I didn't realize I hadn't posted here for so long. I try to do email posts every other week, but I guess this just slipped through the cracks of "busyness". I'm sorry about that!
But I will add this letter to here to let everyone know exactly what our bucket ministry consists of. And yes, this IS a major part of our ministry at this point.
Greetings,
After
hearing from a few people, I decided maybe I should fill you all in on exactly
what the “Bucket Ministry” is all about.
First,
I’d like to share WHY we started it. For
years, Don has been helping quite a few local people here with doctor bills,
medicine, and a major part is schooling for the children. But we noticed that many who came simply
needed a helping hand until they could get going again. So, we got a few buckets and put food in
them. We knew the importance of a 5-gallon
bucket to people here. A majority of
people have to walk a long way to get any water, for drinking, washing up, and
doing laundry. It means they have to
carry water home, somehow. Now, the
buckets themselves were a blessing to many.
And Don had a “water ministry” for a long time. He’d fill a 250-gallon tank on the back of
the truck and haul it out into the countryside for those who had to walk to get
any water. When we saw those who also
just needed a bit of food to get over a hurdle they had, we decided to put food
in the buckets we had. Then Don would go
out and refill the buckets we had given.
And we found out they were also used for storing food to keep pests
away. Okay, that was the start.
From that
point on, when we’d have a little extra funds, I’d set aside some for more
buckets. Our home church was sending a
team down to do pastoral teaching. A
couple of people on the team wanted to help us out, since they didn’t have
training to teach. The buckets ended up being their project. And they did awesome!!! After sharing this, every once in a while,
someone would send funds labeled “buckets”.
And our true “Bucket Ministry” started.
I’ll share in a bit about what we put into those buckets and how.
But at
this point I wanted to share how the Lord REALLY stepped in and used HIS
FOLLOWERS to make a huge impact on these buckets. We have had people we have never met, write
and ask how to help with the buckets.
God was blessing the Haitian people in ways we could never have done on
our own. But a HUGE added part of this
is that I’ve had other missions here, contact me and ask how we did the
buckets so they could do something similar.
At this point, I think there are 5 other missions we know of who are
doing something similar to our buckets.
God is SO VERY GOOD!! He is
helping in ways we never dreamed of to get help to the poorest of the poor.
Okay,
it’s not a simply ~ go out buy a bit of food, put it in a bucket and done. There are many factors involved. Determining
how many we can do depends on: cost of food (prices go up and down, mainly up),
availability of food, the exchange rate (changing US dollars for Haitian
dollars or gourdes). That is another
area of daily changes. Since we have to
purchase in 50# bags in many instances, we have to figure how many “bags” we
can get from each item. This also is a
variable. Sometimes our 50# bag is 55#,
or maybe 45#. So, we end up estimating
on amounts. (Good thing I don’t mind
math.)
And now,
purchasing! From the US I am now buying
items (via internet, PTL!) like bar soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant,
pens, pencils, crayons, AND ZIP LOCK BAGS!!!
How much we put in a bucket of each item has varied little. So, we are pretty certain how much we will
need from the US.
Here I
should add about size of the smaller items.
I get shampoo and lotion from a hotel supply store. I only put 2 tubes of each in the bags. Most Haitians prefer their own type of
shampoo, so this is just a “get over the hump” item. Toothpaste I buy the
biggest tube from Dollar Tree. Here, it
can run as much as $8 US a tube at times.
Adding the
cost of purchasing, shipping and worst of all DUTY, is the next step. I believe there is a set rate (+ -) with
customs in Haiti, but that is not honored in Cap Haitian. They charge whatever they want, and at times
it is astronomical. But the Lord has
miraculously had funds when we needed it.
It IS a prayer item for us!
On to
purchasing here in Haiti. Our Haitian
“team” does all of this. (There are
Haitian prices and American prices on things here, so we go with Haitians
buying items). Let’s say we are doing
100 buckets. Biggest and right now,
hardest item, is buckets. Vero, Marcot
and Leah do almost all of our purchasing.
Then on to food. If we are going
to push and do the buckets in a week, they get all the supplies. If we will take more than a week, they buy
shelf-life items first, and go back for the rest. I’ll not go into each item, but just an
example. Oil, we put 3 small bottles in
a bucket. There are 24 in a case, so 8
buckets per case, so for 100 buckets we would need 12½ cases ~ we buy 13. Rice, we can get 7 gallon bags out of a 50#
bag (+-), so we’d need just over 14 ~ 50# bags, we get 15. You can see how it works. They hire someone to take things to the truck
in a wheelbarrow. Okay, they end up with
a large truck full of food and head back here.
Now it’s touchy…we don’t want people to see them bringing food in, so
it’s tarped. We have some rather nasty
beggars (who are not that poor), who sort of keep an eye on us. Marcot comes in and pulls to the back of our
house and unload everything into the house. (our spare bedroom and my computer
room fill up). They buy the buckets
ahead of time and they are in our 20 foot containers. Ok, first major job done.
NOW the time consuming item. Filling zip lock bags. I have tried to get some photos of this, but we usually all are working on it, so…forget to take pics. But, we sit at a table, open a 50# bag of whatever…and scoop, fill the required bag, zip, stack in totes. Sounds easy, right? Not as easy as it sounds. But it gets done. I will try to include a photo so you’ll see just how much goes into the bucket itself. We also fill a zip lock bag with shampoo, lotion, 2 pens, 2 pencils, bar of soap, 2 toothbrushes and 3 crayons. They all fit in a quart bag if done right.
Okay once this is all done and we have all the totes with items ready, we start filling the buckets. I'll give you an example of "filling" the buckets.
In the bottom, you have to first put 1 bag of rice (1 gallon), I lg. can of tomato paste, 3 bottles of oil, and 3 small cans of milk. It takes some pushing and "juggling" to get it in. And then find room and put in spaghetti, toothpaste and deodorant in between that stuff. Next layer is beans (quart), cornmeal (½ gallon), qt. flour, qt. of sugar and 2 packages of seeds (from Hope Seeds). Then the next layer is the bags of personal care items. THEN finally, I put 2 coloring books (in Creole, full message of salvation), 2 booklets of John & Romans, and 2 tracts. AND FINALLY, the lid goes on. They are then stacked, either in the hallway or in the computer room. Until time to be taken out and delivered.
When the evangelism team goes out they try to go to areas where it’s the poorest. They not only deliver, they share God’s Word and will pray with people, too. If they need a church, Pastor Marcot will find a good one in their area and encourage them to attend.
An added
note: Why 2 of each, the coloring book,
John & Romans, and tracts? This is
because Haitians value the written word.
Even if they cannot read, they will keep one, and pass the other to
someone else (God’s Word reaching out).
Those who can’t read will find someone to read it to them. All of this has been shared with me from
those who deliver buckets.
So, there is a quick view of what happens with the "Bucket Ministry". Please keep all aspects of this in prayer. We know God's Hands are on it, and He is blessing so many.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and for praying for us and the ministry. Please keep our Haitian helpers in prayer as well.
Blessings beyond measure to you and yours!! Have a God filled day!!
