Missions/ Call for Hati Help

"LOVE" Offering for Haiti will be taken at all services Valentine’s Day Weekend (February 13th & 14th).
50% of the offering will go to UMCOR and
50% will go to the Vine Church Disaster Relief.
This church is where Greg and Bonnie have a relationship with a missionary and Pastor in Haiti.
Thank you in advance for your generous gift!

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TRINITY MISSIONARY REQUEST

Dear Trinity Church,

On March 5 I will once again be going on a one-week mission trip to th the Dominican Republic.
This will be my third year participating. We will be staying at the missionary compound in the town of Hato Mayor and will be under the guidance of a Puerto Rican missionary in Hato Mayor whose name is Pastor Carlos.

I will be going with Scott and Dale Ann Hine, who were members of Trinity Church for a number of years. They organize and head up the mission teams each year. This is their sixth year of ministry to the Dominican Republic. Our group is United Methodists from many different churches and we have been given the nickname “SHINE” (Serving Him In Nations Everywhere).
Each year on our trip our goal is to build as many homes as we can afford to build. Most of the
homes we build are in Haitian refugee villages where the people are very poor and may earn as little as $2 a day working very hard in sugarcane fields. Their tin homes consist of four sides and a roof , held together by sticks or branches, with a dirt floor. Sometimes as many as eight family members (adults and children) live in a single home. The conditions are very bad.

Our group tears down the tin homes. W e purchase wood materials in Hato Mayor for the shell of
the house and stronger tin for the roof, and we build them a new, stronger, safer home. The houses are about the size of a garage. W e build the doors and windows, and install them, and then we finish the home by pouring cement for the floor. The families are so grateful and they praise God for their new home. The fewest number of homes that we have built during our week stay was five homes and we have been blessed some years to be able to build as many as nine homes.

Each home costs around $2000 for all of the material. We hire people in each village to work with us. In addition to the homes we build, we also buy all the food in Hato Mayor to feed the entire village with enough food for two weeks. There are approximately 300 people in the village. It costs about $1500 to purchase this food. We deliver clothing, shoes, school items, and hygiene supplies that were donated.

The most important item that we hand out in the villages, however, is the 500 Spanish bibles that we take with us. Although the food they receive is very important to their daily survival, they treasure the word of God more than they do the food they are given.

In the past two years we have finished or structurally repaired three churches, poured two cement basketball courts for children to have a place to play, built wooden pews for three churches, and some of the volunteers from the group run a daily VBS for all of the children.
In the evenings we visit a different church each night. We are asked to speak at each church. We give our testimonies, we sing, and share the love of Jesus. After each service we give an altar call. Each year many people give their lives to Jesus at these worship services.

Our group also supports a missionary in Hato Mayor. Her name is Erin McFarland Rodriquez.
Erin was from Punxsutawney. Three years ago Erin went with our group and God called her into full-time mission work in the Dominican Republic and is doing wonderful work helping the people.

This year we are intending to do all the things I have mentioned in this letter PLUS see if we can
help out in Haiti. Our United Methodist mission team would first ask that you pray for us and the people of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and secondly, to prayerfully consider any monetary help that could be given to aid in our home building and feeding programs. The need is so great!

Thank you so much,
Jenna Faloon

Editor’s Note: Contributions for Jenna and her group may be placed in the offering plate or
dropped at the church office.

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Missions committee will be collecting cleaning supplies for Pathway Shelter. And is looking for groups/individuals to provide meals for the Circles group that meets at Trinity. Contact Dawn for info.

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Higher Ed Committee will be collecting healthy snacks to sent to higher education students in care packages.