Mission team from Rogers completes first visit to Haiti

Parishioners assess primary schools and construction

Published: May 29, 2010

By Marilyn Lanford
Rogers Correspondent

Jeffery Kordsmeier

Mission team member Cathy Walker interacts with children May 5 at a school in Bombardopolis that is supported by St. Vincent de Paul Church in Rogers.

Jeffery Kordsmeier

Mission team member Cathy Walker interacts with children May 5 at a school in Bombardopolis that is supported by St. Vincent de Paul Church in Rogers.

ROGERS -- Four months after their original trip was canceled because of the devastating earthquake, St. Vincent de Paul's Haiti mission team arrived at the airport in Port-au-Prince May 3. The team was there to learn more about their sister parish, St. Francis of Assisi Church in Bombardopolis.

It was the first trip to Haiti for the mission team members, including pastor Msgr. David LeSieur. Parishioners that attended included Jeffery Kordsmeier, Ronnie Hoyt, Cathy Walker, Rebecca Leis and Cindy Allgood. Jo-Ellen Dunlap, Hoyt's sister and a member of St. Elizabeth Church in Adona, joined them. The team worked in northwestern Haiti for six days.

"St. Vincent de Paul Parish has been supporting the sister parish in Bombardopolis, Haiti, for two years," Msgr. LeSieur said. "The team representing our parish wanted to meet the pastor, Father Cholet Augustin, of the sister parish, St. Francis of Assisi Church, and to see how our donations are being used. We are helping the parish build a new high school in the village and we wanted to see that progress.

"Of course, we also wanted to see first hand the country and meet the people of this poor land. However, we noticed right away that the spirit of the people is not so poor, that they have a light within them and that their faith in God is strong."

Since 2008 St. Vincent de Paul has provided $2,000 a month to Haiti to operate 12 primary schools.

Although unharmed by the earthquake, Bombardopolis now has a population that exploded to 40,000 after an influx of some 6,000 refugees. Family members who had moved away to Port-au-Prince for an education or employment now have returned after the disaster.

"The earthquake exposed the weakness and fragility of the government even more than was already known," Allgood said. "In this reality, Bombardopolis lost 75 students attending high school in Port-au-Prince. Forty-two religious clergy died -- mostly seminarians. Two of them were from Bombardopolis. Mail service has completely stopped so contact with the outside world is even more difficult."

Father Augustin, the young pastor at St. Francis of Assisi Church, recently celebrated his seventh anniversary as a priest. As a priest for the Diocese of Port-de-Paix, he also serves as a pastor for seven other mission churches and is head of the school system, which includes 12 schools that serve 1,100 students.

Hoyt said he and other team members talked one evening about the dedication of Father Augustin.

"I think we would all admit that we have never taken on the burden of the poor like Father Cholet. It is incredible what he does because he is responsible for everything," Hoyt said.

During their visit, several other people helped the mission team on their tour of Bombardopolis. Father Rodolfe Balthasar, former pastor at St. Francis of Assisi Church, met with the group. He had met many of the group earlier when he traveled to Arkansas last October. Joan Martin, an American from Tucson, Ariz., who has worked in Haiti for five years, also assisted the team.

One of their visits in the area included a nursing home and clinic. Here the team met Toussaint Franleine, a Haitian who cares for the people.

"It is just an incredible example of what service means," Hoyt said. "In the nursing home, there is very little that can be done for these people from a medical standpoint. But they were certainly given dignity. Toussaint would hold their hand and hugged them. She gave out some of the candy we brought for them. Before we left, several of them got up to dance and sing a song. They kept saying in Creole, 'Cholet for president, Father Cholet for president.' These people came to life."

With 70 people in her care, Franleine is operating with few resources. The mission team presented her eight suitcases of donated supplies, provided by several local businesses and parishioners. The items were distributed to the hospital, nursing home and clinic. They included prescription drugs, over-the-counter medicines, vitamins and first aid supplies.

The team visited two schools that are badly in need of repair. Father Augustin expressed his concern about these schools and the safety of the children who attend there. These were added to the mission team's list of priorities for assistance.

One of the highlights of the visit was the news that the high school will be ready in September.

Msgr. LeSieur said, "We were pleased to see the progress on the building of the high school and we are confident that the money our parish is sending monthly is being used wisely by the pastor, Father Cholet."

"Some of our immediate goals include the provision of an extra $1,000 a month to sustain the operation of the high school," Allgood said. "The operation expenses are the teachers' salaries and the food program."

Another priority for the team is to support the start-up costs for a bakery.

To communicate to the parishioners at St Vincent de Paul Church the desperate needs of their sister parish in Haiti, the mission team brought along a professional photographer, Jeffery Kordsmeier.

"Before the trip I could not fully understand why life in Haiti was described as being difficult," Kordsmeier said. "Experiencing the everyday challenges of life there has opened my eyes to their reality. In Haiti, constructing a simple concrete building takes many months or years to complete. In building the new high school the workers had to wait for enough rain to fall so they could make the bricks one at a time. When there is no rain or too much rain, there is no progress."

In 2007, St Vincent de Paul Parish adopted the parish of St. Francis of Assisi in Bombardopolis through the efforts of then associate pastor, Father Shaun Wesley. When Father Wesley was transferred to St. Elizabeth Church in Eureka Springs and St. Anne Church in Berryville in 2009, the mission expanded to include these parishes as well.

All three parishes provide financial support for the operation of schools in Bombardopolis. The support includes money for teachers' salaries, books and school supplies, food for the children and various projects to support the community.

For more information on the Haiti mission, contact Hoyt at (479)426-6377 or e-mail . To view more photos and video, visit http://www.kordsmeier.net/Travel/Haiti.