“Focus on the next generation.”
That’s what we sensed God was saying. After two years of living within our community in Haiti and establishing life and relationship with our neighbors and church family, we felt we had a clear direction. God had been doing so much in and through us, but to have a clearer vision was a breath of fresh air. The idea to “focus on the next generation” can unfold in a myriad of ways, but we knew that for us it meant starting a school.
Some new (and very quickly dear) friends of ours in Port-au-Prince, had been running a preschool for the past seven years. Every time we visited and saw the vision of Maranatha Children’s Ministry in action, we were inspired. Jesse and I would look at each other and say “it would be amazing to do something like this one day!” The desire was already in our heart, thanks to friendship with Byron & Shelley Tlucek, but the “one day” was coming way sooner than we thought!
As we started talking with our local community about the idea of opening a school, everyone was so excited and ready to jump in that very month! We, however, knew that we needed a whole lot more preparation if we wanted to give this school a solid foundation. We began to ask all the questions. What is our vision and mission? How many students do we start with? Who is our initial team? Where will we meet? How will we provide water? Can we provide meals? What school materials can we get? How are we to pay for all of this? And on and on the list went. But God… being God… had been setting us up all along with the answers to these questions.
Through all of the teams and visitors we had hosted over those first couple years, we had a solid foundation of encouragement and support as we shared the idea of starting a school. Those who came to Gwo Cheval, met our Haitian family and looked at our community through the eyes of the Father, full of love and compassion, grabbed onto the vision of Cornerstone School of Truth with us. And thanks to a team who came to finish the new church building the year previously, we had a space! God knew.
The spring and summer of 2016 was a flurry of activities. We hired our first employees: mommas from our church family who we saw love their kiddos well, searched for students: starting from local neighbors to beyond, and took our new staff (never had one of those before) down to our friends at Maranatha for some preschool teacher training. It was a whirlwind and we were feeling the massive shift God had invited us into.
Our local construction team worked diligently digging, prepping and pouring a massive 30,000 gallon water cistern… this took months. U.S. friends brought school supplies and helped get classroom materials together. Our sending church brought a team to help get class space ready and build the school kitchen from the ground up. And our friends and school mentors even sent some of their best team members to help get the school days into an easy flow that first week. Starting this school involved so much love-filled sacrifice from so many! It leaves me in awe thinking about it even now.
Monday, September 5, 2016 the doors of Cornerstone School of Truth opened for the first time. 25 preschool students, 5 staff members and a whole lot of learning ahead.
With clear direction from the Lord, we moved into the next season of growth for Cornerstone Haiti, always with a ‘yes’ on our heart.
What would God do next?
The adventure continued…