Update from Tom Braak

from www.faithinactionint.org, Late Fall 2017

This has been one of the best years for the farmers with ideal rainfall, no huge storms or drought, and bumper crops. Rainy season is winding down and most crops have been harvested. Our tree nursery is near capacity with plants to give out over the next two years. On Saturday, we bought 305 avocadoes to get the seed inside. Today, we invited people in to receive the edible portion and people were taking it out in shopping bags. We’ll let the seed dry then plant them towards the end of the week. 250 of these will be grafted to a different variety. We already started another 150 a few weeks ago. Every couple of weeks we find ourselves starting new seeds.

We are transplanting trees to our property and have to manually water them twice a week now that there is less rain. We can’t hold the trees until next summer as they are too large. Some are over 12 feet tall. We’ve planted breadfruit, black sapote, canistel, mango, avocado, soursop, and a few flowering trees. We will do more over the next month. We’re identifying 200 new families to begin working with next year. Nadi Job is 10 years old and is a member of one of the new families. We provided them with two cherry trees this week.

We’ve planted flowering trees to the town park and provided smaller flowering plants to the main street beautification effort. People around town love what we have done and are so friendly now as they felt I neglected the town as all of our work is in the hills.

We are repairing our sound system in preparation to show Christian and nature films once the rains finish completely. We are setting up dates and locations. We use a projector and always start with the nature movies to draw a crowd. We usually do showings in partnership with a pastor local to the area.

 

Ryan is now in home-school with three siblings from a nearby family. The teaching is done in English, and he is thriving. Thank you for your on-going support. Come for a visit. If you really want to experience what we do, come alone or with a friend; you can stay with us and tag along as we work. Blessings, Tom

Resita Elismond and her three children are from the community of Metan. Metan was recently identified by the local hospital as most in need of water filters due to high cholera levels. We gave out our last water filters and are in need of many more! Please consider helping a family by providing them with a water filter. Join us to buy and distribute filters as soon as possible. We have a goal of distributing 1,000 filters by the end of next year.

Litana, Resita’s daughter, was thrilled to receive a children’s Bible from us. She plans to read to her family and neighbors of all ages!

Prayers/Requests

• Continued progress on the ministry campus and the paperwork/government process that has been holding progress up. Pray that those in power can find love instead of greed and put the people of their country before their own desires.

• The Dodge truck and a solution to the problems it has. We must have reliable transportation to continue our programs. It is time for a new vehicle, and will cost around $30k. We hope to find someone to start some excitement about fundraising for this. We know it’s not exciting raising money for a truck, but this truck is essential to our work. We use it to deliver trees, plants, and dirt; and to deliver water filters and buckets. This truck also provides security for Tom and his family if there is an emergency or they must leave the area due to threats. We must have reliable transportation. We pray for someone who is gifted in crowd funding, that they will start some excitement to buy the truck.

• Prayers for funds to continue programs. We are thankful for all the gifts we have received, but if you haven’t given in a while, please give. Our work is important, but we simply cannot do it without money, so we need your help.

• Prayers for health, well-being, and safety for Tom, family and staff. Living in Haiti is difficult due to pollution, bad water, fear, lack of regular nutritional food, clean water, and access to modern healthcare. None of us here have any idea what it’s like to live like he and his family does on a daily basis.

• Simple things to do…Share this newsletter, ask someone to like us on Facebook.

 

Please Help… make your check payable to:
Faith in Action International, P.O. Box 171, Spring Lake, Michigan 49456
Donations can also be made on line at www.faithinactionint.org

This is a non-denominational, non-profit organization formed for charitable purposes as defined within Section 501(c )(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. All donations are tax deductible as allowed by law.

Your donations help provide access to cleaner water, pastor
training, vegetable and fruit trees to grow which provide nutrition and educational and economic opportunities for some of the poorest of the poor in the world.
Thank you!

20 Years of Providing Help to the Poor in Haiti