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Benches have long been used for seating for their simple affordable form throughout history when chairs were more expensive and rare. (It’s why the word “chairman” exists, because chairs were rare and reserved for specific people.) Early types were very simple, usually made of a plank supported by solid ends connected with brackets.

Just as the humble bench has grown in design and functionality across the world, our teams at Hope Rising have been front runners on designing and creating better benches for our Haitian friends. (Here are two photos of original benches, and two more of our early designs.)

Five years ago, Ryan Riches and Jace LaMunyon (together with a group of other volunteers) began problem solving a better design to replace the worn down, unstable benches.

Each batch is unique and involves challenges we typically don’t think about when going to our local Home Depot for our own projects:

We can only use materials in country.
There are limited places to purchase lumber.
There is inconsistent lumber sizes and availability.

These challenges are always met with enthusiasm from our teams, with men and women ready to take on these special engineering tasks. And we are thankful to so many of you who have been apart of creating and designing these benches so that our Haitian friends can worship.

Why Benches?

Benches in Haiti are important. Just the other day we posted a picture of our newly designed bench with a wood shelf on the back for writing. Within hours we received several messages from people and organizations in Haiti asking how they too can get these benches. This has been happening for years.

Benches are an affordable form of seating for Haitian churches and schools. Imagine going to school with no place to sit or write! Benches are handmade and treasured, and remain one of our most requested projects. If we took 10 trips a year and built 100 benches each visit – it would never be enough.

Build More Benches

When the new church in Passpome is completed this fall, they will need benches. Will you prayerfully consider financially supporting our bench-making projects? Your gift will give us the resources to continue to build an invaluable resources for our friends. Or if you are interested in joining us in January 2019 to build the new benches for Passpome, please let us know.