Christmas Message From Fr. Rick Frechette

The below is a powerful Christmas message from Fr. Rick Frechette, National Director, NPH Haiti

Only two weeks ago, on a cold and wet night, at this time of the year when the darkness of solstice heralds the birth of the Savior, a mother with nowhere to go, hovered timidly near our gate.

The night was pregnant with both danger and destiny, as was the night when Jesus was born. We ourselves were as unaware of what was happening, as was the world of 2000 years ago. In the darkness and quiet of night, God shapes the life of a new day, and God�s instruments are dreams, inspirations, intuitions, deep rest, and silent growth as we sleep.

In vain is your earlier rising, you�re going later to rest, you who toil for the bread you eat, when he pours gifts on his beloved while they slumber (Ps 127:2).

But the shadows of night can also torment the weak and innocent, and lead one down dark paths of despair and destruction. The young mother at our gate was confused, weak and innocent, and in danger.

She was only a teenager. Her pregnancy was a scandal. She didn�t know where to go. There was no room for her at any Inn.

Her story was, once again, the story of Mary, lived out so many times throughout history.

It wasn�t a jealous king that didn�t want her child to live: it was her father and her boyfriend. It wasn�t by the teeth of the dragon of Revelations, nor the sword that brutalized the holy innocents, that her child was to die, but by the instruments of abortion.

This is what was ordered for her by the men in her life, and this is what she fearfully promised to do.

It is also why she hid from them for these last few months, until she quietly had her baby.

She could not end the life of her child. She was sure she could find a way for her child to live. Now the baby was born, but found no welcome in the world. For this woman to reclaim her own place in the world, it must be without her little girl.

She hovered by our gate, as the mother of Moses had hovered over the basket holding her son, in the river.

She watched for who and how and when her baby might be saved, as Moses mother had kept her eyes downstream, on the daughter of the king, bathing in the river. She chose carefully the moment when to release the basket, letting the river carry Moses to new life.

It was different for the mother at our gate. Her choices were poor, with grave error in her calculations.

She had not considered the time between her leaving the tiny child in the brush, and us finding the child at sunrise. She had not considered that the cold and the rain would drain all the heat from her baby. She had not considered the ants. The fire ants. The terrible fire ants.

And so the sunrise brought not the joy and promise of new life wrought by God during the night, but rather agony and death.

As Moses mother had later offered herself to the king�s court as a wet nurse for her own son, so this young mother returned later in the morning to discretely take news of her baby.

The news was terrible. The child was dead. There was lamenting and wailing in the street.

�A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more� (Matt 2:18).

This story tormented me for days. I was a witness to the short life and sufferings of this baby, whose life we tried impossibly to save.

I am sure this story torments you. Our sadness would be multiplied if we knew how often this happens, if we knew how tough the world still is for young women of poverty and their children.

The birth of Christ is not a story oblivious to suffering and danger. Christ was born into this suffering, as light in the midst of suffering. At first His light was a tiny infant light, which God augmented and multiplied by a dancing star and legions of angels.

In time, his light would grow, as He grew in wisdom and grace. The darkness also grew darker, and the cold grew colder, but his light would become deep and invincible.

Let us thank God together that this is the heritage given us by the Christ Child. We are the bearers of light, holding high the bright lights of faith, of hope, of love.

This is our heritage, that by each of us offering our light, we have made the darkness of night as luminous as the Milky Way.

And even more, when we ask God to bless the light we all hold up together, God augments and multiplies our light, until even the darkness is radiant.

�even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you, and the darkness is radiant in your sight� (Ps 139:12).

Let�s thank God together that for 60 years, we at Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos have built homes with this marvelous light, that we have been a beacon of hope for children in sorrow, distress and illness, and a safe haven for countless children over these decades, and their way to a stronger and happier future. Our homes are as needed today as they ever have been in our history.

But let�s also not let our guard down. While the vast majority of the children who come to us for help do not suffer tragedy at our very gate, as did the baby girl of whom I write, the forces of darkness and destruction are not at all far from the doors of our homes.

With prayers for struggling mothers and anguished children all around the world at Christmas, let us hold our lights high and together, as one light, begging for and counting on God�s blessing, as we always have.

Thank you for being light for the children of Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos! Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and every blessing in the new year of grace, 2015. 

Meeting Father Rick Frechette

Below is a post from Cheyenne, a student from Random Everglades School in South Florida.

(Cheyenne is pictured second over from the left.)

The man, the myth, the living legend, Father Rick Frechette, had been a mystery man for months. At the end of my junior year, me and a group of friends decided that we truly wanted to make an impact in our community. Our goal was to convince our school, Ransom Everglades School, to launch a school-wide global initiative. We planned to do this by adopting an orphanage located in Kenscoff, Haiti. The global initiative is about more than providing supplies collected during a drive or check sent from funds raised at bake sales - it is about a sustainable partnership between Ransom Everglades School and St. Helene orphanage and providing resources through campus-wide engagement. The final step in establishing the Ransom Everglades Haiti Initiative proved to be the most difficult; meeting the man who runs the St. Helene orphanage we planned to adopt, Father Rick.

When I first came in contact with Father Rick through email he expressed his gratitude but explained that traveling for him was difficult and often short noticed. I quickly realized that Father Rick did not just run the orphanage he also got his hands dirty with the daily mundane tasks of the orphanage. Although I wanted to meet with Father Rick and discuss the Haiti Initiative in detail that meant pulling him away from the children I wanted to help. We proceeded with the hopes of meeting him down the line.

Ransom Everglades School launched its first initiative and was able to raise over 750 sheets between both the lower and upper campuses. It was shortly after the first container of sheets shipped that I received an email from Father Rick stating that he planned to be in Miami. I was more than thrilled about the possibility of meeting the man I had only been able to view on video. On December 3rd, I had the pleasure of meeting Father Rick. During his school-wide address he stated that the difference between the children in Haiti and the students at Ransom Everglades was simply the structures of our lives were different. Father Rick, in less than 10 words, shed light on the need for our initiative.

One of the main principals of the Ransom Everglades School is to give to the community more than you have received from it. St. Helene and Ransom Everglades Schools are hundreds of miles apart and we share a similar commitment to community. Just as Ransom alum often come full circle to give back to the institution that gave them so much, children from St. Helene often return to the orphanage to help and contribute to the program that gave them so much.

Having the opportunity to meet Father Rick was truly remarkable. Father Rick has such a passion for his life�s work. Even in the face of disaster and peril, his spirit is one of resilience. His visit today has inspired me and the other members of the Haiti Initiative Committee to do the work that Father Rick so desperately needs help with. This marks the beginning of true sustainable partnership between Ransom Everglades and Father Rick that will contribute to his amazing legacy.

Choose love rather than hate...

Father Rick Frechette shares some of the great accomplishments of the work of Friends and NPH in Haiti, now 2 years after the devastating earthquake.


"Choose love rather than hate,
a smile rather than a frown,


Choose to build rather than to destroy,
to persevere rather than to quit,


Choose to praise rather than to tear down,
to heal rather than to wound,


Choose to give more than to take,
to respond rather than to delay,


Choose to bless rather than to curse,
to pray rather than to despair."


[unknown]


Dear Friends,


This time last year, I wrote about our beloved chapel, St. Philomena, which had stood through the destruction and shock of 2010. She was cracked and weakened, and held up by struts, inside and out, which looked like crutches. A church on crutches�a fitting image in a country where so many people were left limping, or limbless, or worse.


�Choose to build rather than to destroy�


During 2011, the chapel enjoyed an artistic renovation, and a beautiful painting of resurrection now covers the once broken stones of the back wall. The front wall was repaired and secured with additional support. Throughout 2011, we find ourselves to be guided by the spirit of Resurrection, as we rebuilt so much of what had fallen, and even more beyond that. Building up healthcare, education and outreach services, building up programs and people, such that of all our leaders are Haitian, many of them hailing from our original home and school, St. Helene. The post earthquake programs of 2010 have flourished and continued to grow to serve the marginalized and unfortunate, and give dignity to thousands.


�Choose to heal rather than to wound�


As we reflect on the second anniversary of the earthquake, which is also our 25th year in Haiti, we can see very clearly the fruit of our labor in all we have accomplished.


-The Fr. Wasson Angels of Light program for vulnerable and displaced children permanently cares for 180 children daily, while an additional 700 children from the community attend the onsite primary school.


-St. Helene in Kenscoff opened their doors to over 60 new children.


-A housing complex was built for our high school and university students.


-The new maternity program cared for and delivered 4,799 babies.


-Neonatalogy gave life to 640 premature and endangered babies.


-Our cancer center has served 140 children providing them a second chance in a country where cancer is s death sentence.


-Public health services reach 20,000 people still living in the deplorable condition of the tent cities.


-The Rehabilitation programs of St. Germaine and Kay Elaine assisted 1,500 adults and children.


-More than 1,600 jobs are provided with each person supporting a family of four.


�Choose to give more than to take�


We gave:


-3,000 bags of rice weighing 25 kilograms each


-852,000 loaves of bread


-199,000 packages of pasta


-1,728 trucks of water


-thousands of burials, too many to count.


-thousands of cement blocks to make homes and cobblestone to build roads.


"Choose to love rather than to hate�


On this 25th anniversary of our programs in Haiti, it is important to remember our mission. Fr. Wasson built NPH on the gospel values of unconditional love and acceptance, and of indebtedness to the community. Work and responsibility continue to be cornerstones of the home. 


�Choose to persevere rather than to quit�


In memory of Fr. Wasson, and his commitment to children, at a moment when the earthquake dead were being recounted under high publicity, I imagined the many children of Haiti asking to be counted as the living�


�We are God�s children
The fruit of the earth
destined for greatness
we�ll show you our worth
Count us in as the living
The eager, the bold
Count us in as true friends whose proud stories are told
Count us in as the grateful for life and for bread
count us in we beg you
count on us, it�s our promise
Let�s begin!"


To view a slide show video of our work, click here. 


Fr. Rick Frechette, CP

NPFS Haiti 's 25th Anniversary Right Around the Corner!

Below is a message from Father Rick Frechette, discussing the fast-approaching anniversary of the St. Helene home in Haiti and the mission of NPH.


In just two weeks, on January 23, 2012, NPFS Haiti will celebrate 25 years of existence. It is not easy to celebrate festively in the face of the ongoing devastation in the country, but to celebrate every other way is surely in order!


During January, we will ask our new Archbishop, Guire Poulard, to celebrate mass at Kenscoff (St. Helene). It will be a mass of thanks-giving, remembering all of our children, staff, benefactors, those who have died and Fr. Wasson. 


We have every intention of using our anniversary as a time of evaluation and redirection. We will spend 2012 reviewing the trajectory of these 25 years, analyzing if we are still on track with our goals, suggesting ways of improvement, and getting feedback from those who have benefitted and worked in our programs in order to improve.


Please keep us in your prayers for this new year, that it might be a year of great grace for all of us.


Best regards,
Fr. Richard Frechette, CP

Click here to read an article by Father Rick about the history of NPFS Haiti, the great accomplishments of our collective work and looking forward to the future there. 

Work of Love

Below is a story from dedicated Friend, Liz Wisnasky from Illinois, who has worked on a wonderful project benefiting the children in Haiti.

The burial cloth project was started before the earthquake in Haiti. I met Father Rick at the International Meeting in Mexico when Betty Gildae and I were helping Friends of the Orphans Midwest Region on their board. After a trip to Haiti, before the earthquake, John Shattuck came back and asked us if we could make burial cloths from pillowcases and sheets. We had made 5,000 and then the earthquake hit. We have 13 churches, schools and charity organizations helping us with the project, and we have expanded to also making reusable cloth diapers, little girls' dresses and boys' shorts. The Children of Abraham heard of this project and they so kindly sent our donations in containers down to Haiti and some recently to Peru. Father Rick has received over 25,850 burial cloths and a few thousand dresses for the orphans in Haiti. We made a beautiful banner for his church when we saw he used one of our burial cloths to cover a large crack in his church wall. An 86 year old angel from Incarnation Church has cut out over 45,000 crosses from material that we glue on to each burial cloth. The Sisters of Charity open our burial pall boxes when they arrive in Haiti, and they say you can feel the love in each one. At St. Dennis in Lockport, IL Father Justin Dike was deeply moved when he saw our work of love. He said, "Making these burial cloths is such a gift of love and corporal mercy for the parents who have nothing to bury their precious children in. I believe this project will go world wide as it is needed everywhere."

If you are interested in joining this project or learning more please contact Liz Wisnasky at 708-614-6475.

Gifts of Love: Meaningful Gift-Giving

Below is an article shared by Marcia Mendola, who has helped head up the Haiti Initiative at St. Louis Church in Pittsford, NY for over 20 years. Please read to learn about the amazing relationship between St. Louis, Friends of the Orphans and NPFS Haiti and the great work they are doing together to help children in need.


Over the past 20 years, St. Louis Catholic Church in Pittsford has enjoyed a special relationship with Fr. Rick and his staff. They say he is a �real saint in the making� and appreciate his incredible work for the betterment of mankind. They are especially grateful to him for providing a direct route of service to the suffering in Haiti, and have complete confidence in his work knowing that every cent is put to the best possible use. When the 2010 earthquake hit last year, St. Louis Parish was poised to help with several fundraisers (in addition to the regular tithing commitment to Friends of the Orphans): the 39th Annual Corn Sale, St. Louis School�s Dress-Down and Bake Sale days, a World Hunger Banquet event, the Sunday Stroll for Haiti and the famous annual Christmas Ornament Sale. In addition, the church committee manned a fundraising and informational booth at the fall and spring town celebrations; a local musician tied to the committee created, performed and sold a song about Haiti (http://www.mangotreeforhaiti.com/); and a local restaurant owner and parishioner offered Italian sauce for the cause.


This September, St. Louis celebrated its 40th Annual Corn Sale. For forty years the Powers Family, who run an area farm market, have planted, harvested and delivered wagon loads of fresh corn for parishioners to sell before and after masses on the weekend after Labor Day.


During the coming Holiday Season, St. Louis will conduct its 30th Annual Ornament Sale. Over the past 20 years the money raised has been sent to Fr. Rick�s efforts with the Haiti Initiative. From Halloween until New Year�s Day the beautiful, uniquely different every year, white ceramic ornaments will be available at 4 area churches and 26 merchants around the Greater Rochester area. (Donations of $6 each are requested). Purchase sites, pictures of the ornaments, and more information is available on the parish website: http://www.stlouischurch.org/.


The story behind this Ornament Sale is a wonderful one! These works of art are made by the �Special People� at the School of the Holy Childhood (http://www.holychildhood.org/). Throughout the school year, these developmentally challenged students work as part of their curriculum to create 2,600 masterpieces. In the summer months, the school�s workshop students gift-package the ornaments for St. Louis. Holy Childhood students, despite their personal life challenges, are proud and happy to be of help to children not as fortunate as they. This year, in 2011, the 30th edition proudly features the �Angel of Music� and �Peace Doves.� This project is aptly named �Works of Love�. From the creation of the ornament to its packaging, the children�s love is plainly evident. The purchasers buy the gift out of love for the recipient, and the recipient loves to be remembered in such a thoughtful, meaningful way. All involved find this a way to show their love for the beneficiaries: the poor of Haiti.

Kathleen McMahon (Pastoral Associate of the Social Ministry and Justice at St. Louis Church in Pittsford, NY) adds: It is only within the last eighteen months that I have had the privilege of working with Marcia Mendola, Bob McNamara and Jennifer Rayno to assist with their amazing efforts on behalf of Fr. Rick, Our Little Brothers and Sisters organization in Haiti (NPFS Haiti) and Friends of the Orphans.  It is an honor to be involved with their devoted labors.  

Pray for Haiti.

The following is a blog post contributed by Chuck Allworth (Midwest Regional Director at Friends) where he shares about his recent trip to Nos Petits Fr?res et Soeurs (NPFS) Haiti. 


Today is Saturday and I've been here since Wednesday. I guess my biggest impression so far is that Haiti is a place with many stark contrasts.


Yesterday, for example, I went to 7:00 a.m. Mass in the little chapel on the grounds of our pediatric hospital (St. Damien). Lying on the floor in the middle of the chapel was a toddler child who had died in the hospital overnight. Jean Paul was wrapped in a pillow case that people in the Chicago area turn into funeral palls with beautiful decorations and send them here by the thousands. No caskets -- too costly. No family or parents in attendance at the funeral Mass, just Fr. Rick presiding and a couple of dozen foreigners who volunteer at the hospital and one or two Haitians. On the one hand, it was very sad to think of this dead child wrapped in linen lying inches away from us on the floor. On the other hand, it was a truly beautiful funeral. We did our best to send little Jean Paul off to heaven as best we could.


Another contrast happened two days ago when I went with Fr. Rick to the city morgue to observe him and other members of our organization picking 70 or so unclaimed corpses, zipping them into body bags, loading them on a flatbed truck and taking them out to the countryside for a decent burial. Fr. Rick and the Haitians were the ones doing the dirty work. We visitors would simply place crosses or rosaries and funeral palls on top of the bodies prior to them being zipped up. The conditions in the morgue were beyond gruesome. Bodies stacked like logs in disgusting positions. Lots of children. Way too many children. Babies in their diapers lying on top of elderly people. Hundreds of corpses in varying states of decomposition. Half-clothed (or unclothed) adults lying grotesquely on top of children dressed in their Sunday best. Bodies stained by the blood and fluids of those piled all around them. A permeating stench that defies description. Unbelievably, though, the Haitians with us were singing and clapping and dancing the entire time we were in the morgue -- about 90 minutes. Non-stop joyful, not sorrowful, singing at the top of their lungs. They were happy because they were taking bodies out of such deplorable conditions and giving them a proper Christian burial. Such joy in the face of such horror.


Last contrast: When we went out to the country to bury the bodies, the cemetery doubled as a cow pasture (although with very little grass). Row after row of simple graves dug about 4 feet into the earth. Most of the graves were marked with crucifixes...with cowpies all over many of them.


I spent the better part of the past two days unloading medical supplies from containers and organizing a warehouse full of those supplies. It was sweaty and hard and real dirty work, but nobody complained because of the poverty we have seen that the people here endure on a daily basis.


It's amazing what they do with shipping containers here. I've seen them used as hospital wards, offices, classrooms, storage units, and orphanage dorms. A cheap and easy re-use of something the rest of the world would have but one use for.


I'm back in Port-au-Prince after spending two wonderful days at the NPFS St. Helene home in Kenscoff. This home is about 5,500 feet up in the mountains to the southeast of Port-au-Prince. My room overlooked the most beautiful vista of green mountains dotted with small villages and terraced farmland. In much of Haiti, the countryside has been denuded of trees because people use the wood for building materials and to make charcoal. This is not the case in the area around our home. The setting is breathtakingly beautiful. Imagine a boarding school campus with gorgeous trees all around. Huge pine trees over a hundred feet tall. The air is clear and the high temps are in the low 60s. Hardly what you expect of a Caribbean climate. Evenings and early mornings are downright chilly. The entire campus is just very serene, green, peaceful and pleasant.


It was yet another stark contrast to Port-au-Prince with its oppressive heat, noise, filth and poverty. There are about 450 kids who call St. Helene their permanent home. And, again, in another contrast to what I had seen up to that point, the kids in our home are well dressed, well fed, well educated and very well cared for in general -- as I knew they would be.


These orphaned and abandoned children are the lucky ones. There are millions of other children here in Haiti who have it far, far worse. 20% of children in Haiti die before they reach the age of five.


Back to the orphanage. Every other Sunday, Fr. Rick, the Passionist priest who runs the entire NPFS organization here in Haiti, comes up to our home from our pediatric hospital to lead Mass for the children, but yesterday was not one of those Sundays. So, all 400+ kids got dressed up in their school uniforms and walked to the closest church. As the crow flies, it was probably no more than half a mile. Too bad we didn't have wings. Since we were in the mountains, it was probably closer to a mile and a half of steep, treacherous paths and winding, rutted roads that would put the worst of Chicago's pot-holed roads to shame. My guess is that the church is located about 1,500 feet of elevation BELOW the home. It took us about 30 minutes to walk down and a little over an hour to walk back, but it was well worth every minute to be with them and to witness and listen to them pray and sing during Mass. It was loud and joyful. I made a few new friends during that journey.

St. Helene is actually about 20 separate small dorms, plus a dozen or so other buildings (school, chapel, clinic, etc.) scattered over about 60 acres on the side of a mountain. On our way up to the orphanage on Saturday, we stopped and bought enough candy to give each of the kids a few pieces. After we got back from Mass yesterday, we took the candy around to all of the dorms and gave it away to the kids who were happy and grateful to receive the sweet treats.

During our time in Haiti, we were fortunate to have the part-time guide services of Antoine, a former peque?o from the St. Helene home. Antoine works in the Father Wasson Angels of Light program and also in our new orphanage home in Port-au-Prince that is made entirely out of refurbished shipping containers. On our last full day in Haiti, Antoine took us to an after school program for about 50 children that he began in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood where he lived before the earthquake. While we were there, we handed out bags of rice and beans to the children to bring home to their families. We also distributed protein bars and cooking oil. Here, we have a former peque?o who not only works for NPH, but also has begun his own small charitable organization to serve the children from his old neighborhood.

I will leave you with a story about James, a Haitian I met while we were doing some road repair work on a gravel road that runs within our hospital campus near the triage clinic. I took a break and sat down in the shade near where James was standing. He came over to me and began to make small talk in halting English. It turns out that he and his wife brought their nine month old son, Moses, to the hospital because it was obvious to them that Moses was experiencing abdominal pain. James was telling me about his life post-earthquake of trying to find a job but having no luck. He said his boss was killed in the quake. He told me to pray for Haiti at least a dozen times. James� wife called him over to look after Moses while she went for a break of her own. We said our goodbyes and James left to be with his son, while I went back to my road repair. About an hour later, as we were loading up from our vehicle for the trip up to St. Helene, I noticed that James and his family were walking out toward the exit of the hospital campus. I stopped them and enquired about Moses. It was the first time I saw Moses. He was an albino child with obviously African facial features and hair, though blonde. James said that Moses didn�t need to be admitted and that they were given some medicine that should hopefully do the trick. Again, he told me to pray for Haiti. He didn�t ask me for prayers for him or even for Moses. Pray for Haiti, he said. After tracing the sign of the cross on Moses� forehead, I said that I would.


Please pray for Haiti.