Haiti Task Force Contact:
Alicia VanWalleghem
Chairperson
1-785-249-5345
kseasthaititaskforce@gmail.com
Team Information:
Haiti Team Insurance information
Julie Pohl
VIM/Disaster Response Coordinator
785-989-3237
kseastvim@yahoo.com
What you can do now:
Pray for Haiti (Prayer Calendar)
Donate:
Join a team
Lead a team
Have a speaker come to your church to talk about our Haiti Covenant.
Links:
Haiti Covenant (Adopted June 2010)
United Methodist Committee on Relief Haiti Response
Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas
United Methodist Volunteers In Mission - Haiti
About Haiti (Haiti Embassy website)
Haiti Packet and Prayer Calendar
Cover Letter
Quick Facts about Haiti and Shield
Facts about Haiti with Map
Letter from Rev. Gesner Paul, President, Eglisa Methodiste d'Haiti
Covenant Partnership Resolution (see Haiti Covenant link above)
How Can You Help?
Prayer Calendar (which was mailed with packet to local churches via pastors)
United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) offers a full Haiti Progress Report at two years. The link is http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/media/haiti/twoyearslaterhaitireport.pdf.
At the 2010 Kansas East Annual Conference, a resolution establishing a partnership between the Kansas East Conference and the Haiti District of the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and Americas was adopted.
LEARNING OPPORTUNITY: A Haiti Mission Study will be offered the Kansas East Conference Cooperative School of Christian Mission, July 12-14, 2012. To attend the study, please plan now to register early. Watch for registration availability in early 2012.
COVENANT CELEBRATION: A Global Mission Experience will feature "Connecting with the Haiti Covenant" on February 25, 2012. Details are available now.
The idea for the partnership has been percolating since the region was struck by a devastating earthquake in January 2010. The Kansas East Conference has a more than 30-year relationship with Haiti, particularly the island of La Gonave.
Retired Pastor Shirley Edgerton and her husband, Joe, have been long-term volunteers on the island of La Gonave, working on water projects for two years. They were in Haiti during the earthquake and in the days immediately after. Their experiences there led the conference’s Board of Global Ministries to seek this partnership. Bishop Scott Jones and a team visited the country in April to explore the opportunities.
The Haiti Task Force is working to develop ways to connect the local churches with outreach opportunities in Haiti. Members of the Haiti Task Force are available to speak at churches in the conference about the partnership and opportunities to participate. Some ways to be involved include sending a team or team members on trips to Haiti, connecting with a particular Haitian church for support, or raising funds for projects and assistance.
Gesner Paul, president of the Methodist Church in Haiti, was a special guest of the annual conference. Kansas Area Bishop Scott Jones asked Paul to share his reflections on the state of the church in Haiti.
“I took office on the first of September, and my two priorities were development and evangelism,” Paul said. “But on the 12th of January, all that changed.”? Now, Paul said he has six priorities – education, reconstruction, development, health care, evangelism, and Christian education.
One of the biggest things the conference can do is help rebuild the New College Bird in Port-au-Prince. Not only was the school an important part of the educational infrastructure, but it also generated income for the Methodist Church in Haiti to use for ministry because the tuition more than paid for the cost of operating the school. That’s why this project is one of three specific projects listed in the covenant.
In addition, the conference committed to:
Read the Haiti Covenant adopted at the 2010 Kansas East Annual Conference.
Watch our video with Bishop Scott Jones and Gesner Paul: