At the Paulos Group, one of our core values is “Just Distribution of Resources”. No, it’s not the allusion of communism, rather, communities afflicted by injustice, and lacking skills, relationships and resources, usually need help to stop the bleeding. In general, these places don’t heal and develop easily as their brightest and most talented often depart for greener pastures.

Recently, the Gauthiers moved into one of our prototype houses. If you don’t know the Gauthiers, here’s the gist: family of seven, originally from Minnesota, living in a 900 sq ft house in Haiti. As Americans, we’re accustomed to lifestyles loaded with amenities. On the other hand, it’s not uncommon for Haitians to sleep on a dirt floor under a leaky roof.

So what does a Just Distribution of Resources look like for us? Currently, we’re building spec homes—seeking to find the threshold where houses can be built to code, include utilities, add value to Haiti, yet still be affordable in our local context. In a very real way, this is the Gospel at work. Furthermore, we’re backing up our commitments by bringing two worlds together and living at the meeting place. We believe this is what Jesus would do.

Matt McCormick

Partner

After the earthquake—and partly due of our proximity to the Dominican Republic—we quickly established a supply line over land, transporting nearly $20K of relief items into Haiti each day. Because of our local networks, a highly effective grassroots effort blossomed with very little overhead, few liabilities, and no waste.

In Haiti, the challenges are even more deeply rooted than the decimation portrayed by the media in January. For a number of complicated reasons, both culture and society have failed to thrive, overshadowing their redemptive qualities.

While many organizations address disasters and crisis from the outside-in or top-down, the Paulos Group takes the inside-out, bottom-up approach; living directly among those who are suffering, learning their language and values, understanding their needs, and working together toward solutions that make sense. We call this incarnational living, and we believe it’s the only way foreign help makes a lasting impact. Why? Because when we live in a place like Haiti (not walled in a compound or as a commuter), in very real ways “their” problems become our problems too. They’re not just something we see in the news, they directly affect our families—our children. Being fully invested, we have the greatest incentive to work hard toward change. We’re not contracted workers that get paid large sums of money to move from crisis to crisis when the former is no longer fashionable, we’re committed to the long-term investment Haiti needs to emerge from the ruins.

In October, we broke ground on Phase 1 of a vision for substantial and sustainable urban development. Although the concept isn’t dissimilar to other proposed resettlement projects; the process is. Two distinct features of our work are: 1) living within the community we are developing, and 2) adding value through privatization and ownership. As our work takes shape, these two factors will illustrate how the process—particularly in an environment lacking precedents and standards—is of greater importance than the plan, and will greatly determine our success.

We intend to integrate residential and economic development with a focus on appropriate and working utilities—a deficiency constantly stunting growth here. Phases 2 and 3 can be scaled up or down based on what we learn from Phase 1, taking into consideration performance and demand. Residences will be made available through a buy-in process defined and managed by an association of homeowners and business owners. A typical house will retail for $15,000. We desire to push the limits of excellence, while simultaneously maintaining an environment accessible to even those with very little means.

A breakdown of the costs, timeline and impact are as follows (click here for an expanded version of the budget):

Phase 1 Financing to be secured through private and corporate investors. Buildout consists of 10 prototype homes, basic utilities using renewable resources, and microenterprise development. Completion date: 2013

Phase 2 Financing to be secured through private and corporate investors, shifting toward securing grants. Buildout consists of 25 more homes, systematizing utilities, and emphasizing economic development. Management issues integrated. Completion date: 2016

Phase 3 Financing to be secured through investors, grants and international development funds. Buildout consists of an additional 100 homes, managed utilities, and the development of public space and facilities—including a locally sustainable school and clinic. Governance issues integrated. Completion date: 2020

Our proposed per capita costs are very much in line with the $15B committed to Haiti after the quake and the estimated 1.5M displaced persons urgently needing assistance.

Currently, we are $275,000 into the $725,000 needed for Phase 1. As alluded to above, we purchased and cleared a 25-acre parcel of land, and are finishing construction on the first prototype units. In the remainder of 2011 and into early 2012 we plan to complete 5 additional spec homes, expand our water and electric capacity significantly, and build upon healthy economic initiatives already in place.

Quickly and successfully completing Phase 1 is essential to having a platform to request and tap into the larger financial resources necessary to develop a fully functioning community, one which will demonstrate exemplary and reproducible qualities that can benefit all of Haiti. We urge you to consider investing with us in the kind of organic work and ministry that can transform a community, region and even a nation! Click here to invest with us online (your gift is tax-deductible), or mail to:

Paulos Group
3170 Airmans Drive
Unit 1085-PALO
Fort Pierce, FL 34946

info@paulosgroup.org
(305) 484-9192

Campolo suggested a better alternative: pack boxes of food and goodies. When certain the family is home, set everything on the back porch, knock on the door and before they can answer—get out of there!

In the Mishneh Torah, Jewish scholar Maimonides explains how different forms of “charity” (tzedaka) greatly affect the value of the gift and the impact on the recipient. Robert Lupton in his book: Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life, summarizes it this way, “Ancient Hebrew wisdom describes four levels of charity. The highest level is to provide a job for one in need without his knowledge that you provided it. The next, lower level is to provide work that the needy one knows you provided. The third level is to give an anonymous gift to meet an immediate need. The lowest level of charity, to be avoided if at all possible, is to give a poor person a gift with his full knowledge that you are the donor.”

The Paulos Group is committed to empowering people so they can provide for themselves and their families. Additionally, we refuse to create a false sense of job security through employment based on foreign fundraising. We invest in innovative and appropriate local initiatives, that, when managed correctly are capable of succeeding and growing on their own. Your investment will help us implement long-term solutions to economic challenges one person—one family—at a time.

This Christmas, to “give the gift of work” and immediately help a family in Haiti in a dignified and meaningful way, click here and select “Economic Development” from the drop-down menu where it says, INVEST in DEVELOPMENT. Alternatively, checks designated for economic development may be sent to the address listed on that page. We will post a follow-up report by March 1st, 2011.

Blessings and Merry Christmas!

Matt McCormick
Partner

When fuel ran out days after the quake we were among the only ones getting large quantities of diesel and gasoline to Christian ministries and hospitals. In Haiti, fuel is critical in a place void of consistent utilities. Fuel was needed to pump drinking water from wells, keep operating rooms online, and for telecommunications. This bridged a logistics gap and saved lives—according to those on the front lines—in the critical hours following the quake. The response was so quick and efficient that even the United States Army and Samaritan’s Purse requested our assistance.

At the same time, Missionary Flights International (MFI)—based in Florida and with decades of service to hundreds of missionary families in Haiti—linked together with Mission Aviation Fellowship and others, sending fleets of cargo planes to Haiti on a near-daily basis for weeks following the quake.

MFI recently published a book, Shaking Ground – Unshakable Faith, telling their story of God’s work amidst such tragedy. Prior to publication, MFI requested that the missionary community, many of whom they serve, submit pictures and stories so they could diversify the book. We directed the authors to our website and gave them permission to compile information from our posts—which appear on pages 42 and 43 entitled: The Highway to Haiti.

If you are a mission aviation aficionado, interested in relief work, connected to Haiti, or simply enjoy real stories of God at work; then this is for you! With nearly 200 pages filled with color pictures and firsthand testimony, we are pleased to recommend: Shaking Ground – Unshakable Faith, available directly from MFI by clicking here.

A hurricane, cholera, scandal and pre-election violence have added to Haiti’s woes over the past weeks. Since the earthquake, the world has responded with extraordinary compassion toward Haiti. However, profoundly complex problems require committed investment for years to come. In other words, the cholera outbreak isn’t merely a recent epidemic, rather an example and matter of failed infrastructure over time.

The Paulos Group is committed to Gospel ministry through this kind of development work. We feel the best solutions are integrated when outside help lives incarnationally among those in need. Recently we purchased and started developing a 20-acre property in Fort-Liberte. We intend to address the “whole” of the issue by beginning with infrastructure for residential and economic development. We view all our work and interactions as part and parcel of making disciples of Jesus Christ.

Without going into great detail, we are embarking on the first phase of building and infrastructure that will cost over $200,000. We have a bid from a Dominican company to construct a 7500 sq. ft. steel frame building for $65,000. Our desire is to raise the capital for this in the next six weeks. Among other things, this will be helpful in getting Shane & Kara Gauthier and others on the ground in 2011. If we can reach these benchmarks quickly we hope to exponentially increase our ministry capacity through grants pledged to Haiti.

Follow the developments at www.facebook.com/paulosgroup. To invest in this project please link to www.paulosgroup.org/help/financially or www.paulosgroup.org/contact.

Amidst calamity we have experienced God’s grace and perfect provision, and consider it a privilege to partner and invest with you in Kingdom work.

Sincerely,

Matt McCormick
Partner

The Bibles (Bib La in Creole) are the 1999 edition vinyl cover paperbacks from the Société Biblique Haïtienne in Port-au-Prince. ISBN 9781585160723

Now available for domestic purchase and pick up in Fort-Liberté.

Cost: 400 Gourdes or 10 US Dollars

Papo is eight. His mom: twenty-two. I do the math and my heart aches. The boys get to work making paper airplanes and I start on lunch. “Mama…” I look down at my compassionate four year-old. “Papo said he’s hungry and his mom isn’t making food for him today. Can he eat lunch with us?” I love his simplicity. “We’ll see bud, okay?” He returns to his paper airplane and I throw another cup of rice in the pot and cut the chicken a bit smaller. I quietly go about my work, my mind wrestling again with the complexities of poverty.

I wonder what is better, to feed the boy or teach his girl-mom to care for her son? And yet I know, that at the end of the day, at the end of the line of careless choices and irresponsible living, it’s poverty’s children who suffer its consequences. Even deeper down, I know that without the grace I have received, that girl-mom could have been me.

These are the tough questions we face each day. These are the questions we don’t always have answers to. But we continue to wrestle, think, pray, seek and learn. How do we love God and love our neighbor in this deeply rooted, tangling, thorny mess? How do I tell my neighbor about Jesus when her mind is preoccupied with survival? How can we give without destroying dignity and squelching desperation’s drive to find work?

We give ourselves. We roll up our sleeves and jump in. Their problems become our problems and their toils our toils. Together we push and we pull, we sweat and we hurt. And at the end of the day our heartbeat is to make disciples and our prayer is that this earthly toil will birth greater things, eternal things.

Development and discipleship: in the fabric of our lives here in Haiti, the two are so tightly interwoven. The kingdom of God to which we belong is both for today and for days to come—and for when our days are no longer. Christ our Redeemer is our hope for today as well as tomorrow. So through development, we pray that doors might be flung open wide to make disciples. And through discipleship, that we might develop followers of Christ who understand that the Gospel has everything to do with everything.

Side by side, we live and work together. And we pray that when the Savior beckons “Come”, they might leave it all to follow Him.

PJM

We are delighted you’re here and hope you have some time to look around. The Paulos Group has been in the planning stages since last year, but expedited on the heels of a number of organizations working together in Haiti after the earthquake.

As you browse the site you may notice…

We are not a conventional mission organization. According to Operation World there are over ten thousand indigenous congregations in Haiti today. From a biblical “missions” perspective, a missionary to a country saturated with churches is a contradiction in terms—even appearing arrogant in light of the sheer volume of churches here. Our ministry is living out the mission of the church as we come alongside our brothers and sisters in Haiti.

Unfamiliar terms like “patronization” and “incarnational ministry”. Since we interact with these concepts everyday and you may not, let me define them:

Patronization is when a person believes that someone considered less fortunate is not capable of doing something on his or her own—leading to a pattern of special or preferential treatment, only to leave the less fortunate person worse off when the special treatment is no longer available.

Incarnational ministry is following the example of Jesus. Jesus didn’t attend to our depravity from afar. He didn’t make short-term trips to intervene in crises or even commute in and out on a daily basis. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” (John 1:14) He came to live with us! This is the incarnation: God became one of us. He made himself vulnerable so he could relate to us—the foundation for the Gospel.

We use the word invest a lot. Although missions in traditional forms may not be appropriate in Haiti, the church does have a responsibility here. We believe that living among the people is the first step in bridging the gap that isolates the problem. This work requires much more than donations and relief work, it requires investment. It is only when we are truly invested that we can identify with the struggle and work toward real solutions.

Haiti is at a crossroads and the philosophies that prevail amidst the reconstruction will determine the future for generations to come. Would you consider joining with us?

Warmly,

Matt McCormick
Partner

In January, after the earthquake, several organizations banded to together to maintain a supply line from the Dominican Republic into Port-au-Prince. Among those, Urban Resurrection staffed our Miami command center. “Hard Times” was directed by Michael McCabe, written by Sekajipo Genes, and features Laurie Cook of Urban Resurrection. Used with permission.