A Word from Dee and Wilckly....

Greetings from the Dorce’s in Haiti:


The story these days is construction. Although we have started clearing the land by hand like the settlers of old, we are longing for the day when our backhoe arrives to expedite the work and cut the cost of construction. Six men spent a week shoveling dirt and carrying it by wheelbarrow to fill the foundation so that we could pour concrete. It took two months to dig by hand the four, small 10ft x 20ft foundations, to lay the rock and pour the concrete in preparation for our "earthquake proof" housing. We are moving along on these projects as quickly as possible with the available funds.

We thank you for making it possible to get our family and staff out from under the tarps before the heavy rains come. We experienced a night under the tarps in the pouring rain which has made us much more concerned for so many in the hard hit areas that are not able to find any other shelter but sleeping on the wet, cold ground under a tarp.

We have moved into our first, completed, new style structure. It is 10ft x 20ft. It has a rock foundation with concrete floor and is covered with plywood and tin. These are the types of buildings we are erecting now.

We have a larger one, about 45 x 20 that we are trying to complete before school opens, Monday, April 5th. We are sending out notes to the parents that school will open on Monday. They will announce it on the radio. We will use a megaphone to walk through the area and announce that school will be opening. We have no idea how many children will show up on Monday. The State wants school to go through the end of August and open up again in October. It will be interesting to say the least, to see how all of that works out.

As the mission work continues in the way of physical construction, it also continues in the way of spiritual construction. The fields are white unto harvest. We praise God as we have been able to baptize 20 into Christ in the past three weeks, from Port-au-Prince, Montrouis, Carries and Florida. We praise God for these new babes in Christ and ask that you would continue to lift them in prayer. I also have five youth for you to pray for specifically and by name as we are studying in Sunday school about what it means to be a Christian and live it out before others. Their names are Amos, Tibon-homme, Esterlin, Ti-Liline, Altamarthe. Please pray that they would make a decision to commit their lives to Christ. They are all fourteen and fifteen years old. Two of them are boys that we are raising in our home.

Yesterday we had two new additions to our home. Antor and Emmanuel are 10 and 14; they are boys from the mountains. They are brothers, and their parents couldn't afford to feed them and continue giving them an education. They will be living with us, attending school and church activities. We want to help them learn a trade and teach them to be active Christians. Preachers and teachers are so desperately needed. This is our new hope to train children by extending a helping hand to the parents who can't finish raising them on their own.

Please pray for God's continued guidance and blessings as we strive to meet this challenge. May God bless you as you serve Him daily in your life.

Dee and Wilckly