I leave in the Morning... So What is the Plan?

Hi.

Thank-you for your participation in the work of Mercy League! We are moving forward at a good pace these days. These next few weeks will be paramount to our organization turning the key and seeing the proverbial motor run. It has been a lot of work, but I think we are close now.

The Dream: A sustainable Children's home for abandoned and exploited children

What does that mean?

It is a home for children that is based on three ideals:

1. A small home with a Mom and a Dad (not an institution)
2. Indigenous program managed and implemented by locals
3. Self sustaining (Leased land, gardens, fruit trees, animal husbandry, etc...)

We have leased a property with a small 3 bedroom house on it. I will travel to the Dominican Republic to finalize the candidate process for house parents. I will bring my tool belt and plan to build an animal shelter (goats, chickens etc...) as well as possibly working with the locals to plant bananas, plantain, papaya, beans(short term crops). (Yes I could use some help if you can meet me in Puerto Plata near after the 7th or April.)

We have a budget of about $3000 per year for the children's home but are trying to raise about $6000 in total to get things off the ground(supplies, furnishings, beds, Kitchen supplies, salaries and livestock). To date we have over $1000.

If you have any comments or questions please leave a comment below, or email me at: mattenleys@mercyleague.org

Remember that there are thousands of suffering children and families in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The Haitians in the DR whom live in the Bateys eke out their lives for pennies on the dollar in terrible conditions.

Our children's home is located in an area that is near several bateys.


Make sure that you keep praying.


Shane

P.S. For more info... read these articles:

"Where there are two Haitians, kill one; where there are three Haitians, kill two,"

3 Jun 2005 Dominican Republic: More than 3,000 Haitians deported in mass expulsion

Back on Road Again... Florida and the Dominican Republic

Dear friends and family,

Thank you for being with me during these days of sojourning. I will be leaving for Florida on April 1^st (seriously no April fools) and off to the Dominican Republic a week later.

I have spent some good quality time with my family(we went to San Francisco for spring break) and it is time for me to continue the journey toward helping Dominican and Haitian children. This is a great new development for us. We are in the process of hiring host parents. I will go and meet our prospective candidates and work on the building, grounds, garden and animal pens. I have a lot to do when I am there.

While I am in Florida I will continue to help out with the youth ministry to Haitian young people in West Palm Beach. Steve and Betty Prophete are graciously hosting me during my stay in Florida. They are wonderful examples of people whom have given their lives away for others. We should all be like them.

I would ask that you be willing to talk to people this week about our little Endeavor. We are in need of partners to make things come together. I am heading out and doing what I can, though my hope in all of this is that we will all be sojourners and do what each of us can to help. We can’t all go, or give, but we all know people who believe in us. Take some time this week to pray about what you can do to be a part of something that really matters; suffering children.

Our Original Dream -click to enlarge

I will send you updates, stories, photos and videos as I travel and work for our mutual hope... Please communicate with me and let me know what you can do to help.

Shane

Back with the Family

This is the life… back and forth between Florida and Oregon. I am happy to be back with the family and to pick up a little work this week (I am installing tile for friends). It seems like I am living two lives these days. I have my work in Florida and the prospects there, but my wife and children are here in Oregon. My family needs me. It is a good and bad feeling because I have to be away from them intermittently while I pursue international and intercultural work in Florida, the DR and Haiti.

'When Kristie and I were first… checking each other out… before we were even "officially" dating. Kristie asked me about my goals and dreams when I was a single lad in my early twenties and my response was, "to work and live overseas in missions and humanitarian programs." Her… response was something like… "like, totally far out, groovy, cool… dude! Like that is totally what I want to do with my life too, totally!" (well maybe not exactly like that but she was 19 at the time) We were married less than a year later. Yes we went from "Hi, what's your name?" to "I take you Kristie/Shane to be my lawfully wedded…" all within 11 months. It's a good thing that we do these things when we are young, when life is simpler and more straight forward.

This journey that we are on is nothing new for us. We have lived in 13 houses in nearly 12 years of marriage. That means that Kristie has packed away her life and started fresh in a new place with a new perspective Even our cat Gus has learned to adapt to new surroundings easily. Sometimes my heart hurts for my family because of the constant change in our lives, but like I said at the beginning of this entry… this isn't the life. I wouldn't wish this kind of life on just anyone; you have to be called to do it.

As we keep on keeping on, please remember us in your prayers and if you get a chance, send a not to Kristie or the kids once in awhile… to keep them going, especially when I am away.

May the Lord bless you on your own journey,

Shane

Let's not Forget Why We are Doing This...

I am currently staying in the house of Etienne and Betty Prophete. They are a Haitian couple who have over 13,000 children in their schools, feeding programs, clinics and hospitals in Haiti. They have offered me a place to help with their work in Haiti and here in West Palm Beach with the Haitian/American youth (many of whom are searching for their place in this world).

I want to remind you why we are interested in the work in the Dominican Republic and Haiti where children are exploited and abused by the thousands...

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This is an excerpt from the children at risk foundation:



Slavery ended in Haiti in 1804, but nearly two hundred years later slavery continues to exist in Haitian society under a new name, restavek, the Kreyol word meaning "stay with". Restavek is Haiti's form of child domestic work, resulting in no less than 300.000 child slaves. After years of maltreatment and abuse, many of these children will eventually be abandoned to the streets, weak and ineligible to live any normal life.

Through the exploitation of African slaves, Europeans in their colonies and the European market itself, flourished from the profitable plantations, the profit-creating slaves and the siphoning of money into the European market.

Today, the availability of resources in Haiti is scarce and the standard of living is low, making this one the most impoverished and underdeveloped nations in the world, where people live in stark deprivation and terror. The country lacks a steady economy and political stability. It’s tragic inability to enforce important laws leaves street children and restaveks totally unprotected and abandoned by society.

Unlike the visible street children, constantly appearing in public places and thereby accessible for investigation and aid, restaveks are hidden away in the private realm of the home, a social space controlled by masters, hindering any chances they have of being helped. Because this space is private, child domestics are difficult to reach, count, investigate or rescue.


On average, restaveks work eighteen hours a day, seven days a week, have extremely poor health, nutrition, low educational attainment and their living conditions are appalling. They sleep on the bare floor or on a mat on the floor next to their master's bed or under the kitchen table. They use an old rolled up dress as a billow or a blanket. Restaveks wear dirty, old clothing and shoes with holes in them, sometimes too big for their small bodies. Also, they are permitted to bathe only once a week. While these children prepare meals for their masters, they are not allowed to eat with the family and must wait until everyone finishes and leaves the table in order to eat the leftovers from the meal that he or she cooked. The master requires that the child domestic use a specific plate, cup, and fork, made out of tin and bent out of shape. The restavek must wash and store these utensils separately, perhaps for a fear that he or she will contaminate the rest of the family's "good" dining equipment. The child is further separated from social life as the restavek spends virtually the entire day indoors unless he or she is fetching water, cleaning chamber pots, or visiting the market. And while indoors, he or she sits in isolation when not doing chores. These children are not allowed to speak unless their owners speak to them or permit them to speak. In addition to the daily schedule and tasks and the living conditions, these children suffer great physical and emotional danger, are beaten, tortured, raped, falsely accused and verbally assaulted. www.carfweb.net/haiti_appeal.html

I want to thank you for staying with me on this journey. My sincere home is that we can make a difference for these children.... one project at a time.

Shane