The Lazarus Project

The best background information about The Lazarus Project is on the website.  http://lazarusprojecthaiti.org/

I may use a few acronyms to refer to the various places and ministries of the Mission in Haiti.  So, let me give a quick tutorial so as these bits of news get sent across, you can put it into perspective. With the turmoil going on after the earthquake, some things have changed and the lay of the land is different.  However, let me take a step back and give you some info.  If I get some of this wrong...head to the official website for the most accurate info.

Lazarus Project is the name of the overall mission. It is a consortium of churches that started a few decades ago and is now up to about 60 churches in the US and Canada across most of the main denominations. It is very much a grass roots effort, and managed, funded, and fueled by folks like you and me.

The Lazarus Project has three main missions plus the Hope House
1) Village of Hope (VOH)
2) Little Children of Jesus (LCJ)
3) The Clinic (no fancy name or acronym)

Village of Hope is the school and the original reason the churches ventured to Haiti in the early eighties. I have pictures of my Dad digging some of the original footers. You would love this facility. It is out in the country side about 20 miles from Port Au Prince.

Little Children of Jesus. This is the orphanage for Mentally and Physically handicapped kids. In the Haitian culture, children born with birth defects are cast off – literally thrown away. LCJ rounds these kids up and gives them a life and hope. I can’t even begin to describe this ministry. You have to experience it yourself. 

The clinic is the newest project led by Debbie Berquist. She was brought into the Lazarus Project family with her first day being when I was down their last Dec. She came to my home with Jorel over the summer. She is an RN with a vision of building a clinic in Haiti in conjunction with VOH. The funding of it was stalled by the economy, so she still administers care out of the classroom buildings at the school. She will get the clinic built as soon as she is able - I am sure.

The Hope House (HH) is the living compound where the mission teams (like us) stay while on the ground in Haiti. It is all one story, and built, like everything else, to Haitian standards (not fancy). It is a cobbled set of add-on expansions as money became available. But, very comfortable. My favorite part about the Hope House compound is the little garden with the big picnic table and tiki torches near the beer fridge. This is the greatest place to unwind after a day in the field. HH is about 8 miles from Port Au Prince and took moderate damage.
 
 
The Lazarus Project supports many other activities.  In fact, the missionary network in Haiti is very strong - each group helping others in their common objective to serve.  One of the significant ministries to note, is Grace Mission Orphanage (mostly referred to as “Marie’s” after the amazing lady named Marie Majors who has willed that place to exist).  The orphanage is for little girls.

Grace Mission Orphanage is the brainchild of an older lady born in Haiti but raised in the States named Marie Majors. When you meet her you will think you are meeting an angel on Earth. She left the “rat race” a bunch of years ago to commit her life to helping others and created this. She has no resources or skills other than an amazing heart and determination and managed to raise an orphanage that takes care of girls. It is a ramshackle compilation of buildings, but it is better than the streets where she finds the little girls. The crown jewel is (or was) the Church she built in the middle of the compound.

 

During the earthquake, the living area above the church used to be on the second floor and is now on the first. Except for the loss of human life, this is the saddest story I’ve heard coming out of Haiti so far. That church is one of the places where I left my heart last year on my first mission down there. Here's a picture from last year of one of Marie’s orphans and I sitting in the church that is now a pile of rubble.

But not to leave the symbolism of the crushed orpahanage Church on a sad note, it was also the site of one of the most triumphant scenes I've seen since the earthquake.  A few missionaries and a few Haitians worked together for days to clear the rubble.  How appropriate that the only thing left standing was the Cross!