Mission: Haiti 2024
Lighting the way for children to learn
By Gilbert Lindor
I was a son considered useless by my family. A David type who was limited in some things in the family while he was in the mountains taking care of his father’s sheep.
I remember I was the one who asked my father to enroll me in school in Gentilhomme after Climbing For Christ built a church and it was used as a school during the week. He took me, along with my brother, when I didn’t know the difference between a book and a notebook – even though I was already a child of 10 or 11 years old.
When they gave me a book, I gave it to my brother without knowing I was giving the wisdom to him. I gave him the pen and I kept the pencil. I gave all the good things to my brother.
However, although I only lasted six months studying at the old Climbing For Christ school in Gentilhomme before my injury, today I can read and write Creole. I can read French and I can understand.
When I went to live with Pastor Miguel in the Dominican border town of Jimani, I asked him to send me to school in the middle of the school year without knowing Spanish. I remember I passed all my subjects. That was a big surprise for the teachers as well as for Pastor Miguel.
But this does not end there. I continued studying. God helped me not fail a subject until my 12th semester at the university and only then because of discrimination. God never left me alone when He saw the will that I had.
Likewise, I believe in many children from each school supported by Climbing For Christ. I believe that God can do more in the lives of children in the mountains, more than simply knowing how to read and write, with or without Climbing For Christ’s New Generation (C4CNG). But I believe that C4CNG can continue to be a light that illuminates the first steps of these children in their education and their lives.
We can be the ones who open the door for doctors, engineers, accountants, nurses, and architects. I believe that we can continue to be the beginning of the change in the lives of at least five percent of every 100 children in the mountains where we are working.
More than 230 children in Morne Des Commissaires, more than 235 in Kalimet, and more than 80 children in Majon are learning to read and write. Girls aged 16 to 18 are going to school for the first time in their lives thanks to C4CNG, and at least they can write their names. It is difficult for me to tell what this means; I can’t find the best word.
Psalm 113:7-8 says, “He raises the poor from the dust, And lifts the needy from the dunghill, To make them sit with the princes, With the princes of his people.”
I can truly say God did not let me die because He knew I should be there for so many children. By saying that I do not mean that it does not mean that I am doing an easy job. On the contrary, it is a very difficult and risky job in Haiti and in the Dominican Republic. But I am confident in a God who will finish His work in me, as it says in Philippians 1:6: “He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”
I would be incapable of being in medical school today and supervising the work of C4CNG if He were not the owner of this work.
Yes, He did it for me. He can do it for the hundreds of children in the mountains. That is why even though we lead a difficult life in Haiti, where insecurity increases more every day, and the news is more shocking every day, I would like to tell Climbing For Christ that our work is worthwhile. We are grateful for all the things that have been possible thanks to the support provided by C4C.
With God we can! 
Gilbert was injured while playing with a friend in the ravines around the mountain village of Gentilhomme, Haiti in 2007. He nearly died. Climbing For Christ rescued him and his leg was amputated in emergency surgery in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where C4C is now supporting him through medical school. Gilbert will be making his fourth trip to Colorado in January for work on a prosthetic leg provided by Quorum Prosthetics in Windsor, CO.
MISSION: HAITI 2024: These is no short-term expedition scheduled until 2025. But Climbing For Christ will continue its prayer and financial support for the work in Haiti, especially for the schools in Majon, Morne des Commissaires, and Kalimet, as well as ministry carried out by C4CNG.
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