RYAN EPPS CHILDREN'S HOME offers hope for abandoned children in Haiti, the poorest country of the western hemisphere—a place where the average lifespan is only 50. Children often suffer from starvation and disease and are frequently abandoned.
Started in 2007, this orphanage offers hope by giving these children a safe haven and a strong Christian foundation. It will give a hand up-- not a hand out, and it will provide the children with the opportunity to take charge of their lives. The Ryan Epps Home for Children was named in memory of Ryan Epps, a much-loved member of our youth group.
To help consider educational sponsorship of a child by providing a child with tuition, school uniform, and books. Or you may even consider whole sponsorship of a child, which includes room, board, and clothing as well. Call Helen Little at 919-553-7631 for more information.
"Our Dreams and God's Vision: Helen Little's Story"
by Daphne Key
Helen Little, who grew up “right down Highway 70 where they sell collards,” wanted to be a teacher when she was young. However, there wasn't enough money for the Wilson's Mills' valedictorian to go to Greensboro to what was then the Woman's College. So she got married, had three children, and ended up working at North Carolina State University. Like many folks, Helen had dreams that didn't materialize.
But for people of faith, God has plans for their lives that exceed their dreams. Helen Little is a woman didn't get to teach school; instead, God used her to start seven schools and an orphanage in Haiti. God needed the feisty and determined woman from Clayton to go to Haiti and become an educator—in a way that Helen had not dreamed. During the last twenty years, Helen has been to Haiti forty-one times—a far cry from Clayton, North Carolina.
After Helen married, she and her husband joined Horne Memorial United Methodist Church—a place where she felt loved and accepted. And then her beloved husband died in December, 1983, and she knew that God had brought her to Horne so that she would have a “family” after his death.
In January, 1984, Helen saw a slide presentation on missions in Haiti, and she instantly knew that she wanted to travel and work there. However, she had used all of her work leave and financial resources to care for her husband during his illness. Determined, she saved her money, and two years later made her first trip to Haiti. Helen said, “I looked at the people, and I saw that I had so much and that they had so little. And then I saw the children with their mothers in the medical clinics. They weren't in school. I knew without schools, there was no chance for a better life for them.”
So Helen helped raise money for schools. The first school, the Bonnette School, is made of cement blocks. It boasts eight rooms and a tin roof. Accessible by a winding dirt road, another two-roomed school, Delmas, sits atop a hill overlooking Port-au-Prince. Gallette Chambon is a school whose walls are made of plaited palms, for wood is scarce. Currently, Helen is raising money for Fond-doux School. It has walls, but no roof yet.
Once Helen visited and saw women carrying infants over a mile to get water from the river. She said, “I am going home and turn on a faucet. These people need a well.” Helen, who grew up on a farm, understood the problem. She raised the money to dig a well in the Gallette Chambou community.
The orphanage she helped start, The Ryan Epps Home for Children in Haiti, is home to ten children. It is supported in large part by Horne Memorial United Methodist Church, but it also needs additional financial support.
Helen Little didn't get to be a teacher, and she didn't get to go to college. And she cherishes the acceptance letter she got from Woman's College years ago. But if Helen Little had gone to college and taught in Clayton, she might not have gone to Haiti and helped build seven schools and an orphanage—and had wells dug.
Sometimes God has mighty big plans for folks like Helen Little—plans that people don't understand at the time disappointment comes. What Helen Little needs now is for people to help continue the good work she started and perhaps fulfill God's purpose for their lives—bigger dreams than they ever imagined.
For more information on the Haiti schools and the Ryan Epps Childten's Home in Haiti, call Horne Memorial United Church at 919-553-6464.
