I attended the UCNH board retreat in Haiti in January. We met in at the Xarguana hotel in the town of Montrouis just an hour north of Port au Prince. The hotel is located right on the coast. This was the first board retreat for UCNH and was well attended (23 members were present). This meeting was the first retreat for UCNH and it proved to be a rejuvenating one. Many older board members were there as well as several young ones. We had fellowship, fun and serious business that included revising the university charter and reorganizing the organizational structure of UCNH. A pastor from California spoke to us about what a board member does and this was an eye opener for many members.

We all met in Cap Haitian and then rode on a bus to our destination. I have not driven this north to south main road in years and I was able to see Haiti in a fresh new way. In my 16 years as a missionary in Haiti we in the Agricultural development field predicted that the Haitian countryside would be denuded in twenty to thirty years if agricultural practices were not changed (slash and burn, charcoal production using trees without planting new growth etc.). There would be no more trees: they would all be cut down and used for charcoal production. The mountainsides would be bare and the soil would wash away into the rivers and seas leaving Haiti’s soil so poor that nothing of value would grow. Now on my bus ride through the county from the north to the southern coast of Haiti, I was able to see with my own eyes that not only did this prediction not come true but Haiti’s countryside was resplendent with new growth. There were trees of all types; mango, avocado, hardwoods, pine, grapefruit and citrus of all sorts. The millet crop was flourishing on the mountains on Pilbourough and there were new trees sprouting up everywhere. I have never seen so many grapefruits bagged up and ready to go to market. There were pineapples, cororsol and many other fruits for sale on the roadside. In the Aritbonite rice fields were yielding their bountiful crop.

No, Haiti is not denuded or finished agriculturally, she is as resilient and long suffering as her people and she has defied all predictions of catastrophe. It was a great encouragement for me to see such production and to know that God is holding onto these people and working with them. I want you to tell everyone you know that Haiti is worth our effort, our prayers and our donations. We can be confident that there is still hope for Haiti! -Debbie Heneise