In October of 1999 We were invited
to come to Haiti
by Esperandieu Pierre. We had already started Children
of the Promise as a non-profit organization to help infants
and young children in need overseas. We took
two of our daughters to spend a week in Cap-Haitien.
In those few days we were offered 3 babies on 3 separate
occasions. We were overwhelmed by the need of these
babies who were orphaned or very ill. We felt this was
a call of God that we could not ignore. Three months
later we bought land just outside of Cap-Haitien to build an
infant care center. 
In June 2000 I, Jan, and my daughter Robin and two other
volunteers moved to Haiti. We rented a very small
house in town and within 2 weeks we had our first baby
brought to the gate. Two weeks later we had 4 babies.
We had very little money, no electricity and often no
running water. We moved to a larger house in Cap-Haitien
a couple months later and continued to have abandoned,
orphaned or ill babies brought to our gate.
In Aug. of 2001 we moved to an abandoned compound next door
to the land we had bought hoping to build our own facility
while we lived next to it. We could only build when we
had extra cash, and with 30 babies by this time, it wasn't
very often. It was a struggle caring for so many
babies with virtually no electricity and sometimes not much
water.
God was faithful through all of this and we saw more and
more babies recover in spite of the circumstances. And
in Aug. 2003 we moved into our new baby house. It
wasn't quite complete, but it was 'home'.
As we've been faithful to care for these babies as God had
called us, he blessed us. We see his hand on the lives
of our nannies and other Haitian staff, which now number
over 60. Our community of Lagossette has grown and
thrives with new houses as a result of so many jobs.
We sponsor COTP "grads" for school as well as
their siblings. Many families who want to keep their
babies, we help with an infant
formula program. By taking care of the infants,
we see more than just their lives changed.
The need for help for infants has only .grown. We see
more infants and more desperate families than ever before.
We believe that every child can change their world. We
want to give them that chance.
Bud and Jan Bonnema
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