By August of 2016 we realized that the biggest need at the St. Michel Orphanage was to find a long term solution for housing the children. All 35 of the children were being housed in two small classrooms in the church’s cinder block school house – 18 boys in one small room, and 17 girls in another. It was certainly far from ideal for the children, plus it tied up one-third of the classroom space needed for the elementary school, which serves approx. 350 primary school age children.
The owner of a large piece of land close to the St. Michel church building had offered to sell it to the church for $10,500 USD, which JT said was a reasonable price, and the best identifiable long term solution to the housing problem. When our team was there in August of 2016 we visited the site, and prayed together as a team for direction and guidance. With JT’s help, we were able to negotiate that price down to just $8500 – but only if we could come up with the money by November 1.
Thanks to some incredible gracious donations from many of you we were able to meet that November 1 deadline, and purchase that land for the St. Michel Orphanage. The deed has been titled in 4 names – the St. Michel Eglise du Christ (Church of Christ), Rolin Mompremier (preacher), Jeantyrard Elmera, and Greg Smith (which I think officially makes me Haitian now). 🙂
