Haiti: Adopt-an-Orphanage Project

Latest from Lashbrook Family Ministries

2010-06-02T12:06:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

Change is good, or so we hear. Change is also difficult. The mission is changing daily with new children being added, new interns and volunteers coming to work and new buildings going up. In the five and half months since the earthquake we have seen so many changes it makes our heads spin.

Our family is changing with the soon to be addition of our first grandchild in August, and even the addition of Sabrina as her citizenship and adoption work is still not finalized. Cindy has been staying in the states with her but, as anyone who has met Sabrina will tell you, she needs her Daddy to be around a lot more than he has been.

Our son Daniel has stepped up once again and is doing a terrific job for us taking care of the mission while I travel in and out of Haiti to take care of my family here and to work on raising funds for our building projects. Tiffany's husband M'lin is also traveling in an out helping with the many teams that are coming and going to help with construction.

Another change is our website. Very soon we will be moving Lashbrook Family Ministries to a brand new website that will hopefully make it easier for everyone to keep up to date on the ministry. You will have to be patient with us as we work out all the bugs but we think it will be worth the wait. We'll let you know more about that as it happens.

Change has also hit the giving levels as we see things slowing down a bit from earlier this year. The construction cannot continue without the financial resources but we are standing strong and believing that Father will provide all that is needed.

Cindy & I will be in Haiti June 5 - 14 and then coming back out to speak and raise funds until this fall. We are still looking for churches and groups that would allow us to share our vision and story. For part of this time we hope to have Pastor Andy traveling with us to share his heart about all that is happening in Haiti.

The dates we still have open on our calendar are:
June 27
July 4th
July 11th (Pastor Andy may be with us on this date)
Aug. 8,15, 22 (but these 3 need to be close to east coast)

Speaking of Pastor Andy, I trust you all received the note I asked Cindy Lu to send you from our Pastor about his desire to come out of Haiti for a short vacation with his family and to travel with us to speak. He hesitated to share that need with everyone but he truly does need a break. He has been having some very concerning health issues and we feel most of it is a matter of stress and overwork. We trust you will do what you can to help him with this need.

One thing that hasn't changed is our love and appreciation for all of you who faithfully pray for and support our family as we seek to serve in Haiti and deal with the daily pressures and decisions we must make for our huge family and our ministry. Thank you!

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

Financial contributions should be made payable to:
Lashbrook Family Ministries
and mailed to:
Globe International
PO Box 3040
Pensacola, FL 32516-3040

Correspondence & in-kind donations contact:
Mission Services Office
2457 W 950 N
Thorntown, IN 46071
Phone 765-325-2467

Update

2010-03-30T15:33:00.001-07:00

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

The Folks Behind the Orphange

2010-02-22T06:51:00.000-08:00

A Little About The Folks Behind Our Orphanage...

Widows and orphans are among the most vulnerable of all God’s people. Both Old Testament prophets and New Testament Apostles insisted that these needy people be properly cared for.

In Haiti, the life expectancy for men is 49 and for women, 50. It is also not uncommon for mothers to die while giving birth. These factors combine in Haiti to leave many of God’s children as orphans. It is because of this situation that God raised up In the Father’s Hand in August of 2001. But the journey of that ministry began long before that.

It was 1985 when Keith Lashbrook led his wife Cindy to the Lord. Shortly after that, their daughter, Tiffany, was born and just a couple years later their son, Daniel, came along. Keith had an opportunity to go on a short-term mission trip. After several short-term trips to Haiti, Keith finally talked Cindy into going along on a trip. God had already started to place within his heart a desire to work with the children of Haiti and Keith wanted to see if God would place that same desire in Cindy’s heart as well.

God answered Keith’s prayer and Cindy fell in love with the people and especially the children of Haiti as well. So, they decided to answer God’s call and become full-time missionaries. Since they wanted to focus on the Lord they sold everything, closed their thriving daycare business and on August 3, 1997, the whole family moved to Haiti.

For the first four and a half years of their time in Haiti, God was teaching them what it would take for them to fulfill His purpose and perfect His plan within them for their ministry. They lived in poverty but had plenty. They knew disease but experienced God’s healing touch. They experienced hardships but had a peace that surpassed all understanding. They tried things their own way and failed by their own strength and yet God, by His strength and grace, carried them through those times.
And so, in March of 2000, a church began. They started with just their family and five young men who were living with them at the time. They soon outgrew the house they were meeting in and rented their first building for the church in August of 2000.

That October, God blessed the Lashbrooks with a new addition to their family. They were able to adopt their first Haitian orphan, Rodney William (Willy). They learned a lot from the experience and got to know more about how the Haitian government works. That experience has proved very valuable as the orphanage opened Grace Children Adoption Home in 2004. Haitian law requires that children in the process of adoption be housed in a separate facility from children who cannot be adopted for one reason or another. With this new facility came the need to change the name of the mission’s main facility from In the Father’s Hand Orphanage to In the Father’s Hand Children’s Home. As a legal agent licensed in the country of Haiti the adoption home is in the process of placing several children in loving homes across the United States.

God is growing the ministry rapidly. In September 2002 a school was opened for the orphans and more than 60 other children from the community who could not afford to pay for an education in other schools. The school now has an enrollment of 260+ children, their education primarily being paid for through donations from generous sponsors throughout the U.S. A major goal of the mission is to have a trade school to complete the students’ education with a skill they can use to support their families and become contributing members of society. And, of course, along with the basic education comes a strong teaching in the Word of God to train them in the faith as well.

Cindy Lu Holmes joined the mission team in November 2002 as the stateside Mission Services Coordinator. She manages the stateside office and warehouse and helps keep the mission correspondence, shipping warehouse, and short term work teams on track. She is also our spokesperson, available to do informational presentations for the mission. She is the person to go to for help or answers to your questions.

Our stateside Child Sponsorship coordinators are M’lin & Tiffany Jean-Baptist in North Carolina. Tiffany is the daughter of Keith & Cindy Lashbrook. And assisting them is Lori McKenzie from Illinois.

Our Adoption Coordinator is Natalie Lewis, who works from her home in Alabama to help adoptive parents through the process of bringing Haitian children into their forever families through our mission’s Grace Children Adoption Home. She is well equipped to do this as she and her husband Chris have adopted 7 Haitian children from our mission.

The mission is currently “under construction” as we are building a new Adoption Home and a home for In the Father’s Arms Girls Home, along with building staff housing, and facilities to house visiting missionary teams. The Lashbrooks encourage visits from short term mission groups. Recent groups have helped with construction on the church/school and built bunks for the orphans. Another group provided a sports camp teaching the children skills of teamwork and fair play as well as giving them a good taste of the American fascination with sports. Medical, dental, or street ministry, home visits and vacation Bible School are also accomplished by our visiting teams.

The Orphanage and Mission are always looking for churches and families to partner with them in prayer, financial support, child sponsorships or donations of the many needed supplies. They work hard at maintaining a close relationship with their partners for that is what they truly are…partners in ministry. The Lashbrooks serve in Haiti but are only able to do so if God moves His church in the U.S. to do their part in providing the means for them to minister.

If you would like to know more about In the Father’s Hand Children’s Home or Lashbrook Family Ministries, or would like to invite a speaker to your church or group, please contact our stateside Mission Services Office at:

In the Father’s Hand
2457 W 950 N
Thorntown, IN 46071-9016
Phone 765-325-2467
email: office@lfmintl.com
www.lfminlt.com

NEWS FLASH NEWS FLASH NEWS FLASH

2010-02-10T14:56:00.000-08:00

Adopt an Orphanage Project

I’m excited to say that we have chosen Lashbrook Family Ministries. They have homes for orphaned boys and girls and for children eligible for adoption.

Lashbrook Family Ministries is located in Port-de-Paix, Haiti. They are “committed to care for the impoverished, children, widows, and families of the community. Whether it is through our Boys’ Home, our Adoption Home, church, school or by providing 65 people in the community with a job, we are dedicated to bringing the Father’s love to this nation and to the world.”

Please visit their web site Lashbrook Family Ministries

Now is the time for any financial contributions you can make. Any amount will be helpful. If you can’t give now, relax and trust that you will be able to later. We are shooting for a long term commitment.

To contribute, you can mail a check to:

HisHands2Go – Haiti

2613 North Miro St.

New Orleans LA 70117

Send via PayPal

If you don’t already have one, you will need

to create a PayPal account. It’s easy and safe, click: PayPal

Then email your donation to:

haiti@hishands2go.com

Include “for Haiti” on the email

Donations are tax deductible, and can be applied to your 2009 tax return.

Not everyone can adopt a child,

but anyone can adopt an orphanage!

Bookmark and visit

http://orphanagehaiti.blogspot.com/

His Hands 2 Go

Friday, Jan 29 UPDATE

2010-01-29T16:02:00.000-08:00

Hello all. Sorry it has been some time since I have posted something. I have been unusually busy.

I have identified three potential orphanages we could adopt. See the following:

www.danitaschildren.org

http://reachouttohaiti.com/

www.lfmintl.com/haiti

If anyone has any other suggestions, please let me know. We have not spoken to any of the three yet; we are still in the selecting process. PLEASE SEND ME YOUR THOUGHTS, OK?

We are now set up to accept tax-deductable contributions. You can mail a check to His Hands 2 Go, 2613 North Miro St., New Orleans , LA 70117. Please write HAITI on the check. If you have a PayPal account you can make a donation to teams@hishands2go.com

His Hands 2 Go will be updating its web site www.hishands2go.com to include our Haiti Orphanage project which may include an easier way to donate.

NOTE THAT THE IRS IS ALLOWING YOU TO APPLY DONATIONS TO HAITI TO BE DEDUCTABLE ON YOUR 2009 TAX RETURN.

More later.

Kevin

Prayer for Haiti

2010-01-27T10:39:00.000-08:00

Heavenly Father,

I just want to say "THANK YOU", because this morning I woke up and knew where my children were.
Because this morning my home was still standing,
because this morning I am not crying because my husband, my child, my brother or sister need to be buried out from underneath a pile of concrete,
because this morning I was able to drink a glass of water,
because this morning I was able to turn on the light,
because this morning I was able to take a shower,
because this morning I was not planning a funeral,
but most of all I thank you this morning because I still have life and a voice to cry out for the people of Haiti.
Lord I cry out to you, the one that makes the impossible, possible, the one that turns darkness in to light. I cry out that you give those mothers strength, that you give them peace that surpasses all understanding, that you may open the streets so that help can come, that you may provide doctors, nurses, food, water and all that they need in a blink of an eye. For all those that have lost family members, give them peace, give them hope, give them courage to continue to go on! Protect the children and shield them with your power. I pray all this in the name of Jesus!!!
We, here, are truly blessed!!!!!

Rory Darcy Collings

More updates

2010-01-22T22:26:00.000-08:00

Dear friends and family,

I am very excited at the things that have come together in the last 24 hours.

In addition to Patricia’s efforts to create a blog spot http://orphanagehaiti.blogspot.com/:

We are now partners with His Hands 2 Go, a non-profit, faith-based organization committed to assisting ministries and individuals in re-establishing themselves in the New Orleans urban community following the devastation of hurricanes Katrina and Gustav. HH2Go has facilitated hundreds, if not thousands, of volunteers to in New Orleans.

Family Assistance Foundation, an independent non-profit founded in 2000 to empower people following tragedy, has graciously offered to reach out to their large group of members to encourage people to volunteer/take part in our activities. The FAF has also agreed to put an article in their upcoming newsletter, and in general, to promote our effort on a regular basis.

I’m especially excited because I have worked with both of these organizations and I know, and love, their leaders. They are wonderful folks doing wonderful work.

From your suggestions and some of my own contacts, I now have five independent avenues for pursuing finding the right orphanage for us to adopt.

Is anyone else as excited as I am?

Love you all,
Kevin
425 898 0448
kevinadarcy@gmail.com

A brief update:

2010-01-22T12:30:00.001-08:00

About 30 of you so far have expressed a desire to participate in this one way or another. The number is growing.
I want to stress that this effort is not simply about raising money. Contributions, of course, will be important but there are many ways one can contribute to the effort, a financial commitment is only one way.
I’m continuing to get suggestions regarding who we can team with, both on this end and the existing faith-based organizations in Haiti. I say Faith-based organizations, not as a prerequisite, but recognizing that Faith-based organizations have had, and will continue to have, the long term local commitment that is needed.
Again, I want to stress that the primary focus is a long-term connection with a worthy orphanage, not just immediate disaster assistance.
I am planning on spending a good part of today responding to your individual emails and suggestions.

Thank you all for your support and prayers. PLEASE REMEMBER TO BOOKMARK AND CHECK THE BLOG SPOT.

Kevin A Darcy

Next steps...

2010-01-22T09:39:00.000-08:00

From Kevin Darcy....

For the many of you have who have replied, thank you! I will get to replying to your individual emails but wanted to send out a status report first.

Here’s what’s new:

I have spoken to two tax exempt non-profit organizations I have worked with in the past. Both are based in the US and are run by people I know and trust. Both understand what we want to do and are willing to work with us.
Some of you have suggested leads to find an orphanage we can “adopt”. Obviously we are just beginning that process. Please continue to send me your thoughts so we have a wide range of possibilities.
I have a name to contact with Mission Aviation Fellowship. They are a faith-based non-profit based in Idaho who have had a presence in Haiti for some time. They are sending another airplane, pilot and maintenance crews to expand their back-country type operations. These folks could be key.
Patricia Fieldsted is exploring a BlogSpot, or other such internet thing, that will help facilitate communications on our side.
Some of have you have very generously pledged to provide monetary support. Thank you. A couple of things in this regard:

o Contribute only from your overflow and not thru any feeling of obligation.
o I don’t want to discourage you from giving thru your church or any other organization of your choice.
o Any monetary contribution of any size is appreciated, but there are many other ways to support the cause.
o I will insure that donations will be tax deductible and 100% will go to the cause.

I’m meeting with some folks in a few minutes to get a little better organized and will keep you informed as frequently as I can.

Let's get started! Join us...

2010-01-20T16:43:00.000-08:00

Hello family and friends,

I know we all share the same sadness and concern for the people in Haiti. There are many outstanding organizations (see list at bottom) that are providing help. Likely you have your own favorite charity that you have donated to already or plan to do so shortly.

I have spoken to a number of friends who have wanted to do something a little more, a little more personal. Obviously we all have different and limited resources, both in time and money, but I think together, as friends and family, we can do something together that is a little more personal.

Here is my proposal. We “adopt” an orphanage.

I think we can all picture of what “adopt an orphanage” might involve. My picture (just as a starting point) involves:

· donating/pledging to create a working fund, (Any amount, large or small. I’m confident we can partner with a non-profit to allow the donations to be tax deductable.)

· partnering with an non-profit organization that is currently, and has been, in Haiti (there are many, this should not be a problem)

· finding an orphanage to adopt, (also not a problem, there are plenty!)

· providing that orphanage with some immediate financial support, (this thru the local organization we partner with)

· working with the orphanage to find their immediate and longer term needs, and

· supporting the longer term needs with volunteer labor and continued financial support (Traveling to Haiti in the near term may not be practical or desirable. However, a time will come when Haiti is out of the spotlight and help is still needed. Many of you I know would be willing to go, have flexible schedules or are retired. I believe there will be a continuing need for many years to come.)

Even if this is a crazy idea and doesn’t come to fruition, the fall back plan would be to simply donate whatever funds we have collected to an existing, reputable charity. Nothing lost.

To be honest, I don’t know if I have what it takes on my own to make this happen. I do believe, that if even a few of us agree to work on the idea together, we can make it happen.

Well, what do you think?

-Kevin Darcy