St. John’s United Methodist Church

OUR FUTURE MISSION IN HAITI

”Despite the earthquake, the cholera, the extreme poverty, the deplorable conditions and the political unrest, you never turn your back on us. You still keep coming to help us and work with us. We thank you so much for caring about us, and wanting a better life for us. We thank you for being present here with us.” Pastor Jacob Presume, Thor, Haiti

As many of you know from following our journey on www.stjohnsdover.org , the Northeast Region VIM team spent nine days in the Port au Prince area this past December. Nine VIM Leaders joined together from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

We stayed at the Methodist Guest House, on the campus of a 2,000+ student Methodist school in lower Petionville. On Sunday we rode with Pastor Jacob to his church in Thor. Most of us sat with the children, for a worship service lasting over two hours. They were well dressed, bright and smiling, even though many of them still live in tents or shacks.

We learned later that many of these children are not attending school. Their families cannot afford the $250 required for tuition, books and uniform. Before our return home, we decided to donate the balance of our mission team account to scholarships for some of these children.

In February the St John’s Outreach Committee voted to contribute the $150 global donations budget to the newly established Haitian Students Scholarship fund. $850, donated by four mission team supporters, was also transferred to the new fund. $1000 was wired transferred to a designated UMCOR account in Haiti. The Methodist Church of Haiti and Pastor Jacob will distribute the first four scholarships to Thor children in need. God willing, we plan to advance this vision for other children of Haiti.

“After joining mission trips to areas in the U.S., Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America, I have only now found what a mission truly means. I’ve heard of need, but Haiti gives me cause to redefine need in a way that I never expected. Haiti is a beautiful place, aside from obvious poverty and suffering. If there was ever an opportunity to serve my Lord and Savior, I found it.” Alan Brown, Haiti Team Member

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 15th, 2011 at 9:10 pm and is filed under All Posts, forallages, outreach, finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.