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

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.

Hello CPI Friends and Fellow World Changers! Here is the update on what we are up to:

• The CPI Guys are working on a high-impact calendar for 2010 with several Transforming Travel Trips, awareness projects (local work that YOU can get involved with), and cranking out some signature CPI Guys videos and articles.
• CPI and The Crossing Church will be heading back to Chauffard, Haiti in December for a week long project including pastor training, food distribution, children’s classes and strengthening friendships!
• Elizabeth Carpenter committed to using her first marathon ever, the Gasparilla Marathon, to raise awareness for our cause. She has also created an amazing CPI Calendar for 2010 – more on that later!
• A new CPI Partner, Brian Morgan, will be joining Kenny on the December trip to experience Haiti for the first time and explore ways that he can make a difference.
• CPI will be hosting a week long project trip for Vine-First Presbyterian Church in the summer of 2010.
• Awareness is growing! Our Facebook Cause has 333 followers and growing. You can have your friends join here www.causes.com/cpihaiti, or by going to our website and signing up for our updates!
• Our new CPI Prayer Team is focused on a list of ongoing challenges and opportunities.
• We have also added a new page to the Education section, ‘Exponential Growth by Incremental Work’, by Grant.

Wow – that is exciting stuff! Real people making a real difference – here and in Haiti…that’s what we are all about!

Feel free to contact us to find your unique place in the mission!

Kenny and Grant
The CPI Guys
www.cpihaiti.org
www.twitter.com/cpihaiti
www.causes.com/cpihaiti (Facebook Cause)