Look out Quakertown McDonald's- We're On Our Way!!

One of the things Mennonites are well known for is their cooking. I come from a long line of wonderful cooks and bakers- but this is one time I'm going to ask all my Mennonite friends to stop cooking and to go out for dinner.

Why, you ask? Well, I just got word today that the owner of the Quakertown McDonald's has chosen the Tents for Haiti Project to be their charity of the month in August!! (Can you tell I'm a little excited?!)

What this means is that for every Value Meal purchased from August 1- 31, they will donate 25-cents to the Tents for Haiti Project. This money will go directly towards our goal of building 50 houses in Cotes de Fer.

Please take a break from the hot kitchen and while you're getting something to eat, you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you were part of giving a Haitian family a new start in life!

See you at the Mickey D's in Qtown!! :)

We are here, we are HERE, WE ARE HERE!!

Yes, I realize it has been almost 2 months since our last post and a few days over 6 months since the earthquake and you may have thought the Tents for Haiti Project quietly faded into the background...Well, you couldn't be more wrong!!

After our Hope for Haiti Marketplace and Spade & Trade for Haiti events, we did take a couple days to just breathe, but then, we got back to work!
Jim Frankenfield, who is a truck driver traveling down through Virginia, was given over 800 cases of bottled water as a donation from some Home Depots on his route. We have decided that since it's so expensive to ship, given the weight of the water, we'd try to "sell" it and use the money to buy supplies. That turned into folks having us at their yard sales (which is a great way to get donations!) and Jim took a whole lot out to a Transport for Christ rally in Lebanon. We are still looking for creative ways to change this water into cash for our Haitian friends....we are very grateful to the Souderton-Telford Main Streets for donating a space to us at the Indian Valley Farmer's Market. We've had some scheduling conflicts, but hope to get there this Saturday, July 24!

We were also extremely blessed by the generosity of the folks at Clemens Septic, who had a promotion during April and May that they would donate $10 for every septic tank pump out. They sent us a check for $2,000! Who'd have thought getting your septic tank pumped out would help a Haitian family at the same time! That just goes to show that no matter what your business, you can find a way to help!

Last Wednesday, July 14, we loaded up our third and final trailer full of relief supplies! Once again, we sent down tents, blankets, tarps, "Hope in a Bucket" and other items that were donated. I say "final trailer of relief supplies" because at this point, with all the generosity of this community, we have gotten to the point where every family in Cotes de Fer that required a tent has one, there are enough blankets and relief kits to go around and the people down there can breathe a sigh of relief...

So, you ask, are we done? NO WAY!!! We have committed, along with the folks at Water for Life, to rebuild 50 homes in Cotes de Fer. We will be giving you more details as we get them, but we have a blueprint for a 2-room house that will be built using Haitian labor, and these homes will be at a cost of $4,000.00 each.

To kick-off our refocusing from relief to rebuilding, we hosted a benefit concert at Souderton Mennonite Church on June 30, which featured the King's Strings. This is a very talented family, formerly from this area, now of Mechanicsburg, PA, consisting of a dad, John, a mom, Cindy, and 6 kids (Andrew, Jesse, Mariana, Isaac, Eden and HopeAnn). They play stringed instruments and piano and their offerings range from classical to folk, Broadway to worship, fiddle and beyond. During the course of the evening, we showed our Tents for Haiti video and took a freewill offering, where we were given almost $8,000.00- enough for 2 homes!! It was a wonderful evening of laughter, tears and answered prayers!

As we continue our various fund-raising efforts, we ask you to join with us in prayer. Firstly, that together we can reach our goal of seeing our Haitian friends in homes that are safe and sturdy and secondly, please pray how you can be involved. Would you be able to donate the cost of one home, or more? Would your business be interested in helping us build a house? We are looking for partners to help us by giving a few dollars or a few thousand. Every penny is one penny closer to helping a family get back to normal.

We in this community, are so blessed- we have SO much. Can we sacrifice a little so someone can have something?

If you'd like to contribute, checks in any amount can be made payable to Souderton Mennonite Church with "Haiti Relief" in the memo line. Mail them to the church at

105 W. Chestnut St. Souderton PA 18964.

To follow us, we've made a link to our Facebook page that you can access even if you don't have Facebook. Just go to http://www.tentsforhaitiproject.com/ and if you have any questions, please email us at tentsforhaiti@hotmail.com

Thank you and God bless!

"Hope for Haiti Marketplace" and "Spade & Trade" a Huge Success at SMC!

On Friday night, May 7, we held the last of our scheduled fundraisers. This one, held at the West Street Community Center at Souderton Mennonite Church, we called "Hope for Haiti Marketplace" and to it, we added "Spade & Trade for Haiti".

The first part, the Marketplace, consisted of about 18 vendors from various shop at home parties, such as Longaberger, Tastefully Simple, Lia Sophia, Close To My Heart, Uppercase Living, Mia Bella Candles, Premier Jewelry, Mary Kay, Creative Memories, Arbonne, Tupperware, Avon, Silpada and others. A very special part of the evening was the pampering section...we had Lisa Burke, a fantastic massage therapist from Quakertown, giving massages, and our own Janeen Cardona was doing eyebrow waxing and paraffin dips for the hands, with the help of Carlee Moyer. We also had a table where our favorite 13-year old photographer, Mattea Ruth, was selling her beautiful notecards and prints. Last, but definitely not least, we had a table (OK, it was really 2 tables) overflowing with baked goods, donated by the fabulous bakers and confectioners that are in our church.



The other part of the evening took place in the parking lot just outside the Marketplace. "Spade & Trade" was the brainchild of Dawn Moore, who thought it would be a great idea for folks to bring their excess perennials, saplings, tubers, etc. and "trade" them for new plants. The idea was that one could get whatever new plants they'd like to try and just leave a donation, in any amount, to benefit Tents for Haiti.



We had a great turnout- it was great to see so many friends and meet so many new ones. From the minute we opened, people kept coming through the doors. We sold raffle tickets for items donated by our very generous vendors, which resulted in some very happy people at the end of the evening.



Till it was all said and done, we had raised almost $1400.00 with $553. coming from the "Spade & Trade" (and that was only 1/2 the plants sold), $375. from about 1/2 of the baked goods being sold and the rest coming from the Marketplace!



Sunday morning, our pastor made an announcement to any men who had "forgotten" about Mother's Day, saying they could make good by purchasing baked items or plants to take home...and we ended up selling the remaining baked good for a totals of $282.80 and most of the plants for another $56.00...bringing us close to $1700.00 overall!!



So, we humbly say "Thank you" to each and every person who baked or made candy (Charlene, you know who you are!), who brought plants, who was a vendor, who bought raffle tickets, who shopped, who prayed, etc., etc. We owe you all a debt of gratitude for financially supporting our project and allowing us to continue to help the people of Haiti.



We have created a mission statement for the Tents for Haiti Project and this is it:



The motto of the Tents for Haiti Project has been "One person alone cannot rebuild a village, but together as a community, we can." Our goal, in the wake of the earthquake of January 12, 2010, has been to inspire our local community to make a difference in the living conditions of the people of Cotes de Fer and the Aquin Valley of Haiti through the acquisition, processing and delivery of donations from our community, both financial and material. We seek to help restore dignity and show the love of Jesus to our brothers and sisters in Haiti."


Sunday morning, after a wonderful sermon on compassion, a video was shown for the first time anywhere...We'd now like to share it with you, our community and our friends, this video that was done by a local videographer, Dave Peters, to document what our Project is all about. Please follow our link to see the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RTSE6Akwis

We have not finished our Project, in fact, we don't have a time-line. We are just listening to what God is prompting us to do as we hear from our contacts in Haiti as to what their needs are going forward. We are thankful to have been called to this ministry and we are thankful for the role each of you have played, and are playing, in helping us to meet the needs of those who are not able to provide for themselves yet.

Please continue to keep your hearts open to the people of Haiti and if you feel so lead, contribute what you can. Thank you and may God bless you as you have blessed others!

So What Have We Been Up To?

It's been a little while since I've updated here, but so much has happened!

Last Thursday, April 22, we set up our table, hung our sign and began passing out informational flyers at the WalMart in Quakertown. As I've said before, the folks at the WM up there have been more than helpful as we have come in multiple times to get 4 & 5 cart loads of towels, band-aids, toothbrushes, soap, etc. So when we began to think about where to hold some fundraisers, that was the perfect place to start.

It was a rather chilly morning, but we put on our smiles and started to greet customers by saying "Good morning, we're with the Tents for Haiti Project and we are doing a fundraiser today to raise money to send down our 2nd trailer load of aid." There were mixed reactions from excitement, to quizzical looks, to total disinterest, but overall, people were very receptive to at least listening to what our project was all about. Some folks gave money, some shopped for things we put into relief kits and at the end of the 13 hours, we went home, again feeling very blessed and thankful to live in such a generous, giving community.

At that fundraiser, we received $659.09 and lots of hygiene supplies! Thanks to everyone who came out and gave something for our project- thanks even go to the people that asked the hard questions, then allowed us to answer their concerns. We appreciate each and every one of you!

Then on Friday, we got a call that our 2nd trailer was ready to be loaded. Now, we didn't have a whole trailer to load, as we had pallets of things that hadn't fit on our first trailer that were now on this trailer. We got about 7 other people and, after cleaning out our storage unit in Telford, took everything over to the loading dock and began unloading the cube truck into the trailer. We sent more tents, blankets, sheets, sleeping bags, medical supplies, walkers, crutches, a wheelchair, a crib, empty buckets and 160 more "Hope in a Bucket" kits! It was a great feeling of accomplishment to know that these items would again be delivered to people who so desperately need what we are sending.

Our sincerest thanks go to Gus Kerver, a truck-driving friend of Jim Frankenfield's, who gave time away from his family to drive this trailer down to the port in Florida, arriving this morning, where God willing, this trailer will set sail this afternoon for Port au Prince!!

Then, on Sunday afternoon, after a morning of cold rain, we held our second fundraiser at the Rita's in Harleysville. Upon arriving, we set up a canopy to cover/protect our raffle prizes, we set up a computer that showed a "movie" of our Project from it's beginning through the delivery of the first trailer to Cotes de Fer, and we waited for people to show up...

We didn't have to wait long! Friends from church started trickling in and despite the weather, we had a pretty good turnout. It was a great afternoon of water ice & custard, lots of laughing, renewing of friendships and raising money to help our friends in Haiti. All tolled, we raised over $550.00 that afternoon. Another success!

That brings us to our third fundraiser, which will be held tomorrow night, Thursday, 4/29, from 5-9 p.m. at the Quakertown Red Robin. For anyone who comes into the restaurant with a TFH coupon and buys food and/or beverages (alcohol is excluded), Red Robin will donate 10% of that amount back to the Tents for Haiti Project. That is a win/win proposition- you buy dinner for your family at a place that has awesome food and they give us 10% of whatever you spend!! How do you get a coupon, you ask? Go to this link: http://www.identitypa.com/robin_flyer.pdf

We hope to see you there!

Our last planned fundraiser is a doozy! On Friday night, May 7 we will be holding the "Hope for Haiti Marketplace" in conjunction with "Spade & Trade for Haiti". The "Marketplace" will be held in the West Street Community Center at Souderton Mennonite Church, 105 W. Chestnut St., and there you will find all your favorite Home Party companies. There will be 19 vendors including Pampered Chef, Avon, Silpada, Tupperware, Close To My Heart, Mia Bella Candles, Mary Kay, Uppercase Living, Lia Sophia, Arbonne and more. You can also purchase beautiful notecards by our own 13-yr. old photographer, Mattea Ruth! There will be raffle prizes donated by each of the vendors and also, a bake sale where you can purchase some really wonderful treats!

At the same time all this is going on, we are going to be holding "Spade & Trade for Haiti" out in the lower parking lot. For this event, people who have extra perennials, tubers, etc. will be donating their excess and then anyone who is interested in having new plants for their garden may choose whatever they want and all we ask is a donation in any amount- maybe what you would have to pay for the things you chose in a garden center. If you have plants to donate or questions about this event, please email richdawn.moore@gmail.com. If you just want new plants, don't feel you need to bring plants-anyone can "trade"!

We are anticipating a great night of fun so tell your friends and come on out! We'll be looking for you!!

Christmas in April?

Since our first trailer load has been delivered and distributed throughout Cotes de Fer and the surrounding area, we have been working on filling our second trailer. We've gotten some great donations again- a friend from the community donated a wheelchair, some walkers and a lot of medical supplies from a relative who passed away- what a great way to honor that person's memory, than to help others! We also received six pallets of wheelchairs, walkers and crutches through the generosity of St. Luke's Hospital in Quakertown!

We anticipate the arrival in our storage facility of about 300+ tents that have been donated through the requests of two local Christian radio stations, WBYN and the WordFM. This is exciting to us to see our community working together to meet the needs of the Haitians as they face the reality of rainy season, combined with having lost their homes to the earthquake.

This week, I experienced what I can only call "Christmas in April"...I had been at church all morning, working on putting relief kits (also lovingly known as "Hope in a Bucket") together. I had to stop because I had run out of Band-Aids. I went to meet Janeen in the park for lunch, then took a car load of supplies over to our storage unit. I then returned to church for my second load of tents and blankets. When I walked into the room we are using to store the "stuff" till we can take it to storage, I could hardly believe my eyes!

There, on the floor, were tons (or so it seemed to me) of buckets full of supplies- and LOTS of Band-Aids!! I was like a little kid as I ripped open bags to find toothbrushes, soap, combs, nail clippers and more.

Where had all this come from, you ask? Well, thanks go to Anita Souder and her students at Quakertown Christian School, who had been collecting these items and took the time to deliver them to the church on Friday.

Again, I am reminded how generous you all are when you are told of a need, whether that need is here at home, or in an island nation far removed from this area. We, at the Tents for Haiti Project, want you to know how much that generosity is appreciated and how thankful we are to live in a place that takes care of its neighbors, no matter where they are located!

We are shifting our focus from collecting items to collecting money to be able to ship these donated items to our friends in Haiti. We are also anticipating the need to possibly purchase some buildng materials in the near future.

If you are interested in donating money to this effort, please email us at tentsforhaiti@hotmail.com or go to our Facebook page "Tents for Haiti Project Donation Page", where you will find a Paypal button so you can donate with just a click! Thanks for all you have done and all you continue to do!

May you be blessed as you have blessed others!

Whew! What a Week!

Our team is home and very tired, but also very energized by what they saw and experienced last week, when they went to Cotes de Fer, Haiti to distribute the aid that you, our wonderful community, helped us to gather.

Our 53' foot trailer was unloaded into 3 "smaller" trucks and then driven the 4 hours into Cotes de Fer. As you can imagine, the scene was somewhat chaotic as people lined up to receive their items, but it was an organized chaos. The people were so happy to know that they had not been forgotten and that Jim had kept his word to bring relief supplies back to them.

We had been given about 300 Creole Bibles to take down and to the team's "surprise", although, that may not be the right word, many of the people would have cheerfully given up their tent if they would have had to choose between getting a tent or getting a Bible. (For our next trailer load, we definitely need to get more Creole Bibles!)

It was a very emotional time for our team, to see first-hand the conditions these wonderful people were existing in, and to find out that, even in the midst of all this, they hadn't lost hope.

I'm going to put some pictures in this entry, but to see more, please go to our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=297039035517&view=user#!/group.php?gid=297039035517

We welcome your comments and questions! Feel free to become a fan on Facebook or to email us at tentsforhaiti@hotmail.com

Giving and Receiving Blessings

This has been an exciting week for the TENTS FOR HAITI Project! We have had a group of 6 persons down in Haiti for the purpose of handing out the supplies our community has so generously donated.

On Monday, when they arrived in Port au Prince, they were fully expecting the trailer to be released from customs within the hour of their arrival. As sometimes happens, things did not go according to plan and the release was delayed...indefinitely, as far as our team was concerned.

They made their way to Passe Bois D'Ormes, where Water For Life is located, and where they would be staying during their week in Haiti.

On Tuesday afternoon/evening, they got word that the trailer had not only been released from customs, but it was already in Veribu, which was about 4 hours outside of Cotes de Fer. When I spoke to Janeen, she told me they were very surprised by this news....they had no idea it had been released from customs, let alone driven so close to where they were! (of course that makes me wonder who drove it out there...with the way things have been going, it may have been God Himself!)

Now the concern was how to get the aid & supplies from the 53' foot trailer to Cotes de Fer, since the roads would never support a vehicle of this size. Janeen asked her husband, Rick, to ask for prayers from home that a smaller truck would be located.

In the entry previous to this one, you can read how God answered this prayer...the same night! So plans were made to meet back early the next morning to begin unloading the trailer into the smaller truck for the 4-hour trip to Cotes de Fer.

(A small side note: the team was in Cotes de Fer Tuesday evening, where they presented a banjo, a gift from one of the original service team members, to Ti Ton Ton, "Little Uncle", - the man whose leg had been severely broken, who our team tried to help in the days after the earthquake. Our team was afraid they'd "left him there to die"...but God intervened and today, he is happy, healthy and bringing music back to the village!)

Wednesday morning, Janeen called me, full of excitement to say that they had a "crew" of about 10 Haitian volunteers who were helping to unload the trailer and she said everyone was so upbeat and cheerful during this whole time. She asked that we pray for continued good weather, as any rain at all would make the dirt road completely unpassable. She also said that they'd be done unloading/loading in about 2 hours and would be on their way back to Cotes de Fer.

We got word last night that the group had been able to hand out about one-half of the aid/supplies. They divided things into 3 smaller trucks- tents, relief kits, misc. other supplies including Creole Bibles. The people reacted with gratitude and joy for what was being given to them. They were all very thankful and humbled to know that there were Americans who cared enough for them to see that they received all this help.

One woman, after receiving her Bible, held it over her head and danced for joy- as if it was the first Bible she ever held. That was very emotionally moving for the members of our team, after all, that's really why we are all doing this- to let these wonderful people know that as much as we love them, God loves them even more and He wants to have a personal relationship with them!

So, as I spoke to Rick this morning, the plan for today was to continue handing out the remaining aid/supplies until this evening when the team will return to Passe Bois D'Orme for a church service there. Afterwards, they will begin packing and getting ready for their trip home tomorrow. Please continue to pray for safe travels for the team and thank you for your prayers and support to this point.

Once the group is back and is able to gather their thoughts, we will be sharing more with you about their trip. This account has been mostly second-hand, and for that I apologize, but this is the best information we have until they get home and can tell us in their own words and show us pictures. Be sure to check back for the "first-hand" accounts!

Also, keep an eye out for news that we are going to be loading our second trailer of aid. It will be happening very soon!! Thanks and God bless!!