Teaching to put a floor in the houses in the mountains of Haiti. (Photo by C4CNG)
We have watched, time and again, as villagers in the majority world sweep the ground. Yes, they sweep the dirt. To those of us with carpeting or rugs or hardwood flooring in our homes, it seems like an exercise in futility. But cleanliness is next to godliness, and you sweep whatever is underfoot.
One of the highlights of the work done in Haiti in 2021 by Climbing For Christ’s New Generation was a “ceramics” workshop. The goal was to teach people in two villages in the Chaine de la Selle mountains how to make and place tiles over the dirt that they call “the floor.”
This workshop will be repeated this year – along with another hugely successful event, a medical mission like the one conducted by C4CNG last August. There is much to teach in Haiti: to believe in one true God and not vodou; to send children to school; hygiene; first-aid; better farming, and more.
Climbing For Christ has been providing instruction, prayer, and support in the mountains of Haiti since 2005. The New Generation took over where we left off in 2014 (after the dismissal of our previous indigenous worker). Gilbert Lindor, the youth God used us to rescue from the jaws of death in 2007, is now the young man we are supporting through medical school in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (he is on schedule to graduate in 2024).
Gilbert leads the New Generation, which boasts numerous active members in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. C4CNG oversees schools in four Haitian villages where hundreds of children are receiving an education that was previously unavailable. They conduct teacher training every other month so the 15 teachers paid by C4C can be better instructors. This is all because of Gilbert’s experience – starting school at the age of 10 after God sent Climbing For Christ to his home village to build a church that doubled as a school. He learned to read, to write, and now he is learning to be a doctor.
Equipping, empowering, and encouraging nationals to serve the Lord is what we do. Watching Gilbert and our brothers and sisters in C4CNG carry on work God used us to start gives us a sense of accomplishment. May this work continue until it reaches completion.
PROVERBS 16:9 MOMENTS: Lord willing, C4CNG will conduct three mission trips, including a medical mission, and do another ceramics workshop. There also are monthly visits to the four schools supported by Climbing For Christ and bi-monthly teacher workshops. We are planning to again bring Gilbert to Colorado, where he received a new prosthetic leg in 2020.