Visitor Comments 2013
Very humbling experience. Look forward to coming back again in the future to see the progress. — Travis, NE
A wonderful mission with wonderful people! Thank you for the amazing care and for being Jesus to me! May God bless you and keep you in his peace always! — Kenny, FL
Had a very pleasant visit. Thank you for all the wonderful food. — Todd, OH
Thank you so much for your wonderful hospitality once again. Your generosity, welcome and love are much appreciated each year. We look forward to bringing another group of young people to visit you, our family, next year! God bless you in your continued work. — David, Canada
It was great being here! I loved all the kids and I think it is great what is going on here! I will be praying for all of you. Take care! — Jeffrey, NC
You are absolutely beautiful. Thank you for sharing life with me this week — opening your arms, doors and hearts. I look forward to returning many times in the future. I always feel at home when I am here. Mesi pou tout baggy! — Kelly, NC
Beautiful children. Beautiful week. Mesi!!! — Savannah, NC
I appreciate everything you do. I'll be thinking of everyone. — PJ, NC
Incredible week. Thank you so much! — Michael, NC
You guys rock! Great stay! Awesome week! Gratitude! Thank you so much! — Group comments, NC
We had a wonderful time! — Carol, MA
‘As someone who has worked with individuals with disabilities for almost eleven years I was truly impressed by the quality of care and education each individual receives. I was particularly impressed with the fact the children are taken out into the community on the regular basis. There are residential facilities in the US that hardly ever take their residents into the community. I also loved the equine therapy. I found it inspiring to see all of the kids interact with one another.’ - SJF visitor from IL
‘I've never been on a service trip where I've interacted with so many
children, especially those with handicaps but it was such an amazing experience
and I loved it so much. I've learned so much from all the children, what they
can do continues to amaze me. Thank you so much for having us! I'm so glad to
have had such a life changing experience like this where I learned so much
where I didn’t necessarily think I would.’ - SJF visitor from TX
‘Thank you Renee for the wonderful stay, it has been an amazing experience! I fell in love with the kids and Haiti, I'll definitely be back again to visit. I wish everyone the best of luck building the new Wings in Jacmel and will be asking friends and family to make donations to Hearts with Haiti and informing them of your incredible mission!’ - SJF visitor from MA
‘We stayed overnight at Wings. The accommodations were wonderful as always. Thank you for another great experience.’
- SJF visitor from MA
‘Loved staying here the boys are wonderful, well-behaved and very loving. Michael you are such a joy and made me feel so welcome. Guichard and Walnes are wonderful role models for the boys. Eres was such a great driver and very calm. Love the work that you are doing and continue to do good work and stay blessed.’
- SJF visitor from MD
‘This has been a joy. The love, support and discipline displayed by the boys and the staff touched my heart. The hospitality and lodging met our needs and left a lasting impression that I hope to experience again. Thank you!’ - SJF visitor from VA
‘My stay here has been enlightening, rewarding and pleasant. I will share the experience with others who I know will be anxious to contribute to the work being done here. I intend to return and support the work of St. Joseph family. Thank you Michael for all that you do and have done. P.S. the food has been great!’
- SJF visitor from VA
‘See you next year. This St. Joseph Family is MY family.’ - SJF visitor from VA
‘As always we had a wonderful and blessed stay here at St. Joseph’s. The hospitality, the food, the fellow travelers were all great! Our room #7 was very comfortable and had a beautiful view. Thank you again for your hospitality and your ministry.
- SJF visitors from VA and AB
‘It was good to see Michael and the boys again. I have not been to St. Joseph's since before the earthquake. Everything has changed and nothing has changed. I have always enjoyed the hospitality. The food is always great. The boys are always courteous and quick to give a hug and a greeting. I always look forward to coming. Thanks!’ - SJF visitor from NC
‘What a wonderful place to stay. The staff was excellent and the kids were amazing!! This is truly a special place. All the kids seem very happy. The roof top is personally my favorite place. All the art and plants bring lots of life and color. Thank you for a great visit.’ - SJF visitor from NC
‘Facility is beautiful and clean! When I think of St. Joseph’s I'll picture a safe haven filled with art, color, and beauty in the midst of Haiti. The boys are well-behaved and happy! I loved watching them complete their chores, giving them ownership in their home. Food was outstanding!!!’ - SJF visitor from NC
‘Brief but great stay. Good food, friendly people. Would stay again.’ - SJF visitor from MA
‘Oasis in the middle of Haiti. Thanks a lot!’ - SJF visitor from Turkey
‘St. Joseph's accommodations were wonderful. The roof garden was a highlight and the food was great. Wings was a well-received respite from the village.’
- SJF visitor from IA
‘Wonderful, friendly people. Great meals! What very dedicated and giving people, always willing to help with great smiles.’ - SJF visitor from IA
‘It is always a wonderful stay at both S.J. and Wings. We are so very well taken care of and all of our "unplanned" problems are made easier by Renee.’ - SJF visitor from IA
‘This is a great place! I loved seeing what is here. You have a great staff and the children are wonderful!’ - SJF visitor from VA
‘We
had a wonderful stay. SJF was extremely accommodating and helpful during our
stay in Port-au-Prince.’ -
SJF visitor from NY
‘What your organization has done for these kids is so inspirational. I hope to one day have the opportunity to give back like you guys are doing now. I want to do all I can to make a difference in this world. Whether it's saving one life or one thousand it's all a huge impact. Thanks for all that you do and all my prayers and blessings go out to your future plans.’ - SJF visitor from MA
‘This program has truly made me feel like there is a great opportunity here for all these kids. They already have the great leaders here and the smiles they had when we arrived made me feel like I was doing a great thing. I will really miss this place and the kids have really made my time here wonderful. Josephine, Steve, Lulu and all the other kids here will always have a great place in my heart and I will always remember them.’ - SJF visitor from NC
‘Thank you, Jacky, for sharing your story with us and thank you all for being Christ's love incarnate. For loving these Wings of Hope kids as children of God and not "disposables" or "demons". God bless.’ - SJF visitor from NJ
03.2013 - matthew - family to family;My
wife, Marie and I, owe our family to the St. Joseph Family. In 2008, Marie made
her first trip to Haiti with a woman from our church, Lyn, who had been the
one-woman drum major for our church’s mission ties there. Marie got to visit
all three homes and came away with a profound sense of the work being done by
the SJF and the great need that existed. A year-and-a-half later, I got my
introduction when we took a Living Waters for the World survey team to Jacmel
to look into the possibility of helping Trinity House build a clean water
system to serve their neighbors. We
were all set to bring our full Living Waters team down to build the system when
the earthquake hit in 2010. Having spent time with the St. Joseph Family and
witnessed the living conditions of the Haitian people, our hearts went out for
the thousands of children made orphans by this disaster. There would be no
international adoptions out of Haiti, however, after the quake. But it had been
a wake-up call for us to the thousands upon thousands of children around the
world in need of a loving family. We took the leap and after waiting nearly two
years, we welcomed our son from Ethiopia into our family this past summer. Michael
Geilenfeld and the St. Joseph Family showed us what it means to be a family and
it changed ours forever.
02.2013 - shelley - past, future and right now;
The past, the future, and this very moment now: all three relate to why I said yes to serving as the President of the Board of Trustees of Hearts with Haiti, and in all three I see the faith and hope and love of God lived out. The past: for 16 years I have been spending time with the St. Joseph family, staying at St. Joseph’s Home for Boys whenever I visited Haiti, bringing groups of people of many ages to participate in the lives of all the boys, and then growing to love and participate and stay with the children and residents at Wings of Hope. When the family responded to the call to establish a new residence in Jacmel, and Trinity House was born, I was gratified by their commitment, and to the way that became another outpouring of love when they established Lekòl Sen Triniti. The way the children are lifted up from lives of the worst kind of poverty, from the suffering of various disabilities, or from the brutal wounds of servitude and homelessness and brought into a family filled with music and laughter and prayer and education and daily chores and dance and more prayer and, well, family, fills me with love and hope for all of these children, and even for Haiti. The future: you often hear now that the earthquake changed everything, and I see the truth in that. Fortunately, because so many people reached out through Hearts with Haiti and other supporters of the St. Joseph Family, the changes for them are resoundingly positive. Just two years after the earthquake there was a wonderful service to dedicate the new St. Joseph’s Home for Boys building, which was nearly complete, and by this past September, 17 boys were able to take up residence and return to the routine of life in this busy family: prayers, chores, school, relaxation, group time, working for guests, and studies. Their future is back on a firm footing, with Bill and Walnes as their leaders, and the guest house remains a place of love and community. Trinity House continues to operate as a home, but also as the location of Nouvo Vi, the bakery now under the leadership of Daniel. And the future holds great promise for the children, older residents, and staff of Wings of Hope, and for the opportunity to provide them with the care and home-life that makes a difference in their world. And that leads to the present: I am so excited to in this role at Hearts With Haiti as we begin a campaign to help raise the money to build the New Wings of Hope facility. I am dazzled by the leadership of the St. Joseph Family, (including those already mentioned, and Maya, Jacky, Melchi, Michael and Renee), which responded to the needs of these children and the reality of these economic times by making the decision to move Wings of Hope to Jacmel and thus build a much more economical building on the level ground they already owned next door to Trinity House. This is such an exciting time to be part of Hearts With Haiti. We have new people on the board who bring us more excitement and vision, and we stand with the St. Joseph Family, ready to do all that we can to help ensure that their mission to care for the forgotten children of Haiti grows even stronger. From the very first moment I arrived at St. Joseph’s Home for Boys in January of 1997 and was greeted with a cup of cold water, a welcome song, and a handful of flowers, I have felt the power of their lives of prayer and their dedication to each other and to their community and country. They make a difference. If you would like to be part of an organization that helps change the world, one life at a time, I invite you to join us.
01.2013 - renee - resolve to change lives in 2013; It's the time for New Year’s resolutions. Most of the time these are our best intentions that quickly fall by the wayside by mid-January. We keep trying, year after year, but life often gets in the way and making new habits and changing our lives is hard work. If you are making resolutions to lose weight, live more intentionally, quit smoking, or anything else that will make 2013 amazing for you, we at the St. Joseph Family wish you luck. We also want to invite you to be intentional in your resolutions this year — whether you make resolutions and work to keep them, or have given up resolutions in the past because they were too hard to keep. And we want to give you the opportunity to make a significant difference in the lives of the St. Joseph Family at the same time. This year we are challenging you to be intentional in your resolutions and in your giving and to make a real difference in the lives of some very deserving children. The St. Joseph Family is about to embark on a new and exciting journey for the Wings of Hope children. 2013 will be the start of the building project that will give the Wings of Hope children a new home and a new future in Jacmel. We have the plans and we are ready to start, but we need the money to pay for the construction, furnishings and move. The architects tell us they can do the project in about a year, but only if we have the funds available to work straight through. Will you resolve to help us in an on-going and deliberate way in 2013? Will you resolve to go online TODAY and make a reoccurring gift through your credit card for the Wings of Hope Rebuilding Fund? Will you make the commitment of giving $10, $25, $50, $100, or any other amount you are comfortable with, every month for the next year? Maybe you'll resolve to give a dollar a day. Maybe you'll resolve to give up your daily Starbucks or cola purchase. Maybe you'll skip the drive-thru window at McDonald's and give that savings to the Wings reconstruction. Maybe you'll turn your night out to a night at home once a month and give the savings to the Wings reconstruction. Maybe you'll save your change every night and gift that to the Wings reconstruction at the end of every month. Whatever you decide to do, we thank you. Your commitment to a monthly gift will allow us to budget for our on-going construction and get us closer to our goal of getting the Wings of Hope children into their new home as soon as possible. Online giving through Hearts with Haiti is secure and signing up for automatic monthly payments is easy. Go to heartswithhaiti.org to make a donation, and be sure to choose the option of making your donation recurring on a monthly basis. There is a Haitian proverb that says, "Little, by little, the bird makes its nest". We are challenging you, our friends, family and fans, to help us make that new nest for the Wings of Hope children. The St. Joseph Family has 4,000 fans on Facebook. If each of those fans makes a resolution to make a monthly donation to the Wings reconstruction fund every month in 2013 we would be so thankful and we would be able to work on the new Wings of Hope facility all year. Thank you for your on-going support, friendship and love! We wish you all the excitement, blessings and joy that 2013 will bring.
02.2013 - shelley - past, future and right now;
The past, the future, and this very moment now: all three relate to why I said yes to serving as the President of the Board of Trustees of Hearts with Haiti, and in all three I see the faith and hope and love of God lived out. The past: for 16 years I have been spending time with the St. Joseph family, staying at St. Joseph’s Home for Boys whenever I visited Haiti, bringing groups of people of many ages to participate in the lives of all the boys, and then growing to love and participate and stay with the children and residents at Wings of Hope. When the family responded to the call to establish a new residence in Jacmel, and Trinity House was born, I was gratified by their commitment, and to the way that became another outpouring of love when they established Lekòl Sen Triniti. The way the children are lifted up from lives of the worst kind of poverty, from the suffering of various disabilities, or from the brutal wounds of servitude and homelessness and brought into a family filled with music and laughter and prayer and education and daily chores and dance and more prayer and, well, family, fills me with love and hope for all of these children, and even for Haiti. The future: you often hear now that the earthquake changed everything, and I see the truth in that. Fortunately, because so many people reached out through Hearts with Haiti and other supporters of the St. Joseph Family, the changes for them are resoundingly positive. Just two years after the earthquake there was a wonderful service to dedicate the new St. Joseph’s Home for Boys building, which was nearly complete, and by this past September, 17 boys were able to take up residence and return to the routine of life in this busy family: prayers, chores, school, relaxation, group time, working for guests, and studies. Their future is back on a firm footing, with Bill and Walnes as their leaders, and the guest house remains a place of love and community. Trinity House continues to operate as a home, but also as the location of Nouvo Vi, the bakery now under the leadership of Daniel. And the future holds great promise for the children, older residents, and staff of Wings of Hope, and for the opportunity to provide them with the care and home-life that makes a difference in their world. And that leads to the present: I am so excited to in this role at Hearts With Haiti as we begin a campaign to help raise the money to build the New Wings of Hope facility. I am dazzled by the leadership of the St. Joseph Family, (including those already mentioned, and Maya, Jacky, Melchi, Michael and Renee), which responded to the needs of these children and the reality of these economic times by making the decision to move Wings of Hope to Jacmel and thus build a much more economical building on the level ground they already owned next door to Trinity House. This is such an exciting time to be part of Hearts With Haiti. We have new people on the board who bring us more excitement and vision, and we stand with the St. Joseph Family, ready to do all that we can to help ensure that their mission to care for the forgotten children of Haiti grows even stronger. From the very first moment I arrived at St. Joseph’s Home for Boys in January of 1997 and was greeted with a cup of cold water, a welcome song, and a handful of flowers, I have felt the power of their lives of prayer and their dedication to each other and to their community and country. They make a difference. If you would like to be part of an organization that helps change the world, one life at a time, I invite you to join us.
01.2013 - renee - resolve to change lives in 2013; It's the time for New Year’s resolutions. Most of the time these are our best intentions that quickly fall by the wayside by mid-January. We keep trying, year after year, but life often gets in the way and making new habits and changing our lives is hard work. If you are making resolutions to lose weight, live more intentionally, quit smoking, or anything else that will make 2013 amazing for you, we at the St. Joseph Family wish you luck. We also want to invite you to be intentional in your resolutions this year — whether you make resolutions and work to keep them, or have given up resolutions in the past because they were too hard to keep. And we want to give you the opportunity to make a significant difference in the lives of the St. Joseph Family at the same time. This year we are challenging you to be intentional in your resolutions and in your giving and to make a real difference in the lives of some very deserving children. The St. Joseph Family is about to embark on a new and exciting journey for the Wings of Hope children. 2013 will be the start of the building project that will give the Wings of Hope children a new home and a new future in Jacmel. We have the plans and we are ready to start, but we need the money to pay for the construction, furnishings and move. The architects tell us they can do the project in about a year, but only if we have the funds available to work straight through. Will you resolve to help us in an on-going and deliberate way in 2013? Will you resolve to go online TODAY and make a reoccurring gift through your credit card for the Wings of Hope Rebuilding Fund? Will you make the commitment of giving $10, $25, $50, $100, or any other amount you are comfortable with, every month for the next year? Maybe you'll resolve to give a dollar a day. Maybe you'll resolve to give up your daily Starbucks or cola purchase. Maybe you'll skip the drive-thru window at McDonald's and give that savings to the Wings reconstruction. Maybe you'll turn your night out to a night at home once a month and give the savings to the Wings reconstruction. Maybe you'll save your change every night and gift that to the Wings reconstruction at the end of every month. Whatever you decide to do, we thank you. Your commitment to a monthly gift will allow us to budget for our on-going construction and get us closer to our goal of getting the Wings of Hope children into their new home as soon as possible. Online giving through Hearts with Haiti is secure and signing up for automatic monthly payments is easy. Go to heartswithhaiti.org to make a donation, and be sure to choose the option of making your donation recurring on a monthly basis. There is a Haitian proverb that says, "Little, by little, the bird makes its nest". We are challenging you, our friends, family and fans, to help us make that new nest for the Wings of Hope children. The St. Joseph Family has 4,000 fans on Facebook. If each of those fans makes a resolution to make a monthly donation to the Wings reconstruction fund every month in 2013 we would be so thankful and we would be able to work on the new Wings of Hope facility all year. Thank you for your on-going support, friendship and love! We wish you all the excitement, blessings and joy that 2013 will bring.
