VIM team helps quake victims
By Bertie Pond
Westminster UMC
Twenty six people from the Baltimore-Washington Conference area, representing nine churches, traveled with the Least of These Ministries to the Dominican Republic January 16-24 to feed Haitians living in Bateys where they work in sugarcane fields.
The team also helped build a water treatment plant and lead a Vacation Bible School for Haitians in Batey #3. Haitians there live in extreme poverty and wash clothes, drink water and bathe in the same sugar cane irrigation ditches the animals drink from.
The mission took on added significance because of the Haiti earthquake that struck Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 12. The team helped fund and load a truck full of emergency supplies (water, powdered milk, cooking oil, sardines, toilet paper, cornmeal and medical supplies) that were delivered into the earthquake zone Jan. 21.
The group also had an opportunity to listen to Dominicans who had made trips to Haiti to help victims of the quake, and see their photographs and video recording of what they had seen. They heard of an orphanage of 200 children who had no food and were searching for a way to get rice and beans to them.
Before the team left, they visited a local hospital in Barahona, Dominican Republic, where they prayed for 19 earthquake victims, some who have had their limbs amputated. Others had multiple broken bones that need surgical pins and fixation devices to set bones, but there were none available.
The Least of These Ministries is a small non-profit with a hands-on, direct link to pastors and churches in both the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The ministry, initiated by Steve Hull of Westminster UMC, is continuing with their weekly feeding project, but is anticipating a new influx of Haitian refugees into the Bateys to feed.
Anyone desiring to donate funds to help with the weekly feeding of rice and beans, sending emergency supplies to Haiti, food for the orphanage, or medical supplies for the hospital can send their donations to: The Least of These Ministries, 170 Airport Drive, Westminster, MD 21157.
For more information, visit the Least of These Minstries Web site or call 410-848-2128
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