A team of 8 from Lakewood had the amazing opportunity to go on mission to Haiti and participate in the Haiti Response Plan, which is organized effort of the Methodist Church of Haiti and UMVIM to help the people and communities of Haiti recover from the devastating earthquake of January 2010. Our team’s assigned work location was the Methodist Guest House (MGH) in Petionville, which is near Port-au-Prince.
We were assigned work projects at the MGH, such as helping with construction of a road on the campus, doing a little painting, and some building repairs. As every team that arrives or departs Haiti goes through the MGH, we were able to meet many volunteers from other Methodist Churches from around the U.S. It was great to see how many volunteers were in and out of Haiti, the overall response of the Methodist Church is incredible.
We were asked to go with a mission team from Montana to help tear down the Latremblay Methodist Church that was severely damaged in the earthquake. Here at home, if we were to tear down a building like this, we would order out perhaps a couple of front-end loaders and maybe a wreaking ball. Well, as you can guess, that is not how it is done in Haiti. Sledge hammers, wheelbarrows, and shovels are the tools that are available, and they work just fine. The teams, along with several Haitian men, were able to take down all the walls and haul off much of the debris in one day. Also we met children and families in this community and they were very loving and appreciative.
Also we were blessed to spend two mornings at a local Children’s Home that is supported by the Methodist Church of Haiti. The children we met ranged in age from 1-2 years up to maybe 12-13 years. We did crafts, played games, sang songs, and more. We all had an amazing experience with these children, and we are sure that they too enjoyed our time together. The children were great, and if you gave them a chance, they would want to just touch you or hang on you, sing/dance for you, or show you how they can shoot a basketball or kick a soccer ball. We were all very blessed by this experience.
The mission was a wonderful experience in so many ways. We all want to go back again next year for another mission. We want to thank all the many people of UMVIM that helped us by providing transportation, planning for and arranging our work assignments, and looking out for the safety of us and all the mission teams. We also give thanks to Lakewood for their prayers and support. And, we thank our God for His endless blessings.
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Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | Haiti, Haiti Response Plan, lakewood united methodist church, missions, UMCOR
