Update

The following is from the Lashbrook’s email to supporters.



Dear Family,

Well we know it’s been awhile but since Cindy and I have gotten back to the mission it has been nearly non-stop activity with many, many blessings and much work accomplished. Let's try to update you on where we are at today.

Phase one of our 3-Phase reconstruction plan is moving along. The over-all plan has been developed and a large portion of the materials for phase one have been purchased and are on the dock in Miami waiting to be loaded and shipped to Haiti. They should arrive in just a few weeks along with another team of builders to help construct the first new buildings which will provide a place for our construction teams to live while they are here working.

Phase 2, will include the building of a new steel building across the street from our house to be a sort of multi-purpose facility while we complete other construction. For this we purchased the property and began preparing the ground to lay the foundation for the new building when the parts arrive in a few weeks.

We have been blessed with several groups to help. Two of my brothers each brought in a group this last week and that was definitely a blessing to me. These groups labored hard as they strengthened and repaired some of the damage to our buildings and did some painting. They also moved several tons of rock by hand as the ground was prepared for the new building's foundation.

We are also preparing the new garage, a place for our brand new truck and for more storage for equipment and supplies.

We have had one boat shipment come in with every crate full of things we could use. An over abundance of things we can share and give away at our distribution centers. Our only problem is, we don't have enough storage space right now. We were planning on putting all these crates in the church building but it is about to fall and we didn't feel it was safe to put anything in there. In fact, if we can hire the local bulldozer, we expect to have the church completely torn down in about a week and a half.

The most unhappy news we've gotten this week was that we are also going to have to tear down our new Creche building. You may remember we just bought this new land last year and were so excited because it had such a nice big building on it already, one we could add to and quickly have a big enough home for our little ones and our girls. But that is not to be. Our building experts inspected it today again after the heavy rains we have been getting and told us the building was much more damaged than we had believed. The roof was severely cracked and structurally it is not safe enough to even consider continuing to remodel it. It will have to be torn down and totally rebuilt. This was devastating news since we have already invested a great deal of time and money in the remodeling that had already been done before the quake.

Financially we know we are now looking at an over-all cost of at least $300,000to do all that will need to be done to restore our mission facilities. While that overwhelms us, we know that Father has already begun the amazing process of providing exactly what we need. It’s been such a blessing to just see the team that God has brought together already to help us rebuild. All the teams that have been here, the construction people, Kevin from TN, the professionals in many fields who have brought us their expertise and willingly are using their gifts, all have been taking some of the load off my shoulders.

There are others, in the states, who are also using their gifts in organizing teams to come in to work, helping to raise funds, working with adoptive parents, filling crates and shipping supplies, even getting a brand new industrial stove donated for our boys' home. .... so many people we see are coming together to build this mission. Not just to build its physical buildings but to continue to build on the spiritual foundation that we began building on 13 years ago. A foundation of FAMILY, living and working and depending on each other. Now our extended family, in God's provision and power, is building again on this foundation to provide physical homes for His family.

We are still working on the humanitarian parole for 8 more of our children who were in the first stages of adoption. These will be the last children to be adopted for the foreseeable future as we must now wait for the Haitian government to again rebuild their adoption program and develop a new system that can work with the lack of legal documentation following the destruction of so many government buildings in the quake in January.

We continue to feed and supply refugees both here in Port de Paix and also in the tent city on the edge of Port au Prince. The rainy season has started and the conditions are deteriorating quickly for these people with so little to start with.

There is just so much going on. We look forward to the coming months and the exciting changes that are coming. We hope you are too. We hope you won't forget the great needs here in Haiti just because it’s not on the news any more. Some of the international aid groups are already pulling back and we know that donations have begun to slow down. As we've said before, this is not going to get better in a matter of days or weeks, not even months. The rebuilding of Haiti and the needs of these people will be huge for years.

Today Father showed us how He has provision on the way even before we can ask. We were going to ask you to pray with us to bring in the $8000 we needed to pay the shipping on the crates that arrived this week. We received more crates than we expected and the shipper "changed" the rate on us again. We're trying to get in touch with the shipping owner to talk him back to the original quote and believing this will not be the actual amount we have to pay.

Anyway, today someone came to our door from another nearby mission to give us a check. Someone had given them a sizable check and said they wanted half to go to an orphanage/children's home. They said they knew just the place and quickly sent someone to us with a check for $10,000. So $5,000 of that will be used for the shipping bill and the other half to build the new depot to store all the supplies that came in the crates. We had hoped to store them in the , but the church is on the way down. How blessed we are to get what we needed to build this new storage area right away, right when it is desperately needed.

However, we still need you to pray for shipping money.. In just a few weeks we will be getting a shipment that is going to be more than twice the size of the first one and our estimate for that shipping bill is $19,000. We are anxious and excited to see how Father will provide for this need too.

Remember to pray. There are so many things to pray about, let the Spirit guide you as you keep us all before the throne. Also be open to hear how He wants you to help. We expect to see lots of creative fund raisers this summer, perhaps yours will be one of them. Keep us informed of what you hear from Father and how we can pray for you.

Standing strong and courageous and always....

In the Father's Hand,

Keith & Cindy


Keith & Cindy Lashbrook, Directors
Lashbrook Family Ministries, Haiti
In the Father's Hand Children's Home
Grace Children Adoption Home
Grace Christian School
Grace Chapel