The travel to Gonaives was improved since last year. There has been extensive work on the roads. It may have been the time of year (May vs. March) but there seemed to be more agricultural activity along the route.

Once in Gonaives, we set out quite quickly to our task. We decided which rooms would be used for what purpose, decided on the construction work that needed to happen, and knocked a hole in the wall where the window between the rooms would go.

The work continued steadily through the week. My father, Joe, worked on all of the electrical issues. James and Judy worked in husband/ wife tandem on padding and curtaining the sound room. Jay, their son, and Cay, my daughter, did the odd jobs, gophered and helped where help was needed. I worked on setting up the computer, training in software and other aspects of basic recording knowledge.

Two events during the week stand out as especially memorable. Thursday evening, when we were all a little punchy and excited about the project coming together, Judy decided she wanted to learn Haitian Creole. Some of the musicians took her and the rest of us to task. We all laughed at our awkward attempts. Laughter is truly a universal language that brought us together that night.

The second was Friday evening after we were finished with the work, Wikens, the sound engineer had Aseline Volcy record the first vocal in the studio. Wikens had laid down an arrangement of Trust and Obey and it almost brought tears to my eyes to see Aseline singing. Then Wikens had our team sing to the track. Needless to say, Aseline was shown to be a pro. I may post our version once Wikens finishes the mix.

For me, this was a very satisfying trip. It was wonderful to see our team and some of the musicians and TV station personnel create something so useful. I loved seeing a very talented musician, Wikens, create beautiful music and hear Aseline sing it like a lark.

Solo Gloria Dei.

1. USB jump drives (2 GB minimum) – I want to install portable studios and other software to help individual artists to be able to record their music before getting to the big studio. It would also have information and links about how to record, recording theory, music theory, music business, and internet sales.

2. Blank CD’s and DVD’s – To backup the recording sessions and produce masters of final work. We will need lots of these.

3. Composition notebooks – to create logs for recroding sessions and changes to the computer.

4. Pens and sharpies – simple. They need to write on the CD’s and in the log books.

5. Duct tape – ’nuff said.

6. Velcro – 1-2 inches wide. 20 feet long. This to seal the door in the sound room.

7. Tool box – For an electrical maintenance tool box in the studio.

8. Multi-meter – to help diagnose electrical problems

If you can donate any of these items, please contact me. Thanks.

Now that we have the equipment on the way, Pastor Benoit has invited me to come and help set up the recording studio. There is a lot to get done and so I have invited some others to come with me to help get it all done. Right now our team consists of Joe Miller, James and Judy Yoder and myself. Before we leave, we may add three youth from our church. Our trip is scheduled for April 30 – May 10 and we will be in Haiti May 2-8.

Here are the things that we will be trying to accomplish on our trip:

1. Soundproof the studio – The studio is on the busiest street in Gonaives and part of a building that houses a church, TV station and radio station.
2. Put in a soundproof window between the two rooms of the studio.
3. Run electrical power to service the studio.
4. Set up the sound board, computer and interface.
5. Install recording software.
6. Train musicians on the running of the studio and computer and basic maintenance.

We have a lot to accomplish but we have a good team and the Haitian people are a great help to the work.

Please pray for us as we go that we can accomplish our goals and that the musicians of Gonaives would have a way to record their music, serve as studio musicians and engineers, and sell their music to a broader audience.

Aseline – Aseline’s CD is looking to get printed within the next month, if everything goes as planned. Please contact me if you are interested in purchasing a copy. It is a very solid CD.

Recording Studio – A recording engineer from Port-au-Prince has relocated in Gonaives due to the earthquake. He has plans for the recording studio. He sees that we have nearly everything to get the studio up and running. Pastor Benoit is going to take a computer back to Haiti when he returns this Wednesday. The engineer hopes to have the studio up and running by mid-May.

We are working on getting other equipment (mics, monitors, jacks, etc.) for the studio. We hope to get the equipment to Haiti in mid-April.

The studio is going to be an answer to prayer in several ways. Most of the recording studios were located in Port-au-Prince and the earthquake damaged or destroyed some of them (I don’t know how many). With the shortage of studios, this studio will have an instant demand for its services. It will provide funds for the LCH and jobs for musicians and technicians that I know.

I never really had thought about it before, but it really makes sense to give food rations to women instead of men. Women tend to be sensitive to the needs of the children. Men tend to worry about their needs first. It sounds like a wise system is in place in Haiti to help make sure that food is properly distributed.

It took me a while of reflection and prayer before I decided to write this newsletter. In early January three short-term missionaries from Canada came to work with us in my hometown of Gonaives. Howard and Wally Bogusat and Lynette left Gonaives on January 11th to go to the Port-au-Prince area to visit Good Shepherd Lutheran church in Caradeux. They intended to fly home on the 13th.

The big earthquake hit at 4:45 P.M on January 12th just as they were approaching the church in Caradeux. I was very concerned for their safety and had no way to communicate with them, so I drove to Port-au-Prince to look for them. I praised the Lord when I saw the LCH SUV they had borrowed and their three white faces! They were about to return to Gonaives because the airport in Port-au-Prince was closed.

Even after finding our Canadian missionaries, my blood sugar continued to skyrocket (I have diabetes) because of the devastation I saw in Port-au-Prince. A couple hundred thousand lives were lost! Thousands of buildings were destroyed including the National Palace and other government buildings. Over 600,000 people became homeless and 95% of the university facilities were destroyed. Port-au-prince is becoming a deserted city where people live like they are in a refugee camp. As I write this letter to you, I am still in shock. A number of my relatives and about 40 former members of my church in Gonaives, who had moved to Port-au-Prince, were killed in the earthquake. In all, across the country, about 250 LCH members were killed and another 700 were injured.

What affects me greatly is that over 70,000 people have not been found, including over 100 Lutheran youth and former LCH members who were attending universities in Port-au-Prince. Can you imagine how busy pastors and church leaders have been providing spiritual and physical assistance to so many families in need? And also conducting many funerals for those families where the bodies of their loved ones were found.

All the major cities such as Gonaives, St Marc, Cap Haitian and Les Cayes are having to provide accommodations for tens of thousands of people who have fled the areas around Port-au-Prince. This creates more problems for these cities to host over 60,000 to 75,000 people. Most churches in town are hosting some of these people. Here at Faith Lutheran Church we are hosting about 300 people and providing for their daily needs until. The UN plans to provide tents for them to stay in temporarily.

Port-au-Prince had a population of about 2,500,000 people; it was the political and economic center of Haiti. The city was not designed for more than about 500,000 people, so it was bursting at the seams. Important universities and trade schools were all located in Port-au-Prince. About 90% of the people who lived in Port-au-Prince came from other regions or from the countryside. That’s why almost everywhere in Haiti you see people crying and hurting because many had sons, daughters or other relatives that are now dead, injured or missing.

No one in Haiti, particularly in Port-au-Prince, imagined that a natural disaster of such magnitude would strike Port-au-Prince, Leogane, Jacmel and Arcahaie. Hundred of pastors and church leaders, including myself, believe that the Lord sent his judgment on these four cities. Up until the earthquake, Port-au-Prince was the sin city of Haiti. Political crimes and kidnappings were commonplace.

During his presidency, former President Aristide participated in voodoo rituals including human sacrifices (including infants) in the national palace, so he could remain in power. It was also a city filled with corruption, rich people becoming richer and poor people becoming poorer. About a week before the earthquake the government committed to spend 5 to 10 million dollars to support satanic carnival ( Mardi Gras). Hundred thousand of dollars were spent by the government to build up voodoo worship facilities.

Typically, before the Lord sends his judgment on a nation he sends a messenger to warn the people about their sins so that they have an opportunity to repent, as was the case when he had sent Jonah to Nineveh. Three weeks before the earthquake, the Lord sent a Christian man to the national palace to see and visit with President Rene Preval. He communicated to the President that God had spoken to him in a dream, and that it was urgent that the nation repent of its sins and turn from voodooism and crime, and that the President should call for three days national fasting.

That man carried the message to the Presidential Palace but the President’s body guards refused to let him see the President. He spent spent two days in the waiting area of the Palace, vainly waiting to convey God’s message to the President. Finally he sent the message via the President’s secretary, but the President replied, “I am not interested in your message,” and said that the country will be “OK”. Two weeks later the earthquake caused the National Palace to collapse; it is beyond repair. Since the quake, the President has no place to stay. If the President and his wife had not left the palace 20 minutes before the big earthquake, they would both have been killed.

Today our church body, the Lutheran Church of Haiti, has a message of repentance to preach to the nation. We are broadcasting lots of repentance messages on both our FM radio station and our TV station. Every Wednesday we have a street service where we proclaim the message of repentance and bring the Gospel to the people. Every Sunday my Church is packed full with 400 to 500 people. I have received encouraging reports of numerical and spiritual growth from all 192 congregations of the LCH scattered all over Haiti. All over Haiti people are asking the Lord to forgive the sins of the country.

Besides preaching the message of repentance to the people of Haiti, the LCH is committed to assisting people with their physical needs. Currently about 25 of Faith Lutheran Church’s members are in Port-au-Prince helping provide medical care, food, water, clothes and shoes. Two doctors from Gonaives will provide medical care to over 1000 people during a two-day period. This outreach alone has cost us over $5,000 U.S.. The funds came from Haiti Lutheran Mission Society in Canada. Our priority to date has been the several thousand Lutherans living in Port-au-Prince. We plan at least 6 other outreaches to to Port-au-Prince, Leogane, Jacmel and Arcahaie, and are budgeting $40,000 to help those in need.

Even as the UN and the international community are trying to help, there are bandits who steal many of the relief shipments. This creates frustration in those who are weak and unable to hold their own in a long waiting line. That’s why it is important that the Church get involved in order to get assistance to the Christians in an orderly way. Haitians Christians are naturally timid. They won’t fight for assistance from agencies if there is no order. They would rather go back home empty-handed.

I request your prayers and continued financial support so that these 6 planned outreaches may go forward, supplying food, tents and medical care to many hurting people.

If you receive this letter in Canada, please send your donations to:

Haiti Lutheran Mission Society

400 Glenridge Avenue

St. Catharines, Ont. Canada

L2T 3L2

If you are in the U.S. please send them to:

Haiti Lutheran Ministry

P. O. Box 14275

Santa Rosa, CA 95402:

.

Thank you, and may the Lord bless you.

Rev. Revenel Benoit

President, Lutheran Church of Haiti

The report contains a lot more information on all the factors that influence the environmental issues. Please take time to read it as it offers a lot of background and advice for changing the situation in Haiti.

Here are two ideas that may be ways to get involved.

Bio-toilets – Toilets that save the off gases for cooking. It’s not as gross as it sounds.

Lambi Fund of Haiti – They have a tree planting initiative.

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Thank you to all the students, faculty and staff that participated in the fundraising. We appreciate your generosity and efforts.

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The class was quite lively and fun. We took on a lot of subjects and we made some excellent progress. They were intelligent and willing students. Here are the basics of what we studied:

1. Scales
1. Major
2. Natural Minor
3. Melodic Minor
4. Harmonic Minor
5. Blues
6. Pentatonic
2. Chords
1. Major
2. Minor
3. Diminished
4. 7ths, 9-13ths
5. Added 2
3. Jazz
1. Basic chord voicings
2. Democracy in Jazz
3. Call and response
4. Blues
1. 12 bar blues
2. Use of blues scales
5. Music History
6. Chord progressions
1. Common pop progressions
2. Tonic
3. Dominant
4. Sub-dominant
7. Key Signatures
1. Circle of Fifths
2. Tricks on figuring out what key to play in
3. Relative minor
8. Sound for Performance
1. Determining the liveliness of a room
2. The parts of a sound board
3. Setting up the speakers and monitors
4. How to use effects and how to order them
9. Basic Recording
1. Isolation room
2. Click track
3. What tracks to lay first
4. Microphones
5. Using a mixer to create drum track
6. Effects