Spring Into Missions at Farmville UMC!!

Mission Update at Farmville United Methodist Church

There certainly is a lot going on, as always, in missions here at Farmville United Methodist Church!  Last night concluded a month long fundraiser push for our Honduras Medical Missions Team.  

They hosted 2 pancake events, a Brunswick stew sale and of course in December they had their Angel Tree for people to donate money for medicine for the children of Honduras!  Thank you to all who donated generously and God Bless those on the Mission Team who have worked so hard!

Some other fantastic Mission work that has gone on has been our Souper Bowl of Caring where our Fusion Youth Group collected $650 and over 70 not perishable food items!  Our Youth Group is always so focused on mission - Thank You to Lyndsie for leading our awesome youth through such  positive experiences!

This year's Souper Bowl of Caring monetary collection goes toward Stop Hunger Now, which brings me to yet another important mission that our church will participate in!  On March 7th, we will gather for our "March Midweek Meal & Mission"  We will partner with the Longwood University community for Farmville's largest Stop Hunger Now meal packing event yet:  20,000 meals!  We as Farmville UMC have committed to raising the $2500 it costs for half of those meals!  This Lenten season, how will you prepare yourself for the remembrance of the death and resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ?  Will you commit to praying and providing one meal a day during the 40 days of Lent to help feed God's children?  That is only 25 cents a day, or $10 total to provide 40 meals to someone who may otherwise not eat!  You may place your contributions in the offering plate or bring them to the church office.  Simply add "Stop Hunger Now" to the memo line!  Together, we can reach our goal of raising $2500 to pack & provide 10,000 meals for those in need around the world!

Spring Break is right around the corner, which is hard to believe since we just had our first snow fall of the season!  The Wesley Foundation is going to Guntersville, AL the week of March 10-17.  17 have signed up for this mission to do tornado repair in the Guntersville area.  Please Pray for this Mission Team.  We are also collecting monetary donations as well as donations of drinks & snacks for the trip!  Contact Rich Meiser, Campus Minister for more information at 392.8089 or farmvillewesley@embarqmail.com. 

Also, coming up in April, Farmville UMC will host a Conference UMVIM(United Methodist Volunteers In Mission) team leader training seminar on Saturday, April 21, 2012.  Our mission team will be responsible for meeting & greeting, providing food & drinks as well as technical support.  We are also hoping church members may be interested in taking the training themselves! Visit http://www.vaumc.org/page.aspx?pid=424&cid=3&ceid=736&cerid=0&cdt=4%2f21%2f2012 for more information & training registration forms!  Contact Rick Swayne, Missions Chair if you can help that day at swaynere@fuquaschool.com.

These are just a few of the many great missions that go on in & outside of the walls of Farmville UMC.  To make a contribution to any of these missions simply place a check in the offering plate with the designated mission in the memo line or bring your donation by the church office between 9-3 M-F!  To participate in a mission or get more information call our office and we will put you in touch with a mission leader!  392.4686 or fumc@farmvilleumc.org.

Haiti Mission Trip Days 8...and 9

October 15, 2011

We left around 11:30/12 from the Methodist Guest House so we could drive around the city some before going to the airport.  We stopped by a grocery store to pick up some coffee.  The grocery store looked much like a small grocery store in the U.S. except there was an armed guard at the door.  It took a while to get to the presidential palace because the traffic was so backed up.  When we got there, the car was silent for a few minutes as we looked at this huge mansion (like looking at the White House) that had huge cracks in the wall and portions that had collapsed on top of one another.  Here's a good before and after picture of the presidential palace: Haitian Presidential Palace.   As we stopped on the side of the road to look and take pictures, many Haitians came up to the car trying to sell us paintings and carving and food.  One man pointed to the palace and said something like "We call that the devil's house because it was full of corruption."  After spending a week in Haiti, I still have no concept of how it would be to live in a country whose infrastructure is in the shape it is in Haiti.  We only got glimpses into life in Haiti, but what was apparent is their hope.  Haitians are so resilient and have so much hope for their future.

We continued on to the airport, where we were warned we would need to hold on tight to our bags from the time we got out of the van until we got inside the airport.  There were many people surrounding our van hoping to carry our bags so they could get some money.  It was a short walk into the airport, and when we got in, an employee of the airport asked how many were in our group.  He already had our boarding passes printed and ready for us!  It was wonderful!  What wasn't so wonderful is finding out when we got in that our flight was already delayed.  Rich and Colleen spoke with the airport employees with American Airlines because the employees were pretty sure we could miss our next flight from Miami to Virginia since our layover was already only about 1.5 hours to get through customs and immigration and recheck our bags.  The American Airlines employees went ahead and tentatively booked us on a flight out of Miami the next morning as well as reserved hotel rooms for us in case we missed the flight.

As we waited in the airport, we read, played cards, and talked about our week.  Our flight was pushed back again, and we started getting nervous that we really wouldn't make the next flight.  The plane arrived a little earlier than they expected, so we were holding out hope that we'd make our connecting flight.  When we landed in Miami, we had just enough time to make it if everything ran smoothly.  Unfortunately, our run across the airport didn't help because our bags took much too long to get off of the plane.  We finally found all our luggage and got through customs only to be met by an airport employee who told us we would not make it to the gate because we had about one minute until scheduled flight time and the gate was on the opposite end of the airport.  So, he printed out meal and hotel vouchers for us and we caught a shuttle to the airport.  We ate a late dinner together in the hotel restaurant then went to bed in preparation for our morning flight.

October 16, 2011

Unfortunately, around 4am, Josh was struck with food poisoning (we think from something he ate at the Port-au-Prince airport).  This made travel pretty much miserable for him.  Our flight was on time, and we finally made it back to Virginia.  Josh was still feeling so horrible, that we ended up staying with his parents for the day and night, not trusting having to be in a car for 3 hours.  The rest of the team carried on to the Farmville and Hampton Roads areas.  Soon after departing, the Farmville area team members that went ahead got into a car accident.  Other than sore muscles and Rich getting a burn on his arm from the airbag, everyone was thankfully okay...but the car was not.  They all piled into Don's car (who was right in front of them and also got hit from the force of Rich and Colleen's car getting hit) and continued on to Farmville.  They got a little ways down the road and got a flat tire!  It took a long time for them to get back, but they finally made it.  Josh and I left the next day and made it back to Farmville finally as well.  After an amazing week in ministry in Haiti, go figure that making it home would be the hardest part of the week!  I am so thankful for my experience in Haiti, and I am so thankful for Colleen who continues to answer God's call on her life to lead teams to this amazing country.  I hope you will prayerfully consider joining the 2012 (or even 2013) trips to Haiti as we continue to be in ministry with the people in Haiti.  Thanks for joining me on this journey as I relived my experiences, and thank you again to all who were praying for us throughout our time in Haiti.  Please continue to pray for the people of Haiti and all those in ministry there. 

Grace and peace to you!
-Lyndsie

Haiti Mission Trip Day 7

October 14, 2011

We made it back to the Methodist Guest House!  What a treat to have a bed with a mattress, fans and most of all--a real toilet!!!  We were told yesterday that the vans would arrive in Odee between 9:30 and 10am.  So, before breakfast we took all our donations down to Solomon's house (which we were told would be the best way to get our donations distributed to the community) and packed up our cots.  We had an interesting assortment of food for breakfast: grilled cheese sandwiches, watermelon and pumpkin stew.  I didn't end up trying the stew, but Rich said it was delicious.  We had a nice farewell from Solomon who thanked us over and over again for our sacrifice of coming here.  Then we waited....and waited....and waited.  It was just going to be "10 more minutes" for 2.5 hours.  Finally at noon, when we were all hungry for lunch, the vans arrived.  We loaded up and said our goodbyes.  The engineer decided to hitch a ride with us all the way back to Port-au-Prince.  So what was already a pretty crowded and hot van, became even more so.

As we winded through the mountains, we saw a crowd of people on the side of the road.  Then I noticed random items in the middle of the road--car seats, stereo speakers and other debris.  We looked over where the people were and a truck had rolled off the side of the road.  As we were passing, I saw people pulling a man out of the truck.  We debated whether to stop (Would the presence of a medical professional cause more chaos and issues?  Would we be safe in the midst of a crisis?  What are the laws in Haiti...would we be liable if there were any deaths from the accident?).  Then Gary said, "It's the story of the Good Samaritan for goodness sakes."  So we pulled over and Rich, Colleen, Gary and Patrick went down to the crash site with supplies (we didn't have much left after our clinic yesterday) while the rest of us stayed on the side of the road.  Most of the cars and motorcycles that came by stopped to see what was going on.  But, we watched as several cars just drove on by.  We asked our driver how these situations worked in Haiti: are there ambulances you can call?  Do you call the police?  Does the UN help?  He told us that there are ambulances but they are few and far between.  The police and UN will help if they are around.  And while we would offer to drive the injured man to the hospital, in Haiti, if the man died while in his car, he could be found guilty of the man's death.  Just after the conversation, a UN vehicle drove by without stopping.  Maybe that is part of the reason why many Haitians don't appreciate the UN's presence?

A big dump truck stopped and we found out later agreed to take the man to the hospital.  They lifted him on a blanket which Colleen was really worried about because there could have been a spinal injury, but there was no changing their minds.  Colleen said she thinks he may have had some internal injuries.  We realized as we continued down the road that we were only about a mile from Partners in Health (the leading hospital in Haiti that we were able to stop at on our way to Hinche earlier in the week)!  The dump truck that transported the man was still out in front of the hospital.  We are praying that he is getting the care he needs and will recover.  We definitely scared Patrick.  He was on edge the rest of the trip.  We realized that if the vans had not been late, we would not have passed that accident and been able to stop and offer our assistance.  God was present!

When we arrived at the guest house we unloaded all our stuff, had a cold Coke and did a little shopping around the compound.  We bought some really neat things!  Josh and I took some pictures of the Longwood University scarf around the guest house.  Longwood is hoping to spread school spirit all over the world and therefore are asking people to bring and take pictures of the scarf wherever you go.

There were more people here than we expected-- 3 teams.  Dinner was rice, salad, avocado, plantains, watermelon and goat!  The goat basically tasted like beef.  After dinner we played some cards until it was time for our debriefing session with John (the accountant for Haiti UMVIM).  We talked about what went well, what could have been better, perceptions, expectations, etc.  It was a good meeting and resulted in a lot of laughter and stories from our time together.

We had a chance to shower which is the cleanest I've felt in a week, even though the water was cold.  Our flight tomorrow is at 4pm, but we will leave here at 11am so we can do a little driving tour of Port-au-Prince and see the Palace.  Then, we should be back in Virginia at 11:30pm tomorrow evening.

Haiti Mission Trip Day 6

October 13, 2011

Today was our last day in Hinche.  After breakfast (pancakes and bananas!) we headed back to the church to start on work...except the rocks still hadn't made it there.  Roshnee, the engineer, said a few people could work on moving the mounds of dirt from digging out for the foundation.  Josh, Don, Rich and Gary helped with that while the rest of us sorted and took down supplies to set up for the clinic.

Rich came over a little while later and said we should walk over to where they were trying to get the truck of rocks up the hill.  We were cautioned not to walk to close to the edge of the cliff because the rain had softened the ground so much that some of the bank had already collapsed.  Several workers were shoveling dirt into the road in hopes of giving the truck more traction, but nothing worked.  They tried and tried, and made one last effort of driving the truck up the hill in reverse, but the road was just too muddy.  They decided to send the truck to come in from the other side of town.

Later we all decided to walk down to the other end of town to see if we could find the truck.  It was stuck again.  This time the road was too narrow at one point for it to get through.  So, we decided we would go ahead and start the clinic.  We had some group teaching on brushing teeth, washing hands, and taking vitamins.  Then Colleen met with most of the people individually--taking blood pressure, giving out medicine for headaches, rashes, and indigestion, and bandaging minor wounds.  We gave out almost all of our vitamins during the clinic, and the health kits were distributed in no time flat.  We definitely want to assemble and give out more of these next year.  We had paper and crayons for the kids to draw pictures while the parents were waiting to see Colleen.   After being seen by Colleen, many people were hanging around, so Josh and I went back to the church and grabbed a soccer ball to encourage some of the kids to go play because it was getting crowded and chaotic.  We took a break for lunch and then finished the clinic around 3:15pm.  Good work was done, and Colleen did a fantastic job, along with Patrick who translated all day.  We all got showered before dinner (homemade lasagna--Lulu's favorite meal to cook, chicken, rice and Coke and Sprite).  At the end of dinner it started raining so we rushed back to the church.  We're worried that the van will not be able to get up the hill tomorrow if it keeps raining.  It will be interesting for sure!

Haiti Mission Trip Day 5

October 12, 2011

After breakfast (ham, onion and pepper omelet, watermelon, laughing cow cheese and toast), we began work with moving the last of the rock pile!  Within a short amount of time we finished.  Then we moved some cement, but it was for the workers to build up the wall with the rocks, so they didn't need much.  We waited and waited for more rocks, then we heard that the truck had gotten a flat tire along the way.

So, most of us decided to take a walk to town with Patrick and Solomon.  I didn't realize we were going all the way to downtown Hinche.  After being in the small village of Odee for a while, Hinche seemed so busy and chaotic.  Solomon and Patrick seemed to be on edge the whole time.  They both kept looking around at our group to make sure everyone was okay, and made sure we were out of the way of traffic, etc.  We stopped at a little road side stand and Jen bought us some Cokes and 7Ups!  Patrick said that one of the people behind the stand said that we must have won the lottery for buying all the sodas.

The old Catholic Church in town (they are building a new one)

A park in the center of town

Washing clothes in the river

Remainders of the old bridge that collapsed

When we got back there were still no rocks!  They were supposed to be there in "10 minutes" which became the running joke all week since "10 minutes" always ended up being much much longer.  We ended up going to lunch because they still had not arrived.  After lunch we moved a little more cement.  Today has been the hottest day here so far.

We moved VBS to 3:30 so we could get more work in once the rocks arrived...but they never did.  Colleen, Jen and I all took showers before VBS since it would be a later day and all the guys would need to shower before dinner as well.  We had a smaller crowd since we held it later--about 20 kids.  Mike read the story of Nicodemus visiting Jesus (John 3:12-20 I believe).  Then they had snack--granola bar with peanut butter and raisins on top.  Then we made cross necklaces.  About the time we started the necklaces it started thundering and lightning pretty badly.  We finished quickly (the kids LOVED the necklaces) and ran to the church just as it started pouring.  It poured for a good half and hour or so.  The dirt street turned into a river!  Getting to dinner was interesting.  It was so muddy that Mike actually fell and landed hard on his hip and shoulder.  He's pretty sore, but okay otherwise.  Lulu got us ice cold bottles of Coke and Sprite for dinner!  It was yummy along with pork loin, macaroni salad, rice, beans and bread.  We came right back to the church after dinner so we didn't have to try to navigate back in the slippery mud in the dark.  The walk to the bathroom was interesting as well since all the hills of dirt from digging out the footer had turned into slippery mud hills.  After devotion (Josh led), Don, Josh and I played rummy while Colleen, Jen, Chris and Dave played Spades.  The others slept or read.  Thankfully, the rain cooled everything off a lot after a hot day.  Tomorrow is our last day here before we head back to the guest house Friday morning. Oh, we also got some of our clothes washed today by a member of the church!  Colleen got some pictures of our clothes drying on top of the cactus plants that line the properties here.  Thankfully they got our clothes down before it started raining.  It's so nice to have some clean clothes and to help a member of the church financially.  Tomorrow we will host the health clinic instead of VBS.

Haiti Mission Trip: Day 4

October 11, 2011

It has been hotter today.  We did some tough and fast moving work this morning moving rocks and slinging buckets of cement.  When we got to lunch there were several people setting up blankets of items for sale on the lay Pastor's land.  We were surprised at first, but then Colleen told us that Solomon had asked her if we'd like to see some carvings and things.  She said yes so he had gotten in touch with a few people from town who sell different things to come and show us their items.  Many of us bought things.  Josh and I got some cloth embroidered bookmarks and a really pretty deep purple embroidered table cloth.

The kids were already gathering around 1:45pm so Patrick told us to go ahead and get ready for VBS.  It turned out that the work for the day was about finished so everyone from our team came to help with Bible school.  I asked Rich if he would like to read the story and he accepted excitedly!  Colleen and Chris working on making snack (PB&J on tortillas cut into pinwheels).  Rich read and Patrick interpreted the story of the Good Samaritan.  While he was reading, I thought "Oh, darn I should have gotten the team to act it out, but I didn't know the whole team would be here."  Just as I was thinking that Mike threw himself on the ground being the hurt man.  Then Gary, Josh and Don came up being those who passed by and the Good Samaritan!  It was perfect and the kids loved it. You can watch it here! 

After the story we practiced the alphabet.  Jen showed the kids the big letters we wrote out and had them repeat each letter in English.  Then she went back through them and they remembered almost all of them!  Then they worked on their letter writing worksheets that we made last night.  One of the moms came over and pointed to her three kids.  Then she looked at what her son had done and told Patrick "Oh my goodness he's never been able to do that before."  It was really neat.  As they finished we had snack and then we taught them how to play duck duck goose.  They had a great time with the game.  Afterward we gave out a soccer ball and the jump ropes again and they played until dinner time.

Dinner was a delicious potato and cheese casserole, chicken, rice and fried plantains.  I led the devotion for the evening.  Now we are back in the church playing cards and reading.  Tomorrow will be more work on the footer and foundation and our last session of Bible school.  On Thursday we are planning on having a clinic of sorts for parents and kids--teaching healthy habits like washing hands and brushing teeth.  And Colleen will do some teaching with the parents about vitamins, etc. and that will be how we distribute the vitamins we collected to the community.  It should be a neat way to serve the community.

Haiti Mission Trip: Day 3

October 10, 2011

We woke up with the sun--around 5:30am.  The dogs and roosters kept me up most of the night.  Then, get this, it got cold in the middle of the night!  Breakfast was yummy-- spaghetti (apparently common), watermelon, toast and hard boiled eggs.  After breakfast we got to work!  A few of the guys began sifting sand which will be used to mix in for the cement.  The rest of us worked on moving rocks from a pile at the front of the church to the back where they are working on installing a footer for what will be a sacristy on the back of the church.

Then we worked as the bucket brigade.  We passed buckets of cement down a line to dump into the holes of the footer of the building.  Lunch was yummy: meatballs, fried plantains, fried okra, coleslaw and a homemade cake.  After lunch we worked some more.

Then around 2pm, Colleen, Jen and I got ready for VBS.  It took a while for the kids to make it over because many had just finished school.  After a while though, we probably had about 35 kids.  I read the creation story out of the Spark Story Bible and had the kids act out the different parts (blow like the wind, sparkle like the stars, be a tree, etc.)  They had a great time and Patrick is not just a great translator but a great teacher.  He got the kids attention when they started chatting off topic, and he reviewed what they had already learned as we went along with the lesson.  After the story, they each drew pictures of something they were really glad God made. Some drew goats (because they eat a lot of goat there), they drew chickens, snakes, trees, sunshine, flowers, and people.  Then we taught them Jesus Loves Me in English and they sang Jesus Loves the Little Children in Creole!  (You can watch it here: https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=654621371742)  We had snack (Peanut Butter Crackers) then we gathered in a circle and played with the frisbees.  The kids had to call someone's name and throw them the frisbee.  After playing for a little bit, we went back to the church and blew up a soccer ball for the younger boys (because the older boys wouldn't let them play) and got out the jump ropes for the girls.

While the kids played, Colleen, Jen and I went ahead and got our showers so we were out of the way when the guys finished work.  While Colleen was showering, two teenage girls came over with a little boy (we weren't sure whether he was one of their sons or a little brother) about two or three years old probably. We are pretty sure they were trying to get us to take the little boy.  It was an awkward and difficult situation especially since we spoke almost no Creole and they spoke almost no English.  We were told that many families just want the best for their children and will try to get a better life for them in this way.  How difficult that must be to be willing to give your child away to a stranger in order to offer them a better life.  I pray that God will be with that family and they find a way to provide for their children long after we have left Haiti.

After my shower (a bucket of water and a cup inside a four walled no roof structure) I played jump rope with several of the young girls in the community until dinner time.  They had a blast and had so many fun songs they sing as they jump.  Dinner was pot roast with carrots and potatoes, white rice, beans and roles.  We had devotions then came back to the church and made writing worksheets for VBS tomorrow.  Patrick mentioned that they kids really need help with their writing skills and many don't know the alphabet (which is the same as ours which is helpful).  So we made sheets that give them space to trace each letter and practice it on their own.  Hopefully that will be a good start for them.  I wish we would have known things like this before we came and we could have copied lots of different school type worksheets (and even left some with the church for school).  Something to keep in mind for next year!  More rock and cement moving tomorrow!

The shower!  That blue barrel is full of water.

Lay Pastor, Solomon's house where our meals were prepared.