NUMC is sending a team of ten to Haiti, January 20–28/2012 to assist our ongoing mission there, through “Mountains of Hope for Haiti.” The trip will take the team to the rural Haitian village of Furcy, southeast of Port au Prince. There the team will provide continuing support to the village that has been in the care of the United Methodist- New York Annual Conference (NYAC) for the past eight years.
Time For Donations & Prayers
Team members are hopeful the congregation and greater community of caring christians and nonchristians alike will support the upcoming fundraisers they have scheduled for this humanitarian mission trip; including an October 30 luncheon at the church.
To donate to the Newtown United Methodist Church Mountains of Hope trip in January, send checks made out to the Newtown United Methodist Church, memo “Haiti Trip,” to 92 Church Hill Road, Sandy Hook CT 06482.
More About the Mission
The Mountains of Hope mission of the United Methodist Church NYAC has sent numerous teams from New York and Connecticut to Furcy since 2003, establishing a school, a health clinic, a farmer’s co-op, and a store in a village where none of those things existed before. Over the past eight years Furcy has changed from being a village where everything was about each individual surviving day to day, to one where we are building a community. This mission will further those efforts.
The team will likely be doing some repairs and painting, cleaning the clinic, and helping with planting. They also plan to run an adult English-Creole exchange, and feed the children. The group hopes to bring with them some over-the-counter medications and other needed supplies to help the families of Furcy. The average income is only $2 a day, which must cover the cost of food and clothing, as well as pay for education. Haiti does not provide free education to its children.
Mountains of Hope provides meals for children, school supplies, staffs the clinic with a full-time nurse, and sponsors a doctor once a week at the clinic. The Newtown United Methodist Church has been a sponsor of the weekly visit by a doctor, and has also sponsored scholarships for students in Furcy.
The villagers have been assisted with supplies of seeds and farming techniques to grow their own vegetables, and the farmer’s co-op has encouraged a community for sharing and helping one another. The Furcy model has been so successful that the NYAC and Haiti Methodist Church plan to use it as an example for developing other rural communities in Haiti.
This article was written in The Newtown Bee weekly newspaper (9/15/2011) and is posted on their web site:
