This past month, high schoolers from Wheaton Bible Church broke a sweat under the hot Haitian sun doing construction work for Kids Alive International.
Kids Alive International (KAI) encourages church youth groups to join them on mission trips to some of the most impoverished countries where the message of God’s love is desperately needed.
The youth group with Wheaton Bible Church did just that. They went down to Haiti and started building KAI’s very first residential children’s home in that area.
Residential children’s homes are used by KAI to house a “family unit” consisting of several children and a set of their own Christian house parents. In this way, needy orphans live in the context of family, learning from their “parents” that they are indeed loved by the God who created them and that we are called to love them in the same way.
Children who live in KAI’s residential homes are cared for all the way through young adulthood. Several residential homes with KAI often are grouped together to form a community. The orphans are always brought up learning about the good news of Christ and the direct ministry of their house parents warms them with God’s love.
Orphaned kids in Haiti are at high risk to trafficking and poverty. According to KAI’s Web site, as many as 2,000 children are trafficked to the Dominican Republic each year. The earthquake in 2010 only added to the already more than 300,000 orphans.
Thankfully, Haitian orphans find hope through the loving arms of staff with KAI, which has been involved in Haiti since 2002, providing schooling and orphanages. Since the 2010 earthquake, the number of orphans they help has tripled.
KAI is currently finishing up the work started by the high schoolers on their first residential children’s home for Haiti. Soon they are planning on bringing in one of their “family units” from the rented space they are currently living in.
After the first residential house is finished, they plan to begin construction for the second residential house in a few weeks. A service team from Summit Church will be traveling down there to help them for the start of that project.
These residential homes are able to be built quickly due to special wall construction. Two panels of wire mesh with a panel of foam in between receive a layer of plaster over top to make a wall.
Electrical work and plumbing will be done to the first residential home before plastering the house. They hope to finish these last steps shortly.
Please pray that construction would be completed soon for both residential homes. Pray that the kids living in these homes would come to know Christ through their house parents’ living testimony.
