You can now view the Haiti Mission Trip Presentation from worship January 12, 2014. The following is Pastor Gwyneth’s Epistle to the church about the trip.
Grace and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. What an incredible time my daughter and I had in Haiti and participated in such a wide variety of mission activities.
We led crafts with children on the beach at Mission of Hope including the infamous loom band bracelets as well as duct tape creations. We led similar crafts at the Good Samaritan Orphanage, where we also brought bags and bags of clothes we spent three days sorting for 63 kids there! We helped sort and clean the shelves in the medical clinic in preparation for a large team of doctors who were arriving this week.
We took part in a pastor’s conference and I led two workshops at a last minute invitation. We attended worship at a church in the mountains where we presented the banner from our youth, and during the pastor’s conference. I taught a little girl on the beach how to play her recorder. I gave out 500 cards (prints of my lighthouse painting with John 8:12 written in Creole).
We sorted our four 52-pound bags filled with donations ranging from medications to bathroom towels and dog medications. We held numerous conversations with children and adults, speaking as much Creole as we could. And we also had plenty of afternoons to swim, collect shells, play with the guard dogs (who were very friendly toward us, just not strangers walking outside the fence!), catch lizards, talk to horses (you’ll have to ask me about that one privately!), check in on facebook (when there was electricity), eat incredible meals prepared by the mission house staff, watch videos and Faith even got a martial arts lesson from Pastor Kevin!
Haiti is an incredibly beautiful country with lovely people. But their problems are complex and simply giving money only skims the surface of major systemic issues there. Organizations like Mission of Hope are making a huge difference, raising up leaders among the people and inspiring real change. I hope you enjoy the presentation about our trip (you can view at the link above).
It was an honor to catch just a small glimpse and participate in this small way. Thank you all of you for coming on the trip with us in so many ways!
Together in ministry for Christ,
Pastor Gwyneth