In January 2019 our team of nine traveled to Place of Hope in Haiti. This trip was originally scheduled for December 2018 but had to be postponed until January 16th. The team arrived in Port Au Prince then on to Les Cayes by charter plane. Excitement filled the air as we arrive at the compound.
The Christmas backpacks that had been collected from Covenant Church Naples and other partnering churches arrived in December of 2018 and had to be organized. Our team then spent several hours organizing all 1081 gifts so that they could be given to our children as well as hundreds more in the surrounding communities. Several of our children joined us as we distributed the gifts to the surrounding communities. This helped them experience the importance of giving to others. The team youth really enjoyed sharing some of their stories with the kids as we drove to the surrounding communities to deliver our Christmas backpacks.
A real highlight of our trip was the children’s performance during church. One of the performances was in sign language the other was interpretive dance to music. It was so beautiful to see these boys and girls share their talent with the congregation.
When we originally planned this trip, it was to include a New Year’s Eve celebration. We had the celebration anyway complete with fireworks. The children all laughed, giggled and shouted with shear delight as they watched the fireworks shoot up into the air.
We had time to visit a vocational school in Les Cayes hoping to build a partnership for our program. We also supplied our carpentry school with additional resources, evaluation of the staff progress, updated the classroom layout.
Our team returned to the United States with many fond memories of our children who captured their hearts. If you would like to join us on our next mission trip please contact us at info@https://placeofhopeinhaiti.org/new
