Epiphany Lutheran Church is a SERVANTcommunity who stands with and works for justice among the poor, the powerless and the disenfranchised with the compassion of Christ that has no limits or boundaries.
Get Engaged with Haiti!
Join us in creating a future of hope, sustainability, and dignity for the children of Haiti. Grassroots support has proved most effective in getting financial resources deployed directly to the people.
Sponsor a child, help a family, educate a college student, or let HTF direct your dollars where most needed. Click here to access the donation page on HTF's website.
Immersion Trips to Haiti
ANNOUNCING ...
Haiti Youth Mission Immersion Trip
June 30 - July 10, 2012
Click here for information about the trip.
January 22-29, 2012
Our team is in Haiti now!
July 2-12, 2011
Click for an overview of the trip and for a reflection from a participant.
|
|
HTF Partners in Haiti
St. Joseph's Home for Boys takes the most broken among the children of the streets and child slaves and raises them up to be the best they can be. The home was destroyed in the January 2010 earthquake; with HTF assistance it has been dismantled and is being rebuilt. St. Joseph's is the home of the Resurrection Dance Theatre of Haiti. (Location: Delmas 91, Port-au-Prince)
Trinity House is a member of the St. Joseph Family. The home takes the rejected ones of the streets and society and raises them up to be the best they can be. (Location: Jacmel)
Wings of Hope, another St. Joseph Family ministry, is the premier residential facility in Haiti for physically and mentally challenged children. Through love and intentionall focus, children who were once thrown away, considered to be of no value, are being raised up as productive and contributing people. (Location: Fermathe)
Fondasyon Tetkole is a community-based initiative that seeks the highest at-risk children, generally orphaned and living on the streets, and raises them up to be educated and productive. (Location: Jacmel)
Chemen Lavi Miyò is a partnership with Fonkoze, Haiti's Bank for the Poor. This ground-breaking and leading edge project aims to alleviate extreme poverty in Haiti by raising up, empowering, and placing families in Haiti's Central Plateau region (primarily single mothers and their children) on a path to a better life. The goal is to change the lives of 5,000 families by 2017. (Location: Boukan Kare area in the Central Plateau)
Haitian Education and Leadership Program (HELP) is a merit and need-based university scholarship program that helps to build a productive middle class in Haiti, changing the future for many families. (Headquarter in Port-au-Prince; nationwide in scope)
Lekòl sen Trinitè is a Montessori school for children of ultra-poor families. The children are receive an education and, importantly, food. (Location: Jacmel)
Pazapa is a community outreach for physical and mentally challenged children and their families. The center was destroyed by the earthquake; a new facility now is being constructed. (Locaton: outside of Jacmel)
House of Blessings is a model of taking orphaned children and raising them up as educated and contributing members of Haitian society. (Locaton: Callebasse, Kenskoff)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Immersion Trip to Haiti
January 22 - 29
Epiphany's Immersion Team spent a week in Haiti -- a missional, relational, and incarnational journey that gave participants a window into our transformational work in Haiti. it was an amazing week for all.
Click here to hear the team's message during worship.
Click here to view a video of the team's week in Haiti.
Visit the HTF website to learn more about our partners.
|
Video Reports from Haiti
|
Our Focus on Haiti
Serving the poorest of the poor
The flagship piece of Epiphany’s commitment to the poor is our partnership with the Haitian Timoun Foundation, a national 501-c-3 entity with partnering congregations across the country. The mission of HTF is to create a future of hope, sustainability, and dignity for the children of Haiti. Epiphany's Pastor Rick Barger is the foundation’s founder and executive director.
Founded in 2000, HTF is a grassroots movement that is a model of highly effective transformation Haiti -- our hemisphere’s poorest country. In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake on January 12, 2010, HTF had an immediate and effective response. The group’s presence and grassroots networks were able to quickly bring humanitarian relief in the form of water, food, shelter, basic human needs, and a massive medical response. The response of HTF and its effectiveness was so noteworthy that it was named by the US State Department’s Peace Corps as one of the five most worthy organizations for donations toward Haiti relief. The work of rebuilding Haiti and empowering our partners and the people toward an alternative future has just begun. HTF is on the frontline.
Epiphany's partnership with HTF has led to numerous mission trips to Haiti and the development of life-changing relationships with HTF’s Haitian staff and partners. Epiphany member Julie Sutton is HTF's sole US-based employee, serving as mission support person to the national leadership team. Dave and Debbie Shealy also are members of the national team as well as members of Epiphany. Epiphany has its own local team responsible for our partnership relationship with HTF.
For more information visit the Haitian Timoun Foundation website or contact Julie Sutton.
|
God's Party by the Sea, 2011
Team Haiti Mission Trip, July 2-12
 Team Haiti is back from the 10-day trip to Haiti, where the group again led a "party " for the children of Haiti through our summer camp in Jacmel, Haiti. Fèt Bondye Bò Lamnè - K Wolf -- God’s Party by the Sea at K-Wolf – was held uly 4-7 in Jacmel. The camp served some 250 children from Jacmel and the surrounding area -- some of the poorest children in the Western Hemisphere. Some children walked two hours one way just to be a part of the camp. Through the 2011 camp, Epiphany and our partners shared God’s never-ending love and faithfulness. The children participated in typical camp games, arts and crafts, and biblical stories through song and dance. Hands-on science sessions included lessons in personal hygiene, and hygiene kits collected during Epiphany's VBS were distributed -- critical life skill lessons and supplies in an area that recently faced a cholera outbreak. Each day opened with rousing camp songs, and two meals were provided every day -- for most of the children a great luxury. The four days ended with a great celebration, to which the children's families were invited to share food and the communion meal.
 Twelve high school and college youth led the camp, serving alongside staff of our HTF partners in Haiti; three adult guides served with the youth.
When the four-day camp closed, the group traveled to Fermathe, near Port-au-Prince, where they held a daylong camp for the children of Wings of Hope. This HTF partner is the premier residential facility serving physically and mentally challenged children in Haiti. After worshipping with the children at Wings of Hope on Sunday, Epiphany youth journeyed to the Central Plateau region and visited with families in the life-changing CLM program. Epiphany, through our partnership with the Haitian Timoun Foundation, walks alongside the families as they use resources to get on a path to a better life.
 On July 17, the Sunday following their return, the team shared their stories of what your support of the children of Haiti means – to the people of Haiti and to Epiphany. Click here to listen to their sermon message.
|
The Power of One
Reflections from Haiti
Debbie Richardson
 In July, when I arrived in Haiti, I was overwhelmed by many things: the scale of destruction, the piles of trash, the filthy condition of the water supply, the number of people living on the streets and in tents, and the unspeakable level of poverty. One can easily be crippled by the task set before the people of Haiti. I thought, "Where do I start? How can I possibly make any difference?"
One night, as our group centered with the Word, I shared my concerns with Michael Geilenfeld, founder of the St. Joseph's Home for Boys and the St. Joseph Family of ministries. Michael planted in me the seed that I call "the power of one." As I began to view the life of Haitian people through this new lens, it brought both comfort and hope.
Please meet:
- Verbo Jean-Julien, one man. So moved by the plight of his people, he founded TetKole ministry that brings life and hope to abused and abandoned children in the Jacmel area. When you sponsor a child, you become part of the power of one.
- Luckner "Maya" Fondrose, one man. Once a restevek (child slave), a street child, and a member of the St. Joseph family, he is now a husband, father, former director at Wings of Hope, and present leader in the HTF organization. When you sponsor a child at Wings of Hope -- or any HTF child -- you become part of the power of one.
- Michael Geilenfeld, one man. Answering a call to care for and create a home for boys living on the streets, he founded the St. Joseph's Home for Boys. When you support the Resurrection Dance Theatre of Haiti, you become part of the power of one.
- Connor and Gary, each one man. Reaching into their own pockets to help Haitians realize their dreams of a college education, they now run the H.E.L.P. organization and provide scholarships to accomplished young Haitians. When you support a young adult through H.E.L.P., you become part of the power of one.
- Each youth and adult on our July trip, all one. By saying yes to being in relationship with the children of Haiti, they individually and together become part of the power of one.
As I left Haiti, I felt hopeful. There is great power and promise in the power of one. People of Epiphany, how will you say yes to becoming part of this power of one? With each of us engaged and with God's help and guidance, we can move forward ... forward to a time when all people will thrive and serve in the light of God's grace!
|
|
