HLMS ships last container for Haiti

St. Catharines, Ontario — After 14 years we have stopped shipping containers of goods to Haiti. The reasons are increasing ridiculously high import duties by the Haitian government, fewer available funds, and volunteers are getting ever older. By far the main reason is the duties charged. Earlier container costs were reasonable, but the last 2 containers were unreasonable in costs. The last container costs were–$1,300 for paper work plus another $8,000 in duties all in US $. Adding in our shipping costs put the total at $29,455 C$. The value of the goods still exceeded the costs, but money and time are now not well spent. Over the years these goods helped the people in Haiti in many diverse ways.

The main item shipped was clothing. In total close to 1 million pieces of clothing were shipped. Also lots of shoes, kitchen items, (including over 1,000 lbs. of cutlery, over several containers), toiletries for hygiene, school supplies, bedding, sewing machines and material, tools, chairs, sleeping mats, wood for rebuilding and many other useful items. The goods were especially appreciated after a weather disaster. A side benefit of handing out goods was the people would then listen to any Christian message given. The voodoo priests made many demands, but the Christians just gave things away. This did not go unnoticed. The largest items shipped were diesel truck engines and a small bulldozer used to clear earthquake ravaged yards. These items certainly helped many people survive better. We thank everyone who made a donation of goods or funds which made these shipments possible.

Container History

From 1994 to 2004 our society was basically project oriented. Pastor Revenel Benoit of the Lutheran Church of Haiti would make a request and the HLMS board would deliberate over it and send funds as per their wishes and ability.

Things took a turn in Sept. 2004 when a tropical storm, the likes of which they had not seen in 40 years, hit northern Haiti and sent 7 feet of water rushing into the city of Gonaives. Our society felt that we could not sit idly by and not try to help our brothers and sisters in dire need. We gathered goods together and sent our first container (20 ft) in Jan. 2005. We barely had enough to fill it. The following year we repeated those efforts. While we had sent a few skids of goods down with our armed forces when they were part of a U.N. peacekeeping contingent, these 2 – 20 footers were the start of a humanitarian side to our society. The following year we managed to fill a 40 ft container and all subsequent containers have been 40 ft, with the last 7 or 8 being hi-cube—an extra foot higher or 13% more.

In Sept. of 2008 another severe storm hit Gonnaives and the water rose to 9 ft this time. Although levels were higher than the first, fewer lives were lost. Our response was to send a second container that fall. This was repeated in 2009. I will include here that we also shipped separately a huge D-8 bulldozer in the fall of 2008 which cost the society approx $85,000 C$ but yielded the Lutheran Church of Haiti over $400,000 US$ in revenue. Jan. 12, 2010, while brothers Wally and Howard Bogusat were in the city, the earthquake struck Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area. The society’s response that year was to send 3 containers. We swore never to do that again as we wanted to remain retired. The years 2011 through 2017 saw 2 per year shipped, one in the spring and one in the fall. Various organizations were used to handle the ingress of our container with the government recognizing our humanitarian efforts. That changed in the fall of 2017 when they began treating our goods as goods to be resold. Duties charged almost doubled the costs for our society and it has been decided to end container shipping.

In the end, 25 containers were shipped!! Were they to be stretched out end-to-end, they would take up 960 feet (almost a fifth of a mile) all stuffed with good used items.

Haiti Lutheran Mission Society – 2018 Chairman’s Report

This past year Rev. Dr. Harold Ristau and Rev. Warren Hamp were elected to our board. Both are a welcome addition. Pastor Ristau has written a French Children’s book. Pastor Hamp went to Haiti in Oct. to teach 29 lay workers and 2 pastors. No other Lutheran church body is doing any pastoral training in Haiti and very little is being taught within Haiti. LCC is very appreciative for this effort.

It took a few meetings to plan the pastoral training and to justify the costs. Total costs were about $30,000. Pastor Ristau obtained about 100 copies of Luther’s Small Cathechism in Creole from Lutheran Heritage Foundation. These books were put into our container and used for the teaching week. I believe that God meant the timing of this to happen.

We loaded a container the end of August, which arrived mid-October. The goods were taken to an orphanage property for storage and distribution where about ¼ of the goods were loaded into and on top of a bus that took 15 lay workers back towards Jereme (the south-western part of Haiti). The remaining goods will be taken or picked up over a few months as transportation becomes available at a reasonable cost.

Wood from this container could go to the Thomassique area of Haiti where several buildings are in need of repair or an orphanage in Port au Prince also in need of some wood. There are well over 200 pieces of 2” x 6” boards 12 ft long.

Final Container

The Niagara Warehouse of Hope helped us ship items collected since our August shipment. These goods left St.Catharines on Jan. 22, 2019 and will be given to Pastor Marin Sr. for an area that has likely not received much before. (Thomassique– N/E area)

Other projects during 2018

• Sent $10,000 US$ to Mission Haiti in Florida to help finish a Lutheran primary school in Colminy, Haiti. We will work closely with them on more projects as funds are available.
• We paid for 500 copies of French children’s books (with Christian content), written by Rev. Dr. Harold Ristau.
• $1,000 was sent to help Pastor Charles, former VP of the Lutheran Church of Haiti, with surgery costs.
• We purchased 90 bibles and 300 New Testaments with Psalms in Creole at a cost of $2,000.
• We are continuing to help with the school feeding program as funds are designated for this. Last year’s costs were $30,064 for 2 different schools.

Our Saviour Lutheran Church in Dryden, ON, is interested in working with our society and have previously done humanitarian aid in the Thomassique area of Haiti served by Pastor Marin Sr.

May God continue to bless our work in 2019.

Submitted by Howard Bogusat, Haiti Lutheran Mission Society  

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