A Musical Mission....

“Why are you bringing Instruments to Haiti? Aren’t there, like, diseases and stuff that they need help with?” Well…this is a music mission trip.

Music is a major part of the worship service and finding good instruments is difficult. Here are photos of the church service from the 2011 trip.

There are different approaches to missions work. This article What No One Tells You about Short Term Mission Trips provides insight to our point of view. We are not going down there with the assumption that we can fix their problems. We are not “super heroes” to save the day. We ask Pastor Widelson what he needs and he tells us. Then we share his requests with St. Paul’s congregation and God puts us into action.


In the past few years this approach has served us well. Over the years St. Paul's has provided mattresses, food, medical supplies, building supplies and educational support. In 2010 Pastor Widelson expressed a need for technology and tech education, for the children in his home and church, so that they could get better jobs. Once the laptops were delivered and initial classes taught, the learning continues as those students teach other children those skills and real change is happening. On that trip, Pastor Widelson asked for a school bus and said that they could use musical instruments and dress clothes for the kids. God provided a school bus and it was filled to the brim with as many supplies as it could carry. PHOTOS from previous trips.

Upon hearing about their love of music and request for musical instruments, one young woman was inspired to help. St. Paul’s member and BHS student, Sarah K. decided to collect instruments for Haiti and make this her Girl Scout Gold Award project. Over the last year, Sarah has collected donations of band instruments, recorders, music stands, lesson books, and luggage. She also fund-raised to purchase several more of these same items. Through this project, Sarah expects to deliver at least 40 instruments, 30 recorders, 40 music stands, 100 lesson books, and variety of accessories. While in Haiti, she will spend the week teaching music skills to the children and church band.

Although Sarah is very excited about her upcoming trip, she is worried about potential language barriers in Haiti and if she will be able to effectively communicate her information to the Haitians. Sarah's personal goals for the trip are to learn about Haiti's culture through music, and to see that her mission will make a positive difference for those living in Haiti.

Supporting Sarah’s music project is a team of volunteers including other music lovers. The secondary focus of our trip will be art and technology. I’ll introduce the other team members in the next post.