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Our April 2006 mission trip took place from April 26th through May 10th, 2006. We had a great group of 10 people on our team.
(rear, l to r) - Kirstin (Charles) Wardrick, David Wardrick, Philip Charles, Eva Bobalik, Beverly Hale (front, l to r) - Lorraine Mitchell, Carol Hupper, Elisabeth "Izzy" Hollinger, Jamie Charles, Kathy Farmer  Our team members came from four different states here in the US - Maine, Ohio, Virginia and Texas, but we all met up in Florida to fly out the next day with Missionary Flights International. We had four "newbies" on this trip (David, Izzy, Beverly and Eva) but for all of us it was our first time flying out of Ft. Pierce, Florida - the new home base of MFI.Once in Haiti, we discovered that our hopes for improved road conditions were not realized - at least not on this trip, as you can see in this photo!
As usual, our primary mission on this trip was to update the information on children in the Sponsorship Program, as well as adding new children to the Sponsorship List.  On this trip we interviewed, measured and photographed 489 children which was the most we have ever done in one visit. Having many more hands on this team than our December team helped make it possible to accomplish this task.  (right) Philip helping one of the little boys take off his shoes before being measured  On this trip, we began weighing each child as part of the measuring process. We will also keep a growth chart on each child, plotting the progress of their growth by weight as well as by height. It should be very interesting to watch how these children progress.  (above) Bev getting a height measurement (right) Kathy and Philip getting a weight reading Even though it takes a lot of work to gather the necessary information on hundreds of children, there's always time to stop and just "enjoy the scenery" -
- Or play "Simon Says", with 250 children, in another language!
On this visit, we were able to see the World Food Program ("PAM" in French) truck come to make a food delivery.   As we helped them unload the truck, it was very interesting to see that they had received food from Spain and Canada in this particular shipment. It all helps to provide that all-important meal the children get at school each day!
During our stay, we were also asked to visit several other churches and their schools. All these churches were started many years ago by Pastor Noel and their current pastors are all friends of his. He has asked us to visit them and see if we can bring them some much-needed help. We visited Paulette, Phaeton, Juchereau, Roche Platte, and Pastor Noel's newest work, Ouvray. If you have been following our previous trips, you will remember our plan to try to bring a wheelchair to a disabled girl in Ouvray.
 It was an indescribable joy for us when we arrived in Ouvray with the chair. Mirline's mother came running over to us and was sobbing, "Thank you, Jesus!", "Thank you, Jesus!".  That joy was made complete when Mirline was strapped into the wheelchair and the chair was pushed for the first time. This girl, who has crawled on the ground for 30 years, stretched out her arms and legs and cried, "Whee!". (left) Mirline expresses her joy with a beautiful grin! We were also able to see the beginning of the construction of the building which will be used for the church and the school.  This is the trench for the foundation for the building, which is planned to be approximately 30' X 60'.  While we were there, they began working on the foundation. This truck is delivering sand which will be used in the base.  (right) Pastor Noel with M. Belius Belizaire, the deacon responsible for overseeing the Ouvray church, and M. Erdin Jean-Pierre, the iron worker who will be overseeing the construction of the building You may wonder how we get around while we are in Haiti - visiting all these other places. On this trip, this was our primary mode of transportation.
 Of course, riding in the back of an open pick-up truck can be dusty..... ...very dusty! And then there were times when the dust got wet - some might call it mud!  (left) Our trusty transportation being pulled through the "wet dust"  (right) Lorraine, Kirstin, Izzy and Beverly "supervise" the towing procedure! You just never know what you might be called on to do on a mission trip! Here is Eva helping to blow up some of the several hundred balloons we handed out to the children at the end of our Sunday afternoon story and craft time with them.   Can you guess what they have on their heads??! And, as always, one of our favorite parts of any mission trip is just spending time with the kids....         And we'll leave you here with some of our more amusing shots. We hope you enjoy laughing with us!  Can you hear me now?  Is that Minnie Pearl in Haiti??  What is she saying??? |
