Issue date: 3/28/02 Section: Accent

Media Credit: Photo submitted Brandon Preston, a member of the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, is one of several students who traveled to Haiti over Spring Break on a mission trip. Here he helps the children with their Vacation Bible School activity. Here they are making butterflies to represent the resurrection of Christ.

Media Credit: Photo submitted These Haitian girls display the butterflies they made at VBS.

Media Credit: Photo submitted These students are apart of the primary group who attend the Calhoun-Spadey School in Ranquitte, Haiti. This is the CFI’s (Christian Flights International) main school in the area. Grades first through 12th are housed in this 10-room building.

When most students pack for Spring Break vacation, common items include tanning lotion, beach towels, beach chairs, alcohol and whatever else is deemed necessary to have fun while basking in the sun.

For three Eastern students, however, the list was much different. Brandon Preston, Whitney West and Krista Baldwin, all of the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship at Eastern, were headed toward a very warm place, but tanning oil and beach towels were not needed.

Their items included bottled water to save them from having to boil their own, insect repellent to avoid malaria, a Bible and a passport.

The group went to Ranquitte, Haiti where they worked with children at the Calhoun-Spadey School that houses first through 12th grades. They also traveled throughout the community taking food, soap, matches and the word of God to the people.

Haiti is a small country about 600 miles from the coast of Florida. Ranquitte is located in the northeast rural mountains of Haiti and much of the terrain is similar to the one here in Eastern, Ky.

"It was hard for me to realize that such poverty could exist so close to the United States," said West, who is a 21-year-old junior from Paint Lick. "Some of the people live in mud huts, sit on the floor and have no clothes."

It was Scott Mandl, the stateside coordinator of Christian Flights International, who spoke to the ICF about the trip earlier this year. West said that shortly after, she knew she was going to be involved.

"God laid Haiti heavily on my heart," she said. "These are real people with real names who have a very hard life, but they are still filled with so much joy. You go there thinking you can help and nine out of 10 times, they end up helping you."

This is the sixth trip to Haiti for Mandl. He said he likes exposing college students to these kinds of trips in hopes to make them more grateful people.

"It gives them a chance to see how richly blessed we are in the US by way of comparison," he said. "It shows them how we can make a difference." No, these students did not sunbathe or get drunk on Spring Break. They did not sit around and do nothing and they did not work at their day jobs to make extra money. Instead, they wrote mission letters in order to collect the thirteen hundred dollars per person the trip would cost them.

All three students said the people in Haiti actually helped them more than they helped the people.

"We fill our lives with all this junk and you forget about the simple things," West said. "These people have nothing but joy. They know they have nothing, but yet they aren't hopeless. We can learn from that."

For more information on how to get involved with Christain Flights International, call Scott Mandl at 623-6402 or visit the website at www.christainflights.org.



These are two excerpts from the journal Krista Baldwin kept while in Haiti



Sunday, March 17th

We went to bed early and got up here at Ivy's house in Ranquitte, starting the day at 6 a.m. It was a beautiful morning and the house was stirring early. Today was church day ... the voices of the people harmonized so beautifully as they sang about our common Lord and Savior. They did a song for us in English! The biggest thing I noticed is what gracious, warm treatment we received from all the Haitian people. Everyone kept saying how glad they are that we came. They are hospitable, friendly and kind.



Monday, March 18th

Today, we worked on getting some stuff prepared for the things we will be doing in the coming days. I feel overwhelmed with all the work and planning to do tomorrow.for two days of Vacation Bible School and two days of prayer visits. Today, we sorted jellybeans and beads for VBS and sorted rice, beans, soap and matches to give to the families that we are going to visit. We also worked on putting another shelf together for the dorm. Brandon had to fix one of the shelves from yesterday and it took him almost as long to fix it as it did to put together the new one. I like it here. Life is a little less complicated and it's easier to take pleasure in simpler things. I continue to be impressed with the Haitian people.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools