Back HomeHaiti Trip Preview
December 6th, 2010 by keithandkinsey
We are excited to leave for Haiti on Wednesday with Josh! We’ll be sure to post an update after the trip. For now, we wanted to give you a preview of our plans for the trip.
Most of you know Haiti was devastated by an earthquake on January 12th and more recently cholera has taken the lives of more than 2000 people. Even prior to these disasters, Haiti was the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Haiti’s unemployment rate is around 80% and only 20% of the people over 15 years old can read. Yet, many Haitians have a strong spiritual faith to endure, rebuild, and improve their community. This is what gave our church, Living Hope Church of Verona, the inspiration to help.
Our congregation debated how we can make a long term impact rather than just going for a few days to help out. We decided that a long term partnership with a Haitian church would be the way to do that. Through an organization called Churches Helping Churches, we were able to get paired up with a Haitian church in Delmas that is of similar size and age to ours. The primary goal of this trip is to start building a relationship with our Haitian partner church and to get some ideas of how we can help them in the future. Our long term goal is to help this church develop so they can ultimately help their community. We aren’t entirely sure what this trip will bring – we hope it’s the beginning to a meaningful and productive partnership that can make a difference in that little part of the world.
In the words of Pastor Josh, “The Gospel is changing us at Living Hope Church. It turns stingy people into generous people and self-centered people into giving people. Because Christ has given much to us, we now give to others.” Please pray for our safe travels.
2 responses to “Haiti Trip Preview”
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You guys are so inspiring! I hope you have a safe trip, and I can’t wait to hear stories when you get back!
Sounds awesome. You’ll be overwhelmed by the spirit of the Haitian people…and their poverty. My ex employer does a lot down there and it’s simply mind boggling. Enjoy…and congrats for stepping up to do good in the world!