News Flash!!!

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy New Year

We have been trying to get a end of year newsletter out, especially to those who do not have Facebook or email, but we just couldn’t seem to get it done!

God was so faithful to our family and ministry in 2016! Emma is now, 11 yrs. old and growing leaps and bounds. Michael is 8 yrs. old, growing up, but certainly not out! He is as skinny as can be! He is not so excited about school as his sister, but doing the best he can. He received a visa in October and was finally able to come home to spend his first Christmas in the states! Very shortly, we should have all his adoption papers and be finally done with the adoption process!! We are so grateful for this; we have waited a very long time!

Our churches are doing well. This year we had a several revivals, and youth retreats at all our participating churches, it was a great time of fellowship and spiritual growth! We do ask for you to keep our Leogane / Kadowa churches in your prayers especially. They both have pastors that are very sickly and elderly, and that is affecting their congregations. Pray the Lord will give us wisdom and discernment with our churches!

The School Ministry in Despinos is also doing great! Many improvements have been made this year. We opened up our first ever library, stocked with books in creole, French and English! We also have a computer available for the kids to do research on! Our school director is working harder than ever to provide our students with qualified teachers, which we did not have in past yrs. We have a strong chapel and bible class program, headed up by Pastor Elison.

Our children and youth ministries are going well also. Our brand new children’s church building has been such a blessing to our ministry! We use it for children’s church, youth, Sunday school, chapel. We are so grateful! We were able to have 2 youth retreats this year with our youth from two different churches. Total attendance was around 150. Our topic was once again on purity, and when and how to choose a life partner! This seems to be topics that are pressing on the minds of our youth these days!

We have worked very closely with the young people this yr. and have seen God doing awesome things in their lives! Youth ministry is hard, sometimes discouraging, but always rewarding! When you see God working and changing minds and hearts for eternity!

We also had two VBS this year, which were a great success! We saw 40 children saved in each VBS, and over 300 in attendance! God has helped us to train a team of Haitian young people that work alongside of us and help it be a great success!

In this sponsor program, we have over 20 children, who remain in their home with their parent, aunt or grandparent, and we help them survive. We help provide food, clothing and an opportunity to go to school. These children are required to attend church, keep good grades, and maintain a good reputation in the community.

We want to thank every one of you that has been supporting our ministry in Haiti all these years. 2016 had its challenges and we are so thankful for the prayers being petitioned on our behalf, for the work there. May God Bless each one of you and your families. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Hess family.

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