A Very Warm Welcome at HA-778

The second Compassion Project Center we visited was in Montrouis, about 56 km (34 miles) northwest of Port-au-Prince.

It was a more urban area than our first center visit.  They have 350 registered children, 292 of whom had sponsors at the time of our visit.  I believe there were 900 children attending the school, so a little more than a third of the children at the school are in the Compassion program.  Since Compassion typically only registers 1 or 2 children in a family (depending on their need), many more of those children may actually be benefiting in some way from the program, if they have a sibling who is sponsored.  About 80% of the population of Montrouis are unemployed. 

Declaration of the Mission:  In response to the Great Commission, Project HA-778 exists to release the children spiritually, economically, socially, and physically from poverty so they maybe become responsible and fulfilled Christian adults.

The church building was jam-packed with children and adults when we arrived.  They played a rousing and very loud recording of The Star Spangled Banner as we walked in and were seated in places of honor on the small stage.  It was an incredible feeling.... the love they showed for us sponsors!  I wish every sponsor could experience it!

They may not have much in the way of finances, but they have huge hearts!  After several songs (including "You are my Sunshine" sung by some of the younger children in English) and a letter read by a teenage girl about what her sponsor means to her, a few of the boys danced and we were invited up to dance with them. 

Glory was the first one up.... but after I took a few photos, I joined in, too!  I wasn't going to miss that experience!

 After the singing and dancing, were was a procession of children bringing fruit for us.

This was the beginning of the procession....

The line of children bringing fruit went on and on!!!

They walked across the stage in front of our group, then took the fruit into the room where we were to have lunch, so we got to eat some of it later.

Such generosity was a reminder to us of the Widow's Mite!

The lighting and our seating did not prove to be great for getting good photos during the service, and I've been unable to upload my videos so far.  But I hope you can get a little bit of a feel for the excitement in that building from these photos.  I'll have more on our visit to HA-778 in my next post.