3 Cords

“A cord of 3 strands is not easily broken” ~Ecclesiastes 4:12

Mission of Hope (MOH) was here before the earthquake.  They had an ambulance donated to them from Canada just before it occurred.  Oddly enough, at the time the director kept declining an ambulance saying, “we have no need, this is just a clinic”.  But the Canadian kept pushing, and telling him that God was telling him to send it.  The director finally relented and said if you ship it, we will take it.  THANK GOD the Canadian had the resources to send it.  The quake struck on the 12 of January 2010 and the MOH ambulance was one of the only two ambulances to make it to Port-Au-Prince.

A plastic hoop barn was set up here on campus for the surgeries since the little clinic couldn’t handle all of the patients.  And this was a birth place of 3 Cords.  There were so many amputations that had to occur because of the conditions here at the time of the emergency.  And some women went around to the amputees as they recovered to give them hair pieces as gifts.  They loved the hair pieces so much that they wanted to make them as well.  It spread from there, everyone wanted a hair piece!

Today 3 Cords is selling even more, the original hair pieces in addition to pins, purses, and the like.  The proceeds in turn go to MOH’s prosthetic ministry.  I was blessed enough to tour the workshop and meet NoNo who makes the limbs.  (It is truly an art and I hope to be able to work with him in there one day for ministry).  All the amputees that come to NoNo not only have a custom made limb for them and maintenance on the limb every 6 months, but also it is completely free through the sale of 3 Cords products.

Another brilliant thing that Mission of Hope does is to keep labor local.  The schools, the clinic, 3 Cords, the feeding centers, everything is run by locals.  This is a completely sustainable ministry that not only provides jobs in a land ravaged by unemployment, but also teaches Haitian laborers to stand on their own instead of becoming dependent on a foreign mission program.  With that said, some ladies on our squad went shopping for our 3 Cords hair pieces to support this good cause.  My particular piece was made by a lady named Beatrice and I am hoping to go down to the sew shop to meet her one day that I am here.  For more information see www.3cordshaiti.com