We have 2 BIG announcements for you that we are extremely excited about!

1. CPI Child Sponsorship has launched
2. CPI Night at Black-N-Brew, Saturday, May 21st

1 – CPI Child Sponsorship Has Launched

CPI is THRILLED to announce that the child sponsorship program is ready for you!! We have 48 children waiting for a sponsor. Our school has 128 children and 2 teachers. As you know, that is not an environment conducive for learning. Education is the key to getting out of poverty in a country where the majority of the population is… illiterate.

For $30 a month you can begin to change this statistic. What would happen in the village of Chauffard if ALL of our students could read and write? GREAT things would happen. Please, please consider being a child sponsor. You can visit our website and begin the process today at: CPI Child Sponsorship

2 – CPI Night at Black-n-Brew, Saturday, May 21st

Come join us at Black-N-Brew on Saturday, May 21st to help us celebrate the launch of our Child Sponsorship Program. Nate Mundell will be displaying and selling photography created from his most recent trip to Haiti. A percentage of the delicious food and drink sales will go to CPI-Haiti. Drop in and show your support between 6:30 and 9:30!

Great people, great mission, great food and drink…don’t miss it!

Together, we are making a difference!

The CPI Team

Spring Break & Summer Trips

Hello, everyone! We are super excited to announce the awesome trips we have going this summer (and this spring break, meaning in a week!)

We have a team of 18 (11 from Lakeland and 7 from The Crossing Church) heading down March 13-18.

There will be 2 CPI-Lakeland trips this summer along with a CPI-Clermont trip.

Trip 1, CPI-First Presbyterian: July 3-10
Trip 2, CPI General: July 9-16
Trip 3, CPI-Clermont: July 16-23

We will be limiting the teams to 15.
The cost of the trips is $1,200.

We will be having a meeting on March 6th after the morning service in the youth hall for people interested in the FPC trip. FPC is a church partner with CPI and therefore we devote at least 1 trip each year to FPC attenders. We’ll know after the meeting on the 6th how many spots on Trip 1 will be available to non-FPC attenders.

Please let me know ASAP which trip you would be most interested in.

• Call: Kenny – 863-698-4352/ Grant: 561-247-2686
• E-mail: ellis.kenny@gmail.com/ grant.nieddu@gmail.com
• Connect form.

The projects for each trip will be determined by how much $$ we can raise between now and then and the assessment of greatest need as we come back from the Spring Break trip.

Ok, so tell your friends, family, and the pets you like most to get ready for an awesome transformational trip this summer.

Gratefully,

The CPI Haiti Team

Kenny Ellis
Grant R. Nieddu
And the AWESOME CPI Team Family

So, there is a classroom full of kids here in the USA that are excited about establishing school to school relationships  with a classroom full of kids in Haiti. Cheryl Pace (a teacher at Philip O’Brien Elementary) has started a school to school relationship with the children of Chauffard, Haiti.

On a recent trip in October, leader Kenny Ellis took a packet of letters from Cheryl’s students written to the students in Chauffar.  He  also had questions to ask the children to bring back answers to Cheryl’s students.  After the trip Kenny touched base with Cheryl and gave her the answers to the questions that her students asked of the students in Chauffard, Haiti. From there, Cheryl asked her class to write a report from what they had learned and sent us the email below telling us about a report that one of her students had turned in for the writing assignment:

Written by Alandria Gilkey:

A lot of you have suffered from something.  But everybody in the eastern hemisphere suffers 24/7.  Some people think about those people but most just laugh at them. Because some people don’t have what we have, sometimes it’s hard for them to understand all the tough times Haiti has been through.  Every day someone dies from sadness, starvation, and hunger.  My class has sent letters to most of the children of Haiti.  We had a lot of fun and everybody answered back.  Most families can’t go to school because they don’t have any lunch to send with their child.  Most people think, “How can I help Haiti?”, and, “How can I help save millions of lives?”  You don’t have to ask…..just do it!

I am with Alandria , “you don’t have to ask…. just do it!”

A Success Adventure Building Homes In Chauffard, Haiti

As many of you know, we were unable to build new homes in the village in July because our materials were held up in the red tape of the port.

After returning to the States, our Haitian team worked diligently and finally got the materials out of the port in early September.  Meanwhile, we were assembling another team (aka, the Dream Team) to head back and finish the project.

Our team left for Haiti last Wednesday night.  Here is a picture of our team:

Kenny, Leah, John, Shawn, Bobby & JJ

It goes without saying that the choice to work among the people of Chauffard was a decision to accept and overcome extreme obstacles at every turn.  The remote location, the extremely poor road conditions, and the abundant rainfall all pose serious challenges to our teams.

This is why most organizations work in and around Port-au-Prince.  However, the forgotten people of this village have become our friends and partners, and their future is worth it all to us.

So, although it was an adventurous, trying few days, we were able to complete the new home late on Saturday night.

Oxyllian, his wife and their 4 children were overwhelmed with  gratitude and excitement.

As we packed up our tools and loaded  the trucks, we could still hear the people of the village talking and  the children laughing as they had surrounded the new home to  check it out.

Driving down the mountain, we realized that we and  all of our U.S. partners had touched a real family in ways that are  immeasurable.

We also realized that this is still only the beginning of a  life-time partnership with our friends who are working, day in and  day out for a better future.

One final highlight for us was to be able to train many of the locals how to use the various tools that we had used and the basic concept of a wood-frame house.  We left behind the materials for two other homes (Senles’ family and Willy’s father’s home) that will be built by the locals who helped us build this first house.

What does it mean to mature as a Christian?

How would you answer that question?

Is it through tradition?

Is it having compassion for the poor, afflicted, and oppressed?

Is it sharing with others about God’s love in Christ?

And once you have settled on a definition of a mature Christian, how would you go about instructing, guiding, and strengthening yourself and others, to continually mature in Christ’s likeness?

What is a mature Christian, and how do we as the body love, call, encourage, and challenge one another to mature in Christ’s likeness?

When pondering these questions it is helpful to read the following passage—to gain a better perspective and understanding—in Philippians 3:12-14:

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

These verses are referring to us maturing into Christ-likeness and not in regards to our salvation as Christians—born again believers who are complete and whole upon believing. The journey towards Christ-likeness begins with a sense of honesty and dissatisfaction—hence the expression “press”. And the Greek word press was used of a sprinter, and refers to one who is aggressive and energetic action.

Now that we have established that pressing is not in about striving, but about aggressively and energetically walking the journey set before us, we can see that Paul lived in a state of actively pursing the things of God—what God was leading and placing before him to do and complete. As Paul walked the path laid before him, he was sensitive to the Holy Spirits directing within him, which was an inward and ultimately manifestation of Christ-likeness.

Going deeper into these verses we see the words “lay hold”, which in the Greek means “to make one’s own possession”. God chose Paul and equally Paul chose to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit in laying hold of the things God was leading him in.

In order for us to live the sort of life that Paul lived, we need to see that we are complete and whole… forgetting those things that are behind, whatever—whether these things are past deeds and achievements or failures and sins—that maybe that we tend to let distract us from aggressively and energetically embracing the journey.

As Christians we are complete and whole, able to “press” forward on the path that is before us, especially as we chose to be sensitive to the direction of the Holy Spirit within us. Knowing that we are right where we should be flowing in the moment of the journey, pouring out ourselves in the things that God has before us—maturing in Christ-likeness along the way.

Now that this has been brought to your attention, take a moment to seek God and what He might be leading you in when it comes to being apart of an organization such as CPIHaiti. I encourage you to prayerfully consider what might be in store for you being apart of something that is beyond yourself-extend yourself and be the hands and feet to help those that are less fortunate than you.

As we prepare to take a team to Haiti in July, one of our main projects is to help rebuild suitable houses, for some of the families in the mountains of Chauffard, Haiti. Most of the houses, even in the mountains, have either been damaged and unlivable or destroyed altogether.

This will not be an easy task, but it is one that we are excited to be involved in.

In most of the news as of late, it has been voiced that,  Haitians say they intend to build differently than they did before the earthquake. The government, awakened to the nation’s construction follies, and say they plan to crack down to ensure proper materials and techniques. We strongly agree with this and are doing our best to use quality materials and many knowledgeable and skilled hands to help execute this.

When it comes to the buildings being destroyed, they are in the state they are in because of one thing, because of poor construction practices. It is a goal of ours to communicate to the people in the village the importance of building on a solid foundation with reliable materials. But in order to do this we will need funding and supplies and the sooner we are able to gather these vital factors, the sooner we are able to provide suitable and safe housing for the families in the village.

We have come up with an unique strategic idea to deal with the houses to be repaired and reconstructed, it will take some time but the people in the village will get there with our and your help.

Yes, I said YOU.

We need your help in helping rebuild the village, in order to help provide a vision and opportunity for their community. There is an urgent need for housing, some aid agencies have begun to construct transitional homes for thousands of Haitians facing a potentially violent rainy season without a roof over their heads. However, this is not the case in the village of Chauffard and it will be up to us and you to help construct suitable housing.

How can you help?

Well, there are numerous ways in which you can help:

1. One time or on going financial support
2. Donation of building materials
3. Going on a trip to lend a hand in the building projects
4. And certainly not least of all, but lots of prayer

Even though our time in Haiti will be just a week, we hope that during that week, there are the noises of hammers and saws being used to provide shelter for our friends.

Bondye Beni Lakay Nou!

God bless this house!

Children of Haiti

With all the hustle and bustle to find credible contacts and interpreters in Haiti it only makes practical and functional sense to take steps to learn to speak Creole. Not only to speak the language of the people of Haiti, but to seek to understand them and their language.

To engage in the lives of the people of Haiti, it helps to know the language!

Most go to Haiti with their own agenda and could care less if they can really communicate with the people they are going to help.

Think about it a moment…

What if someone comes to your house to fix your AC, because it is not working as you know it should be. You would need to be able to communicate to them the problem you have been experiencing in order to find a solution to the problem.

Right?

If the AC repair man comes right in and starts going through your house trying to fix the problem without communicating with you, you might feel as though he has overstepped his boundaries or even feel as though you are being taken advantage of.

How about this (which happens all too often).

In relationships with family, friends, or business partners it is hard to inner act or understand each other if we are not able to communicate. Sometimes each of our styles of communication verbally is very different and if we don’t take the time to learn each other’s style of communication, it makes it very challenging to inner act with each other.

The attitude of your heart reflects your true desires and if you seek to communicate with those in Haiti, you will take the needed steps to learn their language. I encourage you to take a few moments to watch the following link about One Man’s Unique Gift to Haiti: http://bit.ly/bro0Yv

To be able to communicate with the people of Haiti brings them much joy and shows them that we care about them, not just about coming in to “fix” things because they don’t have the resources. It is about building lasting relationships with the people of Haiti and sparking the vision of a better place. And encouraging them to catch the vision, to use their talents and skills to establish a healthy and functional community for years to come.

So for those of you out there that have taken learning Creole half heartedly or find it a hassle to learn, take a moment to put yourself in the people of Haiti’s shoes (most don’t even have shoes and that is a whole other post in and of its self.).

How about you?

Don’t you think it is about time to learn Creole?

We can only communicate and better help the people of Haiti if we understand their language.

TED.com has offered the following powerful resources.

Google Haiti Crisis Response Page

TED talk Stories of Haiti by Edwidge Danticat

Ushahidi partners with Digicel for survivors to report in, areas of need, and a culmination of earthquake-pertinent information.

GRATEFUL

First, we want to thank everyone for the continued prayer, phone calls, text messages, e-mails, networking, and fundraising that has occurred in the last 24 hours. We have been astounded at the immense support and encouragement that we have received.

The CPI GUYS’ RESPONSE

Second, we have been wrestling over how to respond to the extreme devastation in Haiti. Waiting for information from our Haitian partners has been nail-biting. We still have no information about the health of our friends in Chauffard, the safety of our friends in Port-au-Prince, or the condition of the new building in Chauffard.

It has been on the calendar for a survey and expansion trip with Personal Partners in late February or early March. Obviously the shifting of the land has shifted our priorities for the next 60 days.

To handle the many requests for immediate emergency support, we have set up our Earthquake Emergency Relief fund. This will help with our aggressive reconstruction and damage assessment efforts over the next 60 days. This will be immediately followed with preparations for a massive reconstruction and recovery effort over the summer with our current partners, The Crossing, and our new partnership with FPC-Vine here in Lakeland.

This is a restricted fund used solely for Earthquake Reconstruction & Restoration.  Please find out more and donate here.

HEEDING THE REQUEST OF EMERGENCY RESPONSE ORGANIZATIONS

1.  Jonathan Capre, who leads the CIM network of churches and schools in Haiti, will be traveling to Haiti as soon as it is feasible to assess how the people of CIM have been affected by the earthquake.  We have 4 CIM churches and schools that are in Port-au-Prince and the surrounding areas.  Jonathan will be our hands and heart to these folks until we can be there. He will also be able to assess the roadways and transportation options available for teams to travel to Chauffard in the next 6-8 weeks.

2. To ensure that our friends and partners can participate in our efforts, we have set up our Earthquake Emergency Relief fund. This will enable us to send a small team (as soon as it is feasible) to deliver supplies and assess the long term needs in the CIM communities where we work.  This assessment will help us plan for late Spring and Summer projects with our current partners, The Crossing Church, and our new partnership with FPC-Vine here in Lakeland.

The CPI Guys and our partners are committed to this reconstruction and recovery, especially in the rural and outlying areas where aide and support are unlikely to reach for many months. You can help instantly by donating, joining our team in the spring, or, if you are a medical or search-and-rescue professional, please see The Red Cross.

Thank You so much for all you have done. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Most Passionately,

The CPI Guys

Kenny Ellis &

Grant Nieddu

on behalf of our Haitian friends and partners who still wait breathlessly to hear from.

It was a dilapidated block building with tin roofing and a dirt floor, but that day it became a seminary classroom.  The CPI Team had traveled to Chauffard, Haiti to continue our work in this remote, farming village.  Kendal Anderson, pastor of The Crossing Church (a CPI Church Partner), had also brought a team and had prepared a series of seminars for the church leaders in Chauffard.

The meeting was about to begin when I found my place at the back of the room on a rickety, plank bench next to an elderly Haitian man.  He flashed a warm, genuine smile at me, motioned hello with a tip of his hat and quietly said, “Bon jou.”  I extended my hand to him and he placed his weathered, calloused hand in mine.  He, like so many of the men in this village, had spent a life working the land, loving his family and serving in the community.  He pulled out a Bible, notepad and pencil from a tattered plastic bag and turned his attention towards the front of the room.

My Friend

Kendal had begun his introductory remarks and was passing out an outline that had been translated into Creole.  My back row friend and me both took our outlines and prepared to fill in the blanks and follow along with the teaching.  Kendal asked everyone to turn to a specific book in their Bibles and the other 15 Haitians in the room began flipping pages and locating the reference that had been assigned.  Kendal began to lead us through the outline, giving us the key words needed to fill in the blanks.  A few minutes passed and I glanced over at my friend and I realized that he was lost.  He still had a warm smile on his face, but it was mixed with a look of confusion, embarrassment and appeal.  He motioned to me for help in filling out his outline while his Bible lay open to a book that was not referenced in the teaching.  He could not read or write.

He was not unintelligent or unmotivated.  I am certain he had accomplished much in his life.  The sheer fact that he had lived well beyond the median age in Haiti (57 years) speaks of his determination and endurance.  The problem was that he was never given the opportunity to learn how to read or write.  Education in Haiti is for the privileged and this man was not among them.

Kendal continued his teaching, but I could not bring myself to focus.  I sat there imagining the opportunities and relationships that I would be excluded from if I could not read or write.  The world is filled with complex truths, beautiful realities, diverse streams of perspectives and opinions, inexhaustible topics and issues, logic, art, poetry, solutions, ideas and MOST of them are contained in the form of written communication.  This man had experienced a lifetime cut off from all of these because he could not read.  He reminded me why the CPI team is doggedly committed to providing opportunities for Haitians to learn basic skills that will enable them to access the world of possibilities around them.  Reading is one of those basic skills that I will never take for granted again.