Good News for Villa de Woz

This year Christmas brought good news for the people of Villa de Woz (trans: Villa of the Rose) church near Cayes Jacmel, Haiti. SON-BEAM International, the West Michigan non-profit that has supported many of our church reconstruction projects, decided to fund and design a construction project to put a roof on the church. The Villa de Woz church has had a long and difficult history. The current building (consisting of a foundation and four half-constructed walls) was started with funds from a group of Haitian expatriates living overseas. However, a local community member gained control over these funds and embezzled most of the money intended for the church and an adjacent school before making a quick exit from the community. The congregation itself has struggled. For the last half-decade, the members have worshipped under a tarp. The current pastor of Villa de Woz lives forty miles away and visits only once or twice per month. Meanwhile, the church has been led by two hardy deaconesses who have literally pulled the church along by its bootstraps and the power of the Spirit. Please pray for the congregation as it will have to exert itself immensely to provide volunteer labor to build the roof. We are hoping to build a truss roof out of steel girders with sheet-metal roofing. Pray also for Edouarnis Estivil who will be overseeing the construction with SON-BEAM for the first time (Zach is trying to take a step back from church construction projects in the future).