Latest / Clay to Crown / Talking with Angelica Mourges of Fleri Cheri Pt 2

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Talking with Angelica Mourges of Fleri Cheri Pt 2 · Clay to Crown

0:00
Speaker 1: All right, we're back with another episode of Clay to Crown,
0:04
Speaker 1: and we're again talking with Angelica Morges.
0:07
Speaker 2: It's great having you back again, Angelica. Yes, it's great
0:10
Speaker 2: to be here. You know, in our.
0:12
Speaker 1: Last episode, we talked a little bit about you referenced,
0:16
Speaker 1: you know, in our conversation, because that was more of
0:19
Speaker 1: a lead into like your faith walk and how you
0:23
Speaker 1: became a missionary to Haiti and your establishment there and
0:26
Speaker 1: all of that. And you briefly talked about your nonprofit organization,
0:30
Speaker 1: Flourish Airy. So in this episode, I want to talk
0:34
Speaker 1: more about that, about the different things that you do
0:38
Speaker 1: through that, and then ultimately the new endeavor that you
0:42
Speaker 1: have as the Haven House, or I'm.
0:46
Speaker 3: Probably saying that wrong.
0:48
Speaker 2: Hilltop Haven.
0:48
Speaker 1: Hilltop Haven, that's what it is. Yes, I knew it
0:50
Speaker 1: was something like that. So yeah, so let's talk about
0:54
Speaker 1: Flarey Sherry. Again, what does it mean, and just kind
0:57
Speaker 1: of what's its mission?
0:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, so Flarey Sherry Translator, translates from Haitian Creole to
1:04
Speaker 4: English to Flourish Darling.
1:06
Speaker 2: And basically our mission is to empower women.
1:11
Speaker 4: And it's kind of such a simple mission, but we
1:13
Speaker 4: do it through a lot of different ways. And kind
1:16
Speaker 4: of the programs that we have have really just stemmed
1:19
Speaker 4: from the needs and wants of the women that we serve.
1:23
Speaker 4: So our main one is Bible studies and small group programs.
1:28
Speaker 4: So it could look like a conference on a weekend
1:30
Speaker 4: that the women have a topic that they want to
1:32
Speaker 4: get together and talk about or have a professional come.
1:37
Speaker 4: We're really getting more passionate about diving into the medical
1:40
Speaker 4: world with kind of how women's bodies work is not
1:44
Speaker 4: something that's talked about in school.
1:45
Speaker 1: I was just saying, because they're not taught that. If
1:48
Speaker 1: they know anything at all, it's from their mother.
1:51
Speaker 2: And there's a lot of misinformation there.
1:55
Speaker 4: That is kind of catastrophic and have a lot of
1:57
Speaker 4: pregnancies because of it and different things.
2:00
Speaker 2: So we really want to start diving into that. We
2:02
Speaker 2: have not yet.
2:04
Speaker 4: And then job creation and allowing women to have a
2:08
Speaker 4: job that provides for their families and keeps children out
2:11
Speaker 4: of orphanages.
2:12
Speaker 2: Those are like our two main ones.
2:14
Speaker 4: And kind of alongside that, we have some other programs
2:17
Speaker 4: that just the community wants and kind of all stems
2:20
Speaker 4: from the same thing of what can we do that
2:22
Speaker 4: empower women and One of our other big programs is
2:25
Speaker 4: school sponsorship, which is something near and dear to my
2:28
Speaker 4: heart just with my backgrounds in education. And that's how
2:32
Speaker 4: I got to Haiti is by sponsoring a child. So
2:36
Speaker 4: we sponsor school tuition. It looks a lot different for
2:41
Speaker 4: each kid based on the needs of the mom. And
2:45
Speaker 4: all of the moms are single. They're single moms. Either
2:47
Speaker 4: their husbands left, their husbands have died, and they're a
2:49
Speaker 4: one-income family. And an income in Haiti is $ 100 a month. Right.
2:54
Speaker 2: If you have a job.
2:55
Speaker 3: And how much is school tuition?
2:57
Speaker 2: Uh, $ 200 a year.
2:58
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah.
2:59
Speaker 1: So that's a huge, you know, I, I'm not a mathematician,
3:03
Speaker 1: but that's a big percentage of your take home to
3:06
Speaker 1: pay for school.
3:07
Speaker 4: And you have to pay it in installments. So it's
3:09
Speaker 4: normally two to three installments. So it's a good chunk
3:12
Speaker 4: of change, not including a uniform. They are uniforms and books.
3:17
Speaker 2: Um, so that really started with one woman.
3:21
Speaker 4: Um, who was our neighbor and her husband had left
3:24
Speaker 4: and kind of started a new life in the Dominican
3:28
Speaker 4: Republic and never came back. And she was doing everything
3:30
Speaker 4: she could to care for her two boys and kind
3:34
Speaker 4: of started as like a hand up so that she
3:37
Speaker 4: could take her monthly income and buy them food.
3:42
Speaker 2: And we sent them to school. So it's grown.
3:45
Speaker 4: We were pretty small with that. We only, I think
3:47
Speaker 4: we're sending 11 kids this year. But the stories, you know,
3:50
Speaker 4: they're all single women. And they're very delicately chosen.
3:54
Speaker 2: Yeah. And they all have jobs. It's just not enough.
3:58
Speaker 1: Right.
3:58
Speaker 2: No school is free in Haiti. So, yeah, those are, like,
4:01
Speaker 2: our three main ones, I would say.
4:04
Speaker 3: Yeah.
4:05
Speaker 2: So tell me about the, you know, some of the
4:10
Speaker 2: job creations.
4:11
Speaker 4: Yeah.
4:14
Speaker 2: You're wearing some.
4:14
Speaker 1: I don't know if anybody can hear that. I'm wearing
4:17
Speaker 1: some of the creation, and so is she. One of
4:22
Speaker 1: the things that you do is sell earrings.
4:25
Speaker 2: Yes.
4:26
Speaker 4: That is how the job creation portion started. So honestly,
4:31
Speaker 4: that's kind of how Flurry Sherry started. At the nonprofit
4:35
Speaker 4: that I was working with, there was a group of
4:37
Speaker 4: women that lived next door. And I went over one day.
4:40
Speaker 4: I think they invited me in. And they showed me
4:43
Speaker 4: all their earrings. They were so cool. They look like wood.
4:47
Speaker 3: Yeah.
4:48
Speaker 2: But they're made out of cow bass, which is a
4:50
Speaker 2: squash or a gourd.
4:53
Speaker 4: And they hand carve them. They hand sand them. They
4:55
Speaker 4: stain them. They paint them. And I had asked her,
5:00
Speaker 4: I was getting ready to move into a rented house.
5:02
Speaker 4: And I asked her, I said, can I like give
5:05
Speaker 4: you three styles that I think would fit more for
5:08
Speaker 4: like what Americans wear?
5:10
Speaker 2: And you can make them, shape them.
5:13
Speaker 4: And I'll do like a fundraiser and sell them for
5:16
Speaker 4: helping to raise money for my rented house.
5:19
Speaker 2: And it was great.
5:21
Speaker 4: We raised like half the money for the house. We
5:22
Speaker 4: provided like a huge few months of jobs for them. Yeah.
5:26
Speaker 2: And they were so grateful.
5:27
Speaker 4: They said at one point, you know, the tourism in
5:29
Speaker 4: Haiti was a lot better.
5:30
Speaker 2: And we were living in a beach town at the time.
5:33
Speaker 4: So they used to make quite a bit of money
5:35
Speaker 4: just selling earrings to tourists. And, you know, they liked
5:38
Speaker 4: their designs and stuff like that.
5:40
Speaker 2: And it's a pretty cool thing. you know, story behind
5:42
Speaker 2: how they're made.
5:43
Speaker 4: And they're fun to tell people they're made out of
5:44
Speaker 4: a squash and stuff like that. But with no tourists
5:47
Speaker 4: coming in due to the country, like they weren't really
5:50
Speaker 4: able to keep the business going. And there was four women.
5:53
Speaker 4: So it's, you know, the boss and then three women
5:55
Speaker 4: that work underneath her. So when Flaria Sherry became an organization,
6:01
Speaker 4: probably within the next six months, I knew that I
6:05
Speaker 4: wanted to have a job creation portion for them. Um,
6:08
Speaker 4: and how it looks right now with them is we
6:10
Speaker 4: have different, um, organizations in the States that will buy
6:14
Speaker 4: the earrings. They sell them in, you know, sell them
6:16
Speaker 4: at their online shops. Um, and then also like we'll
6:19
Speaker 4: take them and sell them on an online platform, um,
6:22
Speaker 4: just to help them, you know, be able to provide
6:24
Speaker 4: work for them and kind of share their.
6:26
Speaker 2: Earrings with a wider audience.
6:28
Speaker 4: Um, and then how it works with the rest of
6:31
Speaker 4: the ladies, she's a more specific case, but with the
6:34
Speaker 4: rest of the ladies is we do startup costs. Um,
6:37
Speaker 4: so they'll kind of come to us with a business
6:39
Speaker 4: plan and, you know, due to lack of education in Haiti,
6:42
Speaker 4: you do have to double check that it is a
6:44
Speaker 4: sound business plan and that it's going to produce money
6:47
Speaker 4: for them. Um, especially when it comes to them having
6:51
Speaker 4: to buy the products or buy the upkeep of the
6:54
Speaker 4: business after.
6:55
Speaker 2: Getting the hand up, um, business startup. Um, so we've
6:59
Speaker 2: started eight.
7:01
Speaker 4: Small businesses for women, um, Um, and it ranges from, uh,
7:07
Speaker 4: we bought a sewing machine for a lady and sent
7:09
Speaker 4: her to sewing school so that she could provide for
7:11
Speaker 4: her two boys. Um, another lady wanted to start a
7:15
Speaker 4: hot dog business. So we bought her like a stove
7:17
Speaker 4: and like bulk hot dogs for her to kind of
7:19
Speaker 4: kickstart that business. Um, ranging from depots, which they sell
7:24
Speaker 4: a bunch of food, a bunch of different job creations,
7:27
Speaker 4: but they have to come to us and we have
7:29
Speaker 4: to make sure.
7:29
Speaker 2: That it's like a good business plan.
7:31
Speaker 3: That's all right.
7:33
Speaker 2: I mean, you're like a one-shot girl, though, right?
7:36
Speaker 3: Like, it's you. Yeah.
7:39
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know?
7:41
Speaker 1: So you're putting that, you know, early childhood education degree through,
7:46
Speaker 1: you know, the business.
7:49
Speaker 3: Through business school, so to speak.
7:51
Speaker 1: So that's... I love that, though, because I know of
7:54
Speaker 1: other bigger nonprofits that kind of do that same thing.
8:00
Speaker 2: Yep.
8:00
Speaker 4: And....
8:03
Speaker 3: You know, I can only imagine, and.
8:05
Speaker 1: I don't have the statistics or anything like that, that
8:09
Speaker 1: doing empowerment like that is probably long-term going to be
8:17
Speaker 1: more successful than just, you know, here's a bag of groceries,
8:21
Speaker 1: go feed your family today. Yep.
8:23
Speaker 4: Yeah. And that's one of the reasons why we did it,
8:27
Speaker 4: is the sustainability portion of it.
8:30
Speaker 2: And also, it empowers the women.
8:32
Speaker 4: Yeah. Like, yes. Yes. Do we sometimes do food kits
8:35
Speaker 4: if something tragic happens or we have one donor that
8:39
Speaker 4: is very passionate about feeding people?
8:41
Speaker 2: There's a lot of people that don't have jobs. I
8:42
Speaker 2: can't give jobs to everybody.
8:44
Speaker 1: Right.
8:44
Speaker 2: So do we do food kits.
8:46
Speaker 4: So that people can feed people that they've taken in
8:48
Speaker 4: from out of town? Yes.
8:50
Speaker 2: Is it sustainable?
8:52
Speaker 4: No. It's like every now and then a hand up
8:54
Speaker 4: for them to be able to feed their families well
8:56
Speaker 4: for one month. Right. Um, But empowering women with a job,
9:00
Speaker 4: empowering women with a job, and then also sending their
9:03
Speaker 4: kids to school so that their job can actually feed
9:06
Speaker 4: their children versus them having to take away the food
9:09
Speaker 4: money to send their kids to school. Right.
9:12
Speaker 2: That matters.
9:13
Speaker 4: And it took me a while to get to that
9:16
Speaker 4: point with Flarey Sherry, and I'm so glad that we
9:18
Speaker 4: finally arrived at this is what we're going to do because,
9:23
Speaker 4: you know, orphans in Haiti. A lot of them have parents.
9:28
Speaker 4: Some of them have two parents. Most of them have
9:30
Speaker 4: one parent. And the reason why they're in the orphanage
9:33
Speaker 4: is because the orphanage promises parents that their kids will
9:35
Speaker 4: go to school and that their kids will have at
9:37
Speaker 4: least two meals a day. Who wouldn't give your child
9:40
Speaker 4: that opportunity to go to an orphanage? You can't fault
9:43
Speaker 4: parents for sending their kids to an orphanage. But what's
9:46
Speaker 4: happening is orphanages also rely on donations. And with donations
9:50
Speaker 4: being at an all-time low for Haiti right now because
9:53
Speaker 4: of mission trips aren't able to come in because people
9:55
Speaker 4: aren't able to see what.
9:56
Speaker 2: You're doing on the ground.
9:57
Speaker 4: They're not able to have a passion for Haiti and
10:00
Speaker 4: what you're doing. Orphanages are struggling. And kids are ending
10:04
Speaker 4: up on the streets. And kids that once had parents.
10:08
Speaker 4: So how can Flarey Sherry have this mission of empowering women?
10:12
Speaker 2: How can we keep families together?
10:15
Speaker 4: Especially when you're talking about the majority of our women
10:18
Speaker 4: that we serve, they are single moms.
10:20
Speaker 2: Not all of them, but a lot of them are.
10:23
Speaker 4: Some are widowed, most are left because their husbands go
10:26
Speaker 4: out in search of a better life to provide for
10:29
Speaker 4: the family and a lot of them never come back
10:31
Speaker 4: or they start over with a new family.
10:34
Speaker 2: So how can we kind of fill the gap?
10:38
Speaker 4: Yeah.
10:40
Speaker 1: So Let's talk about, I know that for a while
10:44
Speaker 1: you were based out of, you call it, yeah, the
10:47
Speaker 1: beach town that you referenced a little while ago. And
10:51
Speaker 1: then in the last 18 months or so, the Lord
10:57
Speaker 1: has started to shift you more inland. And then I'm
11:03
Speaker 1: not going to like steal your thunder, but there's been,
11:06
Speaker 1: you know, God moments through this shifting.
11:12
Speaker 4: Huge.
11:12
Speaker 3: Let's talk about that a little bit.
11:14
Speaker 1: How is the Lord shifting you regionally in Haiti to
11:18
Speaker 1: your new location?
11:20
Speaker 4: Yes. So when I started in the nonprofit world, I
11:23
Speaker 4: was based in the southern part of Haiti, which is
11:25
Speaker 4: a beach town, southern shore. And I was renting a house,
11:30
Speaker 4: doing ministry down there, started Flurry of Sherry down there.
11:32
Speaker 4: We still have ministry stuff going on down there. And
11:36
Speaker 4: in October of 2024, I had went and visited a
11:40
Speaker 4: friend that lives in the Central Plateau, we call it.
11:45
Speaker 4: And she had joked, like, oh, like, would you ever
11:47
Speaker 4: move here? And I was like, absolutely not.
11:50
Speaker 3: Right.
11:51
Speaker 2: Settled.
11:51
Speaker 4: I love my life. I love where I live. I
11:54
Speaker 4: love the ministry we have going.
11:55
Speaker 2: Yeah. Hard no. And the Lord said otherwise.
12:01
Speaker 4: Yeah. Basically, long story short, in that beginning process is
12:08
Speaker 4: I realized that you cannot buy land in the southern
12:10
Speaker 4: part of Haiti.
12:11
Speaker 2: There's a lot of land wars.
12:12
Speaker 4: It's very highly advised to not due to a lot
12:16
Speaker 4: of different things. But if you buy land, there's a
12:18
Speaker 4: good chance it could be taken out from underneath you.
12:20
Speaker 4: So I just thought we would never build as an organization.
12:22
Speaker 4: Like we would never set roots like that. And that
12:25
Speaker 4: was fine with me. And when I had gone to
12:28
Speaker 4: this other area, went on this walk one day, lots
12:33
Speaker 4: of land. far outside of where my friend was living
12:36
Speaker 4: in the city. And right after she had asked if
12:39
Speaker 4: I would ever move, and I said, laughed and said no.
12:44
Speaker 4: I saw all this land, and I had talked to
12:46
Speaker 4: a local, and I was like, oh, like, do Americans
12:50
Speaker 4: buy land here? Do people, like, have land wars here?
12:52
Speaker 4: I thought that was just universal all over Haiti.
12:54
Speaker 2: They were like, what is that? I was like, okay.
12:58
Speaker 4: Then I posted a picture on this piece of land,
13:02
Speaker 4: just a random piece of land. And you know, jokingly,
13:06
Speaker 4: it was like, if I ever won the lotto, you know,
13:08
Speaker 4: people always ask, what would you do if you won
13:10
Speaker 4: the lotto?
13:10
Speaker 2: I answered the question and I said, I'd buy a
13:14
Speaker 2: good car and I'd buy a plot of land and
13:16
Speaker 2: build a small house.
13:19
Speaker 4: And somebody commented that had been following us for a
13:22
Speaker 4: few years and said, the Lord, you know, has all
13:25
Speaker 4: the cattle on the hill.
13:26
Speaker 2: Why would you not ask? And I was like, okay.
13:30
Speaker 4: So then I got to thinking, I had a trip
13:32
Speaker 4: planned to the US a month later. had a whole
13:35
Speaker 4: fundraising campaign ready to go. Signed, sealed, delivered, everything was done.
13:40
Speaker 4: And I'd really been praying about it for a month.
13:44
Speaker 4: I talked to somebody on my board and I said.
13:47
Speaker 2: Do we try this? Do we try to see if
13:49
Speaker 2: we should build?
13:51
Speaker 4: And I said, I really feel like the Lord is nudging,
13:53
Speaker 4: but I also like, this is.
13:54
Speaker 2: Kind of crazy.
13:56
Speaker 4: And she was like, why don't you just ask? Why
13:59
Speaker 4: don't you pick one stop along the way of your fundraising?
14:02
Speaker 4: And why don't you just throw up the ask? So
14:04
Speaker 4: that's what I did. And I remember right before, it
14:08
Speaker 4: was at Praise Assembly, which you know. And I remember
14:13
Speaker 4: right before, you know, the worship song's going. I hate
14:15
Speaker 4: public speaking, so I'm like shaking at this point knowing
14:18
Speaker 4: I have to.
14:18
Speaker 2: Get up there to go speak.
14:20
Speaker 4: And I remember praying. I said, Lord, this has to
14:24
Speaker 4: come in. Like if this does not come in, like
14:26
Speaker 4: it can't come in halfway. Like I need this to
14:29
Speaker 4: be so clear that this is what we're doing.
14:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. For sure. Like it's either yes or
14:34
Speaker 2: no right now.
14:36
Speaker 4: And I just didn't have the mental capacity to be
14:39
Speaker 4: like trying to raise money just for the land for
14:42
Speaker 4: a while and like questioning if.
14:43
Speaker 2: This was what we were supposed to be doing. I
14:45
Speaker 2: needed it to be so clear.
14:46
Speaker 4: Yeah.
14:47
Speaker 2: Or we were just going to forget it. And I
14:49
Speaker 2: made that very clear when I spoke.
14:50
Speaker 4: I said either this is what the Lord is calling
14:53
Speaker 4: us to do and all the money comes in or
14:55
Speaker 4: this isn't.
14:56
Speaker 2: And thank you for your donations to our programs.
14:59
Speaker 1: Yeah.
15:01
Speaker 2: The money came in tenfold. We tried to raise.
15:02
Speaker 4: $ 5, 000 because that is what was advised to raise for land,
15:05
Speaker 4: and we raised.
15:06
Speaker 2: $ 8, 000. And in hindsight, that is exactly the amount of
15:11
Speaker 2: money that we needed. So it's funny.
15:14
Speaker 4: When I had raised that money in four hours, that
15:18
Speaker 4: is the most money that I had ever raised speaking.
15:20
Speaker 4: We're a very small nonprofit. And I remember thinking– oh
15:26
Speaker 4: my gosh, like I have to go and do this. Like,
15:29
Speaker 4: you know, saying that you're going to buy land and
15:31
Speaker 4: saying that you're going to do all this, like felt
15:32
Speaker 4: like such a far off situation.
15:35
Speaker 2: And when all.
15:36
Speaker 4: The money came in, I was like, oh, I told
15:39
Speaker 4: them I was going back next month and I was
15:40
Speaker 4: going to go do this.
15:42
Speaker 2: And I think it was just like the right timing. Right. Like, okay,
15:45
Speaker 2: like this is what we're going to do. Yeah.
15:48
Speaker 4: And it was just like without a shadow of a doubt, like, okay, like, Lord,
15:50
Speaker 4: here we go. I have no idea how to do.
15:52
Speaker 2: This, but here we go.
15:54
Speaker 1: Yeah.
15:54
Speaker 2: And- I went back into that same area in December, not.
15:59
Speaker 4: Thinking that I would have to go back a few times.
16:02
Speaker 4: I knew it was going to be hard. And like
16:05
Speaker 4: I said, I'm a very stubborn person. So I can
16:07
Speaker 4: get things done, you know, pretty efficiently.
16:12
Speaker 3: Yeah.
16:13
Speaker 2: And I push.
16:15
Speaker 4: And so I'd gone back and I'd looked at a
16:18
Speaker 4: few pieces of land, fell in love with one.
16:22
Speaker 2: And I was like, this is it. Like, this is it.
16:24
Speaker 4: And it was like two days before Christmas. And I
16:27
Speaker 4: was like, okay, I'm going to come back in March.
16:29
Speaker 4: Like if you could hold the land for me, I'll
16:30
Speaker 4: give you like half. If you could hold the land,
16:32
Speaker 4: we can finalize this in March. Yeah. And the person
16:35
Speaker 4: that I bought the land from was like, I have
16:38
Speaker 4: some connections. He's like, let me see if we could
16:40
Speaker 4: get this done. Like, why do you want to come back?
16:42
Speaker 4: You know, spend more money traveling.
16:43
Speaker 2: And I was like, yeah, I don't. But like how,
16:45
Speaker 2: it's Christmas.
16:45
Speaker 3: It's Christmas.
16:46
Speaker 4: Right.
16:47
Speaker 2: And not only that, but I was supposed to leave
16:49
Speaker 2: right after Christmas. So it's Christmas. You're talking, I'm leaving
16:52
Speaker 2: in a week. My flight is booked. And New Year's
16:56
Speaker 2: is a big deal in Haiti.
16:57
Speaker 4: So typically things close like December 15th to January 5th.
17:02
Speaker 2: Like everything's closed.
17:03
Speaker 4: Forget about multiple government offices that have to be open
17:05
Speaker 4: for this.
17:06
Speaker 2: So I was like, oh, yeah, good luck. You know,
17:08
Speaker 2: like you try. Go try.
17:10
Speaker 4: Right.
17:10
Speaker 2: I'm willing if you can get this to work. I
17:12
Speaker 2: have the cash in my hand. Yeah.
17:14
Speaker 4: And within a week, we had everything signed, sealed, delivered,
17:19
Speaker 4: land measured, every signature we needed, everything stamped.
17:24
Speaker 1: You know, if that doesn't build your faith, you know,
17:28
Speaker 1: with all things coming into alignment, you know, and, you know,
17:33
Speaker 1: if that does not build one's faith, you know, like, okay, Lord,
17:39
Speaker 1: you know, let alone the money coming. And our local
17:43
Speaker 1: church is Praise Assembly. That's why she says, I know,
17:46
Speaker 1: you know, and I did. I was there for that service.
17:49
Speaker 1: You spoke beautifully that day.
17:51
Speaker 3: Your heart was... on full display about the intent for
17:55
Speaker 3: the house, all of it.
17:57
Speaker 1: And I think that the Lord honored your obedience by
18:00
Speaker 1: putting it on our hearts to help you. And, you know,
18:05
Speaker 1: that was just a wonderful service in its entirety. But
18:12
Speaker 1: just seeing everything falling into place, you know, because, you.
18:17
Speaker 4: Know, yeah.
18:17
Speaker 2: This was December of last year, so it has been
18:19
Speaker 2: 12 months.
18:20
Speaker 1: Right.
18:21
Speaker 2: Or November.
18:21
Speaker 4: Right.
18:22
Speaker 2: Right. 13 months. Yeah.
18:23
Speaker 4: Yeah.
18:24
Speaker 2: And then you go back and you find this piece
18:26
Speaker 2: of property. And it's not very big.
18:28
Speaker 4: No.
18:29
Speaker 3: Yeah. Refresh my memory. Like an acre?
18:33
Speaker 4: No.
18:33
Speaker 3: Not even.
18:34
Speaker 2: Maybe half.
18:35
Speaker 3: Half an acre.
18:36
Speaker 4: Maybe.
18:36
Speaker 2: Yeah.
18:37
Speaker 4: Yeah.
18:38
Speaker 3: And so, you know, doing all the paperwork, getting all
18:41
Speaker 3: that signed.
18:42
Speaker 1: And you are an American with your double citizenship.
18:46
Speaker 2: I have my permanent residency.
18:47
Speaker 3: Permanent residency.
18:49
Speaker 4: Yeah.
18:51
Speaker 1: Um, and then you're able to do all the things
18:56
Speaker 1: you need to do paperwork wise within a week around Christmas.
19:00
Speaker 4: And we're talking a country that things are barely functioning
19:03
Speaker 4: on a good day.
19:03
Speaker 2: Forget about the holidays. And also you need a lot.
19:08
Speaker 4: Of signatures and a lot of stamps and a lot
19:10
Speaker 4: of people to be in their office. So the fact
19:13
Speaker 4: that all of that was able to line up is like,
19:16
Speaker 4: a bigger miracle than you can fathom thinking about U.S. boxes. Right.
19:20
Speaker 2: No, exactly.
19:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, I get it. So it's crazy.
19:23
Speaker 1: So I guess that's all that to say, you know,
19:27
Speaker 1: you know that you know that you know that this
19:30
Speaker 1: is what you're supposed to do.
19:31
Speaker 4: Yeah.
19:31
Speaker 1: Because of all those things coming into alignment and coming
19:34
Speaker 1: to fruition.
19:35
Speaker 3: So what does that mean?
19:37
Speaker 1: What does Hilltop Haven mean to the organization? But then ultimately, like,
19:46
Speaker 1: to you and the women that it's going to serve
19:49
Speaker 1: now like in this new region like what.
19:52
Speaker 4: Is it what does it mean yeah so I mean
19:55
Speaker 4: superficially what it means like as an organization is we
19:59
Speaker 4: save a lot of money in the long haul on
20:01
Speaker 4: rent you know you're talking about paying rent upkeeping a
20:04
Speaker 4: house that's not yours I think we factored in like
20:07
Speaker 4: eight years we have it paid off if you will
20:09
Speaker 4: yeah Um, what it actually means is like to the
20:16
Speaker 4: community we're staying. And again, like I spoke about this
20:21
Speaker 4: in the last podcast that you had me on staying is.
20:25
Speaker 2: Big deal in a country where everybody leaves.
20:28
Speaker 4: Yeah.
20:29
Speaker 2: And it's not just the Americans that are leaving. It's
20:31
Speaker 2: also the Haitians in search of a better life.
20:34
Speaker 4: They're going to the DR, they're going to the Bahamas,
20:36
Speaker 4: they're going to France, they're crossing over into America, they're
20:39
Speaker 4: going to Canada, they're going anywhere else because it's hard.
20:45
Speaker 4: And I think, you know, you think about hard and
20:48
Speaker 4: it's not just like, oh, they don't have a job. It's, oh,
20:50
Speaker 4: they can't feed their families. Like, oh, they can't send
20:53
Speaker 4: their kids to school. So now their kids are like
20:56
Speaker 4: in this poverty cycle.
20:57
Speaker 2: Right, right. And I think something, you know, originally I
21:03
Speaker 2: thought staying was kind of selfish. I used to think
21:08
Speaker 2: that way. Like staying, it felt selfish.
21:11
Speaker 4: It felt like I was making my family scared. It
21:15
Speaker 4: felt like I was making everybody around me worried. And
21:20
Speaker 4: that I should just go back to the States. And
21:24
Speaker 4: I think I battled with that for the first few
21:25
Speaker 4: years of living there. Of, you know, my mom calling
21:29
Speaker 4: me and being like, you know, we're so worried. Or
21:31
Speaker 4: my sister calling me and being like, mom and dad
21:32
Speaker 4: are worried.
21:33
Speaker 2: You need to come back.
21:35
Speaker 3: And I think.
21:38
Speaker 4: It felt kind of selfish, which is really interesting because
21:42
Speaker 4: it's also, I think some people look at it as
21:44
Speaker 4: like this selfless thing to live in this country. Sure.
21:47
Speaker 4: But I think when, again, you asked what it means,
21:53
Speaker 4: like what it means to build Hilltop Haven. It means
21:57
Speaker 4: that like we are committed, you know, and like, yeah,
22:01
Speaker 4: you can rent and you could be committed for sure.
22:02
Speaker 2: And I have showed my commitment by always.
22:05
Speaker 4: Going back and like, people have told me that people
22:08
Speaker 4: are like, you are committed and you come back. And
22:12
Speaker 4: not only do I come back, but I come back single. And,
22:16
Speaker 4: you know, for a long time, you know, I'm turning
22:20
Speaker 4: 32 in February. And for a long time, I got
22:24
Speaker 4: a lot of people telling me like, you need to
22:25
Speaker 4: come back.
22:25
Speaker 2: You need to get married.
22:26
Speaker 4: Like, don't you want kids? Like, you know, they saw
22:28
Speaker 4: how much I wanted that on my, you know, I
22:30
Speaker 4: love kids. And, uh, I was like, yeah, but, like,
22:34
Speaker 4: this is what I'm supposed to be doing. And, like,
22:36
Speaker 4: if the Lord wants me to get married and have kids, then, like,
22:39
Speaker 4: that will happen.
22:40
Speaker 2: But, like, this is, like, a bigger purpose, you know?
22:45
Speaker 2: And I think I was very.
22:46
Speaker 4: Confident in that, the older that I got, of, like, okay, Lord, like, yes,
22:51
Speaker 4: I want kids.
22:52
Speaker 2: But, like, this is fulfilling.
22:54
Speaker 4: You know?
22:55
Speaker 1: And I'm going to– I love that you just said
22:59
Speaker 1: that this is fulfilling.
23:01
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah.
23:02
Speaker 1: And the reason I interrupted you is because I think
23:04
Speaker 1: a lot of times we in Christian circles, you know,
23:09
Speaker 1: and especially as women in Christian circles, we're like, the
23:13
Speaker 1: only thing that matters is getting married, having kids and
23:18
Speaker 1: raising the next generation of Christians, you know, like that's,
23:23
Speaker 1: and I push back on that thought that I didn't
23:25
Speaker 1: get married until I was 31. And so it's, I
23:31
Speaker 1: was always kind of pushed back. Like, why does that,
23:35
Speaker 1: you know, that does not have to be your fulfillment.
23:37
Speaker 1: If you are walking in obedience to Christ, that is
23:42
Speaker 1: the true fulfillment of your life. And it doesn't matter
23:46
Speaker 1: if you're married or you have kids or, you know,
23:48
Speaker 1: you're doing whatever, or if you don't. But are you
23:51
Speaker 1: walking in obedience? Because that's where the fulfillment comes from.
23:55
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. And I got a lot of pushback. Yeah. Especially,
24:00
Speaker 2: I would say, starting the nonprofit.
24:02
Speaker 4: Because I think starting the nonprofit made people realize that.
24:07
Speaker 2: This was home.
24:09
Speaker 4: And I think people didn't want to always see it
24:11
Speaker 4: like that. I think people were like, oh, this is
24:12
Speaker 4: like a season for her. And she's going to come back.
24:16
Speaker 4: And maybe I would have. Maybe there was different points
24:19
Speaker 4: where if something happened differently, maybe.
24:21
Speaker 2: I would have come back.
24:22
Speaker 4: Sure.
24:22
Speaker 2: But to me, it was.
24:26
Speaker 4: I don't know, like it's my purpose, you know, like beginning,
24:28
Speaker 4: middle and end. And I think I was reading a
24:32
Speaker 4: statistic before this podcast that said 50% of missionaries leave
24:36
Speaker 4: the field before five years right now in this day
24:40
Speaker 4: and age.
24:40
Speaker 3: Wow.
24:41
Speaker 2: And back in the day, people, you committed your life
24:44
Speaker 2: on the mission field. Your life was the mission field.
24:48
Speaker 4: And I think it's interesting because I have some friends,
24:51
Speaker 4: very few friends left. You know, they're a lot older now.
24:55
Speaker 4: Because they've been on the mission field for 30, 40 years.
24:58
Speaker 4: And they have lived life serving Haiti and living alongside
25:03
Speaker 4: these people for decades. And I don't know, my missionary
25:08
Speaker 4: friends and I talk about it like now, why are
25:10
Speaker 4: so many people leaving? Haiti is different. Haiti is a
25:12
Speaker 4: lot different. But there was a lot of stuff happening
25:14
Speaker 4: back then too.
25:15
Speaker 3: Sure.
25:16
Speaker 4: But I think people, you know, I think it is
25:21
Speaker 4: a season for people.
25:22
Speaker 2: For people, it's hard. And people burn out.
25:26
Speaker 4: Yeah.
25:26
Speaker 2: And you can't fault people for that.
25:28
Speaker 4: Yeah.
25:28
Speaker 2: But, yeah.
25:30
Speaker 3: I get it. I get it.
25:34
Speaker 1: So, tell me, you know, where are you at with
25:38
Speaker 1: Hilltop Haven? You know, what's the next phase? And then ultimately,
25:43
Speaker 1: what's the goal? And we kind of alluded to it earlier,
25:47
Speaker 1: but like, what would you like to see happening through
25:50
Speaker 1: the house?
25:51
Speaker 2: Yeah.
25:52
Speaker 4: So, we are currently... We have 25% left of phase four.
25:57
Speaker 4: It's a six phase building project. So we have 5,000
26:01
Speaker 4: left for this current phase as of the end of December, 2025.
26:05
Speaker 4: And the next phase is basically bathrooms and kitchen.
26:09
Speaker 2: Okay.
26:10
Speaker 4: To put it simply, bathrooms and kitchen. And then phase
26:14
Speaker 4: six is power. So we are like near in the end,
26:19
Speaker 4: which is really exciting. And to think that we've done
26:21
Speaker 4: all that.
26:21
Speaker 2: In 365 days is crazy. Again, as a very small nonprofit.
26:27
Speaker 4: So it really is just like a testimony of like, okay,
26:29
Speaker 4: this is where the Lord wants us. And I think
26:33
Speaker 4: as far as where, you know, what Hilltop Haven means
26:37
Speaker 4: to the community and what we want it to be,
26:39
Speaker 4: I think, you know, ultimately what I've always wanted my
26:42
Speaker 4: homes to be in Haiti is like a place where.
26:44
Speaker 2: People feel welcome.
26:46
Speaker 4: And it's funny, in Haiti you live behind walls a lot. And,
26:50
Speaker 4: you know, they're built for security and they're built for
26:52
Speaker 4: this and they're built for that. But something that I've
26:54
Speaker 4: always kind of prided myself in is, like, I keep
26:58
Speaker 4: the gate open, you know, like, if it's safe.
27:02
Speaker 2: And, like, I invite people in.
27:03
Speaker 4: And, like, we do, like, in the house that I
27:05
Speaker 4: was living in in Jachma, like, we had programs in
27:07
Speaker 4: my house space. We had women creating jewelry in the
27:11
Speaker 4: guest bedroom. And we had programs in the yard. And
27:15
Speaker 4: it will look very similar to that.
27:16
Speaker 2: Like, our.
27:17
Speaker 4: technically phase seven of like the whole building compound is
27:21
Speaker 4: a pavilion. Yeah. And it's going to have like a
27:24
Speaker 4: small kitchen and bathroom. And that's where we're going to
27:26
Speaker 4: host a lot of the programs to start. We're going
27:29
Speaker 4: to utilize like the roof of the house and potentially
27:35
Speaker 4: some of the inside as it's being built to hold,
27:37
Speaker 4: to host some programs, but just like.
27:39
Speaker 2: An inviting space.
27:41
Speaker 4: Like I said, like we do have about half an acre,
27:43
Speaker 4: I think is what it, you know, it doesn't, that's
27:45
Speaker 4: not how they do it in Haiti, but about half
27:46
Speaker 4: an acre. And just to have like this yard space,
27:50
Speaker 4: like we have another section of the property that is
27:53
Speaker 4: going to be the pavilion and is going to be
27:56
Speaker 4: actually Livlaku, which translates to the book yard. We're going
27:59
Speaker 4: to plant a library mailbox on there. We just got
28:02
Speaker 4: the funding to do that.
28:03
Speaker 2: So kids can come into the property and read books
28:06
Speaker 2: after school. And, you know, people don't have books in
28:09
Speaker 2: their house.
28:10
Speaker 4: Yeah. And just kind of like a small little library
28:12
Speaker 4: for kids to gather. And we're hoping to like invite,
28:15
Speaker 4: you know, people to come in and read and, I
28:18
Speaker 4: think it'll be really impactful for, like, the kids and
28:20
Speaker 4: also just, like, the moms, right?
28:21
Speaker 2: Like, at the end of the day, like, our mission is, like,
28:23
Speaker 2: empowering women.
28:24
Speaker 4: But, like, what better way to empower a woman than
28:26
Speaker 4: by giving them some extra time after school.
28:28
Speaker 2: When their kids aren't, like, up in their hair, you know?
28:30
Speaker 3: Yeah.
28:32
Speaker 2: So, yeah.
28:34
Speaker 3: So, yeah.
28:35
Speaker 2: I think it'll– we're just hoping to create, like, a
28:37
Speaker 2: fun and just, like, safe space.
28:39
Speaker 4: Right.
28:40
Speaker 2: For women and children.
28:41
Speaker 4: Yeah.
28:41
Speaker 3: I love it. I love it.
28:43
Speaker 1: So– One of the final questions I have, and it's
28:47
Speaker 1: maybe a little bit more deep than what we've been
28:49
Speaker 1: talking about because we've been talking about practical stuff, you know.
28:52
Speaker 3: This episode.
28:53
Speaker 1: But, you know, how has your work over the years,
28:58
Speaker 1: how has it shaped your understanding of God's heart for, like, justice, restoration?
29:10
Speaker 3: You know, because that looks different in Haiti.
29:13
Speaker 1: You know, we think of justice here in the United
29:16
Speaker 1: States probably a lot differently than what it looks like.
29:18
Speaker 1: You know, because again, we talked about, you know, we're
29:22
Speaker 1: blessed because of where we were born.
29:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's that simple.
29:26
Speaker 3: And it's that simple.
29:27
Speaker 1: And so with God being a, you know, he's a
29:31
Speaker 1: God of justice. His justice is just as strong or
29:35
Speaker 1: as powerful as his grace and his mercy, So when
29:38
Speaker 1: we look at the two countries, how has your work
29:44
Speaker 1: shaped your understanding of what God's justice really looks like?
29:50
Speaker 2: And then bringing restoration into the broken places. I think
29:54
Speaker 2: growing up, I was thinking about this. like you don't
29:57
Speaker 2: really know what justice is as a kid, right?
29:59
Speaker 4: Like you sit there and you're like, oh, like you
30:01
Speaker 4: hear about these like fair and just trials. Right.
30:04
Speaker 2: Or you hear about for liberty and justice for all.
30:06
Speaker 2: Like we stood up there every single day and we
30:07
Speaker 2: said that.
30:08
Speaker 4: Right. And I think growing up, you know, I thought
30:12
Speaker 4: it was freedom for all. Like especially if you look
30:16
Speaker 4: at like a very American upbringing, you know, you look
30:21
Speaker 4: at the right to vote. And the right to bear
30:24
Speaker 4: arms and the freedom of speech. And like, that is
30:27
Speaker 4: what I thought justice was the, again, you have like
30:30
Speaker 4: a trial. If you do something wrong, innocent until proven guilty, whatever,
30:33
Speaker 4: all of those freedoms that we have as Americans. I
30:37
Speaker 4: think when you put it into the context of Haiti,
30:42
Speaker 4: I think it is what I, you know, kind of
30:47
Speaker 4: came back to is Isaiah one verse 17. Like, seek justice,
30:54
Speaker 4: help the oppressed, or however the second part of that goes.
31:00
Speaker 2: So, like, justice, right?
31:02
Speaker 1: Micah, one of my favorite verses is Micah 6.8. It says, no,
31:09
Speaker 1: it's seek justice, love mercy. You know, seek justice, love mercy,
31:15
Speaker 1: and walk humbly with your God. Yep.
31:17
Speaker 4: Yeah.
31:17
Speaker 2: And I think something, you know, that I think about
31:22
Speaker 2: with justice is justice is like action.
31:27
Speaker 4: Yeah.
31:28
Speaker 2: It's not passive. Right.
31:30
Speaker 4: And I think justice, like sometimes I think about it
31:35
Speaker 4: and I'm like, okay, everybody wants justice. I don't think
31:38
Speaker 4: there's a single person, regardless of your faith, regardless of
31:41
Speaker 4: your color that doesn't.
31:42
Speaker 2: Want justice for all.
31:44
Speaker 4: Okay. Yeah. But like, what are you willing to do
31:48
Speaker 4: to bring justice to the world to help with that?
31:51
Speaker 4: And I think, you know, okay, like, no. People in Haiti,
31:54
Speaker 4: they don't have a fair trial. They don't have a
31:56
Speaker 4: just trial. They don't have freedoms like we do here. Like,
32:01
Speaker 4: people are scared to go to the voting polls because
32:03
Speaker 4: they're going to get shot.
32:05
Speaker 2: So they don't go. So, like, you know, I think, again,
32:08
Speaker 2: growing up, I thought justice was freedom in a sense.
32:11
Speaker 4: Yeah. And I think as I've gotten older, I've started
32:15
Speaker 4: to look at, like, okay, as somebody that has these
32:19
Speaker 4: freedoms– That it has justice, if you will.
32:23
Speaker 2: Like, what am I willing to do?
32:28
Speaker 4: Like, the Bible literally says, what are you willing to
32:31
Speaker 4: do to help others that don't have that?
32:33
Speaker 2: You know? Does that make sense?
32:35
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
32:36
Speaker 4: And I think, like, your second question with, like, restoration, like,
32:40
Speaker 4: I think it really is as simple as, like, helping
32:45
Speaker 4: these people that, like, don't have the means to help themselves.
32:48
Speaker 1: Right.
32:48
Speaker 4: Right. And like coming alongside them and like helping them
32:52
Speaker 4: restore their lives. Right. Right. And like, again, sometimes it
32:56
Speaker 4: just looks like providing a simple startup cost. Yeah. And
33:00
Speaker 4: you know, we, there you saw, you gave towards it. The, um, mom,
33:10
Speaker 4: the girl mom, I think about how impactful that situation is.
33:16
Speaker 4: And like, um, I recently talked to somebody that was
33:20
Speaker 4: a part of that. So like we raise money for
33:21
Speaker 4: mom to be able to like safely give birth who otherwise.
33:24
Speaker 2: Would have not been able to. She needed a cesarean section.
33:28
Speaker 4: And I recently found out that that story was way
33:31
Speaker 4: more dangerous than what I thought it was at the time.
33:34
Speaker 2: And I thought it was pretty bad. And I think
33:37
Speaker 2: that was a good, not to go off on like
33:38
Speaker 2: a tangent, but I was sitting at home. I was
33:41
Speaker 2: eating dinner.
33:42
Speaker 4: The text came in, the phone call came in. I
33:44
Speaker 4: got on my laptop and I was like, okay, I'm
33:45
Speaker 4: going to throw out this newsletter. We're raising money for
33:47
Speaker 4: so much. It's the end of the year, but I'm
33:49
Speaker 4: just going to see. Right. And I typed up this
33:52
Speaker 4: little thing as fast as I could. I was, again,
33:54
Speaker 4: I was eating dinner. I pulled out my laptop was working.
33:57
Speaker 4: My parents were sitting on the couch and the email
34:00
Speaker 4: came out. So my parents saw the email that I
34:02
Speaker 4: had just sent. And my mom was like, when did
34:04
Speaker 4: you do this? And I was like, just now. And
34:06
Speaker 4: she's like, I heard you on the phone, but like,
34:08
Speaker 4: I wasn't speaking English. So they didn't know what I
34:09
Speaker 4: was saying. And she's like, is this happening right now?
34:13
Speaker 4: And I'm like, yeah, like the C-section is happening like
34:15
Speaker 4: in the next three days.
34:16
Speaker 2: We need this money.
34:17
Speaker 4: And so many people offered to pay in full before
34:23
Speaker 4: I even knew it. Like people had emailed me saying
34:25
Speaker 4: they were willing to pay in full. People had Facebook
34:28
Speaker 4: messaged me. Like I was trying to finish my dinner.
34:30
Speaker 4: And so many people had offered to pay in full
34:33
Speaker 4: or paid in full for a $ 700 C-section that we
34:36
Speaker 4: thought it was going to cost. It ended up costing
34:39
Speaker 4: so much more than that. And what a blessing that
34:43
Speaker 4: we were able to get cash on the ground fast
34:45
Speaker 4: and save this woman's life.
34:47
Speaker 2: Like what better way to like.
34:52
Speaker 4: Circle back around and like restore a family or, you know, justice,
34:57
Speaker 4: you know? Like, and I think that story, I think
35:01
Speaker 4: will forever live in my brain because it came like
35:05
Speaker 4: so fast.
35:06
Speaker 2: All the money came so fast and we, I mean,
35:08
Speaker 2: we were able to save her life, save her life.
35:10
Speaker 4: Like the C-section went wrong and she needed blood and
35:13
Speaker 4: we had to pay for blood and oxygen and all
35:15
Speaker 4: this additional stuff that was not supposed to happen. Yeah.
35:19
Speaker 4: And people don't get a safe birth there. Right.
35:23
Speaker 2: A lot of the times.
35:25
Speaker 4: So anyway, kind of circling back around, like to kind
35:29
Speaker 4: of answer the question with a question, like I do
35:32
Speaker 4: think a lot, like what are you willing to do
35:34
Speaker 4: to make sure that.
35:37
Speaker 2: People have that?
35:37
Speaker 3: No, I think that's good. I think that's good. You know,
35:39
Speaker 3: because we.
35:43
Speaker 3: I think, what are you willing to do?
35:46
Speaker 1: Because it goes back to just the simple obedience, you know, like,
35:50
Speaker 1: what are you willing to do?
35:53
Speaker 3: You know, Joe.
35:55
Speaker 1: Schmo, and I'm bringing my Navy terms out now, Joe
35:58
Speaker 1: Schmo Schmuckatelli, who, you know, is just, you know, living
36:01
Speaker 1: their life here in America, but they're Christian. What are
36:05
Speaker 1: you willing to do? How are you willing to step
36:08
Speaker 1: outside of your comfort zone? You know, because I don't
36:10
Speaker 1: know who all gave to that, you know, and maybe
36:13
Speaker 1: some of those people, um, you know, they gave their
36:16
Speaker 1: last a hundred dollars because it just tugged their heartstring,
36:19
Speaker 1: you know, or their last $ 500 because that's what the
36:22
Speaker 1: Lord told them to do. And, you know, are you
36:24
Speaker 1: willing to do that and step outside your comfort zone
36:28
Speaker 1: to help people that you don't even, you don't know,
36:32
Speaker 1: you'll never.
36:32
Speaker 2: Meet, you know, I didn't even share a name or
36:35
Speaker 2: a face.
36:35
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, what are you willing to do to bring
36:40
Speaker 1: God's justice to fruition? What are you willing to do
36:43
Speaker 1: to restore the things that, you know, the enemy is broken,
36:48
Speaker 1: you know? And I just love it because, you know,
36:53
Speaker 1: we don't know that woman's faith background. You know, those
36:57
Speaker 1: of us here in the United States, we knew nothing
36:59
Speaker 1: about her, but yet we were willing to kind of just,
37:03
Speaker 1: you know, speak. ultimately spread the love of God to
37:08
Speaker 1: bring restoration to this family. And that's just a simple,
37:14
Speaker 1: obedient step that we can do. And I think people
37:18
Speaker 1: need to realize that more. Like, our former pastor here
37:21
Speaker 1: who passed away, he used to say that your obedience
37:23
Speaker 1: is another person's blessing.
37:25
Speaker 4: Yeah. And I think it shows a lot in, like,
37:29
Speaker 4: what I do. And I think I wish more people
37:32
Speaker 4: got to see that. Like, I wish people saw what
37:34
Speaker 4: their $ 100 is.
37:35
Speaker 2: Yeah. Like, how impactful their $ 100 is.
37:38
Speaker 4: And, like, I'm not saying some people don't miss $ 100 at.
37:41
Speaker 2: The end of the month.
37:42
Speaker 4: But there's some people that if you gave $ 100 and
37:44
Speaker 4: you auto-donated it, you would never know it was missing.
37:48
Speaker 2: Right.
37:49
Speaker 4: And, like, I can tell you the blessing that we
37:51
Speaker 4: can do with $ 100 a month is crazy. Yeah. And, like,
37:55
Speaker 4: there's so many people that just say no to it,
37:57
Speaker 4: you know? Yeah. What is humbling to me is knowing
38:01
Speaker 4: people that donate personally. I will tell you there are
38:04
Speaker 4: people that donate that they do not have the money
38:06
Speaker 4: and they donate. Yeah. And there's people that I know
38:09
Speaker 4: that have hundreds of thousands of dollars sitting in a
38:11
Speaker 4: bank account and they don't donate.
38:13
Speaker 2: And I'm not even just saying to like my organization,
38:15
Speaker 2: like I know they don't.
38:16
Speaker 4: Right. They don't, you know, and you think about, you know,
38:20
Speaker 4: I've seen like statistics with like, okay, if Bill Gates,
38:23
Speaker 4: this person, this person gave this much percent, there would
38:26
Speaker 4: be no poor.
38:27
Speaker 2: And like, it's crazy to think about like what you
38:31
Speaker 2: really can do with not a lot of money.
38:33
Speaker 4: You know, like I was a college student and I
38:36
Speaker 4: sent $ 30 a month.
38:37
Speaker 2: For this little child to go to school and you'd
38:40
Speaker 2: be surprised what you could do.
38:41
Speaker 4: Yeah.
38:42
Speaker 2: With very little.
38:43
Speaker 3: It's true.
38:44
Speaker 1: So as we finish up, let me, let me just
38:46
Speaker 1: do a little bit of housekeeping for the people who
38:48
Speaker 1: are listening. How, how can they follow you? What can,
38:53
Speaker 1: like what's your website? You know, are you on social?
38:56
Speaker 1: Like those sorts of things.
38:57
Speaker 4: Yep, so our website is flericheri, F-L-E-R-I, C-H-E-R-I.
39:04
Speaker 3: Dot org.
39:05
Speaker 4: And our Instagram is at flericheri, F-L-E-R-I, underscore, Sheri, C-H-E-R-I.
39:14
Speaker 4: And from there, you can kind of find newsletters and
39:17
Speaker 4: ways to donate and everything like that.
39:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's beautiful.
39:23
Speaker 1: Well, Angelica, this has been a wonderful conversation. Thank you
39:27
Speaker 1: so much for agreeing. to, you know, coming on the
39:32
Speaker 1: podcast with me. And I just hope that, you know,
39:36
Speaker 1: the The people listening, you know, no matter if they're
39:39
Speaker 1: women or men or whatever, that they just, if nothing else,
39:43
Speaker 1: that they like your social media, you know, and maybe
39:47
Speaker 1: sign up for your newsletter and see what's going on
39:50
Speaker 1: in Haiti. And then pray.
39:53
Speaker 3: You know, pray about how, you know.
39:57
Speaker 1: You can bring, you know, justice and restoration to those
40:01
Speaker 1: people around you.
40:03
Speaker 3: So, yeah. Anyway, thank you.
40:06
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.