 30 miles an hour. Which cuts your commute time significantly. When we first built (in Chalet), you would turn left out of the Beach Hotel there in 1978 and you were in open area, nothing was there. And you would drive all the way to La Pointe, and there was a hospital there, but there was nothing else really there. And they you would go the rest of the way to Saint-Louis du Nord, and there was nothing there. Now you go back and it’s wall-to-wall houses.

AO: Have the churches in Northwest Haiti changed since you were last there?

GM: Back then, it was such an infant church. There were a few pastors. But the congregation as a whole were babies. Fast forwarding to this year – very mature members of the church there. You know, 31 years later you would expect that. It’s a Haitian church, which is really good. I’ve been involved in missions a lot, and the biggest mistake missionaries make is Americanizing the churches. And this was a Haitian church, and that was a marvelous thing.

The missionaries that are there now…they are so committed, by and far more than anything we were. – Gary McDowell

AO: How have missions in Northwest Haiti changed since your first trips?

GM: We were a bunch of carefree, we’ll-take-the-chance, we’ll go-for-it-but-we’re in-and-out kinds of missionaries during the ‘70s. But the missionaries that are there now – you’ve got the Courtneys and the Melonnies, Janeil and his family – they are so committed, by and far more than anything we were. I’m not too sure I’m cut out of a bolt of cloth that could handle that sort of thing. I like my comforts too much, maybe it’s just old age.

SM: It amazes me what they go through in their everyday lives and that deep, deep commitment in their lives. I find it so gratifying.

AO: Tell me about your involvement with NWHCM’s prison ministry in Port-de-Paix.

GM: I did not visit the prison on this trip, but we had some people in 77 or 78 who went to work with the prison and they were just so shocked by the way the people were treated. And to see Melonnie (Kelly) and what she is doing there, I told her, I feel like I’m in the midst of a celebrity. She is just so passionate, It’s such a great thing she’s doing. I was so impressed with what she’s doing, so I thought at least I could come back and try to do something. Editor’s note: McDowell has applied for grants to provide clean water at the Port-de-Paix prison.

AO: You were in Haiti during the Baby Doc years. Walking around in the community, did you feel more or less safe on your trip this year?

GM: People in the street were less intimidated by Americans – I don’t know how else to say it. When we were there in the 70s, I think they were more respectful. It’s hard to put your finger on why, but maybe it’s the attitude of the kids. We went out one day and passed some kids flying a kite, and they were just – “Don’t take my picture,” you know, that sort of thing. It’s a changing attitude toward Americans, I think, and maybe rightfully so. We’re the most arrogant people in the world. But I always felt very safe.

AO: If tomorrow you could pick up and move to Haiti, is there any one need or area that you would like to shape or encourage?

GM: The preacher training school. I was not impressed with what was there. I see the same thing in some American churches, a lack of serious adult education at strong levels. I know there’s a Bible college there, but it was pretty unimpressive. That’s probably one area where I think I would work — teaching those young men to become preachers.

Click here to read more about Northwest Haiti Christian Mission’s history.

An invitation to travel to Haiti with NWHCM.

I remember my first mission trip so clearly. I was in 7th grade and I can still remember the people, the smells, my team, the places we saw, the way that we served and the huge way that God spoke to me. I was hooked and I knew I had to continue to pursue missions. Mission trips are when God opens up my eyes to a whole other world. A world that is so different than mine…yet so much the same. A world in need of rescue, restoration and redemption!

I want to invite you to be a part of the work that Northwest Haiti Christian Mission is doing! I invite you to GO and see how God is working in this part of the world….in the poorest region of the poorest country in the western hemisphere. My prayer is that you will have a similar experience to mine…a trip where God opens your eyes to how YOU can be used as the hands and feet of Jesus!

One of the most unique things about short-term trips with NWHCM is that we can use ANYONE! We have teams who work in our medical clinics, some do construction, some with children, some partner with us by adopting a church and providing physical and spiritual needs for a whole community…. every trip and every team looks different! We have teams throughout the summer, fall, winter and spring so there are many options when it comes to dates for your trip!

The need is large and we know that God is ready and waiting for more and more people to join us in all He is doing! Come and be a part of bringing real hope to Haiti.

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If you haven’t already done so please check out our Missions Trips Page and learn more about what your next steps are to signing up for a trip!

See you in Haiti!

Barb Enata Andres

NWHCM Travel Coordinator
barb.enata@nwhcm.org
(812) 786-9660