2017 Haiti Mission – October 21, 22 and 23

VERY EARLY in the morning on Saturday October 21, 2017, 18 missionaries representing the Bates Memorial Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Herndon, Virginia, Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, and First Baptist Church of Glenarden in Glenarden, Maryland traveled to Port Au Prince, Haiti to begin our missional journey in Carries, Haiti. This represents the coming together of people who hadn’t met each other however, each had purposed in their heart to be a blessing to the kingdom of God. The sunrise I captured from the plane made the early start to my day much more palatable.

After church service on Sunday thirty excited teenagers and young adults from the village came over for a time of fellowship. We brought printed photos of them from last year’s mission and they mounted them on foam boards. They then decorated the borders. It was truly a fun time for them AND us. I feel what mattered most to them was not what we did, but rather that WE shared our time together.

On Monday the team visited the various ministries which make up the Mission of Grace. They include the church, a school, clinic/hospital, soup kitchen, elderly home, orphanage, teen girls home, young men’s home, and a single mothers home. Haiti does not have a public school system so most schools are privately run and charge tuition. The Grace School charges $200 and the children get two uniforms, books and supplies, a backpack and they are fed two meals a day. The school has 250 students from Pre-K to 7th grade.

There is new technology at the hospital. It is a self-contained unit which allows the doctor to perform sonograms and other diagnostic treatments on the patients. This donated “clinic” was not originally intended for Carries but God saw fit to bless them with it. They perform tests using this equipment on Wednesdays and our team is anxious to see it in action.

After the visiting the hospital, we visit the school and the elderly home. The Grandma/Grandpa House, as it is affectionately called is home to 15 people. Most are elderly but some are there because they were abandoned and have no where else to go. Mission of Grace is committed to making sure the elderly in the village who don’t have relatives are cared for and, when they transition, they have a proper burial.

We end our “tour” at the orphanage which is home to about 65 children. They are excited that there are missionaries in the village and we spread out so that we can love on as many of them as possible. We end our day leading bible study with the men in the village.