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Trip Is Mission Accomplished

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By JOYCE McKENZIE

jmckenzie@tampatrib.com

Published: March 25, 2009

TEMPLE TERRACE - The first few days after Ellie Aubel returned from her December mission trip to Haiti with several other members of Christ Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, her typically familiar surroundings seemed almost surreal.

"I had a strong desire to return to Haiti and live in the real world. In Haiti, people felt so real. They weren't trying to impress anyone or be anything other than what they were," said Aubel, who also said she saw poverty on a scale she had never before witnessed. "The poor in the U.S. don't know what poor really is. They have so much more than in other parts of the world and yet they often think that society owes them even more.

"If they could just walk among the people of Haiti and see what poverty really is, they might learn to be more content and appreciative of the help they're getting."

By contrast, Aubel said the residents of Haiti, a developing country in which more than three quarters of its population lives in poverty, are grateful for everything she and many other congregations are doing to improve their lives.

Through their association with the Lutheran-based Lazarus Project ministry, the congregations have provided financial contributions and hands-on help to build the Village of Hope school that serves 650 children. Most of the students come from illiterate parents, and they choose to walk up to two hours to the school for the opportunity to be educated.

The facility is run by Larry and Margaret Bollinger, missionaries who have spent more than four years as its directors. The couple visited Christ Our Redeemer Church on March 13 to attend a Lazarus Project board of directors meeting hosted by its pastor, the Rev. Richard Hafer, who also serves on the board made up of pastors from throughout the Southeast and beyond.

Jorel Carte, a native Haitian and worship director at the Village of Hope, was also among the church's invited guests.

"My parents could not read or write, and I was 9 years old when I started school," he told a group of Christ Our Redeemer School students assembled in the sanctuary to hear his story. They sang along while he played Christian songs on an accordion a friend gave him several years ago as a gift he called "God's blessing."

"I had no shoes. I needed to go to school, so a friend let me borrow his shoes," Carte told the children. "But I had to take them back on Saturday because he needed them for church on Sunday."

"I feel that we have an absolute obligation to share our blessings, and I feel that we benefit so much by seeing how others cope with so little yet manage to help each other," said Christ Our Redeemer Church member Faith Dunne, who has twice gone to Haiti. "The project links people to one another in such a meaningful way."

Reporter Joyce McKenzie can be reached at (813) 865-4849.

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