First, I would like to share a report from the Haiti Mission Board:
We now have a member of our board who is Haitian and speaks both French and Creole. She has been able to get in touch with Father Chery, the pastor of Saint Therese parish, by phone. There has been a terrible drought in Haiti and the people of Marbial have lost most of their crops. Many families are going hungry.
Through the Parish Twinning Committee of the Americas we were able to get in touch with a charity that has an excellent record in Haiti: Food For The Poor. They deliver packages of food to various parishes in Haiti. One package of food will feed a family of five for one month. The package includes: 55 pounds of rice, 27.5 pounds of cornmeal, 20 pounds of beans, 122 cans of sardines and one gallon of vegetable oil.
We sent $1240.00 (which will be doubled) to Food For The Poor so they can deliver 40 food packages to Marbial.
Food For The Poor will have to drop their packages off in Jacmel, (the nearest “city” to Marbial) as it is very difficult to get into Marbial itself because of the lack of decent roads. Father Chery said he would pick up the food but the church van is broken. He sent us an invoice for the repair of the van (which he badly needs). We sent $900.00 so Father can have the van fixed. We are also sending $500.00 per month to Father so he can buy food locally for his people.
We have this money because of the great generosity of our parishioners. It doesn’t look as if we will be able to get a medical mission down there anytime in the near future, so we are spending the money on food. We are also investigating how we can help Father with his school.
The addition of a native speaker to our board has been a huge help. It now looks as if we will be able to help the poor suffering people of Marbial in several ways. THANK YOU EVERYONE who has contributed to our Mission to Haiti fundraisers! We may investigate helping Father Chery with funding some of the costs of teachers for his school, the only school available in the area.
The Haiti Mission Board
Our parish is so generous, not only to Haiti, but to the Deacon John Rigley Food Pantry, and to our parish itself. Your continued generosity allows us to continue to do so much good work. In this past week’s gospel, Jesus told His disciples, “Give them some food yourselves”. Your generosity allows us to do just that. Thank you all.