Moving On From CEB

Sometimes God uses other people to identify something that has been stirring inside you anyway and to prompt actions that meet needs to bless the Kingdom overall. Welcome Home Haiti is a ministry with a mission to provide hope to Haitian families one home at a time and serves the community in Pillatre, Haiti. Steve Hari is the Director. He lives in Bloomington, IL, and is connected to Eastview Christian Church. As far as we know, Welcome Home Haiti is the only other ministry in Haiti that has the exact same CEB equipment that HCO has been using.

At the end of June, I received an email from Steve about CEB machines. He was looking to import another CEB machine into Haiti to expand their work. Before he went through the importation hassle, he wanted to know if we wanted to sell our equipment to their ministry. His email inquiry started a conversation among our team that I believe had been under the surface for a long time. As God would direct it, I was in Haiti when I received the email. That gave me a chance to have a long discussion in person with RoRo and then with Marcus. After much consideration and prayer, and with the full support of our board, the consensus was that we were ready to sell the equipment and move out of the CEB business.

Here is the reasoning.

1. It costs more to build with CEB. Plain and simple. The blocks are smaller, and thus the price is higher to build with CEB. Once thought of as a cost savings opportunity, now the cost was identified as significantly more.
2. Materials are hard to source and move from the mountain to our machines in Peredo.
3. The closest selling point with any viability would be Caye Jacmel or Jacmel. The cost of moving the block to these locations and breakage would increase our cost per block.
4. We didn’t see ourselves building a commercial block business. Our CEB equipment is designed for mass production, and a commercial business doesn’t fit our ministry approach.
5. We haven’t made block regularly since 2017.
6. God presented a ministry that needs the machines, would purchase them at a fair price, and wanted all of the equipment. The machines will still be used for ministry, providing homes for those in Haiti.

A deal was finalized with Welcome Home Haiti. In early September, Steve and his crew picked up all of the CEB equipment, and they headed north to make blocks and impact families for the Kingdom.

Steve said, “It’s great that God knew what both ministries needed and orchestrated this deal.  Things like this keep my faith strong and keep me going. Thanks for your help with everything.” We pray that God will bless the ministry of Welcome Home Haiti and the community where they serve through these machines and the homes they build!

While on the HCO campus, this equipment and CEB accomplished a lot of wonderful ministry, including building Phase II of Peredo Community Hospital, the doctor’s apartments, and several homes. We believe the block served some great purposes in the season that we were able to use it, but now God is moving us into a different season. With water projects, rabbits, and many other opportunities, we believe we will continue to help empower and equip communities as we move towards the future.

by Cameron Mayhill
HCO US Director