Zacarie Pierre in Seminary school in Ghana

Zacarie was raised in our boys orphanage from the time he was a toddler. Always had a big heart and a huge smile. As a young man now, he pleaded with us to help him go to Seminary school for which he had received a scholarship that covered tuition at a school in Ghana. We paid for his passport and flights and he is now in Ghana attending “? school”. He has a regimented schedule with very little free time. He loves the Lord and has a heart to be a Pastor. Nothing has changed about the huge smile! Picture was taken on the bus that they hire to pick up people to attend church. Zacarie is responsible to find supporters to help him with all his personal expenses, including Bus fare for his guests coming to church and taking them home. If you are interested in giving a one time gift or monthly gift to help Zacarie with his expenses in Seminary school please use the sheets provided to indicate and put it in the offering.

We appreciate your prayerful consideration of this request for help from Zacarie.

New Canaan Well Completed

We are happy to announce that the community well we have been trying to get operational over the past year is now completed and flowing water every day.

We want to thank the original sponsor of this well, Gethsemane Full Gospel Church. They have been supporters of CFM for many years and decided to sponsor a well in a very parched area with massive development near Port Au Prince, Haiti. There is always a high need for water and for folks who have little or nothing it is a huge problem. We have built several homes in the area and felt this was a good location for a well.

After extensive effort, and with many unusual hurdles to overcome, the new well was completed and we got has been flowing for a couple weeks now. Solar panels power the deep well pump during the day. A 3000 gallon cistern captures excess water pumped during the day so that some water is also avail at night.

This well will provide water for cleaning, washing, bathing and construction purposes.

It would require a filtration system if it is to ever be used for drinking, and that is not currently planned due to cost, exhausted supplies, and recurring maintenance issues if we do find one to install.

As result, the well will have signage stating that this water cannot be used for drinking purposes.

While that is not what we had hoped for, it was yet another hurdle the enemy placed on our path to prevent this life giving well from fully blessing this community. The people begged us to make the well operational because the water is still needed even if it wasn’t able to be used for drinking. The other uses require vastly more quantity and is too expensive to use drinking water for those purposes. The well can produce approx 6000 gallons a day with normal sun (approx 2 Million gallons annually) !!

If you would like to sponsor a well, or simply donate to CFM for our Mission work in Haiti, you can donate through our website, or contact a Board Member for details on our current projects or needs.

New Canaan Well Update
Clean drinking water
well-diagram

Gethsemane Gospel Church (Buffalo, NY) graciously sponsored a well, which has been delayed from completion multiple times over this past year. The series of setbacks have been frustrating to say the least.

When we could finally get the well driller to start our well, he had to drill far deeper than planned to get sufficient water supply. In addition to the added expense caused by the depth, this deeper than normal well also requires an electric pump and solar power supply which had to be engineered and then constructed.

This will be the first well of this kind for CFM, equipped with a solar pump, and a 3000 gal H2O cistern to fill during the day when there is power so that people can get water during the day and at night when the pump is off. The pump will produce approx 6000 gallons of water per day !

After the engineering was finished and we were ready to begin work, the country plagued by unrest and demonstrations held up construction efforts for several months.

Before we could begin construction of the structure, the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic occurred sending the well drillers (Missionary Family) back to the US for health safety reasons. They were home for several months before returning to Haiti to wrap remaining projects so they could repatriate. His family had exceeded their time commitment as missionaries, but were staying in Haiti until their adoption of a Haitian child was approved. This finally got approved during the pandemic and they are anxious to be home in the US.

Before he could purchase the materials, an historic currency rate change happened without warning causing the funds we sent to be significantly undervalued. The well driller suggested we wait till the US currency value went up again to purchase materials. With limited time remaining and no sign of a currency correction, we directed him to complete the well structure ASAP.  

The enemy seeks to discourage in unprecedented ways, but CFM remains steadfast knowing this well will bring desperately needed water to this dry region where we have built some homes partnering with “Blocks for Haiti”. Water is life in Haiti.

Please pray for this project completion to glorify God and bring relief to a desperate community.

Daryl Schmucker
Condolences

Condolences go out to Board Member Jennie Kennell on the recent loss of her Father. 🙏

Thank you for your continued prayers and financial support. We are committed to being wise with the gifts you entrust us with as we serve the Lord doing His work in Haiti.

Blessings, 
Merv (for CFM Board)

Daryl Schmucker
New Arrival

Congratulations to CFM Board Member Skyler Koehn and wife Mary Rose on the safe arrival of his first child, a daughter. Mabel Grace Koehn weighed in at  7 lbs 14 oz and was 21”. Mother and baby are doing fine.

Koehn baby
Daryl Schmucker
Golf Tournament

We are still awaiting a reply from the golf course on a possible re-schedule of our Golf Tournament that was postponed due to Covid closures. We’ll keep you posted on that status.

Golf carts
Daryl Schmucker
Haiti Happenings

Dear Friends,

The government has not yet lifted the travel ✈️  ban implemented due to Covid 19 😷.  We are not rushing travel that is not deemed safe. When the ban is finally lifted, work teams have committed to build a couple planned houses. We are hoping that can still happen in October or November. Please pray for the situation to improve allowing these desperately needed homes to be built.  

In the mean time CFM has continued to send funds to aid families attending our churches with food and sanitization products to help them thru the added difficulties brought on by the economic effects of Covid. As previously mentioned, food and supply prices have soared while avail work for income has slowed to a crawl. The continued devaluation of the Haitian currency is making it even harder for them to survive on the minimal income some are able to find. A search on the internet showed the currency exchange rate reached an all time high in August at 112 gourdes to $1 USD compared to the recent average of 70-$1, already considered high.

Supplies
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Sanitizer
supplies.jpg


Our Pastor Occius is still recovering from his prior hospitalization for Covid. Please Continue to pray for his full recovery. 🙏

We have maintained our teachers in the hopes of our schools re-opening. We are actively discussing what changes might be necessary to provide a safe environment for the children to learn. The picture below shows a teacher signing our roster for her pay.

Daryl Schmucker
Brave Young Man

This young man left a lasting impression on me on our Mission Trip to Haiti building a house for a Haitian family. We did not know that he was in such rapid decline due to his long battle with Cancer but he offered no complaints. He worked hard on the trip and maintained an amazing attitude. I was blessed to have some personal conversations with him during this trip. He was such an inspiration to be around ! So many people miss Tony Colton.

tony-c.jpg
Daryl Schmucker
COVID-19 Update

It should come as no surprise that the Covid 19 pandemic affecting the US and the rest of the world has not ignored Haiti.

When you think it can’t get worse for Haiti’s struggle the Pandemic comes along and the results are devastating. Folks with so little resources find existing food prices soar, virtually non-existent health care strained with a virus that takes significant resources to combat that they don’t have, and limited employment opportunity is made worse by stay at home orders... all combined exacerbating their plethora of problems.

Our Pastor Occius requested food and cleaning supplies for church members who were fast becoming desperate.

CFM had sent money for several food distributions at the churches as well as money for bleach and other disinfectants forsanitizing church buiildings and homes and soap for hand washing.

Occius has recently been so ill he was hospitalized for 11 days. We do not yet know what his diagnosis was... we can only guess at this point based on symptoms we suspect Covid 19. We are so thankful for his release today and for the humanitarian funds some of you have donated that paid for his medical care. Occius is beyond thankful as well.

Below are some pics of the food/supply distribution and some sanitizing efforts.

Daryl Schmucker
CFM Golf Tournament is cancelled for May 2, 2020

Dear CFM supporters, 

I regret to inform you that the CFM Christian Fellowship Mission Golf Tournament is cancelled for May 2nd.  

I was notified yesterday by the Golf Club that they could not host us on May 2nd due to the current situation and social distancing restrictions.  They are trying to reschedule events and we have requested an October date.  We will notify all of you when we have confirmed a new date for the golf tournament.  Sponsors and teams may contact us to be reimbursed for donations already sent to us.  

Mark Kennell
Board President 
Christian Fellowship Mission
941-376-1542

Daryl Schmucker