What CONASPEH could do with a permanent annual support for their budget of $40,000 a year would be nothing short of a miracle!

          I know a place where a dollar is worth more than a dollar.  Haiti is so poor that 95% of the population will do a hard day’s work for one dollar.  It is the poorest country in this hemi­sphere.  Its annual per capita income is $300.00. (less than one dollar per day!!)

          Living in this country of extreme poverty and periodic violence, you’d think the Haitians would be the saddest people on earth.  It’s simply not true.  They smile and laugh.  They tease and play and dance.  The reason for this paradox is the Church.  God is at work in Haiti.  The Spirit of Christ and his teachings are widely evident.  The Holy Spirit is uniting more and more of the small, Protestant Haitian churches every year.

          Most of these small churches provide the only education children in the communities will ever receive.  There is no health insurance, social security, Medicare, Medicaid, or welfare.  The Church is it!

          In 1986, 50 pastors of these small congregations began to work together and formed the National Spiritual Council of Haitian Churches (CONASPEH).  The number of CONASPEH churches is now close to 5,000!  In 2001, I went with Karen Yount and others from Kansas City on my first mission trip to Haiti and Suanne and I have had a relationship with CONASPEH ever since.

          In the hands of the National Committee of CONASPEH, a dollar is much more than a dollar.  They operate a nationally recognized school for children from kindergarten through high school.  They feed all the elementary children free lunch called “Food for Learning.”  They have a medical clinic in the national office building staffed by a Haitian doctor and nurse.  They operate a nursing school and a seminary.  The annual administrative budget for this entire ministry is $40,000 a year.  Only $40,000 a year!  In the United States, that wouldn’t cover the salary cost for one schoolteacher – or one minister of a church – or one doctor or nurse.  What CONASPEH could do with a permanent annual support for this budget would be nothing short of a miracle!

          Last week, Suanne and I decided that it was time to start doing something about this possibility for the people of the ministers and laity of CONASPEH – permanently.  Suanne and I met with Kirby Gould and got the paperwork done.  A permanent fund has been established with Christian Church Foundation to endow annual financial support for the administrative budget of CONASPEH.  Each year, they will receive the earnings of this fund – forever.

          100% of the annual distribution from the fund will go to Global Ministries for the benefit of CONASPEH.

          If CONASPEH should cease to exist, Global Ministries will get the distributions for development grants in Latin America and the Caribbean.  It will take a fund of $800,000 to permanently endow CONASPEH’s administrative budget.  That seems like a lot of money – and it is if we were trying to do this by ourselves!  We aren’t.  This is the work of God, and I think God will bless this effort.

          Would you help our Christian brothers and sisters in Haiti?  Would you help us make this fund grow?  We do not know of any place we could donate money that would benefit more people!  You can send a check made out to Christian Church Foundation, P.O. Box 1986, Indianapolis, IN 46206-1986.  The donation should be marked as: “CONASPEH/Haiti Missions Permanent Fund.”  Now, if I could just find 797 people (and churches) to give $1,000 each …