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WHY DO WE GO?
We believe that giving of our time and talents is following Christ’s example.  We believe that we can evangelize through example by extending love and caring to others. 

A one week mission trip gives people a chance to experience mission work on a short-term basis, while using vacation time for a constructive God centered purpose.  When we reach out to others in mission work, we accomplish many things:

1. We meet real needs in the lives of others through medical clinics, dental teams, construction work or agricultural projects.

 
2. Team members return with a renewed spiritual awakening as a result of what they have seen or experienced.  They develop a special bond with one another over the course of the week, due to shared experiences.  They also view the world around them and the things they took for granted, in a new light.

 
3. Our church members benefit from the cooperation and support they offer the team members and from the energy and enthusiasm the mission team brings back with them.

Spiritual
This is a church mission trip. We represent Salisbury Presbyterian Church. We demonstrate our faith through love and service to others. Team members should be able to work with a spirit of joy and let the light of Christ shine!

Physical
Team members must be able to work in hot, dusty and humid conditions.

Social
Team members must be able to cooperate with one another and to interact cordially with people of different backgrounds, nationalities and cultures and work as a unit with interpreters. 

Financial
Team members pay their own airfare, room and board and departure tax.  There are funds available to help with some of the expenses for SPC members who cannot afford the trip. We encourage non-SPC members to seek backing for these expenses from their own churches.

Other personal expenses can include personal gifts, food consumed on extracurricular side trips and beach admission.

LIVING CONDITIONS:

Mission Team Accommodations
We stay at several locations.  The accommodations are very simple, 4-6 team members to a room.  Some have hot water and air conditioning (when the power is on), most do not. Husbands and wives are not usually in the same room due to the dorm style facilities. The food is safe.  The water from the water coolers is safe but not from the sinks or showers. 

Ground transportation 

Transportation in Haiti is accomplished in vans, the back of trucks or sometimes in tap-taps.

A typical day
Days begin when the roosters crow and end around 10 or 11 at night.  Devotions are held in the evenings after dinner, and prayers are said each morning before beginning the day's work.  The sun is hot and the humidity is high, leaving everyone in a constant state of dampness.  Cars honking, shoe shine men ringing bells, car engines grinding from ill repair, radios blaring, mud, dust, poverty, all assault our comfort zones, but we can feel God's Spirit working in and around us.  We see the friendly faces of our Haitian friends, we cry with the mother of a sick child, we comfort a patient with a bandaged leg, and we feel the gratitude of a man who just had a rotten tooth drilled.  We reach out a hand and know that we have been touched as well.  We return changed by our experiences.

WHAT EACH TEAM DOES AND NEEDS:

  All the teams: 

• Book plane flights, make hotel reservations and arrange transportation. 
• Keep track of all paperwork (copies of passports, licenses, payments, etc.).
• Help promote the mission trips to the congregation. 

Do minor repairs around the school grounds.  Count and distribute medications in the Haitian clinic.  Record the heights and weights of the school children.  Supervise and entertain the children while they wait their turn to be examined.  Doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, dentists and other medical personnel are needed to render service to hundreds of Haitians who rarely get medical care.

Do minor repairs around the compound.  Help build cisterns, fish ponds and walls, lay pipes for plumbing, paint, etc. in the mountains of Haiti (any skill level is needed). Opportunities exist for teachers, musicians, singers.

Non-professional team members are needed to hand out medications, sterilize instruments, fill needles, learn to be a dental hygienist and entertain the children.  Dentists, dental hygienist and nurses are needed to treat Haitians who have most likely never seen a dentist.

Hospital St. Croix Team: 

Do minor repairs around the hospital grounds.  Assist with medical procedures and/or surgery.  Assist with computer program updates.  Assist with bookkeeping

 

 

 

Vacation Bible School Team: 

• Teach vacation bible school in Haiti.
• Plan & organize a vacation bible school program for one week. 
• Raise funds to sponsor the youth interested in going on the trip. 

• Be a Haiti Mission Team volunteer. Approximately 5 months before a trip, a call is put out in the Sunday School classes, the church's newsletter and the bulletins inviting potential volunteers to come to a meeting to investigate the possibility of joining the next team. 
• Help provide supplies for the Haiti teams.
• Help provide transportation to and from the airport at early dawn and late night hours.
• Keep the Haiti Mission Teams in your prayers.  Your "faith" support is essential.  When we gather in the evenings for devotions, we think of you back home and draw on your support.

Sponsor the Academic and Christian Education of a Haitian child.

To volunteer or for more information, contact Loran McGlynn or the church office (794-5311).

         The Haiti Teams have begun buying the supplies and medications they will need for the next trip.  Since supplies and medicines can be purchased wholesale, which is cheaper than what is available in the stores, or are purchased in Haiti, where prices on some items are amazingly cheaper, we are primarily looking for cash donations. These donations are also used for transportation within Haiti, packing supplies, and interpreters.  (Make checks out to SPC and note at the bottom "Haiti Team donation".)

         If you prefer to donate supplies, please donate vitamins; we need lots of vitamins with iron (liquid infant, child, adult and Prenatal), or donate toothbrushes and toothpaste.