That Faith Place

Myself and a few other missionary women in our area are going through Priscilla Shirers “Armor of God” Bible study. This week is all about the shield of faith. Priscilla called us to identify that part of our lives which she calls “that faith place.” She defines it as the act of stepping into a situation or circumstance where you put yourself into a position for God to have to come through. It didn’t take me long to immediately identify this current season as my “that faith place.” Ever since God placed the call to start Promise Harbor on my heart, each step of the way has required faith that He who began a good work in me will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil 1:6). My road in Haiti has been as long as it has been hard, but I feel that none of it compares to the road just over the horizon. Satan would love to use this to allow doubt and fear of failure to take over. Each time I start to get discouraged, the Lord sends me another sign that He is still there and going before me each step of the way. I don’t have to do anything except to put one foot in front of the other and allow Him to direct me.

The vision for Promise Harbor has grown in so many ways. The Lord has revealed some great ways in which we could turn this into something that always moves in a direction toward total empowerment rather than enablement. That is what my heart truly desires for this place. Not only for the families we serve to be impacted and uplifted but also empowered. I always want to be cautious to keep the main thing the main thing. Right now, the main thing is getting the daycare up and running. We need to finish equipping the house for everything we need to begin hiring staff and accepting children into our program.

Some of the things that need to be completed in the house in order to open our doors are: purchase and finish painting the interior of the house, create a cemented play area on the backside of the house that will allow for outdoor play therapy, and build our storage units, office desk, and gates for the rooms.

After everything is finished inside of the house, all that is left for us to do in order to be ready to open is: hire and train staff, and interview and enroll the children and their families.

Our desire is to run the first 6 to 8 months of the daycare as a pilot program. We want to keep our number of kids to no more than 12. Due to the fact that this type of program does not really exist in Haiti, there will most definitely be kinks to work out in the daily operation of the daycare, as well as, in how we provide the best care for our children and their families. We want to spend the first 6 to 8 months figuring out what works best and what doesn’t before we enroll more than 12 kids in the program.

For the start up of the program, we will need to hire 6 staff members. Four staff members will work directly with the children on a daily basis. One staff member will be in charge of the children’s nutrition (preparing one big meal and 2 small snacks each day), and one additional staff member will be in charge of set up and tear down as well as light cleaning at the end of each day. We cannot begin to hire staff if we cannot pay them. So without further adieu…..

Our first fundraiser for Promise Harbor Family Center is called Pennies of Promise. Heres how it works.

We need 150 people to commit to a one time donation. Each donation has to be between the amounts of $1-150. No two people can choose the same number. If you want to give an amount that is already given, we can split your donation up between two or three different numbers that add up to the number you feel led to give. What is awesome about this fundraiser is that the most anyone can give is $150, but if all the numbers get chosen, we will have raised over $11,000. That will cover all of our start up cost as well as our operating costs and staff salaries for the first 5 months!

If you would like to pick a number, send me an inbox message or a comment in the comments box on facebook, or send me an email to lydia.deputy@gmail.com telling me which number you choose. I will update the number chart at the end of each day so you can see what numbers are still available! All donations can be sent via paypal to my username in2africa09@gmail.com, mailed in check or cash form to my parents house at 8 Wadsworth Dr. East Berlin, PA 17316, or handed to any of my family members in an envelope with your name on the front so that we know who the donation came from.

Feel free to share this with your friends, coworkers, and families! The more people that know about it and give, the closer we get to our goal. Feel free to share our facebook page to help people better understand the mission and vision of Promise Harbor Family Center. We also need a lot of people that will commit to pray for us as we begin this big endeavor and that Christ will be glorified because of our obedience.