The Dorcas Women's Group of Pignon by Terrie Jo Wold

Dorcas is a biblical character from Acts 9:36 who, “was devoted to good works and acts of charity”. The Dorcas Women of Pignon, Haiti, are an amazing group of women who live lives reflective of their biblical namesake by intentionally serving the people of Pignon. They represent at least 6 churches in the community and meet every Sunday afternoon at 4 pm in the home of their mentor, Lucy.

Many of the women are illiterate, so they memorize scripture and hymns to fill their hearts with God’s powerful words. They gather to study the Bible, sing hymns, pray, recite scripture, share reflections and inspiration on applying God’s words to their daily lives. It was so beautiful to be apart of their afternoon bible study and hear them recite scriptures in Creole and sing hymns with passion and love and spirit! The women of the group take turns visiting patients in the hospital every day of the week, serve a meal to the homeless once a month if they have the food and funds themselves to do this and help those in need. Some examples include replacing a roof or door on a home if needed and providing clothes, bedding, food or emotional support. These women probably all could very well be the ones in need and struggle everyday to provide for themselves and their families yet they have chosen to meet weekly and do what they can to help provide for those who have even less than they do - what an awesome thing to see and witness - God is working in and with this amazing group of women in all that they do!

The Sunday that we were there, we were fortunate enough to be able to go with Debbie Lucien to meet the women and join their bible study group. They were dressed for church- some even wearing hats; a few had bibles or song books. Lucy was encouraging the women to sign up for the Women’s Conference coming up at the Bible Camp this summer. She wanted them to sign up even if they couldn’t pay the registration fee so they would not miss this event. Kris and I gave a monetary donation to Lucy to use at her discretion for registration fees or the meal for the homeless. Debbie Lucien shared that this gift would fill them with hope and encouragement. One of the projects we worked on leading up to our mission trip to Haiti was to gather tshirts and make cloth diapers from them! We began working on this last October at Calvary's Mission Blitz! We had quite a few men and women helping us in the Coffee Shop cut tshirts and get them ready for sewing. In all and over the winter months, we were able to sew over 300 cloth diapers to bring with us to Haiti! I also made burp cloths, layettes and some baby blankets! All of these donations were brought to the Dorcas Women's group! It was sweet because when we arrived, some of them remembered meeting me on my last trip to Haiti in 2011. They shared that the cloth diapers I had brought then were given out over two years to new moms in need over the last two years and they were so thankful! They shared their gratitude and thankfulness and that they carefully distribute donations over time. They told us that the donations we brought this time would probably last them up to a year and be a huge help to the women and children of the community.

All of this work could not happen without a lot of help from people in our hometowns in the U.S. Naomi shared the story of a young girl, who is 10 years old who worked really hard along with her grandma and sewed over 75 cloth diapers! She wanted to help out as we were preparing to go to Haiti and this was a way she felt she could make a difference! Her Grandma and mom were so helpful in getting her involved and it was wonderful to see her smile and have her know she was really making a difference in the lives of others!! Thanks so much Kayla, Sharon and Shoni!!! We shared this story with the women that day and they offered to keep Kayla in their prayers that she would continue to be involved in her church and continue to help others in any way that she can both here at home and in Haiti! The women loved the story!!! We felt blessed to have this time with them and we hope to meet them again soon! Keep them in your prayers and continue to do what you can to help those in need that live near you - find what your gifts are and use them in a way that will serve and help others! That's in turn, going to be a wonderful gift to yourself as well knowing that you have blessed those with your gifts!