Our History
The official date of Mission318 being recognized as a 501(c)3 was November 2014. However, the seeds for Mission318 started back in June 2010 after the devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010. DeeDee was on staff at her church in a western suburb of Chicago when she co-led a trip to Haiti in June 2010. That trip changed her ministry focus in a powerful way over the next few years as the Lord continued to clear the path for her to minister to the people of Haiti.
On that first trip she befriended a local missionary named Anacias Joseph. Over time and ministry their friendship grew. He was a missionary in the truest sense as he had no big name mission organization to work for and lived as Paul did in the Book of Acts. Monies were given to this man of faith by people serving in Haiti without regard for personal tax benefit because the people could see that he was a man of integrity and the Haitian people were benefitting from his ministry. He was ministering in a tent city in Capva, Cite Soleil, a community in the poorest slum in the western hemisphere. The population of Cite Soleil is 400,000 and most people are unemployed and the majority of the population are children.
It is in this tent city that he started Capva School in August 2010 to serve the children that otherwise would have nowhere to attend school. The people in the Capva Community lived in the tent city for four years post the earthquake. By May 2014 the tent city was dismantled and the people moved into the already overpopulated surrounding area. At this time an official of Cite Soleil gave a piece of land to the Capva Community to build a school and medical clinic on the border of Cite Soleil.
Over the past two years with many people and organizations coming together the school was built the summer of 2014 and the students were able to start class in September. By February 2016 the medical clinic was opened to serve the children and the local community. May 2016 an indoor kitchen will be completed for the feeding program that serves the children a hot meal daily.
As all of the ministry with Capva was taking place it was always the vision of Anacias’s to have a mission outside of Port au Prince, to serve those in the rural area. We prayed for this vision and prayer walked land in Titanyen starting in 2012. By September 2014 we knew it was time to have a viable non-profit in order to serve the needs of Anacias’s ministry vision. In November 2014 Mission318 became an official 501(c)3 and in December 2014 we put our downpayment on 13 acres of land in Titanyen, Haiti.
As of today we are continuing to partner with other people and organizations in the Capva Community as well as other orphanages while raising funds to continue to pay off our land and start developing the land to serve the community in Titanyen. In 2015 we started serving the community in Titanyen at a local church and school and look forward to more relationships in the future.