Haiti: Service

Mission trips are an integral part of my faith and who I am. I feel most alive when I am serving others whether in my city, state, country or world. This year I was blessed with the opportunity to serve my brothers and sisters in Haiti through an organization called Mission E4. Mission E4 has been working in Haiti for about 10 years. They are currently working on the following projects in Leogan, Laquil, and Fauche:

• Oversight of three churches
• Three Christian schools (providing free education, meals, and medical care)
• Girls orphanage (currently with 23 girls) and current construction of a boys orphanage
• Medical clinic
• Marriage ministries
• Pastoral connection and training for over 60 church leaders
• Jail Ministry to a local jail

While I was in Haiti, I worked along side of a team of about 15 to help build a boys orphanage in Fauche. When we arrived on site, there was a cement foundation, one cement wall and one wooden wall complete:

Our primary job was to complete the frame of the orphanage (walls and roof). About five of us worked on completing the the outside walls, while three others worked on completing 16 trusses for the roof.

 

 

I became a pro with the hammer and the power saw!

We also worked along side the Haitian construction workers that Mission E4 employs to help build sustainability within the community. Iram was the director or the Haitian construction team.

Once all the walls were up and the trusses were built we started working on the roof.

 

Below is a picture of Catherine hammering the truss in place. This was my job on the other side of the building.  

Also in Fauche, there were two other projects underway: (1) Repairing and painting school benches...

 ... and (2) Raising the floor in the school so that it is level.

By the end of our week, the orphanage frame was up, the trusses were in place, all of the benches were repaired and painted and 1/2 of the floor of the school was level!!! Overall a huge success!

This post only captures about 20% of my experience in Haiti. I promise to post more about the people, the culture, the children, and the community that I got to know and love.