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

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

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!

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.

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.