Sardis Members on Mission Trip in Haiti

February 15, 2012:  Early this morning, probably hours before you even THOUGHT about getting out of bed, a team of Sardis members headed for the airport to catch their 5:50 am flight. Today they will fly to Miami, then on to Port‐au‐Prince, and finally will take a bus ride that they are told will last somewhere between two and eight hours (depending on whether or not the bus breaks down) to Bayonnais, Haiti for a six-day mission trip.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and Bayonnais is one of the poorest areas of Haiti. Mountainous and remote, the residents of this area have almost no access to education or medical care. Actionnel Fleurisma is from Bayonnais. In the mid‐1980s Actionnel came to be sponsored by a couple from Charlotte. He eventually moved to Charlotte and attended Central Piedmont Community College, and then went on to become an ordained minister. In the early 1990s, Actionnel and some others founded OFCB Ministries with a school in Bayonnais. At first they had about one hundred students, and classes were held in the shade of mango trees. In 2011 there were nearly two thousand students. One of the first graduating class will be the ministries’ second doctor upon graduation this May.

The group from Sardis will spend most of their time on this trip teaching English lessons to young children at the school using a curriculum designed specifically for to be used by mission groups. They also hope to make the hour‐and‐a‐half hike up to the even more remote and poor Nicola, where OFCB has established a satellite school that meets for now in an open structure. On Sunday morning Jane Fobel will preach.

Sardis has supported OFCB ministries for two years, but this is the first mission trip sponsored by Sardis. Sam Coleman has been involved from the beginning—this is his second trip. He also drove the school bus filled with rice and beans that Sardis sent to Bayonnais in 2010. He says that everyone who visits Bayonnais is impressed by the self‐reliance and faith of this group.

“Here’s a group of individuals who had absolutely nothing,” says Sam. “They know that education is the key to survival and a good future. They know their government cannot help them. None of what they have accomplished is driven by Americans or by churches— the Haitians had the vision and they achieved it. That’s what makes it so successful, and why everyone who comes here wants to be more involved. They have pretty much done all this on their own. The strength of their faith is just remarkable.”

Music for Bayonnais
Claire Lucas attends Northwest School of the Arts, and is interested in a career in music therapy. When she heard about Sardis’ support for the school in Bayonnais she thought maybe there was something she could do for the children there. Through the Mission Interpretation Ministry, Claire sent a letter out to the Sardis congregation seeking financial support to buy musical instruments to take to Bayonnais. The response was more than anyone dared to dream. Sardis members donated more than three thousand dollars for this project. Claire was able to purchase a small PA system, an iPod which she loaded with music, and many instruments, all of which she will use in lessons with the children while in Bayonnais, and then leave behind for the school to use. All of this is part of Claire’s senior exit project. Thank you Sardis for your support of Claire and of children in Haiti!