We are very excited to announced that you have helped us sponsor 24 children in Chauffard, Haiti. This sponsorship guarantees education and food for these wonderful children which, in turn, guarantees a more hopeful future.

For only $1 a day you can make a significant difference!

Sponsor a child today.

We just wanted to announce that we have had our 11th child sponsored!

Scherline Estime now has much needed worm medicine, a meal a day, and primary education for hope for a better tomorrow!

We still have yet to have our official launch party at Black & Brew on Saturday the 21st. Tell your friends and invite them to this awesome night.

Thank you all for partnering with us on behalf of Scherline, her family, and the wonderful community of Chauffard, Haiti.

Kenny and Grant

And all of The CPI Guys and Gals

As you can see from this picture, choosing to work in the remote village of Chauffard presents some challenges.  This is a picture of our team having just worked for hours to repair the road which had been washed out by a flash flood.

The road conditions and elevation in this picture are consistent with the 20 miles of road that lead out to Chauffard.  So, one of our consistent challenges has been securing transportation to get work teams, supplies, building materials and food out to our friends in this remote farming village.

That is why we are very excited to announce that we have purchased a truck with the funds we raised from the Hope for Haiti 5K and with the generous support of our newest partner, Bartow Ford. Denny Mullis and the Bartow Ford team were very generous in making this a reality.

It is an F-350, 4×4, with re-enforced suspension, all-terrain tires and an 11 foot truck bed. We have been looking for months and this truck met all of our criteria.  We are outfitting the vehicle and preparing to ship it in a few weeks.

The  last hurdle we need to overcome to get the vehicle down to Haiti and put it to good use is raising the additional funds needed for shipping and customs.  We need to raise $5,000 to complete the process.

If you are willing to help us get the truck to Haiti…

1. Mail check payable to “CPI” to:

530 Bonnie Drive
Lakeland, FL
33803,..  OR

2. Donate securely online by clicking on the “Donate” tab above

The Many Uses of the CPI-Truck:

• Transporting food & farm supplies
• Transporting building materials
• Transporting work/mission teams
• A transporting business for our Haitian team members

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

We just wanted to let you know that we now have a “Title Sponsor” for the Hope for Haiti 5K:

This comes by way of Caylyn and Lisa Gilbert being willing to do the “ask” and following up. Way to go!

We know everyone is busy out there putting up flyers, talking it up on Facebook, spreading the word and hopefully talking to event sponsors. We have heard the buzz and been encouraged by how many people know what we are up to already. Keep it up!

If you have not approached a potential event sponsor yet…now is the time. We are thrilled with the news about Mid-Florida, but for us to reach our goal we have to have an additional 40 sponsors coming in at the $250 level (or some equivalent at other levels). December will be here and gone before we know it – so let’s do the “ask” and see what God does.

Have you been to the 5K page on our site? Check it out: http://cpihaiti.org/hope-5k/

Also coming up in the next 10 days:
Donate Your Christmas Campaign
Heroes of Hope Web Tools

Kudos again to Lisa and Caylyn! Go team! Have a great Thanksgiving!

All-Hands-On-Deck Meeting Summary

First of all, thanks for making last night a priority. I know our schedules are crazy and there are plenty of other things clamoring for your attention, but you will never regret an ounce of energy, time or resources invested in serving others for the reputation of Christ.

So, way to go for making room in your lives for our friends in Chauffard who are largely unknown or overlooked by most of the world. I would love to see their faces if they could see a picture of us, here in the U.S. meeting and planning on their behalf. Good stuff!

Second, last night was the beginning of something great! We all made mutual commitments to give some of our best focus and energy towards making our vision a reality. Here is a summary of the commitments that we made last night:

Commitment – #
Event Sponsors - 35
Host Dessert Social - 4
Race-Day Volunteers - 13
Speaking Opportunity - 2
Enlist Runners/Walkers - 107
Donate Your Christmas - 65

Third, keep in mind that our team is larger than those who attended the meeting last night. I know of several other people who will make similar commitments in the next week or so as we communicate the vision and the opportunities.

Fourth, we will be finalizing the Donate Your Christmas process in the coming weeks and will keep you posted once it is ready to go.

Here are some suggestions as we move forward together:

1. Take a few minutes and get very specific as to how you are going to follow through on your commitments. Get your calendar out and set the days and times that you will make that call, send the email, stop by the business, have the conversation, hand out the flyer, put up the poster, etc. As someone once said, “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.”

2. As a general rule, don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today. I would suggest we look at the time leading up to Thanksgiving as our prime window of opportunity for securing the Hope for Haiti 5K event sponsor commitments. Remember that our event sponsors can commit now and pay in January if necessary, but we would like to secure the commitment now if possible. Don’t forget that Grant and I are more than excited to come with you to talk with a potential event sponsor.

3. With the holidays fast approaching, those of you who committed to hosting a Dessert-Social will need to act now and get your event scheduled. If you don’t think you can pull it off prior to the holidays, you can always shoot for January.

I think that is all for now…let the fun begin!

Kenny Ellis
CPI-Haiti, www.cpihaiti.org

“Men anpil, chay pa lou.”
Many hands make the load lighter

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.

The rock path

Everything in life is a choice—are you choosing the best?

There are many choices for every situation or issue that we face daily, and some days it seems everything goes well; people help us, the details of events/projects fall into place, outcomes and rewards are visible. However, there are days though, when everything seems to be up hill or full of under-currents.

Even so, we need to recognize that we do have choices to make whether our day is going according to our plan or we find that we are faced with unexpected happenings. It is vital that we learn to be truly in our unique flow regardless of what is taking place around us or even how far off basis our plans have become.

We have to continue to be ourselves and moving forward in a productive manner; no matter what the given situation and be flexible with our plans in order to still be effective and make choices that are suitable.

Recently a team of 23 of us went to Chauffard, Haiti to build and repair houses (among other things) that had been destroyed or damaged from the earthquakes. While there we ran into a few setbacks which did not allow the building team to accomplish the big project they went to do-rebuild 3 houses. All of the supplies that  we had shipped to Haiti before we were to arrive were stuck in customs and we were unable to “free” them (so to speak) without a certain receipt that was in the hands of a man in Miami, FL.

A few points to keep in mind that will aid us in such situations or issues in our daily living or when we are serving others are described as being:

• Consistent

• Contemplative

• Decisive

• Determined

• Focused

• Introspective

• Organized

• Persistent

There is strength in these characteristics as we make choices and when we fail to take ownership of our choice we generally berate ourselves over past deeds, perceived mistakes and experiences, and that stops the flow of creativity and forward movement in our lives.

It was great to see the team take the initiative and find other projects that they could put their hands to with the few supplies that we were able to get in Port-au-Prince. And even to the point of gathering rocks to create a more suitable path to walk on with all the mud we encountered from the rain while we were there.

If we would like to live in the ebb and flow of our lives, we have to learn to live in the moment and make choices that are the best for that particular situation, knowing that other influences will be going on all around us, but it doesn’t mean that they will dictate how, when, and if we respond.

Many people are afraid to take ownership of their choices because they feel that their choices are not credible, important, or in the end will be wrong. The opposite is true and our choices in life do count each and every moment of the day. Thanks team for making positive and proactive choices even when things didn’t go according to what was planned!

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for He is your life…

Deuteronomy 30:19-20a

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!

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.