A great example of how Microfinance works!

A Day in the Life of an OLMC Mission Team....

The following was an update received from Mission leader Theresa Anderson on day 3 of the eye-mission:


"Bonjour - Sorry I have not been able to get internet. We had to drive to to another location to get connected. Yesterday we travelled 3 hours or so to our destination of Petite Riviere. The drive was very moving for all of us as we made our way through the massive city of Port Au Prince and drove along the coast through several towns and many sights hard to describe. We arrived at St. Antoine Church without any trouble and set up our eye clinic in the church. The Lions trained us novice eye assistants and then we had dinner at the rectory and enjoyed a beautiful evening on the roof of the rectory.I have never seen so many stars in my life. Today we had the first day of the eye clinc. We saw about 200 patients, mostly adults today. All were fitted wth eye glasses. It was heart warming to see the patients faces light up after trying several pair of glasses, you could tell by their expressions when we the correct prescription was found. I fitted a 60 year old lady with a - 5 prescription (very near sighted) who had never had a pair of glasses and she suddenly could see details she had never seen before . What a great thing to witness. Marene was helping another lady and asked her i she sewed. The woman said she used to but didn't any more. Marene gave her her glasses and a needle and thread, and you should have seen the smile on her face.Such a rewarding mission, to see their faces light up. The Lions men are great and their experience is so extensive. Between them, they have done over 75 of these mission but they still give each patient all the time and care needed to find the right pair of glasses. Their compassion for this mission is inspiring.
Everyone is doing well. We are having a great time and got to play with some of the local kids after the clinic was done.
It looks like it is going to be difficult to get internet access, so don't worry if you don't hear from us for a few days. We are fine and our guides are taking very good care of us.
Also, excuse any typos above. I forgot to bring my reading glasses with me and can hardly see what I'm typing (I know, a bit ironic since I'm on an eye mission and there are hundreds of reading glasses back at the church. Smile)

All is well.

Theresa"

November 2011 Mission Team #18 !!!

Its hard to believe that OLMC just sent our 18th mission team to our sister parish in Petit Riviere de Nippes.  Team 18 was led by experienced Haiti travelers Bruce Carlstedt and Ken Bassler.  The other missionaries were Father Adam Mauman, Michelle Curran, Jacqueline Graham, Emily Laskowski, Mary Zagzebski, and Peggy Surbey.

The most important part of every trip to our sister parish, is to continue to build a sense of community with the people in and around the town, and in particular the people of St. Antoine de Padua Church and its staff. This team had a lot of "community building" activities and was busy from start to finish.  Some of their activities included:

-administered topical flouride tooth decay prevention to 120 school children
-deworming and scabies/lice treatment for 700-800 school children
-made rosaries with 150 adults and children from the parish
-visited the south coast of Haiti at Les Cayes, where Father Adam concelebrated a Haitian Funeral Mass
-visited 16 homes in Ti Riviere and administered a Gift of Water questionnaire assessing the residents use of the Gift of Water
-visited the Visitation Hospital and spent time with Dr. Rony Jean-Francois about the needs for medical missions to the hospital, and their plans for the addition of surgical services.
-visited the Sisters of Charity St. Therese of Avalon orphanage where they held, fed, walked, changed gowns of numerous infants and small children
-assessed the structural facilities at three outlying chapels, via a tortuous beautiful drive through the mountains and hills south of Ti Riviere.  OLMC has committed to help rebuild these chapels.  One of the small community chapels would be named Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
-visited the Sisters home in Ti Riviere
-attended daily Mass and especially enjoyed the Sunday Mass with all the children filling the choir loft
-visited the classrooms in Immaculate Conception School where the children sang for them (see slide show)
-shopped for the Haiti Committee's arts and crafts sale at the artisan's coop in Port au Prince
-had a nightly meeting where they reflected on the daily readings and other bible passages and shared their "rose, thorn and bud" for the day.

The trip was a huge success and I've already heard rumors that they're making plans to go again as a team!  If you'd like to explore going on a mission trip to Haiti yourself, 2012 is going to offer at least 3 different mission trip possibilities.  Check this blog and the bulletin for details.  As all of Team 18 will tell you, it is a life-changing experience!