We have had no fundraisers for our sister parish, St. Paul’s in Haiti, yet over $8,500 has been donated by generous parishioners. $5,ooo was wired to Fr. Theo last week so that they can move forward in providing a rectory for him to live in. The project is estimated to cost $26,000.
 
   Once completed, the next project is the church building. If you feel moved to participle in assisting the project at this time, simply send your gift made out to St. Vincent de Paul and write Haiti Project in the memo line.
 
   Once members of our twinning committee are back from summer vacation we will be planning more. At this time it is expected that Fr. Theo will be here during the last week of September to visit our parish. This will also coincide with our patronal feast day and the annual volunteer appreciation dinner.

              We arrived back in the early hours of Wednesday morning after a most fruitful visit to Haiti. The enthusiastic greetings we received began at the airport in Port Au Prince and did not end throughout our time there. Fr Theo, the pastor of St. Paul in Nanpol, Haiti, was so welcoming and it was clear that he put a lot of hard work into making our visit meaningful while offering us a flavor of the blessing and challenges our sisters and brothers experience in what is now our sister parish. We (Sr. Elsa, Lynne Vreeland, Amy O’Mullan, Harvey Homan and I) arrived in Port Au Prince on Friday evening having left Stirling at 6 AM that morning. Fr. Theo and Theresa Patterson, Executive Director of the Parish Twinning Program of the Americas, greeted us warmly at the airport and our whirlwind visit began with gusto. We went to Matthew 25, the house of welcome where visitors stay overnight before heading out to the parish. The staff there, American volunteers (Janet) and local Haitian workers, orientated us to our surroundings and our first meal. Already we were way ahead of most Haitians. We had sturdy shelter, electricity, food, water, bathrooms and a bed. On Saturday morning we left with Fr. Theo and Domo who drove the 2nd vehicle and also assisted us as translator. He was a great gift especially in our ability and desire to communicate with those we met. As I had been in Haiti before, I knew what to expect especially in relationship to roads and travel. The roads in Haiti take a great toll on vehicles and the road to the parish of St. Michel where Fr. Theo currently lives would prove to be most interesting. It was a 4 hour drive over roads that only goats should successfully navigate and kudos to both Fr. Theo and Doma for their driving skills. Kudos to the passengers for not throwing up and being able to stay buckled in over the various roads and mountains of our travels.
As the road trip took so long, we went directly to St. Paul, our sister parish, where the parishioners had waited many hours for our arrival. When we entered the mission church they rose applauding and broke into joy filled song. It was so emotional and humbling when Fr. Theo told me, “go, this is for you and your team”. Theresa Patterson then introduced our ‘delegation’ to the parishioners of St. Paul and Fr. Theo offered beautiful words of welcome. A teenager of the parish who also directs the choir, Widelyne Marcelin, sang a song of welcome for us. We took a break from the welcome ceremony for water and to eat while the parishioners waited for us. This struck me—they waited while we were offered refreshments—their humility and love is profound. When the program ended we were on the road again to the parish of St. Michel which was about 40 minutes over, you guessed it, challenging roads. This road Fr. Theo travels often as he does not have a place to live at his parish. Actually there was a make shift bed in a room at the back of the church where he frequently sleeps so that he can be with the people as much as possible. Other than that, he lives at the parish of St. Michel which is the mother parish. St. Paul was a mission of St. Michel and has been a parish for the past 4 years. Fr. Theo is the first pastor of the parish. We stayed at an orphanage in the parish of St. Michel for the two nights we were visiting our sister parish. The orphanage was started by the former mayor of the town and his wife who are members of St. Michel parish, beautiful people. We ate dinner, breakfast and dinner the following day at the rectory of St. Michel and the pastor, parochial vicar and others at the parish were so very gracious to us. On Sunday we travelled to the parish of St. Paul for Mass. It was a joy filled celebration and once again the people there were so warm and welcoming. I concelebrated Mass and at the end spoke to the parishioners, through our interpreter Domo. I shared with them the charge that we have in Jesus to be a blessing to others. I expressed that they are a blessing to us by their faith and joy while enduring many challenges and that we would, through Christian discipleship, seek to be a blessing to them. After Mass, food which had been prepared by members of the parish was distributed—for most it would be the only meal of their day, maybe the fullest meal they would have had in many days. It was such a joy for us to assist in distributing the food, especially to the children.
We met with members of the parish who spoke of their joy that we were there and the needs that they had. They did not ask for themselves, but that Fr. Theo may have a place to live so that their priest could be among them. Work has begun on a rectory. Keep in mind please when I use the words church, rectory and so on they are nothing like we are used to here. These buildings are four concrete walls and a roof, as basic as basic can be. I am confident that we will be able to assist this parish in the needs they have but more than that, as they themselves expressed, that we will build a relationship based on fraternal love over an extended period. An afternoon program of song, dance and skits was prepared and presented to us. Fr. Theo and I sang the Salve Regina as a closing prayer over the people and after a farewell address we departed from the parish. The space afforded here does not allow me to cover all that we experienced. It was so amazing. More will follow. Thank you for your prayers for our travels. Thank you to Sr. Elsa, Lynne, Amy and Harvey for their adventurous spirits.

My thanks to those who have commented favorably about the report of our recent trip to Haiti. A number of parishioners commented about how they were looking forward to learning more and so here it is. When we met with the group of parish representatives while at St. Paul, it was clear that they are delighted to have been raised to the status of parish with their own pastor. Originally, St. Paul was a mission of St. Michel, one of twelve missions of that parish, in the Diocese of Gonaives which is 75 miles north of Port Au Prince. As a parish in her own right, St. Paul was assigned Fr. Theo as the first pastor. Additionally, it was very clear to us that the parishioners have a deep love and respect for their pastor. In Haitian communities the priest is often called into various matters—he can be a mediator, counselor, justice, transport (as he may be the only one who has a vehicle for medical emergencies) and so on. The parishioners at St. Paul were clear that their number one need is to have their pastor living in the local community. You may have remembered last week that I mentioned that Fr. Theo lives in the rectory at St. Michel as there is no rectory at St. Paul. The process of building a rectory has begun. Please keep in mind that what we are used to as a house/rectory for the pastor is far from the rectory that Fr. Theo would live in. It is basically concrete walls, with a roof and minimal necessities. While the parishioners have started the process of the building, due to their limited means, it will take a long time to complete. In our meeting with them they asked that we help with the 3 specific projects: 1)The completion of the place for Fr. Theo to live in. 2)The restructuring of the church walls and the replacement of the tin roof. 3)There is a water pump which needs to be replaced which would be a gift to the local community for better access to water. Fr. Theo provided plans and costs for the rectory and church. To complete the rectory the costs estimated are at $30,000, the church $60,000 and the pump he will send information about to me soon. The bonus to the local economy is that if the materials and labor come from the local area it will provide work to those in need. This is essential in any mission that we could be involved in. Creating work opportunities for locals is a plus to any local community. During the course of the year, it is my hope that we will have fundraising opportunities to assist the community of St. Paul with these projects. However, if any parishioner is compelled to respond immediately please feel free to do so and we can start the ball rolling in getting things started. Checks may be made payable to St. Vincent de Paul with Haiti Project listed in the memo line. I am eager to assist this parish as soon a possible with these projects. In Haiti, as here, the Patronal Feast of a parish is an important celebration. I have the insight that they celebrate it with great festivity. Before we left, Fr. Theo asked if I would return for the Feast of the Parish of St. Paul which is January 25th. I responded that I would hope to and then asked that he come visit us for the Feast of St. Vincent de Paul which, as you know, is September 27th. This we are working on now. It is also an important aspect of the twinning that we visit and offer solidarity by our presence to each parish. It is practically an opportunity in a return visit to see that progress is being made on specific projects. When we left the parish of St. Paul and then the parish of St. Michal to return to Port Au Prince we visited a clinic where a community of Sisters from India care for the local children with orthopedic needs. They also feed an average of 800 women and children daily. We also visited an orphanage for abandoned children where every bed was filled. The Sister in that place was ministering as the sole member of her community with the assistance of local volunteers. It was easy to be moved to tears at the plight of the children but also to be mindful of how different their lives would be if it were not for those who were ministering to and caring for them. There is so much to be done but while we cannot solve it all we each can participate in some way. I am reminded of the story of the man who, one morning, was walking along the shore after a big storm had passed and found the vast beach littered with starfish as far as the eye could see. Off in the distance the old man noticed a small boy approaching. As the boy walked he paused every so often, and as he grew closer the man could see that he was occasionally bending down to pick up an object and throw it into the sea. The boy came closer still and the man called out, “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?” The young boy paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean. The tide has washed them up onto the beach and they can’t return to the sea by themselves,” the youth replied. “When the sun gets high, they will die, unless I throw them back into the water.” The old man replied, “But there must be tens of thousands of starfish on this beach. I’m afraid you won’t really be able to make much of a difference.” The boy bent down, picked up yet another starfish and threw it as far as he could into the ocean. Then he turned, smiled and said, “It made a difference to that one!” Like that young boy we can make a difference if we choose to. Please pray daily for the parishioners and Fr. Theo at St. Paul Parish, Nanpol, Haiti.

Peace,
Fr. Richard