Haiti

Kevin Osbourn and his daughter Savannah were recently part of a central Kentucky mission team to Haiti with Christian Flights International of Richmond, Ky.  Kevin reported back to the Winchester Sun his experiences in that devestated country.

LIBERTY - The Kentucky Haiti Benefit Auction Chapter will host its third annual benefit auction starting at 4 p.m. April 27 and continuing the next day with breakfast at 7 a.m. and the auction at 9 a.m. at the Central Kentucky Ag-Expo Center. The chapter is run by a board of 13 people from the local Amish and Mennonite communities.  The goal is to raise money for the Christian Aid for the Poor and Destitute in Haiti, and 100 percent of the auction sale proceeds will go for mission support.

It was pretty obvious something other than a normal worship service was going on Sunday at the Danville campus of Southland Christian Church. Hardly a somber bunch on a regular Sunday, the congregation this day was buzzing with activity, the church filled to the rafters with shouts and music, and … is that Michael Jackson? “Yes, that's Michael Jackson,” Danville pastor Dave Rizer says of the music. “We are doing this as an act of worship today. And the shout is for each box that gets filled.” The Danville campus of Southland Christian Church is partnering with Lifeline Christian Mission to pack boxes with meals to deliver to Haiti.

John Calipari had to know media members were anxious to get more information from him about Kentucky’s success in the NBA draft when he went on the Southeastern Conference summer teleconference earlier this week. However, the Kentucky coach had a different message that he wanted to make sure he shared, too, and started his time on the teleconference talking about a one-day Red Cross trip he took to Haiti to see how relief efforts were going and see what impact the $1.5 million raised during the Hoops for Haiti telethon at UK last season had made.

BURGIN - Burgin Independent School students are taking part in a project that will benefit people across the globe. "I really wanted to get them involved in some type of outreach and learning about Haiti through Love for the Nations has really exposed them to the world outside Burgin, Ky.," said Deborah Brooks, a fifth grade teacher at the school. The students have been bringing in any type of items that families in impoverished and strife-torn Haiti would find useful; there's a long list of materials the organization will accept.

MIAMI - Step off the airplane in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, and soon after a missionary is likely to be thinking, "What am I doing here?" The second day they'll think, "If I ever get out alive, I'll never come back," and on the third, "I'll never get out, they'll have to bury me here. " Finally on the fourth day the shock wears off, and they say to themselves, "When I come back next year. " Joe Mobley attempted to prepare a group of Bluegrass and Indiana missionaries for the culture shock that begins today when their plane touches down.

When Kentucky Baptist missionaries roll into Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, it is revival time. Hours after Barry Harmon, pastor of New Harmony Baptist Church in Mackville and local jailer, arrives in the city, he heads out with two of his church members, Deborah Derringer and Trish Claunch. They are the team assigned to Delmas 32. The church is in a high-traffic area of the city. Vendors line every nook and cranny of the stoops and sides of the streets. They sell liquor, candy, fried birds and clothes out of wooden stands or baskets.

Jim and Marie Downey Marie Charilia Cadet and Jim Downey were married Dec. 17, 2008, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The bride is the daughter of Anselme and Charite Joseph Cadet of Ranquitte, Haiti. The groom is the son of Bob and Tessie Downey of Danville, Ky.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI - Pastor Sanousse drove his tap-tap truck down a dry creek bed steeper than Parksville Knob. There is no road, but there are piles of creek gravel the size of softballs. He was bringing local missionaries Bruce Thompson, Steve Runyon and Barry Harmon to lead a revival at his church, Black Mountain Number One. As the truck bumped along the rough rock, several local boys jumped on the back of the tap-tap truck, which is a pickup outfitted with benches in the bed. It's called a tap-tap because when passengers want out, they tap on the side of the truck or the top of the cab. As the truck finishes its descent, Harmon shines his industrial-sized flashlight on goats and pigs on the rocks feeding on garbage piles.

The attendance at the Green River Pentecostal Church on Sunday morning was 323. We had two people to get saved on Sunday morning. Please remember Bro. Eddie Whittemore and Bro. Larry Martin in your prayers as they travel to Haiti to dedicate the orphanage. Sis. Dessie Lay will be having surgery on Thursday. Please remember her in your prayers. Bro. Chris Taylor was the speaker last Wednesday night. He did an outstanding job. Don't forget to place your Angel Food order for next month at the church or by sending it in the mail.

Fifth-grade students at Nicholasville Elementary School surprised police Sgt. Scott Harvey at their D.A.R.E. graduation May 2 with a donation to Harvey's project to build a home for a Haitian family. Harvey received a check for $150 that will go to “Djenny's Starfish Home.” Djenny is a 4-year-old girl Harvey sponsors and whom he met during a trip to Haiti in February; she and her mother, father and baby sister had been living in a tent since the devastating earthquake in 2010.

LIBERTY - The Kentucky Haiti Benefit Auction Chapter will host its third annual benefit auction starting at 4 p.m. April 27 and continuing the next day with breakfast at 7 a.m. and the auction at 9 a.m. at the Central Kentucky Ag-Expo Center. The chapter is run by a board of 13 people from the local Amish and Mennonite communities.  The goal is to raise money for the Christian Aid for the Poor and Destitute in Haiti, and 100 percent of the auction sale proceeds will go for mission support.

It was pretty obvious something other than a normal worship service was going on Sunday at the Danville campus of Southland Christian Church. Hardly a somber bunch on a regular Sunday, the congregation this day was buzzing with activity, the church filled to the rafters with shouts and music, and … is that Michael Jackson? “Yes, that's Michael Jackson,” Danville pastor Dave Rizer says of the music. “We are doing this as an act of worship today. And the shout is for each box that gets filled.” The Danville campus of Southland Christian Church is partnering with Lifeline Christian Mission to pack boxes with meals to deliver to Haiti.

“Enter through the narrow gate. For … small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” - Matthew 7:13-14 Ashley Wingate thought her internship in Haiti would be about working with children. Prisoners and prostitutes hadn't entered into her plans. But God had other plans. The 23-year-old graduate student from Winchester returned home in June from working with Northwest Haiti Christian Mission after she earned her teaching degree.

After making the trip last year and collecting donations from patients and friends this spring, Nicholasville chiropractor Timothy Sunda returned to the nation of Haiti to help heal backs in the country that was devastated by an earthquake in January 2010. Sunda made the trip at the end of May with his friend Mark Graviss. He spent several days traveling with Graviss and Haitian pastor Thomslay LaGuerre and saw about 300 patients. Some had been skeptical of Sunda’s work when he first visited Haiti in September 2010 and saw about 200 Haitians.

A Nicholasville chiropractor is planning a second trip to Haiti after treating nearly 200 patients during his first journey in September. Timothy Sunda took the fall trip with his friend Mark Graviss, who had been touring the neighborhood of Haitian pastor Thomslay LaGuerre when the devastating earthquake hit on Jan. 12, 2010. Sunda and Graviss plan to take a trip this spring in late April. Bethel Harvest Church in Nicholasville, where Graviss is a member, has since raised funds to obtain land for LaGuerre and build a house for him. Sunda said the pastor had urged him to come back after seeing the work he did in September.

While the pictures of Haiti on the news portray a nation in ruins and a population on the brink of starvation, anyone that has been to this island nation in person will tell you these televised images are nothing compared to witnessing the horrors in person. Danville resident Eddie Arnold, who has made over 25 trips to Haiti since 2001, knows this all too well. “Seeing the children in those circumstances is the hardest part,” says Arnold. “No doubt about it.” Arnold explains how malnutrition places numerous tolls on the human body, one of which is particularly difficult to see close up. “What often happens, especially to the children, is their hair will actually take on a reddish and orange cast.

This is the third of a five-part series about a recent mission trip of nine Kentuckians, including two from Winchester, from Nov. 2-9 to the community of Ranquitte, Haiti. A few years ago, while surfing the Web for worthwhile charitable organizations, Tom Durant found the web site of Richmond-based Christian Flights International. He eventually found a calling: building the agricultural economy in Ranquitte, Haiti. As a retired CEO from Oregon, Tom put his managerial skills to work for CFI and the people of Ranquitte.

Editor’s Note:  Kevin Osbourn and his teenage daughter Savannah were members of a central Kentucky mission team to Haiti last early this month with Christian Flights International of Richmond. This first installment of Osbourn’s account of the trip was sent from Haiti Nov. 8. They returned last week. Other installments will follow over the next several days. With Hurricane Tomas threatening Haiti and one million people still living in tents, nine people from Winchester and other parts of Kentucky arrived in Port-au-Prince Tuesday for a mission to Ranquitte, a community of 22,000 in Northeast Haiti.

Kevin Osbourn and his daughter Savannah were recently part of a central Kentucky mission team to Haiti with Christian Flights International of Richmond, Ky.  Kevin reported back to the Winchester Sun his experiences in that devestated country.