But God Ministries

Empower a family to rise above poverty with our Kids 4 Kids Goat Sharing Program! 🐐 A $100 donation sparks hope, teaches valuable life skills, and generates a steady income. Join us in spreading love, kindness, and sustainability.

Please take a moment to pray for all of the mamas in Haiti who work continuously to try to provide for their family and maintain a household in extremely difficult situations.

For most mothers, the day begins very early gathering water. Women sometimes walk very long distances to find water from a well, then they carry the water home, usually in a 5 gallon bucket on top of their head, to prepare for the day. The children will use some of the water to bathe off before school, then she will use some of it to wash pots for boiling the rest of the water to prepare it to use for cooking or drinking. While the kids are at school, she might go to the garden and pick produce and put it in a a small basket to take to market to make a little money. Then on the way back home, she will probably have to return to the well to get another five gallon bucket for evening water needs like washing uniforms and other clothes and dishes used if she had food to cook for dinner. As the evening turns to night, and everyone is getting ready for bed, she reaches back to massage her neck because the weight of the water on her neck and back strains her bones, but she doesn't complain. She gets the kids ready for bed, prays to God for provision for another day, and tries to get a little sleep before it all starts again the next morning.

It's not an easy life, but these women find joy in God's provision, the blessings of a family, and affordable healthcare just beyond their door.

Over the next few weeks, we will take one day out of the week to do a Sponsorship Focus. Sponsorship is a tremendous blessing to the children of both Thoman and Galette Chambon. Sometimes, we have sponsorships that last for a long time, and other times, a child changes sponsors, or a sponsor changes children multiple times. These situations involve extenuating circumstances that are often unfortunate, but we are so thankful when a sponsor chooses to continue sponsoring even when their child changes multiple times. The key is that sponsorship allows a child in the village to go to school in spite of low family income and they not only learn, but they get fed every day too!!

Today our spotlight is on Mikalove Charles. She was 5 years old when she was first sponsored and she has had the same sponsor for eight years. Mikalove knows her sponsor's name and if you ask her about her sponsor, her face lights up and she will tell you that she prays for Kelly and her family EVERY day and she knows that Kelly prays for her. Over the first few years before sponsors could no longer send gifts, Mikalove's sponsor sent her gifts almost weekly! She even sent her a goat and had extra uniforms made for her!

Mikalove is now finishing her 7th grade year and she's excited about being an 8th grader. She loves school and she still dreams of becoming a nurse one day.

Because of her sponsorship, Mikalove doesn't worry about whether or not her parents can afford to send her to school. She knows that God has a plan for her life, and she is thankful she has had this opportunity to go to school every day and pursue her dreams.

Sponsorship through But God Ministries is such a blessing! If you feel led to sponsor a child, go to the BGM website and click Get Involved and then Sponsor a Child. There are plenty of children to choose from who are in great need. Every penny donated goes towards educating your sponsor child, feeding ALL of the children at school, and keeping the school running to educate a generation of children.

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This is Denise. She is 56 years old and lives with her brother, who is blind and relies entirely on her to feed and care for him. Though she gave birth to two children, they have sadly both passed away, leaving her with no surviving children.

Back when we would host teams in the village, she loved to join us in our walk when we passed by Maranatha school. She always had a big smile on her face and she would hold someones hand and walk along speaking in Creole as if everyone knew what she was saying. It didn't matter though because her smile alone was energizing and it spoke volumes. No one had a clue what kind of burdens she bore. She was just happy to be loved and accepted by the visitors to her village.

She does not have a formal job or a steady income. Instead, she helps out neighbors or does small favors for anyone who asks, relying on their generosity for a little money or food to get by for herself and her blind brother. She struggles to stay healthy due to dehydration and malnutrition. Her living conditions are horrendous due to decaying walls and water that floods in during the rainy season through the leaky, tin roof. She is not only in great need of a house, but she is also in need of water and nutrition.

At But God Ministries, we often build houses for people like Denise. Although we have built many houses, the numbers of houses like Denise's are still countless. We are hoping to start a malnutrition ministry for older adults like Denise soon, but what she could use now is a house.

If you or your church or group are interested in raising money for a house, please contact But God Ministries as soon as possible and express your willingness to donate. Our office number is: 601.983.1179.

Our malnutrition program continues to examine children in Galette Chambon who are in danger of complications due to malnutrition. Our staff daily sees children of all ages. Thanks to generous donors to our program, we were able to purchase baby scales as well as scales for older children. The scale for older children is a harness that they lift up to a scale on the ceiling which gets a better, more accurate weight measurement. Sometimes the children find it quite comical. The babies more often find their weight measurement process to be quite frightening.

The nurses are trained to identify all of the signs of developing malnutrition in order to get a diagnosis and put the child in the program. One of the tell-tale signs is lighter hair. Their hair is supposed to be a dark, healthy black color if they are in good health, however, if they identify it to be more coarse, brittle, and a reddish-brown color, they are in serious danger. Another important sign that many family members misunderstand is swelling. The malnutrition nurse knows how much a child should weigh at a certain age. She checks weight, BMI, evidence of swelling, dexterity, and other identifiers. Many people think that if a child is plump, he is healthy, but that isn't always the case. If the plumpness is caused by swelling and the skin on the feet is tight and shiny, this is evidence of organs beginning to shut down due to severe malnutrition.

Thanks to our donors, we are able to offer a comprehensive program that gently walks alongside the child and the caregiver to return the child to good health as opposed to a senseless death due to lack of services such as these. We are so thankful for those who continue to support services such as these and we are also thankful for the professionals we have in our clinic who know how to minister to children like these who are in need. Please pray about how you can partner with But God Ministries to minister to these children and hundreds more in the future!

This week we have been featuring some of our BGM Hope Center Clinic staff members. Today we want to introduce you to Nurse Dieunide Lucce.

Miss Dieunide is the proud link to our clinic's roots and the only remaining member of our original medical staff. When we chose to reopen, we knew we needed her experience, not just for her clinical skills, but to pass on the unique DNA of our practice to the new team. While our new colleagues are excellent professionals, Miss Dieunide holds the key to how we work. She embodies the understanding and deep compassion that define our care, making her essential in teaching the new staff that our mission goes far beyond medicine.

In the beginning of our reopening, she helped us run the pharmacy. But Miss Dieunide’s heart has always belonged to malnutrition service, where she used to work when she served at Pen Lavi. Before we even officially brought the service back, she asked seven different times when the malnutrition program would reopen because it broke her heart to see so many malnourished children in the community. She loves this work deeply, and we are overjoyed that she is finally back in her true role and her divine calling as our malnutrition nurse, bringing healing and love to the children who need it most.

We are so very thankful for Dieunide and the valuable contribution she makes to our Hope Center Clinic! We love you Dieunide!! ❤