imagine missions winter 2013 newsletter
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We would like to intro-
duce you to Benson
Renaty. Benson has
lived at the orphanage
about as long as it has
been in existence. Ben-
son comes from Mt.
Cabrit. When asked if
he remembers living on
the mountain he says
he only remembers liv-
ing in the yard. Bensons
mother comes to visit
him and he has one
older sister, Berthide,
that lives at the or-
phanage with him.
Benson is the youngest
of seven children. Ben-
son is in grade five and
enjoys learning math.
He looks forward to go-
ing to secondary
school and becoming
a mechanic. Benson is
a very hard worker in
the yard. Any job that
needs done he is the
first to volunteer. Ben-
son says he would be
so happy to have a
sponsor.
M Y N A M E I S B E N S O N R E N A T Y
W I N T E R 2 0 1 3
V O L U M E 3 , I S S U E 1
Serving Christ through the Children of the Loyal Oaks Community Chapel Children’s Home, Despinos, Haiti
I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :
T O H A I T I W I T H L O V E B Y T O R I
W H I D D O N
2
W A L T & C O N N I E ’ S
C O R N E R
3
M E L I S S A ’ S
M E M O R A N D U M 4
E S S E N T I A L S C L U B
5
C H R I S T M A S I N H A I T I
6
U P C O M I N G M I S S I O N T R I P S
7
S A Y C H E E S E ! 8
We would like you to
meet Telmond Joseph.
Those of you have vis-
ited know what an im-
portant role this man
plays in the safety and
comfort of teams at the
team house. Telmond
is 62 years old and
works harder than any-
one half his age. He
grew up in Shambre
which is just a few miles
from Despinos. He
moved to Despinos in
1996. In 1979 he was
married and he has six
children. All of his chil-
dren live here in
Despinos. Telmond has
always worked as a
house guard. He
started working for this
mission in 2002. Tel-
mond wears many hats
here at the house. He
takes care of watching
the gate, filling the wa-
ter tank, takes care of
the trash, keeps the
generator going, runs
any errand that is
asked of him, keeps the
yard clean, cleans and
checks the vehicles
every morning just to
name a few of his regu-
lar tasks. Three years
ago Telmond gave his
life to Christ. Words
Continued on page 7 . . .
O U R S T A F F M E M B E R O F T H E Q U A R T E R - T E L M O N D J O S E P H
This Christmas was quite a different Christmas
as it took place in Haiti this time. It was an amazing trip. We went to the beach, on a tour, and got
to know more about the kids, and also have Christ-mas morning at orphan-
age (or as they say in Hai-tian Creole orphanina). Our trip to the beach was fun. The kids loved it.
The ride took forever. I sat in the back of a truck on a big lid in very hot
weather. It was worth it though. When we got there the kids were so ex-cited. This was part of
their Christmas present. They played for a while, while we made sand-
wiches and stuff. After lunch they played a little longer then we left. Pascal (asst. director)
took us on a tour of down-town Port-au-Prince. It was cleaned up a lot since I saw the pictures.
We took a bunch of back roads so we didn't have to stay in traffic. Did you
know you can get almost anything on the road, such as drinks, sugar cane, and also phone
chargers? They have taken the whole palace down because of the
earthquake damages. Also they are building lots of houses so they can move the people out of
tents from tent city. Plus I love the new airport - it
has air conditioning. Awe-some!
This trip was a better ex-perience since we didn't really have a project to do. We got to spend time
with them. We got to know and have a better relationship with them. So
everyday we just went to the orphanage and hung out. It was fun and relax-ing.
The greatest part of all, Christmas Day. That morn-ing we woke up at like
3:30 to get ready to go over to the orphanage. At the orphanage we got there at 4:00 am to get
the presents set up before the kids woke up. You know it is very hard to be
quiet when you are walk-ing on gravel making a crunch sound every step. Once we got everything
set up we woke the kids up. When we got the little kids awake they looked confused. Then we got
the big kids up. Those boys did not want to get up. Then we got the kids
seated in the church their faces lit up when they saw all the presents. After they were settled some-
body walked through the church doors, "Santa Claus"! They all had to
take a picture with Santa before they could get their bag and stocking, including the big kids who
would not smile. The night before they all kept say-
T O H A I T I W I T H L O V E B Y V I C T O R I A W H I D D O N ( A G E 1 2 )
Page 2
We’re on the Web!
www.imaginemissions.
com
Contributions may be
mailed to:
Imagine Missions
c/o Park Christian
236 Miller Ave.
Dennison, OH 44621
I M A G I N E M I S S I O N S
Any Fundraising ideas,
please email
Beth and Chris
Hostetler:
bethandchrishostetler
@yahoo.com
ing they weren't getting presents and Santa was
not coming and that it was us. They said, “monte monte” which means liar liar. So they were surprised to see Santa Claus. It was a great Christmas.
My trip to Haiti was an amazing trip and a awesome Christmas. It was a lot of fun and I
love going!
W A L T & C O N N I E ’ S C O R N E R
Page 3 V O L U M E 3 , I S S U E 1
We have been here four
months now and everyday is a learning process. God is growing and stretching us as we adapt to this new culture and try not to
“be an American” but to be a child of God. We are processing things, learning acceptance and
flexibility and having some grow-ing pains along the way. We are transitioning from the new kids on the block to an integral
part of the team. We are con-tinuing to learn the Creole lan-guage but not as quickly as we
would like. An interpreter has been hired to assist us in the day-to-day activities on and off of the orphanage. Louinege
started with us the first of Janu-ary. Many of you will remember that name as he used to live on
the orphanage.
It has been great spending time with the teams. We have met many people from different
states and churches. Getting to know them, fellowshipping with them, praying, and worshipping with them has been an encour-
agement. Walt experienced an illness that was actually prophe-sized prior to our departure from
the U.S. He became very dis-couraged at that time. A team was here to lay hands on him and pray which was a tremen-
dous blessing. Discouragement does happen and that is where Satan tries to get a foothold.
Connie experienced that also and again, team members stepped in to pray. It is such a joy to share in the body of Christ
and lean on our brothers and
sisters.
Walt is finding his role in church
leadership at the orphanage. He has had the opportunity to preach on several occasions. He spoke to the young adults about
how men and women of God should conduct themselves and set a good example for the
younger children. Prison ministry is also on his heart and he has had one opportunity to visit and preach in Mirebalais. He hopes to
go again soon.
Clinic update: Early in Novem-ber Doctors Blair and Barbara
Main came from Canada to do medical outreach. Each child at Imagine Missions Orphanage had a complete physical with areas of
needed treatment identified. We also did mobile clinics in the mountain village of Marten and went to three smaller orphanages
to treat children.
Many medications and have been brought down with teams.
A team from Ohio purchased sup-plies and put a ceiling in the exist-ing two rooms of the clinic along with running new electrical lines.
Two metal cabinets with locks were purchased and money has been given by two different
teams to purchase four more of which we are picking up today. Thank you for your generous hearts. We are still in the process
of organization. We accompa-nied Staley to Double Harvest for his surgery in which we had a
wonderful outcome. Glory to God! Connie has experienced several LONG trips to the dentist at Double Harvest with four of the
children with more trips to come.
Transition House/Apartment
update: In our last newsletter we stated that the transition house was almost ready for occu-pancy. Little did we know how
much more needed to be done to complete the project. We want to thank each one of you
for your generous donations to make this a reality. Many have given time and money to see this happen. We believe that within
the next three to four weeks our apartment and the transition house will be completed and we
will all be able to move in. Please keep all of us in your prayers, as this will be a HUGE adjustment for everyone. We
thank you for your prayers and
support.
In His service,
Walt & Connie
Page 4 V O L U M E 3 , I S S U E 1
Wow…what amazing and blessed few months
it has been here in Haiti. We have had many Imagine family mem-bers down to visit, some
for the first time and some returning to visit. December was very ex-
citing as the children anticipated the coming of Christmas morning. I am pretty sure every
day leading up to Christmas the children asked if they were get-
ting a present. They were overjoyed with all they received this year. They each were given
an individual gift, as well as two family gifts of a new television (donated
by Beth Jarvis) and a
trip to the beach.
They also had a special meal on Christmas pro-vided by the children of
Strasburg elementary.
Also in December the Heartland Vineyard
Church helped us move our Krache (an orphan-age for adoption) to a home in Despinos. We
have five children in the process of being adopted and they are
now close to home and back in school. A team from Ember Home care in Uhrichsville came and
brought Connie much need medical supplies, put a ceiling in the clinic
and provided snacks for the children. While they were here they also saw our need for a new gen-
erator at the orphan-
age and Jock and Lois Grandison blessed us by providing the funds to
purchase a new one.
One of the greatest
blessings taking place over the past few months is different teams have been here
together and sharing their experiences to-gether. From Decem-
ber 22 - January 17 we had visitors from Geor-gia (Galilee Church & Augusta Vineyard), Boli-
var, OH, Monnett, MO, Harlem Rd Methodist Church and Columbus,
OH. There was such joy in seeing them accept
M E L I S S A ’ S M E M O R A N D U M
each other and be-
come one team, help-ing each other with work to be done at the orphanage. They
sorted Christmas pre-sents, made snacks, or-ganized the clothing
depot, supervised a trip to the beach, made a new generator house, changed faucets and
outlets at the team house, did electrical work at the orphanage,
painted, taught Zumba and loved our children. God is truly making Imagine Missions one
body and family is HIS name. With all of this going on, work has still been continuing on the
transition house and other projects at the or-phanage. The boys
transition house is very close to completion. The kitchen is being in-stalled and tile has
been purchased and being set in the com-mons/kitchen area. All
the electrical and plumbing work has been completed. Walt and Connie are down
to the finishing touches on their apartment. We have also set a new
septic for the girls dorm
and built a new out-
house for the children.
There are not words enough to say how grateful we are for the Imagine family that
keeps this ministry mov-ing forward everyday. It is so overwhelming how
God continues to pro-vide our every need and more. There are a few areas I would ask
for you to be in prayer about. #1: The Essen-tials Club – we need 500
members as soon as possible to help with the everyday operations at the orphanage. Please
read about this pro-gram on page five of the newsletter. #2: The girls dorm of the transi-
tion house – we need to
raise $60,000 to build.
#3: Prayer for wisdom and direction with our church at the orphan-
age. We see a need to make some changes and as we all know change does not come
easily. We want our chil-dren to be followers of Jesus and building an intimate relationship
with Him.
Thank you for your con-
tinued prayers and sup-
port.
God Bless,
Melissa
Page 5 V O L U M E 3 , I S S U E 1
Essentially…..well, it’s
Essential
…the Essentials Club, that is. The Essentials Club is comprised of
persons who want to help the Kingdom of God in Haiti by giving
$20 per month for two years to Imagine Mis-sions. The money goes to provide the Essentials
for the 120 kids living at the Imagine Missions or-phanage. Did you
know that it costs $2,500 per week for the food
and fuel used at the or-phanage? And while
this food we’re talking about is better than many have in Haiti, it’s still only the basics: 7:00
am breakfast of spa-ghetti (common in Haiti), 2:00 pm lunch of
rice and beans, and a 7:00 pm snack of cereal. In addition to providing meals, Melissa must use
her funds to pay $3,600 each month to the forty staff members that take
care of “our kids”.
Before Imagine Missions took over the orphan-age, the prior director was operating on a
$10,000/month budget. When Melissa Young and Imagine Missions
became the director, much of the previous support ceased, and Imagine Missions began
with a dedicated com-mitment of only $1,000/month. Since that time
(October of 2011), God has blessed Imagine Missions’ efforts and has provided many things.
The monthly support of $30 that many have pledged was initially in-tended to enhance the
basic menu with meats/proteins and vegeta-bles, but it has had to
be used to provide the basic menu. Miracle donations have been made to help Melissa
meet payroll. Many teams have gone down to the orphanage to
make living improve-
ments – what a blessing to everyone there – and yet the daily concerns of how to pay the staff
and provide the next meal still exist. Think of it….$20 per
month….that’s about 66 cents per day. Don’t YOU have an extra 66
E S S E N T I A L S C L U B B Y J U D Y S H A R P E - K O S M A T K A
cents laying around that
you could put to good use in Haiti? God bless you if take the step to give it to 120 kids in
Haiti. Please contact April Linard at linard4@yahoo.com if
you’d like to …well…help Essentially!
V I T A M I N P R O G R A M
Connie Eck would like to initiate a daily vitamin
program for our children. This would take 120 vita-
mins per day. The problem is: she can’t buy
these in Haiti! If anyone is traveling to visit us and
you would like to support this could you please
put some in your suitcase (not the gummies, they
melt). Sam’s club sells Kirkland brand children’s
multivitamins that have everything necessary in-
cluding the iodine. For the
girls age 12 and older they
need a multivitamin plus
iron. The boys over 12 need
an adult vitamin. Thank
you in advance for your
help.
It’s time for our 2012 review. Kathy Barrett has
agreed to make a video again this year to show all
that took place over the past year. We would like
each team that came to visit in 2012 to choose
seven to ten pictures (one being a team picture)
that describe your time here and a short write up
about your trip. Please email them to Kathy @
kkathybarrett@gmail.com by February 23.
2 0 1 2 I N R E V I E W
V O L U M E 3 , I S S U E 1 Page 6
My family and I along with a
young lady from our youth
group, Amelia McDonald had
the unique opportunity to spend
Christmas in Haiti this year. What
a gift! We met up with Amber
and Thomas in the airport and
our journey began. Our main
purpose for going was to help
Melissa with organizing gifts for
each of the kids on Christmas
morning. On previous trips to
Haiti we have had a "work" pro-
ject but this time we truly got to
just enjoy being with the kids.
We started the week with my
husband (along with Pascal)
building a temporary wall under
the carport for Telmond to be
able to have a "bedroom". For
two years he has slept on the
front porch picking up his mat-
tress and mosquito net every
day. After the wall was com-
pleted, Melissa purchased him a
real bed with frame and a nice
thick mattress. What a Christmas
gift. He no longer had to pick up
his bed off the porch every day.
He was beaming and every time
he passed by Kevin he would
call him "boss" and say "merci".
Then Kevin built a shoe rack on
the front porch. It was nice to
have a spot to put shoes on in-
stead of them being scattered
all over.
Christmas Eve we celebrated
with a very nice church service.
The girls’ choir group practiced
and sang a few songs. It was
such a nice service to honor the
real reason for the season. At
4:00 am Christmas morning we
snuck over to the orphanage in
the dark and placed all the gifts
under the tree in the church. My
family did really well in our fund-
raising efforts so we were able to
provide a stocking with lots of
goodies inside for each child.
The kids had never had a stock-
ing before so that was fun. We
actually found a Santa suit in the
storage room so we convinced
Kevin to put it on and walk into
the church. The kids didn’t really
know who Santa was but they
went crazy screaming
"rouge" (red). Each child had
their picture taken with him then
received their gift and stocking.
Their little faces lit up and there
were smiles all around. We then
were able to have lunch with lots
of staff, family, and friends at the
team house while the kids en-
joyed their own special lunch.
Melissa is a great cook. It was
much like Christmas at home.
New friends from our home state
of Georgia came in the next
day. As part of the kids Christ-
mas gift, we provided them with
a day at the beach. Now, if
you've ever been to the beach
with your little ones, imagine try-
ing to keep up with 120+ kids!!
Mama Melissa was a little
stressed to say the least but eve-
ryone pitched in and thankfully
we came home with every-
body!! We served a lunch of
peanut butter sandwiches, chips,
and drinks on the beach. On Fri-
day night we had popcorn,
Coke, and a movie night. The
kids received a family gift of a
big screen TV from another
sweet lady. They have watched
movies before but had never
had Coke and popcorn with
M&M's! The movie was a big
success.
Our time was dwindling down
because we had to leave the
following day. We had been
able to hang out and spend so
much quality time with the kids.
Just listening and learning their
personalities. We picked up a lot
of Haitian Creole this trip and I
will never forget Christmas in
Haiti! It was the best Christmas
we have ever had as a family.
Wendy, Kevin, and
Tori Whiddon
C H R I S T M A S I N H A I T I B Y W E N D Y W H I D D O N
V O L U M E 3 , I S S U E 1 Page 7
T E L M O N D , C O N ’ T .
FEB 28 FEB 28 FEB 28 FEB 28 ---- MAR 3 MAR 3 MAR 3 MAR 3: Multiple reps from
Vineyard Churches
MAR 9 MAR 9 MAR 9 MAR 9 ---- MAR 23: MAR 23: MAR 23: MAR 23: Heartland Vineyard &
Purdue University Students
MAR 23 MAR 23 MAR 23 MAR 23 ---- APR 1: APR 1: APR 1: APR 1: Ladies form Bolivar Wesleyan
Church
MAR 23MAR 23MAR 23MAR 23---- MAR 30 MAR 30 MAR 30 MAR 30:::: Johnsonville University
MAR 31MAR 31MAR 31MAR 31 ---- APR 8 APR 8 APR 8 APR 8: Eastside Vineyard
MAY 8 MAY 8 MAY 8 MAY 8 ---- MAY 15 MAY 15 MAY 15 MAY 15: Lancaster Vineyard
MAY 29 MAY 29 MAY 29 MAY 29 ---- JUN 7 JUN 7 JUN 7 JUN 7:::: Galilee Christian Church
JUN 7JUN 7JUN 7JUN 7 ---- JUN 17 JUN 17 JUN 17 JUN 17:::: Bolivar Wesleyan
Youth Team
JUN 1JUN 1JUN 1JUN 1–––– JUN 24 JUN 24 JUN 24 JUN 24: : : : Bre Sholtz Team
JUN 25JUN 25JUN 25JUN 25 ---- JUL 3 JUL 3 JUL 3 JUL 3:::: Katie Saho Group
OCT 5 OCT 5 OCT 5 OCT 5 ---- OCT 12: OCT 12: OCT 12: OCT 12: Lincoln Trail
Christian Church
Melissa Young:
melissa9222424@yahoo.com
Cell: 330.340.4921
Haiti phone: 001.509.3170.7667
Park Christian Church:
740.922.4118
236 Miller Ave.,
Dennison, OH 44621
U P C O M I N G M I S S I O N T R I P S
that have been used by visitors
to describe “T” (as he is called)
are hard working, loyal and
humble. For as long as I have
known Telmond he has always
slept outside on the floor with a
thin mattress, never having his
own room or a place to keep
his belongings. He never com-
plained or asked for anything.
This year for Christmas Pascal &
Kevin Winddon took half of our
carport and made T his own
room. We bought him his own
bed & mattress. Telmond was so
grateful and proud to have his
own room.
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