Grandi Nan Nou Home Ministries

We have had many people asking the question about our home and who the people are that live with us and how we became this God made family. Over a few blog posts I am going to share person by person who we get to do our most intimate home living with. God is doing beautiful things in each of their stories and we are incredibly proud of them.

Part 1: Stanley

Stanley is one of the young men who lives with us. He was born and spent the first few years of life in a trade town on the border of the DR and Haiti. His family tells him that his father was killed when he was young and that his mother, despite keeping her other children, didn’t keep Stanley. He was raised by an aunt. He was not adopted or treated as her child. He was expected, as most live in children are, to care for the home. He learned to cook, wash clothes, make soap and so much more. He was able to pay his way through his last years of school by selling soap. This is the season when I, shelby, met him. He started showing up to the free English club I was leading out of the local church. He always came in a zip up vest-shirt and I thought he was just trying to be the cool stylish kid. Little did I know, his clothing options were really limited at that time. He would come and practice English and learn some things about the Bible and God along the way. His aunt, uncle and cousins went to church, but didn’t live like people who had a personal relationship with Jesus. After having an invitation every week at English club, finally one Sunday Stanley came to a Sunday church service. After that we began planning construction at our house and he came to help dig out the big “poop hole” otherwise known as a septic tank. He spent every day with him for a couple weeks and realized his home life wasn’t very good. He would show up early to our house and fall asleep anywhere he could find because he was having to share his sleeping space at his aunt’s house with a girl and he didn’t feel comfortable sleeping. We had a few months of getting to know him better because he would come and help do anything he could find at our house for a few months. We got married in November and wanted to go visit Toyo’s family in northern Haiti in December because the manifestations were scheduled to take a break for the holidays. We invited Stanley to travel with us. We spent a whole month meeting new people and visiting new places together. When we got home his aunt and uncle had decided that they were getting too old to care for themselves and were going to move in with one of their children. We helped them move and soon realized Stanley now had nowhere to live. We had a bunk bed in the depot where Schnyder was staying and decided the only thing Stanley wasn’t already doing at our house was sleeping all night so we invited him to stay. About 6 months later Stanley made the decision to give His life completely to Jesus publicly through baptism. Stanley loves to cook, play basketball, workout, watch movies (shrek is his favorite 😂) keep all of his things neat-freak clean, teach little kids and practice English. When I had to leave my kindergarten class to have Abijah he took over my class and has been teaching the last two years. He is patient and understanding and we don’t know what God has in store for him, but it has been a blessing to be a part of his growing to look more like Jesus. He is a dear brother and we would love for you to pray with him as he tries to navigate saving money to buy land and begin his own home.